A Lesson in Hunters
Just because I had registered as an Awakened didn't mean my life suddenly transformed. My strikingly gorgeous looks and figure were still a major liability. Unless I worked entirely solo, joining up with others was bound to trigger some kind of disaster.
"By the way, I see you registered as a healer," my sister remarked.
"Why? Is there a problem with that?"
"No, not at all. Healers are basically royalty in this field."
If even my little sister was saying that, healing abilities must hold a highly prestigious position here.
"Really? Do people get hurt that often when they go into Gates?"
To be honest... back in the Hero's party, almost no one got hurt except for that idiot barbarian. Occasionally, Balder would sustain injuries from blocking reckless attacks, but the Hero focused on dodging rather than blocking, so he rarely suffered major wounds. That was why, despite being a rear-line Saintess, I had plenty of breathing room—enough to even fight on the front lines myself.
"Well, it depends on the Gate, but the difficult ones definitely produce critical casualties."
Apparently, it was only thanks to healers—those with healing abilities—that the severely injured could recover without permanent side effects. However...
"Since healers are also in high demand at places like Hospitals, very few of them actually want to risk their lives clearing dangerous Gates. Some only treat people who have already finished a raid, or those who retreated halfway through."
Yet, they were still treated with utmost respect. It made sense. Without them, the ones who suffered most would be the Hunters fighting the monsters on the front lines.
"Ah..."
Hearing my sister's explanation, it clicked. Even on the battlefields of the Other World, priests and nuns were vital assets, often staying in the rear to treat only the transported wounded. Yet, no one ever complained. Instead, people thanked them profusely for their help. Besides, the truly devout priests and nuns had marched to the front lines of their own free will, so no one could criticize them even if they wanted to.
In any case, things were similar on Earth. If anything, the demand here was even higher...
"But how strong is your healing, Sis?"
"What do you mean, 'how strong'?"
"Like, can you actually regenerate lost limbs and stuff?"
Ah, she was asking about the tier of my recovery magic.
"Well, I was a Saintess, you know."
Moreover, since I had returned with my original body and power completely intact, my healing capabilities were utterly absurd.
"I haven't tested it precisely here, but back in the Other World, I could save someone even if their body had been sliced in half."
And I didn't mean horizontally—even someone split vertically down the middle could be saved, provided I reached them within a minute. My healing was so far beyond the norm that I could practically resurrect the clinically dead, as long as I wasn't too late. Of course, once a person died and their soul completely departed their vessel, it was impossible. I could repair the flesh, but summoning back a departed soul was outside my domain. That was the one thing I couldn't do.
"Whoa. If that's true, you're basically a cheat code."
I smirked. "But honestly, I still need to test the limits of my power here."
The Goddess who had once been linked to me was absent from this world. Hemera... that damned Goddess...
To me, she was a wretched deity, but she was also the root and source of the power residing in this body. Without her presence, I couldn't be entirely sure of my current output. I definitely needed to run a proper diagnostic.
At least my Holy Power seemed stable. The sheer volume of divine energy felt almost identical to my prime.
"Hmm..."
"What is it?"
My sister looked like she had something on her mind.
"Um... do you think you could heal someone I know?"
Someone she knew?
"Of course I can."
Given how much I owed her, a favor like that was the least I could do. I'd do it in a heartbeat.
"Just make sure they can move and bring them here."
Fearing that stepping outside would only drag me into another troublesome incident, I told her to bring the patient to our apartment.
"Ah, right. That makes sense."
My sister agreed without raising a single question.
And the very next evening... my sister brought two people to the apartment. Talk about efficiency. How did she arrange this and bring them over in less than twenty-four hours?
"So, this lovely lady is the one who's going to treat us?"
Moreover, why on earth were they both men?
I instantly shot them a suspicious glare. As an older sister, I couldn't help but worry and wonder what their relationship with her was. I was also deeply anxious that my appearance might cause complications.
Fortunately, they didn't show any untoward behavior and maintained a highly respectful attitude.
"First, let's hear what the problem is," I said, speaking casually despite them clearly being older than me.
"Well... you see..."
The first man explained his situation. He had been injured inside a Gate and treated by an incompetent healer, which left him with permanent side effects.
As for what those side effects were...
This is...
The medical knowledge etched into my body as a Saintess instantly diagnosed his condition.
"Your muscles are twisted."
The man nodded, looking slightly anxious. Because the initial treatment had been botched, his muscles had fused incorrectly. It was a medical mishap that occasionally happened in the Other World as well.
"Isn't this an easy fix?"
"Pardon? Is... is it really?"
For some reason, the man was blushing. He couldn't even meet my eyes.
"Just watch..."
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a chef's knife. Then, I sliced right through the deformed muscle!
"Argh!"
A pain-filled scream echoed through the room. Ignoring his agony, I immediately channeled my Holy Power and placed my hand over the wound.
"Ta-da."
All healed.
"Ugh..."
The man grimaced, the lingering phantom pain still fresh.
"Stop being such a baby."
"S-Sis? What did you just do?"
"Huh? I just cut away the deformed muscle."
My sister stared at me, her face practically screaming, What on earth are you talking about?
"I mean, the problem was that the muscle fused incorrectly, right? So you just cut it and let it fuse again properly."
I explained it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, but the three of them stared at me as if I were some kind of bizarre anomaly.
"I mean, logically, you're not wrong, but..."
If you asked if it was actually that simple... well, it wasn't.
"Anyway, your arm is fine now, right?"
"Uh, yeah..."
The patient, who had been whining just a moment ago, was now rotating his arm and flexing his fingers with a bewildered expression. "If it was this simple... why did I suffer all this time...?"
He looked downright cheated.
"It is not simple at all," the other man said, staring at me with dead-serious eyes. "To wield a blade without a shred of hesitation—and not even a finely honed sword, but a kitchen knife—and precisely excise only the problematic tissue? I doubt anyone short of our Guild Master could pull off a stunt like that."
Guild Master...? Now that sounded interesting.
"That's..."
My sister seemed to realize something as well.
"And did you see the speed of that healing? It took less than a second the moment she laid her hand on him."
"You're right. Even an A-Class healer would have taken some time."
"I have no idea where you managed to find someone like this."
I observed the man who was analyzing the situation so thoroughly. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, and the articulate way he spoke made him seem quite intelligent. Judging by how polite my sister was being to him, he likely held a high-ranking position.
"Alright, next patient?"
"Mmm..."
He looked slightly intimidated.
"Well, I can already see what's wrong."
The second man had internal organ damage. It seemed he hadn't received proper healing. My eyes picked up surgical scars on his abdomen, as well as deep-seated issues within his viscera.
"You had surgery on your stomach, didn't you?"
"Tsk. How did you know?"
"Trade secret."
Honestly, I couldn't explain it even if I wanted to. It was a passive discernment ability bound to this body. I only realized why I possessed such a power during my days as a Saintess: to instantly identify where someone was hurt, what treatment they required, and who was in the most critical condition so I could act immediately.
"Five years ago, a chunk of my abdomen, along with several internal organs, was torn out. But the healers capable of treating it refused to help."
"To be precise, they didn't outright refuse; they just claimed they were too busy," my sister added, a hint of sorrow creeping into her voice.
The healers within their guild lacked the skill, and when they requested aid from other guilds or private healers, everyone declined under the pretext of being too busy. Meanwhile, his condition was rapidly deteriorating, requiring immediate intervention...
Ultimately, instead of receiving magical healing, he had to undergo conventional surgery at a hospital.
"It's all in the past now..."
Because of that, simply reopening the wound to heal it was out of the question. People even claimed that healing magic wasn't miraculous enough to fix an old surgical site.
Ah, so that was why? I had wondered why they were living with such debilitating side effects when even basic muscle damage should have been an easy fix...
It turned out the healing technology of this world was simply lacking. Or, based on what they just said, other factions had intentionally withheld treatment to keep these men in check.
"Are you going to gouge my stomach open too?"
"Hmm..."
Reopening the wound to heal it was technically possible, but it would turn into a massive, messy ordeal.
"Let's see..."
This wasn't the first time I'd encountered a case like this.
"Judging by your condition, your body has been severely weakened from losing multiple organs." I poked gently at his surgical scars.
"Indeed. I lost my left kidney, along with portions of my small and large intestines."
In other words, this wasn't a matter of simple healing; it required complete organ regeneration. Fortunately, among the Divine Arts, there was a spell for exactly that.
Had I treated him right when the injury occurred, it would have been a breeze. But fixing a long-settled issue on a body that had already partially adapted to the loss was a different story. Even for a Saintess, this would take some time...
"I need to prepare. Wait here."
Leaving the three of them in the living room, I headed to my bedroom. I pulled out some blank white paper and began drawing intricate geometric patterns. They were Spell Circles designed to assist with Divine Arts. Normally, I could perform this without them, but since I wasn't in peak condition, I decided to use them as a stabilizer.
I prepared five Spell Circles in total.
"So... you want me to lie down completely naked?"
"Yes."
When I answered with a bright smile, they stared at me as if I were some kind of pervert.
"T-this young lady is certainly full of surprises..."
"It's obviously for the treatment. What on earth are you thinking?"
Ignoring the man's nonsense, I arranged the papers with the Spell Circles across a wide space on the floor and channeled my Holy Power. Once the five circles were linked by threads of divine energy, the setup was complete.
"Huh? What are you doing?" I asked, staring the patient who was about to slip off his underwear.
"Didn't you tell me to strip naked?"
"You only needed to take off your shirt..."
Why would he...? Then I remembered our brief exchange about being "completely naked." Ah, so when I said "yes," he took it literally and thought he had to strip down to his birthday suit?
"My mistake." I should have been clearer.
"Ahem!"
The man cleared his throat awkwardly, quickly pulling his pants back up, and lay down in the center of the Spell Circles.
"Alright, everyone else, step back."
I cast the Divine Arts Body Reconstruction and Body Optimization simultaneously. Body Reconstruction would generate entirely new organs, while Body Optimization would force them to integrate seamlessly with his existing biology.
It wasn't a highly recommended method—in fact, it was rather crude. If I had treated him right when he was injured, a simple regeneration spell would have sufficed. But because of the circumstances, I had to resort to this tedious process.
As I began channeling the Divine Arts...
A brilliant, blinding light filled the entire apartment.
The Holy Power I unleashed slowly seeped into the patient's body, and the effects began to manifest. Inside his abdomen, the missing kidney, along with the surgically altered small and large intestines, were reconstructed from scratch and fused with his existing anatomy through Body Optimization. As the optimization took hold, the newly formed organs gradually became one with his body, restructuring his physical vessel.
"Done!"
About ten minutes had passed. A treatment that was somewhat tricky even for me had finally concluded.
"It's over already?"
"Is he really cured?"
Even my sister looked incredulous.
"Yep."
Hehe. It was a bit tricky, but the organs settled perfectly. I could see the newly generated organs functioning flawlessly inside him. He was now as healthy as any ordinary person.
"You can go to a hospital to get a detailed checkup if you want to be sure."
"Sis, I..."
"No need to thank me."
I gathered the spent Spell Circles and tore them up.
"Whoa... I suddenly feel incredibly energized."
The patient's complexion looked remarkably better. As expected, the healing was a complete success.
My sister observed the situation, hesitated for a moment, and then escorted the two men out of the apartment.
Who on earth were they?
Given the mana radiating from their bodies and the nature of their injuries, they were undoubtedly Hunters. But did Hunters have factions too? Guild politics, perhaps? To think they would refuse to heal someone over something so petty... How pathetic.
Well, at least I was able to help.
By the way, what was their relationship with my sister? They didn't seem like boyfriends. Superiors? Colleagues?
About three hours later, my sister returned.
"Um, Sis... thank you so much."
According to her explanation, the two men were her former mentors—retired Hunters who had been forced to step down due to their lingering injuries. But now that those injuries were completely gone... they could potentially return to active duty.
"I'm really, really grateful."
"Don't mention it. What I've received from you is far greater."
My sister didn't seem to agree, but... if it weren't for her, if she hadn't taken me in, I probably would have gone down a very dark path. In a way, she was a hero who kept a potential walking disaster like me in check.
After that, I went back to wasting my days away, cooped up in my room. My sister didn't bring any more patients over. The men I healed sent a hefty sum of money as a token of their gratitude, which completely solved my financial worries.
The only problem was that I ended up spending that money on sex toys.
No, I hadn't planned on spending it like that... but once I had some financial leeway, my curiosity got the better of me.
At this rate, instead of a holy Saintess, I might end up as a horny Saintess...