Reborn Healer Chapter 32

“Sir?” My father asked. “Is there something wrong?”

“Direct order from the Lord Prince Gerald Halcyon, Lord Healer,” the guard said apologetically. He leaned in closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. “It’s exam season for most of the guilds, so the city is much busier than ususal. There’s been word that there may be an attempt on the Lord Prince’s life.”

“That is a serious concern,” Vallis acknowledged. “By all means, feel free to.”

Since my father was calm, I tried to remain so too. Judging by the slow stabilization of Mizuki’s feelings, the half-elf was doing the same.

“If you and your companion could please step out of the carriage?” the guard asked. “The driver can remain where he is, but we need to verify his identification.”

“Very well,” Vallis said, his impassive expression not giving anything away. “I assume you need to see ours as well?”

“If you could, Lord Healer.”

I hopped out of the side of the carriage, ID in hand.

“Lord Healer Vallis Kane,” the guard said, handling my father’s card with the utmost care as he ran it under a bulky handheld device that I assumed tracked mana signatures. “We truly do apologize for the inconvenience.”

He checked me next, frowning as he examined the name. “Red. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

It was definitely a little more awkward to use a fake name when I was with my father, but we didn’t look terribly similar, and we had an excuse for it.

“He’s my apprentice,” Vallis said. “I vouch for him.”

“Of course, Lord Healer.”

The lead guard proceeded to the driver, and then indicated two others to search the inside of the carriage.

“There is a young lady inside,” Vallis warned, loud enough that Mizuki could almost certainly hear him. “I require proper use of my laboratory to heal her properly. She suffered a festering injury that bears signs of the eastern blood plague. Please do not get too close to her.”

The disquiet that drew from the guards about to enter was obvious even without my empathy skill. Gingerly, they stepped into the carriage.

As they did, I sensed a sharp flicker of emotions from Mizuki. Betrayal slipped into confusion and panic, followed by a mild sense of relief and a stronger one of determination.

I winced as a spike of pain joined those too.

One of the guards hurried out of the carriage, panicked. “Lord Healer! She’s bleeding!”

“I told you not to disturb her,” Vallis said, a hard edge in his voice. “Please step away from the vehicle.”

The guards hurried to do so, and he re-entered. A few moments later, he was out.

“If you don’t mind, I and my apprentice have business to attend to,” he told the head guard.

“Of course, Lord Healer. My sincerest apologies.”

We got on the road again. Only once we were safely past the checkpoint did I look back at Mizuki. The blanket covering her was partially stained red now.

“The hell did you do?” I asked her.

“Stabbed myself right under my belly button,” she said cheerfully. “Bled all over the place, but it’s not a terrible place to bleed from if you know what you’re doing.”

“I apologize for putting you in that position,” Vallis said. “I assumed you wouldn’t want your identification checked.”

“You assumed right,” she said. “Well, it wasn’t about the identification. I don’t want them to see me.”

The purple coats hadn’t been showing up Southside for some time now, but even then Mizuki hadn’t wanted to chance entering more than she absolutely needed to. It had been three purple-clad guards who’d tried to kidnap or kill her in the first place and leveled the clinic in the process, and that was enough for her not to risk seeing any of them.

“Hopefully that won’t be a problem after we make it into the guilds,” I said. “Guild members get different privileges, right?”

“Depends on the guild,” Vallis said. “The Federation should.”

The trials were to begin at the guild’s headquarters, so the driver had no problem in getting us close. We couldn’t actually get into the street itself, though, because it was packed.

“Wow,” I said, looking around as I hopped out of the carriage, lifeline in hand. “Didn’t realize there were going to be this many people.”

The line to get in wrapped around the street multiple times, thickening so much it was redirecting traffic in a whole city block.

“You weren’t kidding,” Mizuki said, whistling. “Reminds me of the spring festivals back home.”

“You had a spring festival there?” I asked, surprised. “I thought that was just a human thing.”

“Not traditionally, but the last few decades, yes,” she said. “The youth all liked it.”

“You say that like you’re not one of them.”

“I wasn’t.” Mizuki craned her neck. “We’re the youngest people here, aren’t we?”

She was right, though the bulk of people here were also pretty young. Most were teenagers, though there were more than a few adults and even the odd old man or woman. Some of the latter seemed to be accompanying their children, but others were definitely there on their own.

Judging from how well-kept most of the equipment I saw as, not to mention the quality of the clothing, it looked like most of the applicants were Northside kids. I supposed that made logical sense. Around this age, Southside teenagers would probably get enlisted by their parents to help in their own jobs. Dungeon diving was generally not even in the question, let alone doing it for a guild.

There had to be at least a few hundred people here, steadily being processed by the receptionists at the gates of the headquarters. We were on our way to enter the line when I heard someone calling out our names.

“Ren! Mizuki!”

Not the names we went by on our official identifications. Sebastian had identified our real names quickly enough, but this wasn’t him. It must have spread.

Murmurs spread amongst the already loud crowd, people trying to figure out who the person at the guild gates was talking to.

The voice was a little tough to recognize, and I realized why when I saw that it was Arthur waving towards us at the entrance.

He sounded less pissed now, and through the crowd of voices, his wasn’t as immediatley ear-piercingly annoying.

Mizuki and I weaved our way past the line, drawing the attention of everyone we passed.

With my senses trained as sharply as they were, I could feel the weight of their jealousy weighing down on my shoulders. The applicants in the line gossiped amongst themselves, very few of them bothering to hide what they were saying.

“…two fucking brats…”

“…gonna set them straight in the tests…”

“…don’t even care if I get in, I’m taking that bitch for myself.”

Jesus, I thought. I took note of some of the faces I saw talking. Someone was going to have to teach these little shits that actions had consequences.

Nobody tried to actually stop us as we got in, which left me a little disappointed. It might be a crime to spear someone through the face for talking shit, but it would have been really satisfying.

“Don’t mind these pricks outside,” Arthur said to us, his familiar cockiness back now that he was slightly irritated. “Not even one in twenty of them has what it takes to be a guild adventurer.”

He closed the door behind us, bringing us into the guild hall proper. It was even more crowded inside than outside.

“Place is just gonna get fuller and fuller till they process everyone for the year,” Arthur said. “There’s better places to be.”

“You’re acting real nice today,” I said. “What happened to you’re not ready for this?”

Arthur stopped and pivoted, leaning down to address me. “Kid, I’ve seen my fair share of overzealous idiots like you try their luck in the World Dungeon and die. I’ve seen a couple people get absorbed by oozes, slimes, swallowed by monsters and all that shit. Then I saw you crawl out of that thing, melting. Then you not only live but also decide to come back? Takes balls, kid, even if yours haven’t dropped.”

Still had an insult in there, huh. “I appreciate the kind words,” I said drily.

The archer led us to a break room mostly filled with faces I didn’t recognize, most of them wearing guild colors. Still, it was a good bit quieter than it was outside, so I was more than happy to wait here for the time being.

They were better at pretending like they weren’t talking about us than the applicant line outside had been, but it was still pretty clear what the talk of the town was.

“So,” I said. “Are there any tips you can give me for the exam?”

Arthur snorted. “You? Nah. I’m sure you don’t need anything.”

The statement was blasé, but he wasn’t quite as good at hiding his emotions as he probably thought he was. Arthur was deeply shaken by my presence. A whole mix of feelings were wrapped up in that. I focused on it more closely, not having much else to do while we waited.

Empathic Insight lvl 9 -> 10

Interesting. Even though my warrior core was still at Initiate, it seemed like one of my cores being at Adept actually made it easier for my lower-tier skills to level up. Focusing on my soul and trying to intuit how my skills interacted with it with a neurotic frequency meant that I was very conscious of how my progression felt, now.

Arthur was an interesting case. The arrogance and need to prove himself that I’d seen the first time I’d run into the guy was still there, but it was much more the latter than the former now. Beyond that, he was scared, his hand unconsciously going to his his belly where I’d stabbed clean through him with my lifeline. Every time he noticed he was doing it, he forced himself to stop and look casual.

I could piece together the story from there. He hadn’t abruptly had a change of heart and decided to turn the other cheek, I’d guess. No, he wanted to prove to himself that he could face his fears, be the kind of tough guy who didn’t care about anything or anyone even and especially if he’d gotten his shit kicked in by a twelve-year-old.

Or maybe I was completely off base, and those emotions stemmed from a different cause. Hey, sue me. I wasn’t a psychologist in my past life, and even with the insights I got into people, I wasn’t perfect in this one either.

Around us, the other guild members in the room were distributing papers amongst themselves, scrawling down words with ink quills and clay pencils.

“Oh, right,” Arthur said. “We should get you an exam form. Oi, can someone get these two a form? Make it quick!”

Same old dickhead, I thought.

Soon enough, someone passed us the same forms the other people in the room were filling out.

Mizuki looked around in confusion. “Why are there so many guild members taking the test to get into the guild?”

I had guessed a while ago thanks to the general mood of the room, which was a lot lower than it had been outside.

“Washouts, I think,” I said. “People in poor standing?”

“Yeah, got it in one,” Arthur said. “Some people retake it to keep themselves sharp, but mostly it’s people who are under quota trying to justify staying in.”

“Huh,” Mizuki muttered. “Where I’m from, if you don’t do your job, they’ll just cut your hands off.”

“Are you taking it?” I asked, glossing over what she’d just said.

“Fuck no. The last thing I need is more paperwork for accidentally killing a bunch of teenagers in the exams.”

To be honest, I could see that. As much as Arthur’s personality was still grating enough that I hoped this was the last time I’d seen him, he was undeniably a good archer with a hell lof a lot of power behind his draw. If he hadn’t been trying to show off during our duel, he might have been able to land a solid hit on me and possibly critically injure me.

I looked down at the paper. There were a few obvious fields to fill out—name, age, address (which was optional, though I put down Vallis’ clinic), tier, and the like. I put Adept down for the tier, since I planned on registering as a mage and not a warrior.

What I hadn’t been ready for was the option to select different types of exams. There were six overall: three for warriors, and three for mages. The latter was split into offensive, defensive, and healing exams.

“What’s the difference between these?” I asked. “Do they end up putting you into different roles?”

“Five of them end up funneling into the same test in the end, but yeah,” Arthur confirmed, glad to have something he could one-up me on.

That was kind of sad, I reflected. Sure, I was an abnormally talented twelve-year-old, but come on. There were better things to celebrate over.

“Five?” Mizuki asked. “Which one’s different?”

“Healers,” someone else from the crowd called out. “Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear. If you’re even a decent healer, Federation’ll usually end up taking you. Cushy gig. Wish I knew healing magic…”

“Oh, come off it, Yarrow,” Arthur said. “You’re good enough with water that you’d easily have silver or gold rank if you actually got off your ass and did shit.”

“Fuck you, Arthur.”

“Fuck you, Yarrow. Good luck not getting your ass handed to you by this kid.” Arthur turned back to us, rubbing his face as if he could get rid of his glare that way.

“So,” I said, trying and failing to ignore the death glare that fair-haired Yarrow was affixing both of us with, “healing is the easiest?”

“Yeah,” Arthur said. “Hate to give it to him—“

“Fuck you.”

“—but Yarrow’s right. Wouldn’t give up my life for a healing affinity if the world depended on it, though. It’s cushy, but seven hells if I don’t pity those poor fools.”

“Pity them?” So far, it sounded like a solid gig. I just wanted guild connections and information, so I was half-tempted to pick the healing exam on the spot. If there was a catch, though…

The archer nodded. “Our quotas are all mission-based, yeah? For someone like me or the party you saw me with, that means dungeon dives, clearing out monster nests, stopping crime, all that fun stuff. The life of an adventurer. Healers have to come in six days a week, ten or twelve hours each day, and be ready to heal.”

“Healers don’t go out into the field?”

“Nope. Healers are too valuable to waste in the dungeon. They stay in the guild. Lots of ‘em end up living here. Can’t go too far without an escort, either. When we’re on assignment, we usually heal with items or just try to evac to home base so we can get patched up.”

Okay, that was a lot worse than I thought it would be. Because I’d been raised by Vallis and was a healer myself, I hadn’t had pictured healers as a rare resource, but there were evidently fewer of us than I’d expected.

Arthur peered curiously at me. “What’re you picking? My party said you were a healer, but there’s no way you are, right? Just had some crazy good items and a self-regen spell or something?”

Ah. I saw what he was doing. He wanted to find more reasons to justify why he’d lost the duel to me. He was still stuck on that.

“Yeah,” I lied. “My father is a private healer, and we make a ton of healing concoctions that I bring with me.”

The best lies were mostly truths. With that context, I really didn’t want to be a guild healer.

It wasn’t just because I thought my talents would be better used healing people who truly needed it both out in the field and in the clinic, though that was definitely a large part of it. THere was a part of me that itched for the thrill of combat, for the rush I got when my life was in danger and I had to achieve that perfect flow state to survive.

I wondered briefly if this new world was making me go crazy or if I’d just always been like this and unaware of it.

In the end, I selected the option for offensive mage. It fit how I operated best, and the examples of who should sign up for it included people who used spells to wield weapons, which was close enough to what I did.

Mizuki had selected “skirmisher” as her test, which was a fair assessment of what she was suited for. The other martial options were “frontliner” and “sniper,” and while I would argue that there was a case to be made for her being a frontliner, the listed suggestions pretty clearly pointed it to being a tank role like Henry’s.

After we were done filling out the forms, they dissolved into nothing in our hands. I watched the process carefully, but I couldn’t make out much of what it was actually doing as energy bound itself to our wrists, marking us with different colors that I assumed indicated which exam we were taking.

“That’s that, then,” Arthur said. “You’ll start the first or second phase split up, but you should be able to find each other after specific testing has passed. Oh, and Ren.”

“Yes?” I didn’t like his tone of voice.

“We’re dueling again after you get into the guild. A fair fight, this time.”

Was he seriously implying I had cheated somehow last time? I gave him the benefit of the doubt for assuming that I’d be able to pass the exam without much difficulty, at least.

“Sure.” I shrugged. “When do the tests start?”

“Shouldn’t be too long,” Arthur said. “The gates’ll start opening soon.”

I didn’t see any gates in the room with us, but it soon became clear what he was referring to.

At the far end of the room, a wall lowered. Behind it was a flat plane of electric blue energy bounded by an incredibly intricate gate inscribed with rituals so dizzyingly complicated just looking at them made my head spin.

Without any warning, the energy pulsed once, then vanished, showing us a separate, much larger room on the other end.

“Teleportation gates,” Mizuki said, tensing. “I didn’t realize they made them in this kingdom.”

“Not that they use them for much,” Arthur griped. “I figure they’re expensive as hell or made from deep-floor dungeon loot or something like that, but you can’t even get one of these to Ferren from here. Pretty sure this just leads to a facility just outside the city.”

She relaxed. “I see. That makes sense.”

There was something deeper to her reaction there. I resolved to ask her when we weren’t surrounded by prying ears.

The others in the room moved to file through the gate, so we joined them.

“Good luck,” Arthur called out after me. “Not that you should need it.”

Passing through the portal came with a brief, intense moment of disorientation bordering on vertigo. I stabilized myself soon after, but it didn’t look like everyone had.

This hadn’t been the only gate, and there were regular applicants streaming in through the others. Some of them were losing their breakfasts on the ground.

It took nearly twenty minutes for the hall to fill and the gates to finally shut off. The second they did, a thunderous noise rang through it, silencing all conversation.

All eyes turned to the source of it—regional commander Sebastian, who stood at the far end of the room.

“I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the Federation,” he said, his voice carrying across the entire room, “but that is simply not possible. There are too many young talents for us to be able to accept any but the best of the best.

“Then, without further ado… the Liaren Federation entrance exam begins now.”

Sebastian raised his hand, incanting, and light exploded throughout the room.