At the orphanage on a small hill in the slums, the children had burst out of the safe room and were running around the backyard.
“Wooooooow! That was sooo cool!”
“He defeated that big dragon all by himself!”
“Is he really your friend, Auntie Liz?”
Liz clutched her hands against her chest to keep her overwhelming emotions in check.
“Yes, he is,” she confirmed. “We grew up together in another orphanage that used to be in this very spot.”
“Wooow! That’s amazing!”
“He was an orphan and he became a hero!”
“So we can be heroes too?”
Liz was silent for a moment, surprised, but then smiled brightly.
“I know you can.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Sis!”
“Zonde! Is everyone all right?!”
The group of demi-humans and their three chiefs had finished fighting in the city district and regrouped with Zonde and the others in the slums.
“Man, am I glad that’s over. Leave it to the doc to handle things,” Zophia said.
“I knew this would happen,” Lynga declared.
“Me too,” Loewe agreed. “Even when the whole kingdom had lost faith, we knew Zenos would pull through.”
Zophia, Lynga, and Loewe all exchanged looks and bumped fists.
Pista approached them, her cat ears twitching. “Hey, Lynga! I thought you should know how awesome I was out there, meow!”
“I still think your tongue is your sharpest weapon,” Lynga retorted. “But thank you for backing us up.”
The werewolf chieftain and the information broker exchanged a high five.
“Are you the Beast King?” Zophia asked the massive beastman at Pista’s side. “Thank you for coming to our aid.”
“It’s nothing compared to what Zenos did for me,” the Beast King replied.
“You know, everyone’s in better shape than I thought. Were there no dragons here?”
Though the remnants of Zenos’s healing magic had rained down across the capital and healed the wounded, Zophia found it odd that no one gathered here had so much as a scratch.
Zonde shook his head. “No, we had a bunch of those, and a lot of us got hurt. But then a passing healer showed up and took care of everyone.”
“A passing healer?”
“Yeah. A really freaking good one too. Said something about coming to see an old friend, then left when it turned out the friend wasn’t around.”
“Huh...” Zophia mumbled, looking out over the street.
Stroking his mane, the Beast King muttered, “Wait, was that...”
“You know this healer?”
“Well, without the mask, it didn’t ring a bell at first, but... Maybe I do...”
✦ ✦ ✦
A little ways from the center of the slums, said passing healer stood alone, androgynous features set in a pensive look and indigo hair fluttering in the wind. She had once studied healing magic under the same teacher as Zenos—her close friend.
Brushing back her bangs, she murmured, “A third-rate healer just mends wounds. A second-rate healer heals people. A first-rate healer makes the world a better place...”
A simple healer who could treat injuries, fill the holes in people’s hearts, and even change the world. It sounded like something out of a fairy tale, but it was the exact kind of healer that their master had idealized.
She looked up at the Saintess’s Spire with awe.
“Zenos... I’m sure our master is proud of you. You’re a true first-rate healer.”