When the Mid-Boss Villainous Noble Recalls Memories of a Past Life and Gains Game Knowledge. I Will Never Accept a Future Where I'm Called the Jealous Earl - Chapter 10

“I’m beginning the examination. Just so everyone is aware, avoid any unnecessary use of magic near the patient—it could worsen her condition.”

I touched the woman’s hand gently. Diagnosing Red Stone Disease was straightforward for anyone with prior knowledge. By touching the extremities and feeling for areas that had hardened to a stone-like texture, one could estimate how much time the patient had left.

Her shoulder was stiff, barely movable. She was in worse condition than I had anticipated.

“Bring me the magic-sealing stone.”

There were a few methods I could use to treat her. For mild cases, placing the stone near the patient’s heart could halt the disease’s progression, and putting it on affected limbs would allow the magic to be slowly extracted. But for severe cases like hers, we didn’t have the luxury of time.

I placed the stone near her heart, preparing to buy time while I readied other methods—

“Hm?”

The moment the stone touched her chest, half of it transformed into an ordinary rock, leaving only half with its original properties. It wouldn’t be long before the rest lost its power as well.

“Lend me your sword,” I ordered.

“My lord? The sword?” The guard looked puzzled.

“Yes, quickly.”

This wasn’t the plan. Initially, I was meant to treat milder cases and all the necessary tools were back in the carriage.
“I’ll replace it when we return. Forgive me,” I said, drawing the sword and scraping the magic-sealing stone into a fine powder. From behind me came the faint sound of a stifled gasp, but I ignored it and continued.

The resulting powder was irregular in size due to the lack of specialized equipment.

“Do we have any water?” I asked.

The plan was to have the patient ingest it. I couldn’t predict what side effects might arise, so I had to be cautious with the amount, but it should work quickly to neutralize the magic from within.

“Mina, stay with me. One of you guards, run to the carriage and bring back the tools and another magic-sealing stone. Three people are enough to help here. The rest should remain on standby.”

“Understood!” called the guard, sprinting out. The other guard, still pale from shock, managed a shaky nod.

The girl, her face streaked with tears, sniffled and looked at Mina with wary eyes—likely a reaction to Mina’s forceful entry.
“Don’t worry about him; he’ll be fine,” I assured her.

“If you say so…”

She fell silent, still hugging herself tightly.

“…”

The silence stretched, and I felt the eyes on me as I worked, the weight of expectation. In this world, healing usually involved continuous spells or tailor-made potions—complex treatments that took time and skill. This treatment, however, was simpler but strange to those watching. To an uninformed observer, I likely looked like a quack doctor simply staring at a patient.

“…I’ll explain the treatment.”

The girl deserved an explanation, especially given her visible anxiety. I should have done it earlier, but the woman’s condition had been worse than anticipated, and time had been short. I simplified my explanation as much as possible, outlining how the disease worked, the nature of the magic within, and how I intended to draw it out using the tools at hand.

To my surprise, the girl didn’t argue or question my methods harshly. Instead, we transitioned smoothly into a series of questions.

“Who’s creating this magic that’s hurting everyone?” she asked.

“Not a ‘who’ so much as a ‘what’—a dungeon that appeared,” I replied.

“But if it’s a dungeon big enough to affect the whole duchy, wouldn’t it have been found by now?” she countered.

“True,” I conceded.

In the game, that dungeon wasn’t very large, just two levels deep—not vast by any means…

“Count?” Mina prompted.

“Apologies. I was lost in thought.”

The girl was perceptive, with an intelligence that far surpassed what one would expect from someone her age or status. Her questions, her logical leaps—she thought with the sharpness of someone well-educated, an unusual trait in a commoner.

She often voiced insights that made me want to exclaim aloud, moments where I felt how my own knowledge of this world was sometimes too rigid, too bound by the game’s lore.

“Dungeons have treasure chests, right? If someone found it and looted it, they could get rich, couldn’t they?” she mused.
“If we knew where the entrance was, yes. But the risks don’t seem worth the reward,” I said.

It was, after all, the tutorial dungeon—low-level monsters and meager loot. Selling everything would barely fetch five gold coins, enough for a family of four to live on for two months.
But that was beside the point. My attention turned back to the girl.

I studied her again, noting her age—about the same as Mina’s or mine. There was a certain grace to her movements, subtle but present, despite her ragged clothes and the dirt that marred her skin. Mina, more attuned to physical details, hadn’t noticed this nuance.

(Cleaned up, she’d be quite striking…)

Judging people by their looks wasn’t ideal, but in this world, appearances held power. Nobles were often attractive, probably because the early parts of the game, set in the noble academy, made even background characters look important.

If I followed that train of thought, one thing became clear:
This girl. Could she be of noble bl00d, or somehow central to the story’s deeper threads?

I needed to learn her name, but asking outright would likely only yield her given name. It would be safer to earn her trust first and find out later.

“Are you listening?” she snapped, interrupting my thoughts.
“Of course. No need to worry,” I said, a smile touching my lips despite myself. Talking with her was… enjoyable, a rare feeling. It was energizing to engage with someone my age who could hold a conversation as an equal.

“Ugh, all this complicated stuff is giving me a headache,” she sighed, rubbing her temples.

“You’re welcome to rest,” I offered.

“No way! I’m here as your maid, ready to serve at any moment,”

Mina said, though exhaustion was clear in her voice.

Not long after, she fell asleep sitting up, the day’s tension finally taking its toll.