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Semmelweis’s paperwork should have been piling up sky-high by now, but she didn’t even bother to look back, flinging the door wide open and completely entrusting the entire mountain of documents to Emil. Just moments ago, she had received an urgent notice from the care ward where Lorelei was undergoing treatment. The report stated that while Lorelei was chatting with a male patient about how desperately he wanted to hear her voice, a sudden altercation had broken out.
Unfortunately, the man had lashed out at her even as her song continued to echo through the room. When interrogated, he could only stammer an excuse, claiming he simply lost control of his own behavior. Such outbursts weren't entirely uncommon to the staff there, but because Semmelweis was officially designated as Lorelei’s guardian following the incident in Vienna, the notification had been directed to her.
Fortunately, the tone of the sender's letter was quite calm, the incident was presented clearly, and there were no serious injuries. However, the facility still believed it was time to bring in the patient's family to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.
While the staff there possessed excellent technical skills, they truly struggled to understand Lorelei's intentions. Her family also believed that this lack of comprehension was partly what triggered the scuffle, rather than it being solely caused by whatever the young man had claimed.
Since the two patients would have to share adjacent hospital beds in the future, the staff opted for this compromise instead of transferring anyone elsewhere. At the same time, incidents like this were highly valuable as reference material for treating future patients, meaning everything needed to be meticulously documented.
Semmelweis turned sharply into the medical wing on the left. Right before her hand twisted the doorknob, she caught the faint, melodious sound of music drifting from inside the room.
Without even looking, she knew exactly who that resonant voice belonged to. When the door swung open, just as expected, she found the girl sitting unhurriedly on the edge of the bed right in front of her.
However, the captain’s brief wave of relief vanished the moment her gaze fell upon the girl's arm, which was heavily marred by numerous cuts. She didn't bother asking any questions at first, stepping closer simply to examine the wounds. They weren't excessively deep, but the sheer volume of cuts meant the blood loss was potentially severe.
"Lorelei, what is the meaning of this?" Semmelweis had never truly understood her, nor did she comprehend the girl's emotions well enough to decipher most of her actions and words. Yet, she knew all too well that Lorelei harbored absolutely no regard for her own feelings or her own body—unless her parents explicitly reminded her to care.
Lorelei didn’t answer. She merely continued to sing for her while the trails of blood kept flowing. Semmelweis was trapped in a vortex of conflicting emotions; the melody had successfully suppressed her own inner craving for blood, but her eyes kept darting back to those raw lacerations.
For a long time, the girl remained just like that. While Semmelweis struggled to peel away the old layers of bandages from the wounds, Lorelei did not resist; she just sat there perfectly still. However, every time Semmelweis tightly wound the fresh gauze around her arm, the girl's song would intermittently break.
It wasn't until the disinfection was complete, with only one last section of bandage left to wrap over the layers, that Lorelei suddenly posed a question.
"Would you like to try some?"
Each word slipping from the throat of the girl before her made Semmelweis feel as though she were experiencing auditory hallucinations. She understood the words, yet she understood nothing at all.
"Huh?"
She stared blankly at her for a long while until Lorelei’s expression shifted from confusion to a look of deep remorse. Semmelweis didn't blame her, choosing instead to gently pat her shoulder.
"Keep singing. I'm listening."
Hearing this, Lorelei offered a faint smile and began to hum her melody once more. After confirming that the wounds were securely bound, Semmelweis asked her yet again how her arm had ended up in such a wretched state.
The girl merely deflected, responding with another question about how beautiful the sea was, adding how truly happy she felt to have spoken with the young man from earlier. Semmelweis could never extract anything concrete from her cryptic words. Even if she wanted to suspect that the cuts had been inflicted by that male patient, it contradicted the letter she received, which explicitly stated no one had suffered serious injuries.
She found it hard to believe the staff would consider these cuts "insignificant," but by the time she arrived, they looked as though they had been there for a while. Given that about twenty minutes had passed between the altercation and the present moment, there was enough time for the blood to clot, meaning this likely occurred shortly after the scuffle.
Semmelweis couldn't comprehend whether the staff had left her alone with her full psychiatric report because that young man was an anomaly beyond their calculations, or if it was simply a technical oversight.
While she was weighing the possibilities—creeping toward a final conclusion she desperately wished to ignore but knew was the most plausible—she suddenly felt a soft, gentle sensation on her lips, accompanied by the faint scent of disinfectant.
Lorelei had placed her bandaged arm against Semmelweis's face for a brief moment before pulling it back.
Resigned, Semmelweis smiled inwardly at the gesture before telling the girl to sit still so she could search the room for any sharp objects.
All she managed to find were discarded heaps of old gauze resting quietly in the trash can, alongside a few blister packs of what were likely sedatives. But absolutely nothing sharp existed within the confines of the room.
She had to give the staff some credit; they had fulfilled their duties correctly. Leaving any sharp objects in the room of an emotionally unstable patient was a recipe for disaster. Yet, that realization only heightened her anxiety. If that were the case, how had Lorelei managed to inflict those cuts upon herself?
Semmelweis hadn't looked closely at first, unsure whether her emotions had overridden her logic or vice versa. In her memory, the cuts weren't as clean as those made by a knife, but they were too large to have been caused by something small like a scalpel.
It was only then that the realization struck her. Stepping closer to inspect the girl's other hand, she saw exactly what she feared: nearly all of Lorelei's fingernails were stained with blood, and her pinky finger was still smeared with bits of torn skin that had accidentally adhered to it.
Seeing this, Lorelei remained silent, continuing to hum the song she always sang.
The song that was always meant to soothe others now brought nothing but profound dread to Semmelweis. She was entirely accustomed to the girl's self-harming tendencies, but it was growing progressively worse. There were times she desperately wanted the girl to care just a little bit more about herself, but Lorelei only ever cared for others.
They looked at her as if she were a savior, even though she couldn't even save herself. Semmelweis felt a sudden, suffocating urge to choke her right then and there, wondering if the girl would finally wake up to reality if she did. But she also had to admit to herself that she was no different from the rest of them. The girl was her beacon of hope, and she, too, was treating her like an abstract concept rather than just a child.
Semmelweis pulled her tightly into an embrace while the girl's resonant singing continued. The hug was so fierce that Semmelweis nearly lost all sensation in her arms, her veins and tendons straining visibly against her gloves. Even as her song was repeatedly choked off by the tightening pressure, Lorelei said nothing.
She kept singing as her entire body grew numb, continuing until her voice dwindled to a mere whisper of breath. It was then that the radio Semmelweis always carried crackled to life with Emil's voice.
"Apologies if you are indisposed, Captain, but the research department is asking if you could review the methods you used with your arcane to escape the explosion in Vienna."
"Give me the location."
"Room thirty-five, cap."
Hearing the directive, Semmelweis promptly shut off the device and loosened her crushing grip on Lorelei. Only then did the girl's humming gradually stabilize. She didn't utter a single word of complaint; instead, she placed her hands on either side of Semmelweis's cheeks and gently pressed her lips against her captain's.
"Thank you." By now, tears were welling up in the corners of Semmelweis's eyes, but the girl tenderly wiped them away with her hand.
"Mm."