Chapter 72 – Sacrifice (2)

“I’m the doctor. No one can order me when it comes to medical treatment.”

Mia, who was having a battle of nerves with Jeremy over the unconscious Aylen, refused stubbornly.

Because she could not ignore the patients who were more critical.

“There are many people whose injuries are more severe than Aylen’s. I cannot treat him first.”

Furthermore, although the injury Aylen suffered on his right arm was serious, in her judgment, it was not to the extent of leading to death.

Besides, he would lose his arm if left like that, and even if treated, the probability of facing the same outcome was high.

There was absolutely no reason to prioritize him for surgery ahead of other patients.

Mia added.

“If you have eyes, look at these many patients. There is no patient who is not urgent, and there is no patient who has not waited.”

There were hundreds of people who rushed to the streets to defend the leadership and Magic Engineering Department buildings from the mutants.

The majority of them suffered major injuries, or in unlucky cases, drew their last breath and became deceased.

Even those people were waiting for their turn in this situation.

Yet why should Aylen receive special treatment?

Moreover, with Katrina dying right in front of her eyes.

‘Leave other patients behind just to save a rascal like that? I can never do that…!’

There were plenty of reasons why she could not do so as a medical professional, but her desire not to treat Aylen as a human was also great.

Because he was a rascal who had only caused harm to the Ember.

Mia, who had settled down and come to live in this Ember with affection thanks to kind neighbors like Katrina, loathed him.

He was not only a fellow who ruined his own life, but also a shameless scoundrel who played with several women with that handsome face of his, a piece of trash who exerted a bad influence even on others’ lives.

To the point where her blood boiled when she saw him suddenly returning after becoming a magic engineer and parading around as if he were a great figure who would save the Ember.

“I will say it once more. Save Aylen first. This guy is a magic engineer.”

However, Jeremy Scott only spoke while laying Aylen down in front of her.

“What about it?”

Mia asked back fiercely, distorting her face.

Because the words that would follow were obvious.

“He is the magic engineer who took first place in the qualification exam. Doesn’t it naturally occur to you that we must save him first?”

It meant he had to be saved preferentially because he possessed the great occupation of a magic engineer.

“Save someone because they have an important job, and let someone else die because they don’t? Was our Ember that kind of Ember? Where is the difference in weight of human lives?”

Although it was already an expected answer, Mia was furious.

To tell her to weigh lives differently according to occupation, she had not known he would spit out such inhumane words so bluntly.

However, Jeremy replied in an emotionless voice.

“There is no weight difference in human lives, but there is a clear weight difference in the Ember.”

“What did you say?”

“What you do, as the only doctor in the Ember, goes beyond simple medical practice and decides the future of the Ember. You cannot be free from your responsibility as a doctor, but you can be even less free from the greater cause of the Ember’s survival.”

His words were cold yet persuasive.

Though it might seem inhumane, from the collective perspective of the Ember, saving the one with higher value was the correct answer.

“No. I move according to my belief. Whether it is a greater cause or anything else, nothing can force me.”

However, Mia shook her head and said firmly.

Medicine was thoroughly her domain, and the belief that all patients were equal was an inviolable realm.

However, there were words from Jeremy that completely denied her unshakable belief.

“I see you are under a big illusion. As long as you belong to the Ember, you do not exist as an individual. Who to save and who not to save is not decided by you, but by the Ember.”

“…!”

The statement meant she was not an individual but a doctor ‘belonging’ to the Ember, and thus had no choice.

His thoroughly communitarian remark was something that woke up the cruel reality of the majority of the citizens.

“Damn it…”

“…”

All of them nodded with stiff expressions.

Although it was a cruel reality that might fall upon them someday, when faced with the question ‘Whose life was heavier between a tailor and a magic engineer?’, the weights in their hearts had also tilted to one side.

“Then what about you, Jeremy, who are the vice commander of the hunting squad? Where were you and what were you doing? Do you have the right to talk about the Ember when you didn’t even show your face once until this battle ended?”

However, it was just when the atmosphere was turning strange again as Mia pointed out Jeremy’s irresponsibility.

“Mia…”

A thin voice groaning in pain separated the two people who showed no sign of backing down.

It was Katrina Vengard.

“I… am fine, so Aylen… please treat him instead of me…”

Katrina spoke with all her strength even while coughing up blood.

“Katrina, what are you saying! I can’t do that!”

Mia got even more angry than she did at Jeremy.

The argument she had fought until now was solely to save Katrina, but since she gave up her right herself, her efforts ended up in vain.

However, Katrina continued speaking with a smile, as if she knew all of Mia’s heart.

“Aylen deserves to be treated. Not as a magic engineer… but as a human.”

“Yes…?”

“He risked his life to save my husband and son. It was a dangerous situation where everyone had no choice but to give up. He is the savior of this Ember and our family…”

Aylen deserved to be treated first.

And as a human, at that.

“What do you mean…”

Since she had been in the leadership building and did not know the circumstances, she could not understand Mrs. Katrina’s words.

It was the same for the citizens who were in the leadership building, so all of them wore puzzled expressions.

“Actually…”

“Well, you see, about Aylen…”

As the citizens who had been in the Magic Engineering Department briefly unpacked the underlying story.

“To think…!”

“Did Aylen really do that?”

“No way…”

Those who finally learned the truth could not hide their amazement.

Because his steps were self-sacrificing to a degree that was hard to believe for Aylen the rascal.

However, there was no reason nor way for this many people to lie collectively for Aylen.

Aylen returning in such tatters was indeed the final result of his sacrifice to save people.

When everyone’s gaze, including Mia’s, focused on Aylen.

“So, please perform surgery on Aylen. I ask this of you as my last request, Mia…”

Katrina spoke in a pitiful voice.

Her words had an ominous corner somewhere.

“Last request? Don’t say such things. You won’t die, Mrs. Katrina. I will absolutely not let that happen!”

At her words implying death, Mia cried out in tears.

Then, Katrina moved her arm, which lacked strength, somehow.

She spoke while gently caressing Mia’s cheek with a hand that was trembling like an aspen leaf.

“I know there is no hope for me… But Aylen doesn’t seem that way. If he receives surgery now, he won’t have to live with one arm. Right, Mia?”

“Katrina…!”

Mia, who held Katrina’s hand, could not hold back and began to sob loudly.

She was a lady who always looked after her neighbors first under any circumstances.

The true saint who was called the mother of the Ember among the citizens was none other than her.

Even now, facing death, she was prioritizing others first.

Having lived her whole life only making sacrifices, she chose sacrifice even at the end of her life.

“Mrs. Katrina…!”

“M-mother…!”

“No. Madam, Madam!”

Facing Katrina’s death, the entire Ember fell into sorrow.

Her death was that heavy.

“Do not cry. I am only finally going to take a rest. It is just time for me to return to the warm embrace of the Sun God… it is something to celebrate.”

However, Katrina behaved ordinarily, as if this was not something to be sad about.

It was because she too knew well the aftermath her death would have on the Ember.

However, because the citizens knew the reason why she behaved that way, the wailing only grew louder.

Katrina, who was losing her vitality like that, perhaps sensing that this moment was the end of her life, parted her lips while wearing a happier smile than at any other time.

“I was happy to meet you. If there is a next life, once again…”

Along with the words that could not be continued, her breathing stopped.

Finally, death… as she said, she had returned.

“Katrina, Katrina!”

David’s desperate voice filled the emptiness of the Ember that had settled in grief.

Mia, who watched him silently, as if she made some decision, packed her surgical tools and headed somewhere.

“…”

In the space where time seemed to have stopped, her operation began again.

The patient was Aylen Vale.

* * *

The Ember was quickly cleaned up in a few days.

Because external work was suspended due to the snowstorm that would soon rush in, and all manpower in the Ember was put into damage recovery.

The place where especially a lot of manpower was put in was construction.

It was because the mutants had made a shambles of the Ember.

However, their main task was not to rebuild the collapsed shacks.

“Hey, reinforce the log there more! Will it be okay with just that?”

“Should we build it higher?”

“It’s not height, thickness is the problem! Erect it with at least two layers. Sharpen the ends as much as possible!”

According to the supervisor’s instruction, logs sharpened at the ends were being erected densely along the border of the Ember.

It was a kind of defensive wall.

A defensive wall in preparation for another attack that would inevitably strike in the near future.

Since everyone came to know that the Ember was no longer a safe zone, it was a countermeasure prepared in the emergency meeting.

Fortunately, there was no lack of logs.

Since the trees frozen inside the ice wall were full, there was nothing easier to get than timber.

However, the people trembled with anxiety even when looking at the defensive wall being built.

“Can we stop the mutants with just that?”

“No way. But we have to do at least that. We would be grateful if it only buys us time.”

“It is terrible. To think this disaster might be repeated again…”

They were the ones who experienced direct combat with the mutants.

They knew better than anyone that such a trivial wooden defensive wall would not have any deterring force against the bastards.

However, the biggest reason that made the Ember gloomy lay elsewhere.

It was the death of Katrina Vengard, who had been the spiritual mother of the Ember.

“I miss Mrs. Katrina already. At times like this, she always brought us food…”

“Indeed. The taste was the taste, but the sincerity was amazing.”

Everyone in the Ember missed her.

Because her empty spot could not be filled by anyone, the Ember was sinking day by day.

A turnaround was needed.

Since the Ember was also ultimately a place where people live, if their minds grew exhausted, the Ember was bound to fall ill as well.

There was only one way that could heal it.

“A hero… our Ember needs a hero.”

The birth of a hero was exactly that.

As if in answer to everyone’s wishes, there was someone who finally woke up from the hospital bed.

“This is…”

Aylen Vale, who went from a rascal to a righteous man, and from a righteous man to a hero, was that very person.