Haa, now what? Hmm, I guess I’ll find everyone else first.

After asking around, I found out that everyone was at the training ground. Once there, the gathered crowd easily pointed out where I wanted to go.

And, of course, I found Melly in the middle sparring with someone.

“It seems you all are having fun without me.” I announce my presence.

“Oh, Eli. You finish your meeting?” Melly asks, still sparring.

“Yes. By the way, what are you doing? What if you got hurt?”

“I mean.” She gestures around her, once again, without interrupting her fight.

“You mean, you’d get healed by others!” I pout, mostly jokingly. Mostly.

“That’s only if I get hurt. Besides, I’d need you to heal me afterwards anyway.” She argued.

“Hmp, of course! You are my responsibility, after all.” Ah, I’m surprisingly possessive. Well, that is fairly standard for healers. Hence why no one really took any offense. Probably.

“So, how's everything going?” I asked.

“Really good! I’ve never felt so alive!” Melly says in excitement.

“Of course, dragon’s are quite amazing after all. Just don’t get overconfident. I can only heal so much.”

“That’s what I’m training for. By the way, after this battle, could you give some buffs? I’d like to try battling some higher level people.” She asks.

“Aye, do as you wish.” And I just told her to not be overconfident. Whatever. And who knows, maybe she plans on losing to reign herself in.

Regardless, it didn’t take long for her to win her spar, though that’s mainly because of how long they had been sparring before I showed up.

“By the way, where’s everyone else?” I asked as I instinctively went to heal her, forgetting that I actually can’t cast spells currently.

“They are in the training rooms getting more specific instruction.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “So, um, I can’t currently cast spells.” Haa, I forgot. In my defense, the way I normally tell is by whether I can flow my mana or not.

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Sorry Eli.”

“Don’t worry about that. I mean, I forgot too.” I looked away in embarrassment.

“I’m told you requested my presence?” I hear a firm old voice say as we’re talking.

“Yes, Vice Commander Pallet. I was requesting some pointers.” Melly bows.

“Ha, quite bold, aren’t ya. Seeing how the Saintess is here, I take it it will be a two on one?” He smiles. He is an older gentleman with short white hair and beard. Wearing golden armor without a helmet (unlike Melly), I can feel his power just standing next to him. I’ve been told that, by raw, physical might, he is roughly as strong as a troll. He does, at least, seem a bit more friendly.

“I’ve not met you yet, I am Saintess Elizabeth.”

“Pallet. No need for formalities. Let’s do this the normal way, with a magic handshake.” He says, holding out his hand. While I don’t know where this originated from, warriors have adopted this as tradition for meeting someone that you haven’t seen in a while. Or ever. From what I’ve seen, it seems especially popular with paladins that come back from longer missions.

“Okay.” I do actually know how to do this, so I grab his hand. We then both infused our mana into the other. We will either stop when one side wins, or ten seconds pass, usually the latter. Unusually.

“How feisty.” He says as he pulls his hand back. Ah, my mana trait, I forgot about that… “And that was with just your mana too. How frightening. I’m looking forward to your growth.” He formally bowed.

And everyone watching us started freaking out. I guess I did something impressive? Also, apparently there’s more to this handshake thing than I thought, as I’m pretty sure he's not talking about my mana trait.

“Shall I begin?” Melly asks, stopping my thought process.

“Cast your buffs first, I want to see how strong you actually are.” He says, drawing his sword.

“Uh, about that…” Melly stutters in embarrassment.

“Hmm, let’s try something. I should be fine for a while anyway.”

“Eli?” Melly questions as I release a burst of mana, while commanding it to flow.

“Huh, that worked, kinda.” In releasing some energy, I was able to truly flow my mana for a brief moment, not just to enhance my physique. Sweet! Sadly it didn’t last very long.

“Ah, so close. Luckily, I have another idea. Melly, can I infuse you?”

Melly just sighed as she passed me her arm. Pallet was staring at us in confusion, but seemed to be fine waiting for us.

After I infused some mana, I willed it to form into a buff. Sadly, that obviously doesn’t work, so instead I release more mana after preparing as much of the spell as I could, giving me a small window to finish the spell. After a few small bursts, I’ve cast all the buffs I deemed important.

“Okay, she’s ready. Sorry for the wait.” I bowed.

“... No problem. I don’t quite understand what’s going on, but it doesn’t matter. Let us begin.” He says, waiting for Melly to start.

Melly takes a deep breath. She then suddenly charges forward with a downward slash. Pallet minimally moves, dodging her blow. She follows up with a slash to the right, but has to retreat as Pallet follows his dodge with a kick, barely missing.

As soon as she regains her balance, she thrusts her sword, but it is lightly knocked to the side. She easily regains balance and follows with a slash to the left. Pallet takes a step back, before thrusting forward, forcing Melly to lunge to the right to desperately dodge.

She does a roll to quickly regain her balance, before blocking Pallet’s slash. Despite how casual it was, Melly was still pushed back since she hadn’t regained her balance yet. Melly then regains her balance before continuing her assault.

She lets out a multitude of attacks, but Pallet easily dodges or deflects them with casual ease. Whether it’s slashes, thrusts, kicks, punches, faints, blocks, etc. everything was easily dealt with.

Haa, Melly is far out classed. And it’s not even his raw power that’s causing us problems, it's the skill required to gain said power. He doesn’t even bother counter attacking, as Melly was struggling to land even a glancing blow as is.

I just watch in frustration as she is losing without Pallet even attacking. I wish I could help. I know it wouldn’t do much, but just watching is painful. Even when she was fighting the troll, I didn’t feel this hopeless. It’s like when Melly was injured by the dragon all over again. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t.

Then it happened, some of Melly’s earlier wounds started to open up. Honestly, I’m surprised they lasted so long in the first place. I pout in frustration. Those other healers! Their stupid, imperfect healing! And Melly, why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have let you fight if I knew!

Why! Why can’t I help? Because of me, Melly is suffering on her own. Again.

Pallet, noticing her injuries, glances at me, before asking Melly. “Shall we stop?”

“No! I won’t let this stop me.” Melly declares.

Pallet gives me another glance. “Okay.”

AHH! I know his glance was more curious than anything, but it felt judgmental.

I’D HELP IF I COULD! I would… I feel like crying, especially after seeing the odd looks everyone else is giving me.

Why why WHY! I can flow my mana, but WHY!? Why can’t I cast spells? This is so frustrating! I. WANT. TO. HELP! Is there anything I can do? If only I didn’t have all this pointless energy constraining my mana.

Wait! I can! I can cast spells.

Suddenly, everyone turned towards me as I was suddenly glowing. I could even see it this time! Well, ‘see,’ as apparently even my eyes were glowing.

“Eli!?” Melly shouts.

I took a few labored breaths as I collapsed to my knee, struggling with the sudden onset of exhaustion as Melly rushed over to me.

“What are you doing!?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I give her a determined, yet strained, smile. “I can help.” There wasn’t any extra energy stopping my mana now!

“But.”

“It’s too late now. Let’s go!” I say as I force myself up. I then quickly healed and restored her buffs.

“Haa, what am I going to do with you?” She shook her head. “Okay, Let’s go!” She says as she returns to the spar.

This time, as she didn’t need to worry about injuries as much, she was far more aggressive. She even started to push Pallet back slightly, his passive demeanor no longer being enough. So, he started to counter attack.

Haa, great, I’ve just made things worse. As Melly thrust her sword, Pallet knocked it to the side and followed with an upwards slash at the gap in her arm’s armor, cutting all the way to bone. I’m surprised she didn’t drop her sword as I was healing her. Before I could finish, he kicked her, knocking her back.

Before Melly can stabilize herself, he follows with a slash at her knee. She lost what little balance she had and fell onto her back. He then immediately follows with a downward thrust. Melly tries to block, but her arm is too injured to properly stop Pallet.

He then starts to stab at all the gaps in her armor, like he’s trying to ‘finish’ her off or something. Why’s he so aggressive? Just because I’m here!? I quickly use patient analysis as I frantically heal her. Sadly, every wound I healed, he just made again.

What do I do!? “AHG!” I shout in frustration. Screw it! I cast my preMilo buffs as I throw whatever mana I have at Melly. I demand my mana to become aggressive. I WILL DO SOMETHING! Will it change anything? No. But I refused to give up!

I commanded Melly to slash with her broken arm, all but destroying it with the force it’s using. I manage to get Melly to stand up, before patient analysis is forcibly cut off. I briefly realized that I'd collapsed to the ground and was surrounded by worried people. The last thing I noticed before losing consciousness was Melly roaring as she frantically attacked a smiling Pallet.

______

When I woke up, I was in what I presume is the medical hall. And, oddly enough, I felt perfectly fine. What happened though? I mean, while I did force the excess energy out of my mana, it shouldn’t have been enough for me to pass out, right? Haa, regardless, whether my exhaustion caught up or something else, I was a bit reckless. I should have just surrendered and explained the situation.

“Melly!” I remember. She was still affected by my rampaging mana when I lost consciousness. What happened to her?

“I see that you are awake, Saintess.” A priestess comes over and says.

“Ah, yes. What happened?” I ask as I get up.

“You passed out.” I know.

“What about Melly?”

“She’s been arrested.

“What!?”

“She’s currently in a jail cell, waiting for you to explain what happened.” She says with a bit of annoyance.

“Okay, where do I go?”

“Haa, follow me.” She heads out. As we left, I barely heard her whisper. “Just what were you thinking?” Haa, that’s the problem, I wasn’t.

After a while we arrived at the entrance of the prison.

“Huh, bigger than I expected.” I couldn’t help but comment.

“Follow me.” Haa, she doesn’t seem to like me.

“Here. Enter this cell.” She tells me.

“Aye.” I think I’m being arrested too.

Inside, there was a massively bandaged, yet recognizable person.

“Melly! By the Gods, what happened to you!?” I asked.

“You did.” Cardinal Caitlyn suddenly says from the side of the room.

“What do you mean?”

“Whatever you did during your fight caused her to go berserk. Several people, including Pallet, were severely injured as they tried to gently subdue her. In the end, she only stopped once she ran out of mana. So. What. Did. You. Do?” She demanded.

Haa, of course she did. “A unique interaction between preMilo buffs and my raw mana.”

“Explain.”

“Okay, so, under normal circumstances my mana will obediently do whatever I tell it to do. When I infuse it, however, it lacks direct orders or something, allowing it to act upon its inherently violent nature. At least, sometimes. You see, modern buffs have a sort of fluid and adaptive nature that counteracts and overpowers my infused mana, spreading the spell’s orders around. The rigid state of preMilo spells, however, prevents them from fighting back properly, allowing my mana to act like a thug and take over the spell. The end result is a more powerful spell that usually has an, oftentimes negative, additional effect.”

She motioned for me to continue.

“For example, unity causes a feeling similar to mana poisoning, skeletal refinement increases aggression, and Elise’s strength, well, my mana completely takes over the target’s body.” I explained awkwardly. “Also, I can, either through direct contact or patient analysis, personally control Melly when she uses it.”

“By the Gods, what have you created!?” She says in shock. “Wait, does that mean you were the one who got her to attack everyone!?” She accuses angrily.

“No! All I did was attack once and stand her up. I passed out immediately afterwards.” I hurriedly denied. “I do think my intent to defeat Pallet combined with skeletal’s increased aggression though.” I added with a sigh. I then bowed fully. “I’m so sorry for what happened. I’ll fix this and accept any punishment. Just leave Melly alone, it wasn’t her fault.”

“Okay, and how do you plan on fixing this?” She asks.

“Uh, I’ll drink a mana potion and fully heal everyone. Afterwards, I guess I’ll just keep healing people until I pass out?” I suggest.

“Aren’t you still under the effects of mana poisoning?”

“No, during yesterday’s fight I removed it. That’s How I was able to cast spells, after all.”

“You removed your mana poisoning!?” She shouts.

“Oh. Yes, I’ve found that my unique mana can directly remove my mana’s excess energy from myself, though doing so tires me out. Infused unity can also cause a similar effect, albeit at a far slower rate.”

“Revolutionary! That could completely change how people use mana potions! This is almost as big as Milo’s spells!” She shouts in excitement.

“Ah, maybe.” I say in embarrassment.

“So, is it replicable?”

“I don’t know, probably, but-”

“Amazing! So, what do you know!”

“Wait!” I shout. “I’ll research that after dealing with the demon lord! Priorities!”

“Ah. Yes, well. Haa, you’re right. Apologies, I got too excited.”

“No problem, Greg was just as excited.” It is really grand, after all.

“Completely understandable. So, you can use mana potions freely now?”

“No, the excess energy in the poison has to come from somewhere.” I denied with a sigh.

“Your body.” She says in realization.

“Correct. When I eject my mana, I usually pass out from exhaustion shortly after. It also doesn’t remove all of the energy at once, requiring multiple uses to fully resolve the issue. I don’t know if that’s because I can’t directly interact with that excess energy, or if my body just doesn’t contain enough energy to disperse everything, though. I am, however, leaning towards the latter, as I tend to wake up sore afterwards.”

“I see, so it’s not perfect, but definitely an improvement. And that’s not even taking into account what others might figure out.”

“You’re right. By the way, what’s going on with Melly.”

“Haa, she’s heavily injured from your spell. Honestly, if you weren’t here, I’d consider her crippled.”

“What! I need-”

“You need to wait. You said you’d drink a mana potion and heal everyone, right?”

“Of course!” I quickly pull out a mana potion and go to drink it.

“Wait wait! Okay, fine, you win.” She submits.

I… win? “What?” I paused in confusion.

“I’ve already heard a partial explanation about what happened. Pallet was the one in the wrong here, you just reacted accordingly. Mostly. Go ahead and start healing her. Without the mana potion.” She says in annoyance when she notices me go to drink the potion.

As I started to heal Melly, she explained what happened. “So, Pallet wanted to see how strong you really were, as even with your strategy, you shouldn’t have been able to defeat a dragon. So, he decided to figure out how you did. Though, when you didn’t do anything, he thought you saw through his plans or something. He was confused when you suddenly glowed and dropped to your knees, thinking it was backlash from your fusion or something, but when you decided to join, he ignored that in his excitement.” She explained.

“He got excited?” I ask in annoyance.

“Yeah…” She reluctantly admits. “Anyway, he decided to push you to see what sort of tricks you had.”

“I mean, we did use a strength potion then.” I shrug.

“Yes, but even despite that, Melly was still too weak, and, seeing how desperate you were getting, pushed ‘a little bit’ further to rile you up. He was just about to give up, figuring that you truly weren’t going to reveal anything, when Melly suddenly attacked him with enough force to hurt him through his armor. And destroy her arm.” She adds in disapproval.

I grimaced at that. Melly is messed up. I honestly want to cry, knowing that this was all my fault. Haa, heal her first, beg for forgiveness later.

“Afterwards, you collapsed and Melly fought like a troll. A trained troll. If she wasn’t so focused on Pallet, someone could have died. As it is, she inflicted several serious injuries. At least she lacked any form of recovery, despite acting like she did, so after breaking her body against Pallet, she wasn’t all too much of a threat to everyone else.” She sighed. “Though she did keep resisting for a while longer.”

“Is, is everyone alright?” I ask nervously.

“Of course. Where do you think we are? At least a third of everyone here is capable of at least some healing magic. While it is our ‘incomplete’ healing, as usual, so long as no one pushes themselves, they’ll be good as new in a few days at worst.”

“Haa, that’s right.” I sighed in relief. “Wait, why’d you tell me to use a mana potion to heal everyone then?”

“To test your resolve and see if you were truly sorry. Anyway, you said you dealt with your mana poisoning before helping Melly?”

“Yeah, that’s why I glowed and dropped to my knees. The glowing was me removing the excess energy, after which a wave of exhaustion hit me.”

“Oh, so that’s why you glowed. We theorized that it was some sort of backlash caused by casting magic, hence your odd way of buffing Melly before… hand. You were still poisoned!” She accused.

“Yeah, mostly. I don’t quite know if this is new, but I can force my mana to flow even while poisoned.”

“What’s the point of dealing with the poison then!?”

“Well, the flow only works physically. I can’t cast spells like that.” At least, not yet.

“Oh, that’s still useful.” She accepted, before realizing something. “Wait, you did cast spells though!”

“So, I figured out that if I quickly release enough energy I get a brief moment to cast, or, well, finish casting, a spell. I did that a few times in order to cast my buffs, which added to my fatigue.”

“You are just full of surprises. Even if there wasn’t a demon lord, I’m positive you would have become widely accepted because of your achievements. You’ve only been the saintess for a few months, and you already have the beginnings of a grand discovery.”

We just sat there in stunned silence after that. Man, this has been an intense few months, hasn’t it. And I’ve already got some achievements in the works.