Chapter 1: chapter 1: Dokutah Reinette
*smug eldritch god noises*
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Because of an accident, Reinette was transported to the world of Terra.
At the same time, she was also possessed by a medical practice system. However, in this land, even medical practice is never stable.
Chapter 1: Doctor Reinette
"Wake up, doctor! You have work again!"
As Reinette leaned against the rock wall, feeling drowsy, someone suddenly pulled her up.
"Ugh!"
Reinette snapped out of her drowsiness and looked at the person who had pulled her up. He was large and muscular, with a fierce expression, a scar on his face, a pair of animal ears drooping on his head, and a cat's tail swaying behind him, carelessly sweeping the dirt on the ground.
Under the illumination of the torch he held, the dim cave was finally lit by a rare source of light.
In the firelight, one could see that the cave had been transformed into a makeshift cell. Worn-out iron bars were stuck into the ground against the rock wall, extending almost to the top of the cave, leaving only a narrow gap.
The detainee leaned against the wall, her hands shackled in slightly oversized iron cuffs. The handcuffs appeared to be made by bending two iron bars, with the cuffs connected by an iron chain.
The chain was threaded through the narrow crack at the top of the cave, securing the prisoner in place. It was a simple and crude setup, yet sufficient to restrain the girl trapped here.
In the flickering firelight, the girl's dark eyes stared at the cat-eared man.
"Again?"
"Yes, doctor. Now stop resting—there are people waiting for you to save them."
The large man lifted Reinette, passed the iron chain through the tiny gap above, and carried her away.
"Before that, give me some water and food. You haven't brought me any in three days. I'm your only doctor—how about treating me a little better, you bandit?"
"I'll take you there after you finish the operation. The punishment the boss gave you for trying to escape last time isn't over yet."
After a while, the man led Reinette out of the dim cave. Reinette hadn't seen sunlight in several days, and her eyes were temporarily blinded by the brightness.
She immediately shut her eyes, allowing them to gradually adjust to the harsh sunlight outside.
After a few moments, the man threw Reinette off his shoulders.
"Hey! Be gentle, will you? You're hurting me! Let's see where you robbers can find another doctor."
"Quit joking around, doctor. Get to work."
Reinette curled her lips and turned her gaze to the man lying on a crude wooden bed.
"You've got a knife wound on your left forearm and an arrow lodged in your thigh. Oh dear, looks like you'll only be fit to play the brave village chief from now on."
The man on the bed, gripping his weapon tightly, growled, "Doctor, don't even think about using distractions to try and escape again."
"I'm not starving to the point of losing my mind, nor am I dumb enough to attempt an escape when you're armed, and there's someone blocking the exit behind me."
Reinette responded absentmindedly to the man on the bed before taking out the needle and thread prepared for him from a nearby box.
Of course, these weren't actual medical sutures. Some of the thread had been stolen from villagers' looms, while others had been looted from caravans.
Whether these materials were suitable for suturing or carried a risk of infection? Reinette couldn't care less—or rather, she hoped these bastards would die from infected wounds.
Using a pair of tweezers, she clamped a needle and placed it into the burning torch beside her.
After a while, she took it out, blew on it lightly, and deftly threaded the prepared string. Dipping her hands in a bit of water, she began suturing the wound, the needle still slightly warm.
The man lying on the bed grimaced in pain as she worked, clearly aware that the doctor treating him was not doing so gently.
By the time she was done, the stitches on his arm wound were a mess, with numerous unnecessary sutures. It was obvious that the doctor had done this intentionally.
Looking at her handiwork, Reinette nodded in satisfaction. She paid no mind to the fierce glare of the man on the bed and shifted her focus to the arrow still embedded in his leg.
She wiggled it slightly, causing the man's face to twist in agony.
Seeing this, Reinette simply smiled before abruptly yanking the arrow out. The man on the bed shot up in pain.
"Argh!"
Blood gushed from the freshly opened wound, but Reinette made no move to stop it. She retrieved some cotton from a nearby box, found a relatively clean piece of cloth, wrapped it up, and pressed it directly onto the wound.
"Aah! Ahhh! Ahhh!!!"
The man on the bed instinctively raised his weapon, prepared to strike. But just as he was about to swing, he stopped himself, gritting his teeth and lowering it.
Reinette remained unfazed by the raised and then lowered weapon. She found some bandages in the box, applied more pressure on the wound, and tightly wrapped the robber's leg.
Turning to the cat-eared man standing at the door, she said, "Treatment's done. Now, take me to get some food."
The reason Reinette dared to treat them so roughly was simple: she knew she was the only doctor here. As long as she didn't try to escape again, they wouldn't harm her—at least, not for now.
And just as Reinette expected, the cat-eared robber at the door twitched the corner of his mouth as he watched the grimacing man on the bed clutch his leg in agony, too afraid to move and make his pain worse.
Of course, he had noticed Reinette's crude treatment methods. But he said nothing, at least until she attempted another escape.
The reason was simple: finding another doctor like Reinette was far too difficult.
As robbers, injuries were commonplace. Their gang had only been around for a year, but they had already lost many men to untreated wounds, serious injuries, and infections.
Good medical treatment required doctors, but most were in mobile cities or, at the very least, stationed in small towns under heavy protection.
Doctors charged money, and robbers weren't exactly wealthy. The little money they got from looting was mostly squandered on pleasure.
As for robbing a mobile city? Impossible. Small-town clinics? Any doctor bold enough to open a practice there had their own security detail.
When they kidnapped Reinette, it was a stroke of luck. Their leader had spotted her walking alone and, on impulse, ordered her capture, thinking that even a small catch was still worth something.
But when they searched her backpack and found it filled with medical supplies, they realized they had an extremely rare solitary medical practitioner on their hands.
Realizing her value, the leader stopped his men from killing her and forced her to treat the gang's injuries.
Looking back on it now, the cat-eared robber felt fortunate.
This land devoured people indiscriminately—good or bad. In fact, good people often perished even faster.
Reinette's resistance and small acts of defiance during treatment had not gone unnoticed. But since the leader had ordered that she be treated well, they had no choice but to tolerate her antics. At least, since her arrival, none of their wounded had died.
In fact, when she attempted to escape last time, some had suggested breaking her legs. But others had vehemently opposed it, nearly causing an internal split in the gang.
In the end, their leader compromised—punishing Reinette by locking her up without food or water for three days. And that was that.
As Reinette followed the cat-eared robber out, she spotted a few men sitting nearby. She smiled at them gently.
They returned her smile and silently followed at a distance.
After finishing her meal, Reinette was sent back to her cave. This time, however, the chain was not locked. That alone made her happy.
Finding a flat spot, she leaned against the rock wall.
"System, calculate the results from earlier."
A translucent screen, visible only to her, projected in front of her.
[Treatment completed: Statistics calculated]
The numbers appeared. Reinette sighed, glancing at the 99% on the progress bar.
That last 1% had been stuck there for three days now.
Reinette need to leave as soon as possible. As the bandit leader seems realized that keeping her here won't give any goods anymore.