Chapter 25: Healing Magic Part 6

“Good morning, Milady! Are you excited for the party tonight?”

I woke up to Sally’s words, feeling refreshed and energized. The look of horror and fear on the prince’s face as he realized what I’d done and what I’d cost him had been so deliciously satisfying that I was tempted to do it all over again. Of course, you’re probably thinking that this was all a waste of time when I should be focused on escaping, or perhaps that I’ve lost my mind. Well, that is precisely why I did it. The constant and repetitive loops had taken a serious toll on my mental health, and if that wasn’t bad enough, treating the same patients over and over again was so endlessly monotonous that I felt myself starting to snap. I needed a break, and while I could’ve just taken some time off to read, this was more fun.

Oh, and it also hadn’t really taken that much time at all. I still spent the morning of each attempt treating patients and the afternoon studying my textbook. The only thing that changed was that I went to the party instead of waiting for the prince to come kill me. Really, I hadn’t spent more than thirty minutes per loop getting ready and attending the party. It had been time well spent, and I returned to my routine with a renewed pep in my step and overwhelming enthusiasm.

Of course, that wonderful memory wouldn’t be enough to keep me going indefinitely, so I also made an effort to spend some time on myself when I could. I spent every fifth day devouring books in the library and occasionally went on long walks or concocted various ways of messing with the prince, such as faking Holly’s death or having Sally kill Roman and Atlas. I also took some breaks from healing magic to finally learn the intermediate-level fire spell, Fireball, which I used to burn down a good chunk of the forest around campus. It was a truly spectacular sight as the flames spread faster than the students and faculty could extinguish them. Surprisingly, the party still took place that night even though flames could be seen from the ballroom’s windows. However, nobody seemed to notice besides me. Oh, and speaking of NPC behavior, I also started talking to my patients more. It wasn’t much more than a single conversation a day to help hold off the boredom, but it was good therapy for me.

This process continued endlessly, and before I knew it, six more months had passed. Only then did my efforts finally bear fruit in the form of the master-class spell, Restore, often considered the pinnacle of healing magic. Surprisingly, the spell was more like Heal or High Heal than Regenerate. While the latter could massively accelerate the rate at which a person’s injuries healed, the former two spells didn’t actually heal anything at all, despite what their names might imply. Instead, they transformed the spent aether into something resembling skin, bone, or muscle at the location of a wound. Then, as the person naturally healed over time, their body replaced that substance with the respective organic material.

Likewise, Restore technically did not heal the body. Instead, it utilized the body’s own memory of what it should look like (yes, bodies in this world have some form of memory) to create a replica out of aether that could replace whatever had been lost. This process was considered less physically taxing on an individual than using Regenerate, while also being far faster, as it replaced a lost limb in seconds rather than in dozens of minutes. Of course, this was important as several of my remaining patients would have bled out before Regenerate could have healed them, including the first of the five, who had been impaled by a spear.

He was in a surprisingly good mood, despite being impaled, and still gave an intro, just as everyone else did. Apparently, he was sparing with a buddy, but forgot to activate his Boost spell. Oh, did I forget to explain Boost before now? Well, basically, Boost was its own class of magic, often called non-elemental magic. This spell was considered essential for knights as it could enhance their reaction speed, durability, and strength several times over by infusing their body directly with aether.

Furthermore, unlike other spells, you didn’t need to read thick textbooks to learn it or improve its power. Most knights learned it in less than a week, and then grew progressively more skilled at casting it and enhancing themselves as they practiced with it. Really, the spell’s only downside was that it used up all the aether in the person’s body, meaning that it left users exhausted and unable to cast other spells for several minutes.

However, in that moment, I learned another weakness of the spell, arrogance. A properly trained knight could perform truly superhuman feats once they were trained with Boost, but if they forgot to cast the spell, well, that could lead to serious problems. This particular idiot hadn’t cast the spell before sparring, so rather than walking away with a small scratch, the spear had pierced completely through him. Still, he seemed confident that he’d be fine, but I had no idea why. Maybe he just had that much faith in whatever doctor usually worked here, but they were gone, and he was stuck with me.

While I was certain that Restore could close the wound without too much blood loss, I needed to figure out a way to remove the spear first. However, when I mentioned that little issue to the patient, he came up with a brilliant suggestion. He pulled out the spear himself without a second thought.

Unsurprisingly, he bled a lot in a very short amount of time, while I panicked. I had just learned Restore a few hours prior and still hadn’t actually tried casting it yet. It was a complex spell that required developing a clear image of the spell, inhaling a significant amount of aether, and carefully shaping it to match that image. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done when my patient was seconds away from bleeding to death, and I didn’t make it in time.

Yeah, he died. No, I’m not joking. Yes, it was terrifying, but nobody else seemed to notice. All the patients just continued to stare forward in complete silence. That somehow made it so much worse, so I ran. I ran all the way to the prince and kept hitting him until he finally put me out of my misery.