One Year

Confrontation

After a full stomach and a nice hot bath, she felt refreshed. When she was alone in her room, she opened the window to let the breeze blow through. Her desk that had her painting was gone. She looked all around her room for her painting, but it was gone. Resigning herself to the fact that it must have gotten blood on it and the servants threw it away, she began to paint by candle light of a ice cave in a blizzard.

Her strokes were soft and light, letting the black paint express how she felt. Her ice cave was desolate in a harsh snow storm. As she got lost in her painting, she didn't hear her door open as Prince Ryu was pushed in by Petra. They both stood there watching Siri paint peacefully as the wind blew her silky silver, damp hair dry. Her white dress robe to sleep made her look ethereal like a fairy.

Petra, moving from one foot to the other had cut into her concentration, forcing her to look up.

"Husband." Siri said as she put her brush down to stand up and bow to him. "What brings you here this late in the night?"

"Show me your bags." Ryu ordered her. He too had heard the reports of his wife's healing skills. He too didn't believe it at first, but all of his high ranking guards and soldiers reported the same thing. That Jonas, who was on the brink of death from a stomach wound was sewn up and patched up by his wife. And her maids also knew how to attend wounds. Nurse Mi and Nurse Nancy reported that she kept on teaching her maids about medicine and was willing to guide them on their journey to learn more medicine.

Siri knew this was going to happen sooner or later with Ryu's distrust in everyone. She came over to her cabinet where the doctor bags were and moved all four bags out. Petra came to help her as they brought all four bags to the table. In all the bags they were the same thing. Bandages, catgut, ointments and pills. There was an extra smaller bag with small instruments that Ryu had never seen before.

"What are these?" Ryu asked as he picked up the metal instruments and looked at them.

"Be careful. That one is sharp." Siri told him as he was about to grab the scalpel.

She pointed out each instrument and told him. "These are called scalpels. These are forceps. These are scissors. They are all needed to help suture a wound."

"I have never seen anything like this before. Who was your Master?" He asked.

"I have no master. What I know about healing, I learned from reading. These tools I thought would help me become a better doctor, so I drew out the picture of what I wanted and had the blacksmith make me the instruments that I requested."

"They say the way you acted, you were calm and knew what you were doing. As if you had several years of practice already. Why are you protecting your Master? Who is he?" Ryu asked her.

"I told you I have no Master. What I know, I read in a book. Why is it that a man can know such knowledge, but not a woman? Why is it that a man can do these things and not be questioned, but a woman is constantly questioned? Why is it that the intelligence of a woman is regulated to only knowing about the four womanly arts of painting, poetry, chess and music? If women were given half the chance a man had, she would soar and be of equal footing to their strength and intelligence!" Siri asked him back. "Why is it that I can't come up with ideas and make it happen while teaching myself medicine? Why should my abilities be questioned when I have shown that I could do it? Is it my gender or my age that makes you question me? Why are my words not taken as truth, but as lies without the help of a man?"

Siri looked at the both of them with contempt, "If you don't believe me, then investigate me. It will tell you that the only people who visited my courtyard were teachers who taught me the four womanly arts. It was always my maids and me in my courtyard. You could even ask my father what books I requested and see that I have learned everything by myself. My ideas are my own."

Even though she didn't invent the medical instruments on Earth, here in Yukah Kingdom she did. So she claimed them as her own. She couldn't possibly tell them that she transmigrated to another world and another time.

"It's late, you know the way out. Your wife will not see you out."

Siri's anger seeped through as she dismissed them and turned around to go back to her bedroom, but she was soon stopped by Petra.

"Princess, wait." Petra said. "I came here with Prince Ryu to thank you for saving my brother, Jonas. I had already given up on him and had prayed for a quick death, but you brought him out from his pain and sewn his wound up as well as give him medicine. Thank you for saving him."

"There are no thanks to be given. It was the right thing to do. As for your brother, although he is no longer bleeding, the fight has just begun for him. His fever could still kill him. I already told Ethan, but make sure he is fed the fever reducing pill I gave him every time Jonas's fever comes back. Make sure to keep him hydrated by giving him water steeped in the Well Zin Leaf. Should you need more Well Zin Leaf, I will give you more. Should his fever not go down after the fever reducer pill, wake me up as soon a possible, his life would depend on quick actions."

"Yes, Princess. Thank you again." Petra said.

Siri nodded at him and left the two of them. She didn't look back at them when she left. She went straight to bed and promptly fell asleep. What she didn't know, was that Ryu had been wheeled to the outside of her window. He watched as she fell into deep sleep before he had Petra go in and take her painting from her desk before closing the window tightly and leaving her courtyard.

"Do you think she's telling the truth." Ryu asked Petra as Petra pushes him to the Bamboo Courtyard where Prince Ryu lives. "She sounds credible. But I have this feeling as if she's not telling me everything."

"I think Princess Siri is telling the truth. What cause does she have to lie for? The questions she asks are also valid. Maybe she did create those tools to help heal people. If that is the case than she is a genius, one of a kind. Her creations could change the whole world of medicine and she'll become a Godly Doctor."

"Make sure she is well protected and watched." Ryu ordered. "Report everything to me."