After the visit to the eastern wall, Luther reported the situation to the command centre at the palace. Since the hospitals were overloaded and the medical supplies were diminishing fast, the command decided to reduce the number of casualties. Soon, the central command called the old commander back to the inner city and replaced him with a more flexible commander.

At the hospital near the eastern wall,

"Finally, they switched that old man. I hope we will receive fewer patients now." A nurse broke the news to her fellow nurse. "It is about time. Else, we won't have any men left on the wall. I heard that man is crazy. He wouldn't let the men take cover." "What? That's crazy. What is the use of battlements if he doesn't let them take cover?"

The nurses chatted among themselves sharing gossip they heard from the patients. Two were changing into clean grey gowns while another one was preparing instruments for an operation.

"Hey, stop the chitchat. We have two surgeries left. Get ready fast. Doctor Elba is waiting." The head nurse heard them so she stopped them before someone heard them and reported them to disciplinary. As soon as the head nurse came in, the nurses pretended to be working as diligently as ants. But when the head went out, they resumed their chat.

"How many surgeries have there been today?" "This is third."

"Aww, I wish this day is over soon. My legs feel like poles and my shoulders are stiff. My eyes are burning."

"That old doctor Elba, he is something, isn't he? He seems like a weak small old man but he can take on a lot. I am excited to be working with him for the first time."

"Don't be too excited. You will be as tired as a blacksmith soon. Which is why I don't believe Doctor Elba is old. There is no way an old man can do these things. He may be a young man living under an old man's skin. Maybe he performs on himself."

"Shut up. How is that possible?"

"Who knows? None of these things called 'surgeries' make sense. We cut open a person's belly and seal it back up. And that person still breathes the next day. When had you ever heard a man live with a cut-open belly before? Impossible are being made real here."

Although the technique of combining spells into medical treatment was invented by Mordu' and recorded in the Book of Sahel, lord Mordu' exclusively used it for creating hybrid monsters or on himself. Mordu' never used it to treat anyone, not even Templers in the span of a hundred years. The technique was never known publicly until Revenant decided to use it in treating patients after obtaining knowledge from the Book of Sahel. Mr Elba was the most skilful among the Revenant.

Elba became impatient since the nurses were taking too long preparing the table for surgery. He handed a bucket covered in blood over to the head nurse then he strode into the room and yelled at the chattering nurses, "You noisy pigeons, when will you finish? If the hand goes bad, I will take a new one from one of you!"

Elba talked sense into them with a threat. Only then do they start to move hurriedly. "We are ready, doctor."

"Then stop standing there and get the patient on the table! And give him milk of angels."

Elba asked to sedate the patient but the assistant nurse stood there confused until the head nurse pointed to milk of poppy. The head nurse apologised to Elba for her naive colleague. "I am sorry, doctor Elba. She is new here."

"Where is Ceric? The usual assistant."

"He is in the hall with Doctor Klaus. Checking up on patients from yesterday."

The head nurse explained why Ceric couldn't be with them. Since Klaus was the royal physician, Ceric dared not refuse. When Elba heard the reason, he went into full rage. "Outrageous! Anyone can check up on the hall. A surgery needs precision and timely assistance which are critical for the success of the operation and the life of the patient. How dare he steal my assistance for some stupid tasks?"

Elba nearly ran out of the room, the head nurse and the other one had to hold him down. Compared to his small stature, Elba gave the two a lot of struggle to hold him down meanwhile the new nurse started to cry in fear. The poor girl was forced to be there by the royal physician and she was yelled at for being there by another doctor. It was a tough day for her. Her first-day excitement turned into a trauma. She was shaking in a corner.

"You are scaring the poor girl, Mr Elba. If you are short of hands, I can be your assistant." Ethan calmed down Elba who was making a scene.

After the clash at the east command tower, Ethan had been coming to the hospital to help with overloaded tasks. As a master in casting spells, Ethan's precise spells were highly appreciated by Elba. Ethan had a kick in surgery, which Elba always praised. Ethan knew when to cut, what to dissect, where to illuminate, and which to frost or burn.

"Oh! Thank God, you are here. I thought this one is over."

"What's the case?"

"The one you helped three days ago. The mad lucky lad who blocked the arrow coming to his face with his hand. Remember?"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yes. We cut the damaged part and patched it up. I thought he was getting better."

"No. Yesterday, after you left, he became unstable. The hand is turning purple. Fever strikes and consciousness is off and on."

"So, we are chopping off and see what's wrong in our work?"

Ethan confidently discussed the plans for surgery with Elba as he was getting familiar with the process. He put on the grey gown the assistant nurse handed him and entered the table with confidence until he saw a bloody bucket with a hand cut off from the wrist inside.

"What's this for?" Ethan asked.

"This one is different from usual, sir Ethan. After we have chopped off his hand, we will replace it with that one."

"What do you mean? How is that possible?"

"If lord Mordu' attaches different animal parts into another and creates a monster, I have been thinking we can put a human organ into another. So, I have been trying it for some time now. There is no success yet. But we have to try, don't we? I believe this one will be a success. Because you are here. The God must have sent you here for a reason, right?"

When Ethan heard Elba's ambitious experiments, it overwhelmed him. It could save many lives. But it also burdened him heavily since Elba was placing too much trust in him.

"Well, that's...huge. Anyway, where did you get this hand? From a dead man?"

"Well, you could say that."

Elba answered his question lightly with a laugh. It bothered him and he wanted to ask more questions but Elba hurried him before the hand went bad so he saved them for later. Ethan helped Elba with the surgery. They moved like an orchestra played by one conductor. The operation took them six long hours. The day had turned into night. The new assistant finally understood why her seniors weren't excited. It was more exhausting than a full crazy day in the hall. She decided to stick to the hall from then on.

After the exhausting operation, Ethan parted with Elba. Since he was too tired, he figured Elba might be the same so he left the final question for tomorrow and returned to the palace.

On his way, he encountered Gura and Jonah who were transferring a prisoner. So he asked where they were headed. To his knowledge, there was no prison in the direction they were heading.

"To the hospital, of course," Gura answered.

"Is the man sick somewhere? If it is contagious, we will need to check on others, too." When they said they were heading to the hospital, Ethan honestly thought they were taking the man for treatment. It made them laugh. "Why should we be taking care of prisoners? No. He is not sick. He is the cure." They answered.

When the Grand Temple fell and the control of the city was returned to Adders, the royalists of the crown launched an intense inquisition. They scorched out the nasty informers. During the short occupation period, the informers welcomed the Temple. They pointed out the houses of royalists to Templers and seized the properties as their own. So, the deep resentment of the royalists was paid back in full. The royalists, together with the Revenant, rounded up anyone who related to the Temple, afflicted to the Temple, and served the Temple. Prisoners were treated harshly in many ways as a form of revenge. One of the ways was experimenting with the knowledge they obtained from the book of Sahel on prisoners. The project was piloted by Elba.

Elba cut open, dissected and sewed up; freely honing his skills with prisoners. He also harvested limbs from prisoners to treat the dismembered soldiers. The entire project was a big horrible experiment to give back the life the soldiers lost on battlefields.

Once Ethan found out about the horrible acts done by his side, Ethan threw up in the nearest gutter. There he was believing he had done something good; was him partaking in one of the cruellest acts, gave him a shock. He watched the back of his friends with shaking eyes as they went on with their task. He threw up again. "What have I done?" He shakily murmured. He felt betrayed.

Ethan quickly returned to the palace and searched for Cleo. If there was anyone who could stop such madness, it was her. "Where is Her Royal Highness?" "I am afraid I don't know sir. Her Highness hasn't left the palace for certain during my duty, sir." "Where is her Highness?" "I sighted her at the dining hall earlier." "Do you know where is her Highness?" "I believe her Highness is resting in her chamber, sir."

As if a man who had lost his family, Ethan desperately asked the whereabouts of Cleo at anyone he met. He went from the dining hall, and war council to private quarter and training ground. Like a madman, he went up and down, to and fro till he encountered Grand Advisor Arthur in front of the Royal physician's chamber. Ethan figured he might know Cleo's location more than anyone else.

"Do you know the whereabouts of Cleo?"

"If you mean Her Royal Highness, I sighted her going up the tower."

"I see. Anyway, do you have knowledge about the prisoners being used in experiments?" Ethan stroked a question suddenly. "They are cutting limbs of prisoners."

Ethan noticed Arthur's face had turned darkened.

"Yes, I do. It is a project piloted by our medical team to reconfigure our dismembered warriors who had sacrificed part of them in battle. If succeed, we can make our brave warriors whole again."

"Over the blood of innocents?"

"They aren't that innocent. They are associated with Temple need I remind you. They are pests corrupting our kingdom. They are better dead as useful subjects in experiments than as useless corpses. Feeding them daily has already become a nuisance."

"No. We are not talking about criminals. We are talking about women and children, elderly. The family members of Temple servants."

"They are the same. They applauded when their fathers and husbands killed our sympathisers. They kicked the families of our men off the street and enjoyed our misery. Don't tell me they don't know whose blood they are living on."

Arthur showed his determination to take revenge. His red frown face bore a resemblance to that of a devil.

"Anyway, this matter is none of your concern, champion. Your focus should be on Mordu' who singlehandedly destroyed an armada. Let your lowly subjects like me handle dirty works."

Ethan was appalled by the true nature of war. There is no good side or bad side. Only those who kept their humanity intact amidst the mess.

Ethan rushed the stairs to the tower after parting with Arthur. He bumped into Luther who was coming down the stairs yet he forgot to apologise. Luther didn't understand what was the urgency so he followed Ethan.

When Ethan reached the top, he found her discussing kingdom affairs with Louise; both of who confusedly looked at him.

Without aforementioned, Ethan asked them. "Do you know we are harvesting parts from prisoners?"

"What do you mean by harvesting parts?"

Ethan noticed Cleo looked more confused than ever. At the same time, he noticed Louise flinched.

Out of the blue, Ethan pulled Cleo toward him. He embraced her tightly as he muttered, "Thank you. Thank you. This is enough."

Luther turned away. Louise frowned.

Cleo shyly pushed Ethan away but her deep self didn't want to so she remained still in his embrace.

When Cleo asked what was wrong, Ethan answered, "Nothing...nothing," while he was crying in relief.