Cry, Even Better if you Beg or 울어 봐, 빌어도 좋? by Solce

#135. That Name

The military doctor looked at the patient with puzzled eyes.

The woman Was not recovering for several days now. It was difficult for him to find a proper way to examine her condition because he couldn't use the usual medicine.

Her pregnancy was proving difficult for him to treat her.

"When will the fever go down?" Major Herhardt asked as soon as the doctor stepped away from Leyla.

The military doctor grimaced to face him, swallowing down his nervousness at disappointing the Duke.

There was more than just a fever ailing the Major's woman. He had been surprised she'd managed to survive so far with such a myriad of conditions happening to her body alone.

Any other average adult would not be at risk of death with this fever. Still, with her pregnancy, and further weakened body by other ailments, it was a different matter altogether.

Death was proving to be more likely, but he didn't know how to break it to the Major without fearing for his life in return.

On the first day he was called to this room, Major Herhardt's eyes, who spoke blankly about the woman's worsening condition, had a cold and shuddering glint.

He hardly looked like amongst the living and seemed just about ready to swallow a bullet up his mouth to follow his woman.

"We still have to wait and see-" the doctor began to stammer when Matthias cut him off rather rudely.

"Until when?" Matthias growled threateningly deep and low towards the doctor.

Ever Since he saw her collapse, he immediately began to nurse her back to health. All by himself, he wanted to do it. He refused anyone else's aid, snapping at them for even offering to take care of her.

"If we take her to a military hospital in the back, can we treat her?" He urgently inquired, looking down at her matted, sweaty golden hair, and stray locks plastered against her temples as she sweated buckets.

But the doctor shook his head.

"With the patient's physical condition, the journey itself will be too difficult to endure." He quickly explained to the Duke, "And if by some miracle we manage to send her there, her pregnancy would still prevent us from treating her with any medicine."

He wanted to explain more about the woman's condition, but judging by the Major's ominous expression, continuing to speak would only gain his ire. This terrifying expression of his, which made him look like a dead man walking, only made him be seen like a cornered animal.

But despite his posture, his expression remained blank and impassive.

"I'm sorry, Major." The doctor finished with a sullen and resigned tone.

Matthias approached Leyla's bedside again, instinctively grabbing her hand in his. She remained stubbornly unconscious.

The frighteningly high fever had refused to subside for days. Leyla had stayed unconscious for most of the time. When she was, it was still barely enough to keep her awake for long, unable to eat beyond a spoonful of porridge properly.

She would groan endlessly complaining about the heat and murmur incoherently before blacking out again.

However, Matthias did not give up.

To somehow lower the heat, he wiped her forehead with a wet towel, wiping it and her body off of the grime and sweat that had begun to accumulate. Then, he'd religiously cradle her head and feed the porridge when she awoke.

Leyla would scold him half-heartedly for his manhandling of her, but he let it slide. Day in and day out, he would patiently change her clothes, wipe her sweat, and do the same things again and again with every passing day.