Chapter 128
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From the moment I first saw her, I didn’t like her. I don’t know why.
The more I was confronted with her demeanor and aspirations, the more a nagging anxiety crept up, whispering that I might have made a mistake, that I might have done something fatally wrong.
At the same time, this anxiety brought with it a pain that constricted my chest. Eventually, the pain gnawed away at my inner being, and by the time I noticed, it was already too late. The pain had grown too large to ignore.
I’m not wrong.
I did the right thing.
All I could do was put up a brave front.
No, I was a foolish jester who couldn’t even realize I was putting up a front.
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Saint Mika is beloved by God.
And she possesses the goodness worthy of it, furthermore accumulating virtue tirelessly day by day—this is the unanimous opinion of the Crater Church leadership.
To put it bluntly, it could even be said that they worship her.
As a young child, the girl was discovered to be a Saint.
At the time, not even ten years old, she was far too intelligent compared to the children around her.
Not only did she have a mature temperament and way of thinking, but she also possessed an exceptionally good aptitude for Heal, which is treated as a holy attribute even among Light Magic.
This talent manifested naturally, and the girl awakened to Heal without being taught by anyone.
The trigger was when the girl’s father suffered a serious injury.
Amazingly, she activated her first Heal with only the desire to help her beloved father.
Many villagers from the girl’s hometown testify to this.
On the day the girl’s father was seriously injured, they saw a brilliant light burst from her house.
Wondering what had happened, those who visited the girl’s house witnessed the master of the house lying on the floor, enveloped in a warm light, and the girl, tears streaming down her face, praying with her hands clasped.
The light was emanating from the girl.
But she didn’t notice the overflowing light. She didn’t even notice the villagers who came to the house, voices raised, asking, 「What happened?」
She was completely absorbed. The girl’s entire consciousness was occupied with prayer to God.
The villagers who witnessed this felt a divine aura from the girl praying with self-abandonment, as if they were looking at a painting of a saint martyred for their religion.
From then on, she would go on to help various people with her Heal. First was her own father, whom she had healed for the first time, then the elderly neighbor who had thrown out his back, then the village chief who had fallen ill, and after that, residents from the neighboring village who had heard about her.
In this way, rumors of her Heal gradually spread, and the range of people the girl treated gradually expanded.
The girl had a talent for Light Magic said to appear only once in ten years, or even once in a hundred years. As she gained experience, her talent blossomed, and the effects of her Heal increased to a degree that would astonish anyone who knew what they were looking at.
Because of this, it was only a matter of time before rumors of her Heal spread from town to town and reached the ears of the nobility.
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However, just because they heard about her didn’t mean she was suddenly asked to treat nobles.
The first nobleman to hear rumors about her had a daughter who was born with a disability in her lower limbs. He had been searching for a healer who could completely cure his daughter.
But at first, he didn’t show any particular interest in her.
This was only natural.
No matter how amazing people said the girl was, it was still just a rumor circulating among the common folk. Such rumors often came with embellishments, and it wouldn’t have been strange for him to judge it as dubious.
For these reasons, by the time he reached out to her, clutching at straws after failing to find a healer skilled enough to cure his daughter’s disability, quite some time had passed.
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To begin with, completely healing a congenital disability was a highly difficult feat. It was a miracle that could only be performed by someone at the level of a high-ranking bishop or equivalent.
While there were not few who could accomplish this, they were by no means many. Additionally, holy people and adventurers with powerful abilities were naturally invited to capital cities and other large urban areas, so they tended to be scarce in areas far from cities.
For these reasons, it naturally became a difficult journey for the nobleman in question to find a healer who could help his daughter.
By the time the nobleman finally reached the healing girl, she had already treated countless people.
The girl had already made a name for herself as an excellent healer among the common folk.
When the nobleman in question heard about her again, he was surprised.
The girl didn’t demand the large sums of money he had anticipated.
The girl, of course, and her parents had no desire for fame or luxury at all. They were perfectly happy with their current life. So they had no intention of trying to make a profit by exploiting their daughter.
Her parents were not quite ascetics who valued poverty, but they were extremely good people.
Because of this, they donated all the money offered to them in gratitude to the church.
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After treating the nobleman’s daughter, the girl’s achievements became a topic of conversation at noble tea parties, spreading as confirmed truth in high society in a different way than before.
Through such a process, the Crater Church sent people to investigate the girl’s actual situation.
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