# Chapter 24. Training the Divine Healing Power (4)
“Thank you, miss!”
“Thanks to you, I’ve fully recovered!”
“An angel, an angel~”
After successfully treating the last patient, we were greeted with praise from the members.
Though the rather imposing uncles were cheering with wide smiles and applause, their enthusiastic gratitude, despite its almost scary atmosphere, was heartfelt, leaving us in a good mood.
“Auuu…”
However, it seemed the attention was too early for Ria. She turned a bright shade of red and, embarrassed, hid behind me.
“Ria, at least wave your hand. They’re cheering because they’re grateful to you.”
“Uh… uh…”
Peeking slightly from behind my back, Ria tentatively waved one hand to the mercenary group.
“Ooooh!!”
Their already lively responses turned even more enthusiastic.
The mercenaries cheered passionately, like middle-aged fans supporting an adorable idol, and Ria, startled by their energetic celebration, clung even closer to my back.
Still, the faint but clear smile on her lips suggested that while not entirely comfortable, she wasn’t completely burdened by the attention, either.
“Thank you, Commander. Thanks to you, my cousin was able to use her talents instead of losing them.”
“We are the ones who should be grateful. To recover so quickly from injuries… we’d almost be tempted to offer her a permanent position as our personal doctor.”
Actually, she’s not really a doctor but a saint, but that’s beside the point.
After exchanging greetings with the members Ria had healed, we returned to the mansion by carriage.
“Bel, take a day off and come back tomorrow morning. I’ll send a carriage for you.”
“Eh?”
“It’s been a while since you have seen your family, hasn’t it? You’ll get a special day off – though calling it a ‘day off’ might be ambiguous – but please take some rest. I’ll inform the others.”
“Ah, thank you!”
Bel, who normally might refuse, accepted with a bright smile.
But I think that’s part of her charm.
Smiling faintly, I waved goodbye to the mercenary group and started heading back toward the mansion.
—
After the carriage had driven off and become a small dot in the distance, the other members turned to their superior standing nearby.
“Finally, they’re gone… all this unnecessary politeness was killing me.”
“Hey, we’re an information-gathering guild, not a brawny mercenary guild. Without any protective magical artifacts, we could’ve all died trying to slay the Hydra.”
“Shut up, all of you. Who made you experts? Die from a tiny snake and I’ll kill you myself.”
“You sure like talking about killing people a lot.”
As soon as the Rab couple left, the disgruntled complaints from the members resurfaced, but Belie silenced their grumbling with a simple “be quiet.”
Unlike Mages, who use their mana cores to activate magic, swordsmen have a separate classification known as Aura Users.
Using the mana-infused aura core located in their hearts for body enhancement, Aura Users are divided into four categories—Beginner, Expert, Master, and Grand Master—depending on the degree of enhancement mana provides to the body.
In truth, becoming an Expert alone is enough skill to become a knight for the Royal Family. The fact that every member of the “Black Blade” Guild achieves an Expert rating makes this group an assemblage of extremely skilled warriors.
Although there aren’t many stages in the classification of an Aura User, making one’s way up is anything but trivial. Reaching each higher level comes with immense pain, often likened to carving the bones. Even more noteworthy is the fact that there are only ten Masters in the current continent and only three Grand Masters have ever existed historically. This emphasizes just how extraordinary an Expert rating truly is.
“Miss, does that mean she won’t come back, then?”
From the side, while casually ignoring the complaints of the members, Crato asked Belie softly.
Actually, he hadn’t spoken up until then, finding his superior’s pretense of aristocratic behavior as uncomfortable as wearing clothes that didn’t fit. But more than that, seeing his superior act so cutesy made him so nauseous that he could endure no more.
“Huh? They’ll be coming weekly, right?”
“…”
“Isn’t it obvious? We need a lot of injured people for the young lady to practice her divine power, and we can’t exactly send out our precious little princess into such blood-drenched monster battles, now can we?”
“Then that means…?”
Belie smirked.
“From now on, you’re going to get battered to death~”
“Wait, Miss! Monster hunting isn’t our primary job! People trained for espionage, assassination, and personal combat operations aren’t meant to be deployed for monster extermination!”
Belie dismissed his concerns.
“Needless to worry. I won’t be making you hunt monsters from now on.”
“Huh? Then…?”
We need injured people without resorting to monster hunts.
Kratto turned to Belie with confusion, but he froze as soon as he caught her sharp, chilling smile.
“Before the young master and the young lady arrive each week, I’ll come earlier. Then all of you will have to practice sparring with me. Isn’t that right? It’s been a while since we’ve done proper practice drills, hasn’t it?”
“…Damn.”
Belie is a hands-on practitioner.
As renowned an assassin as she is across the continent, she favors practical experience over theoretical teachings. She believes that moving her body more than exercising her brain is how she understands concepts.
“Like this, swing your sword evilly and slash ‘shush,’ then it’ll be ‘shack,’ and you’ll dodge, see?”
“About Aura? It’s simple! If you feel something sloshing around inside your heart, just boil it up and send it throughout your entire body!”
“When you sense an attack coming toward you and feel something tingly, just move your body out of the way. That simple, isn’t it?”
Surprisingly, these were some of the actual phrases she used when training her guild members.
To an outsider, her cryptic language might have seemed like encoded messages.
Thus, instead of explaining her assassination techniques calmly to newcomers, she preferred the old-school method of teaching – beating them up relentlessly during sparring sessions until they learned every move by muscle memory.
Thanks to this hands-on combat practice, members of the guild rapidly improved their skills, leading to exceptionally high average combat prowess within the guild. However, anyone who’s experienced Belie’s sparring sessions has extreme apprehension toward practice matches with their commander.
Bizarrely skilled, her techniques leave the participants sore but unharmed, preventing them from using injuries as an excuse to escape future exercises.
“Maybe, after a week or two of sparring matches with me, the kids might grasp the next step, Master. I’ve done so much for the guild, it’s only right for us to have at least three Masters. We feed them, house them, pay them, and make them stronger. Honestly, there’s no better guild captain than me!”
“…Maybe you shouldn’t exist.”
Suppressing the comment almost slipping out and swallowing it, Crato swore to himself to schedule an out-of-town trip in sync with her weekly schedule.
“Sorry, team.”
Thinking survival meant others had to endure, Crato could only pray for the souls of his guildmates in advance.
—
Inside the carriage returning to the mansion.
Ria, still not fully recovered, sat across from me, leaning on the carriage wall for rest.
Her stamina doesn’t come from natural talent, nor would someone like her have any history of strenuous exercise. Healing dozens of people without any issue must’ve been an extraordinary feat for her.
Her current physical state is comparable to having run a half-marathon without any warm-up.
Jolt – Jolt –
Our carriage is expensive.
Purchased at great cost by my father, it is one of the latest models with applied magic enhancements. While improvements have greatly reduced the shaking and discomfort compared to traditional carriages, it still lags far behind the modern-day vehicles. The stability is still lacking.
“Unh.. ugh…”
Meaning Ria, who’s already physically spent, tried to rest by leaning on the carriage wall but was instead tormented by the constant jolts of the ride.
“…Sigh.”
Eventually unable to bear it, I got up and moved to the seat where Ria sat.
“Whoa! Go, Good Master!?”
“Just stay still. Ria is the patient now.”
I helped her adjust her posture, gently placing her head on my lap for her to lie comfortably.
“Ah, already knee-pillowing… hehehe…”
While her long hair covers much of her face, she seems comfortable enough from what I can tell. I’ll have to stay like this until we reach home.
“You’ve worked hard. It must’ve been tough for you, being your first time. Thank you for enduring till the end.”
“Not at all… for the sake of the young master, this much is… nothing.”
“Because it’s for my sake, it feels even more meaningful. I’d like to give a small gift to Ria for her hard work, but…”
“Gift?”
Ria, at the mention of a gift, turned her head to look at me with shining eyes.
“Then, could you perhaps… grant me one wish as a gift?”
“Wish…?”
The deep look in Ria’s eyes made me feel, for a fleeting moment, as though they’d turned a rich, striking red.
Though it might’ve just been my imagination, the intensity in her gaze took my breath away.
