A Saintess's Touch
I spent the next few days running Gates for the Murim Alliance. Ork Valley, the Orc Colosseum, the Kobold Forest, and so on. I cleared several D- to C-class Gates, but none of them seemed to have any connection to the Other World. The reason... well, I wasn't entirely sure, but it was likely because they were all dungeon-type Gates.
Today, unfortunately, I wasn't heading into a Gate. I was at the guild headquarters.
"Ugh, what a pain."
"Is healing people really that much of a chore?" Seohui asked.
"It's just dealing with people in general that's a chore."
It would be one thing if they were people I knew, but meeting strangers was exhausting in more ways than one.
"Well, from what I heard, there are only about twenty of them," Seohui said.
I had told Jegal Cheon to find test subjects whose conditions were as close as possible to the VIPs who had booked appointments. He must have worked himself to the bone, because he managed to gather twenty people. I was going to run some simple tests on them. You could call it an experiment, but for these people, it was a chance to be cured for free. Even if they knew they were guinea pigs, they had no choice but to grab the opportunity.
In any case, when we arrived at the guild and pulled into the parking lot, Jegal Cheon was somehow already waiting for us the moment we stepped out of the car.
"You have arrived, Lady Nix?"
"I have."
"Allow me to escort you."
His attitude was so cautious it made me wonder what on earth was wrong with him. I had a good guess as to why, but wasn't this a bit much? Even my sister was looking at Jegal Cheon with a look of pure disgust.
Jegal Cheon led us to a conference room on the eighth floor. Apparently, this was where I would perform the treatments. The patients would wait in the main conference area, while I stayed in an adjacent private room.
Since I had arrived early, I decided to set up. I could have healed them using only my Divine Arts, but to be safe, I decided to draw some magic circles. As I scribbled them onto sheets of A4 paper with a pen, the patients began to arrive.
"Whew. I'm strangely nervous."
"Really?"
Seohui had slipped into the room before I noticed.
"It's not like I'm going to make a mistake, but you never know what might happen, right?"
"With that level of confidence, I don't think you have anything to worry about..."
I leaned back arrogantly in my chair and crossed my legs.
"Got a problem with that?"
"Nope. My job today is to stand guard and protect my incredibly talented big sister."
She claimed she wanted to stay by my side just in case something went wrong. Soon, the patients began entering one by one, and the treatments commenced.
The first patient was a man who had lost his arm to a monster during the early days of the Gates. He looked to be in terrible shape, likely due to years of stress and hardship.
"Is... is it really possible?" he asked, his eyes filled with desperate hope.
It was a gaze of pure desperation.
"Yes. So hold still."
I laid out the magic circle I had prepared and drew a knife. When the patient saw the blade, a flicker of fear crossed his face.
"Seohui, hold him down so he can't move."
"Huh? Oh... okay."
Though caught off guard, she followed my instructions perfectly. As she pinned the patient down, his eyes trembled with anxiety.
"This will sting a bit. Bear with it."
I jabbed the knife into his stump. I didn't plunge it in deep—just a tiny nick, about two or three millimeters.
"Argh!"
Naturally, the patient writhed in pain. It was a good thing my sister had a firm grip on him.
I slapped the paper magic circle over the fresh wound and channeled my Holy Power. A brilliant light flared, and the healing process began.
Even as he was being healed, the sensation must have been agonizing, because he kept thrashing around.
"Behave yourself!"
Annoyed, I slapped the patient across the cheek.
"U-Uh, Sis?!" Seohui gasped.
"If you keep thrashing like that, the bone and flesh might knit back together wrong."
Once I gave him a good scare, he finally stopped moving. Well, he didn't stop completely, but he was clearly doing his absolute best to hold still.
"It's itchy, right? That's just your nerves firing up as the arm regenerates. Endure it."
The treatment took about five minutes.
"My... my hand..."
Seeing his tearful, overwhelmed expression made the effort feel worthwhile.
"Alright, you can leave now."
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
So noisy...
The next patient had a genetic disorder. Talk about a sudden spike in difficulty... I decided to use a slightly underhanded method to treat this one.
Body Optimization. It was a divine art that allowed me to completely restructure a person's genetic code. It was a technique utterly impossible by modern science, and even for me, it consumed a significant amount of energy.
"Um... is it really okay for me to lie on the desk like this?"
"It's for the treatment, so just lie down."
She carefully lay down on the desk. I arranged the paper magic circles around her and activated my Divine Magic. This treatment would likely take over thirty minutes.
"This is taking a while," Seohui noted.
"Yeah. I have to reconstruct her entire biology..."
"Don't you need to focus?"
"I do."
But this body, sculpted by a goddess, was simply too perfect. Multitasking at this level was child's play.
Every treatment was accompanied by a bit of a commotion, and whenever a cured patient returned to the waiting area, loud, sobbing cries echoed through the walls. They were probably overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing their loved ones fully healed.
Some wanted to thank me in person, but I had them all sent away. I absolutely detested tedious social interactions.
In any case, after curing genetic disorders and treating various minor ailments, the work was finished in no time.
"As expected, that was easy."
Having done it myself, it was clear there had been no need to worry.
"That really is an incredible ability."
"Of course it is. I told you, I was a Saintess."
The final patient was...
"Hair loss..."
A man in his twenties suffering from severe, premature hair loss.
"Um... can you really cure hair loss too?"
Looking into his sorrowful eyes, I couldn't help but feel a pang of pity.
"Hmm... didn't you say it was severe?"
The man bowed his head, reached up, and grabbed his hair. The relatively thick head of hair he seemed to have... was entirely a wig.
Once the wig was removed, it revealed a sparse, patchy scalp. The remaining hair was in such poor condition that a few loose strands fluttered down to the floor just from him taking off the wig.
"Uh, well..."
Honestly, it was too tragic to even crack a smile.
"My hair started falling out in high school, and it eventually became like this..."
He lamented that he didn't even feel alive anymore. He couldn't date, and life was just a constant struggle.
"Ahem... it should be possible. However, it won't just sprout back instantly, and you'll need to maintain a strict care routine."
"Yes, I'll do whatever it takes! As long as it can be cured..."
The man looked ready to drop to his knees and beg right then and there.
"Anyway, let's give it a try."
Whether it would actually work, though... even with my specialized vision, male pattern baldness wasn't classified as an 'injury.' Still, it fell within the realm of treatable conditions.
Once the treatment was finished, I gave him some parting advice.
"If possible, shave off whatever is left and let it grow back fresh."
"Yes, yes! Thank you so much!"
He bowed repeatedly as he made his exit.
"Sigh..."
What a truly pitiful soul.
"Curing baldness... even for a Saintess, that's pretty wild."
"Well, I am rather incredible."
It wasn't like my powers had absolutely no limitations, but at this point, they were practically omnipotent.
In any case, that wrapped up my work for the day.
"I'm feeling a bit tired, actually."
"You worked hard. It's a bit late, but let's grab some lunch."
"Ah, I wonder if the kids are downstairs?"
"Ah-young and Gyuri?"
"Yeah."
"They should be, right?"
Since Seohui had been by my side the entire time, she wouldn't know for sure either.
"Go see if they're around. If they haven't eaten yet, let's all have lunch together."
"Alright. Rest up."
I leaned back in my chair and waited leisurely.
Fortunately, the two had been so busy with training that they hadn't eaten lunch yet.
"What should we eat?"
"Um, well..."
Ah-young and Gyuri were busy walking on eggshells around my sister and me. I hadn't called them over for them to be this tense...
"Seohui, is there anything good to eat nearby?"
"Good food? There are a few decent places."
She mentioned that starting from a nearby gukbap place, there were several restaurants, and most of them were pretty good.
"Honestly, if they weren't good, they would've gone out of business by now. The fact that they're still open is proof enough."
I suppose that made sense.
"Then... how about a Chinese restaurant...?" Ah-young suggested timidly.
"Out of nowhere?"
"W-Well..."
"Honestly, she's too shy to say it herself," Gyuri said, giving Ah-young a look of mild exasperation.
That was a true friendship right there.
"She's loved Chinese food for a long time. Since she grew up in a tough spot, she never really got to eat out. Back in the orphanage, they'd only order Chinese food when something really good happened."
So that was why she loved it so much.
"Should we order delivery, then?"
"Delivery sounds perfect," Seohui agreed.
I didn't feel like going out anyway, so eating comfortably in here was the better option. Ah-young's face was flushed red with embarrassment.
"There's a place we've been ordering from since this building was first constructed. Their food is really good," Seohui said, looking strangely excited.
My sister seemed surprisingly enthusiastic about this.
"What do you guys want?"
"I-I'll have the jajangmyeon..." Ah-young mumbled.
"Jjamppong for me!" Gyuri chimed in.
"I'll have a half-and-half bowl. And order sweet and sour pork, yuringi, kkanpunggi, and chili shrimp too."
Seohui glared at me, while Ah-young and Gyuri frantically waved their hands, saying we didn't need to order that much.
"Why not? If we can't finish it, we can just give the leftovers to someone else. Isn't it better to have a delicious variety when we're eating anyway?"
Truthfully, I wanted to treat Ah-young and Gyuri to a proper feast.
"Well, if you say so, I'll order," Seohui said.
Seeing Ah-young's dazed, overwhelmed expression brought a small smile to my face.
Perhaps because we had ordered so many dishes, the delivery took a bit of time. The delivery driver was briefly held up by security on the first floor, but Seohui resolved it quickly.
In the very room where I had been healing patients just moments ago, I sat down with the girls to enjoy our late lunch.
"As expected, meat is the best."
The Other World had its own diverse culinary cultures, but because humanity was constantly on the brink of extinction, gourmet dishes were an unimaginable luxury. Deep-fried foods like this, which consumed precious oil and flour, were practically nonexistent. Perhaps that was why it tasted even better.
"By the way, Seohui, it seems you've gotten quite close to these two."
"Well... we're only a year apart, so it just happened naturally."
They seemed to have formed something akin to a friendship, though Ah-young and Gyuri still appeared a bit reserved. They probably felt they couldn't act too casually around an A-class Hunter.
"Fufu, how cute."
This was just a guess, but my sister had started working as a Hunter at a very young age. The reason for that was ultimately my fault, but because of it, she likely never had a normal social life. She had no friends her age, female Hunters were rare, and her surroundings were filled with people much older than her. In short, she never had the chance to make proper friends.
But then, she somehow met girls her own age. They were kind-hearted, shared the same profession, and had plenty in common to talk about. Her status as an A-class Hunter usually made it difficult to form genuine connections, but now she finally had friends she could let her guard down around. To my sister, these two were incredibly precious.
I had originally taken them in simply because they were good kids with potential... but to think it would turn out like this. Well, I couldn't confirm if my theory was entirely correct, but it was highly likely. Having watched over my sister for the past year, I could read her that much.
True to Gyuri's words, Ah-young clearly adored Chinese food. She stuffed her mouth with jajangmyeon, dipped her sweet and sour pork, paired pickled radishes with her noodles, and eagerly reached for the spicy garlic chicken. She was eating with absolute gusto. When she noticed me watching, she blushed and tried to eat more politely, but...
"You really have a wonderful appetite."
She often showed this side of herself.
"Hehe... I guess because I didn't eat well growing up, I've developed a bit of a greedy appetite..." she admitted sheepishly.
She was embarrassed, but she answered honestly.
"Is that so? I think it's lovely."
Was this what people meant when they said watching someone else eat made them feel full? Strangely enough, watching her eat actually stimulated my own appetite. It was a heartwarming sight.
"Ah, I've felt that way before too! Ah-young really does make everything look delicious, doesn't she?" Gyuri chimed in, having noticed the same thing in the past.
We enjoyed our lunch in high spirits. Even though Ah-young was clearly full, her eyes kept lingering on the remaining food. Food greed... normally, being too greedy with food could look unappealing, but to me, she just looked incredibly adorable.