Chapter 37: First-Aid Treatment

Even if it’s first aid, there’s a limit to what can be done.

“First, we have to do something about the bleeding!”

George reaches out to the clean cloth inside the first-aid kit, but he is stopped by William.

“No, we have to wash it first. If it’s a usual chemical burn, it won’t bleed this much… Let’s wash away the blood and the slime’s body fluid first, then check the wounds.”

William also gathers the water bottles that the hunters brought as equipment.

The water bottle equipment that can be used for both hydration and wound cleaning contains water that has been boiled once.

When water is poured on Emma’s cheek, the melted outer skin peels off little by little.

“Meow…”

Leaving the slimes to the other cats, Koumei-san nestles close to Emma’s unwounded left side.

Emma’s right side is stained bright red and has a high temperature, while her left side is pale from the loss of blood and feels cold. Koumei-san sticks close to Emma, warming her left side while being careful to not touch the wounds.

“Meow…”

The cat’s worried cry calls Emma.

George and William continue to pour water carefully over Emma’s wounds.

Half of the hunters guarding the prince went to get water before it runs out. The cats scatter the slimes with wind pressure every time it attacks.

Emma’s skin comes off just by being touched with water. Her inner skin is swollen red and has deep, deep radial scars. Perhaps it’s the part that was hit by the slime’s fluids directly. There are also countless small wounds like connecting the radial lines. Because George moved around every time he evaded a slime’s attack, the wounds spread.

Maybe the blood vessel is also damaged in this deep wound. Even when washed with water, blood keeps seeping out.

In addition to Emma’s cheeks, Emma’s worn-out clothes are carefully removed with tweezers while being washed with water.

The wound on her arm that George bit is also washed after taking off the ribbon.

“Nii-sama—!”

William, holding the tweezers, shows George the wounds. The wounds under her clothes are more severe than the others.

There’s a large deep wound from her flank to her stomach, and it also bleeds a lot. He could only move around with his sister, who had been enduring such a wound, in his arms.

George’s face becomes grim. Moreover, blood ceaselessly flows from the deep wound even when being washed with water. When wanting to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, he hesitates to put the cloth because the skin around it is loose.

There are ointments and antiseptics in the first aid kit, but is it right to use it on Emma’s skin that peeled off and crumbled with just water?

The cure for being hit by a slime’s fluids has not been found yet. In addition to its low appearance rate, those who get hit by its attack will mostly lose their life, and even their corpse will be eaten.

Following the treatment method of burns and chemical burns, they have cooled down the wounds and washed away the slime’s fluid with water at the same time. But, as far as they look at the skin condition, they can’t help feeling that the treatment after this will only be rubbing salt on the wound.

“What should we do…”

William is feeling agitated. Her skin condition is worse than they thought.

Every time the cloth is put on and changed to stop the bleeding, her skin will tear, won’t it?

But, if the bleeding is not stopped, she will really die. This is not a world where blood transfusion and transplant are possible. The mushy melted skin won’t recover. Bacterial infections are also frightening.

Perhaps, as it is… it may be better for older sister to die.

But I can’t stand older sister dying. Me, older brother, father, and mother can’t also stand it. No matter how older sister will look, compared to her being gone is…

William reaches out to the cloth inside the first-aid kit.

“Nee-sama, I’m sorry. I will put pressure to stop the bleeding. It’s probably going to hurt and leave a hideous scar, but I will definitely sa…ve… you—!”

William’s eyes are overflowing with tears. This is his own selfishness. Even if older sister is saved, her future will be painful.

Emma is unconscious, and her body doesn’t have any movement from some time ago.

Only Emma’s breathing and a faint pulse that he felt on her left neck show signs of her survival.

Violet suddenly comes down to William’s hand holding the cloth.

“Wah! Violet, why so suddenly!?”

He can’t support the spider with one hand and hold it with both of his hands. Even it had been quiet on George’s head until just now, to think it suddenly interrupts Emma’s first-aid treatment midway.

…Perhaps, it has something it wants to convey.

William looks fixedly onto Violet’s eight eyes, but he can’t understand anything.

If it’s Emma nee-sama, will she be able to understand Violet’s intention?

The moment he thought so, Violet spews out a purple glowing thread towards Emma’s wounds.

“Wait!! What are you!!”

George hurriedly reaches out to take the thread from the wound, but he is stopped by Koumei-san.

“Meow!”

“Hey!! Ah—! Uwa—!”

While they are being dumbfounded, the thread glowing in purple has fully covered Emma’s wounds.

It is impossible to physically go against Koumei’s restraint.

But if it’s Koumei-san, she won’t allow any harm upon Emma.

With a satisfied look, Violet comes down from William’s hands and cuddle close to Emma.

“Spider thread… to stop the bleeding??”

They have never heard about it before, but that tremendous amount of bleeding seems to have stopped, and it looks like blood won’t flow from the spider’s purple thread. The thread Violet gently spewed out from above mysteriously fit Emma’s wounds and serve a hemostasis function without the need to apply pressure. They don’t understand the principle and theory at all, though.

When they softly touch the threads covering Emma, it feels pleasantly cool.

Before, Emma has made a passionate speech on how Violet can discern the TPO (time, place, occasion) and use appropriate threads for every case. They heard a little half of it, but the thread used to bound those men* and one used to cover Emma is certainly different.

*from when Emma was searching for cats in the forest

“Let’s trust Violet and Koumei-san.”

Nodding to George’s words, William takes off one layer of his outer clothes and puts it on Emma.

“Let’s wash nii-sama‘s arm too.”

Saying so, he pours water on George’s blood-stained hands.

George looks at William confusedly, but he gradually feels a burning pain in both hands. As Emma’s blood is mixed with the slime’s fluids, both of his hands redden, even though not as worse as Emma’s.

He hasn’t noticed because he has been nervous all this time. He also feels the pain inside his mouth and rinses it.

They heard Koumei-san‘s intimidating hiss, and when they turn around, the prince has come near them.

He is somewhat afraid of Koumei-san, but he doesn’t fall on his butt like the hunter earlier. He only takes one step back and looks at George and William.

“Why, don’t you evacuate Emma? The first-aid treatment is done, right?”

Not on the ground, but on the bed. Not just first-aid, but a doctor’s treatment.

They understand what the prince wanted to say. But,

“Emma nee-sama is still the slime’s target prey. She can’t be away from here.”

William answers while carefully washing George’s both hands with water.

“The cats…? are here with the slimes, so isn’t it okay?”

The prince asks like urging them.

In the first place, if they could evacuate and run, it wouldn’t be so much trouble.

If they could, the hunters should take the initiative to take the prince away from here first.

“If the target prey is more than a certain distance away, the slime will split to do a large-scale search on its target prey, and if it doesn’t find it, it will self-explode.”

The prince’s expression worsens.

The monster he made light of as just a puddle can’t be defeated, can’t be avoided, and can multiply. Emma, who he can see from the cat(?)’s opening, has wounds that cannot be treated with just first-aid. They are still being cornered. Just because the cats(?) are protecting us from the attacks, it does not mean that Emma can truly be rescued.

How ignorant I am. Is not having knowledge something this scary? I can’t do anything for the one girl I like.

Even if she is saved, her face and body are already…

Bitter tears leave a line on his cheek. He growls lowly as if to squeeze out everything.

“Even so, I want to save Emma…”

Violet also spews out a thread to George’s both hands.

The cool touch feels pleasant to the inflamed hands.

No one doesn’t want to save Emma here. But they know.

“When I talked about splitting, it’s not just two, three, ten, or twenty.”

When a slime loses sight of its target prey, it will split into hundreds of millions.

Each part is small in itself, but that hundred million parts will continue to grow and split until it finds its target prey. Even just three slimes are already terrible. If they increase to a hundred million and those hundreds of millions self-explode, the country will perish.

The knowledge told from the old past comes from a tragedy that actually happened somewhere.

The cats can defend against the slimes’ attacks, but they can’t defeat it.

Slimes can’t be defeated with physical attacks.

The only hope is Emma’s hydrochloric acid in Palace, but the slime that absorbed how much vinegar is already back in action. Looking at the terrible state of Emma’s skin, it also needs a considerable amount of water to neutralize. The slimes have increased to three. Will the hydrochloric acid that Emma made be enough? Will it even work?

Maybe the prince doesn’t know. That for not just Emma, but also George and the prince to live, the only way is to defeat the slimes.

The prince drops his shoulders. Slimes can’t be defeated. It’s what the hunters have said. The current situation where they can defend against the attacks is already a miracle.

Koumei tenderly licks Emma’s left cheek. *twitch* Emma’s body shows a little movement.

“…Uu… okaa… sa…n…“

Maybe Emma regains her consciousness, she calls for mother. With the way of calling Yoriko, not Melsa.

(T/N: They call Yoriko okaa-san while Melsa okaa-sama)

“Nee-sama!!”

William calls out desperately.

When he peers at her face, green pupils are trying to focus. Emma is enduring the pain and trying to tell them something desperately.

Both George and William listen carefully to Emma’s words.

“O… ka…a-sa…n. …sh …ru …g.”

She scrunches her face as it hurts every time she moves her lips, but even so, she continues.

To not miss anything, they read Emma’s lip movement while trying to guess.

“…os …mo… ses… pl… ea… sure—”

“sl… um… sa… lt—”

A small, small voice. Some broken words with all her might. William and George catch her words and guess with the utmost effort, but they can’t seem to understand it.

“Sa… lt—…”

Emma’s left hand weakly holds onto William’s hand and moves her lips to convey something over and over again.

“Emma… I can’t understand, what are you? what do you? want to say!?”

George desperately catches Emma’s words while stroking her head, but he can’t understand.

Even though every time Emma opens her mouth, it seems hard, it seems painful, even so, he can’t do anything but strokes her head.

William thinks over Emma’s words mutteringly over and over again.

Okaa-san

shrug

osmoses pleasure

slum

salt

………!!

“Eh? Wai—!! Nee-sama!? No way? Eh!!? This sort of thing?”

When William looks at Emma, Emma also looks at William and nods.

“…de…feat… s…ime… sa…lt!”

Hearing Emma’s words, William starts running.

“Hunters!! Please give me a hand!! Maybe we can defeat the slimes!”

Are you sure the spider is not a reincarnator? Cause it has a hell lot of cheats