The Good Teacher

"Do you have the solution prepared, Josie?" Jean directed at Josie who had entered her assistant-state-of-mind.

"As you had instructed, Young Miss," Josie responded as she pulled out a metal sealed container to Jean. "I haven't tested it properly yet, unfortunately. However initial trials showed that it works as described."

Jean nodded affirmatively and instructed the midwife, "Please close all windows and portals into the room. We will be sanitising the area and cannot allow any foreign contaminants."

The midwife acted accordingly, all the while sporting a confused expression. Once the windows were closed shut and locked tightly, Jean jerked her head lightly in Josie's direction who immediately cast a spell circle encircling the metal container.

|Disperse|

A thin mist started to emanate from the container as the spell circle rotated at a steady rate, dissipating into the environment.

"It smells pleasant," the midwife commented. "Is this a perfume?"

Jean pulled her brows upward inquisitively and frowned.

"This slave took the liberty of adding an inert fragrant agent to the mixture, Young Miss," Josie clarified immediately. "A thousand apologies for that, however, the solution was extremely pungent. This slave assumed that the mixture would be aerosolised as a mist therefore she took the subsequent measures. But rest assured that the efficacy of the solution was not affected."

"I can see that," Jean responded with a nod. Her mana sense observed her immediate vicinity and noticed that the aerosol was working as expected and killing the malicious germs. "Good job, Josie!"

"Miss Lane," Jean spoke to her patient. "We will start by administering an anaesthetic. Please try to sit up."

The woman hummed with a strained voice and sat up with assistance from the midwife.

"Josie, proceed with the injection," Jean commanded.

Josie channelled her mana and created a translucent sphere around the phial containing the Sleep Pollen in her hand. She carefully undid the seal and extracted a fingernail-sized amount with practised efficiency. She closed the seal on the phial and directed her complete attention to the suspended powder. Another two spell circles activated subsequently and engulfed the powder, causing it to undergo a substantial change which turned it transparent. Josie retrieved another phial containing a dark-brown solvent and introduced it to the powder, then swirled the blob rapidly with her mana causing it to assume a translucent, golden shade. The blob of solution, sustained in the air with mana, was transported towards the pregnant woman's exposed backside.

"There will be a slight sting, please cooperate," Josie said before she tapped the skin above the woman's spine with her illuminated fingers. An imperceptible hole formed in that region, which Josie used to inject the solution.

"It needs to be sent directly into the space within the spine protecting the spinal cord," Jean reminded. "Do not let it disperse in the muscle or the blood vessels."

"Worry not, Young Miss," Josie responded. "This slave will be careful."

Immediately after, Josie pressed her open palms along the woman's back and rubbed lightly over the spine. As she did so, an ethereal glow bloomed in the affected region, as though a light was shining from inside the woman's body.

When mortals transcend as mages through cultivation, they gain greater control over the flow of mana within the channels in their bodies. The greater one's control, the easier it becomes for them to manage their involuntary bodily processes. Absorption of medicine is one of these factors that is affected by advancements in cultivation. Usually, when a mortal takes some medicine, the effect of the medicine is delayed based on the mode of administration. One can expect quick action with intravenous ingestion, however, there is a gap between when the medicine is introduced and when the expected result is observed. Mages can bypass this biological limitation by nudging their mana channels to motivate greater blood flow, metabolism, and so on.

Josie was currently mimicking this process by activating the lethargic mana flowing inside Chiani Lane's dormant mana channels, and amplifying the rate at which the drug's active components adhered to the nerve endings. This procedure was common in the field of medicine in the world, however, this did not mean that it was trivial in any way. Every person has a different arrangement of mana channels of different sizes, shapes and orientations. Furthermore, each drug needs to be administered and must affect different organs and parts of the body. These factors, including a few others that come into play given special constitutions and bloodlines, amplify the difficulty of this procedure. Learning artificial stimulation can take years, if not decades, to master. Due to the inherently variable nature of this science, it is only possible to properly learn it through practice and application.

To that end, artificial stimulation also has a high chance of backfiring on the patient. Introducing foreign mana into another body and manipulating its mana channels can lead to backlash if it is not managed properly and with care.

Artificial stimulation is an often underappreciated and overlooked field of medicine for this very reason. For one, most physicians that are mages, cater treatment specifically for other mages. In this instance, there is little need for the physician to stimulate absorption, since the patient should have the capacity to stimulate their own organs. After all, why take the risk of accidentally hurting a patient if they can manage a task themselves? Thus, artificial stimulation often becomes obsolete when dealing with patients in higher cultivation realms. On a side note, it is generally believed that a mage that has lost their ability to manipulate their bodily functions using their mana is as good as dead.

So, by order of elimination, artificial stimulation mainly finds use amongst the mortal populace. Most, if not all, mage physicians tend to avoid treating mortals. Primarily, they believe it is beneath them, and secondly, they feel that treating mortals is inconsequential. Mortals die all the time, why waste energy trying to save another measly life that has no effect on the world?

Jean's mother did not share this point of view. However, since mastering artificial stimulation requires a heavy investment of time, she opted to offload the task to her assistant, Josie.

"I-" Chiani muttered in confusion. "I can't feel anything?"

"It's in effect," Josie added. "We can begin now, Young Miss."

"No one touches the patient with anything that is NOT first sanitised or coated with a layer of pure mana," Jean reminded.

Jean let the pregnant woman rest back on the mattress and placed her mana-coated palms over the woman's exposed belly. Jean extended her mana sense through her palms, piercing the belly, and into the womb. She thoroughly inspected the foetus' situation and commented, "We will be making an incision along this direction."

Jean moved her finger horizontally in a region below the belly button and above the hip line. "Take note of the blood vessels traversing this region. The cut should avoid them. Keep a spell handy to suck out the blood just in case."

"Why don't we cauterise the blood vessel?" Josie suggested.

"I cannot risk causing necrosis," Jean replied. "We will suture the vessels together after the operation is completed."

"I have prepared a blood stimulating lozenge for this purpose, Young Miss," Josie said. She retrieved a dark red, coin-sized solid object and stuffed it into Chiani's mouth. "Suck on it. It will provide a slow influx of vitality."

The dumbfounded woman nodded innocently and sucked on the salty mass in her mouth.

Jean exhaled loudly to calm her nerves a final time before extending her index and middle finger out. She started to circulate her mana rapidly, concentrating it at her fingertips. She then brought her fingers close to the belly and dipped them in.

As though she were slicing butter, the nails of her fingers dipped in and separated the flesh. This elicited an audible gasp from both the midwife and the numb Chiani.

"Why can't I feel that?!" Chiani exclaimed.

"Please calm down," Josie repeated. "The anaesthetic affects your nerves and inhibits any pain response."

"This is really freaky," the midwife muttered while gulping loudly. She then noticed Jean sweating heavily as her eyes concentrated while affixed on the incised region. By instinct, the midwife reached for a towel and lightly dabbed the girl's forehead.

"Thank you," Jean said without diverting her attention and repeated the cut, but with greater depth.

____

"What a beautiful girl!" Grace cooed while leaning into the newborn's crib.

"Can I carry?" Mahima asked from beside her, trying her hardest to look into the crib while standing on her toe tips.

"It's not safe," Grace answered. ``She could get sick. Wait until the doctors allow us, okay?``

The girl nodded her head reluctantly and rushed towards the bed close by to meet her mother.

"We can't let them suffer through this again, Guy," Grace said with conviction.

"We won't let that happen," Guy reaffirmed. His eyes then scanned over the fragile yet harmonious sight before him.

'One mustn't make promises they cannot keep,' an eerie voice scoffed from within Guy's mind. As it pierced through his consciousness, the area around Guy froze in place and lost all colour, assuming a drab grey hue.

'You made that declaration so boldly, with such confidence,' the voice berated. 'What did it amount to? Zilch!'

With a rage-filled bellow, the voice accentuated, 'The mother, her child, and her newborn baby - you let them all die, you weak, spineless man!'

'W-Who?'

As the words escaped Guy's mouth, the area in front of him rippled slightly. From the centre of the ripple, a figure stepped out. It was a man, dressed in a plain robe with a pastel colour palette that emitted an almost divine aura. He had an olive-brown skin tone with unkempt hair, his height and build were average. In fact, he appeared unassuming in every sense of the word, but Guy could not avert his eyes from him.

Guy's eyes settled on the man's face, and then immediately widened in shock. He had seen this face before! In fact, he'd been seeing this face in the mirror for at least a year now.

'Y-You are-'

'You.' The man completed Guy's sentence.