CHAPTER 675: RECRUITING, INCREASING BUDGET, ADVERTISING, ATTRACTING BLACK HANDS

"What?!"

"Wash our hands?!"

"Who has time to wash their hands?!"

The midwives exploded on the spot. In the delivery room, six or seven midwives screamed in unison, complaints rising:

"No time at all!"

"Busy all day, from one birth to another! No time to breathe, and you want us to change clothes!"

"Do you think we want to wear dirty clothes? It’s uncomfortable! Have we been given new clothes? Have we been given time to wash our hands?"

"We deliver one baby a day outside, but here we deliver five or six a day! Bathing, washing hands, changing clothes—who can keep up!"

By the closest birthing bed, a particularly large midwife wrapped in floral cloth reacted most intensely. She snapped the umbilical cord and then, in a whirlwind, turned around—

Holding the blood- and mucus-covered baby, she angrily thrust it into Garrett’s arms:

"Then you take it! I’m going to wash my hands!"

"Bold! How dare you speak to the mage like that!"

Before Garrett could respond, a middle-aged woman in a checkered long skirt covered with a white apron stepped out from the crowd. She scolded sharply, then quickly smiled and took the baby from Garrett’s arms:

"Don’t be angry, sir. These midwives are a bunch of lowly people, don’t bother with them! Old Nina here is the best midwife; she can reach into the mother’s belly and turn the fetus around. That’s why she has a big temper... I’ll hold the baby, I’ll hold the baby..."

"What? A mage?!"

The midwife, already rushing to wash her hands, froze at the scolding from behind. Garrett coughed:

"Do your job, we’ll talk about other things later!"

At the same time, he raised his elbow, gently blocking the head midwife’s hands. He summoned a floating disk, placed the baby on it, and cast a series of spells:

[Cleanliness Spell]! Clean the umbilical cord! Clean the blood, amniotic fluid, and vernix from the newborn!

[Minor Heal]! Heal the umbilical cord wound!

[Endure Elements]! Keep the newborn warm!

Then, the mage’s hand flew out, gently patting the newborn’s feet. Hearing the baby cry loudly, he cast a second [Cleanliness Spell] on himself, cleaning his hands and clothes.

Hmm, what else needed to be done? It seemed like nothing. The next steps, registering the baby and returning it to the mother, were the midwives’ tasks. Garrett pushed the floating disk aside and looked around:

The midwife who had thrown the baby at him had quickly dunked her hands into a water bucket, vigorously shaking them, then dried them on a cloth towel beside her.

Immediately, she knelt in front of the mother, fully focused, clearly ready to handle the placenta;

On the other five birthing beds in the room, mothers groaned and screamed. Three beds had two midwives each, including the one who had thrown the baby, busy and sweating, occasionally glancing at Garrett;

The remaining midwives dashed between three beds and twenty rooms, checking on the mothers. They moved so quickly, none of them paused to rest.

Hmm, that midwife wasn’t too bad. After tossing the baby to him, she still attended to the mother.

Despite the scolding and the fear of facing a mage, her focus remained on the mother. Among all the midwives in the room, she was the most dedicated.

But the cleanliness of this birthing room was unacceptable. The entire room reeked of blood, stench, and an indescribable odor. The midwives’ hands, clothes, and even headscarves were covered in unmentionable substances...

In this condition, puerperal fever could break out at any moment!

"Where is everyone?" Garrett began to look around:

"Where are the cleaners?"

"Coming, coming!"

Immediately, two poor women rushed in with water buckets to clean the floor. Garrett stood in the delivery room for another thirty seconds, unable to endure the stench. Seeing that none of the six mothers were in immediate danger, he turned and walked out. He quickly passed through the corridors between the rooms, checking left and right:

One, two, three, four. Out of twenty rooms, only four midwives, plus two or three maids, were constantly checking on the mothers...

"There are simply not enough people!" Garrett finally understood the problem. He thought, the same number of midwives, Oak Grove Clinic runs smoothly because there are enough nurses, cleaners, security guards, and those versatile skeleton soldiers!

He toured the small white building and the rose building, confirming the number of nurses in the hospital. Back at the office building, he immediately grabbed Lord Graf:

"Recruit! Quickly recruit! These people are not enough! At least four nurses for every ten beds, recruit at least twenty-four more... Hmm, recruit more for shift changes." After some thought, the logistics staff also needed to be increased:

"And security, cleaners, laundry workers, boiler operators for sterilizing linens, all need to be expanded. The exact number I’ll leave to you to calculate. Also, provide them with waterproof surgical gowns, at least three sets per person per day..."

Lord Graf tried to maintain his noble demeanor, doing his best not to show his difficulty. Across the table, the hospital’s treasurer, Mr. Dodge, was already vehemently opposing:

"Mage sir! The hospital doesn’t have that much money! This hospital currently operates on the queen’s mercy and is barely breaking even! If we recruit as you ask, the hospital will be at least 100 gold coins short every month!"

Just 100 gold coins. Garrett didn’t blink, quickly tossing out a few copies of "Arcana" and "Magic," along with a price list:

"Attract the wealthy! Let them know that giving birth at the queen’s hospital can eliminate pain and danger! How to do it, I’ll leave to you, Mr. Dodge~~~"

Advertising in newspapers, spreading the word in clubs and banquets—just need authorization to expand the business. Mr. Dodge left with the periodicals, and the next day, the capital’s largest newspaper, "The Sun," published the related advertisement.

"So, that Mage Nordmark is already in the capital?"

In an ancient mansion on the outskirts of the capital, a pale hand flipped through the newspaper, lightly shaking the corners. The man in front spoke softly, the close servant quickly bending down, whispering:

"Yes, he met with the queen yesterday. The meeting was reportedly very pleasant. Hmm... should we..."

"Wait a little longer." The man pondered, his right thumb and forefinger unconsciously rolling the newspaper, then smoothing it out, rolling it again:

"He just arrived in the capital, and the queen is very attentive to him. Now is not the time. First, let’s cause him some trouble, so everyone thinks of him with a ’pfft’!"

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