NOVEL WEB Chapter 6
“`html
Tydel was sitting on the sofa in her personal research lab, lost in thought.
Although she didn’t particularly want to, she had been watching Erpa for a long time.
Erpa was an expressionless witch who effortlessly brushed off any criticism or attacks with grace.
However, yesterday marked the first time she revealed fragments of intense emotions.
The Saint of Healing.
And the left side of her hidden face.
It was a hunch I decided to poke at, and it seemed like I might have hit the nail on the head.
But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
“If half of her face is distorted or hurt, can’t she just heal it with healing magic? What’s the need to meet the Saint of Healing, complicating matters? This person could be a fraud, for all we know?”
Erpa was a widely recognized master of body modification and healing magic. She also had deep expertise in transformation magic.
Even if half of her face was hurt, healing magic should suffice, so why meet the saint?
“What if it’s a condition that can’t be healed with standard healing magic? So severe that she needs to find the saint?”
She slowly rummaged through the vast knowledge in her mind to see if such conditions existed.
Standard healing magic, body modifications that couldn’t remedy the twisted condition.
Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.
“Abomination.”
Once every few hundred years, beings are born cursed from birth, grotesquely twisted in body. There were legends saying such beings brought great calamity.
Because their horrendous appearance was a result of a powerful curse, it was said that it couldn’t be changed by magic or human efforts.
Of course, it was now proven to be a baseless legend.
Due to a mana imbalance within the body, a condition arises that cannot be healed by standard magic or potions, resulting in body mutations—this was the essence of an abomination.
Now, it was understood as a rare disease difficult to treat; no one believed that the mere existence of it was the work of some devil bringing calamity.
“Except for the White Church, which serves the God of Justice, Dulane.”
The White Church was known as the empire’s top demon-hunting group, but it also had a reputation for causing various problems due to its outdated mindset.
They executed people in ways that violated imperial law.
Or, they would cast innocent citizens as demon cultists or demon worshipers and try to execute them without trial.
Nonetheless, the empire sought to manage the incidents caused by them as they rounded up countless demon cultists and demon worshipers every year.
And, of course, White Church priests attended the regular academic conferences.
If I could unmask that witch, Erpa, at that place…
Wouldn’t it be so satisfying?
“Erpa, you could look forward to this.”
She would surely be overjoyed at the thought of pushing her thesis aside and being designated as the next Mage Tower Master.
But it will happen soon.
The day her laugh is forever erased is not far off.
A joyful smile crept onto Tydel’s lips for the first time in a while.
***
“That witch isn’t in the Mage Tower, they said. I heard they’re looking for a Dark Magician.”
At the knight’s words, I felt darkness closing in around me.
This was the worst-case scenario.
It would have been better if they had just said she wouldn’t meet with me, at least then I wouldn’t have felt so frustrated.
A Dark Magician would be the absolute worst.
How on earth would I find a Dark Magician who keeps their identity completely hidden?
Should I just say I thought the Dark Magician was burning the world as a prophecy?
No way.
That could lead to being beaten or attacked long before I could even treat them.
That would increase the likelihood of bursting even further.
Ultimately, the most logical and safest way was to wait for a witch somewhere in the empire to hear the rumors about me and come find me.
Yet right now, I had no time to sit around and wait calmly.
Since I hadn’t even uttered a word about Lilia, suddenly everyone was worshiping me as the Saint of the Goddess Lilia, I was in a time attack situation.
“Thank you for your efforts, Sir Knight. Do you have any idea when the Lilia Church members will arrive in the capital?”
Three days.
What are the odds of a Dark Magician witch with four arms finding me within those three days?
A Dark Magician would likely be incredibly suspicious, so I doubt they would come looking for me, clearing all doubts, within just three days. No way.
“Knight, is there any chance you could look into that Dark Magician?”
I couldn’t say it was because I’d die if I didn’t find her!!
That the empire was on the brink of collapse!!
Because if I said that, even if I found the witch, there was a risk that the knights would turn hostile and mess everything up.
“…I see.”
The knight looked deeply moved by my words, expressing my intent to heal even a Dark Magician.
After the knight hurried off, I returned to the slum, where crowds of people were swarming.
They seemed to have heard the rumor about the saint offering free treatment, as all sorts of people lined up endlessly.
I tirelessly treated each person one by one, not flagging at all.
As I continued to perform body modifications, I grew increasingly skilled and familiar with it.
Now, my speed in body modification was significantly faster than at the beginning.
What on earth… how are there still so many patients?
I wore a pained expression while putting on the most benevolent smile possible, continuing to heal people.
Then, a father and daughter approached me.
The man with a gaunt jaw spoke with a face full of sorrow.
A scrawny young girl who could hardly walk approached me.
Oddly enough, the entire child was coated in filthy mud.
Without thinking, I placed my hand on the girl’s head to proceed with the body modification.
‘Hmm?’
As I monitored the true state of the child hidden beneath the mud in a 3D format, strange aspects began to catch my eye.
There were whip marks on her skin.
Mysterious bruises in strange shapes adorned her arms and legs.
They looked like the marks from being tightly bound by a sturdy rope.
Moreover, what was inside the child’s belly…?
That wavering white thing.
It was labeled as male semen?
I stopped the body modification.
Given the clear circumstances, I couldn’t just stand by.
As my tone escalated, the knights by my side, along with the police and other slum dwellers, began shifting their gazes toward me.
This bastard.
Can he not see it’s so obvious?
Looks like I need to use one more skill.
Last time, when I tried to use Time Stop, it landed in the wrong place, so I concentrated hard, burning with the intense will to use a skill on the man in front of me.
[Using the skill Absolute Hypnosis!]
Fortunately, the skill effectively targeted the right person this time.
He nodded, a look of unjust despair on his face.
The man desperately covered his mouth with his hands, but it was already too late.
He began to flee.
But I had no intention of letting him get away.
Time Stop.
I had already used it once.
I focused my mind on the man’s body, specifically aiming at his heart.
I was still overly tense, but fortunately this time, I managed to place a local time stop within the man’s heart perfectly.
The fleeing man fell to the ground clutching his chest.
As he writhed on the ground, I lowered my hand and canceled the skill.
The police officers around me quickly rushed in to capture him.
Because I put you under hypnosis, you bastard.
There’s no need to interrogate him at the police station.
He’d just spill the truth from the get-go.
After diverting my gaze from the man, who kept unintentionally confessing the disadvantages to himself as he was dragged away, I placed my hand on the head of the painfully thin young girl still standing there.
Like for the others, but especially for her this time, I devoted myself to modifying the girl’s body.
Before three minutes had passed,
the girl transformed from a malnourished and beaten body into a normal, cute child.
Once I wiped away the mud concealing the marks of abuse that adorned hers, she looked much more like an ordinary girl.
But I didn’t stop there.
I again used the Absolute Hypnosis skill on her.
As I focused, barely managing to hold onto the drifting control of the skill, I applied it to the girl, and her eyes briefly glazed over before coming back into focus.
I gently stroked her head, looking at the girl.
Even if it is a skill linked to adult games,
using it this way doesn’t seem bad.
I glanced at the knight beside me.
Seeing the knight’s face, I realized my mistake.
He was in tears.
The slum dwellers around me were also shedding tears and bowing down.
Some were wailing loudly.
Cold sweat began to pour down my forehead.
The knight didn’t even hear my words and left while pouring tears of joy, taking the young girl with him.
As I watched the knight distance himself along with the screaming slum dwellers, I secretly broke into a cold sweat.
I had never even spoken of ‘Lilia,’ yet here I was, becoming an undeniable heretic impersonating the goddess’s saint.
The moment the people of the Lilia Church find out I’m not a devotee, it won’t be a joke anymore; I’d really be accused of heresy and sentenced to burning.
Burning, damn it!
While continuing to heal the slum dwellers, I thought to myself.
Please hurry.
I hope they quickly find a Dark Magician with four arms from the list of heretics! Hurry!
“`