The Trip — 3
Among the ingredients for the restorative tonic was an item called Healer's Grace.
It was a material obtained by healing people, and one that played a crucial role in the crafting of medicines.
Healer's Grace could only be earned by treating a certain number of afflicted individuals, but despite its lofty item grade, it was surprisingly easy to come by.
Naturally so.
All it took was heading out for one battle, taking a few hits, and getting patched up to rack up the points.
Back in my gaming days, I'd accumulated quite a lot of points this way myself.
But now that the game had become reality, pulling that kind of stunt felt a bit... awkward.
In truth, I had tried it a few times.
My method: catch a bandit, stab him, heal him, stab him again, heal him again.
But after doing it a few rounds, the subject failed to endure the pain and died on me. What a weakling.
I attempted it several more times after that, but eventually I had to accept that the infinite heal-farming of the game was impossible in the real world.
So with the easy route off the table, I had no choice but to do it the honest way.
"You'll... heal us...?"
Had he heard my call?
One old man, barely able to stay upright, dragged himself over and asked.
From the look of him it was food poisoning, but a case this mild was simple enough.
I ground up the herbs and detoxifying greens I'd bought, blended them into a powder, and handed the medicine over.
"Oh... it's gone! I'm cured! I'm cured!"
It was a fast-acting medicine, and it seemed to have taken effect immediately.
The old man whooped with joy, then suddenly flinched and went pale.
Probably scared I was about to demand payment.
"I don't need money!!"
All I need are the points!
"Heal me first!"
"Our mother is sick!"
"I was here first! I'm getting treated first!!"
"Oh, my lord! I've got a wound on my thigh here—"
Was it thanks to healing that one old man free of charge?
The spectators, until now just watching from a distance, came sprinting over with their eyes practically rolled back in frenzy.
Haha. Come one, come all. My precious points.
"Sowol. Line these people up."
"Huh? Oh—yes, of course! Everyone, please form a line!!"
But the frenzied crowd paid her shout no mind.
Flustered by the chaos, she finally let her hand drift to her waist.
"Eeek?!"
"Y-you little brat?!"
"If you get slashed by an awful little brat, you'll just have even more wounds needing treatment, won't you?"
Look at her. Already knows how to leak a killing intent. Nothing but endearing.
When Sowol growled her warning, the man who'd been about to throw his weight around flinched and backed off.
Watching the crowd slowly arrange itself into a line before me, I applauded Sowol.
"Nicely done."
"It was nothing. By the way, will you be staying here?"
"Yeah. Until every last one of them is treated. If you get bored, feel free to go somewhere else."
"I'm fine."
Really? Then I'd love it if you ran a few errands for me around here.
***
Sowol didn't return until evening.
Lyla had been expecting her to come back glowing from a pleasant time spent with Lee Hyun, so the sight of Sowol looking utterly haggard made her start in shock.
"M'lady?! What happened?!"
"I'm tired..."
She really did look exhausted.
Sowol trudged over and collapsed face-first onto the bed, and Lyla grew all the more flustered.
What on earth had startled her so badly that she'd wear herself out like this?
The question gnawed at her until she couldn't bear it anymore.
So as she helped Sowol out of her clothes, she asked.
"Where did you go?"
"The back alleys..."
"The back alleys?"
Why on earth would she go there?
The back alleys held nothing but the city's dark side—beggars and the sick and dying. Hardly a place for someone like Sowol, who belonged in the brightest spots of society.
The mystery refused to resolve itself.
Lyla sat Sowol up, pressed a cup of water into her hands, and asked again.
"What were you doing back there?"
What had she been doing, indeed.
Even Sowol couldn't say for certain. They'd entered the city, bought out half a pharmacy's worth of medicine, gone to the back alleys, and treated people. Free of charge, no less.
And was that all?
All she could really say was that watching Lee Hyun treat those people had been remarkable.
He handled festering wounds as if they were nothing, squeezed pus from swollen abscesses with his bare hands, and tended to people who reeked from weeks without a bath without so much as a wrinkle of disgust.
A man of Lee Hyun's caliber would be upper class wherever he went, waited on hand and foot for the rest of his days.
And yet a man like that was doing all this?
Even the Church didn't tend to those people with such utter devotion.
"I don't know either."
Sowol murmured weakly, then recounted the day's events in a calm, steady voice.
Having heard it all, Lyla couldn't hide her astonishment either.
"Why did he do that?"
"I don't know. I really don't."
"Didn't you ask him?"
"I did. But the only answer I got back was 'It's for your sake.'"
"For your sake? But why would that be...?"
One of the beggars had asked him the same thing.
Why would he treat people like them? Where on earth did the money for all that medicine come from?
Lee Hyun had answered lightly.
The medicine had been paid for by Sowol, and the healing was being done for Sowol's sake.
Thanks to that, she'd received praise from the people of the back alleys that she never could have expected.
But what did it even mean?
What value did their praise hold, that Lee Hyun would say something like that because of it?
"Hmm... There's a story from the East that might fit."
"What story?"
"It says that every person's actions carry 'karma.' They either pile up good karma or bad karma, and down the line, that karma comes to shape their fate in powerful ways."
"That actually happens? Then every villain in this world should meet a terrible end. But the more villainous someone is, the fatter and happier they live, don't they?"
The world wasn't that forgiving.
Live virtuously. Bring no harm to others.
Never live a lie.
It was what the teachers who'd instructed her in her youth were forever droning on about.
But was the world really like that? Sowol didn't think so.
"That may be true, but still."
And this was something Lyla understood as well.
Neither Sowol nor Lyla was so naive as to be swayed by such musty old tales.
Which meant Lee Hyun certainly couldn't be ignorant of it either.
"I just can't fathom what goes through Master's head at all..."
Wriggling restlessly on the bed, Sowol grumbled in evident irritation.
At that, Lyla smiled sweetly and quietly rose from her seat.
"You said even asking him yourself didn't get you a straight answer, right? Then shall I ask him?"
"You think he'd actually tell you?"
"What if I just ask casually, in passing?"
"Hmm... Yes! I'm counting on you!"
Bathing in Sowol's bright smile, Lyla stepped outside.
They were currently staying at an inn arranged by the Rozen Trading Company.
Leaving the finest room in the inn—where she and the warriors who'd accompanied them were all lodging—she looked down below.
In the spacious hall on the first floor, the warriors had gathered around someone, hanging on his every word.
"When hunting a Black Tiger Goblin, aim for the legs. The third leg in particular—"
"Bwahahaha! Master, what if you run into a female Black Tiger Goblin?!"
"Then you run."
The atmosphere was absolutely cheerful.
Under normal circumstances, a gathering of warriors on their way to an escort job never looked like this.
An escort run meant you could run into danger at any moment.
So in the past, everyone had simply nursed their drinks in silence, killing time while carrying their worries—and their fears—about the journey ahead.
But tonight was different. Perhaps because they were traveling alongside an overwhelmingly powerful master, there wasn't a shadow of dread to be found on a single face.
"Say, Master, how did you become so strong?"
"Because I have a goal."
"What kind of goal...?"
"Hmm, who's to say? Raising my disciple properly, I suppose?"
Raising his disciple properly. Did that mean he genuinely intended to make Sowol strong?
Lyla descended the stairs slowly, listening in on their conversation.
To the warriors' endless questions, Lee Hyun answered without the slightest reluctance.
Some of the questions were crude jokes, others were genuine inquiries about the martial arts.
But he answered all of them with what seemed like heartfelt sincerity.
Would it be all right, given this mood?
"Then, Master—why did you credit everything that happened today to my lady's merit?"
She slipped the question casually into the rowdy chatter. A Lee Hyun flushed with drink would surely answer without thinking twice.
Which was exactly why, when his gaze swung toward her, Lyla's shoulders flinched and shuddered.
His face, flushed deep red, was proof enough of how much he'd drunk—look no further than the empty bottles stacked before him.
And yet.
Even so, even so, Lee Hyun's eyes were chillingly sharp.
The blade-like intensity of that gaze felt as though it were skewering straight through her heart, and Lyla swallowed hard without meaning to.
"Because that is what Sowol needs."
With a gentle smile, Lee Hyun replied, perfectly calm.
There didn't seem to be a single grain of falsehood in that smile. The impossibly clear laughter of an impossibly strong man.
Lyla could only stare at it, transfixed.
"Alright! Drink up!"
The din swelled once more.
As Lee Hyun took command of the room again, Lyla slowly pressed a hand to her chest.
Thump.
Was it because that smile of his from moments ago still lingered in her mind?
Her heart was in turmoil.