I woke up the girls earlier than usual this morning. Taking out a bit of our sparse remaining supplies, i started to make some breakfast which was pretty much soup. I didn’t have a wide variety of recipes on hand. As always the girls enjoyed it a great deal and I didn’t eat because I thought it would be a waste of ingredients. I was ready to start teaching them beastkin again but there was a knock on the door which I promptly answered.

“Where… did you even get this from?” (Com)

At the door was Com who looked absolutely lost on where the door and windows had come from.

“Are we starting already?” (Kenos)

Com just shook his head as if giving up.

“As long as you are ready.” (Com)

I nodded my head and informed the girls that I would be leaving for now, telling them to practice beastkin while I’m gone. I wasn’t planning on dragging them around the camp the whole time. In fact I insisted that I don’t drag them around the camp the whole time which they weren’t too happy about but still accepted. Before leaving I transformed my cloak into a coat. I kept the hood and the white fur along it though. I also formed the badge of the Protection Front on my chest before throwing one of them to Lily and Cel as well.

It only took me a minute to do all this so Com waited patiently at the door. I wouldn’t do all this in front of him after all. I was done though so I just followed Com towards wherever he was taking me.

“As I said yesterday you will be meeting the two other mages we have in the camp here. Maybe you can help them with something. From what I’ve seen you’re stronger than most of the mages in the Beastlands.” (Com)

“What can you tell me about them?” (Kenos)

“The one we’ll be meeting now is an earth mage as well as an alchemist. He’s not a strong mage but his alchemic concoctions can be a huge help around here. The other is a healer. Her name is Fai and she’s in charge of the medical tent. We’ll head there after you meet Ryndel.” (Com)

Apparently the alchemist’s name was Ryndel which sounded like a human nobles name to me. Who am I to say though. On the other hand the healer’s name was apparently Fai. I like that name. It’s short and sounds nice. My kind of name for sure. Maybe if I wasn’t too lazy I would have named myself something better than Kenos. Well too late to change it now.

As we walked through the encampment I felt even more hateful looks on me than yesterday but all I could really feel from them was the urge to laugh. It was as if they were trying to tickle me with this slight hint of bloodlust in the air. Com on the other hand felt nervous. Maybe he thought I would snap just from this? Oh come on I’m not that unreasonable… okay no If the girls were here I might have actually done something. Though I doubt it would have been to murder everyone. I was right to let them stay at the house.

The encampment wasn’t that big so the walk was a short ten minutes. I also think we passed by the healer’s tent as I heard painful groans from the shadows of one of the tents we were passing. I was too spread out to look at what it was though. I already had my attention split between Lily, Cel and… well myself.

I could tell where our destination was even before Com pointed it out. The place smelled like herbs and alchemical concoctions even outside the tent. AS we entered I saw a man about my own height which should be considered pretty tall seeing as Com who is of above average height is shorter than me. The thing was he had wings. A fucking bird beastkin who is also an earth mage. I don’t know what decides affinities at birth but whatever it was I think it didn’t like this guy very much.

“Ryndel!” Com)

Ryndel who up until now was too engrossed in his concoctions to even notice we had entered the tent finally seemed to realize we were there as Com shouted his name to get his attention. Turning around I could tell this man was a predator. I don’t know if he’s strong as a mage but he was definitely strong just in general.

“Com… you brought him…” (Ryndel)

He looked at me with clear hostility in his gaze. I didn’t care about it though. This man was not a threat. Maybe he was strong but I doubt he was strong enough to harm me.

“I told you I don’t need help from a damned human.” (Ryndel)

Good. I turned around and exited the tent. My destination was the place I considered to be the healer’s tent earlier. At least I was going to but Com grabbed my hand from behind.

“Wait! What are you doing?” (Com)

“I’m not willing to beg people to ask for my help. If he doesn’t want it then he won’t get it. If you want me to give it to him then you shall instruct him on how to properly ask for it.” (Kenos)

“But you’re supposed to be here for-“ (Com)

“Convincing people to accept my help was not in my job description. That was something you should have dealt with on your side.” (Kenos)

I turned my hand into void breaking free from his iron grasp which I would have never been able to break with physical strength alone and walked out of the tent as I originally intended. Com stood there for a second trying to understand what had just happened before running after me seemingly having given up on me helping Ryndel. The bird beastkin on the other hand just went back to his brewing while feeling irritated about being shoved aside like I refused to even acknowledge him as soon as he refused to do so for me.

Next stop was the medical tent. I could only hope that whoever this Fai was would be more reasonable. You might be thinking that I would rather just have everyone refuse my help and laze around but that would be incredibly irritating. Once I’m on a job I don’t like doing it half-assedly. I was truly intent on helping both the alchemist and the healer. If they didn’t want it though. I refused to bother begging them to let me help instead.

We got to the tent I had considered the medical tent before and it turns out I was right. Entering together with Com I saw a bunch of medical beds lined up on both sides of the tent. Some were actual beds with straw mattresses while others looked put together with wood and leaves from around the camp. I assume that they didn’t have enough so they had to build more themselves.

There were some pained groans from people. Most of the wounds were not what I had expected. Rather than cuts or bruises most of the wounds looked rather like acid burns. What caused this I wonder? I went closer to one of the men with burns on his hands. I purposefully picked out an unconscious one to make it easier. I tried looking a bit closer but I was pat on the shoulder from behind.

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Turning around I saw a girl close to her twenties if not in the early stages of them. Judging from her ears alone I couldn’t quite tell what animal she is because let’s be honest differentiating animal ears when they’re on a human head is more difficult than it sounds. I switched my viewing perspective to a nearby shadow from where I could see her tail and instantly figured out what she was. A deer. I came to the obvious conclusion that this was the healer named Fai.

“I don’t think it’s wise to mindlessly touch the wound. It might hurt him” (Fai)

She seemed nervous. They might have told her I could be dangerous if irritated which would definitely make someone nervous while talking to me… except that bird bastard from before.

“Excuse me. I was not intending on doing so but it might have looked different from another’s perspective.” (Kenos)

Com looked at me a bit surprised. What? You think I can’t be polite? Was I ever unreasonable towards you when you were escorting me here yesterday? No I wasn’t was I? Of course I can show proper respect towards people who did the same with me. It’s just Leon and Ryndel showed far from it.

Fai visibly relaxed a bit after hearing my reply going as far as to let out a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe Leon or whoever informed her was exaggerating when they said I might be dangerous. They weren’t… it’s just that I can also be very pleasant to be with as well as shown by the fact that two girls want to use me as a hug pillow every night and get really angry if I try to slip out… I feel like I’m being tamed by those two… Yup. It was definitely a good decision to come alone today.

“Umm… I’m Fai. It is nice to meet you. I heard that you would be coming today but… is there actually something you can help with? I heard that you were a combat mage…” (Fai)

I thought a bit about it. Like I said if I was going to do a job I was going to do it right. I looked back towards the wound.

“You said you’re a healer. Do you not know how to heal these burns with magic?” (Kenos)

“I… don’t. There are very few healers amongst us beastkin and there’s a limit to how much we can do. Maybe someone else would know but… I never knew how to heal wounds like these…” (Fai)

I see. Well it’s not that surprising. With the lower amount of mages that the beastkin have there’s no way they could have progressed to the same level humans have. In the first place healing magic is incredibly complex. Every different wound has different ways to heal it. Cut wounds, stab wounds, burn wounds, acid wounds. Every different kind of wound has different methods you have to know to be able to heal it. It’s not surprising that such a complex magic was very badly developed by people who barely have anyone that can use it.

“Then let me teach you how to do so. Is that going to help?” (Kenos)

Fai looked at me surprised. She thought I was a full on combat mage because not many are both combat-oriented and know healing. In the Beastlands there are probably none.

“You know healing magic?” (Fai)

She looked at me with hope in her eyes. She truly wished to save the people here. I mean some of them weren’t that badly hurt. The guy who just had a hand burned would just have a harder time controlling that hand if it was not healed. But in the back I saw a few people which had half their bodies covered in these that were barely alive at this point.

“I do. First let me heal the people with the harsher burns. After that I’ll teach you how to do it while healing the people who don’t require immediate attention.” (Kenos)

She nodded enthusiastically showing me to the back where the people with the heavy burs were. I choose the one who looked ready to kick the bucket the soonest and started healing him. Using light magic I fed energy into his cells restoring them, sometimes using void energy to erase a few that were too far gone. That was only my perfectionism though. The cells that were too far gone would later be replaced by the body when it was back in full healing condition so it’s not as if someone needed to be able to use void to heal them.

It took me ten minutes to finish with this one. He still seemed pale but no longer was he on the edge between life and death. On the other hand there wasn’t a need for understanding of cells either while doing this. That was once again my perfectionism speaking. Fai would still be able to do this even without proper understanding of cells and the precision to restore them individually. I had prepared a more… general method for her to learn rather than the one that even brain surgeons would have a hard time doing correctly.

I looked over ten more people, finishing the healing of each one faster than the previous. The last one I finished in only a minute or two.

“Okay now it’s your turn.” I said turning to face Fai. She nodded walking over to one of the soldiers who had lighter injuries. I started instructing her on how to control light magic. Yes I wasn’t just telling her the chant of a spell. I was teaching her light manipulation. It was difficult for her though. In the end I gave up on that notion and taught her a chant. Chants make things a lot easier but are a lot less versatile than actual manipulation. That’s why I wanted to teach her that but it seems like I was asking too much. It took her a few tries to do the chant correctly. After all the words themselves weren’t the only thing that you have to get right in a chant.

You can compare a chant to a music sheet. Together with the words the person saying them had to infuse mana into each and every word in a specific way. That’s why these chants always sound like something a human should usually be unable to pronounce. Each and every part of each and every word had to be infused with a specific amount of mana. It was exactly like writing notes of music below the lyrics of a song to indicate how the melody should go there.

It took a few hours of instructing before she was finally able to use the chant reliably. It was already past midday outside. Looking over at Com he seemed pleased that I had actually helped with something this time around. Now that I think about…

“What are these wounds from anyway.” (Kenos)

Com seemed surprised at the sudden question. Fai opened her mouth to try and say something but was interrupted by him while he was wearing an awkward smile before she could speak.

“So…about that dungeon the chief mentioned yesterday…” (Com)