On a sunny day when the clinic in the ruined city was bathed in bright sunlight, a certain catgirl broker dropped by.
“So, Mistress Carmilla’s Merry Minions have been assimilated into the Beast King’s faction, meow,” Pista reported. “They seemed happy about it.”
Zenos let out a relieved sigh. “Glad to hear that.”
Though the mass undead outbreak in the Black Guild had been resolved, there was still lingering confusion in the aftermath. Those who had escaped to the surface with Pista’s guidance were so terrified that they refused to return to the underground waterway, rendering the guild practically nonfunctional. Some factions were on the verge of disbanding, and others had relocated their headquarters.
Zenos had been concerned about the fates of his faction members, so hearing that the Beast King had taken them in was a relief.
“The Beast King was nearly retired, but it sounds like he’s decided to keep going a while longer, meow. He said his faction will be doing odd jobs to help people.”
“A top executive of the Black Guild helping people... Huh.”
“He said that since he was given another chance at life, he wants to spend the rest of his days doing good.”
“Ah,” Zenos said with a smile and a nod. “What about you, Pista? What will you do?”
“I got what I wanted, so I’m going to go stay with my mom for a while. But...” She rubbed her cat ears. “I’ll stop by and help the Beast King every so often, meow.”
“I’m sure he’ll be ecstatic.”
“You really helped me out, shadow healer. Thank you.” Pista stood up slowly, grinned, and closed the distance between them in a second. Without giving Zenos time to react, she licked his cheek.
“Whoa! I’d forgotten about that...”
“Mya ha ha! The Beast King said he’d like to lick you again too.”
“Let him know I appreciate the sentiment.” Zenos stood up with an awkward smile. “Only the sentiment.”
After he saw Pista off, a spirit fluttered down beside him. “I have something I must tell you, Zenos,” she said.
“You got your booze already.”
“Not that. Something far more important.”
“What is it, then?”
“Lily collapsed by the kitchen.”
“What?” Zenos rushed back inside and found Lily face down just as Carmilla had said. “Huh? Hey, Lily! Are you all right?!” He hurriedly made his way to the young girl and examined her. Lily’s pulse was normal, and her breaths were steady. She was simply unconscious. “Why...?”
Carmilla replied with an exasperated expression, “Why, seeing the man she adores partake in such passionate kissing would naturally result in a fainting spell. Henceforth, your new title shall be the ‘clueless idiot healer.’”
“That’s just an insult!”
“You simply cannot appreciate my exquisite naming senses.”
“You don’t have an ounce of sense in you, naming or otherwise!”
As Zenos and Carmilla argued, Lily slowly stirred awake. “Huh?” she mumbled. “What happened to me?”
“Listen, Lily,” Zenos said. “What happened just now wasn’t my decision, and it’s just a thing catfolk do to show affection. Nothing more—”
“Um... What are you talking about?”
It seemed the shock had not only made her faint, but also forget what she’d seen. Zenos let out a relieved sigh, and the clinic’s door swung open to reveal the usual gang.
“Hey, doc. We just passed by the broker on the way here,” Zophia said.
“She seemed weirdly cheery, so I demanded an explanation,” Lynga noted.
“And what does she tell us? That she licked you! Unfair that only the catgirl gets to do it. I, too, want to lick you!”
“You three keep your mouths shut about that!” Zenos snapped.
Carmilla chuckled. “Back to our usual at last.”
The wraith’s laughter and Zenos’s flustered yelling mixed in with the loud buzzing of cicadas, carrying off into the blue sky.
A lone figure stood at a distance, watching the clinic.
“Thank you, Zenos,” murmured Velitra, now clad in a pure-white robe, tucking a lock of her wind-tousled indigo hair behind her ear.
She’d learned that, thanks to the efforts of Zenos and his faction as well as the Beast King’s call for cooperation among some of the top executives, there had been no significant casualties in the underground waterway. Although she couldn’t achieve her long-sought goal, her heart, once heavy, was now as light as the breeze.
She’d gotten to see her mentor again—even if it had been just an illusory projection.
“I’m leaving the capital. My plan is to go to other lands and see what I can do for the people there.”
There was no need for farewells. She and Zenos had already spoken plenty in the underground depths.
As she gazed upon the clinic in the ruined city, Velitra recalled her mentor’s favorite saying. “A third-rate healer just mends wounds. A second-rate healer heals people. A first-rate healer makes the world a better place.”
According to the Conductor, Zenos had put an end to the conflict between the demi-humans of the slums and driven out the darkness from the Royal Institute of Healing. Not only that, he’d rendered the Black Guild effectively nonfunctional and set some of the remaining factions on the path to do good.
“A healer who not only mends wounds, but also saves people and changes society itself, huh...” A healer who could treat everything in the world, like something out of a fantasy. Surely that had been the idea, the wish, and the hope that their mentor had entrusted to the future.
Quietly, Velitra turned on her heel. The Kingdom of Herzeth, also known as the Kingdom of the Sun, was one of the continent’s greatest nations. As a former top executive of the Black Guild, she’d gotten to interact with those close to the heart of the country. Light and darkness were two sides of the same coin, she knew, and the stronger the light, the darker the shadow it cast.
“The darkness in this country is deep. But...” Velitra looked back at the clinic once more and smiled. “You just might be the one to change that someday, Zenos.”