v3 Chapter 10: As a Healer
“True, it'd be presumptuous to call myself an escort, and I don't really have anything to do even if I go to the Plains...” Haru grumbled.
“We might be on the older side, but we're still in the junior group,” Shouko said to Haru with a bright smile. “We're kids, so I was thinking you could just treat it as a rare trip and do some sightseeing.”
“Of course, since we're going, I'm not going to just work either, I'll do some sightseeing too! I'm especially curious about what tasty things they have.”
“Right?!” Haru agreed enthusiastically.
Hearing this, Aura put her hands on her hips and sighed. “This is exactly why I came all the way here to say this. Two girls together, and all you can think about is food? What's wrong with you?”
“Even if you ask what's wrong...” Shouko started.
“O-of course I'm interested in fashion too!” Haru quickly added.
Haru and Shouko averted their eyes slightly. Of course, they were interested in fashion too. It was just that they were more interested in food. However, being spoken to as if their 'girl power' was low was offensive. Shouko nodded, having decided something.
“Okay, that's why Haru will be in charge of clothes!”
“Eh, ehhh?!”
“Our girl power is being questioned!” Shouko pleaded. “Haru, you're relatively free, so you handle it! Please!”
And thus, Shouko dumped her own girl power responsibilities entirely onto Haru.
“No, um, it's not that I mind,” Haru accepted, though unsure. “But, for salesgirl-type work, what exactly should I do?”
“That's easy, just go to the shop you were introduced to and ask,” Shouko advised simply.
“Shouko, just because you're not doing it...” Alfie interjected.
“I'll help! Okay?” Shouko promised.
Haru, who couldn't help but start laughing, nodded as if to say, 'Oh, well'.
“Also, make sure you check out the Plains trends properly!” Aura added.
“We'll check, we'll check!” Shouko readily agreed (on Haru's behalf).
Aura looked at the overly agreeable Shouko with cold eyes. “Shouko...”
“H-Haru will check!”
“Eh, ehhh?!”
And that's how Haru ended up in charge of fashion.
The High Priest (Sain) is a healer of the Deep Forest. Normally, he doesn't move from the Northern Town of the Deep Forest, and those wishing to learn from him come ceaselessly from other towns and territories. However, requests do come when, like in Haru's case, it's absolutely necessary not to move the injured, or when broad training is needed for regional healers, and the High Priest usually accepts such requests.
Healing, fundamentally, is the work of bringing soul energy from the goddess's source to repair the soul's memory. If one is injured, the soul's memory is damaged; if the soul's memory returns, the injury also heals—a truly mysterious mechanism by which bodies function, from Shouko's and the others' perspective.
“Just having magic already feels like another world, but soul memory and stuff is just too mysterious, right?” Shouko sometimes discussed this with Haru, but with things like 200-year lifespans, there were too many points to question, and eventually, it stopped mattering. Still, because Shouko was a healer, she couldn't just leave it at 'mysterious'.
Furthermore, although it's said to be possible with just the aptitude, precisely because it's the simple act of bringing energy from the goddess's source, it also means that one's power won't grow without personal effort.
“I've come to think this recently,” Sain explained, “but there are two points: one, efficiency improves through effort and ingenuity. And two, continuing practice raises one's healing quality. These two things are important for a healer.”
However, the Plains inherently have few monsters, and injuries are also said to be infrequent. Therefore, there's no need for effort or ingenuity, and the quality of healers is low, the High Priest explained.
“A request from the Plains is certainly a first [in a long time]. Since I traveled there out of interest in my youth... it would be over 100 years ago... no, 120 years?” For the High Priest, who was over 150, 20 years or so was practically a margin of error. While explaining the details of the current request to Shouko, he also told various other stories, so Shouko greatly enjoyed talking with the High Priest.
“Well,” Sain mused, “whether it's increasing healers or training them, it's something each territory should handle. I think I'm just going to help, but whether it will go that smoothly...”
What was on the High Priest's mind as he frowned slightly was the Lakes region. When they went to get Haru, despite monsters and injuries increasing in the Lakes, the church wasn't considered important, and the healers remained in a state of status quo.
“Linus also said he wanted to come study, but he's probably too busy to make it. Even going to the Plains, surely they won't dump everything on me...” The High Priest, cutting off his words like that, must surely have anticipated that relying on a healer from the Deep Forest specifically meant that possibility was high.
“Moreover, the request is from a single regional city. The town with the shop Aura's family trades with; apparently they relied on that connection to request me. Although the entire Plains seems to be experiencing an increase in monsters, the territory as a whole hasn't acknowledged it or taken measures. It's the same in the Deep Forest, though. The letter stated that other places in the Plains are overwhelmed just dealing with their own areas and don't have the leeway to dispatch healers to other towns.”
The High Priest wanted to say that the Deep Forest didn't exactly have leeway either. However, he had also been concerned about the Plains, and it was true that without an opportunity like this, he didn't know if he'd ever be able to make the round trip to the Plains—taking a month and a half—in his lifetime, so he couldn't suppress his curiosity.
“Conduct the Trial of Aptitude anew to increase the number of healers themselves, raise the power of the currently existing healers, and propose increased potion production... That's about all that can be done, I suppose.”
Shouko startled at the High Priest's words, muttered not particularly to her. “That's right! Thinking about it, even without healers, injuries should heal if there are just potions! Even if the High Priest doesn't go—ah, not that I don't want to go either, but if they just increase potions and distribute them...”
“Shouko,” Sain interjected, “besides hunters, do the townspeople carry potions?”
“Eh, come to think of it...”
Now that he mentioned it, Shouko had mostly associated with hunters and didn't know what the regular townspeople did.
“But the junior group, even those who aren't hunters, all have potions attached to their pouches.”
“Mm. Children are prone to injury. But what about adults?”
Thinking about the townspeople after being asked that, not everyone wore a pouch.
“Adults rarely get injured,” Sain explained. “They likely have them at home, but surprisingly few carry them around.”
Shouko had been taken in by Falco, a hunter—a special profession, though not uncommon in the Deep Forest—and immediately started work as a healer, so she actually didn't know much about the lives of so-called ordinary townspeople.
“Gina...” Shouko thought.
“A former hunter, now an innkeeper and a cook,” Sain clarified. “She has many opportunities for injury, so she keeps potions readily available.”
The other people Shouko knew also had unusual jobs.
“I don't know about those who do farming,” Sain considered, “but they should use metal tools like sickles and plows, so I'd like to think they keep potions handy. Hmm, perhaps it's necessary to check from there and ensure awareness... no, is this the same in the Deep Forest too?”
There was no harm in thinking, but there seemed to be too much to think about, enough to make even the High Priest weary.
“Before going to the Plains, I'll have to have a word with the Apothecaries' Guild here too. It's troublesome, but this is also a healer's job, I suppose.”
If it was about keeping people healthy, then yes. Shouko still respected the High Priest, who could think in such a way.
