Body and Earth Are Not Two
The Great Mad Doctor. In the countless fictions of Thirin’s beloved homeworld, this breed of human often appeared. There was the unlicensed surgeon with a massive scar slashing across his face, who never hesitated to perform every illegal operation that spat on human ethics. There was the eccentric diagnostician who limped along while high on drugs, breaking into patients’ homes, threatening colleagues, and endlessly forcing through one insane prescription after another. Yet both demanded exorbitant fees. Get on the wrong side of the unlicensed surgeon and a single operation could uproot your family’s entire foundation, leaving you penniless. Fall into the diagnostician’s hands and even if your body was cured, the humiliation and contempt would leave you with a mental scar just as deep. Still, people sought them out. At the edge of despair they gladly made deals with the devil.
In the end, the essence was the same. The sole reason these people could operate outside the boundaries of law, procedure, common sense, and ethics was this: their skill overwhelmed everything else. Their abilities produced results the existing system could never deliver, and the world needed those results. Ultimately, skill justified everything.
And here stood an unlicensed medical practitioner who had never received state certification—a pitiful figure possessing a beauty that could ruin a country. The peerless beauty, the illegal female doctor with a charm stat of 180: Thirin.
Of course, Thirin currently had zero skill. But that did not mean she would remain unskilled forever. Her intelligence was fairly high (even if most of it was wasted on petty schemes), and the 500% experience buff meant she learned at an absurd speed. Even if she had no ability right now, after using one or two test subjects—no, patients—her acupuncture skill would surely skyrocket.
Above all, there was one crucial difference between her and those mad doctors: mercy. Thirin, the Saintess of Mercy, operated on an entirely different level from those greedy lunatics. Having already performed free gender-reassignment surgeries on countless sexual offenders throughout the empire, the Saintess of Mercy and the Whip was now brimming with the desire to open a free acupuncture clinic and benefit the world at large.
Most importantly, Thirin was a child of the peninsula. Body and earth are not two. Rather than surgical procedures that reminded her of Western medicine, Oriental medicine suited her tastes far better.
“Saintess of Mercy and Acupuncture.”
Thirin’s eyes sparkled as she admired her own benevolence. To locate the first patient who would receive her merciful treatment and be saved from suffering, she began prowling the back alleys.
The plan was simple. First, wander the darkened back alleys. Second, wait for a stupid thug to be bewitched by her dazzling beauty and come harass her. Unless she used her beggar disguise technique, this event would occur with one hundred percent certainty. Third, toy with him through some verbal sparring before beating him senseless and tying him up. Finally, freely experiment with her newly realized Heavenly Demon acupuncture on the bound sacrifice—no, patient.
“A perfect plan.”
Thirin admired her own meticulousness and began loitering through the back alleys, but…
“......”
Something was off. Even though evening was approaching, the streets that should have grown quiet were bustling with people. Lutetia’s night security was hardly excellent. Normally this was the hour when ordinary citizens returned home and the mold-infested thugs crawled out to spread their spores.
Weird.
No thugs in sight, only an unnecessary amount of people. And here and there, security forces.
Why are there so many security officers?
Thirin grumbled inwardly. At that moment, one of the patrolling officers spotted her from the corner of her vision and froze rigid.
“?”
That wasn’t the end of it. The man actually saluted her!
…Is this guy insane?
An imperial soldier saluting a civilian? The situation was so far beyond common sense that even Thirin was taken aback. She tilted her head and glanced around, but the same scene repeated everywhere. Just as she grew thoroughly annoyed and tried to slip deeper into the back alleys, someone came galloping up on horseback. A familiar yet exhausted voice called out to her.
“I’ve been looking for you, bounty hunter.”
It was the security chief. He was not alone. Beside him stood an unfamiliar middle-aged man with a rigid expression. The uniform he wore looked simpler than the security force’s but was a deep ink-black. Gray-streaked beard, mature age. Yet what drew the eye most was his smoothly gleaming bald head.
Thirin inwardly marveled at the sight.
To think a guy like this joined the imperial army. Impressive.
Bald individuals faced travel restrictions even with a pass because they had no hair to submit for identity verification. In an empire that discriminated so heavily against the bald, entering the imperial army meant this man possessed truly tremendous skill.
“And this gentleman is?”
The security chief hesitated briefly.
“This person is…”
Before he could finish, the bald man spoke first.
“Just an officer. No need to concern yourself with me.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Thirin suddenly had a bad feeling. What were they trying to bother her with this time? She was in a hurry. She needed to spread acupuncture across the world, gain enlightenment, and achieve rebirth, yet the empire was once again interfering with this noble act of service!
“What is it? Coming all the way on horseback. It can’t be about witches again, can it?”
“…There’s no need to react so sensitively. I’m not here to deliver bad news.”
“?”
The security chief dismounted and stood beside her. The bald man who had called himself “just an officer” did the same. Thirin wanted to tell them to get lost, but she couldn’t. In the past few days the security chief had aged thirty years. Thirin suffered from that Korean weakness for the elderly.
“......”
Just as her burning desire to provide acupuncture service was about to burst forth, the security chief spoke first.
“Don’t you think there are quite a lot of people out?”
“Seems that way.”
“It’s thanks to you.”
“What?”
When Thirin turned, the security chief nodded.
“The report that you wiped out one of the cultists’ bases reached the imperial army’s upper command.”
“And?”
“Recognizing the severity of the situation, the empire decided to dispatch a special task force specialized in cultists to this region. The advance party has already arrived in the city.”
The security chief jerked his chin toward the patrolling officers.
“Thanks to that, we were able to recall every security officer who had been patrolling the highways back into the city. More patrol personnel naturally means improved security. I even heard that next year’s security budget will be increased. Welcome news indeed.”
“Hmm. Sure.”
It was an uninteresting story. But what the security chief said next inevitably caught Thirin’s attention.
“The empire acknowledges your contribution. There will be an official ceremony to reward you. You’ll need to make time. That’s why I came.”
“What?!”
Thirin’s brows twitched. Ever since falling into this fantasy land, the empire had been trying to inflict the worst possible thing upon her. A ceremony! Entrance ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, all sorts of other pointless “ceremonies”… Nothing was more horrifying than having some unnecessarily important person show up and deliver an unnecessary speech. And it wouldn’t end there—they might later drag her in as some kind of expert or experienced specialist.
“!”
Just imagining it gave her goosebumps. It was a nightmare. Thirin was an extremely, extremely, extremely busy person. She had acupuncture service to perform, and with the experience gained from her acupuncture experiments she needed to awaken the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and walk the path of rebirth. Yet these useless empire bastards were trying to interfere with pointless nonsense again!
“...!”
A brilliant idea flashed through Thirin’s mind. Her scheming brain always spun fastest when avoiding annoyance.
“Now that I think about it, I heard that stalker finally came to his senses.”
The security chief hesitated a moment before answering.
“You mean Klaus? You hear things quickly. He’s currently recuperating in the infirmary.”
The security chief cleared his throat and added something strange.
“The boy did do something stupid, but he’s not a completely worthless fellow. And his family background is excellent. He’s far too good in many ways to be stuck as a mere decurion in a place like this.”
The security chief rattled off information no one had asked for and carefully gauged Thirin’s reaction.
“If you were thinking of visiting him…”
“What are you talking about?”
Thirin genuinely couldn’t understand.
“Why would I visit him? He’s the guy who goes after my socks.”
The security chief’s jaw dropped.
“He tried to steal your socks…?”
Klaus had never done any such thing. Before the security chief could speak, Thirin continued.
“That’s not what’s important. You heard that I stirred up the back alleys and used that stalker as my frontman, right?”
The security chief was momentarily speechless. The memory of growing sick of the reports that had poured in resurfaced.
“…I received the report. You certainly made it spectacular.”
“Then let’s say this cultist extermination was all led by him. I was simply a hired expert who assisted from the side.”
“……What?”
The security chief was stunned. Did this woman even understand what she was saying? She was going to hand over that entire achievement, all that credit?
Thirin didn’t care. The only things that mattered to her were martial arts and, through them, rebirth. She was that much of a physical type.
“Isn’t that the truth? I’ve never once put my own name forward. Everything was done under the name of ‘Newly Appointed Decurion Klaus.’ Wouldn’t that look better for the security force as well? Rather than an outsider like me taking all the credit.”
“......”
The security chief stared at Thirin. He couldn’t figure out how to define the bounty hunter before his eyes. To hand over all her own merit… Of course, it was merely the result of Thirin’s annoyance-avoidance behavior; she simply didn’t want to attend the bothersome ceremony.
After hesitating, the security chief spoke.
“Then the reward money is also—”
“That’s not the case.”
Thirin cut him off sharply. Money was an important matter.
Both the security chief and Thirin fell into an awkward silence.
“......”
The bald officer from the special task force, who had been quietly listening, suddenly spoke.
“You are a noble person.”
“!”
Thirin was a mass of temptation and a mass of desire. She was as far from “noble” as the opposite side of the planet. Yet she nodded with solemn dignity. Hadn’t she just been trying to provide acupuncture service? She rather liked the word “noble.” This bald man had a good eye for people.
“I am somewhat noble. Please call me the Saintess of Nobility…?”
Thirin ambiguously raised the end of her sentence. The officer before her seemed to possess as much experience as the security chief.
“Anyway.”
Thirin nodded at the two men.
“Then there’s nothing more to say, correct? I’m busy.”
Without waiting for their reply, Thirin turned away without a shred of regret. Her steps had never felt lighter. Having cast off the annoying yoke of an imperial ceremony, only one thing remained for her.
The Saintess of Nobility, Thirin. The noble eyes of the noble Thirin nobly sparkled as they searched for a sacrifice upon whom to bestow her noble acupuncture service.
“......”
The special task force officer silently watched the end of the alley where Thirin had vanished. Beside him, the security chief carefully observed his superior’s mood. After a long silence, the officer spoke first.
“She’s even more interesting than the reports suggested.”
The security chief let out a deep sigh.
“Interesting, yes. But she’s also a massive headache.”
“Haha, I suppose so.”
The officer laughed cheerfully. The security chief relaxed for a moment, only to tense up again at the next question.
“That rookie decurion—Klaus, was it? If we transfer all the credit for the kidnapped child rescue, plus the discovery and annihilation of the cultist base, to him, what would happen?”
The security chief immediately understood the officer’s intent and nodded.
“…It would be more than enough merit to completely cover the offense of unauthorized removal of military explosives. We might even expect a reward.”
“It seems she considered that as well.”
The officer looked back at the alley where Thirin had disappeared. His eyes now held even deeper interest.
“Perhaps she is better than someone like me.”
The security chief looked at the officer before him. The man had introduced himself as “just an officer,” but he was anything but ordinary. The phrase was closer to an insult.
The one who illuminated the crossroads of the night. Thousand-man Commander of the Torch Legion—Legio Ignis Hecatica—Waldemar.
In the decades he had served the empire, the number of night entities he had judged reached into the thousands, and the number of cult leaders who had fallen to his blade numbered in the dozens. The holy power dwelling in his sword could slice through steel and monster bone alike, while his mirage-like sword strikes could cut down dozens of enemies simultaneously. Though the empire had countless Thousand-man Commanders, those who possessed skill on Waldemar’s level numbered fewer than several dozen. He was not someone a mere bounty hunter could dare compare herself to.
The security chief spoke carefully.
“Isn’t that praise a little excessive…”
Waldemar shook his head.
“I have served the empire for quite a long time. Yet the number of lives I have saved is not particularly high.”
His voice carried deep regret.
“What we always prioritized was the ‘eradication’ of cultists, not the ‘rescue’ of ordinary citizens.”
“That was… unavoidable. The mission of the imperial army is—”
“I know.”
Waldemar sighed. As large as the imperial army was, they were almost always one step too late. Whether facing cultists who practiced human sacrifice, viciously twisted monsters, or frontier barbarians, they arrived after everything had already ended. Their usual role was to plant their flag atop the ashes after burning everything that had run amok. What the imperial army excelled at was revenge and retaliation. They were not good at rescue or salvation.
“But that woman is different.”
Waldemar looked at the security chief.
“From what I confirmed on site…”
He chuckled.
“There was no fire dragon or anything of the sort, Chief. Those burned traces did not belong to cultists.”
The security chief’s face hardened. He had been completely mistaken.
Waldemar continued.
“That fire was raised by the woman herself. It is not something an ordinary person could do. It is clearly an achievement only possible for those of noble bloodline or carrying the blood of a shaman. But that is not what matters.”
“Then what…?”
Waldemar’s eyes sank deeply.
“According to the report, she did not set out to hunt cultists from the beginning. She discovered them by chance while tracking the kidnapped children. Even after finding the cultists, her highest priority was rescuing the children.”
“Correct.”
“And when she herself was injured, she ordered the others to take the children and escape first.”
“…Correct.”
Waldemar spoke as though sighing.
“She avoids praise, yields credit, and cares only for the safety of powerless civilians. She even places their lives above her own.”
“......”
“Now I understand why the shaman stood witness when she claimed the Divine Core.”
Waldemar muttered, eyes gazing into the distance.
“How a person like her could suddenly drop from the sky. It is truly unknowable.”
The security chief could say nothing. Waldemar spoke again, almost offhandedly.
“Maybe I should just retire and follow her around. I’m curious how she can act that way.”
The security chief became visibly flustered.
“Uh, those words…”
“Hoho, I’m acting my age poorly and being tactless. It was a joke.”
Waldemar laughed cheerfully once more, then hardened his expression.
“Still, she has taken the Divine Core. If other cultists or entities of the night learn of this, they will not leave her alone. Greedy worms always swarm toward anything that shines.”
The security chief’s face stiffened along with Waldemar’s words.
“I will deliver her a warning.”
“Do so.”
Waldemar gazed in the direction Thirin had disappeared.
“Perhaps the day we meet again is not so far off.”
And so the Saintess of Nobility Thirin finally managed to find a patient while evading the eyes of the imperial army.
“Come here~!”
“Kraaaak!”
“Ah, oops. Sorry. Looks like your body might burst.”
“Kiyaaaaaaaak!!!”