"Hmm?" Illyan raised his eyebrows when he heard the man. Then he realized that he was officially a registered physician now. His status rose, but his responsibilities would grow accordingly.

Illyan excused himself from the table where others were and went again toward the door. He was still cautious, but hearing the man’s beating heart even from beyond the doors, he felt there was nothing to be scared of and opened the door before the man could knock again.

There, a slightly plump man with a gray mustache and hair donning a tight uniform was standing while sweating profusely.

“Are you talking about what happened in the lower district?” asked Illyan as he stared at the man with only a slightly opened door, playing a cautious and fragile man.

“Oh, you already know. Then it will be much easier to explain on the way. Please, let’s go!” The man was hurrying him up as he prepared to jump on his horse.

The horse was further down the road away from his house, and its reins were held by several subordinates of the man.

“Isn’t that dangerous right now? Moreover, you didn’t show any type of identification. How do I know you are telling the truth?” Illyan asked with 'concern'.

The man turned around with a glare. Illyan’s words were quite logical, but the man didn’t take it that way. He reached into his uniform and took a certain token.

“My name is Cornelius Baraste, and I am here to represent the Mayor as the constable of Winterfrost Town owing to the small problem in the slums. You don’t need to worry much, esteemed physician, as the mayor is gracious and promised the compensation of two silver coins per each saved life of his soldiers,” the man said with a slightly proud and dignified tone as he hoped this would be enough to assure the young man in front of him.

Illyan widened his eyes at this. He just said it for the sake of playing his identity. He could guess who this man was even without a token.

He certainly didn’t expect that the constable would mistake his question for greed. But hearing the amount of money he could make, Illyan gladly accepted this.

Seeing him suddenly agree so readily, the constable snorted in his heart.

‘All physicians are the same.’ With that thought, he jumped on the horse and prepared to leave.

“Wait a moment, I will take some things with me,” Illyan said as he went back to the house.

“Alright. However, be at haste, sir. We don’t have time to lose!”

The constable yelled out from a distance just as Illyan closed his door.

“What’s happening, Kaoran?” Cara asked with concern.

“Did you forget? I am a physician. I need to go treat the people. Don’t worry, the danger should be gone already. Unfortunately, the house tour will have to wait a bit,” Illyan explained as he quickly ran into the laboratory to take out one small suitcase that was left there on the table.

The suitcase contained many tools that were a must for physicians in the terrain. Vael gave him these too with the laboratory equipment, which was very convenient for Illyan.

“Oh, let’s hope that’s true,” Garan nodded with fear flashing in his eyes. He was closest out of the four and knew what kind of danger could be lurking out there.

“Don’t dawdle here. Let’s leave since it’s rude to stay here,” Nord said to Terren and others as they stood up.

……..

With haste, the group of soldiers guided Illyan through the town’s streets. Only the constable was on a horse, though, and so they had to follow on foot.

The town looked completely desolated, and they didn’t meet any citizens on their way. The mayor’s forces had already made a warning that everyone outside near the incident would be heavily punished.

Not that many planned to go there at this time. After all, even the buildings weren’t spared, and the entire place was wrecked. If someone accidentally met one of the perpetrators, then dying would be certain. Not to mention that some people would take advantage of the chaos to make a mess.

“What exactly happened? I heard some rumors but am not sure if it is true,” Illyan asked as he looked 'astoundingly' around. He did this for the simple prevention of them finding him suspicious.

“Doctor, I believe sometimes it is better to let some questions go unanswered,” said the constable with a side-eye.

Illyan nodded 'meekly' as if understanding the underlying warning or rather threat and turned silent for the rest of the way.

In the end, they finally got closer to the place where the fight ensued. At first, only a few buildings had some hints of destruction on them, but as they got even closer, they saw the pure destruction.

Some of the buildings looked as if they fell apart from an earthquake while others seemed to be scorched by fire. The place was completely silent, adding even more to the eerie atmosphere.

Count in the horrible stench that was oozing out in the air, and the soldiers that were guiding Illyan seemed to be wholly disturbed.

“Ew, this smell is disgusting… I don’t remember that dead bodies smell like this. Maybe I am getting too old for this…” One of them muttered, which Illyan promptly overheard.

‘Hmm, fresh bodies certainly don’t smell like this. Even if they are several hours old. The smell is perpetuating the entire space, so it is unlikely to be from one source, which means the troll’s body is also unlikely… Then it should be the undead bodies which Aziro moved around…’

Making an educated guess, he looked around for some kind of proof. In the end, his acute sense of smell managed to distinguish between different smells, and he noticed that most of these smells were originating from the bottom of the rubble.

It seemed that some undead were buried under all of that during the fight against the mountain troll and Ezekiel.

‘However…’ Other than that, Illyan didn’t find any other bodies, which was odd since he was aware that many more people died…

‘They were collected, huh…’ He just shook his head internally and didn’t think too much about it. After all, he finally found out why they were collected.

And that was to be later on turned into undead. But probably not all of them belonged to just Aziro. Else, they wouldn’t export them from the town…

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

As he thought about that, he suddenly stopped as there was a sudden depression of the land in front of them.

The horse of the constable neighed and refused to get any closer, so he could only get down reluctantly. Everyone else also looked nervous when they looked down.

There, several buildings were buried together with their owners. And underneath it were the remains of the arena.

‘Am I supposed to go there fishing for survivors?’ Illyan glanced at the constable who entrusted his horse to one of the soldiers strutting in some direction.

He definitely didn’t plan on playing hero here. In the first place, he expected that he was supposed to save the soldiers. Isn’t this literally confessing that they were part of this underground arena?

“Isn’t this the infamous arena? What deal do we have here?” So he asked innocently.

This made the constable glare at him with annoyance.

“The mayor wanted to raid the arena during the event because of its illegal nature, and our soldiers went into a skirmish with the gang members inside. That was before the land collapsed,” he explained with forced patience.

“I see, I see. The mayor really values justice and the lives of his people,” Illyan nodded as he kneaded his chin.

“Mr. Cornelius!”

Just then, from a distance, a loud call resounded as another officer called to him. The man was on the other side of the depression standing at its edge, waiting for them.

“Let’s go!” Cornelius turned his head and prompted his subordinates and Illyan to follow him.

They quickly circumvented the hole and met the officer on the other side. There, another batch of soldiers were currently diving down the hole and were saving the people inside that were still alive.

The entire scene looked unreal to a normal person as the screams of agony and despair made the air around somber.

Some of the less firm soldiers couldn’t bear the sight of crushed limbs and went to retch to the side, while others were also visibly shaken.

“Where is physician Perus?” Illyan expected the old man to be on the scene already. After all, being one physician, treating all of them would be difficult. Especially since some of them needed to be treated as soon as possible.

The officer looked at him and then noticed the bearing of an erudite person. He connected the dots together and greeted him.

“Greetings, Doctor Kaoran. Currently, Doctor Perus is-”

However, before he could finish, Cornelius cut him off.

“He is outside of the town for the moment and won’t be here on time. That’s why we needed to implore you, sir. Please, don’t waste any more time! We need to save them!”

Seeing that the man was already fed up with him, Illyan just sneered in his heart knowing that Perus definitely wasn’t outside the town. He was actually here before the fight even began…

‘I guess he was hurt or better, finding his own doom here.’

Illyan saw Perus treating some of the fighters in the arena, so he was sure that the mayor was in cahoots with other forces, and now he was forced to treat the ‘soldiers’. One glance was enough for him to know that most of them were from the Venomous Viper

Gang.

There were even some robed men. These got much better treatment as other robed men splashed some contents of liquid on them only for the wounds to heal at a visible rate. Other soldiers were wide-eyed when they saw this sorcery.

However, some with pure hearts wanted to chastise the men for wasting something so precious on small wounds while some of their comrades-in-arms were having their entrails hanging from their chests.

Fortunately for him, others quickly stopped them before he could do anything and dragged him away.

Illyan, who saw this, just shook his head.

Without any more delay, he took new gloves on his hands and started with the most wounded man. He opened his case and started doing his magic as his hands moved at high speed with such precision that other soldiers could only watch in awe.

Seeing some of the soldiers just watching, he barked some of the orders at them without turning his head as he began operating.

Of course, he gave them relatively easy-to-follow orders for patients that weren’t in immediate jeopardy of their lives.

Time passed, and Illyan’s robe got completely stained by blood. Some people didn’t survive the treatment as they were too hurt, but that was just a minority. His rate of success was great as he saved others at high speed.

Eventually, he noticed a stare at him. He was aware of people staring at him once in a while, but this one felt uncomfortable, so he turned his eyes to look at the person.

Then, he just nodded and bowed a little before he turned back to his work, his heart beating painfully in his chest.

The man who was staring at him for a moment was actually Aziro, who decided to monitor the treatment of his subordinates. They would be willing to kill even him if he wasn’t careful enough, let alone their weakened colleagues…

Because of that, he decided to postpone his rest.

Suddenly, two of the soldiers came out of the rubble holding one man. The man was heavily injured with a sunken chest, but Illyan could see that if he was quick enough, he could save his life.

The soldiers also realized this as they brought the man right to him.

However, the man who was unconscious until now finally regained his clarity as he groggily looked around. Because of that, he accidentally made eye contact with Illyan.

Then his eyes widened.

Illyan also froze for a moment. Then his eyes turned ice-cold.

“You can go now. I will take care of him.”

“N-no...”

The man wanted to refuse, to ask for help, but Illyan stopped him as he hushed the men away.

“Quickly go look for others. If I am lucky, I will be able to save him.” Then Illyan started the ‘treatment’. The soldiers also didn’t think much before they returned to the ruins.

“Y-you... It is really you...” The man stared at him in horror. The last time he saw Illyan was when he was scarred and bald, so he was confused and horrified.

This was the gatekeeper inside the arena. The one that let Illyan in and out of the arena. They didn’t have any conflict at that moment, but the moment Illyan decided to do what he did, it was destined for them to be enemies.

In truth, the reason why the man was so heavily injured was actually because he met Illyan when he tried to sneak out through the gate. The man was ordered to keep everyone inside, so he attacked. It was at that moment when he made a deep eye contact with Illyan and remembered his unique red eyes with golden hue.

Illyan, who had his hands full at that time, could only kick the man away. This made his chest collapse. For a normal person, that would be the end, but he was lucky to survive.

“You c-can’t kill me in front of others... Please, I won’t tell anyone...” He started whimpering as he begged for his life. He thought he was safe when they finally took him out, only to be thrown into the hands of a demon.

“Maybe...” Illyan said enigmatically as he was doing some treatment to him. To most people, it seemed as if he was trying his best, but he was just delaying.

Illyan was just waiting for the opportunity as he stared at the snotty face of the man with a placid expression. His eyes turned so cold and empty that the man felt chills. He wanted to scream but couldn’t. He wanted to move but couldn’t. He could only whimper.

“Sir! There is a survivor from that decimated squad! He is currently unconscious, but maybe he has some information on the enemy!”

Suddenly, someone came on the horse and called out to Cornelius, who was just watching.

When he heard this, he got interested.

“Get me to him!” he barked out as he once again got on his horse prepared to leave.

However, an unexpected company decided to leave with him.

“Take me too,” Aziro said with a shallow voice.

“Of course, sir.”

Then he turned to Illyan for a second but didn’t call him in the end.

He saw Illyan tending to the subordinates of both the mayor and Varel the Viper, so calling him over now could cause some degree of unrest.

“Please call Doctor Kaoran once he finishes tending to people here.”

After saying that, they soon left with haste.

Others stared at the commotion and started to whisper to each other.

Unfortunately, this happened to be the worst luck for the gatekeeper.

The moment they put their eyes away, Illyan struck like a viper. It was ironic considering the target was a member of the Venomous Viper Gang.

“Ugh...” The man wanted to groan, but Illyan clamped his mouth with his hand as he was whispering to him with a constant tone.

“Shhhh, it will be fine. The pain will go away as soon as the remedy is ready.”

Illyan whispered as he put his hand on the sunken chest. He was pressing it slowly down and down, making the man feel extreme pain.

Because the ribs and the sternum were already broken, Illyan could move his hand deeper until he felt the organs.

“Hmmmppp!” The tears of pain were rolling down from the man’s eyes as he struggled, but he couldn’t muster any strength.

In the end...

The man literally heard the rupturing noise inside of his body as his organs couldn’t endure the pressure anymore.

The pain was excruciating.

However, soon his vision was turning black as the pain was becoming numb.

Illyan just watched impassively as he put his hand away from the chest. Then he put his hand away from the mouth and closed the man’s eyes as if he was just a patient who he failed to save.

However, his eyes were anything but compassionate.

When the soldiers who came back from the rubble with another man noticed this one wasn’t breathing anymore, Illyan nodded to them.

“Cause of death: failure of organs from the trauma on his chest...”