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If you were to ask who the most famous group in the world is right now, nearly everyone would simultaneously answer that it’s the people who came from another world along with their companions.

The divine representatives.

The firstborn of the Mother,

Guardians of the commandments.

Apostles of foreign intelligence.

Slayers of dragons.

Godless beings.

Heroes.

Depending on the cultural context, the titles may vary, but all those many titles refer to just one person at this moment. And around her are exactly three companions.

From an orphanage to becoming the 59th Saint of the Cult, Priest Lucia.

Experiencing the downfall of her family and a kind of exile before becoming the Administrator of the Magic Tower Secretariat, Alchemist Francesca.

And the person who was recruited after serving handsomely, Resident Officer Frederick.

The last person, when compared to Lucia and Francesca, was undeniably inferior. Not that I’m exaggerating; it’s genuinely true.

He couldn’t use magic, didn’t enhance his body with magic power, and wasn’t born with mysterious traits. All Frederick had was a Major insignia and a superficially impressive title as a Resident Officer. His background was no better — while you couldn’t say his family was poor, it didn’t have the renowned prestige of families like the Raniere, who continuously produced influential figures in the political realm.

Yet, Veronica found such evaluations of the world to be complete nonsense.

There were several reasons why calling him ‘insignificant’ didn’t sit right.

The Abas Information Agency stands tall alongside the Empire and the Cult, making it prominent not just on the continent but on the world stage, and he belonged to that agency. The Government of Abas provided substantial support behind the scenes, and he even had a father who was a Senior Official in the Ministry of Finance and a mother who assisted the royal family. Above all, he once managed to throw a Cardinal out of the Imperial Guard Headquarters, outsmarting internal factions. For someone like Veronica, who boasted over ten years of experience as an Information Agent, that was no trivial feat.

No matter how anyone spun it, that man had something extraordinary about him, and Veronica had long since decided to place her bets on him. At the very least, he wasn’t an annoying person who caused trouble.

“…….”

And now, as Veronica peered out into the hotel corridor, she thought,

“Kyaaaaaah! Someone help! Someone help! My colleague is chasing me with a club!”

“Ah! I won’t hit you, just stop for a moment!”

“Am I crazy to just stand here?!”

“Come on! Just stop!”

It seemed that decision was the wrong one.

“…Is he insane?”

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Episode 7 – Daily Life

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Camila is undergoing basic Information Officer training. She’s learning essential knowledge from simple skills to theoretical concepts, and that includes physical training.

However, Camila had a habit of munching on snacks, bread, and drinks, even though she had three solid meals a day, and naturally, such a diet meant no notable results from the training.

Thus, after some discussions with Camila, I promised to adjust her diet.

“Do you really think it’s okay to eat two cakes just because you couldn’t resist?”

“Oops, I messed up.”

“If you keep this up, even a year of hard work will be pointless.”

“I’m sorry….”

Camila, looking deflated, apologized in a small voice.

I hadn’t realized it when I was carving birch wood in the office, but facing her like this made scolding her feel awkward.

Ultimately, instead of giving her a big lecture, I let out a soft sigh and had to admonish her gently.

“You can’t even run 10 kilometers properly, and if you keep it up, I’ll seriously chase you around with a stick.”

“Yes….”

“Got it? Now go carry those supplies.”

Today, my official schedule consists of supporting medical services. I’m to assist Lucia, who is offering medical aid.

To be precise, it was a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the collaboration between the Abas Government and the Cult by having me, as a Resident Officer, work alongside the 59th Saint, Lucia, showcasing how well we get along, and the Ministry of Defense accepted it.

The diplomats from the Magic Tower’s diplomatic corps said, “A scene where young men and women who will lead the future of the nation and the Cult are working together in aid activities is perfect for public diplomacy,” but to me, it seemed like they were just shoving their work onto me. I mean, come on, I at least have the excuse of being Camila’s colleague.

Though the proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was clearly ridiculous, the Ministry of Defense found it a decent enough activity with some rationale and ordered me to follow along for medical services. Consequently, here I am, stuck in a service activity of undesired fortune.

Of course, such events would be beneficial for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, but I wasn’t receiving any of that benefit.

“Should I report this to the Ministry of Labor…?”

I seriously considered whether I should report the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Labor, but I stopped at just contemplating. I already had an excellent Hasan who could take my place.

I nudged a wooden box toward Camila.

“Get to work, Camila. If you don’t move this all by lunchtime, you’ll go hungry today.”

“Fwee….”

—

To cut to the chase, Camila never went hungry.

Promises about adjusting her diet or confiscating lunch weren’t really binding. It’s not like any money was changing hands or that a lawyer had notarized any documents.

The decision to train as an Information Officer came purely from Camila’s will, and whether she kept that promise or not was entirely her call. In other words, it was a personal choice.

Even though I had moved half of the boxes, Camila didn’t finish her sorting before lunchtime, so she had to skip her promised meal… but…

In a hospital, how could one refuse food from the Saint of the Cult?

“Come, both of you, please eat.”

“Thank you, Lucia.”

“Thanks! Lucia!”

“Enjoy your meal.”

Camila, who was exhausted from moving boxes, beamed as she accepted the basket. She peeled off the white cloth and decisively bit into a sandwich.

“Yum yum.”

“…Does it taste good?”

“Yes!”

Oh dear.

“I won’t take it away, so take your time and eat. Drink some milk too.”

I handed her a cup of still-warm milk thanks to magic.

I had aimed to burn some calories through her work and train her with medical services, but it seemed she was gaining rather than losing weight.

As I reached for a sandwich myself, suddenly losing my appetite, I grabbed a glass of cold water instead.

With that, I sighed as I drank a glass of cold water.

“Ha….”

So frustrating.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy to train Camila from the get-go, but I was encountering obstacles I hadn’t expected.

The issues didn’t stop there.

The Military Intelligence Agency still remained tight-lipped, along with Clevenz and the suddenly vanished Imperial Reconnaissance Command, and then there was Leoni, whose intentions were as clear as mud.

I worried whether the National Security Agency, led by Sophia, might pry into the relationship between Francesca and me, and my head ached thinking about how to keep Francesca in check if she was plotting revenge against our allied nations, all while being bothered by the Imperial Guard HQ poised to seize any opportunity.

On top of that, I couldn’t even locate my two colleagues. Camila or Lucia, or perhaps Francesca, could be targeted by any number of nations or organizations, and the brewing complexities of interests filled me with endless anxiety.

Whether she knew my sentiments or not, Camila was busily devouring the sandwich Lucia had brought.

“Does that go down your throat? I can’t eat when I’m under pressure….”

“A person needs to eat to live.”

“Wow, that’s an optimistic outlook. How many have you had?”

As Camila stuffed her mouth with the sandwich, she spread out five fingers.

“…You’ve eaten five already?”

At my stunned question, Camila paused momentarily before slowly raising her index finger from the sandwich.

Six.

“Aha, good job, our little glutton.”

“Hehe.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

—

“But hey, didn’t they say something about conducting training here today?”

Right, I hadn’t merely brought Camila to the hospital to delegate some chores and get her to exercise. There was a separate real purpose.

“Medical training.”

“Medical?”

“Yes.”

I lightly nodded in agreement.

“Once you enter the Information Agency, you’ll receive medical training too. Not to the extent of performing surgeries or examinations, but you’ll learn the knowledge needed for first aid.”

“Oh, like TCCC?”

“Something like that.”

Tactical Combat Casualty Care. In simple terms, it’s first aid.

It’s not anything grand. It’s similar to the CPR and triangular bandage training they give to kids in middle and high schools. Just a bit more specialized because of the Information Agency’s nature. Nothing particularly difficult.

Camila tilted her head and spoke up.

“Is there really a need to come all the way to the hospital for that?”

“Today, I’ll be telling you about pharmaceuticals, which can be quite tricky to acquire quietly. That’s why we’re conducting the training at the hospital.”

“Pharmaceuticals? But I’m in the humanities.”

“It’s fine. I was in the humanities too.”

Perhaps because it was lunchtime, the hospital was sparsely populated.

I gave a small gift (a bribe snack) to the nurses on shift and took the emergency stairs to go upstairs, searching for the pharmaceutical management warehouse.

“We don’t have much time, so I’ll keep the explanations brief.”

I started explaining as I walked around the warehouse with Camila.

“If you get injured, going to the hospital is the best choice, but if you need to perform emergency care on-site, you need to know how to handle pharmaceuticals. You can’t be crying about when the ambulance is coming if you have an artery bleeding on a battlefield. Generally, if you’re providing first aid on-site, you’ll be using more tools than drugs. If you have a laceration that needs suturing, you typically use a skin stapler to staple the skin or stitch it using suture thread. If you don’t have medical thread or even a needle, you can use substitutes to stitch the skin.”

“Substitutes? What are you talking about?”

“You could use fishing line or dental floss as substitutes for suture thread, or you can stick the skin together with tape or superglue. If that seems too bad, you could just tie it with a tourniquet.”

“Wow….”

Camila covered her mouth and quietly sighed.

“Do we really have to go that far?”

“If you don’t want to die, yes. Of course, tying it with a tourniquet is the conventional method. Anyway, on-site, it’s crucial to first control any life-threatening bleeding. If an artery bursts, you usually die within five minutes, so you stop the bleeding first and then transport the victim for antibiotics and pain relief before formal surgery. If the situation doesn’t allow for that, you need to be able to obtain antibiotics and pain relievers yourself. So let’s just take a look at antibiotics and pain relievers here today.”

As I navigated through the pharmaceutical warehouse, I explained each item to Camila.

“There are various types of antibiotics. Iodine, Chlorotetracycline, Fusidic Acid, Mupirocin, Gentamicin, Metronidazole, and so on. The most commonly used is iodine. It’s often injected, taken as tablets, or applied as an ointment. However, you shouldn’t use ointment on wounds that need suturing. Also, be careful, as some antibiotics can cause allergic reactions.”

“There are quite a few types of antibiotics.”

“There’s a wide variety of pain relievers too. The most commonly used one is a drug called ketamine, which is widely used in the military and emergency rooms. Especially the U.S. military, which frequently used ketamine in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“But pain relievers have narcotic components, don’t they? I think anesthetics are similar.”

“That’s right. Ketamine can be misused for crimes, and in South Korea, where obtaining narcotics isn’t easy, propofol is often used as a substitute for narcotics.”

So all these medical narcotics are kept safely stored in the pharmaceutical warehouse, accessible only to officials. Of course, in this neighborhood where security is lax, it was easy to get in.

I happily examined the drugs in the warehouse with Camila. Some were familiar drugs I had used before, some I only vaguely remembered, and some were completely unfamiliar.

As I continued explaining, recalling my memories, Camila suddenly picked up one pharmaceutical.

“What is this? It looks like eye drops.”

“Oh, don’t touch that. It has side effects.”

“Side effects?” Camila muttered as she stared at me.

“All medications have side effects, don’t they?”

“What you are holding, Camila, is a paralyzing eye drop. If it gets in your eyes, you won’t be able to see for a few hours.”

“Ew.”

Camila hurriedly set the drops down and rubbed her hands vigorously. I glanced at the eye drops she had put down and briefly explained.

“It contains anticholinergic ingredients. Have you ever undergone an eye procedure?”

“No? I haven’t.”

“This eye drop is used before eye examinations. It’s an anticholinergic drop that inhibits the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, restricts eye movement, and dilates the pupils to make examinations easier.”

“You seem quite knowledgeable about medications?”

“I received training for it.”

By the way, one of the anticholinergic drugs is atropine.

“In the South Korean military, there’s a nerve agent antidote kit called KMARK-1, which includes an atropine injection. It’s the first thing they administer when they deploy chemical weapons. That’s an anticholinergic drug. If I had received that injection back when I was poisoned with a nerve agent by the cult, I would have been fine.”

“Do they teach such things in the military? Chemical weapons can’t be used, after all.”

“If North Korean forces start a war, they’re going to use chemical weapons first, how can they not train for it? They have chemical weapons piled up in their artillery units’ ammunition warehouses… By the way, these anticholinergic drugs can also be used for torture in the Information Agency. So keep that in mind.”

“Torture?”

Curious about the topic, Camila reacted. I nodded and pulled out one of the eye drops to start explaining.

“As mentioned earlier, anticholinergic drugs inhibit eye movement and dilate the pupils, causing blurred vision as a side effect. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“When you catch a spy or a terrorist and you’re in urgent need of extracting information, torture is usually employed. There are various kinds of torture, one being threatening with the eyes.”

“You threaten with your eyes?”

“By holding a knife to their face and threatening to poke out their eyes. It’s just a threat, of course.”

That’s when these kinds of drugs would be used.

“Antipsychotic medications that contain anticholinergic ingredients and eyedrops with atropine inhibit neurotransmitters, dilate the pupils, and limit eye movement. After beating a spy or terrorist until they pass out and then administering such drugs and bandaging their eyes, they will genuinely think that they are blind. Some medications have side effects that persist for more than a week, so if you threaten their other eye during that time, most will spill the beans.”

“Is there really a need to go that far…?”

“Don’t overthink it, just keep it simple. People fear a life worse than death, and since the Information Officer is ultimately human, they wouldn’t want to live the rest of their life blind, right? They’d rather cooperate. So, when torturing, threatening to maim someone tends to be more effective than threatening to kill them.”

Dying is easy; they’d rather not answer and endure knowing they will eventually die.

After finishing my explanation, I turned to Camila for questions, but her reaction was rather unusual. She stared at me with narrowed brows and a perplexed expression.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I mean, saying stuff like that out loud… Is it a little inappropriate?”

“Oh come on. This is training! Don’t look at me like I’m Hitler or something!”

“I never looked at you like that…!”

“A! Anyway! Just keep it as common knowledge. It might come in handy later.”

 

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