Tilea's Worries

I need to teach Miless-chan about modern medical techniques.

I headed over to the storage room to fetch something essential for practicing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

And that something is...!

Ta-da!

Hehe, let me reveal a secret: I had them make a human mannequin specifically for practicing mouth-to-mouth, on top of that nifty hair dryer! 

Mwahaha!

This mannequin isn’t just any ordinary piece of junk. Oh no. And, before you get the wrong idea, it’s definitely not one of *those* kinds of dolls. Sure, it’s modeled after a female, but it’s as detailed as that doll of Y○ria from *Fist of the North Star*. Magic is truly amazing, right? Even L○ritental would be shocked.

And get this: I don’t really know how it works, but it even *breathes*. Apparently, after hearing me explain things like lungs and heart function, Tim managed to implement it into the mannequin.

Magic is just too incredible.

Naturally, all the funding came from Oru. I assume Tim had some of the top magical engineers help him with the design because even though Tim’s a genius, he’s still a student. He and his friends alone probably couldn’t have made the whole thing by themselves.

So I pulled the Y○ria mannequin out of storage.

Wow, it’s been a while since I last saw it, but it’s just as impressive as I remembered.

The texture of the skin is so lifelike.

And the heart pulses just like a real one.

Honestly, if someone told me this was just a sleeping person, I’d probably believe them.

Now that I think about it… they probably spent quite a bit of money making this thing, huh?

Once again, I’ve ended up causing trouble for Oru’s household.

But… it’s fine. It’s all for a good cause—promoting the importance of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. You could say it’s a noble cause, helping save lives and all.

With that in mind, I’ll use it for a demonstration.

I returned to the room where Miless-chan was waiting, carrying the *not-Y○ria* mannequin for mouth-to-mouth practice.

When I entered the room…

Huh?

Miless-chan was frozen in place.

Her mouth was hanging open in a perfect “O,” staring at me with wide eyes.

“Miless-chan, I’m back!—uh, wait, what’s wrong? You look like a pigeon that just got hit by a fireball.”

“Is... is that a corpse?”

“No, no, no! Of course not. This is just a mannequin!”

“Wait, that’s a *mannequin*?!”

Miless-chan was astonished.

I get it. I totally get it. Her skepticism makes sense.

This mannequin is *that* realistic. At first glance, it really does look like an actual human.

“Tilea-san, can I touch it?”

“Sure.”

Miless-chan cautiously reached out toward the mannequin.

Then she started patting and poking it.

She examined its face, its limbs, and even its joints with intense curiosity.

Pat, pat, poke, poke. She was touching all kinds of places, excitedly exclaiming things like, “This must be some kind of advanced magic!” and “Could this be the latest tech from the magic nation of Zenon?!”

It seems this mannequin really sparked Miless-chan’s intellectual curiosity.

She kept fiddling with it, fiddling with it… until she even touched the mannequin’s chest and—wait, hold on! You might want to stop there. Oru might have used this at night, you know? Who knows what state it's in…

Ignoring my concerns, Miless-chan eventually seemed satisfied after playing with the mannequin for a while.

She finally let go and sighed.

“This is an incredible golem. The hair dryer was impressive, but this one blows it out of the water.”

Miless-chan’s face showed a mixture of awe and exhaustion.

Now that I think about it, this mannequin must have cost a fortune. I can only imagine how much of Oru’s family fortune I’ve spent by now…

This is no laughing matter. I’m too scared to ask Oru how much all this cost.

Well, anyway… it’s a life-saving device. A tool for the greater good. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, right? If this ends up getting adopted by schools or public institutions, I’m sure we’ll break even.

Plus, it’s all for a good cause. Saving lives is a noble goal, after all.

Alright, enough of that. Time to focus on the real issue: getting Miless-chan to have an epiphany.

I laid the mannequin down and poured water into its mouth. Its chest began to rise and fall as if it were struggling to breathe, mimicking the condition of a drowning person.

After a few moments, the mannequin’s breathing became shallow.

Now for the manual procedure.

I lifted its chin to open the airway, then breathed into the mannequin’s mouth and pressed on its chest.

One, two, one, two...

I repeated this rhythmically for about five minutes.

Yep, I think I did it right.

Now, what does Miless-chan think?

I turned to look at her.

She had a very dubious expression on her face.

Her brows furrowed, and she watched me with suspicion.

I get it. New techniques can be hard to accept at first. You have to think long-term when introducing new ideas.

“Miless-chan, I know that artificial respiration might look pointless at first glance, but it’s important. See? This will bring the mannequin’s breathing back to normal after it’s been simulated as drowning.”

“Tilea-san, I hate to break it to you, but… it looks like the mannequin stopped breathing.”

“Huh?”

Just as Miless-chan pointed out, the mannequin’s breathing had stopped entirely.

It’s just a mannequin, after all, right?

Does it not work like a real person?

Artificial respiration should *definitely* not make breathing stop!

Oh no! Maybe I broke it?

I did everything according to the manual. This mannequin is supposedly built with the *“It can withstand an attack from a hundred demons!”* guarantee from the Inaba Corporation.

Tim was confident it would hold up.

Granted, the whole "demon army" thing might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it should still be really sturdy.

Maybe I just pressed too hard?

Well, precision devices like this can be fragile if you handle them roughly. I heard this mannequin was built with extreme precision, so I should have been more careful.

Ahhh, I might have broken it…

What should I do? Does the warranty still cover this?

As I was busy worrying about the mannequin, I heard Miless-chan sigh deeply.

This isn’t good. Judging from the look on her face, she’s getting more suspicious of me by the second. There’s no way she understands the importance of artificial respiration now.

I’ve got to turn this disaster into an opportunity. Time to pull out my secret weapon and win her over!

The mannequin is now in a state of cardiac arrest—its breathing has stopped, and its heart is no longer beating. This is where my next move comes in handy.

I’ve got just the thing to deal with a stopped heart.

“Miless-chan, don’t worry. I’ve got something perfect for this situation.”

“Uh… okay…”

Ignoring Miless-chan’s doubtful tone, I pulled out the AED (Tilea-style). AED stands for something like “Automated External Defibrillator,” or something like that.

I don’t really know the full name, honestly.

Basically, it’s a device that delivers an electric shock to restart a heart that’s stopped. By sending a jolt of electricity, it can shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.

Once again, I asked Tim and Dryas-kun for help designing this, and of course, Oru funded the project. The AED (Tilea-style) uses a thunder magic-infused magic stone to generate the electric current.

When you press the button, the magic stone activates, and the lightning magic is released.

It’s all about that *charge!*

“Watch closely,” I said as I grabbed the AED’s electrode pads.

“Charge!”

With a dramatic shout, I pressed the electrode pads to the mannequin’s chest, right where its heart was.

You could feel the air crackle with static.

The sparks were flying.

“W-What are you doing?!”

“Resuscitation.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Of course I am. The mannequin’s heart has stopped, so I’m using this.”

I explained the process to Miless-chan as I held up the AED’s electrode pads for her to see.

“So… basically, it’s a device that releases thunder magic?”

“Exactly!”

“And you’re going to press that against a drowning person?”

“That’s the idea.”

Miless-chan started trembling.

“Miless-chan, what’s wrong?”

“Wh-what kind of barbarian are you?! That’s insane!”

She was yelling at me, completely appalled.

“Barbaric?! That’s harsh…”

This is a cutting-edge medical technique from the 21st century! We’re talking at least 500 years ahead of your time!

“Miless-chan, this may look rough, but it’s actually based on solid scientific principles.”

“No way! You’re telling me you’d shock an already weakened drowning person? They’d die from the shock!”

Miless-chan was tough. Her argument made sense

 on the surface, which made it harder to counter.

But I’m not backing down!

I am a former Japanese citizen. Japanese science is number one in the world!

“Miless-chan, trust me. This electric shock is what restarts the heart.”

“That’s absurd! Thunder magic is one of the most destructive elements, second only to dark magic! You’d be killing them by hitting them with that.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve adjusted the current so it’s not enough to kill anyone.”

“You say that, but there was that one teacher who accidentally electrocuted a student during a training session. And don’t forget some countries use lightning magic for executions!”

“W-whoa, that’s intense…”

“Right?! And did you know some special forces use electric shock as a punishment?”

“That’s terrifying.”

“Exactly! And, by the way, do you even know how many volts thunder magic uses?”

“I dunno… ten thousand volts?”

“Try anywhere from a million to a billion volts! Even if you weaken it, thunder magic is still lethal. You absolutely cannot use lightning magic for rescue operations!”

“Y-yeah, got it. So, uh, what *should* we do for drowning rescues then?”

“Normally, you’d give them a potion to restore their strength or cast healing magic. If they’re panicking, a light sleep spell might help calm them down.”

Miless-chan is from the *Middle Ages*...

And yet...

Why am I, a person from the future, starting to feel convinced by her?