“Sachel, Ceselee’s requested your immediate presence,” Onk said as soon as she opened the door, the knocking ensuring she got up when all she’d wanted was an early night, leaving her rubbing her eyes as she answered.

“Ugh, Onk? What is it and why couldn’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“An impromptu town meeting where some are suggesting trying to kick Ben out of town. Seeing as how you and him devote yourselves to the same god, she was hoping you’d come to try and help calm things down.”

“Wait, what? Why?”

“I’m sure you’re already well aware of what happened today.”

“That’s…”

She couldn’t respond to that, even if she knew more than most from talking with her god. Like so many others, she’d seen Stonewall be devastated by the explosion of plant life and she’d seen Ben put it back together again with a terrifying level of power, but that wasn’t all she’d witnessed. She was one of the town’s awakened skill holders and a plant mage at that, with all of the benefits that would come from such a thing, expected and not. Sure, her power had practically exploded compared to what it had been before and thanks to connect merging into it to turn the skill into a variant beyond the standard form, she could do far more with it than others who held the same power, but there was another change that anyone would get when awakening any affinities magic as well. She could now see the spirits and elementals who matched the ones she held.

A result that made her well aware of all of the earth, water, and life spirits constantly in town and the few elementals who’d make their way there as well but just as importantly, had given her a far better idea of what had happened, letting her feel the plant mana that filled the land that Ben himself would never have been able to produce and being enough for her to ask their shared god for the real story, learning that he was just covering for the child in his care in the process.

It was something that he decided for himself and she wasn’t going to correct anyone on it either but that didn’t mean he should be exiled for it; least of all when he’d done everything he could to put things right as well.

“But that would obviously be terrible for the town, wouldn’t it?” She tried instead. “I mean, his weird research center alone, doesn’t he pay it out of pocket?”

“I’m not sure, why?”

“Because he’s loaded and pays well and all of that’s going to go back into the local economy, isn’t it?”

“An excellent point, one of many I hope you’ll bring up with the more reactionary members of town. Now if you don’t mind hurrying, the guild master is doing her best to keep things under control.”

Right.

With nothing else to be said, she ran off, following Onk to the town square and finding it far more crowded than she’d ever expected, with it looking like nearly a quarter of the residents were there, facing Ceselee and even the mayor beside her who were doing their best to keep things calm.

“I know plenty of you are unhappy,” Ceselee said, trying to sound calm and reasonable. “Some of you have been hurt and the experience must have been horrifying but he did his best to make up for it. Everything’s been rebuilt and he’s compensated enough money to more than cover any lost food and emotional harm. I’m not saying that has to be enough but that doesn’t have to mean kicking him out of the town itself. We can all discuss an appropriate way to try and make this right.”

The mayor beside her opened his mouth to say his own piece but didn’t get the chance as one in the crowd, someone Sachel recognized from the guild as fifth-ranked adventurer, yelled out instead.

“And we’re just supposed to take that?” The man yelled out. “Toss a bit of money at us and act like it isn’t a problem? Yeah, this is one big thing but it’s been one damn thing after another since he moved here, hasn’t it? People trying to kill him and cause chaos or testing his inventions out in the streets or drawing ridiculous crowds and disrupting all of our lives and then just moving hundreds of people here without a word! Why should we have to put up with his antics when it would be easier on all of us to just kick him out!”

While not everyone, there was a murmur of agreement that went up, what had been a bit of occasional dissatisfaction escalated by both the events of the day and the mob mentality as Sachel pushed her way to the front to take the guild master’s side.

“If by ‘moved hundreds of people here without a word’, you mean did everything he could to save a group that was going to be wiped out by the demons then you’re correct,” She said, focusing on the easier point to deal with while noticing the distinct lack of demidemons in the crowd, all of them too new to be made aware of such things when they’d only just come to town and had only started to integrate. “A group that’s immediately started helping I might add, in case you didn’t notice just how well staffed the clinic currently is.”

“That doesn’t change the point,” Another lower ranked adventurer yelled, leaving Sachel to wonder if that was going to be a trend. “He’s dangerous and he’s careless, we shouldn’t have to live like this, wondering if he’s going to cause some other chaos like that again when maybe we won’t be so lucky to get away with just a few injuries!”

“In case none of you noticed, the whole world is dangerous right now,” The guild master sighed. “And let’s clarify something here. In Ben’s case, dangerous means powerful. I’d much rather have that same strength you all saw around town to help out when it can and I’d view that as worth a bit of risk.”

“And kicking out Ben doesn’t end things there either,” Sachel pointed out. “If Ben leaves, Thera will as well.”

“Good! She’s caused enough problems of her own here too, we could lose the both of them!”

An answer that brought a frown to her face, all the more so from the looks of agreement a few others gave. Thera’s position in town was far better than it had been in the past, all of the more so for the work she’d done in the clinic and the surrounding area too, but there were still a few holding on to the fear and blame that should have never been directed her way in the first place and it made Sachel wonder if that was a part of all that was happening.

As Thera grew more and more powerful, there were some who feared retribution for past treatment that she was never actually going to deliver while Ben didn’t have an issue scorning anyone who’d mistreated her, a fact she’d still see in his casual treatment of Skoe and had herself only managed to get past with Ralia too thanks to their genuine effort to make things right between them and build a real friendship.

And until that afternoon, his own scorn was a minor thing compared to the godlike power Thera held as they all could comfortably reassure themselves that if he at least tried to make it an issue then they could have handled it, but now no longer. Before, they’d seen him dominate in a fight against someone who’d tried to woo his lover but that could be explained away by the one he’d fought’s overconfidence when going up against someone with the sorts of attributes that came with awakened skills; something that would be challenging but surely overcomable by any who’d actually properly trained in their weapons and techniques but that was something they couldn’t delude themselves about anymore. If Thera’s powers could seem godlike then what Ben had shown was a display fit for convincing people he really was a genuine deity who’d descended to the world. He’d rebuilt the town like it was nothing and blotted out the sun with the forest he’d carried above him, if that wasn’t worthy of worship then what could be?

It wasn’t something either she or Ceselee were going to let slide though, both preparing to say something until someone else from the other side of the crowd spoke first with even more people behind him.

“OH NO YOU FUCKING DON’T!” The clinic head Drari screamed, the heads turning to him making it clear to all that the people with him weren’t just coincidentally by his side but his various staff trying to hold him back from outright attacking the crowd. “YOU WANNA GET RID OF OUR BEST HEALER? JUST FUCKING TRY IT! I’LL CLOSE THE CLINIC FOR GOOD AND NEXT TIME ANY OF YOU TRY TO GET ANY HELP I’LL SIT BACK AND WATCH YOU DIE, YOU HEAR ME! I’LL WATCH YOU FUCKING DIE!”

It was a scene that managed to silence everyone there, no whispers amongst the lot from either side while the dragonewt continued to scream as a few of the healers managed to drag him away, the ones that were left letting his daughter talk in his place as Aso took the front.

“Ahem, what my dad meant to say far more politely than that is that we’ve only recently stopped feeling constantly worked to death and if the town feels inclined to change that for us then you can expect us to close our doors permanently,” She explained with a small bow, trying to sound professional and doing her best to squash the embarrassment left from her father’s outburst. “There’s plenty of work for healers, no need to stay in a place that’s going to insist on making our lives harder.”

“It’s not like you don’t have other hands,” One tried, immediately drawing a laugh from the girl, one filled with scorn.

“What? Do you mean the only other awakened healer we have around? I’m sure Sonya’s going to just love the idea of helping if her niece and Ben are run out of town. Or are you maybe talking about all of the new healers we’ve gotten, because if you are, you really need to try socializing with them a bit more. The demis adore Ben, every single one of them. If he leaves then I doubt any one of them will stay.”

“That can’t be true.”

“You’re right,” She mocked. “Adore isn’t a strong enough word, it would be more accurate to say they revere him. It’s not like they’ve been here long enough to settle, if he leaves then they’ll follow, it’s as simple as that.”

“And they’re not the only ones,” Sachel added, giving her occasional party member a nod of thanks. “I owe both Ben and Thera plenty, if they aren’t welcome here then I’m leaving too and this town can say goodbye to every second-tier it has. Hell, you can say goodbye to more than that too. You all do remember who Thera is, right?”

Mutterings of a response went up but Sachel herself answered, not giving anyone else the chance.

“She’s the princess of the spirits of the world,” She told them, making clear a title that Thera would have flinched at having called out so openly. “And if you think that doesn’t mean much, think again! For just the three affinities of them I can see, I can tell you the town is packed with them thanks to her and do you really think they do nothing for us? Do any of you who ever leave to visit somewhere else never notice that we’ve been unusually safe here and wonder why? Have any of you found that an ache or pain has disappeared without bothering to go to the clinic to get treated or any adventurer found a dead demon in the woods without any sign it’s been reported to the guild? There have to be thousands here at all times, unseen residents who help out from time to time and keep us safe and that safety is just one of any number of things we’ll lose if anyone really tries to kick them out and I can promise you, a single accident that’s already been fixed will look like nothing in comparison.”

She wasn’t sure what got to them, from the clinic closing down to losing all of their second tiers or the reveal of a whole invisible race living there and giving a helping hand here and there but whether it was any one thing or all three on top of everything else, it was enough. A few people quietly broke away and more followed until all that was left were the ones who genuinely wanted them both gone, forced to see the writing on the wall and accept their loss as they quietly left too, letting Sachel slump back once they were gone and breathe a sigh of relief.

“Whoo, that worked out better than I’d been hoping,” Ceselee said. “Thanks for coming, I had been expecting something but not an angry mob.”

“Only some of them seemed angry.”

“Well, yeah but cooler heads don’t seem to prevail when everyone around loses their composure. You did good, it looks like Ben and Thera owe you one.”

Sachel shook her head. “No, they’ve both done way more for me by this point, it doesn’t even begin to tip the scales.”

Still, it feels just a little good that I was able to help.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep