Only a week back from what had seemed like the incredibly dull task of helping carry Ben through his days and days of work and Thera already missed it. Sure, it had been hours of long, boring work constantly with nothing to do other than ferry people around, and it had only felt longer thanks to the circlet she’d worn the entire time, but at the very least it had been different. With it done though, she was back to what felt like had been taking up all of her time since the second wave ended, healing people who were still being ferried to the various hospitals across the gate network.

A task which, thankfully, only grew easier with time. There were a few more awakened light and life mages than when that wave had ended and everyone’s level was getting higher too, the healers had almost all had their souls modified to grant them more power, and all of them wore both mana and buff bracelets as well to keep them going. Add in the constant work both adventurers and armies who’d received those same benefits were doing across the globe to clear out what demons there were invading the lands and, even if the work wasn’t close to ending and even if truly dreadful amounts of patients could still be dragged in during bad days, in general, there was improvement.

Even if it doesn’t always feel like it, Thera told herself as she suffered through one of the bad days, her mana passively flooding the building to give all of the other healers an easier time while she went bed to bed, fixing what wounds she found.

“You, stop screaming and let go of that arm already, it’s clearly too late for it,” she told one soldier holding onto his severed limb as his wails only amplified her growing headache before she remembered to mention the part that would actually matter to him. “Which doesn’t matter because I’ll be growing you a new one, so stop struggling already and let me treat you.”

“Bedside manners, Thera,” a different healer mentioned beside her while they worked on their own patient, too focused on their own work to notice as she forcefully held her own down with her magic but not needing to to guess that was what was happening after so much time working together.

“Bedside manners are for patients who don’t make this job harder,” she said back once her patient wasn’t flailing around and, oh-so-subtly breaking the law, used her dark magic to not only ease his pain while she worked but also calmed his mind. A benign enough application of the branch that could still have troubling enough uses for it to be covered by many broader international laws that had to do with controlling another person’s mind that she’d found herself caring less and less about when those same laws would get in the way of how efficiently she could treat a patient, getting a notification going off in her head as she did.

<SPIRITUAL DARK MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>

Mmh, going to tell myself that didn’t just happen because Ben’s been putting his authorities on me.

Considering that she herself couldn’t help but view doing such things as somewhat evil even then, it was hard to believe it hadn’t had any effect, but it didn’t matter. With that patient done, she gave some quick orders about the sorts of meals he’d need to eat in the next week to try and compensate for how she’d made his body cannibalize itself for the treatment before basically throwing him out, the spirits that surrounded her having their own commentary.

“Ungrateful.”

“Rude.”

“Enjoyed our princess’s magic without even a thanks.”

“It’s fine,” she told them all back. “Plenty of people don’t have the presence of mind for that sort of thing when they’re bleeding out. I wasn’t exactly polite either.”

She could see the swarm around her playing their little parts as well, light, life, and blessing spirits healing wounds that seemed to interest them and time spirits slowing the effects of injuries down when they seemed bad enough, while other affinities occasionally applying what useful effects they could, no matter how esoteric they might be.

For the new combined affinity spirits especially, seeing their growth had been interesting. Unlike other spirits who’d had eons with their powers, she and the rest got to watch as the new ones fumbled around and figured out the limits of what they were, arriving at their answers surprisingly fast. Even if it was new to them, it was also what they were, magic itself, and it came naturally to them in a way incomparable to any creature of flesh. Combine that with whatever knowledge Ben had bestowed them with in their inception, and each one had the foundation needed for their new natures to blossom.

With only one I need to be worrying about. Thera told herself as she glanced Mora’s way between patients, politely off to the side and out of the way of the chaos filling the room to read one of the many books Ben had made him, acting like he wasn’t distracted at all, even with a different soul spirit whispering in her ear about the magics he was applying to the various healers as they worked.

Despite the best efforts of the staff, hospitals weren’t always the cleanest places, least of all during such times of chaos where cleaning up whatever fluids leaking out of a person had to take priority behind healing the line of them in need but she had seen him react poorly enough to the smell of it from time to time, even if they’d only ever had to leave early from it the once, that she didn’t want to ignore any needs he might have had, even if it just meant getting a few of the smaller spirits to watch him while he stepped outside.

It seemed he was growing used to his current body, though. A small frown on his face that could have just as easily been mistaken for something in his reading materials, it seemed that everything around them was within the manageable range, at least at the moment. As his guardian though, she couldn’t help but continue to check between patients, just wanting him to be alright.

Still, all of the gore he sees coming here with me, I never would have guessed it would be smells he’d struggle so much with.

It had been surprising enough when she’d learned it but even with that little worry still nagging her, she couldn’t let it distract her. A quick glance making sure he was okay was all that could be spared with a new patient being rushed to her section and even more clearly waiting behind them, demanding her attention as the day ticked on.

<LIFE SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>

“Thera, could I take a moment of your time in private?” The hospital’s director called for her the moment things had calmed down, looking worn out and conflicted and leaving Thera to wonder just what she was going to have to deal with. “Perhaps bring Mora along with you too.”

“Alright, Mora, come on.”

She let the two of them be led to the other woman’s office where her mask slipped just a bit more, leaving Thera to wonder just what exactly she would be dealing with that could have the other looking like that before getting her answer.

“We’d like to reduce your time helping out at all of the hospitals you work at to twice a week.”

“Pardon?” she asked, not knowing what she’d been expecting but certainly not that. “Is there some sort of issue with what I’ve been doing?”

“No, gods above, no. It’s a complicated situation, and none of the places you’re helping at are exactly pleased with this, but it simply comes down to time and practice. With the combination of strength that so many healers across the world were able to get and the new tools at our disposal, they have the power to do significantly more work, leaving the only area they can improve on, an area we admittedly all want them improving on before the next wave, being skill. An area that, unfortunately, they aren’t going to find themselves pushed on when you’re already doing most of the work. I understand that as a great healer, this must be difficult to hear but when we look at the long term, we can’t just be depending on you, we need to use the benefits we’ve gotten to try and make sure the rest can grow as much as possible, hopefully even awaken a few more if we can too.”

“I understand,” Thera nodded, trying to keep a neutral expression. “In that case, if you have my new schedule for me then I’ll take it, but otherwise, I assume the fact that I’m being told this means I should finish up here today?”

“If you don’t mind,” the other nodded, apology thick in her voice.

“Of course not, I understand the value in others growing more while they can. In that case, I suppose I’ll be back to it in a few days. Come on, Mora, let’s head home.”

She took the boy’s hand and led him out, keeping her face under control as they walked down the street and through the gate network on their way back home, only pausing once she was sure that nobody who might have seen her leave the hospital would be around before finally dropping her facade, a bright smile left to stretch across her face while it took everything in her to keep from jumping for joy, finally getting a bit of a break back after so long that was easily picked up on by the child beside her.

“Thera?”

“Oh, don’t mind me, Mora. I’m just a little emotional knowing I officially get days off again. This feels like the best news I’ve ever gotten! Ah, but do me a favour and don’t mention I said that when I go in again.”

“Isn’t this a bad thing, though?” he asked her, dampening her smile with his innocence. “If you’re not there, more people will probably die.”

It was an undeniable fact that her presence was frequently the difference between life and death in the places she went, even with all of the benefits other healers had managed to be given since then and from that perspective, perhaps it was wrong for her to be excited about participating less in the coming months. Hell, it even had other, more specific negatives to go with it.

While they’d be getting more practice, they’d be reducing their access to Mora, even if none of them knew they were enjoying the benefits of a great soul spirit, though that could be managed by creating more regular soul spirits and asking them as their princess to stand watch over different hospitals across the world and help the healers that were working, the idea forcing her to make a mental note to do exactly that later, but there was also a more personal draw back. No matter how improbable she thought it was, she was the holder of a ninth leveled life magic and for it, Ben and more than a few of the gods held hopes that she might reach the level of a soul mage in the time they had left.

A goal that would only become harder if she didn’t have the constant practice she’d been getting to go with it to chip away at the barrier to it, and yet, how much of a difference could it really have been making, anyway? She wasn’t her boyfriend, even if she had her hopes of getting to that level at some point in her long life, doing it so soon seemed impossible. Sure, reducing hospital time would lower the odds, and yet, she struggled to believe that continuing to go as she had been would have made such an impossible dream a reality.

But none of that would address the boy’s concerns, so instead Thera crouched down to look him in the eyes, trying to find something to say that wasn’t focused entirely on her own desire for a break.

“I know, but you heard what the director said, right? She’s not wrong. Everyone is way stronger now than they were. Now they just need their skills to improve to go with it so that even less people will have to die in the future. I know that seems bad but unfortunately, these are the sorts of choices that adults have to make sometimes, but even if we’re there less, that doesn’t mean we can’t make things easier for them in our own way, even if we aren’t around.”

“Can we?”

“Ha, well since a certain little great spirit isn’t going to be nearby to help as often, I’ll talk to the other soul spirits later if you could try and help gather them for me. We’ll raise their numbers a bit more and ask them if a few could be stationed around different hospitals and clinics at all times to try and help raise up the healers they see. Even if they’re not going to be as good at it as you, if they’re there constantly while any healers are working harder, they’ll be sure to see results soon and the more results they get, the better everyone else will be for it. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Mora nodded.

“Great, then for now, let’s get home. We can surprise Ben and Delair since we’re going to be back so early.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep