“If you’re a high priest, can you use healing magic?”
“Hey, how could a dragon use healing magic?”
“A dragon using healing magic makes more sense than someone without divine power becoming a high priest.”
“Basically, to use divine power, you have to give up all magic, and there’s no way I’d do that.”
What a shame. He’d thought it would be nice to entrust Jake’s treatment to Ainel rather than show him to someone he didn’t even know.
Well, if Ainel had known how to use healing magic, he wouldn’t have suggested going to the temple in the first place.
The temple wasn’t far from Ainel’s house.
The Temple of the God of Abundance, which had only been built a few hundred years ago, was larger than expected. The number of believers and the scale of the temple didn’t seem like those of a newborn god.
As Ainel had said, there weren’t many believers waiting for treatment, and most of them appeared to be outsiders.
Befitting the name ‘abundance,’ the commoners walking the streets looked healthy and happy, well-fed with plenty of food. Of course, to Klad, who was preoccupied with worry about Jake, such scenery didn’t properly register.
As soon as Ainel entered the temple, he went into a private room provided only to high priests and summoned a priest skilled in holy magic.
“Jake’s identity must not be revealed. Is this a trustworthy person?”
“Seeing how they believe in the God of Abundance, they don’t seem quite sane, but their lips are heavy.”
The more he watched, the more he couldn’t understand how Ainel, who had not even a giant rat’s tail worth of faith, had become a high priest.
“This is my guest, so examine him thoroughly.”
“Of course, Ainel-nim.”
The priest examined Jake carefully. They said that when touching an unfamiliar energy for the first time, one might feel discomfort from the repelling force, but Jake accepted that energy comfortably as if it were familiar. Perhaps he lacked even the strength to notice that discomfort.
“Hmm, this is strange. This person has nothing wrong with him.”
The priest who had been examining Jake made his judgment.
He had poured out healing magic for a long time, but compared to that, the amount of divine power used was extremely small. It was because there was nothing to heal in Jake’s body, so divine power wasn’t consumed.
“Hmm. If I may offer my opinion based on what I know… perhaps he’s suffered mental trauma from demonic energy?”
It sounded like a joke, but the priest was serious.
Mental damage from demonic energy is extremely tricky to recover from once suffered. It doesn’t heal even if you remove the demonic energy or pour divine power on it, and it’s difficult to detect traces of demonic energy unless you examine carefully as the priest had just done.
Jake was practically under a curse.
And an incurable curse at that.
“Illnesses of the heart cannot be solved even if the Saintess comes. At times like this, time is the answer.”
Time. For a human with an already short lifespan, a disease that forced them to waste precious seconds and minutes—it was truly no different from the worst curse.
“The demons this guy faced were merely low-level demons. They wouldn’t have the ability to cast curses.”
“Just because it’s mental damage from demonic energy doesn’t mean a demon must cast a curse for one to suffer it. If you’re exposed to demonic energy when your mind is unstable, you become more deeply stained by that instability. Like how when people become addicted to demonic energy, those with originally violent tendencies become more violent.”
If those words were true, it meant Jake’s mind had been in an unstable state at the time he was exposed to demonic energy.
“This is all we can do on our end. I’m sorry we couldn’t be of greater help, Ainel-nim.”
The priest offered that they could stay at the temple as long as they wanted, but Klad returned to Ainel’s house with Jake without a moment’s hesitation.
Nothing had changed from when they headed to the temple.
“I don’t understand.”
Klad, who had been watching Jake sit on the bed and stare blankly into empty space, frowned. Perhaps feeling frustrated, he let out irritated sighs repeatedly.
“Even though he occasionally talks nonsense, he was someone with firm convictions. There’s no way he could have collapsed in an instant like this.”
“Maybe it wasn’t ‘an instant.'”
“…….”
Hearing those words, he recalled what Jake had said last time, before the battle with the demons. He’d said he didn’t know if it was okay to step forward claiming to save them when the empire’s citizens didn’t need his help.
But he’d only been depressed for a moment and quickly returned to his usual self.
So he’d thought it was fine… but what if it actually wasn’t?
Bound by the name of hero, he might have pretended to be fine because he had to be fine. Then he was affected by demonic energy and his body received a great shock. Fortunately, he didn’t suffer internal or external injuries, but as a backlash, all the will and motivation supporting Jake might have faded away.
Jake’s exposure to demonic energy was only for a few seconds, but it was enough time for negative emotions to penetrate to the bone. To make matters worse, even the last remaining power of the Lord God had disappeared, so even the strength to rise above negative thoughts had vanished.
‘Damn it.’
Perhaps because he’d only seen Jake’s bright and positive side, he hadn’t thought that Jake’s current state of indifference to everything was due to lethargy rather than a curse or illness.
This was troublesome. Even a dragon didn’t know how to restore a human who seemed to have lost even the will to live and breathe.
‘If Jake became like this because the humans he was supposed to protect turned their backs on him, wouldn’t it work to give him something to protect again?’
Something to protect. What was there now that Jake should protect, that he could protect?
The village people? The empire’s citizens? Or the entire empire? He’d gotten into this state trying to protect those things until now, and he should repeat that again?
Repeating the same thing would only result in receiving the same wounds.
While the Emperor avoided, nobles danced under the duke’s feet, and village residents schemed to sell the hero for money instead of being grateful for his help, Jake’s wounds would fester and rot.
The empire didn’t deserve Jake’s help.
‘What if he settled down here instead?’
Wouldn’t it be better to leave the empire to ruin or not and just live an ordinary life?
There were various ways to make the duke believe Jake had died. If he thought he was dead, the duke would also give up chasing him and turn the world into chaos according to his original plan.
Even if the empire became a mess, this place, far from the capital, would be relatively safe. Living in this place where healthy and energetic commoners walked the streets, Jake’s condition would quickly recover.
If he settled in Audrit and lived, this guy too…….
“…….”
Suddenly, as their eyes met, the image of an old friend overlapped with Ainel’s appearance. That image spoke to Klad.
‘So, was life hiding and avoiding reality fun?’
It wasn’t fun.
Moreover, it didn’t help with recovering his mental state.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Klad only awoke from his reverie after Ainel, who felt his gaze, spoke to him.
In the current situation, turning away from reality wasn’t a choice that would help Jake. If there was no proper target to protect, how about reminding him of the reason he should protect?
“Even a hero wouldn’t have been born pledging to protect the world from birth. If he looks back at what made him decide to protect the world, wouldn’t he regain his conviction from that time?”
“Will it be solved that easily?”
It was natural for Ainel to be doubtful.
When rebuilding a mind that had collapsed due to demonic energy, one had to be as careful as handling a hammer made of glass. Otherwise, instead of forging a sword by hammering, it would shatter the moment you struck it.
Mental strength eaten away by demonic energy doesn’t return easily. Rather, when confronted with the cause of negative emotions, one suffers more greatly, and in serious cases, might lose consciousness. To overcome that, even willpower many times greater than ordinary people’s would be insufficient.
“Since things have come to this, how about establishing yourself somewhere humans don’t frequent? Dragons don’t build families and live together, but looking at other species, I’ve seen those crazy with love create villages, block outside access, and live sweetly together, just the two of them.”
He didn’t know what connection people crazy with love had with the current situation, but overall, Ainel’s opinion wasn’t much different from what Klad had first thought of.
If it had been a moment ago, he might have agreed with those words and established himself in Audrit so Jake could find stability. He could have made it so words like Demon King, hero, Lord God, or duke would never enter Jake’s ears for his entire life.
But his thoughts had changed now.
If he made that choice, he would never again see Jake’s blue eyes shine.
“That’s not the future this guy wants.”
Perhaps conscious of those words, Jake, who had been looking somewhere else the whole time, turned his head toward Klad.
Was he trying to say something? Klad waited for Jake to speak, but even after waiting a long time, no voice came.
Klad watched Jake turn his gaze back toward the empty void and said:
“You can overcome this level of hardship.”
He’s not someone who would lose to mere demonic energy.
Klad was certain of that.
