2 – Lady’s Treatment
From Noble mtl dot com
Fortunately, contact dermatitis is not a serious illness.
It can be healed through proper management without surgery or special medication.
Keeping this in mind, I questioned Miss Catherine as if diagnosing her.
“Miss, when did the itchiness start for you?”
“Ah, questions about my illness? It’s been a while. Ugh… On bad days, the itch is so intense that I can’t even sleep.”
“Have you ever had blisters or ulcers?”
“No, never.”
Miss Catherine replied softly while scratching her neck.
I stopped her from scratching and carefully examined her neck.
The area she scratched was slightly red, but luckily no blisters had formed.
“It doesn’t seem too severe. Miss, I will perform a test, so please let me know if the itching worsens.”
“Uh… Is that necessary for treatment? Understood.”
Miss Catherine agreed hesitantly.
The treatment for contact dermatitis is finding the cause of the itching, which is usually an allergy.
I scooped a bowl of dung into a bucket and brought it closer to Miss Catherine.
She was startled.
“Eek! The smell!! Ugh! It itches!!!”
Miss Catherine started scratching her neck frantically, as if unable to bear it any longer.
“Miss’s allergy trigger was dung.”
Dung itself is toxic, a cluster of bacteria!
It seems this dung toxin irritated Miss Catherine’s skin.
“That makes sense.”
No matter where you go in Count Roland’s estate, you see dung.
The bathrooms are only in the manor, and the estate workers collect urine in brown barrels and haphazardly dump it by the roadside.
Perhaps Miss Catherine developed contact dermatitis from exposure to this urine.
“Miss, I’ve identified the cause! Let’s start the treatment now!”
“Uh… Is the test over?”
“Yes! The cause of your itching was dung. Your skin reacted sensitively to it, causing the itch. So let’s avoid dung, wash up, and apply aloe vera gel!”
“I see… Can you step back? You’re the one handling dung.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Given the amount of dung I handle during waste disposal, it could be fatal for Miss Catherine.
If I am to treat her, I need to bathe thoroughly as well.
“Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh!”
Catherine covered her nose, scratched her body, and seemed to be losing her senses.
I suddenly snapped out of it.
The treatment for dermatitis is to stay away from allergens!
I quickly distanced myself from Miss Catherine. Only then did her scratching slow down a bit.
“Miss, scratching will worsen the itch and harm your health. If your skin gets damaged, please refrain from scratching.”
“Uh… But it feels unbearable if I don’t scratch?”
“In that case, gently apply a cold, wet cloth to the itchy area. Don’t use a hot cloth, as it may make it itch more.”
“Okay…”
“Good, let’s start the treatment now!”
Following my instructions, Miss Catherine took a bath in water mixed with oatmeal.
“Oatmeal has properties that soothe dermatitis and itching.”
Usually, I undergo drug therapy, but since I couldn’t get the medicine, I used alternative therapy.
After finishing her bath, Miss Catherine felt around the itchy areas as if in wonder.
“The itching is much less. I never knew that oatmeal, which I eat every day, had such an effect.”
The effect was satisfactory.
I nodded with a smile.
“That’s good. Let’s continue with the oatmeal baths regularly. The dermatitis you are experiencing requires a treatment period of about 2 to 3 weeks.”
“Got it! Do I bathe every day?”
“No. The bathing cycle is once every two days.”
Bathing too frequently removes the skin’s protective barrier.
While washing away the sweat with a bath, it is crucial to protect the skin’s barrier.
This is why moisturizer (lotion) is applied.
“Since there’s no moisturizer, let’s use aloe vera gel.”
Aloe vera gel can be used instead of moisturizer.
I asked Miss Catherine if she could get aloe vera.
Two weeks later.
Miss Catherine, whose contact dermatitis had completely subsided, was delighted with her clear skin.
“It’s truly like magic! The skin rash and itching have completely disappeared, all thanks to you, Kim Cheolsoo!”
I felt a strong sense of trust from Miss Catherine’s bright energy.
It’s all thanks to her following the instructions well.
Aloe vera gel was well applied to the skin where Miss Catherine had the rash.
Having worked as a nurse in Korea, I felt a sense of fulfillment in doing medical work after a long time.
“Haha, no. I just did what was expected of a medical professional.”
“A medical professional? Indeed, Kim Cheolsoo was a healer of the Han-Kook tribe!”
Most doctors of this era are indeed like priests.
It’s not strange for Miss Catherine to have such a misconception.
I roughly nodded, not wanting to bother explaining in detail.
“Haha! First, hygiene, and second, hygiene! That’s right.”
“Thank you so much. I want to show my gratitude, is there anything you desire?”
“I didn’t do this expecting any reward.”
Miss Catherine, who was constantly touching her improved skin, made a proposal while offering gratitude, but I brushed it off.
But there’s no way the perceptive Miss Catherine wouldn’t notice the greed in my eyes.
Two refusals are the etiquette of a Korean!
It’s not really refusing, but rather politely saying, “Oh, I’m not a money-crazed materialist. If you insist several times, I’ll have to accept.”
Sure enough, Miss Catherine, who caught onto my true feelings, narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t say that and accept it. Before being the Countess Roland’s benefactor, I am a devotee of Juul. I’m not an ungrateful beast.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t say that.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Just accept it.”
“Well, if you insist that much…”
Pretending to give in, I accepted Miss Catherine’s reward. What I asked for from Miss Catherine was not just a bath, but a bath where the whole body is thoroughly soaked in warm water with plenty of salt and soap.
“I want to take a bath! A real bath with lots of salt and soap!!”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course! Miss, don’t you know the importance of bathing now?”
“Um…”
Here, I only washed my body in the cold river water.
I felt so uncomfortable that I thought I would go crazy, but today I will finally have a truly refreshing bath.
Splash!
That night, I felt what it meant to be clean after a long time.
Even though I changed the hot water five times to get rid of the dirt and stubborn filth on my body.
The maids mentioned it to Miss Catherine herself, so they quickly refilled the hot water.
“Ah, this is what it means to be alive.”
This is it, this is it.
I feel the sensation of being “cleaned” after a long time.
“Hosaroda.”
I enjoyed the hot water in the oak barrel to the fullest and watched the busy maids bustling around.
Right now, I am receiving the “Full Maid Service.”
Under the leadership of Head Maid Emma, a total of ten maids are taking care of me!
Right now, I envy even Viscount Roland.
The youngest maid, Becky, who used to tease me, busily brings me hot water, and Emma sticks to me like a secretary.
“Does bathing really have an effect?”
Emma asked me, looking puzzled.
She still seemed skeptical about the effectiveness of bathing.
“Well, bathing prevents countless skin diseases. It might even help with your back itch, Emma. Don’t forget to add oatmeal when you bathe.”
“….”
Emma’s eyes deepened as if she had a lot on her mind.
* * * *
To Head Maid Emma, Kim Chul-soo was a suspicious and pitiful person.
He was too thin to be of any use in farming, and it was suspicious to leave him in the stable to take care of the manure.
In the end, Emma chose to keep Roland in the stable and put Kim Chul-soo in charge of waste management.
In any other territory, they would have fired him and kicked him out.
But Viscount Roland showed mercy because he came from a loyal religious family.
It was written in the scriptures to help the poor and needy.
“If we don’t show mercy, he’s the perfect person to die in the mountains.”
That was the image of Kim Chul-soo that Emma had so far.
He was a useless foreigner, but he cured Miss Catherine’s skin disease.
“Was he a healer?”
Emma gestured with her eyes towards Kim Chul-soo.
Kim Chul-soo leisurely enjoyed his bath in the oak barrel.
Even though Kim Chul-soo was handsome even in lies, according to Emma’s aesthetic sense, after he cured Miss Catherine, his atmosphere seemed more sophisticated.
“A bath, huh.”
Maybe it’s worth believing once.
Due to her nightly itching, Miss Catherine, who had trouble sleeping, became refreshed.
It seemed that oatmeal baths and aloe gel were quite effective.
Emma also suffered from dermatitis, so her ears perked up.
Shortly after, a bath craze swept through Count Roland’s household.
Miss Catherine’s testimony, “Baths definitely help with skin diseases,” was decisive.
The eager maidservants all tried oatmeal baths, and most were able to overcome dermatitis.
“Why didn’t we know this simple remedy?”
“Oh, the brilliant man who discovered this method is amazing. Let’s call him ‘Bath Gentleman’ from now on.”
“Good, good.”
Among the maidservants, Kim Cheol-soo was promoted from “Manure Gentleman” to “Bath Gentleman.”