Rehabilitation Therapist for the Broken Warrior

The morning of the second day of my business trip.

I had spent the night at the Papal Palace and was now on my way to the Holy Law Nation’s Rehabilitation Center with Sion.

“Um… Director Hope, how were the things you took yesterday?”

Sion asked me in a worried voice about the items I had taken from the Center yesterday.

Those were the medical charts of the patients at the Holy Law Nation Center.

I had spent the entire evening after leaving the Center and having dinner reviewing those charts.

“I expected it, but still…”

“They were a mess, weren’t they?!”

“No, they’re accurate and thorough. Perhaps even more so than mine.”

As I had suspected after reviewing them until dawn, the patient charts written by Hanamana were perfectly fine.

Because when I received the charts yesterday…

***

“Hanamana.”

“Yes, Director!”

“You’ve worked hard today. Can I see the charts of the patients currently undergoing rehabilitation?”

“Yes?”

Hanamana was startled by my request for the charts.

“May I ask why?”

“I’d like to review them to see if they’re being properly written.”

“Oh, then I should give them to you, but…”

“Is there a problem?”

“No! Of course, I should give them to you if you need them, but, well…”

Hanamana’s voice trailed off, becoming barely audible.

Was she perhaps embarrassed to show them to me?

Had she been writing them haphazardly…?

“I also have to review them when I get back.”

So that was it. Of course, she’d need to review them herself as well.

It was a relief that she wasn’t outright refusing to show them to me.

“I’ll take a look at them today. For review purposes as well.”

“That won’t do! They’re Hanamana’s patients, so I have to review them every day!”

“…”

Her firm stance on her patients was admirable, but was it really necessary to review the charts every single day?

Could it be that she was making excuses and stalling because she didn’t want to show them to me?

“Oh, I apologize for raising my voice, even though I’m just Hanamana…”

“It’s alright. But it would be a problem if I couldn’t review them.”

“Is that so? Hmm…”

Hanamana pondered for a moment.

“Then, would copies be alright?”

“Copies?”

What? Copies?

There weren’t any copy machines, so how could she have copies?

No, before even considering the method, did the concept of saving copies even exist in this era?

“Yes. Since I’m Hanamana, I might lose the precious charts, so I make another one every time I write one and keep it safe…”

The existence of copies was thanks to Hanamana’s excessive worrying.

It seemed her worries had somehow led her to the conclusion of making copies.

“And I can check for mistakes or anything strange when I make the copies. Since I’m Hanamana, the copies might be wrong too, but…”

She was even using them for review purposes.

Despite her incredible statement, Hanamana continued to shrink back, far from being proud.

“Then please give me the copies.”

“Yes, Director!”

Relieved that I was okay with the copies, Hanamana replied with a bright, innocent smile and dashed off to her personal office to fetch the charts.

************

“Not only was she making copies, which they don’t even do at the kingdom’s Center, but she was also reviewing them every day. She presented them so confidently; there’s no way they could have been problematic.”

“Right? That’s Hanamana for you~”

After I praised Hanamana a little, Sion started boasting proudly.

“Hanamana may seem like that, but she’s very hardworking!”

“I acknowledge that, but it’s still not enough.”

“Ugh, that’s true. She was scolded a lot yesterday too. It was agonizing even for me…”

Sion made a disgusted face.

I did scold Hanamana a bit yesterday, but was it enough to warrant that reaction from Sion?

“I was just pointing out her mistakes each time. If Sion says it was that bad, maybe Hanamana just makes a lot of mistakes?”

“Ugh, you’re right.”

As we talked and walked, the Holy Law Nation’s Center came into view.

Today, I planned to spend the day inspecting the Holy Law Nation Center, mainly focusing on Hanamana.

“But I’m sure Hanamana will do well.”

Sion smiled brightly under the morning sun.

Seeing her unwavering faith in her colleague made me smile unconsciously.

“We’ll see.”

As we entered the Center, we saw the staff busily preparing for its opening.

I had learned yesterday during the staff inspection that, unlike the kingdom and the Empire, where most of the staff were Nurse Maids, the majority of the staff at the Holy Law Nation Center were former Clerics.

“We look forward to your guidance today, Director from the kingdom.”

“You’re working hard.”

“Likewise, please take good care of our Hanamana~”

“Hero-nim, you will recover soon with the Director from the kingdom. May the Creator prepare your future.”

“Thank you.”

The staff greeted us kindly.

As Sion and I responded, the staff bowed their heads, clasped their hands, and offered blessings and prayers.

So this is the atmosphere when the staff are Clerics.

As I had felt yesterday, the solemn and holy atmosphere unique to this place was surely beneficial to the patients’ rehabilitation.

As the Pope had self-deprecatingly admitted, prayers and faith alone wouldn’t have a healing effect, but faith and willpower did have a positive impact on rehabilitation.

“Where is Hanamana?”

“The Director is in the Examination Room.”

I knocked on the Examination Room door to see Hanamana, who should have been preparing for work.

– Knock, knock

“Hanamana, it’s me.”

“…”

I waited for a moment after knocking, but Hanamana didn’t come out.

“Hanamana?”

Why wasn’t she even answering?

I looked at Sion with a puzzled expression, but she just smiled as if it were nothing.

“Maybe she’s sleeping? She’s not a morning person.”

Now that she mentioned it, that was part of her character setting.

As someone who was also supposedly her colleague, I had to act like I knew that.

“That might be it, but still…”

– Knock, knock

I knocked again, but Hanamana still didn’t answer.

“I’m coming in.”

Having no other choice, I opened the door and went inside.

And the sight that unfolded before my eyes…

– Zzz…

“Haha, hahaha…”

Hanamana was slumped over her desk, surrounded by a mountain of papers, fast asleep.

She had actually come to the Examination Room and fallen asleep.

“Hanamana?”

“Yeees~?”

I called her softly, and she woke up, blinking her eyes and smiling as if she had just had a pleasant dream.

But the moment her eyes met mine,

“D-Director?!”

Hanamana was startled and jumped up from her seat.

Why was she so surprised? I was doing my best to smile.

“Are you very tired?”

“Eek, eeeek!!”

Hanamana didn’t answer but screamed as she backed away.

“Answer me.”

“Huh? Answer?”

“I asked if you were tired.”

“Th-that is…”

Hanamana cowered, clutching her beloved staff with both hands.

I had seen this scene so many times that I couldn’t even remember how many.

“You’re… tired, right? Probably.”

“…”

What was I supposed to do with her?

This wasn’t the military, so I couldn’t give her disciplinary action or make her do push-ups.

What was I supposed to do with this small creature, trembling with fear and making a pitiful expression?

“What were you doing at night?”

“Th-that is… Because Director said you were going to look at the charts I wrote, I was worried, so I reviewed them too… These are them.”

The papers piled high on Hanamana’s desk.

They were the originals of the charts she had given me yesterday.

“You looked at all of these?”

“Yes? Shouldn’t I… look at them all?”

“How many patients are regularly treated at this Center?”

“182 inpatients, 2,145 outpatients, a total of 2,327.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes…”

She remembered the exact number down to the units place?

I knew there were over 2,000 charts because I counted them yesterday, and I was going to ask her how she could possibly review them all, but her absurd answer caught me off guard.

“How can you review them all in one day?”

“I thought Director would be able to look at them all… Did you not look at them all?”

“I picked a sample of about 100 and reviewed them. How can anyone review 2,000 charts in a day?”

“Th-that…”

“And Hanamana.”

“Yes?”

“Can you correct the errors in these copies by reviewing the originals you have?”

“No.”

“And what happens if there’s a problem with the copies I have? Am I going to eat you if they’re wrong?”

“Nooo…”

Was it my imagination that Hanamana, already small, seemed to shrink a little more with each answer?

“Then why are you wasting your precious time on such pointless work?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I was so worried that I couldn’t help myself…”

“So, after looking at all 2,000 of these, how much sleep did you get?”

“I didn’t sleep at all. I was up all night looking at them…”

“What did you say?”

“Eeeeeeek!!”

She stayed up all night just for this?

Hanamana screamed and cowered when I raised my voice a little.

I did scold her quite a bit yesterday, but was she that worried?

I knew she had that kind of personality, but this was too much, no matter how I thought about it.

It was just reviewing documents, something she did in the Empire too. To think she couldn’t sleep and clung to the charts because she was worried…

“Hanamana.”

“Yes!”

“Go inside and sleep. I’ll see the patients today.”

“Y-yes?!”

Hanamana was startled by my words telling her to go to sleep.

“I can’t do that…”

“Then do you plan to see patients in your current state? Nodding off the whole time?”

“Th-that is…”

Hanamana closed her eyes tightly, mumbled something to herself, shook her head from side to side as if in agony, and then let out a quiet sigh with a dejected look.

“Alright, Director…”

“If you tell me you didn’t sleep again because of needless worries, you better be prepared. I’ll suggest to the Pope that we need a new Director.”

“Yeees…”

Hanamana left the Examination Room with slumped shoulders, leaving Sion and me alone.

“Hee hee.”

Sion was covering her mouth with her hand, giggling as if something was amusing.

“Sion, you seem to find this funny.”

“It’s not that. I just thought, Director Hope is so kind.”

“What?”

Did I just… mishear?

“What part of that was kind?”

“You let Hanamana rest.”

“I did that because she wasn’t in any condition to work properly.”

“You’re so shy~”

Sion continued to giggle, finding something amusing.

“Well, whatever. We need to do Sion’s rehabilitation today as well.”

“Oh, right. I almost forgot why I came along.”

I ended up with more work, but I hadn’t come here to play anyway.

And dealing with the influx of patients might be less tiring than dealing with Hanamana.