MaeveMcCarthy
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Chapter XLIX
🕑 Added 2023-12-13 20:19:01 +0000 UTCA big chonker chapter on a bonus day 😼
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“Please, don’t hurt them,” Lily said as she spoke to Ligea and Alexander inside her tent and sipped another Mana Potion that [Cardinal] Atticus had sent.
The two armored [Templars] looked at each other and hesitated.
“Dear…” Ligea started before shifting her gaze back to Alexander, who took over for his wife.
“Aurora, we are [Templars], not [Nannies]. If the civilians create problems, the easiest thing to do is to squash the problem immediately. In these tense situations, it’s easy for people to unlock [Dissident], [Anarchist], or worse. We don’t want that. If someone lost their mind and decided to sabotage—”
“I don’t want anydeaths now,” Lily raised her voice. She was tall enough now that even the two adults in front of her, who had seen her grow up since she was a toddler, straightened up and started taking her seriously. “We’ll consider harsher punishment if individuals start going rogue. But we’re not going to punish people just for following the mob.”
“We will just implement restrictive measures then,” Ligea said with a light nod. “Anything else?”
Now, it was Lily’s turn to hesitate.
“I—I miss him so much,” Lily said, lowering her gaze.
“Our boy loved you dearly,” Alexander said. “He wouldn’t have wanted you to be in harm’s way. We are just carrying out his will.”
Lily felt tears streaking down her cheeks before the sentence was even finished.
...
Now, the one thing Lily could have never foreshadowed was that in a borough where corpses rained, diseases infested every corner, and civilians were losing their minds, the situation could still turn even worse.
How, one might ask, within their rights.
“Please, don’t heal him,” a little kid was yanked away from a broken mother, a woman with her face split and swollen, and fingers blackened: a principle of gangrene spreading over her broken digits. Still, she took the boy in with only one hand, trying to stop him from saying anything more.
“Sorry? Don’t heal whom?” Lily looked at the boy, almost expecting the mother not to say anything. They had barged into the tent as she had been about to heal another man. This one was bad. The disease had spread everywhere, and he would probably die before nightfall if she didn’t act.
“Please,” the boy pleaded, pointing at the man on her table.
Lily squinted at the little boy, trying to take a better look as his mother now crouched on the ground, looking away. He had a weird—no, not weird, a broken nose and breathed through it restlessly, almost panting.
“I don’t understand,” Lily said, moving closer and gently touching the woman’s arm. “Miss, you should go to the [Healers] too. Your fingers need immediate attention.”
“He’s bad,” the boy interjected while the mother was still silent.
“Bad?” Lily started getting a terrible feeling in her stomach. She had been a teacher at a very prestigious private school, but that didn’t mean she had not seen bad parenting before. Her guts already told her all she needed to know, but her ears wanted to hear it coming from the boy’s mouth.
“He hits us,” the boy said, and his mother started to cry.
Oh.
Lily turned toward the man on the examination table and found herself at a crossroad.
“Well, I’ll talk to the [Templars], and...”
“No!” The boy said. “They won’t do anything! They always just say mom behaves badly! Please, don’t heal him, don’t heal him!”
Is this even his father, or...?
“Miss,” Lily shook the woman with more force this time, enough to wake her from her reverie. “Is this man your husband and this boy’s father?”
She looked at Lily with blank eyes, barely nodding.
Lily turned to the man with a frown.
He beats them. Badly, considering that this woman’s hands...
“Hey,” she crouched down next to the boy, “was your mom’s hand broken by your father?”
The kid nodded, his eyes full of tears.
...
“He will beat them again,” Gentiliana stated in no unclear terms as she looked at Lily remorsefully. “You can say you couldn’t heal him, and no one would bat an eyelid. Goodness, you could probably tell the other civilians that this man was evil, and they would rip him apart for you. Do you have any idea what those men and women waiting outside think of you, Aurora? Even without a class, you are already their [Saint]. And [Saints] have killed more people than [Tyrants].
“On the other hand,” her aunt continued, “he’s a man, and no one was born without sin. We have healed many women coming to the Sanatorium with the marks of their husbands’ hands on them. Some had broken teeth, while others had lost their vision in one eye. But despite all the violence they have perpetrated, they are still their husbands, child. Judging is easy, and I know how tempted you must be not to heal the man. But families must face their problems between themselves. How do you think a child would fare without a father? And a woman without a husband? What happens then?”
Lily had initially gotten the impression that Gentiliana was actually telling her to leave this man to die and had not expected the preaching that came after.
“I’ll regret what I’m about to do,” Lily smiled bitterly. “Come with me.”
…
A Year Prior
Among the many training sessions, Hadrian had started asking her to sit with him twice a day to test her most important ability. The one without square brackets.
Decision making.
“A ballista with a broken mechanism is pointed at five people in a row. You can turn it away, but wherever you shoot it, you’ll kill one person. What do you do? Let the ballista kill the five or save their lives but take the life of one man?” Hadrian asked during one of their private lessons.
“We have the same problem back home,” Lily frowned. “I don’t know what I’d do…”
“What do you think will happen when you go against the Church?” The [Librarian] looked at her with penetrating eyes as they sat in the skill-enhanced library.
“I’ll have to kill people?” Lily asked, unsure.
“Oh, child, that’s the easy part. We have spoken for long, maybe too long, about the simple act of taking a life. I hope I took away some of the reticence from your world because, for every person you might hesitate to kill, even when you know they deserve to die, they might take hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives. The risk of letting a monster live is too high. But you’ll soon find that some monsters are very likable, very educated, and funny, even.”
“The [Pope] wasn’t funny.”
“The [Pope] wasn’t, and I’m sure many of his followers are utter shits. But don’t believe that it means that you’ll never have to kill someone you like or someone you think might be redeemed. Perhaps, even though I don’t wish this upon you, you might have to kill someone you love. When you start getting involved in wars, all the lines get blurry.”
Lily stood silent, swallowing hard, “so, like, give me an example?”
Hadrian had her role-play all kinds of situations, considering this the most vital part of her training. He told her multiple times that her talent was great and could bring her very far, so there was only one major weakness rooted in her, and that was the naiveté that she had never outgrown.
“Your hand was promised to the [Pope]’s son. Now, I want you to imagine that boy killing an innocent woman. In his defense, the woman tried to kill him, but she barely had a handful of levels under her belt. He was never in any imminent danger of dying from her attacks.”
“What? Are you asking me whether I’d kill him for that?”
“That would be too easy. It’s way too easy to pass judgment while removed from the situation. I’m asking you to imagine yourself as that boy. From his perspective, was it a good idea or a bad idea? Someone hates you so much they want you dead, and you know they would do everything in their power to kill you. Now, you did some unspeakable things to their family, either directly or indirectly. What would you do in his place, even if it wasn’t your fault, even if it was the [Pope] who orchestrated the deaths of her loved ones? Would you let her go? What if, one day, she’s powerful enough to reach one of your unattended children or maybe the person you love? Are you ready to pay the price? Can you afford it? So… what do you do, Liliana Claudia? Do you take her life?”
...
The Present
Lily stood in front of the man and channeled [Death Touch] and [Lesser Mandala of Eradication] into his body.
“It is a [Healer]’s duty to hold any life sacred,” Gentiliana said, satisfied.
“True,” the younger girl nodded, soon removing her hand from the body.
“Would you mind healing him and stepping out, Aunt? Rafael and Daneium are outside—I’ll call help if I need it. But I want a word with him first.”
Gentiliana sent a pulse of her healing through the man and swiftly left.
It took half a minute for the guy to start batting his eyelids and squinting at Lily.
“Where am I? Who the fuck are you?”
“You have been healed. Your wife brought you here.”
“That whore brought me here? For what? What’s happening?”
“Sir, I have a question for you,” Lily said, inching closer to the man on the table. “Do you know that it is a [Healer]’s duty to heal anyone without question?”
“What? You’re not a [Healer]. You’re barely a child. What happened to me?”
If Lily had any doubts about what she wanted to do next, they were rapidly disappearing.
“Sir, have you ever beaten your wife? If so, I’m afraid there’ll be a price to pay.”
“What? Was that whore running her mouth? Or that little shit? Are they outside? Lemme have a word—”
Lily stared at the man. “I’ve seen absent fathers, mothers with addictions, and violent parents in general. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to do to them what they did to their children. And every time I’ve seen pieces of shit like you still breathing while ruining the lives of those around them, I’ve always wished to do something.”
“Pieces of shit? Who are you to speak to me like that?! Bring me a real [Healer]!” The man sat on the table. “And where is that bitch?!”
“Sir, stay still, please,” Lily moved a hand forward, but the man immediately tried to backhand her.
“Don’t fucking touch me!”
[Wraithform]
What the man did not expect was for his hand to go through Lily as if she wasn’t there. And the next thing he knew was Lily’s hand shooting from under her cloak and tightening around his neck. Even though he had just been healed, he was no fighter. And even without a Stat from a Class, Lily had [Alchemic Constitution] empowering her body. She looked down at him with disdain. Not even a minute had passed since he had awoken, and he was already lashing out.
“You’re right,” Lily nodded, her blonde locks falling close to the man’s face. “I’m not a [Healer]. I just regret I had to waste my Mana like this.”
[Death Touch]
[Inferior Mandala of the Black Rain]
...
“The man died,” Lily sighed, cleaning her hands on a piece of cloth. She saw Gentiliana rubbing the shoulder of the mother as she channelled her healing skills; the older woman’s eyes went wide when she heard her words.
“Died?!” Gentiliana shrieked. “You—”
“He died,” she cut her aunt off. “Rafael, Daneium, stuff the man in a piece of cloth and burn him. Thank you.”
The mother and the child looked at Lily incredulously.
“He’s gone?” The kid asked.
“Forever. Now, you both take care of yourselves. Miss, you will help us out with the triage here. The [Healers] and the [Templars] have been very busy with trying to keep the food and water sources clean.”
“I—I...” The woman’s eyes were wide.
“You will be under the employment and protection of the Gens Claudia from this moment onward. Once the plague is gone, we will send you and your son to a monastery until he’s of age to receive a class. The city is dangerous in these dire times. During your stay at the monastery, the boy can choose whether to be trained as a [Healer], [Warrior], or whatever else. A friend of mine will counsel your son on his class.”
“Aurora! You can’t—” her aunt began.
She ignored her.
“Boy, do you understand what I just said?”
She looked at him, knowing that cuddling him with sweet words would do nothing. He was eight or maybe nine. He was her age when she had been sent to the monastery.
He nodded eagerly while his mother was still in shock.
“Good. Miss, what’s your Class?”
“I’m a simple [Farmer], I can’t do much—”
“Good. The [Monks] have been needing a new one for a while. Now, you will both have to excuse me. People are dying.”
Lily quickly used her skills on the two to make sure there was no plague left in either and then went back into the tent, followed by a furious Gentiliana.
“Aurora Claudia, did you kill that man?!”
“Yes,” Lily nodded, taking a seat on the bed in the tent.
“But you just had me heal him, child! Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m tired of seeing people be prisoners of their fate,” Lily enunciated every word with a clear tone and decisiveness.
“And you think you can take care of them?” Gentiliana frowned.
“No. They’ll have to take care of themselves if they want to be free.”
...
A few days later
Lily had ordered the bodies burnt and handled only by those who had already been sick. She had explained in gory detail just how dangerous it was to touch the gray pustules and anything that had come in contact with them. She had told the [Healers] to spread the knowledge that water was to be boiled before being imbibed and only rationed food, untouched by any possible infected person, was to be consumed.
Thankfully, most were adhering to the norms, and after healing the sickest in the city, she had finally gotten to the conscious ones—it didn’t make the job easier, but it definitely made it less morbid. Her skills kept leveling at breakneck speed.
Her patients were afraid, if not terrorized, their eyes wide and their bodies shaking with fear. The conscious patients would often break into tears, their relief palpable as they realized they were in the care of professionals—some complained about the young girl administering the healing, but with some schadenfreude, Lily had enjoyed the beatings some of the onlookers had dealt them in response. In fact, there were plenty of [Healers] to heal wounds and broken bones, but only one capable of eliminating the plague.
Then came the whispered prayers of thanks, and they clung to Lily's words of comfort and reassurance. She had to constantly remind them that while the situation was dire, hope was not lost.
Lily's own heart ached with every new face she saw and every story of loss she heard. But she also drew strength from their will to survive.
Today, she was bearing testimony to the death toll in front of a pyre of bodies. It wasn’t safe for most to stand there. She, along with the sick ones and her two [Guards], bore testimony to the licks of flames that soon covered the bodies. They would need many more pyres—but this was a beginning.
The pyre had been constructed hastily with timber, old furniture, and any other flammable materials that could be found in the area—still, it served its purpose. The bodies lay atop each other, their final resting place before being consumed by flames. Some were clothed, others wrapped in shrouds, but all shared the same pallor of death, their faces frozen in their final moments – some in agony, others in peace.
She frowned as she stood by Rafael and Daneium and saw a little kid a few years younger than her sneaking around. It wasn’t the child whose father she had slain... no.
Red hair? She squinted, but the child soon disappeared into the crowd.
I must be seeing things, Lily told herself.
As the first spark was set to the base of the pyre, smoke began to curl upwards, its lazy tendrils reaching for the sky. The smell was acrid and heavy – a combination of burning wood and something far more poignant. It was a scent that would forever be etched in the memories of those who survived this catastrophe.
As the flames began to climb higher, they crackled loudly, punctuated by the occasional pop and hiss as pockets of gas were released from the bodies. The heat was almost unbearable, even from a distance.
Around the pyre, the atmosphere was somber. No words other than sobs and muttered prayers were uttered.
This was a send-off, a final goodbye to loved ones and strangers alike, an act of mourning that belonged to the whole community.
...
As she walked back, she saw some movement from the corner of her eye and realized it was a kid walking inside a house, a glimpse of his red hair shining through the gray air. He waved at her before shutting the door.
“Wait,” Lily told the two men, turning toward the house. “I saw something.”
They looked at each other but didn’t utter anything in protest, soon following the scion of the Gens Claudia toward one of the doors close to the street. The cobblestone under her boots clattered as she moved in front of the cheap wood door.
She knocked, keeping her back straight like an arrow. When no response came, Lily felt another tug from her sixth sense and looked at her escort.
“Kick the door down.”
...
They entered the house – a poor and filthy place.
Lily immediately heard something.
“Can you hear that?” She asked.
“What?” Rafael responded.
She crouched low, her ear close to the ground.
“Crying.”
...
She looked as the two [Guards] gently pulled numerous boys and girls out of the basement, and her heart clenched. But none of them had red hair.
“Hi, what are you doing here?” She asked a girl one or two years younger than her.
“Don’t tell her!” A boy screamed, looking around wildly.
The girl shook her head and paid no mind to the scared boy, “We steal for Master Carpus.”
“We’ll bring them to the camp,” she told to the guards, not fully knowing what to do with them and hoping that her aunt would have better ideas. As the [Guards] went down to the basement to ensure they had found everyone, she heard a muffled sound coming from upstairs.
She looked at the boys and girls, all with fear in their eyes as they looked at the stairs. “Stay here,” she commanded them, feeling a fire ignite in her stomach.
She swiftly ran upstairs, knowing that whatever rat was hiding there couldn’t possibly deserve the clean death her guards would administer it. She also knew that if they had to chase him, they wouldn’t be nimbler than her, thanks to her movement skill.
As soon as she went upstairs, she felt a fetid smell attack her senses, and she opened the door to the first room. She was about to activate Sphere of Perception, her Perk from bringing [Mana Sense] to the Master Stage, when she suddenly felt someone yank her by the arm.
“You’re a big one, aren’t you?” Came the seedy, rotten voice of a man.
She spun, trying to free her arm and finding a burly, fat man with beady eyes and yellow teeth smiling at her. The man immediately pulled her back to him, about to put a knife to her throat. She was close to freeing herself when she saw a boy beaten an inch from death at the other side of the room, his face swollen, and blood caked all around his lips. So, instead of overreacting, she let the man hold her.
“You’re a treat,” he uttered into her ear. “The little bastard brought you here, didn’t he? Well, I’m sure I can trade you for something really valuable. That boy over there has talent, but you... you are something else.”
She was taking in the picture of the boy passed out on the floor, hurt to no end. Several bruises crowded his little body, and she could see his arm bending at an unnatural angle.
“Are you ready to scream?” The man put a hand over her mouth.
“Shhh. Don’t worry,” he murmured. “I’ll be quick.”
But Lily didn’t utter one single word. The man used one hand to reach for the rope he held in his back pocket, thinking this was going to be an easy one to bag and sell.
[Wraithform]
Lily phased through the man’s grip, having him stumble forward as he lost the support. Before he could even know it, she grabbed his wrist and his throat.
[Death Touch]
[Inferior Mandala of the Black Rain]
[Necrotic Restoration]
“I wish I could give you a slower death,” she told him as corruption began to eat into his flesh. The pain made him drop the knife, and he started screaming like a madman. Meanwhile, Lily felt a surge of stamina coursing through her body.
Immediately, she heard boots hitting the stairs and sighed, doubling the amount of Mana she was pouring into the skill.
A few seconds later, just as the door was flying open, the body fell lifeless on the floor.
[*Ding!* Skill – Death Touch level 71!]
[*Ding!* Adjunct Skill – Inferior Mandala of the Black Rain level 16!]
[*Ding!* Adjunct Skill – Inferior Mandala of the Black Rain level 17!]
[*Ding!* Adjunct Skill – Inferior Mandala of the Black Rain level 18!]
“Milady!” Rafael entered with his sword out and looked around wildly. “Are you well?!”
“Yes. Take the body downstairs.”
“Milady,” the guard looked at the body on the ground and then at Lily. “He was… sick?”
“Yes,” Lily nodded, looking down at the corpse with black, corrupted flesh around his neck and darkened veins all over his face, “very sick.”
Rafael didn’t look twice at the man as he took a blanket to cover his features. The young lady was saving an entire city—it wasn’t his business how she did it.
...
“An orphanage,” Gentiliana sighed. “Their parents must all be dead... that’s how this orc could do something like that. How did you know they were there? Aurora, are you listening?”
Lily was staring at all the kids attended to by the [Healer], focusing on the redhead – his features were not at all like Elysium’s, but they were close enough to send shivers down her spine.
“I’ve learned a good deal from Dad’s friends,” Lily replied. “Many, many things. More than you can imagine. Plus, he waved at me...”
“Waved?” Gentiliana frowned. “That’s all? Maybe Our Lord guided your judgment. Maybe it was a sign from Him.”
Lily turned with a smirk.
“No. Not from him.”
“From whom then?” Gentiliana was even more confused now.
“Aunt,” Lily said. “Make sure the [Templars] sweep every house in the borough. Write to the [Cardinal], too. We need more men, and we need to change the strategy. A few people have shown signs of reinfection. Their symptoms are much milder, but they still carry the disease. Even though they are few, we’ll never end this if we don’t implement a different strategy. I want to heal people by the gates and let them out when they are clean.”
“Alright, young lady. You have become very bossy. Once we’re out there, I hope you remember I’m still your Aunt.”
“Always,” Lily turned to her with a smile. Then, she snapped her head to see a distant rat scuttling around in one of the filthy, narrow streets. “I want to be done with this as soon as possible. There’s something else I need to take care of.”
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