chapter 19
19. Acupuncture (3)
divine magic.
Magic that consumes ‘divine power’ rather than mana.
Borrow the power of the gods to heal and purify people.
It also defeats the beings that exude evil energy and protects good people from them.
Noble even by just hearing the word, this wonderful and miraculous act makes the viewer acknowledge the transcendent existence of ‘God’.
To be honest, I didn’t believe in the existence of God. in reality.
But here it is different.
It is not about discussing personal beliefs, but it is already a self-evident truth.
gave and drank.
The main god is a god of good inclination who provides divine power to priests who firmly serve him.
Then it is obvious that he drank.
It is safe to say that he is simply the god of demons. Occasionally, there are crazy people who worship demons and serve demons as if they were looking up to them. Basically, humans serve the main god, and demons serve the demon god.
In fact, there is no need to faithfully follow the Lord like a priest.
God’s influence reaching the ground is limited, so there is no problem in living unless you shout out God’s name in an immediate situation right before you die.
However, the holy kingdom is different.
Most of the citizens of the Seongguk faithfully serve the main god. Divine power is mysterious, so not all citizens can handle it, but the proportion of clergy from the Holy Land is still very high.
There is a man who was falsely accused and banished from this noble kingdom.
The man’s name is Anthony.
He was a merchant who did large-scale business in the Holy Land.
He was good at business, and he was a faithful man in front of the Lord, befitting a person of a holy country.
Although his wife passed away early, the fruit he had with her.
His daughter remained by his side, so he was living happily without lacking in his own way.
How peaceful this story would have been if a high-ranking priest in the holy kingdom had lived a life of contentment and gratitude for what he had, like Anthony.
As usual, not everyone had a good attitude just because they could borrow and use the power of a god with good tendencies.
No, maybe at first the high-ranking priest also praised the Lord purely and prayed.
However, human greed is not so easy.
The high priest was greedy. Also very much.
Anthony, who has a lot of money and deep faith in the Lord, is engraved in his cunning snake-like eyes.
Merchant Anthony had a lot of money.
He demanded a huge amount of money, or simply a bribe, under the pretext of offering him a sacrifice to God.
Anthony had deep faith in the Lord.
If it was really a sacrifice to be offered to the main god, he was ready to offer it at any time according to the will of the main god or as the main god wished.
But Anthony was a merchant.
There was no way that he, who was quick-witted, would not know the intentions of the high-ranking priest who suddenly burst in and wielded his cunning tongue.
It would have been easier if I had paid for it.
However, because Anthony was a very devout believer.
He did not want to give in to the greedy high priest who had betrayed the will of God.
As a result, Antony could not overcome the power of the prelates.
The venomous high-ranking cleric was very annoyed at the petty merchant who dared not listen to him.
The prelate eventually framed Antony, confiscated his property, and banished him from the kingdom.
So, Antony fled to another country with the little he had saved, but the business did not go as well as before.
It was because of the wave of rumors that he had been kicked out of the Holy Land. The high-ranking priest’s breath reached far beyond the Holy Land.
Still, he was always content and grateful for what he was given, so he was living hard while watching his daughter grow.
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Unfortunately, that was until her daughter passed away.
While watching his daughter who couldn’t get up properly because of an unknown disease, he visited a nearby priest.
There were no results.
The clergy avoided him because they could not stand up to the high priest.
Bad rumors about him had already spread.
Even though he declared that he would give him 2000 gold, all of his remaining property, no one gave him a helping hand until the end.
A cleric who handles divine power, let alone an apothecary who lived nearby.
He only seduced quacks and scammers who knew nothing about disease or medical technology.
He lives day by day keeping his daughter by his side, not knowing when he will wake up.
This is the story of the faithful Anthony, who later became the patron of the saint.
After the saintess of this generation learns the inside story of this case and drives out the high-ranking priest through internal politics, she immediately visits Anthony and treats his daughter.
Since then, Anthony’s business has gone smoothly again, and he has taken on the role of the saintess’s source of funds.
It was an anecdote from an episode about a saint, and I saw it during the game and thought, ‘Can the player try to solve it first?’ I had a question.
It was a question that I was able to have because I knew that the game had depth and that the degree of freedom was fairly guaranteed.
If the player visits and treats his daughter, wouldn’t he be rewarded?
My thoughts were exactly right.
As long as a priest with holy power or a paladin passed a certain level, he could heal Antony’s daughter.
I was able to receive compensation as well.
After posting the strategy to the game community.
‘Cleric, paladin or not?’
Faced with such comments, I decided to find a way to heal her without divine power.
In the end, after several attempts, I found the correct answer: acupuncture.
His daughter suffers from a rare disease called ‘mana exhaustion’.
Mana exhaustion refers to a state in which you lose consciousness when all of your mana is consumed.
Mana exhaustion was a clear ‘status abnormality’, but his daughter was suffering from a clear ‘disease’, followed by exhaustion and loss of consciousness.
Knowing that mana exhaustion could be solved with acupuncture in the game, I challenged myself with acupuncture.
Other medical techniques did not work.
Acupuncture is also acupuncture, but there was a limited level.
The condition is acupuncture skill level 5 or higher.
There were even mini-games when treating Anthony’s daughter.
When the player was treating Anthony’s daughter, the player had to listen to the explanation of the monologue that his character spit out, find the location of the blood, and put the needles in the correct order.
I still remember the process, but my acupuncture skill is level 1.
‘If I really don’t want to… I can’t help it, but I think I need to invest the remaining skill points.’
As the skill level rises, the skill for acupuncture will rise steeply.
Still, there is a difference of 2 skill levels, but if you remember the order and location and place the acupuncture points well, it seems that there will be no problem.
The night was already ripe.
Putting on a familiar robe, he started leaving the academy without anyone noticing, as always.
***
‘Ah, Lord Heneris, who gave it to me. Why are you giving me this kind of trial?’
Anthony was in despair.
However, he was not even resentful.
Anthony believed that all of this was going according to the Lord’s will.
Even though I believed so firmly, there was no way to do anything about the infinitely painful heart.
Anthony blankly stroked the face of the daughter next to him.
The finely painted picture of Anthony’s wife hanging in one corner of the room was hung upside down out of sight.
Because it was Anthony who had no face to see his wife’s face.
She was full of regret.
“…”
His daughter is lying in bed, not thinking about getting up.
Still with a bright smile, the image of the daughter who had grown up early and called himself ‘Father’, probably because of the death of her mother, was vivid.
A lamp that had been turned on quietly in a dark room is quietly lighting up.
He had been watching his daughter for a while.
ㅡ Smart.
He sent the others away, but it was the knock of the servant who waited on him until the very end, refusing his offer.
Anthony was thinking that if his daughter could be cured, he would have to repay her someday.
“Come in.”
At Anthony’s words, a servant opens the door and enters. Entering the room, she slightly bowed her head and went straight to the point.
“Someone who said he could cure Emilia-sama came to visit. But… it seems that she is blind.”
“Blind?”
“He had white bandages around his eyes.”
“How did the blind man come all the way here?”
“They came looking for directions by asking people around them for directions. From what I’ve heard, it seems to have a mysterious power called ‘Gigam’. It didn’t look like they were holding a cane either.”
“Hmm… I’m feeling…”
“I accepted it as the master said, ‘For now, no matter who wants to heal Emilia, don’t shut up at the door,’ but… what should I do?”
Anthony salivated at the servant’s answer.
Recently, those who came to treat his daughter were quacks who did not even know the ‘righteousness’ of medicine.
Some of them even tried to scam themselves. They didn’t even mention the name of the disease, and they often asked for money or made absurd remarks about the need for money for treatment.
but he’s blind
Besides, what is ‘feeling’?
“Is the guest… in the living room?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go meet you first.”
Antony thought that the blind man might have more special powers than his ‘feeling’.
In response to his answer, the servant slightly moved away from the door and lowered his head.
Anthony left the room and headed for the living room where the guests were to be.
The house wasn’t as spacious as when I lived in the former Seongguk, so it was a few steps from the room to the living room.
When he entered the living room, he saw a blind man with dark hair, his eyes covered with bandages, sitting on the sofa waiting patiently.
As the servant said, not a single cane was seen around him.
The blind man, who was wearing only a small rucksack, turned his head to Anthony’s side, as if he had heard footsteps and noticed him approaching.
“You must have excellent hearing.”
“It seems that the Lord felt sorry for my loss of sight, and left my other senses behind.”
It could be said that the blind man has a soft voice, but it was a slightly childish voice. He didn’t look old. Even considering the part of his face covered by bandages, he looked quite young.
“hahahaha. That’s a relief… I’m Anthony. If you’re not rude, may I ask your name?”
The blind man ponders over Anthony’s question, and then opens his mouth.
“I don’t have a proper name to tell anyone. Feel free to call me ‘The Acupuncturist’.”
“Acupuncturist…? Are you dealing with acupuncture?”
Anthony’s eyes flashed at the word acupuncture.
There is a reason that no one who knows how to handle acupuncture has ever come to visit, but it is because advanced techniques like acupuncture will be immediately visible if fraudulent.
It was an inadequate excuse for a cheater to use.
“Yes. Even though it’s a humble talent, I’ve been looking for help.”
The blind man scratched the back of his head and replied.
Nevertheless, Anthony has seen plenty of scammers.
It was hard to believe him at once.
Moreover, it is acupuncture.
Acupuncture, he knows, is a technique of treating patients by placing needles on the body.
To put it simply, a needle pierces a person’s body. If done wrong, it will hurt and cause pain.
So, Anthony had no choice but to say it even though he knew it was a rather rude request to ask someone who had come to treat his daughter.
“If you’ll excuse me, could you show me acupuncture first?”
Anthony tried to test whether this blind man in front of him was an impostor or not.