The Second Return (3)
The welcoming banquet I’d thought would be a festival turned into a funeral in the blink of an eye.
“Oh my god…”
“Haa…”
Waaaaah—!! Sniffle! Sniffle!
“Their condition is…”
This isn’t the time to be feeding them dinner.
The state of the people who had come with the Melody sisters was far worse than I had imagined.
“It looks like we’ll have to work a little harder.”
Everyone nodded in agreement at Senior Priest Ando’s words.
“Um…”
The little brat, who had been standing beside Melody, slowly approached me.
“I’m sorry. There were more people who wanted to follow than I expected.”
“I can see that. There are quite a lot of them.”
It looked like I would have to give the cook extra money. I had told him to prepare plenty of food, but at this rate it might not just be tight—it might actually fall short.
“Since the sister brought them, there must have been a reason. Everyone, please don’t worry and come inside. Those who need food, please eat. Those who are sick, come this way.”
Especially that baby who had been crying with a bright red face since earlier—I needed to treat them right away. I couldn’t tell whether the child was crying because of the unfamiliar environment or because they had been neglected while suffering from an illness.
I had no idea how a newborn could end up in a group like that.
Perhaps because my gaze kept drifting toward the baby, the little brat spoke up first and told me the truth.
“Those bastards did something terrible. They said they didn’t know whose kid it was and told us to raise it ourselves.”
“!!”
The priests trembled with rage, unable to curse in front of the children.
“Alright, everyone, disperse and take care of what needs to be done!”
“If there’s anywhere that hurts! If this part has been bothering you for a while! Even if nothing feels wrong, you should still get checked at least once. Please come this way.”
I ruffled the little brat’s hair, then walked over to the woman holding the baby.
“Excuse me.”
“E….”
The woman shrank back in fear at the approach of a stranger. I tried my best to offer the most harmless smile I could manage.
“The baby keeps crying.”
“……”
I conveyed my wish to treat the child to the woman, who looked like she might burst into tears at any moment. She chewed on her lip for a long time before cautiously opening a gap so I could see the baby.
“Thank you. The baby will feel better soon. Please don’t worry too much.”
The woman nodded. I could see gratitude in her eyes.
“…Can you not speak?”
When I gently asked about the suspicion she had been harboring, she nodded again.
“The shock made her shut her mouth. She says she can’t speak.”
And the little brat, who I thought had been eating, must have followed me instead, because she explained the situation in the woman’s place.
“After looking at the baby, I should examine the mother as well.”
“She always says she’s sick. Ah, of course she can’t say it with her mouth—she just taps the hurting spot and whimpers.”
“She looks young. How old is she?”
“Let me see. Sister, how old were you?”
The baby’s mother held up two fingers on one hand.
“Ah! That’s right. She’s twenty.”
“Twenty…”
Those absolute bastards. They must all be dead by now, right? It was a relief to know that Melody’s hand would not have been merciful toward scum like them.
“The baby just had a mild cold. Babies can easily run fevers, so giving them fever medicine would work, but you can simply come to the clinic instead.”
I held out my hand to the baby’s mother, who bowed deeply.
“Now, shall we check on the mother’s condition?”
She shook her head. Normally, people wouldn’t refuse a chance to be treated, but those who had neglected their health for too long often became afraid of checkups in case a truly serious illness was discovered.
“It will be alright. Even if your body isn’t in good shape, we can treat it.”
She covered her throat with her palm. Was that the part she was worried about?
“You do want to get better, don’t you? When the baby grows up, you’ll have to teach them how to speak. So you need to fix it, right?”
“……”
In truth, being unable to speak was a matter of the mind, so even divine power couldn’t fix it. But if she had the will to recover, a small trigger could become a source of strength.
The baby’s mother stared intently at her child, who had fallen asleep with steady breathing now that the fever had gone down.
Nod!
Finally, the baby’s mother gave a firm nod.
“Good. With that mindset, I’m sure you can do it. First, let me check your physical condition.”
Gulp—!
Rather than asking one by one where it hurt to someone who couldn’t speak, it would be better to examine her directly with divine power. The fact that she had constantly complained of pain here and there probably meant she hadn’t received proper care after giving birth.
To people who didn’t understand how much pregnancy and childbirth affected a woman’s body, it might seem like she was simply being dramatic, but…
If she doesn’t get proper care now, she’ll suffer from aching bones for the rest of her life…
Unfortunately, her body was exactly as bad as I had feared. Her nutritional state was terrible, her pelvis was twisted, her overall condition was weakened, and even her wrists were in dreadful shape.
“You’ve been through so much, enduring a body like this.”
A child conceived through unspeakable violence. It would have been easy to resent the baby and neglect it. Yet this young girl had not turned her back on the tiny life and had stubbornly taken responsibility.
Even though she must hate the ones who caused this, she had not transferred that resentment onto the child. Such a noble sacrifice deserved to be rewarded, didn’t it?
It was important for the baby to grow up healthy, but this girl’s life—this young mother’s life—also needed care. I hoped she could live a happy life, not one of endless sacrifice, but one where she could laugh and share joy with others. And if possible, I hoped she would meet a dependable partner who could embrace her wounds.
With those feelings, I healed her body.
Becoming a healer was truly the right choice.
If I had chosen something else, there wouldn’t have been much I could do for this pitiful girl. Restoring her health was the most basic condition that would allow her to live the rest of her life happily.
“How is it?”
“ㅇ….”
It seemed she was more worried about whether she could speak than about her improved physical condition. She struggled to form words, and strangely, from lips that had only produced the sound of wind until now, a faint “sound” began to emerge.
“Huh? Hey!? Did she just say ‘Jay’?”
“Uh, uh…”
“Is this kid Jay? Jay! Jay~ Your name is Jay!”
The little brat seemed delighted; she jumped up and down in place with joy.
“Drink warm water often, and don’t strain your throat trying to force words out if they still won’t come. Take it easy, sleep in a warm place, and make sure you’re well covered with a blanket. I’ll prepare special nutritious meals for you, so please eat those for the time being.”
“Th…ank… you.”
“Yes. Shall we go eat now? What have you been feeding the baby?”
I seated the baby’s mother in the chair to my right and had the little brat sit beside her. I called over a busy staff member and asked if they could prepare something suitable for the baby. Thanks to the generous payment I had promised, the kitchen quickly gave a positive reply, and the baby’s mother was able to eat in peace.
Once everyone had eaten their fill, I finally grew curious about how the situation had turned out this way.
“Ah… At first, I didn’t plan to bring everyone like this. Those people aren’t exactly my family. But once the bad guys were all taken care of, they clung to her and begged to be taken along too.”
There were various victims within the group, and not all of them were connected to the little brat. In my original agreement with her, I had only promised to take in her family.
Yet when they actually came, she had brought every victim from the group. That was why the numbers had swelled so dramatically.
“I thought she would refuse. Just saving us was already an enormous act of kindness. So I told them that was as far as it went. But she said not to stop anyone who wanted to follow.”
The leader of the group had been as vicious as the number of victims and the severity of their suffering. There were people who had been exploited under them, and because there were so many victims, she probably hadn’t intended to bring them all and burden the temple with responsibility.
“Since they must have lived under long-term exploitation, she probably thought they needed treatment.”
Because of her job as a heretic inquisitor and her habitually few words, it was easy to misunderstand Melody as a cold person. But if she lacked compassion, she would never have become an inquisitor in the first place. It was a profession that demanded unimaginable sacrifice.
“It is impossible for the temple to take responsibility for every adult here. We won’t turn away those who truly need protection, but once treatment is finished, they will have to leave.”
“Well, that’s none of my business. I do hope they all live well, but I don’t want my own family to suffer just so I can worry about their futures.”
The little brat was surprisingly sharp.
“Alright. Then shall we have a proper talk now?”
We needed to discuss what to do with those people going forward, and I also had to be introduced to the little thief’s actual family.
“Could everyone please pay attention for a moment? I have something to tell you all.”
Perhaps because they had received treatment and eaten a hearty meal, everyone quickly turned their eyes toward me.
“First, is there anyone among you who has somewhere to return to?”
Several people raised their hands, eyes sparkling. I would have to hear their stories to be sure, but most of them had probably been suddenly captured by that group.
“I want to go back to my hometown.”
“I think I need to return to where my parents are. I don’t know if they’re still alive… but at least I should find out where they were buried.”
Everyone had their own stories. After those with places to return to stepped aside, about half remained.
“I have nowhere to go back to.”
“I can’t return like this. They’d just chase me away.”
“I’ve always been alone.”
In cases like these, the temple could arrange jobs doing odd chores. If they didn’t want to work, I planned to give them a small settlement fund so that wherever they went, they would be better off than they were now.