Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Emlyn slumped weakly at the door of the operating room. It was the first failed operation.

This is his first month as an official doctor.

Dean Sinedu yelled, "Follow me," and Emlin and Dean Sinedu entered the operating room. When Emlin had just walked out of the hospital's precarious fate, the bloody man was pushed in front of him. For a moment, the entire operating room became noisy, doctors shouted anxiously, nurses wiped the area busily, people in sterile suits ran around in front of him, the sounds of various machines under the bright shadowless lights roared in Emlin's ears, and the whole world was shaking in front of Emlin.

The blood transfusion tube had replaced the patient's blood twice, but the broken body could not retain the fresh blood, and could only helplessly allow the red blood to escape from every hole in the body and soak the dark green sheets.

"Wake up! Don't sleep! Can you hear me? Who am I?"

The mutilated bloody man slowly turned his eyes and glanced at Emlyn, and then his vision was fixed on Emlyn's face.

With a long beep from the life-support machine, the entire emergency room fell silent. The director put down the surgical forceps, remained silent for a while, and then covered the broken body on the bed with a cloth.

There was actually nothing under the cloth. His internal organs were crushed into mud and mixed together and smeared on the roaring steam engine. His bones were broken into pieces and stuck into his own flesh.

Emlyn had even fantasized that the dean, who had the ability to bring back the dead, could save his life by sacrificing some of his organs and limbs, but the miracle did not happen in this operating room.

He didn't know how he left the operating room. He only remembered that he stumbled and took off his sterile suit. Dean Sinedu came over and patted him on the shoulder, saying earnestly that he should not be sad and should get used to failure. Then the dean stumbled and disappeared from Emlyn's sight.

Finally rushing out of the depressing operating room, Emlyn felt like he had stepped out of hell, but the faint smell of disinfectant in the hospital lobby made him feel a little suffocated.

The door of the operating room was empty, and no one was waiting for the patient to get off the operating table.

Emlyn suddenly relaxed and felt a little weak. His legs went limp and he sat down on the cold marble, rubbing his dry eyes hard.

"Thank you for your hard work, doctor. This doesn't look like an easy operation."

A gentleman with ordinary appearance and simple clothes came up quietly, lifted up the corner of his clothes and sat beside him. Emlyn looked up and saw that he looked like a circus magician.

"It's just in vain."

Emlyn sighed and looked up at the bright incandescent light in a daze.

"I think we met Mr. on the street at noon." The magician's voice was bright and soft. "You also bumped into Mr. Dodge Lamar at that time."

Emlyn tried to recall it and it seemed to be true.

"Why, are you here with Dodger Lamar for a charity show at the hospital?" Emlyn showed no interest in this. He just smiled politely and continued to stare at the ceiling with empty eyes. "It's probably not time for the charity show yet, and I'm not very interested in these little tricks. You can find some other patients to be the audience."

"I think our little doctor needs to cheer himself up. Maybe some cute little magic tricks?" Klein's fingers flew, and several cards appeared silently in front of the two of them. "Or maybe you can try to make a few wishes for me? I'm best at this kind of magic. Do you want to try making a wish first?"

"...No need."

This lighthearted little trick made Emlyn feel even more depressed.

"As a newly minted doctor, you are a savior to your patients. You deserve more miracles in your life."

“…Heh, savior.”

The word suddenly seemed a little harsh to his ears. Emlyn laughed at himself and finally turned around to look at the magician beside him with bloodshot eyes.

"Thank you, Mr. Magician. But I'm sorry, I think I disappointed you. I'm not a savior."

He adjusted his sitting posture and leaned against the delicate wall. The faint, tired smile on his face was unclear whether it was a courtesy to others or a mockery of his own insignificance.

"Look, I can't even save the people in front of me. I can't even save every patient I treat. There are only a few, a small number of them. How can I be the savior who saves the masses?"

"But you have been able to save a lot of people. Even though you have just become a doctor, you have helped a lot of people, and you will save more people in the future."

"You are too tired, doctor. You have done very well. Take a break. For example, go to the Harvest Museum next door to see the Fifth Epoch antique exhibition, or buy yourself a doll as a reward. There are still many more beautiful things in your life.

Klein took out a flyer with an exquisite antique doll smiling at Emlyn. The young doctor's eyes lit up for a moment, but the light was gone in a flash. He folded the flyer and returned it to the magician.

"These so-called beautiful things you have may be too heavy for me."

Too heavy, Emlyn thought. Those exquisite dolls were beautiful and full of hope, and belonged to those who had naive ideas about the world, not to people like him. And the so-called rich spiritual history also belonged to those literary youths who had nothing to do after eating every day.

He even felt a little repulsed by these things, as he felt that the well-dressed puppet was laughing at him, laughing at his hasty, embarrassing and helpless life beneath his seemingly glamorous white coat, and his shattered ideas.

"Come make a wish, doctor."

The magician is gentle but firm.

"Can you save that patient, magician?" Emlyn pointed at the operating room.

"…I'm sorry, I can't do this, but you can change your wish, such as treating a seriously injured patient who is not dead yet."

"Ha, yes, of course you can't. He was actually already dead before you came. The rescue we just did can only be regarded as a comfort to the family and fulfilling our duty as doctors."

Emlyn smiled and turned around, stretching out his long legs.

"Look, what if I'm a top student or a doctor? I still can't save that guy. Is this what you call a super doctor who can save the world?"

"How many patients have I treated? And how many of them managed to get out alive?"

"Even if they really made it out alive, were they really saved by me? High medical bills, half-crippled bodies, miserable lives, broken families... Think about the broken lives they will have after leaving the hospital. Are they really saved by us?"

"Besides, Mr. Magician, even if you can save a half-dead patient, there are still thousands of bloody people waiting for you to save and cure. The intensive care unit is overcrowded every day. How do you want to save them? Can you eliminate all diseases in the world? Even if it's just a rare disease that has only been seen a few times in history?"

"…I'm sorry, I can't."

So the magician changed the subject.

"Do you believe in Mother Earth?"

"Of course. I grew up in the orphanage of the Church of Mother Earth in Feynaport. The nuns loved my red eyes."

When Emlyn mentioned his childhood, his face lit up a little more.

"But I look like a Loenese. At that time, Dean Sinedu of this hospital saw that I wanted to study medicine, so he brought me to this hospital early on, making me a real Loenese. You know, the relationship between Loen and Feynet has been getting worse and worse in the past few years. I stayed in Feynet probably because of my Loen bloodline, and I didn't live well. But when I returned to Loen, my background in the Church of Mother Earth also caused a lot of discussion among my classmates."

Emlyn raised his head, as if he was staring at the thousand-year-old bricks and wood on the church dome through the pale prefabricated ceiling. Those tall and sacred vaults never hesitate to show others their long history, but now due to the limited space, this part of the Harvest Church belonging to the hospital has long been divided into four floors, and some unusable top floors have been sealed by suspended ceilings to facilitate the arrangement of medical facilities and pipelines. In this busy hospital, no one listens to the thousand-year-old hymns written by bricks, tiles, wood and stone.

"Look at this house. This ancient church was once so magnificent, but now it has been arbitrarily divided up. Even the hospital that saves lives can only occupy a corner. Because of the damn island conflict between the two countries five years ago, my scholarship flew away because I don't have a pure Loen background. No matter how much Dean Sinedu pleaded, it was useless. He could only get me a student loan. And recently there was a rumor from the top that even Dean Sinedu's own subsidy might be cut..."

"Hey, Magic, do you think that when Dodger Lamar comes here for a benefit performance next year, there will be no hospital left?"

"But at least you tried your best. At least you worked hard for this hospital and the patients. The nuns in your church will be proud of you. You will be a fighter. At least you can be their hero..."

The magician was halfway through his speech when Emlyn's cell phone rang.

"...Okay, teacher. Beds 8, 12, and 20. I've got them in mind. I'll pay special attention to them. Also, I've got the blood test form for bed 16. Okay, I understand..."

He hung up the phone and rubbed his tired eye sockets hard.

"…Patients, patients, and more patients. Countless patients…There is no end to the work."

"So what if I'm a top student? I'm still struggling in a life of high pressure and mediocrity. Behind my seemingly generous future rewards is a student loan that I can't pay off in ten years. I can't buy the maids even a brooch on their birthdays. I can't even go to the Mother Goddess's harvest day to listen to the maids singing. I can't provide any help to Dean Sinedu's increasingly tight financial situation. I can only watch this hospital disappear step by step into the dust of history..."

"Time, money, infections, complications, patients—"

Suddenly, a bell rang in the corridor, and the shrill sound pulled everyone's ears violently.

"Emergency Room 4! Emergency Room 4! Doctor Emlyn White! Please go to Emergency Room 4 as soon as possible!"

Emlyn took a deep breath and jumped up from the ground.

"Look, I can't even save myself, how can I save others?"

"There are no miracles in this world."