The day after our celebration, I woke to find Ralph all packed up and ready to go.
He hadn’t gone so far as to wake me up or anything, but I could practically feel the nervous energy radiating from him. He looked antsy, though I had warned him yesterday that we wouldn’t be leaving first thing in the morning.
“Morning. You must’ve gotten up way too early if you’re already ready to go. I told you it wasn’t open at the crack of dawn, remember?”
“Well, I was awake, so what else was I supposed to do? Anyway, shouldn’t we get going?”
“Just settle down for a bit, will you? I’ve still gotta get everything in order,” I said, then glanced around. “Did Hester leave already?”
The only other person in the room was Ralph, who looked ready to jump out of his skin. There was no sign of Hester.
They didn’t have to hunt any goblins today, but the two of them seemed to have woken up ridiculously early as usual.
“Yeah. She left a little while ago to gather some intel. Hester and I always get up early, so it’s just habit at this point.”
“Right... Well, my plan was for us to take it pretty easy today, but I guess your body’s not on board with that, huh?”
“Exactly. So let’s hurry up and get moving already!”
“All right, all right...”
I finished getting ready, rushing a bit at Ralph’s urging, and we made our way to the Healers’ Guild in the commercial district.
It would have been nice if it were in the industrial district, on the same street as all the other guilds, but unfortunately, the Healers’ Guild was the only one in the commercial district—probably because all the business in the area demanded it.
But anyway, since the pharmacy and clinics were also in the commercial district, I knew we’d have to make our way over there sooner or later anyway.
As I reflected on that, Ralph and I arrived at the Healers’ Guild and immediately went up to the front desk.
“Good morning. How can we help you today?” asked the receptionist.
“My friend here has an old injury he needs looked at. Would one of the healers be available to see him?”
“Is this old injury external?”
“Yes.”
“Understood. I’ll just need to see your ID, please.”
I nudged Ralph, trying to prompt him to pull out his adventurer’s card. He produced it and handed it to the receptionist in a hurry, and she jotted down his information.
“Thank you,” she said, handing it back to him. “You’re fifth in line to wait. Please take a seat until your number is called.”
It sounded like we wouldn’t have to wait long for our appointment, probably because we’d arrived just shortly after the guild had opened for the day.
Ralph had been fidgety back in the hotel room, but ever since we’d entered the Healers’ Guild, he’d looked absolutely paralyzed with anxiety.
I guess I couldn’t blame him for being nervous, though. After all, it was hardly an exaggeration to say this healer’s appointment would likely determine the course of the rest of his life.
I thought about starting a chat with him to help ease his anxiety, but before I could, his number was called.
“Let’s go, Ralph,” I said.
“It’s... It’s my turn already? Wasn’t that a bit fast?”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
I gave his back a light push as we followed a guild member into a consulting room.
The healer who was sitting in the room waiting for us was a man in his fifties. He took the slip of paper that the receptionist had filled out earlier and looked it over.
“Good morning,” he said. “So, you’ve got an external injury you want me to take a look at?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And...which one of you will I be examining?”
“Oh, um... M-Me, sir,” Ralph said.
“Can you show me your injury?”
Ralph rolled up the hem of his pant leg to show the healer. He was so anxious that all of his movements looked stiff and awkward.
It was actually my first time seeing his knee injury too. I could see an old, deep scar on his left knee under the kneecap. It looked like there was some strange swelling too.
“Hmm... It’s in rough shape, isn’t it? When did you injure it?” asked the doctor.
“About seven years ago. I twisted it when I hit the ground after a long fall.”
“Is it okay if I take a closer look?”
“S-Sure, go ahead.”
The healer pressed several different points on Ralph’s knee, checking to see where it hurt.
“Looks like the ligament’s snapped. It’s been untreated for so long that the meniscus has been damaged too.”
“S-So it can’t be treated, then?” Ralph asked.
“No, it can. The treatment would involve opening up the knee and transplanting the ligament. We’d also need to replace your meniscus with metal slime oil,” the healer explained.
“Really?! You can heal my knee?!”
“I wouldn’t lie to a patient. That being said, it’s an expensive surgery, and you would have to procure the metal slime oil yourself.”
“How expensive are we talking?”
“The surgery is twenty platinum coins. The metal slime oil will probably cost you about that much too.”
“Twenty platinums?!”
That was a pretty insane treatment cost. I could see why Ralph was doing a double take.
I’d made twenty gold coins in the last month, so it would take me about a year and a half at least to save up twenty platinums—and that was assuming that I didn’t spend any of it.
But the surgery wasn’t the only expense; we’d have to procure metal slime oil too. It was a pretty hopeless situation.
“We can’t afford that. Is there some other way?”
“I’m afraid not. The injury has been neglected for so long that this is the only way to treat it now.” After a pause, the healer continued. “If it were a fresh injury, then a potion probably would have done the trick all right. But it looks like you’ve put a lot of pressure on the leg, which has exacerbated the injury. Has your knee ever given out on you?”
“Yeah... That happens pretty often.”
“I had a feeling. If you want to pursue treatment here at the guild, then I’m afraid reconstructive surgery is the only path available to you.”
“Here at the guild...? Wait, does that mean that I could get cheaper treatment somewhere else?”
“Well, it would probably be even more expensive at a clinic... There is one other option, though.”
“There is? Well, what is it?”
After dropping that little pearl, the healer suddenly clammed up, seeming hesitant to say more. After I pressed him a bit, though, he finally continued.
“It might be worth looking into a healer named Vlad. But as a healer here at the guild, that’s about all I can say,” he said.
“Right... Well, thank you. Both for taking a look at my friend, and for the valuable information. You’ve been a huge help.”
“I’m just sorry I couldn’t do more. I can prescribe something to help with the pain, however, if that’s something you’d be interested in?”
After a long silence, Ralph answered. “No, thanks...”
I bowed my head in thanks to the healer as I dragged Ralph, who looked like he’d just had the worst day of his life, out of the Healers’ Guild.
It seemed like it was going to be a real uphill battle to fully heal Ralph’s knee.
I’d already gathered from how much pain he was regularly in that it must have been a serious injury, but I never would have guessed that it would cost a full twenty platinum coins to heal it.
For now, it seemed that the next step would be to track down this “Vlad” character that the healer had mentioned, but I had a feeling that helping Hester learn magic might end up coming first after all.
“Hey, don’t look so down. We’ve just gotta find this Vlad guy,” I said.
“No... I’m done. I told you, remember? My knee’s never gonna heal.”
“Well, that sure wasn’t my takeaway. Sounds to me like the worst-case scenario is that it takes twenty platinum coins.”
“And where am I supposed to find that kind of money, huh? Do you have any idea how much I have saved up right now? Two copper coins. That’s it. Two! Copper! Coins! I couldn’t even pay twenty golds, so you can forget about twenty platinums!”
“So what? You’re gonna give up just like that?” I asked. “I don’t need losers with no ambition in my life. I know we just formed a party yesterday, but I won’t think twice about dissolving it.”
After a long pause, Ralph finally replied, “I never said I was giving up. I just wanna whine for a bit, okay? Can’t I at least have that?”
“If whining did any good, I’d let you have at it. But it doesn’t. All it does is waste our precious time—time we could be spending chasing leads instead. So, if you’re not throwing in the towel, then let’s hurry up and look for Vlad.”
With that little pep talk out of the way, we agreed to look for the mysterious healer.
Since the guild healer had given us very little to go on, we had no idea who Vlad was, so we decided to split up and make the rounds at a couple different clinics to gather as much information as we could.
Ralph and I parted ways after we left the Healers’ Guild and spent several hours looking for the mysterious Vlad.
Once I’d finished asking around the clinic I’d agreed to tackle, I headed for our designated meeting spot.
I’d managed to find three pieces of information on this Vlad guy:
The first was that he was obviously a troublemaker, since every healer I’d spoken to about him had given me a funny look.
The second was that he was apparently also a very skilled healer.
The third was that he’d had some sort of fall from grace several years ago, and that his current whereabouts were unknown.
Altogether, it wasn’t much to go on. I hadn’t been able to find the most important piece of information: his current location.