NOVEL NEXT Unlike the priest, who is called the perfect son and daughter of the divine, the healer is a second-rate cleric.
Healing can only occur by directly touching the wound, and purification is no different.
To purify, you have to stick your arm into the contaminated area and inject the divine, which means few ask a healer for purification.
It’s not that they can’t do it, but the risks are simply too high—that’s the healer’s purification.
Yona had been forcefully injecting the divine for quite a while.
Called the Divine Tree, the magic swirling inside is indeed quite impressive.
Black smoke billowed up.
As the magic burned away by the divine vanished, the black smoke spewed out like a final gasp, rising high into the sky.
‘…huh?’
Just then, while she was still burning the magic away, Yona felt something touching the tip of her finger as the juice from the Divine Tree was nearly all gone.
A very smooth surface.
Nothing snagged her fingers as they brushed against the round, smooth surface.
Yona gave it a squeeze.
It felt sharp like a shard of glass, in stark contrast to its rounded surface.
After the last wisp of smoke rose, the juice pit revealed its bottom.
“What in the world is this?”
As Alex poured water from his canteen onto Yona’s arm to wash away the juice, Yona stared blankly at James.
“Hey, James.”
“Hmm?”
James, now looking into the empty juice pit, turned at Yona’s call.
As Alex twisted his arm to make it easier to wrap the Sacred Barrier, Yona faced James.
“Didn’t you send anyone to the Cathedral?”
“I did.”
James had a look of quiet disillusionment on his face.
Who wouldn’t send someone? Even the Cathedral had been alerted.
It was clear to anyone that a massive creature like that, with glowing red eyes, wasn’t just an ordinary wild beast.
Moreover, it was strange that such a bear had killed half of the neighborhood watch.
They had sent a request to the Adventurer’s Guild and also dispatched people to the Cathedral for investigation and assistance.
Naturally, the response was—We will send someone soon.
But no one came.
“Did no one come?”
As Alex finished wrapping the Sacred Barrier around Yona’s arm and even clipped it to her shoulder, she thanked him with a pat on the head and sighed.
Well, it’s to be expected.
What does it matter to the Cathedral if something happens in a backwater village like this?
What difference does it make, really?
“Are we wrapping things up now?”
Alex asked James.
They had slain the bear that had caused chaos in the village, and Yona had sorted out why it had turned into such a menace.
However, the reason behind the sacred tree turning into a magical pit remained a mystery.
“…That’s likely true.”
When the four returned to the village, it was already around sunset.
In a village still lacking any signs of life, James led the three to the chief’s house.
The old man, with thinning white hair and a robust physique honed from a lifetime of hunting, listened to James’s explanation with keen interest while glancing at the trio.
“You’re saying the sacred tree was truly corrupted by magic?”
“Yes, that was the case. And it was this young lady Yona who resolved that issue.”
Yona flinched at being called “young lady,” but given the circumstances, she decided to keep her mouth shut.
“Are you a priestess?”
The old man’s sharp gaze fell on Yona.
Her nun’s attire and the Sacred Barrier wrapped around her right arm caught his attention.
“You’re a healer.”
“…Yes. Is there a problem?”
“Would there be? On the contrary, I think the priests have ignored our pleas. I believe the divine is still looking after us.”
At the old man’s words, Yona fell silent.
She found herself pondering the role of the cathedral once more.
“The cathedral is always a busy place. Priests are always in short supply. It’s not that they didn’t care, but rather that they couldn’t.”
The old man gazed at Yona, who felt a bit uncomfortable under his intense stare, almost expecting a ghost to pop out.
“Anyway, it seems the matter has been initially resolved, but can we take our leave now? We’re just passing through and can’t afford to delay any longer.”
Alex chimed in, attempting to lighten the awkward atmosphere.
That was a valid point; after all, they were on a journey to Yona’s community.
They had already been held up for three days, and now the sun was setting on the third day.
Having delayed for four days, they needed to get moving quickly.
“Very well. We’ll prepare a reward for you when you leave the village tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
Kaiyak didn’t say much more.
Alex and Yona also stood up to follow Kaiyak, who nodded a few times and then got up from his seat.
“I’m sorry. The chief has been really on edge lately,” he said.
“Well, I understand, so it’s alright. And shouldn’t the apology go to Yona, who actually resolved the issue, rather than me?” James bowed towards Yona.
Even though it was indeed Kaiyak who created the opportunity to kill the bear, it was Yona who dealt with that cursed pit.
If they had only killed the bear and left the essence behind, another beast would have surely emerged.
“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t looking for thanks,” Yona said as she filled a cup with water and pushed it towards Alex.
In the meantime, Alex prepared some smoked meat, slicing it into small pieces to fit Yona’s mouth and placing it on a plate.
“Here, bread,” he said, handing over some rye bread to Yona.
The rye bread was already hollowed out in the center, so Yona simply needed to scoop up the meat and stuff it in.
“Is your sister really that amazing?”
Yona was about to take a bite of the sandwich-like bread when James’s oldest son turned to her.
“Of course, my sister is super amazing,” Alex replied while Yona took a bite.
The sour taste of the uneven rye bread was nicely covered by the aroma of the smoked meat, making it quite tasty.
“You guys don’t even know how amazing she really is,” Yona said, taking a sip from the cup of milk Alex handed her, letting out a mischievous giggle.
“Your brother’s pretty amazing, too,” she added, causing the children to widen their eyes.
They seemed intrigued by her strange remark, but Yona was looking pleased, as if she didn’t care at all.
“Your brother? Isn’t it your sister?” James’s eldest son, Edron, asked.
No matter how you looked at it, she was a girl, so he couldn’t understand why she referred to herself as a brother.
With her long hair and delicate features, she was truly a beauty, even enough to overshadow Jessie, who was the village’s number one beauty.
And besides, her… well, let’s say she had a figure that would make Edron’s heart race, being just at the beginning of puberty.
Yet, calling herself a brother was something Edron couldn’t comprehend.
“Oh, I was originally a m—”
“Oh, oh! I think I made a mistake! Since I’m an adventurer, uh? It’s kind of, um, a thing!”
“I must have made a mistake! Since you’re an adventurer, right? Kind of, um, yeah. That sort of thing exists!”
Alex interrupted, cutting off Yona’s words.
As a result, Yona frowned and almost hit Alex on his bald head but stopped herself, aware of the eyes around her.
“Hey, what are you doing right now?”
“Is it really your place to talk about destroying children’s innocence so casually?”
Their whispering exchange was lost on the kids around them.
“If you don’t want to be seen as the weird-headed older sister out here, you should tidy up your titles a bit.”
“What are you saying, you bald-head?”
Yona pouted her lips but didn’t say much else.
The truth was, Alex wasn’t wrong, so Yona decided to just nod along.
They decided to leave the village the next morning.
Yona was sitting on the head of the bed in a small room on the second floor of James’ house, peering into something.
“What is this, anyway…”
It was the shard of a sphere she had purified from the spirit tree earlier.
Not a complete sphere, but rather a piece that looked broken off.
It was rather sharp and its pitch-black color felt ominous.
“Feels like it’s not something good.”
What was weirder was that when she touched it with her left hand, it felt distinctly unpleasant, but when she touched it with her right hand, it felt just fine.
That was a bizarre sensation.
“Anyway, this really feels strange…”
But no matter how hard she rummaged through her memories from her time at the cathedral, she couldn’t recall anything like this.
Not to mention she had never heard of something remaining after purification.
If that was the case, was this the first time?— She thought about whether heading to Infula after visiting the community was really a good idea.
“Ah, I don’t know.”
Thinking deep thoughts wasn’t really her style.
Yona put the shard into her sling bag and burrowed into her bed.
It was best to sleep now if she wanted to set off early in the morning.
Her feet had healed, and now it was time to manage her condition.
Just as she was about to doze off, there was a knock at the door.
– Yona, are you sleeping?
It was Kaiyak’s voice.