A Healer’s Burden
“Ahin,” Er’s voice came low and hesitant, “if we’re going to meet him right away, how do you even plan to keep your head from exploding?”
The question hung between them, and the serious look on Ahin’s face made her answer before she could stop herself.
“You’re joking, right? You don’t know this guy? He’s the kind of person who throws people into the sea after tying rocks to their legs for just adding a little chili to the stew—!”
He might have been joking, but the way he was trembling made Er let out a soft laugh and answered anyway.
“Still… you’re not planning to just run away, are you?”
“…What’s the point? Even if I ran, he’d catch me. The whole reason I brought Jina along was so that no matter what, we’d have to deal with him.”
The sudden absence of theatrics in Ahin’s voice made Er close her mouth. Jina, stepping in for her, picked up the thread.
“Ahin, then what are we supposed to do?”
“…I’ve been thinking about it. I’m already doing the mission Master entrusted to me. I found the Black Mage’s trail, but I’m not going to kill him the moment I see him, right?”
“Same thought here, but the problem is…”
Jina pointed a finger straight at Er, whose eyes had gone wide as she eavesdropped on their conversation.
“Ahin, when he finds out you’ve been using your skill anywhere and everywhere, it’ll be impossible to hide.”
“What’s the harm? It’s my skill.”
“This isn’t just you. The hunters from the Werewolf hunt, the village chief of the town we just cleared—they all started dropping their abilities left and right. The real issue is people who never learned proper control!”
“…Then what? I had no choice!”
Lately Ahin had been noticing the pattern.
Every time his skill was needed, something terrible happened. If he didn’t use it, someone died. If he tried not to, it forced him into a binary choice: either use the power or watch people die. The kind of forced ultimatum that made him sick of himself.
“…I’m holding you to that promise.”
“You’re really—”
“It’s fine. I can always spin some story about it being magic…”
“Ahin, that’s not magic.”
The quiet voice that cut him off belonged to Haru, who was methodically scooping spoonful after spoonful of soup from her fifth bowl. Her sky-blue eyes were half-lidded as she looked at him.
“I don’t know what it is. So… anatomical?”
“Stop with the creepy talk… we should actually think about how to handle this.”
“Will we even meet him?”
“Everything counts.”
The city didn’t let them leave.
They’d just end up facing Master in the worst possible light anyway.
Not because they didn’t want to see his face, but because they would only see it when they had no choice.
When they were ready.
When they had to.
After sorting his thoughts, Ahin stood up.
“Still, for now we should at least try to live like normal people. If the guild catches me wandering around again, the scolding will be the only thing I get.”
“Long-term lodging, then?”
“I’m thinking about booking a room at the guild’s official Silver-rank hostel. It’s cheap and not bad.”
“True, but…”
Er looked uneasy, and before she could finish speaking Jina shot to her feet.
“Ahin, you know the guild dorms are four-person rooms, right?”
“Of course I do. You think I’d not know?”
“Then you know the rules, too?”
“…What rules?”
The sudden drop in Jina’s voice made Ahin swallow hard without meaning to.
Looking at his stiff face, Jina lowered her voice.
“Every single night, the male dorms turn into some kind of game.”
“…Game?”
“Yeah. Called the Train—”
“What kind of nonsense is this?!”
Crash!
Er slammed the table, and the stack of bowls beside Haru teetered dangerously. Luckily they steadied themselves.
“T-that’s just an old rumor! A long-running joke!”
Er’s face, by contrast, had gone red with panic.
“Of course no one would do something this insane in a four-person room!”
“You never know—maybe it’s normal for people who aren’t us.”
“There’s no way! The rules are so strict!”
Er, who had once stayed in guild dorms as a low-rank rookie, answered with a wry expression.
“It’s annoying. There are time limits for entering and leaving, and rules about meals and schedules…”
“Time limits? Then what about people who come in late or leave late?”
“They start making exceptions and the floodgates open. Basically, if you don’t like it, move out and live somewhere else.”
That was why even many Bronze-rank adventurers who could afford better lived in private rooms, and once they reached Silver-rank, they often bought their own houses.
“I jumped out the moment I hit Bronze. It was way too tight—food tasted terrible.”
“Ahin, you’re staying at a fancy inn in the city, right?”
“Yes, I got a long-term discount…”
“How much?”
“Roughly… this much?”
Er spread her fingers carefully.
Ahin looked at the number and shook his head.
“That’s more than I can afford to sleep on.”
“Ahin, you’re doing pretty well financially now, aren’t you?”
“It’s not about money. Once I get used to it, I’ll just get more tired. I need to keep the habit of being ready to sleep anywhere stamped into my body.”
“What kind of life are you even living…”
Er gave a helpless laugh, but Haru—clearly having finished her seventh bowl—continued in her slow drawl.
“Ahin… do you have a place to sleep?”
The faint blush on her cheeks made her look almost childlike as she tugged at his sleeve.
“I need a place to stay.”
“…What?”
Haru looked small and dazed, yet she was a Silver-rank mage—the highest-tier healer in Carpe’s own guild, the one who took every high-end quest.
Of course she owned a house.
“Plenty of empty rooms… I can let you use one, right?”
“You—you’re saying what I think you’re saying…”
“Instead, I have a favor to ask.”
“…A favor?”
Ahin tilted his head, confused.
“Anatomical…”
“Stop saying creepy things again!”
“…If I went there, would someone come at night with a knife?”
“I think that’s a real possibility too.”
After hearing both Er and Jina, Ahin hugged his own arms around himself.
“…I don’t want to rent a room to someone who might stab me in the back any second.”
“Of course that’s the problem! How can a man and a woman live under the same roof…!”
“Ahin, sometimes you seem a little… inflexible…”
Jina shot Ahin a look as she finished.
“…Can’t you leave her alone? She can’t attack anyone anyway.”
“So you’re saying you’d never do anything like that?”
“…Huh?”
In this world, the deeper the bond between a man and a woman, the more things could happen.
Since Ahin couldn’t attack or cause direct harm, if he couldn’t even do the other things people did—
“Ahin!!! I have something to test!”
“Get away from me, you psycho!”
“You can’t do this! Ahin can’t be the impotent one!”
“Who’s the impotent one?!”
Amid the chaos Ahin was pushing Jina away, Er sat alone, eyes half-closed in thought. Haru’s sky-blue gaze lingered on her.
“…Haru, do you really have to anatomically examine Ahin?”
“Huh? Er?! What are you saying right now…”
“Anatomical examination is fine. But if it’s not…”
Haru’s half-lidded eyes swept over Ahin’s entire body as she spoke.
“Close-range observation or blood sampling…?”
“Ahin, that was your entire plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Haru tilted her head in confusion, and Er let out a soft laugh.
“So you were going to scare us and then offer different conditions.”
“…How did you know?”
“Even if you look as clueless as you do, you’re still sharp enough to figure that out.”
Er narrowed her eyes.
After a moment of silence, Haru finally spoke—something unexpected.
“…How much money?”
“I don’t need money. But I do have one other condition.”
“…What condition?”
Er smiled like a cat who had just found the perfect mouse and said, “How about you join our party?”
“Join the party?”
“Wait—don’t add any more women!”
Jina, who had been trying to lunge at Ahin the entire time, finally stopped and asked.
“If Haru starts studying Ahin, she’ll gather all kinds of data, right?”
“So?”
“Then we’ll know every single one of Ahin’s secrets…”
“You’re joking with me, right? You think that’s a legitimate bargaining chip?!”
Er’s expression turned awkward as she watched Jina leap up.
No way Jina would accept such a lame excuse.
Er had underestimated her.
“You really are good at negotiating! I admit it! I can’t stand keeping Ahin’s secrets!”
“…Eh?”
“Even if it doesn’t work, I can at least have his blood or his hair or—hehehe…”
Er’s face looked exactly like someone who had just opened a forbidden box the moment she saw Jina’s sudden shift.
“Wait, hold on! You can’t just take my blood and hair whenever you want!”
“Ahin, think about it. Haru’s a Silver-rank adventurer, right?”
“…So?”
Approaching Ahin, Er covered her mouth with her hand.
“Two Silver-rank adventurers means we can take higher-rank quests, right?”
“It’ll be dangerous! I care more about my life than money—”
“Probably something like this level?”
Ahin watched Er open and close her fingers a few times and laughed in disbelief.
“You should have said that from the start! I’ll give you as much blood as you want!”
“…You two really do look alike.”
Er smiled as she looked at the two of them. Her gaze eventually landed on Haru, who had been watching the entire exchange with dreamy, unfocused eyes.
“And one more condition.”
“…What is it?”
Haru nodded lazily, as if anything would do.
“While Ahin stays at my house, I’ll stay at yours too. You said there are plenty of empty rooms, right?”
“You too?”
“Yes, well…”
Er’s tail hung low as she glanced at the bewildered Ahin.
“I need someone to watch over you!”
---
Philanthropist (Passive)
The golden eyes that had once been the envy of every temple priest now only made people look at him like he was harmless. The skill that had once been a curse was now his only weapon—and his only burden.