Interrogation (5): The Lost Arm
I wonder what kind of reaction that child would have if he saw me like this.
In the end, I gave up on retrieving my arm. I tidied up my ragged condition as best I could and hurried off to find my disciple so I could ask him for treatment. Even by my own standards, I thought I had raised him well—his healing abilities were impressive even to me.
“Looks like a whole swarm of flies has gathered.”
While I had been away, a crowd of annoying pests had clustered around my disciple. “Tsk. That heretic inquisitor must have dragged even more of them in.”
I had never said it aloud, but I had felt uneasy about leaving a heretic inquisitor as his guard from the start. Getting entangled with inquisitors had always meant trouble, in the past and now. Still, the two of them seemed to get along, and I had assumed the boy’s natural kindness might rub off on the inquisitor as well, so I had let my guard down. In the end, it appeared that inquisitor had pulled others into the mess.
As I pondered how to rescue my poor disciple from the unfamiliar inquisitors watching him, I became aware of my own state and let out a heavy sigh. That guy nags quite a bit himself…
Seeing me in this condition, it seemed I would have no choice but to endure the scolding. Not wanting to reveal my presence to those bothersome inquisitors, however, I slipped secretly into Arthur’s room. That decision proved excellent.
“Bishop!”
“Have you been well? I saw you walking around with some strange characters at your side. Who were they?”
“You saw?”
“I did. Heretic inquisitors, right? The ones he brought?”
“Well… yes, but… Ah! That’s not important right now. What in the world have you been doing? Those people are asking where you are, Master, and claiming you’re the one who kidnapped Prince Loras.”
“Those people have always been and still are ridiculously good at their jobs.”
How did they find out?
“What? Don’t tell me you actually did it, Master?”
“I did. But is that all you know?”
Did he not know that Prince Loras had contracted with a demon? That was the most crucial part.
“What else should I know?”
“Doesn’t my face look rather pale?”
“…Don’t tell me you’re injured?”
Priest Arthur’s expression crumpled. He clearly thought he was hearing nonsense.
“Yes. I was thoroughly beaten by that fellow.”
I deliberately acted weak in front of my disciple.
“How did that happen? Come to think of it, what happened to Prince Loras? No—before that, have you received any treatment? I’ll heal you right away.”
“Hmm… you look tired from working all day.”
“Treating one more person won’t make me collapse.”
“It might, you know?”
The wound was tightly bound in bandages so it wasn’t obvious, but my shoulder was already soaked through. The blood refused to clot and kept flowing. I had applied some healing on the way here, but I had already exhausted my power in battle, so the treatment had little effect. To be honest, I had never been particularly talented at healing anyway.
With only beginner-level skills, I couldn’t properly close a wound from a severed arm. My first thought had been to cauterize it with fire to stop the bleeding, but I knew that would only make the healing more difficult later, so I held back.
“Show me the wound.”
Though he was utterly hopeless when it came to romance, Priest Arthur was quick-witted in matters like this. His face grew serious as he spoke.
I obediently revealed the empty sleeve I had been partially hiding. The moment Priest Arthur’s face froze solid, I squeezed my eyes shut. This was going to be more than mere nagging—anger was about to crash down on me.
I couldn’t understand how Prince Loras had managed to cut off Master’s arm. If he possessed that much power, the subjugation force should never have failed. He had been desperate enough to kill people in order to twist the truth—hiding such strength made no sense.
“How did this happen? Please explain it to me.”
I first stopped the bleeding and began treatment to restore his depleted stamina. Having worked all day, drawing out a large amount of divine power again was no easy task. Still, this was Master, not just anyone, so I poured everything I had into it.
“I kidnapped Prince Loras.”
“Yes. I don’t understand what you were thinking, but I assumed you had a plan to clean up the aftermath.”
“I didn’t.”
“Hey! Why are you like this?”
“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, Priest Arthur. It’s your master’s teaching, so make good use of it.”
“That’s a teaching I’m not the least bit grateful for!! So you just charged ahead thinking you’d be forgiven? Without any intention of taking responsibility?”
This was driving me insane. I had always known he lived as though no one in the world could stop him, but the scale of the trouble he caused this time was on another level.
“How many years have I spent eating for free in the Holy Empire? How could I not know how those people operate? They would never have left Prince Loras alone. I acted after taking that into account.”
“You acted so recklessly that you lost your arm, and you have no regrets?”
“Regrets? Well, an unexpected variable appeared and things turned out this way, but I don’t believe it’s something I need to regret.”
“What exactly caused this? It can’t have been Prince Loras who cut off your arm himself.”
Since it happened after the kidnapping, I had assumed the prince’s guards were responsible. But Master’s answer completely overturned my expectations.
“It was Prince Loras who cut it.”
“That’s impossible. How could the prince cut off your arm, Master?”
No matter how careless Master had been, the idea of Prince Loras severing his arm was unimaginable.
“There was something strange attached to Prince Loras’s body.”
“Something strange?”
“Yes. I was going to ask because I thought you might know something about it, but it seems you don’t.”
“If I had known, I would have told you immediately. Ha… And you didn’t bring the arm back?”
“He must have guessed I would try to reattach it, because he tore it to shreds. I searched that place like a fool. It was a complete waste of effort.”
Working at the healing center, I had seen patients who had lost limbs before. Sometimes legs had to be amputated because the flesh had rotted beyond saving. Not every healer could restore decayed tissue the way I could.
“What are we going to do about this…”
Even for me, simply regenerating a missing arm was no easy feat.
“There are two choices.”
“There are two?”
“This isn’t the time to laugh!! Please listen seriously. Ahem! The first is to let the wound heal as it is. That would essentially close off all possibility.”
“I thought you would naturally choose that one?”
“The second is to keep the flesh from fully closing while I gather my strength. You’ll have to endure constant pain, but in that case…”
“I’ll regenerate your arm.”
“Huh… You can do that?”
“I may not look it, but I’m a highly capable healer.”
After earning the position of youngest chief healer, I had never neglected my training. My journey through the Labyrinth had granted me a wealth of knowledge, and the environment to practice it had been ideal, so my skills had risen sharply. It was a shame that if even a tattered piece of the arm had remained, the process would have been far simpler. Without any base to work from, the task became significantly harder.
“If something like this happens again, make sure to bring the arm back even if it’s in shreds. Having something is far better than having nothing.”
“Oh, should I go back and fetch it now?”
“Where does the patient think he’s going? No. Just stay put. It would probably be the same anyway. Give me exactly three days.”
I would have to conserve my divine power for three days and use it all on regenerating Master’s arm. The order to reopen the healing center had made that possible. Otherwise, I would have felt terribly guilty suggesting I take three days off work.
“It will be difficult to endure, so I’ll prescribe medicine. You must be hospitalized, rest, and not go anywhere.”
“I thought a peaceful death in old age was out of the question, but if I can recover my arm, I can endure anything.”
“If you suddenly disappear saying you have somewhere to be, it’s absolutely not allowed.”
“I understand.”
“I’ll change the bandages again. Take this first. It should ease the pain somewhat.”
I took out the painkillers I kept in the room and handed them to Master. He chewed them without water, let out a deep breath, and closed his eyes. I wrapped the wound with fresh bandages.
“Mmm…”
No matter how much painkiller he took, enduring three days of agony would not be easy.
“It looks like it will be quite an interesting time.”
To call a period of pain ‘interesting’ took real nerve. It wasn’t something one could simply endure just by resolving to, yet Master seemed determined to face it with a smile.
“I’ll bring more effective painkillers when I come to work tomorrow. And you need to decide before you’re admitted. The heretic inquisitors are searching for you. What do you plan to do?”
The inquisitors who suspected Master had kidnapped Prince Loras would surely step forward boldly and declare that I was the real culprit. Since Master was the type to say there was no reason to hide, I wanted to bring the matter up carefully and try to resolve it smoothly.
“Those people? What can they do even if they find me? They’ve always had sharp tongues. I’ll handle them, so don’t concern yourself.”
“Do you really think I’ll believe that?”
“Why wouldn’t you? Is your trust in me that weak?”
“Of course it is.”
All the lies Master had told while raising me flashed through my mind one after another.
“You’ve always been good at saying one thing and doing another.”
“They say raising a disciple is pointless.”
“What do you mean you raised me with such care? You raised me by letting go completely. You reap what you sow. You’re the one who raised me this way, Master. So don’t meet them alone and get dragged away—let’s face them together. I’ll speak for you.”
I wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but it was certainly better than letting Master, who was skilled at saying irritating things, speak by himself. Having me there to support him would make a difference.