“He didn’t do anything wrong!”
“He touched Run!”
“I told you I’m the one who brought him here!”
“Why! Why did you do that!”
“Because we need to talk! Calm down, Rin, and let’s talk, okay? Please.”
She growled for a while more, her eyes alternating between glaring at me and Aren, and glancing anxiously at Orun, who was quite shocked by the sudden violence. My arms tingled annoyingly, full of long lacerations and deep fang holes. Blood was flowing continuously, and I thought it might finally be time for me to visit a life mage for the first time since arriving in this world.
Past the initial shock, Orun started to sniffle and then suddenly broke into tears, wailing loudly. He ran toward his sibling while crying and shouting.
“Waaahhh! Don’t fight! Waaahhh!”
This had the effect of calming his sister better than anything else. She put him into her arms and relaxed at his contact, attempting to comfort him.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Run! We’re not fighting, okay? See? We’re not fighting.”
The child pointed at my arms while lamenting.
“Waaahhh! There’s blood everywhere!”
“Ugh…”
The older sibling groaned since the ground was indeed getting redder with my blood. A normal person would probably have started wailing together with the little brother due to the intense pain. I managed to keep my cool as much as possible to avoid aggravating the situation.
“Are you not hurting, mister?”
“It hurts. I think I should go today. I’ll come back tomorrow, all right?”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t come back ever again!”
“Rin!”
Even I thought the older sister was going too far. I acted seriously for once, my eyes focused on her.
“Is that something you say to someone you hurt so badly for no reason?”
“Hmph. It’s your fault for coming here suddenly and putting your hands on Run.”
“I’ll need to go to a life mage to fix this. You owe me for this. Keep that in mind.”
“Dream on, old fart. I don’t owe you anything.”
There was no need to continue this childish discussion. I simply turned around and left. I knew where to go after that. During the disease outbreak, I had several contacts with Ocateir, the sole rank 7 life mage in the region. He repeatedly invited me to visit his health establishment if I ever became injured, and now was the opportunity to do so. An injury of this level should be nothing to fix for him.
I remembered the address he had given me and made my way there. It wasn’t far from where my new store was located, in the same wealthy neighborhood.
The building was quite impressive when I reached it. It wasn’t as large as my store, but it still had two stories and plenty of room. Several other injured people were coming in, and others who were healed were coming out, showing that it was a prosperous business. After entering, I was immediately taken charge of by a male employee.
“Hello, sir, and welcome. No need to say anything. Your arms can be fixed by a rank 3 life mage. Let me guide you to one.”
I didn’t have the chance to even talk, and I was already being taken somewhere. Except for life mages, I was probably one of the greatest experts in healing spells and ranks since I was so used to getting fixed by them. I knew that a rank 2 would be enough to heal my level of injuries without any problem. These guys were already trying to scam me without leaving me time to think. What an amazing business tactic.
“Wait. I want the owner of this place, Mr. Brin, to heal me.”
The employee stopped on his track and couldn’t help showing a small expression of disdain for a second, which he immediately fixed.
“I’m sorry, sir. A lot of people ask for him, but he doesn’t treat this level of injury. It would only cost you more for no reason.”
“It’s fine, we know each other. Just give him my name, Tila Urtek, would you?”
He hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded.
“All right. Please wait here.”
He looked at me like I would get into trouble if I were saying nonsense, and quickly ran up the stairs. Two minutes later, he came back together with Ocateir, who smiled widely in my direction.
“Tila! Welcome, my friend! It’s good to see you finally here! Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that to someone injured.”
“It’s good to see you, Ocateir.”
“Let’s go up to my office. I’ll fix you up in no time.”
“Thank you.”
He gave an eye signal to his employee, who seemed surprised his boss was so friendly to a rank 0 like me. The man rushed toward a shelf and took out a towel, which he used to stop my bleeding. From there, we left him here to go up the stairs and enter a large room with two beds, a few chairs, and a desk.
We were the only ones in the medical office right now, and Ocateir urged me to sit on one of the beds.
“Good. Extend your arms toward me. It won’t take long.”
As soon as I obeyed, he used the heal spell on my arms. A soft white light surrounded them for a few moments, my wound closing up at an incredible speed. It barely took three seconds, and he was done. Such was the power of a rank 7 life mage when using a basic spell. A rank 2 would have reached the same result, but it would have taken a lot more time, probably several minutes.
“And done! How do you feel?”
There was no need to check, but I still moved my arms around, grinning in relief.
“Perfect. That was amazing. They feel like new.”
“Hahaha, glad to hear it.”
He used some water to wet the towel and cleaned the blood in a practiced manner.
“Thank you. How much do I owe you?”
“This was something a rank 2 could have healed, so twenty silvers are enough.”
He valued me as much as usual, considering he didn’t try to cheat me. As for the price, it seemed standard too. I didn’t know if these were his usual rates or if this price only applied to me.