After letting everything cool down, our group was being led into the middle of the camp. The place became quite lively after our group shared some food with them, literally running around and sharing some of the portions to everybody they found.
Strangely, though, although many of them thanked us — at least, according to Tasianna’s translations — it still felt like there was some distance between us. Like they still didn’t trust us. Some even shivered a bit in trepidation, but I guessed what did would scare them.
Yes, I did intimidate them with my [Terror Aura], but what was I supposed to do with how a mob was turning against me? Only those who prayed to Kargryxmor really showed me a hint of friendliness, but everybody else wanted to avoid me. Even Caszcur turned meek, not wanting to look me in the eyes. Certainly unpleasant.
Wasn’t it a bit unreasonable for them to be this fearful despite how friendly we've been behaving since that whole situation in front of the camp's entrance? I healed Caszcur’s pierced hand and his other injuries with no complaints and I didn’t even ask for any compensation; wasn’t that a clear indication I wasn’t looking for a fight anymore?
Anyways, as we walked through the camp, I noticed I was wrong when I thought everybody came to the front of the entrance. Although a few tents were set up, others were still unfinished. In the few finished ones, I saw a couple of lizardmen walking in and out of them.
Once we were close enough, I took a glimpse through the opening of the largest tent I found. It was only for a moment, but it looked like it was filled with lizardmen, squirming on the ground, as a single female tried to take care of them.
It also couldn't be helped that all the moaning and groaning was audible from outside the tent. Even with the swampy smell, I could smell the stench of blood and toilet “business” inside there. Honestly, I wanted to gag so much right now.
[“Hey, just want to tell you I am proud of you for actually going at it diplomatically. I thought you were about to kill them,”] Saori, still carrying all the virigresses, told me as she walked beside me. ["The smell and the large number of individuals cramped in a single area made me curious, so I had to delay the extraction of the virigresses. You should have seen my face when I realized it was a clinic."]
Clinic, huh? Then the one who the virigress mother poisoned is most likely in here.
[“Hey, I’m not a feral monster, alright?”] I pouted, although I did feel good hearing Saori saying she was proud of me. [“I honestly wouldn’t feel any guilt if I had just scorched the lizardmen right there at the entrance, but after seeing the clinic… Mhmm. I guess I did make the correct decision.”]
[“True. Then again, if I had mentioned the clinic earlier, I bet you would have probably tried to help them, no? You are the sort of girl who would do such a thing.”]
[“Hey, the last thing I am is a hero. Urgh… you just heard it. My moral compass got ruined during my stay in the Belzac forest. Killing stuff doesn’t faze me anymore… probably.”]
[“Hmm?”] Saori raised an eyebrow, looking at me suspiciously. [“Oh really? I do not believe that one bit. You went and saved Tasianna during our first meeting despite my complaints. And look here… We could have ran away, but you decided to make peace with the lizardmen and have us join them.”]
Urgh…
I couldn’t make a retort at all. My chest felt kinda weird from how she argued I was a good person. Then again, I guessed she wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t like I was a saint or anything, but even I would feel bad seeing somebody injured before me. Also, I didn’t want another kobold accident to happen, especially after learning how important it was to do anything you could to survive.
[“Haaaa, do not worry about it.”] Saori patted my back, and I nodded back.
Dragon or not, I am also human inside… Hold on?
Now that I thought about it, if I had known about the clinic and offered them to heal everybody, then wouldn’t everything had gone smoother? If there were family members or friends in there, then I could gain some favor if I helped heal them. That would have been the best way to solve everything without scaring everybody to the point they were still afraid of me!
OMG, we are a bunch of Dummköpfe!
[“Saori, you know… now that I think about it, if we had found the clinic during our initial reconnaissance, then we wouldn’t have had to scare everybody,”] I said meekly. [“I could have offered my healing abilities in exchange for the cubs.”]
[“… I am so sorry,”] Saori was slack jawed, shaking her head with a pained frown. [“Oooh, I-I should have taken everything in a more rational view. I think I got swept up by the situation. That we had to help the cubs as soon as possible, to the point I ignored any possible solutions.”]
Our own hot-bloodedness prevented us from seeing the whole picture, causing unnecessary conflict between our party and the lizardmen’s. Most likely, our monster selfs influenced our decisions today.
[“Uhm, I actually do not believe that would have worked exactly how you two imagined it,”] suddenly, Tasianna chimed in. [“I thought about it, and I now know why the lizardmen are fearing us.”]
[“And that is?”] I asked.
[“It is because you used healing magic, or more specifically, holy elemental magic.”] Tasianna’s answer was so unsuspected that it caught me off-guard.
Although flabbergasted, I bid her to continue, [“Do you still remember the history between beastmen and humans? Well, as you might have heard, this lizardmen group are followers of Marsven, the God of Darkness. Holy elemental magic belongs to the Goddess of Light, Aurena, who is the patron goddess of humans. Their opinion of us might be influenced by their fear of Goddess Aurena.”]
Beastmen, due to their origin as monster and human hybrids, were treated badly by their relatives, the humans. Tasianna, being mostly a sheltered girl, had no knowledge of whether the humans and beastmen had reconciled with each other. All her knowledge came from books.
If their enemies, the humans, were being favored by Aurena then it was no surprise they wouldn’t like seeing holy magic, even healing spells.
[“Is this not hindsight?”] Saori stated. [“We learned their religious following only after we asked them about it. Working without more details, we should have tried reasoning with them using Hestia’s healing abilities. Whether they dislike it or not, they cannot possibly deny our help, especially when they have that many wounded.”]
Well, mistakes happen. Just have to make sure we don’t have another oopsie in the future.
While reflecting on our actions, we finally arrived at the camp’s campfire. As we were about to sit down, the guards hurriedly stopped us as they wanted to bring us proper sitting accommodations. Scanning through the camp, I noticed they lacked proper chairs and tables, instead, they improvised and used large rocks to sit on.
We told them as Saori and I were wearing clothing made out of mana, we didn’t have to worry about them being soiled by the mud. Sitting on the ground wasn’t a foreign concept for us, seeing as it was normal to do so in a forest.
The guards insisted on it, telling us they would shame themselves if we denied their hospitality. In the end, we were the only ones who weren’t sitting on the swampy mud, just like a bunch of VIPs, I guess.
Aksmias and the other guard truly wanted us to feel more comfortable. I had the feeling if it weren’t for the tense situation, then they would probably prostrate themselves before us again.
Once everybody sat down, there was an obvious division between our two parties at the campfire. Rajah and his siblings were visibly showing their hostility, so we wanted to avoid further conflict, so we had to hide them behind one of us, preventing them from glaring the lizardmen to death.
His siblings weren’t very compliant at the beginning but after he talked with them, they started to warm up to us. As their mother was sleeping and Rajah was the oldest and currently the strongest among them, they were forced to listen to him due to the family hierarchy.
Coincidentally, just like Rajah, they didn’t like Saori very much and were more comfortable hiding behind me. Saori, being the one who freed them, showed obvious annoyance which further deteriorated their relationship. Rajah tried his best to resolve it but… unsuccessfully.
Dogs and cats, right?
“Now, we would like to re-introduce ourselves,” Tasianna re-started the negotiations, once again translating everything. “I am Tasianna Marina Silverpond and this wolfkin is Saori Segawa. We both are loyal attendants of Lady Hestia Atsuko.”
“Aksmias… uhhh, builder," the new de facto leader of the lizardmen group said. "I am the representative for this lizardfolk group… please, we shall listen to your demands.”
“Thank you,” Tasianna bowed. “We demand the release of the virigress cubs you had captured.”
It was redundant to say it at this point seeing as we already rescued them, but she said it for formality’s sake.
“…I understand.” Aksmias clenched his teeth, wanting to say something but he was unable to, as this whole negotiation was practically a formality.
“Please, speak” I said with a nod, once again doing my best to use Common.
After thanking me, Aksmias spoke his wishes, “We… we need food. Thank you very much for the amount you had just given us, but… it isn’t enough. We’re a large group as you can see. I-If it was possible, then could you spare—”
Well, that was obvious to anticipate. They hunted and captured Rajah’s siblings ‘cause they wanted to eat them, just like any hungry animal would. I sympathized with them, truly, but giving out even more food wasn’t okay.
“We would like to apologize but due to winter, we must also look out for ourselves,” Tasianna stated, clearly dashing away the lizardman’s hope.
“I see…” Aksmias sighed dejectedly, frustration clear in his eyes. “We were too greedy. You already gave us more than enough to ‘pay’ for the cats. Asking for more is expecting too much.”
Whether they understood how me pulling food out of the air was due to [Storage Magic] or not, they probably assumed we had more food in there. Or could create more from thin air, or whatever. Sadly, Saori and I were big eaters, so we need to account for our large stomachs.
[“Tasianna, tell them that I am willing to heal their wounded. That is the least we can do after everything that happened,”] I told her, remembering what Saori told me. Seemed like I was the sorta girl who would go out of her way to help people.
[“Lady Hestia, I would like to suggest against it as it might not be as simple as you wish it to be.”] Tasianna worriedly pushed back.
I knew what she meant with “not simple,” but being upfront with them would be better. I could just "accidentally" use [Sacred Field] to heal everybody as we say our goodbyes but that would be irresponsible.
They already had a bad image of my holy magic and I didn’t want to worsen it by doing it against their wishes, even if it was less of a hassle for me. Besides, if I could make them like holy elemental magic then I could brag to Aurena how I did something good for her in our eventual meeting.
Giving in to my insistence, Tasianna agreed to do it with a sigh. "We saw the wounded in the tent. Lady Hestia would like to offer to heal them with her magic as a sign of goodwill."
Once Tasianna said that, the whole crowd of lizardmen behind Aksmias began talking to themselves, quickly becoming noisy. As Tasianna was correctly worried about, the lizardmen weren't very thrilled about hearing this. She told me they were saying stuff like, "S-She can use holy magic. She has to be a priestess of Aurena!" and "First those ogres, then the monster in this forest, and now a headhunter of that tail polisher?! This is the end!"
I’m beginning to believe that “tail polisher” might be a derogatory term, whatever it's supposed to mean.
Aksmias was trying to calm everybody down but it seemed the hysteria caused by our words was too much for this ragtag group of guards to handle. When the former leader was only a woodworker and the current one was a construction worker, then I had to wonder how they survived until now.
“Everybody, QUIET!”Against my expectations, the one who calmed everybody down wasn’t Aksmias, nor a guard, but Caszcur.
With his frightening large mouth, he shouted and calmed people down as if he was used to it. “This girl is a dragonewt! Not some random lizardfolk who can use magic, you idiots. Why would our slavers try to hunt us down with somebody like this who can use holy magic, huh?! Hey, you, who is Kargryxmor a subordinate god of?”
“Aurena, boss!” One of the few lizardmen who weren’t afraid of me answered that.
“That’s right! Hey, all of you! I see those fruits and how some of you are nibbling on wild berries! Who gave you that food? You skinks, show some respect for their help!”
With the lizardman cajoling his group down by stating facts out for them to understand, the unrest began to dial down, but not completely. I knew I wasn’t a harm to them, but they were still suspicious.
As I was curious about what he said, I had Tasianna ask Caszcur what he meant with “slavers” after he was finished.
“Huh, that is… for now, all you need to know is that we are former slaves and we escaped into this hellish forest three months ago,” Caszcur said before turning to Aksmias. “Aksmias, do you mind if I take over now?”
Aksmias then turned his eyes to me which prompted Caszcur to ask me for my permission, “… Of course, if that is alright with you, little lady.”
Oooh, I upgraded from ‘lass,’ to ‘skink,’ then to ‘tail polisher,’ and now I’m a ‘little lady?’ Meh, good enough.
I nodded.
“Thank you… uhm, I’ll just say that I’m sorry for losing my temper and treating you badly. You all arrived at a time when everybody in camp was tense.” Caszcur tucked his tail between his legs, sat on his knees, before bowing his head as an apology. “You can have those cubs back. No complaints. However, if you are still willing to help our brethren then I will accept it on behalf of our group. Just saying, but we have nothing to pay you back…”
“We have not asked for recompense,” Tasianna agreed on our behalf, although a bit aggressively.
Thanking us for accepting, he shouted to the rest of the lizardmen to “get back to work, you krill eaters!” before leading us towards the clinic. Saori insisted she would stay at the campfire, so she could take care of the sleeping virigress mother and the cubs. Although Rajah and his siblings wanted to follow me, I told them to stay with Saori to guard their mother.
As we walked, my attention was drawn to the fact that a few curious lizardmen were following us, all biting into the food we gave them. While the majority obeyed Caszcur and returned to whatever task they were doing, these few tried their best to stalk us, although with their constant eating, they sure were easy to notice.
“Haa, the few young scales we still have are too curious for their own good. We've been in this forest for so long that us elder scales influenced the younger generation with our paranoia," Caszcur explained apologetically, realizing I noticed. "You smell like a young scale, so maybe that’s why they’re so interested in you."
“How are old they?” I responded in Common tongue to Caszcur, before realizing I made a mistake with my syntax when he raised an eyebrow. “S-Sorry, I’m still not good with Common. Need practice.”
Caszcur then tapped his head. “I heard your voice in my head. Use that if you need to. I don’t mind.”
“Practice.” I shrugged, causing him to understand.
“Well, to answer your question, most of them are young enough to be my children,” Caszcur explained. “I thought a dragonewt like you would understand that instinctively, or does your race have a different understanding of scalekin growth?”
Not knowing how to answer this as I didn’t know any real dragonewts, I averted my eyes and stayed silent. Caszcur seemed to have noticed my embarrassment and simply said “oh” before dropping the topic.
"Uhh, Lady Hestia is still quite young. She isn’t acquainted with others of her age yet," Tasianna tried to excuse my ignorance but that just made the flush on my face even worse.
"Hmm, that's why she smelled like a hatchling to me. But… your looks and smells contradict. You already look mature.” Without warning me, the guy pushed his snout closer to smell me!
Please, stop sniffing at me! Grrrugh, how am I supposed to say that in Common tongue?!
“I ask that you stop that,” without me saying anything, Tasianna came to my rescue. “You are annoying my mistress, lizardman.”
“Uhh, sorry…” Caszcur, clearly intimidated by Tasianna’s hostility, stopped speaking for the rest of the way.
Urgh, lizardmen common sense, probably. But…
With my reddened face, we arrived at the tent where the clinic was stationed and entered it. The first thing that greeted me was a fat cloud of nasty smells, composed of old blood, urine, feces, and rotting meat.
““Urk!”” Unable to handle the revolting stench, Tasianna and I clamped our noses shut.
Now I know why Saori wanted to stay behind.
“Hoh, can’t handle the stink, little lady?” Caszcur asked with a raised eyebrow
I nodded and cast [Air Shield] around Tasianna with [Synergist’s Oath], then on myself. Pushing the foul odor away from us, we were finally able to breathe cleaner air again, although it was limited.
“… Magic, again. Wind?” Caszcur expressed his genuine surprise. “Huh, magic sure is incredible. I can only imagine what I could have done if I had a shaman to teach me that…”
A shadow hung around his face as he berated himself for not being able to learn magic, something that was supposedly hard to do according to Tasianna. Honestly, hearing him say this was making me even more curious about his past and that stuff about his “slavers.”
Still, it wasn’t the moment to ask him about it as the nurse responsible for this place approached us, finally noticing we had entered.
"Caszcur? What are you doing here? And who is this… red young scale?” the female lizardman asked us, easily towering Caszcur due to her long neck and thin body.
Compared to Aksmias and Caszcur, she didn’t share the same ferocious crocodile-like head as the two males. Hers looked more like a gecko, with bulging large eyes and a less intimidating mouth. Instead of a multitude of spikes, her body had colorful frills.
Besides these differences, the most notable had to be her long neck and smooth looking scales. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean she was only cute looking as she also had sharp claws, perfectly able to slice chunks of meat out of her enemies.
It seemed she also recognized me as one of her own. The lizardmen here had spikes but none of them had large horns like mine, so why was I being confused for one? Not to mention, instead of being covered in scales from head to tail, my skin resembled a humans and was soft aside from my legs, arms, wings, and tail.
“They are our guests,” Caszcur answered. “The flying one is Tasianna, a fairy, and the young scale is called Hestia, a dragonewt.”
“Wa-Wait, did you just say a dragonewt?!” The female lizardmen suddenly dropped a small broken piece of metal as her expression changed to a mix between joy and surprise. "S-So, does that mean that we are finally outside that damnable forest?! Are you telling me that we are finally saved?!"
Throwing away the rag in her other hand, she kneeled down to me and grabbed my right hand, clenching it while weeping lakes of tears. “Oh, benevolent young scale dragonkin, I thank you for coming! Praise Kargryxmor! Praise the God of Dragons! Our prayers have finally been heard by the God of Dragons. I thank you so very much for sending our savior to us, oh merciful King of Dragons.”
“Caszcur! Caszcur! Stop her from praying now!” Tasianna shouted a command at our guide.
“Huh? Oh, uh, sure,” Caszcur flinched back from her loud voice but nonetheless did what he was told. “Hey, Apsala! Get on your feet already! Hey, you still have patients waiting for you so get a grip already!”
[“Uhh, Tasianna?”] needing an answer for her outburst, I turned to my fairy friend.
[“I apologized for the outburst, but everything is alright now. She didn’t pray, so everything should be alright,”] Tasianna said nervously, as she tried to reassure me,
[“Uhm, ok? What’s so bad about her praying to Kargryxmor? Didn’t you say that people being pious is important in this world?”] I asked with an eyebrow raised, confused at what was causing my friend to act this weird.
[“Nothing that you must worry about, Lady Hestia. Everything is solved now, so there is no need to worry,”] Tasianna stated, adamant about not telling me about the reason.
If you tell me that I shouldn’t worry, then I’m gonna worry anyways!
Before I could continue interrogating Tasianna, Caszcur came over with the female lizardman, Apsala. “Alright, fairy lass, I did what you wanted. Hey, Apsala, calm down, she might be a dragonewt but we aren’t anywhere close to the exit… that’s correct, right, you two?”
“We are nowhere close to the Elven Kingdom’s borders, but it should be the correct path. The swamp is the last hurdle,” Tasianna answered Caszcur’s question.
“So… we aren’t saved yet?” Turning limp, Apsala fell unto her knees, her eyes still wet from crying before, as she looked at us hopelessly. “Caszcur… we… we can’t take this anymore. I… I can’t take this anymore. We lost so many, hic, scalekins in this forest and we keep losing more… this is, hic, too much. We should have all stayed there and prayed for freedom. Marsven and Kargryxmor would have listened to us…”
Apsala’s joyful tears were being drowned away as she continued crying helplessly, seemingly broken from hearing the truth.
“Apsala, the young scale came here to offer her abilities to help us. She can cast healing spells so she can hel—” Caszcur tried to soothe her but that only caused Apsala to freak out even more.
“Healing magic! No! S-She’s a follower of that tail polisher?! No, l-leave me alone… I-I don’t want to die yet!” Screaming, Apsala began crawling backward after hearing us mention healing magic.
“Hey, Apsala, stop!” Caszcur, trying to calm down the fleeing lizard woman, pinned her on the ground.
…
[“… Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said that these people might not like Aurena,”] I said astonished.
["… This is honestly the first time that I've seen anybody be so fearful of a god. I had the feeling… I truly did but… this is a first experience for me as well,"] Tasianna admitted.
It seems like she will continue like this for a while… guess I should do something.
Acknowledging it would be futile to do anything about this situation, I instead went to one of the wounded patients. Looking over him, his body was riddled with small and large wounds; the large ones had the luxury of being bandaged by leaves while the smaller ones were left to fate. It was obvious none of the wounds were correctly sanitized, but I couldn’t detect necrosis.
Looking at what was sitting beside him, I saw a bark with a weird white cream on it.
Identify.
Interesting…
Scanning the tent’s insides, I also noticed an open fire heating up a cauldron. There were also a few thatch baskets filled with herbs and other plants in them, sitting neatly beside tree barks and leaf bandages.
[“It seems that Apsala is an alchemist,”] I told Tasianna.
[“Are you sure? There are no potions in the tent,”] Tasianna said. [“These ointments do seem to be effective, but does that make somebody an alchemist?”]
[“You’ve never seen one?”] I asked.
[“… No, I’ve only heard about them from the elves. Fairies usually don’t need the aid of an alchemist,”] Tasianna said meekly.
Well, I can ask her or identify her later. First, we should heal this person.
Using [Identify] on him, I learned he had [Poisoned (Minor)] and [Diseased (Bacteria Infection) (Moderate)]. The herbal cream must have worked but it seemed it either wasn’t strong enough or it wasn’t applied early enough, seeing as the infection had spread enough to cause a moderate stage issue.
Considering he was the only one poisoned among the injured, he was probably the one who injured the virigress mother. Even with Apsala’s treatment, he would still die from natural causes at this rate. I had to start helping.
[“Tasianna, tell him I will be healing him now, so he shouldn’t be surprised when I start touching his body,”] I told Tasianna, relaying it to the man.
The wounded lizardman groaned, feebly nodding at us without hesitation. “P-Please… it hurts… please, stop the pain…”
Ok, girls, time to get to work. Game face on, let’s do this, I hyped up my parallel minds as we had to go through all the wounded and sick today.
Taking out a wooden bowl, I had Tasianna fill it up with magic using [Create Water] before heating it up to a boiling point with a [Fire] spell. I then dropped in a couple of drops of shampoo and then used it to clean my hands.
Doctor and medical dramas were plentiful on streaming platforms, so I would be for the best if I used that knowledge to my advantage. Disinfecting and cleaning one’s hands and claws before treating people should be top priority even if all I would do was casting spells.
Now ready, I took off his bandages and inspected my first patient.
Ok, multiple open lacerations. Despite how fresh it looks, there are already some nasty looking spots, probably necrosis, so maybe scraping and cutting them from his body would be best, before leaving the regeneration to [Major Heal]? Ok, guess that should be it.
Following my thought process, I used my sickle-like claws like scalpels to deftly cut off anything rotten looking. The wounds opened up again, so I immediately disinfected it with [Cure] and [Purify]. After having Tasianna cast [Cleanse] on their bodies to clean away all the blood and dirt on his body, a single usage of [Major Heal] was enough to close up most of his injuries.
Light began basking him as the white magic circle activated. The spell's effect slowly seeped into his body, the mana granting him temporarily improved regeneration as his flesh reformed and joined together again. In addition, broken or missing scales regrew back to normal, leaving mostly no evidence of his injuries behind, outside of small scars from the older wounds.
“Wah! This light! You!'' Once the hardest part was done, I overheard somebody screaming at me. “No, what are you doing with my patients! My scalekins, you little skink— Huh?! Let go of me Caszcur!”
“Hey, stop trying to bite me, woman! The girl is merely helping and healing them, so calm down!” Caszcur shouted as he continued to hold on to Apsala, who was using her long neck to bite his arm off.
Unrelenting, she continued struggling, defiantly calling me out, "Healing?! These are my patients and I know what's best for them! As if I will let some followers of the Light Goddess treat them under my super… wha—?”
As the light dispersed, my first patient started to bring his body up with my help. Once he was sitting, I began checking his body in case I missed anything, although I was quite confident my spell healed him up even without my awareness.
The real issue came from me missing some necrosis or not. Those things actually impaired regeneration, as healing magic only accelerated your natural growth. It might be possible to reattach an arm if it was cleanly-cut, but you couldn’t regrow one, even with [Major Heal]. I tested it… Well, whenever I went mad scientist on some poisoned prey.
“Do you feel any pain, or have we missed anything?” Tasianna asked my patient for me.
The lizardman slowly looked through his body, moving his body to make sure he could still feel and move them, "No… the only aching that I can feel is from being sleeping on the ground…I feel like I could go back to fishing. Thank you… Thank you! Thank you very much for saving my life. I thought I was going to die. May Marsven keep you safe in his shadows!”
Silently weeping, he clenched his massive hands around mine as he continued to thank me. Noticing the other patients were looking at me, Tasianna asked him to release me as I still had a full tent of patients to deal with.
As I was about to walk to my next patient, Apsala stopped me, “Wait… how-how did you do that?”
“Uhm, Lady Hestia used her magic to heal them, as you could see,” Tasianna explained to Apsala as I had no idea how to say it in Common.
Well, I did more than just cast spells, but I guess the gist is that I healed them with magic.
"I could see that, fairy. However, I wanted to hear it from the lass. Why did you not speak, young scale?" Apsala asked me as she continued glaring at me with her large eyes.
I smiled wryly, scratching my head as she mentioned that. I was quite weird how me being silent could cause such a misunderstanding or whatever. In any case, I tapped my head, causing the woman to tilt her head before flinching back from my voice entering her head.
[“I apologize. I have my circumstances which are very embarrassing. I am not very adept in Common yet, so I didn't know how to voice out my thoughts too well,”] I stated with a nod. [“However, please, trust your patients to me. I don’t understand your hatred for holy elemental magic, but I swear I won’t hurt them. I will save them, I swear to you!”]
“An oath?” Apsala stared at me for a few seconds before nodding. “I will trust you, Lady Dragonewt. Please, take care of my brethren. I'll clean and take care of the ones you healed, and afterward, we must speak.”
As she said, she took my first patient off me and began testing his physical abilities, all while I began my inspection on the next wounded. White mage Hestia ready for work!
AbyssRaven Hestia does what she does best! Kill, slash, maim— Hold on, wrong chapter. Heal, assure, and reason!
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
After letting everything cool down, our group was being led into the middle of the camp. The place became quite lively after our group shared some food with them, literally running around and sharing some of the portions to everybody they found.
Strangely, though, although many of them thanked us — at least, according to Tasianna’s translations — it still felt like there was some distance between us. Like they still didn’t trust us. Some even shivered a bit in trepidation, but I guessed what did would scare them.
Yes, I did intimidate them with my [Terror Aura], but what was I supposed to do with how a mob was turning against me? Only those who prayed to Kargryxmor really showed me a hint of friendliness, but everybody else wanted to avoid me. Even Caszcur turned meek, not wanting to look me in the eyes. Certainly unpleasant.
Wasn’t it a bit unreasonable for them to be this fearful despite how friendly we've been behaving since that whole situation in front of the camp's entrance? I healed Caszcur’s pierced hand and his other injuries with no complaints and I didn’t even ask for any compensation; wasn’t that a clear indication I wasn’t looking for a fight anymore?
Anyways, as we walked through the camp, I noticed I was wrong when I thought everybody came to the front of the entrance. Although a few tents were set up, others were still unfinished. In the few finished ones, I saw a couple of lizardmen walking in and out of them.
Once we were close enough, I took a glimpse through the opening of the largest tent I found. It was only for a moment, but it looked like it was filled with lizardmen, squirming on the ground, as a single female tried to take care of them.
It also couldn't be helped that all the moaning and groaning was audible from outside the tent. Even with the swampy smell, I could smell the stench of blood and toilet “business” inside there. Honestly, I wanted to gag so much right now.
[“Hey, just want to tell you I am proud of you for actually going at it diplomatically. I thought you were about to kill them,”] Saori, still carrying all the virigresses, told me as she walked beside me. ["The smell and the large number of individuals cramped in a single area made me curious, so I had to delay the extraction of the virigresses. You should have seen my face when I realized it was a clinic."]
Clinic, huh? Then the one who the virigress mother poisoned is most likely in here.
[“Hey, I’m not a feral monster, alright?”] I pouted, although I did feel good hearing Saori saying she was proud of me. [“I honestly wouldn’t feel any guilt if I had just scorched the lizardmen right there at the entrance, but after seeing the clinic… Mhmm. I guess I did make the correct decision.”]
[“True. Then again, if I had mentioned the clinic earlier, I bet you would have probably tried to help them, no? You are the sort of girl who would do such a thing.”]
[“Hey, the last thing I am is a hero. Urgh… you just heard it. My moral compass got ruined during my stay in the Belzac forest. Killing stuff doesn’t faze me anymore… probably.”]
[“Hmm?”] Saori raised an eyebrow, looking at me suspiciously. [“Oh really? I do not believe that one bit. You went and saved Tasianna during our first meeting despite my complaints. And look here… We could have ran away, but you decided to make peace with the lizardmen and have us join them.”]
Urgh…
I couldn’t make a retort at all. My chest felt kinda weird from how she argued I was a good person. Then again, I guessed she wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t like I was a saint or anything, but even I would feel bad seeing somebody injured before me. Also, I didn’t want another kobold accident to happen, especially after learning how important it was to do anything you could to survive.
[“Haaaa, do not worry about it.”] Saori patted my back, and I nodded back.
Dragon or not, I am also human inside… Hold on?
Now that I thought about it, if I had known about the clinic and offered them to heal everybody, then wouldn’t everything had gone smoother? If there were family members or friends in there, then I could gain some favor if I helped heal them. That would have been the best way to solve everything without scaring everybody to the point they were still afraid of me!
OMG, we are a bunch of Dummköpfe!
[“Saori, you know… now that I think about it, if we had found the clinic during our initial reconnaissance, then we wouldn’t have had to scare everybody,”] I said meekly. [“I could have offered my healing abilities in exchange for the cubs.”]
[“… I am so sorry,”] Saori was slack jawed, shaking her head with a pained frown. [“Oooh, I-I should have taken everything in a more rational view. I think I got swept up by the situation. That we had to help the cubs as soon as possible, to the point I ignored any possible solutions.”]
Our own hot-bloodedness prevented us from seeing the whole picture, causing unnecessary conflict between our party and the lizardmen’s. Most likely, our monster selfs influenced our decisions today.
[“Uhm, I actually do not believe that would have worked exactly how you two imagined it,”] suddenly, Tasianna chimed in. [“I thought about it, and I now know why the lizardmen are fearing us.”]
[“And that is?”] I asked.
[“It is because you used healing magic, or more specifically, holy elemental magic.”] Tasianna’s answer was so unsuspected that it caught me off-guard.
Although flabbergasted, I bid her to continue, [“Do you still remember the history between beastmen and humans? Well, as you might have heard, this lizardmen group are followers of Marsven, the God of Darkness. Holy elemental magic belongs to the Goddess of Light, Aurena, who is the patron goddess of humans. Their opinion of us might be influenced by their fear of Goddess Aurena.”]
Beastmen, due to their origin as monster and human hybrids, were treated badly by their relatives, the humans. Tasianna, being mostly a sheltered girl, had no knowledge of whether the humans and beastmen had reconciled with each other. All her knowledge came from books.
If their enemies, the humans, were being favored by Aurena then it was no surprise they wouldn’t like seeing holy magic, even healing spells.
[“Is this not hindsight?”] Saori stated. [“We learned their religious following only after we asked them about it. Working without more details, we should have tried reasoning with them using Hestia’s healing abilities. Whether they dislike it or not, they cannot possibly deny our help, especially when they have that many wounded.”]
Well, mistakes happen. Just have to make sure we don’t have another oopsie in the future.
While reflecting on our actions, we finally arrived at the camp’s campfire. As we were about to sit down, the guards hurriedly stopped us as they wanted to bring us proper sitting accommodations. Scanning through the camp, I noticed they lacked proper chairs and tables, instead, they improvised and used large rocks to sit on.
We told them as Saori and I were wearing clothing made out of mana, we didn’t have to worry about them being soiled by the mud. Sitting on the ground wasn’t a foreign concept for us, seeing as it was normal to do so in a forest.
The guards insisted on it, telling us they would shame themselves if we denied their hospitality. In the end, we were the only ones who weren’t sitting on the swampy mud, just like a bunch of VIPs, I guess.
Aksmias and the other guard truly wanted us to feel more comfortable. I had the feeling if it weren’t for the tense situation, then they would probably prostrate themselves before us again.
Once everybody sat down, there was an obvious division between our two parties at the campfire. Rajah and his siblings were visibly showing their hostility, so we wanted to avoid further conflict, so we had to hide them behind one of us, preventing them from glaring the lizardmen to death.
His siblings weren’t very compliant at the beginning but after he talked with them, they started to warm up to us. As their mother was sleeping and Rajah was the oldest and currently the strongest among them, they were forced to listen to him due to the family hierarchy.
Coincidentally, just like Rajah, they didn’t like Saori very much and were more comfortable hiding behind me. Saori, being the one who freed them, showed obvious annoyance which further deteriorated their relationship. Rajah tried his best to resolve it but… unsuccessfully.
Dogs and cats, right?
“Now, we would like to re-introduce ourselves,” Tasianna re-started the negotiations, once again translating everything. “I am Tasianna Marina Silverpond and this wolfkin is Saori Segawa. We both are loyal attendants of Lady Hestia Atsuko.”
“Aksmias… uhhh, builder," the new de facto leader of the lizardmen group said. "I am the representative for this lizardfolk group… please, we shall listen to your demands.”
“Thank you,” Tasianna bowed. “We demand the release of the virigress cubs you had captured.”
It was redundant to say it at this point seeing as we already rescued them, but she said it for formality’s sake.
“…I understand.” Aksmias clenched his teeth, wanting to say something but he was unable to, as this whole negotiation was practically a formality.
“Please, speak” I said with a nod, once again doing my best to use Common.
After thanking me, Aksmias spoke his wishes, “We… we need food. Thank you very much for the amount you had just given us, but… it isn’t enough. We’re a large group as you can see. I-If it was possible, then could you spare—”
Well, that was obvious to anticipate. They hunted and captured Rajah’s siblings ‘cause they wanted to eat them, just like any hungry animal would. I sympathized with them, truly, but giving out even more food wasn’t okay.
“We would like to apologize but due to winter, we must also look out for ourselves,” Tasianna stated, clearly dashing away the lizardman’s hope.
“I see…” Aksmias sighed dejectedly, frustration clear in his eyes. “We were too greedy. You already gave us more than enough to ‘pay’ for the cats. Asking for more is expecting too much.”
Whether they understood how me pulling food out of the air was due to [Storage Magic] or not, they probably assumed we had more food in there. Or could create more from thin air, or whatever. Sadly, Saori and I were big eaters, so we need to account for our large stomachs.
[“Tasianna, tell them that I am willing to heal their wounded. That is the least we can do after everything that happened,”] I told her, remembering what Saori told me. Seemed like I was the sorta girl who would go out of her way to help people.
[“Lady Hestia, I would like to suggest against it as it might not be as simple as you wish it to be.”] Tasianna worriedly pushed back.
I knew what she meant with “not simple,” but being upfront with them would be better. I could just "accidentally" use [Sacred Field] to heal everybody as we say our goodbyes but that would be irresponsible.
They already had a bad image of my holy magic and I didn’t want to worsen it by doing it against their wishes, even if it was less of a hassle for me. Besides, if I could make them like holy elemental magic then I could brag to Aurena how I did something good for her in our eventual meeting.
Giving in to my insistence, Tasianna agreed to do it with a sigh. "We saw the wounded in the tent. Lady Hestia would like to offer to heal them with her magic as a sign of goodwill."
Once Tasianna said that, the whole crowd of lizardmen behind Aksmias began talking to themselves, quickly becoming noisy. As Tasianna was correctly worried about, the lizardmen weren't very thrilled about hearing this. She told me they were saying stuff like, "S-She can use holy magic. She has to be a priestess of Aurena!" and "First those ogres, then the monster in this forest, and now a headhunter of that tail polisher?! This is the end!"
I’m beginning to believe that “tail polisher” might be a derogatory term, whatever it's supposed to mean.
Aksmias was trying to calm everybody down but it seemed the hysteria caused by our words was too much for this ragtag group of guards to handle. When the former leader was only a woodworker and the current one was a construction worker, then I had to wonder how they survived until now.
“Everybody, QUIET!”Against my expectations, the one who calmed everybody down wasn’t Aksmias, nor a guard, but Caszcur.
With his frightening large mouth, he shouted and calmed people down as if he was used to it. “This girl is a dragonewt! Not some random lizardfolk who can use magic, you idiots. Why would our slavers try to hunt us down with somebody like this who can use holy magic, huh?! Hey, you, who is Kargryxmor a subordinate god of?”
“Aurena, boss!” One of the few lizardmen who weren’t afraid of me answered that.
“That’s right! Hey, all of you! I see those fruits and how some of you are nibbling on wild berries! Who gave you that food? You skinks, show some respect for their help!”
With the lizardman cajoling his group down by stating facts out for them to understand, the unrest began to dial down, but not completely. I knew I wasn’t a harm to them, but they were still suspicious.
As I was curious about what he said, I had Tasianna ask Caszcur what he meant with “slavers” after he was finished.
“Huh, that is… for now, all you need to know is that we are former slaves and we escaped into this hellish forest three months ago,” Caszcur said before turning to Aksmias. “Aksmias, do you mind if I take over now?”
Aksmias then turned his eyes to me which prompted Caszcur to ask me for my permission, “… Of course, if that is alright with you, little lady.”
Oooh, I upgraded from ‘lass,’ to ‘skink,’ then to ‘tail polisher,’ and now I’m a ‘little lady?’ Meh, good enough.
I nodded.
“Thank you… uhm, I’ll just say that I’m sorry for losing my temper and treating you badly. You all arrived at a time when everybody in camp was tense.” Caszcur tucked his tail between his legs, sat on his knees, before bowing his head as an apology. “You can have those cubs back. No complaints. However, if you are still willing to help our brethren then I will accept it on behalf of our group. Just saying, but we have nothing to pay you back…”
“We have not asked for recompense,” Tasianna agreed on our behalf, although a bit aggressively.
Thanking us for accepting, he shouted to the rest of the lizardmen to “get back to work, you krill eaters!” before leading us towards the clinic. Saori insisted she would stay at the campfire, so she could take care of the sleeping virigress mother and the cubs. Although Rajah and his siblings wanted to follow me, I told them to stay with Saori to guard their mother.
As we walked, my attention was drawn to the fact that a few curious lizardmen were following us, all biting into the food we gave them. While the majority obeyed Caszcur and returned to whatever task they were doing, these few tried their best to stalk us, although with their constant eating, they sure were easy to notice.
“Haa, the few young scales we still have are too curious for their own good. We've been in this forest for so long that us elder scales influenced the younger generation with our paranoia," Caszcur explained apologetically, realizing I noticed. "You smell like a young scale, so maybe that’s why they’re so interested in you."
“How are old they?” I responded in Common tongue to Caszcur, before realizing I made a mistake with my syntax when he raised an eyebrow. “S-Sorry, I’m still not good with Common. Need practice.”
Caszcur then tapped his head. “I heard your voice in my head. Use that if you need to. I don’t mind.”
“Practice.” I shrugged, causing him to understand.
“Well, to answer your question, most of them are young enough to be my children,” Caszcur explained. “I thought a dragonewt like you would understand that instinctively, or does your race have a different understanding of scalekin growth?”
Not knowing how to answer this as I didn’t know any real dragonewts, I averted my eyes and stayed silent. Caszcur seemed to have noticed my embarrassment and simply said “oh” before dropping the topic.
"Uhh, Lady Hestia is still quite young. She isn’t acquainted with others of her age yet," Tasianna tried to excuse my ignorance but that just made the flush on my face even worse.
"Hmm, that's why she smelled like a hatchling to me. But… your looks and smells contradict. You already look mature.” Without warning me, the guy pushed his snout closer to smell me!
Please, stop sniffing at me! Grrrugh, how am I supposed to say that in Common tongue?!
“I ask that you stop that,” without me saying anything, Tasianna came to my rescue. “You are annoying my mistress, lizardman.”
“Uhh, sorry…” Caszcur, clearly intimidated by Tasianna’s hostility, stopped speaking for the rest of the way.
Urgh, lizardmen common sense, probably. But…
With my reddened face, we arrived at the tent where the clinic was stationed and entered it. The first thing that greeted me was a fat cloud of nasty smells, composed of old blood, urine, feces, and rotting meat.
““Urk!”” Unable to handle the revolting stench, Tasianna and I clamped our noses shut.
Now I know why Saori wanted to stay behind.
“Hoh, can’t handle the stink, little lady?” Caszcur asked with a raised eyebrow
I nodded and cast [Air Shield] around Tasianna with [Synergist’s Oath], then on myself. Pushing the foul odor away from us, we were finally able to breathe cleaner air again, although it was limited.
“… Magic, again. Wind?” Caszcur expressed his genuine surprise. “Huh, magic sure is incredible. I can only imagine what I could have done if I had a shaman to teach me that…”
A shadow hung around his face as he berated himself for not being able to learn magic, something that was supposedly hard to do according to Tasianna. Honestly, hearing him say this was making me even more curious about his past and that stuff about his “slavers.”
Still, it wasn’t the moment to ask him about it as the nurse responsible for this place approached us, finally noticing we had entered.
"Caszcur? What are you doing here? And who is this… red young scale?” the female lizardman asked us, easily towering Caszcur due to her long neck and thin body.
Compared to Aksmias and Caszcur, she didn’t share the same ferocious crocodile-like head as the two males. Hers looked more like a gecko, with bulging large eyes and a less intimidating mouth. Instead of a multitude of spikes, her body had colorful frills.
Besides these differences, the most notable had to be her long neck and smooth looking scales. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean she was only cute looking as she also had sharp claws, perfectly able to slice chunks of meat out of her enemies.
It seemed she also recognized me as one of her own. The lizardmen here had spikes but none of them had large horns like mine, so why was I being confused for one? Not to mention, instead of being covered in scales from head to tail, my skin resembled a humans and was soft aside from my legs, arms, wings, and tail.
“They are our guests,” Caszcur answered. “The flying one is Tasianna, a fairy, and the young scale is called Hestia, a dragonewt.”
“Wa-Wait, did you just say a dragonewt?!” The female lizardmen suddenly dropped a small broken piece of metal as her expression changed to a mix between joy and surprise. "S-So, does that mean that we are finally outside that damnable forest?! Are you telling me that we are finally saved?!"
Throwing away the rag in her other hand, she kneeled down to me and grabbed my right hand, clenching it while weeping lakes of tears. “Oh, benevolent young scale dragonkin, I thank you for coming! Praise Kargryxmor! Praise the God of Dragons! Our prayers have finally been heard by the God of Dragons. I thank you so very much for sending our savior to us, oh merciful King of Dragons.”
“Caszcur! Caszcur! Stop her from praying now!” Tasianna shouted a command at our guide.
“Huh? Oh, uh, sure,” Caszcur flinched back from her loud voice but nonetheless did what he was told. “Hey, Apsala! Get on your feet already! Hey, you still have patients waiting for you so get a grip already!”
[“Uhh, Tasianna?”] needing an answer for her outburst, I turned to my fairy friend.
[“I apologized for the outburst, but everything is alright now. She didn’t pray, so everything should be alright,”] Tasianna said nervously, as she tried to reassure me,
[“Uhm, ok? What’s so bad about her praying to Kargryxmor? Didn’t you say that people being pious is important in this world?”] I asked with an eyebrow raised, confused at what was causing my friend to act this weird.
[“Nothing that you must worry about, Lady Hestia. Everything is solved now, so there is no need to worry,”] Tasianna stated, adamant about not telling me about the reason.
If you tell me that I shouldn’t worry, then I’m gonna worry anyways!
Before I could continue interrogating Tasianna, Caszcur came over with the female lizardman, Apsala. “Alright, fairy lass, I did what you wanted. Hey, Apsala, calm down, she might be a dragonewt but we aren’t anywhere close to the exit… that’s correct, right, you two?”
“We are nowhere close to the Elven Kingdom’s borders, but it should be the correct path. The swamp is the last hurdle,” Tasianna answered Caszcur’s question.
“So… we aren’t saved yet?” Turning limp, Apsala fell unto her knees, her eyes still wet from crying before, as she looked at us hopelessly. “Caszcur… we… we can’t take this anymore. I… I can’t take this anymore. We lost so many, hic, scalekins in this forest and we keep losing more… this is, hic, too much. We should have all stayed there and prayed for freedom. Marsven and Kargryxmor would have listened to us…”
Apsala’s joyful tears were being drowned away as she continued crying helplessly, seemingly broken from hearing the truth.
“Apsala, the young scale came here to offer her abilities to help us. She can cast healing spells so she can hel—” Caszcur tried to soothe her but that only caused Apsala to freak out even more.
“Healing magic! No! S-She’s a follower of that tail polisher?! No, l-leave me alone… I-I don’t want to die yet!” Screaming, Apsala began crawling backward after hearing us mention healing magic.
“Hey, Apsala, stop!” Caszcur, trying to calm down the fleeing lizard woman, pinned her on the ground.
…
[“… Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said that these people might not like Aurena,”] I said astonished.
["… This is honestly the first time that I've seen anybody be so fearful of a god. I had the feeling… I truly did but… this is a first experience for me as well,"] Tasianna admitted.
It seems like she will continue like this for a while… guess I should do something.
Acknowledging it would be futile to do anything about this situation, I instead went to one of the wounded patients. Looking over him, his body was riddled with small and large wounds; the large ones had the luxury of being bandaged by leaves while the smaller ones were left to fate. It was obvious none of the wounds were correctly sanitized, but I couldn’t detect necrosis.
Looking at what was sitting beside him, I saw a bark with a weird white cream on it.
Identify.
Interesting…
Scanning the tent’s insides, I also noticed an open fire heating up a cauldron. There were also a few thatch baskets filled with herbs and other plants in them, sitting neatly beside tree barks and leaf bandages.
[“It seems that Apsala is an alchemist,”] I told Tasianna.
[“Are you sure? There are no potions in the tent,”] Tasianna said. [“These ointments do seem to be effective, but does that make somebody an alchemist?”]
[“You’ve never seen one?”] I asked.
[“… No, I’ve only heard about them from the elves. Fairies usually don’t need the aid of an alchemist,”] Tasianna said meekly.
Well, I can ask her or identify her later. First, we should heal this person.
Using [Identify] on him, I learned he had [Poisoned (Minor)] and [Diseased (Bacteria Infection) (Moderate)]. The herbal cream must have worked but it seemed it either wasn’t strong enough or it wasn’t applied early enough, seeing as the infection had spread enough to cause a moderate stage issue.
Considering he was the only one poisoned among the injured, he was probably the one who injured the virigress mother. Even with Apsala’s treatment, he would still die from natural causes at this rate. I had to start helping.
[“Tasianna, tell him I will be healing him now, so he shouldn’t be surprised when I start touching his body,”] I told Tasianna, relaying it to the man.
The wounded lizardman groaned, feebly nodding at us without hesitation. “P-Please… it hurts… please, stop the pain…”
Ok, girls, time to get to work. Game face on, let’s do this, I hyped up my parallel minds as we had to go through all the wounded and sick today.
Taking out a wooden bowl, I had Tasianna fill it up with magic using [Create Water] before heating it up to a boiling point with a [Fire] spell. I then dropped in a couple of drops of shampoo and then used it to clean my hands.
Doctor and medical dramas were plentiful on streaming platforms, so I would be for the best if I used that knowledge to my advantage. Disinfecting and cleaning one’s hands and claws before treating people should be top priority even if all I would do was casting spells.
Now ready, I took off his bandages and inspected my first patient.
Ok, multiple open lacerations. Despite how fresh it looks, there are already some nasty looking spots, probably necrosis, so maybe scraping and cutting them from his body would be best, before leaving the regeneration to [Major Heal]? Ok, guess that should be it.
Following my thought process, I used my sickle-like claws like scalpels to deftly cut off anything rotten looking. The wounds opened up again, so I immediately disinfected it with [Cure] and [Purify]. After having Tasianna cast [Cleanse] on their bodies to clean away all the blood and dirt on his body, a single usage of [Major Heal] was enough to close up most of his injuries.
Light began basking him as the white magic circle activated. The spell's effect slowly seeped into his body, the mana granting him temporarily improved regeneration as his flesh reformed and joined together again. In addition, broken or missing scales regrew back to normal, leaving mostly no evidence of his injuries behind, outside of small scars from the older wounds.
“Wah! This light! You!'' Once the hardest part was done, I overheard somebody screaming at me. “No, what are you doing with my patients! My scalekins, you little skink— Huh?! Let go of me Caszcur!”
“Hey, stop trying to bite me, woman! The girl is merely helping and healing them, so calm down!” Caszcur shouted as he continued to hold on to Apsala, who was using her long neck to bite his arm off.
Unrelenting, she continued struggling, defiantly calling me out, "Healing?! These are my patients and I know what's best for them! As if I will let some followers of the Light Goddess treat them under my super… wha—?”
As the light dispersed, my first patient started to bring his body up with my help. Once he was sitting, I began checking his body in case I missed anything, although I was quite confident my spell healed him up even without my awareness.
The real issue came from me missing some necrosis or not. Those things actually impaired regeneration, as healing magic only accelerated your natural growth. It might be possible to reattach an arm if it was cleanly-cut, but you couldn’t regrow one, even with [Major Heal]. I tested it… Well, whenever I went mad scientist on some poisoned prey.
“Do you feel any pain, or have we missed anything?” Tasianna asked my patient for me.
The lizardman slowly looked through his body, moving his body to make sure he could still feel and move them, "No… the only aching that I can feel is from being sleeping on the ground…I feel like I could go back to fishing. Thank you… Thank you! Thank you very much for saving my life. I thought I was going to die. May Marsven keep you safe in his shadows!”
Silently weeping, he clenched his massive hands around mine as he continued to thank me. Noticing the other patients were looking at me, Tasianna asked him to release me as I still had a full tent of patients to deal with.
As I was about to walk to my next patient, Apsala stopped me, “Wait… how-how did you do that?”
“Uhm, Lady Hestia used her magic to heal them, as you could see,” Tasianna explained to Apsala as I had no idea how to say it in Common.
Well, I did more than just cast spells, but I guess the gist is that I healed them with magic.
"I could see that, fairy. However, I wanted to hear it from the lass. Why did you not speak, young scale?" Apsala asked me as she continued glaring at me with her large eyes.
I smiled wryly, scratching my head as she mentioned that. I was quite weird how me being silent could cause such a misunderstanding or whatever. In any case, I tapped my head, causing the woman to tilt her head before flinching back from my voice entering her head.
[“I apologize. I have my circumstances which are very embarrassing. I am not very adept in Common yet, so I didn't know how to voice out my thoughts too well,”] I stated with a nod. [“However, please, trust your patients to me. I don’t understand your hatred for holy elemental magic, but I swear I won’t hurt them. I will save them, I swear to you!”]
“An oath?” Apsala stared at me for a few seconds before nodding. “I will trust you, Lady Dragonewt. Please, take care of my brethren. I'll clean and take care of the ones you healed, and afterward, we must speak.”
As she said, she took my first patient off me and began testing his physical abilities, all while I began my inspection on the next wounded. White mage Hestia ready for work!
AbyssRaven Hestia does what she does best! Kill, slash, maim— Hold on, wrong chapter. Heal, assure, and reason!
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