Swordsmaster Fox-girl

Unlike my previous visit with Ria, the guards here immediately stepped aside to let us in without even questioning anything.

I thought that it was me who they remembered, but upon seeing Ihwa’s nonchalant face, I began to have doubts.

‘Could she actually be the Governor’s daughter?’

After all, if she was a noble from another territory, the guards here would’ve had no obligation to let her in freely like that. In fact, she’d probably be detained and then sent to House Leinfall for interrogation.

But Ihwa’s current mood was obviously good, and I didn’t want to ruin it by touching potentially sensitive subjects, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Since it was still noon, I decided to go and do all the necessary things like finding a place to stay and looking for a Healer before I met the Demon.

Finding an inn was easy enough. With Aerin and Nira being our “guardians,” it wasn’t much trouble renting a room. Now, the problem was finding a Healer…

“Unnie, do you know any Healer in this city?” 

Upon hearing my question, Ihwa closed her eyes for a bit in thought before shaking her head. “No. But why do you need one?”

“I can’t let Mom see me like this…”

After all, I mustn’t let Mom see me with all these cuts and bruises. The only reason why I wasn’t getting strange looks in the street was because my cloak covered all my wounds…and also my tail and ears.

“Then, how about a Priest?”

“A Priest…”

I shuddered at the thought. Yes, Priests could heal, but they often did so at a price. And that price was—

“It’s okay,” Ihwa placed a hand on my shoulder, interrupting my thought. “Unnie’s here for you.”

‘Like that’s going to make a difference.’

It wasn’t as if she could stop the Priest from preaching his religion to me. Seriously, all the Priests and Priestesses I’d met in my past life—including Emelia—absolutely loved to talk about their respective Goddess to the people they’d healed.

I could just sleep through it very easily since their words were often boring, but I’d have to deal with them scowling at me after words and insulting me for apparently “disrespecting their Goddess.”

“Unnie’s going to make sure to wake you up just before the Priest’s preaching ends.”

Ooh, so she was going to help in that way!

I couldn’t help but give her a thumbs up.

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We stood before a church surrounded by limestone walls. I could see a Priest donning white robes tending to the flowers around the church.

“Father Richter,” Ihwa spoke.

The Priest froze for a bit before standing up and dusting his robes. Then, he turned around. 

I could see his hair, which was gray. But it was obvious that he wasn’t born with grayish hair like me. Though, technically, I wasn’t born with gray hair…

With a kind smile, he said,

“What a surprise. How long has it been since the last time you came here?”

In response, Ihwa rushed up to him, grabbed his hand and placed it on her head. She then proceeded to rub the top of her head in his hand.

“There, there. Did your father scare you again?”

“No.” Ihwa shook her head. “My friend needs healing.”

Only then did the Priest—whose name was apparently Richter—noticed me. 

I found myself unwittingly taking a step back as soon as he laid his eyes on me. I thought that it was due to his strength as a 3-star, but I soon found out the true cause.

{M-Master, d-don’t let him get near me…}

‘What’s wrong?’

{Y-You know how Holy power affects me.}

‘Right…’

I completely forgot about that. Aerin must’ve been so scared that she didn’t dare to remind me until now. So, without saying anything, I dashed away from the Church.

“Nova! Wait!”

I could hear Ihwa shouting my name, but I didn’t respond. Soon, I arrived at a nearby alleyway.

“Aerin, you can stay near here until I come back.”

“Thank you, Master.”

I left Aerin behind and made my way out of the alleyway. I peeked my head over the corner to see if anyone was nearby.

Well, someone was nearby, and it was Father Richter. He was so close to the alleyway that half of my vision was obscured by his white robe.

I nearly took a step back in shock, but didn’t, for the sake of Aerin.

“Be not afraid,” Father Richter said with a calming voice. “Unlike her sister—Strile, Goddess Navr’s love extends to all.”

‘He thinks I’m afraid of him because I’m not Human?’

It was a misunderstanding that was beneficial for me, sure. But even if Aerin wasn’t here, I would still not be worried about him.

After all, I knew the code of no-discrimination that every believer of Goddess Navr and Goddes Caedes devoutly followed. 

And no, it wasn’t as if Goddess Strile was discriminatory. I remembered thinking just like that in my past life and receiving an earful from Emelia.

-”Nova, what you’re thinking is just wrong. I may be a bit disrespectful for saying this, but the Goddesses can’t care less about a Mortal’s race. It’s just that the Sacred text bestowed upon us by Goddess Strile didn’t contain any line that specifically disallows discrimination. So, every act of discrimination you see from the Strilian Priests are of their own will, not the Goddess’.”

It was strange that a follower of Goddess Caedes like Emelia would know so much about Goddess Strile, but I guessed that she wasn’t a Saint for nothing. She probably spent her entire childhood reading scriptures and studying Theology or something.

Snapping myself out of my recollection, I decided to play up the misunderstanding by making my body tremble.

“R-Really?” 

“Indeed. Come, child. Your friend is waiting.”

I meekly nodded and followed him; though, I made sure to keep a certain distance from him.

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Currently, I was inside the church. Since it was noon, there were no civilians praying inside. To make me feel more comfortable, Father Richter ordered all the nuns to wait outside the main praying room.

Yeah, I felt a little bad for deceiving him like this, but I was too far in to back out now.

“So,” Father Richter said as he put on a pair of glasses to appear like a grandpa—or in other words, less threatening. “You need someone to heal you, correct?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Ihwa, please hold her.”

Ihwa nodded and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. Father Richter is a good man.”

As my attention was entirely on the genius beside me, Father Richter placed his hand on my forehead. Then, his hand glowed a bright golden color.

Unlike Mom’s healing, this type of healing didn’t feel good. In fact…I wasn’t sure if I felt anything at all.

After the light subsided, I looked at my arm.

‘Still full of bruises…’

As Ihwa and I looked at Father Richter with questioning gazes, he sighed.

“Goddess have mercy on you, child. You have a powerful curse placed on you.”

‘Hmmm…he must be talking about [Seven dawn].’

And his next words proved my thought.

“To have the fragments of the fallen Outer God of the Sun inside you… You’re an unlucky child. The blessings of the three Goddesses will not work on people like you.”

Wait, the Sun God was an Outer god? 

I could feel cold sweat running down my forehead. If that was the case, then most Priests of one of the three Goddesses would have no qualm killing me right here or experimenting on me. The question was, would this Priest do so?

“W-What are you going to do with me?”

Instead of zealous hatred like I’d expected, he looked at me with pity.

“I simply feel sympathy for you. Unless you awaken to Fire attribute, you’ll be no better than crippled for the rest of your life. Things may be less bad if you do awaken to Frost, but still, I pray for you to awaken to Fire.”

‘Alright, Ihwa’s right. He’s a good man.’

His next actions proved to me that he was an even better man than I’d thought.

“Now, since you’ve come all the way here to heal, I can’t let you leave still wounded. Please wait here for a few minutes.”

After saying that, he left. And, just like he’d said, he returned within a few minutes with a book in his hands.

Judging by the Mana swirling around it, I knew what the book was.

‘A Skill book…’

Father Richter took his old seat and handed the Skill book to me.

“Use it and heal yourself.”
“F-Father, this is too valuable! I can’t!”

‘I can! Give it to me!’

It would be embarrassing and incredibly frustrating if he’d accepted my words and actually took back the Skill book. Luckily for me, he didn’t.

“Bah! It’s of no use to us Priests. Goddess Navr’s blessing is greater than any Healing skills. Besides, we’re indebted to your friend—Ihwa. This is nothing compared to what she’d done for us.”

I looked at Ihwa with a questioning gaze. Again, she just smiled mysteriously without revealing anything.

‘Well, I’m not going to say no now.’

“T-Thank you, Father.”

Since this was obviously Mana-based skill, I had to use Mana to absorb it. Luckily, I could cheat it by using Aura to move Mana in the opposite direction since the two sources of power naturally repelled each other. In short, I didn’t need to learn how to wield Mana to do this.

Was it incredibly tedious and inefficient? Yes. 

Did it do what I wanted it to do?

[E-ranked Skill: {Minor heal} learned]

Yes.

‘So, I just place my hand on my wounds and say the words, right?’

Without wasting any more time, I used it.

“[Minor heal]”

Instantly, all the pain vanished from my body. I felt lighter, and, most importantly, my wounds all disappeared. However, it came with the side effect of me feeling a lot more lethargic.

As I was still amazed of what a simple Skill like that could do, Father Richter said with a fascinated voice.

“My, my, are you of Otherworldly blood, child?”

“H-How did you know?” 

He smiled warmly. “One glance and anyone can tell that you don’t know how to handle Mana. Yet, you used the Skill perfectly just by uttering its name. So, it’s obvious that you have Otherworldly blood flowing in your veins, and are blessed by the Status screen that the three Goddesses have bestowed upon the Otherworlders.”

‘He’s extremely witty for an old man.’

Though, I shouldn’t think too bad about him. He was the one who gave me this Skill for free, after all. As I was about to say something to him, I heard a loud crashing noise from outside the church.

Father Richter, Ihwa, and I looked through the window, only to see a group of street thugs wielding blunt weapons and knocking loudly on a house’s door.

-“Open up! Pay your protection fee!”

Throughout all of this, I could see Father Richter’s face slowly getting red with anger. 

“Cursed be those vile creatures,” he muttered in a prayer. “To act like this in front of a Church dedicated to Goddess Navr…how far has humanity fallen?”

“Father Richter, do you know them?” Ihwa asked.

“Of course. They’ve been harassing the people of several districts for years.”

“Do you know their name?” I said after seeing them drag a husband protecting his wife out of the house.

“Their name…I believe they’re called the Red skulls.”

“H-How scary!” Ihwa exclaimed.

Unlike her, my frown deepened.

“How cringy…”