The first thing to catch his eye was a pure white doctor's coat.
Dried, blackish-red blood was caked all over it, and the scalpel in the front pocket gleamed under the ceiling light. The sharp stench of disinfectant and the thick smell of blood began to fill the hallway with its appearance.
‘Is that a doctor?’
Ash-gray skin. The only things on its face were densely packed teeth. Eyes, nose, and ears were nowhere to be found, and blood dripped steadily from its torn lips.
On the silver name tag hanging on its chest was not a name, but the title “Surgeon.” He had roughly guessed from the scalpel, but it seemed this one truly specialized in surgery.
Whether it had appeared because a patient was here, or was simply passing by by chance, was not important right now. Ian kept his finger on the revolver's trigger, ready to fire if need be, and glared at the doctor.
“Hmm.”
The doctor stared at him briefly, then turned its head toward Cecilia, who was leaning against the wall, unconscious.
“Permanent physical damage caused by explosion. And burns. A critical condition. I must proceed with surgery immediately.”
“…….”
“Are you that patient's guardian?”
The doctor asked Ian. Ian sorted through dozens of things he could say in this situation and barely managed to open his mouth.
“……Yes. And I do not intend to consent to this child's surgery.”
“Hmm? If left as is, she will die. Looking at her now, she even has a cerebral hemorrhage. Do you intend to kill the patient?”
“She won't die. I will treat her separately, so you needn't concern yourself.”
“Absurd. Nurse.”
The surgeon let out a hollow laugh and called for a nurse. With a creak, the emergency room door opened, and a nurse whose entire body was rotting crawled out. The doctor looked down at her and jerked his chin.
“Hand that guardian the surgery consent form, and take the patient to the operating table immediately.”
“Yeees…….”
The nurse answered with slurred pronunciation and hobbled toward Ian. Ian didn't hesitate any longer. He pulled back the revolver's hammer with his thumb.
What would happen if he fired here?
It definitely wouldn't produce a good result, but it was far better than losing Cecilia here.
He wasn't acting this way because of shallow sentiment.
From what he had observed so far, this damned hospital was impossible to navigate alone. Doing so would mean a dog's death. Burning patients ran around the emergency exit, grotesque nurses had chunks of flesh and blood plastered around their mouths, and the doctors were obsessed with surgery.
Searching for an exit while exploring such a place alone was no different from suicide. One wrong step and his head would fly off, or he'd be forcibly admitted to live out his life as a patient.
He desperately needed at least one life to die in his stead. Therefore, he couldn't afford to lose Cecilia so soon after entering the hospital. If she absolutely had to die, it had to be somewhere far more dramatic than this.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason. It held the greatest weight, but he also felt a sense of obligation to repay the debt of her help.
No matter how much of a mage he was, no matter how highly he valued his own life. He felt a slight debt toward Cecilia, who had sacrificed her body to block the explosion. For now, paying that back took priority.
Thus, he intended to do his best.
“Hoo…….”
He exhaled through a throat burning with scorching pain.
“Pa... tient guardian. Please... sign... here…….”
He coldly stared at the approaching nurse and aimed at its head.
And fired—
“Ugh.”
“……!”
The moment he tried to pull the trigger, a voice came from Cecilia's direction. Ian immediately stepped back and approached her.
“Sister, are you alright?”
“……My head hurts…… It feels like I was hit by something…….”
“You were hit by a mental attack.”
“Ah, is that so……?”
Cecilia touched the back of her bleeding head with her intact hand and made a puzzled expression. Only for a moment—she quickly assessed the situation and her face hardened coldly.
“……A doctor and a nurse.”
“They are trying to take you to the operating room as a patient. How is it—can you stand?”
“Ah, yes. Just a moment.”
With those words, Cecilia firmly grasped the rosary hanging around her neck. In that instant, her burned skin and burst arm regenerated in the blink of an eye.
“……!”
Ian's eyes widened at the absurd regenerative power.
‘Was she an Esper?’
He had been aware of their existence, but this was the first time seeing one in person.
Her ability was likely rapid regeneration. The trigger was probably a sacred act, or touching the rosary.
So it hadn't been for nothing that she was covered in crosses all over her body.
“Doctor. I'm fine now. Not a patient.”
She thrust out her regenerated hand toward the surgeon. The doctor stood there for a moment, looking down at her, then turned around and disappeared without a word. The crawling nurse also returned to the emergency room.
“…….”
Silence settled over the long corridor once more. Ian let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall, while Cecilia scrambled to her feet.
“That book.”
She opened her mouth.
“Is it a grimoire?”
Grimoire.
A French word meaning magic tome, used as a common noun in Europe. Ian glanced at the Deep Sea Chronicle gripped tightly in his left hand, then nodded.
“Yes.”
Now that he had been discovered as a mage, there was no need to maintain formal speech. The casual speech had felt awkward when he'd first set out to hunt vampires, but now he could converse in it comfortably. Quick adaptability was something of an advantage.
Ian tapped the cover of the Deep Sea Chronicle with the revolver's grip and looked back at Cecilia.
“And you're not an ordinary nun from the Vatican either. Right?”
“……Heretic Inquisitor. Cecilia Capone. Sorry for deceiving you. But you deceived me too.”
Perhaps because she now knew Ian was a mage, Cecilia no longer forced herself to use honorifics either. She pouted and pulled out a pistol she'd kept inside her coat.
“You pretended to be naive.”
“There's nothing good about being found out as a mage.”
The reason Ian didn't hide his grimoire and revolver was simple. There was nothing to gain from continuing to act like an ordinary person, from pretending this was all new to him.
If this place hadn't been so difficult and they could escape easily, he would have kept acting like a normal person, but the general hospital was far more bizarre than he'd imagined. It was impossible for Cecilia to bear all the risks alone.
Every time she got hurt, the patients and doctors would go into a frenzy, and he couldn't cover for her every single time. Even with regenerative abilities, the moment she was injured left her defenseless.
It was far better to reveal he was a mage and cooperate fully. At least, that's what Ian thought. He didn't really know what Cecilia thought, but it wasn't particularly important.
“Let's move. Is your body working properly?”
“……Yeah. I'm fine.”
“That's a relief. Exploration comes first. We should avoid provoking the entities here needlessly and move slowly.”
“……Proactive?”
“Isn't that better?”
Ian smirked and took the lead. Cecilia followed behind him, a dagger in one hand and a pistol in the other.
They passed through the long corridor and entered the hospital lobby.
There were no visitors. The only ones present were receptionists with brains floating in midair and nurses bustling about. Of course, none of them looked normal.
Ian glanced at a nurse whose upper body was intact but whose lower body was made of dozens of heads, and opened his mouth.
“You said it's best to deal with these spatial anomalies by playing a role, right? If so, I think it would be good for us to create roles for ourselves too…….”
“A free role is best.”
Cecilia answered immediately. She casually checked the pistol's chamber and continued.
“Getting trapped in the hospital. If you're medical staff, security, or a patient, you can't leave on your own. So a role that can move freely in and out of the hospital is best.”
“That makes sense.”
Doctors and nurses obviously worked in the hospital, so going outside was impossible. There was no way the anomaly would understand the concept of commuting hours, so it was correct to see them as essentially bound. The same went for security.
The very concept of time was ambiguous here. Just like the theme park, this place undoubtedly operated as an endless sequence of work without the concepts of day and night.
It was a truly horrifying place. He wondered what the Administration was doing, leaving such a place unchecked. Ian let out a deep sigh and looked around for what might be an informational booklet.
“What are you doing?”
“These spatial entities usually have rules. Sometimes distributed on a mystical level, sometimes written and placed by someone.”
“Ah…… I'll look too.”
Cecilia nodded and began searching every corner of the hospital lobby.
A short while later, Ian discovered two booklets: “Hospital Living Guide” and “Hospital Center Guide.”
One was written by the hospital, and one by the Administration.
Fortunately, it seemed the Administration hadn't been completely useless.
Ian called Cecilia over again, and they began reading through the Administration's booklet together.
Rustle.
He turned the cover and checked the contents inside.
[Commonly called Yohan General Hospital. A hospital named after its director, Yohan. This document is a guide found and written by Administration Agent Park Sang-cheol, hereafter referred to as myself, who explored the aforementioned hospital. If you discover this document and see signs of contamination, do not hesitate to discard it.]
[If an ordinary person has discovered this document, I would likely need to explain what the Administration is. However, I do not have much time left. Therefore, I will leave only a brief explanation: the Administration is an organization that professionally resolves and explores situations such as the one you find yourself in, and move on.]
[Below is information discovered by myself and my team members. May it be useful for your survival.]
[1. If, before entering the hospital, you introduced yourself as a patient through any means, or if hospital staff treat you as a patient, then I am sorry, but give up. It is better to kill yourself.]