"The people are suffering from a terrible illness nobody has been able to cure. Any help would be appreciated." The lady with raccoon ears and tail says while I walk behind her, still accompanied by two town guards. The townspeople looked at me funny since I wore different clothes than them and looked nothing like them.
"I will try my best to help, but I am not a medic," I tell the woman, who immediately responds with a snappy comment. "But you're a witch," the lady's words made me question the Pope's and the church's authority over whatever land I arrived since most human cultures had it out for Witches, yet this would seem to be the second non-history nation.
It only takes a couple of minutes of walking through the town square, where I get stared at by pretty much everyone in the town. I had to admit that even for me, their stares were getting a little too embarrassing. I'd never felt so judged, but I understood where they came from.
"Here it is, the town clinic." Raccoon lady says while opening the door to a small wooden house with paper-thin walls filled with sick people sleeping on floor mats, all looking in dire conditions. A sudden rush of disgust almost makes me puke at the sight of such a thing.
There were at least fifty people there of all kinds, men, women, and children of all ages, sick and bedridden with an illness so putrid I almost puked when I saw it and smelled it for the first time. The smell was similar to that of rotten flesh combined with rancid milk, a truly horrible smell hitting you at once.
Aside from the stench, the patient's injuries were much worse than they smelled, with many people suffering from wide gaping holes in their bodies, some even hoarding maggots inside their open wounds, a truly terrifying sight to behold; what kind of sick god would allow such a thing!?
"We've tried everything, every treatment available! We even paid for a church healer saint to help our people, but they never showed up; we are desperate for help. We don't have much, but we will compensate you if you help us." The Raccoon lady pleads with me as she drops to her knees so she can kiss my feet, not even knowing if I could help them.
"How many cities in your country have this problem?" I ask as I secretly start appraising the people closest to me so I can try and get an analysis of their condition. "Every city and small town in our nation suffers from this illness. There are likely thousands sick and many more that have already died."
[This disease looks like cursed energy poisoning]
Great sage responds to my thoughts as I look at the stats of a dying person barely hanging out by a thread with two hit points left. "Is there any way I can cure or dispel their illness?" I ask great sage out loud while partially ignoring the nurses and the lady at my feet.
[There is a way: since you behold a holy title, your holy magic should dispel the cursed energy, but their sickness will return if we don't identify its source]
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"So I need also to get rid of the source, alright then. As the ruler over Temperance and Hope, I hereby grant all of these people mercy and order this cursed energy out of their bodies! BE GONE AT MY COMMAND!"
The earth soon shakes a lot as my left arm gleans a bright white color followed by purple energy quickly manifesting from the affected people, clearly trying to resist my dispel. "Uh? Ruler over Temperance and Hope?" All the nurses watch in awe as I continue to push my power through the affected people until the purple energy disappears once I put enough pressure on it.
I never formally learned how to use magic, but it looks like what the Queen said many months ago was true. I do know better alone than with the help of books. It feels almost like taking a breath for me. Unlike Veronica or even Auri, I don't understand how I make my spells work without needing to construct complicated runes as they have to.
I suppose it's one of the perks that comes with being one of the only users of abyssal magic ever. "I guess you've probably heard of my nickname more than my title, but I am the so-called 'Saint of the North,' who rules over hope." All the nurses quickly run toward the affected people, who look much better just by having the cursed energy removed.
"You're the saint of the north? The one who resides in the Nation of Fire?" Raccoon lady asks me while still on her knees looking at the ground instead of me, which I do find a bit weird. "Yes, but please keep it a secret from these people who don't speak my language. Just tell them I am a powerful witch or something."
"Okay, I can do that. I don't know how we can even repay you!" The Raccoon lady says that while I start helping the nurses with healing magic of my own, I will go one by one as I still don't know how to heal people in mass. "I am getting a bit hungry, so some food would be a good place to start."
"Oh! Yes! Of course! I will make sure the chef from the best restaurant in town has you something ready to eat as soon as you finish here! I promise!" The Raccoon lady responds with so much vigor that my stomach starts making noises when she mentions a hot meal. Man, how long had I craved for something like that after days of eating stale food.
As far as healing the people went, the process was relatively easy as I've been forced to learn how to replace entire limbs and body parts from previous fights. Learning how to patch up one or two holes in the body was an easy walk for me, not that I enjoyed touching the wounded people who still grunted in pain before receiving healing.
Lots of people now woke up while looking at a foreigner like me, and their friends healed friends next to me, and while they did look at me funny, most of them still tried to show their gratitude by tilting their heads toward me in some sort of bow fashion.
The most heartwarming part of watching them all get better with some holy magic was their sudden will to live, as most of them looked at their healed hands and legs while moving their bodies in disbelief. "Oh! Kisekida yo!" "Eh! Kisekida Yo da!" Two little kids screamed as I finished healing them, making my heart soft, almost on the verge of tears.
To think these kids would've died if I didn't have Julius as my enemy broke me. Perhaps I wasn't giving Andromeda enough credit; perhaps his plans really were greater than I could see. I suppose, as the god of witches, their lead would only be good in the end, wouldn't it?
I've suffered a lot since I arrived in this world, and while I've been holding on for dear life, trying not to surrender to corruption. It was moments like these that reminded me why I wanted to stay in this world full of injustice and illness. This world needs a hero and a leader, so why couldn't it be me?
I am primed to be the greatest Witch of all time, possibly even outclassing the first one, so why couldn't I correct the course that she took with the best of intentions with some bad outcomes? I don't wish for war or death but peace under one power, and yet this course of action will make me look worse than my predecessors.