It's Fine, Right?
It's Fine, Right?
The effect of free treatment was undeniable.
It was the second day since I'd started healing in the capital.
Yesterday, and today again.
So many people had gathered before my eyes that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a sea of humanity, bustling and clamoring.
"Saint!! Saint!!"
"My son is ill! Oh Saint! I beg of you!"
The shouts of the sick and the poor echoed like a chorus.
I was exhausted and so worn down I felt like I might die, but my mood wasn't bad.
It seemed that word of mouth, at least, was really spreading exactly as I'd intended.
"In order. Don't push. Come slowly, keeping your turn."
It was a moment, mechanically repeating a line I didn't know how many times I'd said that day, continuing to treat people one after another.
"Move aside!! Move aside, you filthy wretches!"
A group of people shoved through the crowd swarming around me and approached, shouting loudly.
A vivid flame shape was engraved on their chests.
They were clergy of the Sun Order, who served Lopers, the god of the sun.
I'd heard of the Sun Order before.
They were people who believed that status and wealth were granted by god.
Naturally, they believed the poor and lowly were made that way because they were cursed by god.
Along with the Order of Grace, which served the Goddess Lilia, they were one of the representative orders that made money through healing, but while the Order of Grace was closer to public healthcare, these men were strictly for the wealthy upper class.
In medical terms, you could say they operated a VVIP-only hospital.
Seeing the Sun Order priests appear, accompanied by holy knights in plate armor with longswords and police armed with pistols and clubs, the poor hesitated and parted before them like the miracle of Moses.
The muscle-bound giant at the head, a man so large it was hard to tell if he was a priest or a bear, stomped up to me.
"The Healing Saint, I see. So you're the saint sent by the Goddess Lilia, are you?"
No. I mean, I'd never so much as uttered a single syllable of the Goddess Lilia's name, so why...
I mechanically delivered the same line I'd given all the other poor people to this hulking man in front of me.
"I do not belong to any order. I am merely one who heals the sick."
"Merely one who heals the sick, you say?"
"Yes. One day, I received a powerful will to do so from a being I do not know. And so I am merely acting according to that will."
How about that?
Are you still going to suspect me?
At my prepared self-defense line, the poor people around us began murmuring before raising their voices.
"He healed us!!"
"You dirty businessmen who only chase after the coattails of the rich! If you're not here to heal us, why did you come?!"
"Stop interfering and get lost!! My son is sick! He needs treatment!!"
At the cries of the poor, the Sun Order priest let out a shout of tremendous volume.
"Shut your mouths, you filthy scum!"
It was a voice brimming with holy power.
He had used some kind of magic or miracle.
Otherwise, it was absolutely not a sound that could come from a human mouth.
I froze on the spot, unable to move, having taken that volume at point-blank range, but the priest seemed to interpret that differently.
"You have plenty of nerve, I see. You must be either a truly great fraud or a genuine saint, judging by how you don't even flinch?"
I still couldn't give any answer, my body frozen.
The priest burst into laughter at my appearance.
He looked around at the poor.
"Look at them! They swarm in like locusts because a saint has supposedly appeared, holding out their hands without paying a single coin! How are you any different from beasts? The Sun Order has always been open to you, too! We merely receive a modest fee!"
"Those fees are outrageously expensive!"
"If you want to live, can you not even earn that much money?! Is your desire for life so cheap?! You are shadows! Wretches who cannot receive the sun's grace!! There is a reason Lopers has abandoned you!"
They were clearly furious, but the poor did not step forward, fearing the holy knights' swords and the police pistols.
He made a grand speech, but if you parsed the true intent behind those words, wasn't he just saying that it was unsightly that I was sweeping away all his potential customers in his territory?
That giant probably came to stomp me down for the prosperity of the Sun Order.
Because competing businesses always have to be crushed while they're still sprouts.
What to do about this.
I was in a position where I needed to keep healing here and spread my reputation.
I had no choice.
It seemed I needed to take a slightly more aggressive stance here.
"You tell wretches born disabled and beaten into ruin by their environment and the world to go earn money? Isn't that like telling a man who can't even walk to go run?!"
When I suddenly shouted, the Sun Order priest had a slightly startled expression.
Good.
This works.
Keep pushing!
Just do some healing in your territory and let the word spread!
I have to do this to stop the world from ending!!
"Who are you to disparage their will to live as cheap?! They are not cheap! I simply brought those robbed of even the right to stand at the starting line back to the start! It is you, who insults human life and the will to survive, who are cheap!"
Honestly, I was scared that giant might hit me.
But even so, I puffed out my chest as much as I could and yelled.
If the world ends, you die too!!
I'm putting on this whole damn show to save you, too!
So please, stop interfering and just get lost!!
"No matter what you say! No matter what those police and holy knights over there do to me! I will not stop the work of bringing the weak and wounded to the starting line!!"
The moment I finished speaking, a tremendous pressure was felt at my back. I could sense the poor staring at the Sun Order priest with murderous expressions.
"Do not harm the Saint!!"
"He is one who works miracles!!"
"He is not a fraud!!"
The beggar I'd treated first jumped out and fanned the flames of mob mentality even higher.
"Look! Look! He healed me! He caressed me with divine grace!! The boils that covered my body are gone, and my leg, twisted since birth, is now whole and sound!! After seeing this, do you still mean to say he is not a saint?!"
"Hear, hear!!"
At the tremendous roar of the crowd, the police and holy knights also hesitated.
The giant priest of the Sun Order seemed flustered as well.
"Quiet! I said be quiet!"
He let out another ear-splitting shout.
The poor people hesitated and stepped back again, but their eyes were still blazing with life.
The priest also seemed to have realized that shouting was no longer working and that it was time to change tactics.
"A saint who has appeared for the first time in 300 years, then. How impressive. There have been countless saint impersonators over the years. The vast majority of them ended up as charcoal at the stake. Whether you really are a saint as you claim. I shall have to test it."
The man's eyes were as cold as a snake's before its prey.
"Fraudsters impersonating saints have one characteristic. They can only display a single miracle. Why? Because they are fools who deceive people with simple magic! If you are a true saint, you would know how to perform various other miracles, would you not? Show me another miracle. I will judge whether you are a saint or not based on that."
I instinctively knew it was a trap.
Shit.
Body Modification was naturally blocked.
If I demonstrated Body Modification again, they would say, 'See! He is a fraud after all, unable to perform more than one miracle!' and drag me away.
Probably to the gallows.
There was a high possibility of a dangling, swinging end.
Then... Sensitivity 3000x?
If that giant priest reached climax while yelling, 'I am an unqualified male sow who climaxes from flame nipples!! Ngyooooooh♥♥,' the holy knights behind him would immediately declare it a wicked pagan spell and drag me off.
That was also a dangling end.
What about Absolute Hypnosis?
Hypnosis...
Also a dangling end.
If the priest suddenly changed his tune and said, 'Ah. That person is a true healer. He kneaded the thoughts inside my head for me,' even I would think it looked too much like pagan sorcery.
Then what remained was...
Only Time Stop.
I had no choice.
A bluff! It's a bluff!
"You do not believe that I came to heal the sick."
"We've had a fair few fraudsters impersonating saints."
"You are not worried that I am a fraud. You are merely a merchant concerned about the Sun Order's potential customers vanishing."
"Are you insulting the Sun Order now?!"
The holy knights erupted in fury and moved to draw their swords.
Turning the Sun Order itself into an enemy would be an idiot's move.
I hurriedly added to my words.
"I am not insulting the Sun Order or Lord Lopers. I am merely saying that this man before my eyes is a filthy individual."
The giant priest let out a guffaw full of scorn.
"My, how your words grow long. Nothing is more hollow than speech. If you are truly a saint, prove it with a miracle!"
At those words, I raised my hand.
"Very well. I shall show you."
My plan was this.
When I first tested the skills, I had already learned that Time Stop could be selectively applied only to a localized space.
I intended to use that to cast Time Stop only around the priest's legs.
Then, after immobilizing him, I would say something like, 'See! You doubted me and are now punished and cannot move!'
That was roughly the line I planned to deliver.
Of course, since I'd only tested and used the Time Stop skill exactly once before, I was worried my control would be a complete mess.
But I had to try.
I had bluffed this far; if I did nothing, the gallows were a certainty.
"Heavenly punishment upon the unbeliever."
After delivering a vaguely impressive-sounding line, I aimed at the giant priest's legs and cast Time Stop...
Wait.
Wouldn't it be bad if it hit there?
I-I can't control this!
Because my proficiency is low, the control is... Ah, shit!
"Gurk! Grrraaaagh! Uaaargh!"
The giant priest suddenly clutched his chest and began trembling violently.
"Grrrk... Grrrrk... Ggrrrk..."
After trembling, he soon went limp from cardiac arrest.
I frantically tried to release the Time Stop, but my panic only made the control worse.
"Priest Barduk!! Priest Barduk!"
"Please wake up!"
The holy knights rushed over to the giant priest.
I was still frozen with my hand raised.
Please let it release quickly!! Please!
Only after thirty seconds passed was I barely able to release the localized Time Stop on his heart.
"Cough! Hurghh!"
Seeing Priest Barduk gasp for breath again, the holy knights drew their swords with grim eyes.
A white aura like blazing flame coiled around their blades.
"This pagan fraud dares to falsely claim to be a saint and tries to murder a priest of the Sun Order?!"
"We shall burn you at the stake!"
I was screwed.
I froze again.
If the holy knights took one more step toward me, I felt I might piss myself, roll on the ground, and beg to be spared.
And thankfully, the holy knights did not take one more step.
"Priest Barduk! Are you alr—!..."
Unlike the holy knights who had moved to arrest me, one of the knights supporting the collapsed Barduk stopped mid-sentence.
And it wasn't just him.
Every single one of the poor, including me, and the police, too, all had their gazes fixed on Barduk.
Why?
Because Barduk's face had changed.
The muscle-bound giant was gone, and Barduk, whose body had suddenly shrunk, was now a thin, wiry man with a serpentine look.
And on that man's forehead, a clear Inverted Pentagram was drawn.
The man urgently touched his own forehead, and his face went pale.
"An Evil God Worshipper!"
One of the poor people shouted.
"An Evil God Worshipper had changed his form!"
This time a policeman shouted.
The holy knights also shouted.
"The Inverted Pentagram on his forehead!"
"The symbol of the Evil God!!"
"Arrest him!"
Bam, crash, thud.
The Evil God Worshipper who had been disguised as Priest Barduk was arrested.
I just stood there blinking, eyes wide.
Did that... go well?