Darla watched Finn apply the low-grade healing potion to the boy’s singed hand. Low-grade healing portions were abundant and cheap on the market; however, when the number of people who needed healing made up a whole town, even they became scarce.

It hurt Darla to see her friend apply only the minimum amount required for him to save more people. The red blood staining the boy’s clothes vanished, leaving a wound that was several times less painful but still a wound, nevertheless. The limits of this low-grade portion were to stop the flowing blood at least and kill the germs that threatened to infect it.

Beyond that, however, this boy would need something a little more expensive. The creases on the boy’s brow vanished as the pain in his hand went away.

“There you go,” Finn soothed him, “Let me wrap this up for you so it doesn’t get worse as it heals.”

The boy leaned into his gentle touch and nodded. The tears on his face had long since dried up as he watched the Elite Guard in front of him tend to his injuries as though there weren’t other patients requiring his help.

“You work for the Tower of Seekers,” the boy pointed at a symbol of a quill in an inkpot engraved on his breastplate. Not sparing the symbol a glance, he pulled a roll of bandages from his first aid kit and got to wrapping up the boy’s wound, all while making sure not to reopen his wounds, “Yeah, sort of.”

“What is someone like you doing on this battlefield?” the boy asked.

[ Tch! Kid’s going for the jugular ] Apollo scoffed at the back of Darla’s mind.

“Well, if I wasn’t here, who would treat you?” Finn gave the boy a tight-lipped smile when he saw the boy’s words get caught in his throat, “You’re lucky to be alive. Treasure that gift.”

After a short silence, the boy said, “You’re kind, sir.”

“Oh? You don’t say?” Finn replied, carefully wrapping the bandage around the boy’s arm, “Hold this for me.”

The boy held the bandage and watched as Finn gathered up some cotton soaked in the healing potion. The slayer placed the potion on the covered wound and continued to wrap the wound up.

“If it isn’t Finn, the talentless wannabe,” a snarky voice interrupted the boy.

Darla turned to see the Elite Guard that had said it. Dressed in navy blue with silver epaulettes, a man with flowing green hair stared at Finn with a snarky smirk, “Good day to you, too, Edward.”

“Oh yes… A good day to me who butchered four B-class demons. I’m getting a bunch of credits for the cores… If you grovel, I might just spare you some of them. It would be more than the Tower can offer you. It must suck to be stuck at the Glass Rank,” the man snickered.

Darla turned fully to the boy, “Edward!”

“Lady Darla… Have you come to your senses? You’d make the perfect bride for someone of my background. The offer still stands, you know. Ditch this half-wit, Julius and all the other suitors that no doubt fawn over you and come shine like the glorious gem that you are,” a chorus of chuckles followed his remarks.

A small man with fairy wings materialised from thin air and went shooting towards the slayer, “You Bastard!”

“Oh, pipe down, Apollo,” Edward reached out with his hand. He conjured up a net of aether that effectively trapped the guardian with nowhere to go. Apollo fought against the bindings but found them much too resilient for him to break.

“For an A-class guardian, you’re rather weak without your master,” the slayer mentioned as he brought the net closer to his face.

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Apollo vanished in a puff of sparks and reappeared at Darla’s side. This time, however, he didn’t lash out. Instead, he turned to Darla, “Why do you let him run his mouth?”

“Because he’s irrelevant,” Darla replied coldly.

“What was that?” Edward’s face contorted in a dark grimace.

Darla spared him a glance, shrugged, then turned away, “Anything from Aiden?”

“No,” Finn replied, putting a clip on the bandage, “There you go, kid. It should be healed in two days at most. Try not to move it too much during that time.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” the boy replied.

“Don’t ignore me, peasants. I’m a noble and far outrank you. I bet that’s why your precious S-class friend abandoned you,” Edward lashed out.

Finn paused in his movements, spared Edward a glance, and then moved on to the next person that needed his help. An old man with a scraggly beard and equally tattered clothing. While his appearance was much like that of a beggar, Finn didn’t make the mistake of writing him off. His aura was on a higher level than that of an ordinary human while his muscles were a tad bit toned.

If it wasn’t for the long searing cut on his calf, perhaps he would have been useful in the battle that had just occurred, “Need some help, sir?”

“You’re going to let that weakling talk shit to you?” the man looked up at Finn. His strong eyes were enough to tell Finn he was capable of reading more into the situation. It was one thing for someone to try and boost his courage to stand up for himself but another thing entirely for someone to see through his false facade of weakness. This man belonged to the latter.

“There are people here that need my help. I’d rather not waste my time,” Finn replied gently, then reached to place his first aid kit down and got to work on the man’s leg.

The man looked up at Edward, “Beat it, brat!”

Edward was about to snicker when a palpable aura pressed down on his shoulders, enough to make his knees shudder with weakness. Before his body was forced to kneel, however, Edward darted away in anger.

Finn chuckled, “What could have done this to you?”

“A-class demon. Caught me off-guard at the start of the attack. My friends and I managed to defeat it but that’s about all I could do before my injury got too bad,” the man responded.

“No healing potion?”

“Gave them all to my friends. They needed everything they could get for the evacuation,” the man responded.

“Were you a member of the Elite Guard? I don’t recognize you,” Finn asked while applying his low-grade healing potion. The thought of using some of the high-grade potions he had stowed away had occurred to him at first, but then he heard the story of the man’s sacrifice and decided against it.

“Nah… Adventurer. Forged my power in the Nebulous Springs of Darza,” the man chuckled, “I never was one for the formalities of the Elite Guard. Too many nobles for my taste.”

Finn chuckled, “Nebulous Springs of Darza? That’s a Wild Aether Zone.”

“You know your stuff,” the man chuckled, amused.

“I try,” the boy responded. The two continued to talk casually while Darla watched the boy work in stiff silence. Normally, this silence would be considered awkward but awkward happened to be Darla’s middle name. If there was ever someone who wasn’t affected by awkward silences, it was Darla.

So much so that the man talking to Finn let out a loud chuckle when the boy was done tending to his leg, “Hey, don’t keep the lady waiting. She must be worth it if she can wait for you this long.”

Finn’s face went the slightest bit red, “She’s not…”

“Bah, you don’t have to convince me of anything. I know how the story goes,” the man winked, then forced himself to stand up, hopping on his good leg before gingerly testing out the leg that had just been treated.

After a few moments, he walked away with a slight limp, not forgetting to spare Finn a wink as he left.

“Finn, did you get it?” Darla asked, wishing they could move past the suggestive winks that made her hair stand on ends.

“Yes, I did,” the boy responded, retrieving a paper from his pocket, “I tried to note down all the important stuff, hopefully, I didn’t leave out something vital.”

The girl skimmed through the writings on the paper with a focused expression, “This is more than I could ask for, Finn. Thank you very much.”

Without warning, she pulled the sandy-haired boy into a big hug, one that gained him several evil glares from clandestine eyes watching them, along with a few new enemies. Silently, Finn accepted his fate.

When she released him, she lifted her hand into the air, “Apollo…”

The guardian flew up above her hand and closed his eyes… “Hmm… only the basics. The effect won’t be so powerful.”

“I know what effect it will have, Apollo,” the girl responded indifferently.

“Understood, Master,” the guardian spread his hands out and with one gesture, enveloped the entire camp with a radiant pale green healing light.

It wasn’t much… but it was more than anyone could spare at the moment, and while she didn’t know it, she saved nearly a hundred lives with that simple gesture buying the healers enough time to tend to the severely injured while healing those that didn’t need so much attention all at the same time.

Hidden behind a few tents, a man in golden armour watched her exchange with the sandy-haired boy with a look of awe… and a little envy.

‘I will have her,’ his thoughts echoed.