Chapter 22: Healing Magic Part 4

“Oh, I definitely programmed this.”

Following Logos’s departure, I told Sally she could return, and then the two of us headed for the infirmary. Technically, I didn’t need to bring her, but I needed directions and found it easier if she asked for me. Yes, I still think I was doing better with my anxiety, but asking a stranger for directions is really awkward, so I brought her along. Don’t worry about it.

Anyway, upon arriving at the infirmary, I quickly realized that this entire room had likely been part of my game. Twenty beds were lined up along the wall, and in the first bed was a student with little more than a paper cut. A wound of that size required no healing, but he was still here, likely to serve as little more than an introductory test. Otherwise, there was no reason why, whatever nurse or doctor ran this place, would have given him a bed. However, the person in charge, whoever they were, wasn’t around, and nobody was sure when they’d be back.

That made sense. This room was my training ground, and an actual healer would have just taken patients away from me. If I wanted to beat Holly, I needed the power to cure every person in this room, and while that initially seemed easy. The patients grew progressively worse as I walked down the room. Despite being students, many lacked limbs or even organs. Apparently, these were training injuries, or at least that’s what the students claimed. However, training should not have resulted in such severe wounds in so many students.

Finally, at the far end of the room, in the last bed, was a man covered in bandages. He was wrapped so completely that he looked almost like a cartoon character who had broken every bone in his body. I wanted to laugh, but that urge disappeared as I approached him. What little skin was visible through the wrappings was horribly colored and emitted an overwhelming smell of rot and decay. As sturdy as people in this world may be, he was dying, and nobody was doing a thing about it.

No nurses or doctors were tending to him, nor were any healers attempting to cure him. I knew this was just part of the game, but it still bothered me, probably because I knew nothing could be done. Even my own advanced-level healing would only delay the inevitable. If this really was a mechanic I had programmed, then this man was the final boss. If I could cure him, then Holly would be no match for me.

However, that was still far away. Logos had made it clear that my inability to understand the textbook stemmed from my limited exposure to different types of afflictions. Thus, I needed to start at the beginning, with the idiot with a paper cut, who rambled on endlessly about this “super awesome” knife flip he’d tried to pull off to impress a girl. Like I said, he was an idiot, but thankfully, he didn’t question me when I walked up to his bed and cast the beginner spell, Heal. Actually, nobody questioned me when I tried to heal them.

Initially, I assumed this was because of my title of saint, but in the few conversations I managed to have, the patients acted as if they were expecting me. They all acted as if going to the infirmary was an obvious choice, regardless of how minor their wounds were. Additionally, not a single one of them mentioned seeing any staff members around them. They had all simply arrived and placed themself in whatever bed was available for them, seemingly unaware that they were placed in any sort of order.

I could only shudder as I realized the degree to which Logos had stripped every one of them of their free will, without them even realizing it. Looking back, the prince had been the same way. While I was sure his feelings were true, he always attacked me just as his programming dictated. If I fled, he would chase. If I escaped, he would kill. He was little more than an NPC acting on orders. I hesitated for a moment, unsure if my hatred of him could be justified any longer, but then, I remembered that Holly was already pregnant. He had been cheating on me for months, and for that, he deserved to suffer. I would make sure of that.

However, as ironic as it might be, to make him suffer, I would first need to relieve the suffering of those around me. This was easy enough at first, as the first five patients were barely in need of healing and could be cured with Heal alone. The next five were trickier. Their wounds were deeper, and some had already lost a great deal of blood. Treating them required the intermediate spells High Heal and Blood Fountain.

No, I am not joking. The spell used to increase the rate at which a person’s body produced blood was called Blood Fountain, and the crazy thing is, nobody else seemed to think that’s strange. Believe me, I asked. They all treated the name as no different than High Heal. I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing or if they were just used to the name after so long, but either way, I had to say that phrase a lot as I was healing people, and it felt strange every time.

Meanwhile, the next five were actually the easiest. Though they were all missing limbs and the last among them had somehow lost all four of them at once, these were the type of wounds I was most familiar with. However, something had changed. The difference was slight, but the time I had spent healing those with less severe injuries had given me a better understanding of how aether flowed through the body and repaired it.

The healing spell Regenerate was only at the advanced level, so it did not immediately replace a missing limb. Instead, it sped up the healing process many times over. However, now it was even faster. It still wasn’t immediate like you would expect with master-level healing magic, but the difference was noticeable. Logos was right. I had lacked experience, but this was my chance to make it right. If I kept coming here every day, eventually I’d even be able to heal the final five, but for now, they were beyond me.

However, as I went to leave, I saw a young woman sitting next to the last man. She had not been there when I arrived, and I had not felt her enter. I was unsure if this meant she had simply loaded in while I was focused on healing or if I had been too preoccupied to notice her. Either way, I certainly heard her now. She wailed as she held the young man’s bandaged hands and begged someone to save her beloved, while likely knowing it was hopeless. His wounds were simply too severe for anyone at the academy to treat.

It was a truly heartbreaking moment, and I couldn’t help but hate myself as I watched it unfold. Firstly, because I could have saved him. If I’d been serious about learning healing magic up until this point, even a wound like his would likely be within my reach. However, the second factor played a much bigger role in my emotional state. Did I seriously program a freaking guilt trip in my own game? Why? I always rushed past guilt-inducing dialogue like this when I played other people’s games, so why would I do this to myself?

Overall, I left the infirmary feeling depressed despite how far I had come today. I was tired, and I simply wanted the day to end, so I sought out the prince and then slapped him across the face. His response was quick, and for that, I was grateful.