Chương 91: 1-90 Unpleasant questions

Josef seriously wished for a chance to lie down and shut his eyes. Even the throbbing pain in his still recovering arm wouldn't be able to keep him up should he decide to take a nap. Unfortunately, a lot of people had suddenly begun to look at him for directions. They didn't even know about his status as a Drake, Josef complained in silence, but just being a healer carried an enormous amount of expectations.

On top of that, the mess included a second healer, and none of the adventurers appeared willing to even acknowledge that issue. Not when there was someone else who could be responsible for a matter so delicate, nobody else would want to approach it even with a stick. Tying up Sanctum's remaining soldiers turned out to be almost entirely up to Sprout, because barely anyone had any rope on them.

As it turned out, with a dungeon that was well known to be easily traversable for many years, it just wasn't a popular thing to bring. At least they could proceed with no further violence, as all the knights adhered to Boreas's command with concerning strictness. The temple's command structure apparently didn't allow for any free spirits within its ranks. For now, that allowed them to commandeer the captives with ridiculous ease. Apparently, as long as the light willed it, they would even walk off a ledge.

Even if that order came from adventurers that they were merely ordered to submit to. Someone had actually tried to go through with that, sending several bound knights waddling towards the rim of their current platform. Needless to say, Josef intervened immediately, unwilling to condone such an action. He might not have been on Earth anymore, but certain standards, he felt, should transcend dimensional bounds. Not to mention that they had no clear indicator of how willfully those knights had followed Sanctum.

After all, it was plain as day that the organization was more than willing to utilize magic to secure control over its assets. However, that didn't mean he could simply purify those people by using his chaos affinity, or draining the controlling energy. Sure, the order mana was possibly carrying at least some of the blame, but that excuse hardly applied to everyone they had captured. They all knew that there were genuine zealots who followed Sanctum's teachings with gusto.

That probably applied to most of them, even. Unleashing all of that pent up mania here and now would likely cause even more death, even if they had an advantage against the bound knights. When someone was mad and angry enough, they would find a way to maximize harm no matter how disadvantaged they were. All of them were carrying traces of the dangerous mana inside their bodies, though. And as long as at least some of them were unwilling victims, they couldn't just apply cardinal punishment to the entire group.

As Onyx's case had shown him, the victims of Sanctum's crimes were so numerous, they could show up in the most unexpected of places. Speaking of the lizard in question, he had eventually crawled over during cleanup. He was too weak to stand on his own, and no one was willing to get close to help him, nor to harm him either. Fear was a powerful deterrent, and it held even in the face of his weakened state. Though that didn't keep people from throwing murderous glares.

Expressions that he could finally see now, after people discarded their helmets. Something that was made possible by his continued efforts to drain the ambient order mana. Maybe the exposed faces also acted as a preventative to any drastic measures towards the beaten reptile. After all, such an act would weigh heavier when everyone knew who did it. Or it was rooted in their adherence to Josef's instructions as a healer.

After the first incident, he had made it abundantly clear that no patient or prisoner under him was to come to harm. Onyx probably counted as both in their eyes.

"Alright, I guess it's about time we continued our talk, Boreas." Josef dusted off his pants, rising from where he treated a leg injury on one of the adventurers. Healing everyone to an acceptable state was both surprisingly quick while still taking agonizingly long. Both Zippa and Bezzo had endured surprisingly little harm. Coordinating together, and with the younger brother apparently calling out openings, they had advanced into the knight's rows whenever there was a lull in spell-casting.

Up close, the older sibling was too much of a menace, even for the fanatic knights. While that still ended with him receiving plenty of cuts, those injuries were just about ordinary considering his usual way of fighting. More concerning was Linda, who had endured just as much damage on her much smaller frame. When he started treating her, he couldn't help comparing her to a leaky can of tomato juice. Her armor was dented all over, and blood was trickling from the seams.

Even so, she didn't speak a single complaint to him. Compared to how she acted when they first met, the difference was chilling. Also decidedly unhealthy, but once more he had to admit that there were wounds his magic couldn't touch. Maybe she could share a therapist with Onyx once they were done with this ordeal? He could probably use one himself, too. Then there was Zippa, and Bezzo probably had a need too… Could they apply for a group discount? This book was originally published on Royal Road.

Check it out there for the real experience. All the while his heart hadn't stopped hurting in the slightest, and casting spells had become an exercise of gritting his teeth and enduring the pain. Whatever was going on with it, the lack of proper rest certainly wasn't helping. He only hoped he could hold on until he got Cana back, something they were now closer to than ever before. And now he would find out how close exactly. Pulling down the vine that acted as a gag, he fixed Boreas with a stern gaze.

"Tell me, what is the bishop up to? Why did he take captives? What are his plans?"

"You can't treat me like this! I'm a healer! I have rights!" The elf loudly complained, his voice raspy and dry. It took Josef more effort than he wanted to admit to not kick the downed man.

"Sorry, but you left your rights in the temple with Sanctum."

"T-the magistrate will have your head for this!" Boreas spat, his face scrunched up in effort.

"Are you sure about that?" The irony almost made him chuckle.

"I'm a healer too, so what's he gonna do? Tell me." At that point, the elf faltered once again, his face turning pale. Apparently, he had never considered having to swallow his own excuses.

"T-the bishop took them all to the boss floor below us. I don't know what he's doing there." Seeing the unamused look on the human's face, he flinched back.

"I really don't!" Josef leaned in closely, mustering his best glare. He was already tired of talking with that elf.

"He must have said something, even if he didn't explain himself."

"He muttered something about repairing a seal. A-and about some kind of demonic presence. He sounded very upset about that!" That wasn't as much information as he had hoped to gain. Still, he had an inkling he knew what demonic presence the bishop had meant. Considering the whole mess started around his first visit to the dungeon, and his chaos affinity ran contrary to the mana Sanctum loved so much?

Josef also recalled the momentary pain in his chest back then, which started right as he stepped into the dungeon for the first time. A sensation all too similar to what he was suffering now, even if the intensity wasn't half as bad that day. His presence had disturbed something Sanctum had set up here. That's why things started to happen. Why the dungeon began to act anomalously. The thought somehow brought an uneasy calm, quelling an emotion at the back of his mind. When Cana was lost in the dungeon.

Every time they found the remains of dead adventurers. The pained faces of those seeking refuge in the safe zones. His friends having been injured while fighting by his side. Every single time he had to suppress that feeling of guilt. A part of him had thought that he was to blame for all of this. Even when many of those terrible situations came back to Sanctum, he never quite got rid of that feeling. That none of this would have happened if he hadn't turned up, fucking up these people's lives.

Now he knew that they had started this. At some point before he had come to Aurum, they had already tampered with the dungeon. He might have triggered it to fall apart, but he could hardly blame himself for that. Maybe he still did, a little, but that was much easier to bury in that drawer in the back of his mind, where all the unwanted feelings went. In its place, he felt a renewed anger at that temple and its leadership. At the healer right in front of him.

"Why?" The question hung unanswered in the room, and confusion spread across the healer's face.

"Why hurt people? Why kill beastkin for their pelts? Why do you refuse to heal anyone?" Boreas's face turned into a sneer.

"I don't hurt people. Unlike my brother, I have never harmed another elf." Then, his tone shifted, sounding lecturing. Even though he was the one bound on the ground, it sounded like the elf was talking down to Josef.

"Healing isn't a privilege, child. Every classer is entitled to be paid for using their skills. Ours are simply both rare and worthwhile. Can't you see how your actions devalue our line of work? If everyone got used to your way, how are the rest of us supposed to make a living?" Deep breaths, Josef chanted to himself silently. He couldn't break the elf's jaws before he was done talking. As he made no effort to answer, the healer finally continued.

"As for the pelts…" For once, the look on his face showed some amount of unease.

"They are for my brother. Aquilo has been rather demanding as of late. He tends to get obsessive about his pet projects. I told him to just buy up the market, but he prefers them fresh." Then, that unease bent into a frown.

"Because of him, we now have the stench of animals defiling the temple." Josef's hand was twitching with a desire for violence he hadn't thought himself capable of. The elf had painted a very clear picture of who was qualified to be a person from his point of view. He never denied hurting 'animals'.

"What about Onyx?" He was, of course, planning to talk with the reptile himself, but this was a rare chance to get Sanctum's perspective on what they did. The elf twitched in his bindings before leveling a glare toward the nearby lizard.

"A tool the bishop brought along when he came to Highsend. No idea where he got the thing, but it was supposed to follow our commands." The elf all but spat the following words.

"Never did a good job at it. Useless thing ruined half the work it touched. But at least it was strong enough for the violent bits. Until now." Then, as if smelling another opportunity, he added in a conspiratorial whisper.

"I don't know how you broke the bishop's hold on it. But with that strength, you could get rid of the bishop. Maybe even take his place. Think about it, three healers controlling the entire-" Josef decisively pulled the vine back up, gagging the elf once more. That was probably the most they would get out of him. At least before the desire to punch his teeth out finally won out. Looking around, he was not the only one feeling that way.

While Bezzo's anger was subtly hidden in the way his eyes glared, both Linda and Zippa were visibly burning in rage. One metaphorically, and the other literally. Pretzel had been on board with strangling the elf even before the questioning, and Sprout seemed to take some questionable joy from squeezing the man. On the side, Onyx was still staring at the elf from his remaining eye, though his face was devoid of emotion.

"What should we do with him?" Josef asked, turning towards his companions.

"I never had to turn anyone in before." Zippa's face immediately descended into deep thought, but his brother looked like he had swallowed lemons.

"Someone as important as a healer would immediately be handed over to the magistrate. He's too valuable to simply lock away." With a deep sigh, he finished.

"Which means they would forcefully employ him at a suitable work location." So no matter what, he would just get away with magical community service. But wouldn't that mean…

"They'd just hand him back to Sanctum, right?" He received an unhappy nod in turn. Boreas, meanwhile, looked like he was smiling around his gag. Like a child who got away after emptying the entire cookie jar. Little did he account for the ferocity of one particular noble lady.

"Unless he never gets back." Linda stepped closer, speaking coldly.