God of Assassination, Become the Strongest Healer - chapter 18

“…!”
Estel’s shoulders, already trembling violently, started shaking even more intensely.
“How… did you know? I specifically asked the Priestess and the priests not to tell anyone…”
“You don’t need to tell me. I can figure these things out on my own.”
Turning her head, she saw the special roll-bread buzzing around, making a ‘ahem, ahem!’ sound.
For this transparent ball of fluff, flying all over Modenas, learning about Estel’s birthday was a piece of cake.
“Right now, you can only see it like this, but by this time next year, you’ll be able to go to the seaside garden, touch the moonflower, and smell its fragrance.”
“…Pagan, you’re bad. I promised myself I wouldn’t get my hopes up again. But this just makes me want to hope. I thought I’d never walk through the seaside garden again. But now…”
“Having a goal is a good thing. I think the first goal should be ‘let’s walk through that garden again.’ We can set the deadline for this time next year, how about that?”
“Do you think… that’s possible?”
“Yeah. It’s possible.”“Really…?”
“Of course.”
Estel, caught between the familiar feelings of despair and hope, hesitated. To give her more confidence, he purposely answered in a firmer voice.
And as he took in the sight of her trembling back, he made a promise.
“That’s why I came here.”

A week later.
“I… was pretty when I was a kid.”
“Huh? What did you just say?”
“I said I was , no, extremely pretty when I was younger. You might not believe me, though.”
While applying ointment to her flushed skin and wrapping it in bandages, Estel said something  unexpected.
“Especially the Priestess and the priests would tell me over and over how pretty my eyes were every time they saw me.”
“Oh, ?”
“Yeah,  I’m not lying!”
Even though he didn’t say she was lying, the Saint waved her arms around, emphasizing that what she said was the truth.
“It’s true… I swear it’s true.”
It was probably some kind of defiant reaction, right?
It’s quite admirable that she had changed her mindset and decided to accept the treatment so willingly, but deep down, the Saint still probably felt some level of embarrassment from entrusting her body to an outsider like me.

And that embarrassment, the most shameful moment for her, when she had to show me her blotchy skin, took the form of a proud declaration instead.
I can’t be sure, but isn’t it just so cruel that she had no choice but to say “I was pretty” instead of “I am pretty” in this situation?
“Hm, but I think your eyes are still really pretty.”
“W-what?!”
“Well, since you always wear a mask, I don’t know what you look like. But like you said, your eyes are beautiful.”
Her eyes, the only part of Estel’s face I could see, began to tremble with intense waves, sparkling like blue crystal.
She’d said she’d been told she was pretty a lot, but was it that shocking for her to hear me say it too?
“Hm. I’m sure of it. I don’t know about the rest, but your eyes are really beautiful. The priests and the Priestess weren’t lying to you.”
“Oh, I think that’s enough for today!”
Estel, who had been accepting the treatment so calmly, suddenly shouted and flopped down onto the bed.
“U-uh… I’ve finished most of the process, but I haven’t finished wrapping the bandages yet. Could you hold out your arm again so I can finish?”
“The bandages? I’ll just have the Priestess or the others do it. For now, you should just go back!”
“…Is it okay to do that?”
“Hurry up!”
“Alright, fine, I’ll do that.”Due to Estel’s stubborn resistance, I had no choice but to get up from my seat, and it seemed like she didn’t want to see me leave, as she turned over and lay down.
“Alright, I’m going.”
I said my usual goodbye, but once again, she didn’t look at me. For some reason, the only thing I could see was her ears, which were bright red and twitching, as if to send me off.

Two weeks later.
“Your breathing is stable, and your mana flow is also steady. How do you feel? Don’t you think you’re feeling better? Hm? But why the long face?”
“Why are you asking if you already know?”
“I’m asking because I don’t know.”
“You… You’ve been coming later and later lately!”
“Have I?”
“Not ‘have I,’ you have! Yesterday you were 20 minutes late, the day before that 15 minutes, and today you were 27 minutes late!”
“You’ve been keeping track of that? Wow, you’re thorough.”
She hadn’t been angry or upset in a while, but today, the Saint was pointing her finger at me, scolding me for my laziness.
“How can you be so late when  patients are waiting? Don’t you think the healer should be on time?”
“Well, you see. There’s been a lot going on with my family lately, so dinner’s been running late. And since dinner’s late, I end up leaving my room late. I mean, I guess it’s my fault, but I think this is a valid excuse, don’t you?”
“Alright, I’ll let it slide just today. But starting tomorrow, you’d better be on time.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll make sure of it.”

For how upset Estel sounded, her reaction was surprisingly positive, and thanks to that, I was able to smoothly finish today’s treatment.
“Then I’ll come again tomorrow, so don’t forget to take all the medicine I prescribed. And try to eat two bowls of rice, if you can. Since the medicine is pretty strong, it might strain your body a bit, but you’ll need your strength to handle it.”
“Wait a second! Just so you know, don’t try to come early just because I told you to. Don’t show up early and then say, ‘I came early today, so I’m leaving early!’ That’s not the right attitude, you know. Don’t you think so?”
She didn’t say anything for a while, and then this is what she came up with.
I couldn’t help but think, recently Estel had been saying some strange things.
‘Maybe the emotional ups and downs are a side effect of the treatment? Well, once her body fully recovers, it should be fine, so it’s not a huge issue…’
Whatever the reason, it was a good sign that she, who had been lacking in energy, was now taking a more active approach, so I nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll try my best.”
“Good thinking. It’s important to try, no matter what. Well… take care.”
Estel, looking very happy, slipped back under the sheets.

A week later.
“Hey, what if I get surprisingly pretty later on? What will you do?”
“Huh? Oh, right, you said that last time. That you were really pretty.”

After finishing the treatment and cleaning up my tools, Estel asked another random question.
“Well, I’m not really that interested in it, but I guess it’d be nice if you got prettier… yeah, I guess that’s a good thing.”
“Is that… it?”
“Well, what else do you want me to say? I said it’s a good thing.”
“No, I mean, forget whether it’s good or bad, what are you going to do about it?”
Was she expecting a different answer?
I already knew she asked strange questions a lot, but lately, it seemed to be happening even more frequently.
It looked like the treatment had temporarily thrown her body out of balance, which was making her mental state a bit unstable, and honestly, it was kind of frustrating for me.
‘From studying, I know how to treat the body somewhat, but understanding a patient’s mind is a lot trickier. Maybe I need to spend more time learning about this side of things, too?’
Since I didn’t have much of a clue when it came to understanding the mind of a teenage girl, I ended up giving her the most basic response I could.
“Once again, I think it’s a good thing for you that you could get prettier without any strings attached, no cost or anything. Of course, in your case, it’d be more like getting your old beauty back than actually getting ‘prettier.’ Anyway, whatever the details are, if the change you’re talking about happens, I’d say it would likely have a positive effect on your life.”
“….”
“But, thinking about it more rationally, that change would probably be a very personal and private issue, one that would have the most impact on you.”
By the time I said that, Estel had planted her feet firmly on the ground and started glaring at me from head to toe.

“Estel, it might be a big joy for you, but the impact of that change on my life, or how it would significantly affect my guidance, is pretty unlikely. So what I’m trying to say is…”
“Profit!”
In an instant, Estel’s calves, which had seemed so thin and frail, swelled up, and I could hear the dull sound of her grinding her teeth beneath the blue mask.
“If you want to understand the impact of something likely to happen, you should ask someone who’s had a similar experience, not me…”
Thud.
It had been quite a while since her jump, but her legs smoothly completed the takeoff, her nightdress fluttering, and her white soles blocking my view.
Thud.
Then a heavy impact to my abdomen.
Bang.
I ended up sprawled out in a miserable heap outside the door, with treatment tools raining down on my head.
The door slammed shut with the force to break it.
“You idiot!”
Estel’s voice, short but sharp, rang out.
“Ouch… I should’ve dodged that. Is this what happens when you’ve got a blessed body? How is it that a girl who was in bed just recently has a kick this heavy?”

Given the way things were going, it didn’t seem like Estel was going to open the door, so I had no choice but to clutch my aching stomach and continue cleaning up the tools.
Luckily, I had mostly finished cleaning up inside the room, so gathering the scattered tools in the hallway wasn’t that difficult.
‘Well, at least it was a good thing I took the hit. It’s a bit clearer now.’
After finishing the cleanup, I reflected on the information that the blow to my stomach had given me.
I could have avoided the punch just now, but I chose to take it instead.
I’m not sure why, but Estel was extremely excited and from the movement she made, I could get a pretty accurate read on her physical condition.
Estel’s kick was sharper than I expected, and because of that, I realized that her body had almost fully recovered.
‘I thought it’d take longer, but her recovery speed is way faster than I anticipated. Guess it really is thanks to the blessings of being a saintess.’
Once I finished revising the schedule I’d been mentally working on with my eyes closed, I opened them again.
It had been three months since I arrived in Modenas.
The time to say goodbye was approaching.

A week later,
“All scheduled treatments are almost complete.”
After gathering Estel, the patient, and the key figures who had a significant influence in Modenas, I declared that the treatment was nearing its end.
“C-Cladius, my lord!”

Did they think it would take more time for the treatment to be completed? The chief priest, who was in charge of the Priest Council, looked at me with an expression that was unlike his usual self.
“Of course, the saintess’s recovery isn’t fully complete, and additional steps are still necessary. But the treatment process that I was personally responsible for ended yesterday. From here on, you all can assist the saintess without any issues.”
Over the past week, I had conducted dozens of checks, but the result was always the same.
The tasks that only I needed to do were done.
The only remaining reason I had to visit this island—the follow-up prescriptions and instructions for handling any unexpected situations—was no longer needed.
“Chief Priest, could you please select someone to handle the prescriptions and prepare for any emergencies? It’s not complicated, so it should be possible to pass it on within a day or two.”
“Such a sudden request… We haven’t even finished preparing to repay the kindness you’ve shown us yet…”
“My lord, we truly thank you. Hehe, if we had known it would come to this, we should’ve prepared earlier…”
The islanders were showing a variety of reactions.
Among them, the most interesting one was Estel.
She was listening to me with both hands clasped in front of her chest, and I couldn’t feel even the slightest vibration from the mask she always wore.
“My lord if possible, could you stay with us a little longer? We… still…”

Of course, some of the islanders tried to convince me to stay.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can fulfill that request.”
“My lord!”
But as soon as I finished speaking, I made it clear that I couldn’t agree to that request.
“My reason for wanting to leave isn’t because I’ve been uncomfortable here, but because staying any longer won’t help eradicate the disease. Thanks to the records left by Saintess Orpheus and your dedicated support, I now know the exact method to eliminate the disease that has been tormenting the saintess.”
The reason I can’t keep coming back here to help is simple…
“But to carry out that method, I cannot set foot on this island again. To completely remove the cause of the disease for a time, Modenas needs to be isolated from all outsiders except for the Wave Clan. And, as you might expect…”
I made eye contact with Estel, who was sitting upright, staring at me intently.
And looking directly into her deep blue eyes, which seemed like they would always resemble the sea, I said,
“I, too, am considered an outsider.”