You Want to Run After Entering the Medical Bay?

People's appearances changed drastically at different stages of their lives, which was why they had to visit the police station every so often to get a new ID card.

But changes as outrageous as Priest Diqiuya's were absolutely rare in this world.

How had you gone from a dream-lover-level gorgeous young lady to a muscle-bound bro like this?!

Not only was Pei Renli screaming internally, the other three girls craning their necks to look over were equally unable to believe it.

"That was already more than twenty years ago. I was only seventeen when that photo was taken."

Priest Diqiuya wore a nostalgic expression.

"That happened to be the golden age of adventurers. I was also a little priest who had just stepped out of the temple."

No, no, no. Even though you looked like you were wistfully recalling the beauty of youth, these were clearly two completely different people!

"So how did you become like this?"

Koura asked the question everyone desperately wanted answered, and Priest Diqiuya did not shy away from it.

"Mostly, I lacked restraint."

She said:

"After the Demon King of Tyranny disappeared, it was as if I suddenly lost my goal. So I started eating and drinking recklessly and didn't manage my weight properly."

Adventurers got a great deal of exercise, which meant they all had enormous appetites. Once their activity levels dropped and they lacked self-control, of course they would gain weight.

But simply getting fat should not have turned someone into this...

"Obesity is a major trigger for many illnesses, so I started trying to lose weight through exercise. In the end, it seems I may have exercised a little too much."

Everyone: "..."

Uh...

Were you sure it was only "a little"?

They said time was a butcher's blade, but looking at her now, what butcher's blade? This was clearly Golden Fertilizer.

As they spoke, she had already mixed the medicine and handed it to the three sitting on the beds.

"This is for pain relief. It's rather bitter, so drink it all in one go."

Divine magic was indeed amazing at treating injuries, but it could not completely replace medicine. Bone injuries in particular would continue to hurt for a while even after being healed.

Once they had all finished the medicine, Diqiuya removed the holy symbol hanging from her chest.

Different deities had different holy symbols, and they could not be used interchangeably.

Diqiuya's holy symbol depicted a beautiful woman with fiery red hair and a crescent-white face, showing that she was a priest of Sune, the goddess of love and beauty.

If Diqiuya in her youth had indeed fit the image of a priest of the goddess of love and beauty, then she was somewhat less suited to it now.

Still, the divine magic itself was not weakened in the slightest. Holy radiance burst from the sacred symbol and traveled through her carrot-thick fingers to the injured areas. The visual effects were certainly divine, but her figure made that divinity go somewhat off course...

The entire process lasted only a few seconds. The treatment for all three was basically the same.

For the more lightly injured Koura and Eve, Diqiuya used Cure Wounds. For the more serious and complicated case of Kaya, she added Restoration alongside Cure Wounds to ensure that the bones healed perfectly.

"Don't do any strenuous exercise for the next two days. Get plenty of rest, and you'll be fine soon."

Though their injuries had vanished in a flash of white light, they still needed time to recuperate. It simply would not take as long as natural healing.

The school infirmary was open free of charge, a benefit that had helped many people. The three immediately thanked her profusely.

Diqiuya grinned. Though her smile was somewhat ferocious, it was clear that she was delighted to be able to help the students.

"Oh, right. Since you're heading out, do me a favor."

She returned to the desk and picked up the sheet of paper she had just been writing on.

It seemed to be a letter. She planted a hard kiss on the bottom, leaving behind a huge, conspicuous lip print nearly as wide as the letter itself...

In a sense, it could count as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Probably not even the most tasteless seal-maker could produce an effect like that.

She folded the letter, stuffed it into an envelope, and handed it to Koura.

"When you head back, please drop this off at the gatehouse for me."

That little favor was no big deal.

Just as everyone was about to say goodbye, Priest Diqiuya looked at Pei Renli.

His heart skipped a beat.

"I usually don't interrogate you about how you got injured, but you should have a physical examination too."

"No, no, there's no need. I'm perfectly fine."

"No. You think you can run after coming into the infirmary?"

"I'm really fine! There's no need to trouble yourself!"

"It's no trouble. While we're at it, you can also learn about our teachings. You should know that the most powerful force in this world isn't violence, but love and peace."

The shadow cast by Priest Diqiuya's enormous body swallowed Pei Renli whole. He was just short of leaping up and shouting:

Don't come near me!

Priest Diqiuya was warmhearted, and her healing skills were superb. There was hardly any injury or illness she could not handle.

The reason students were reluctant to visit the infirmary was not entirely because her appearance was rather hard to describe. It was because she always took the opportunity to preach.

Just imagine it: someone with flaming red lips and the build of a muscular brute, loudly proclaiming love and peace while painstakingly explaining the doctrines of Sune, goddess of love. It was practically a double critical hit to both the eyes and ears.

After being put through quite an ordeal for a good while—mostly because the preaching delayed things—the group finally left the infirmary and returned to their dormitory to rest.

Diqiuya truly would not pry into why students had been injured, but she was also genuinely incredible. She prescribed everyone some herbs to calm their minds, telling them to steep them like tea.

Honestly, what had happened in the sewers last night was enough to give Pei Renli nightmares for days on end. He had no idea how Priest Diqiuya had seen through that.

Back at the dormitory, Pei Renli set down his backpack and plopped onto his bed.

The school infirmary might be free, but he still felt as if he had taken mental damage...

Actually, after they had finished recounting what happened to the guards last night, each of the four had been given a bottle of healing potion. Aside from Kaya, whose injuries were too serious for a healing potion to be a safe option, the others only needed to drink one. The effect was not as fast as divine magic, but it would not take long either.

They had not drunk them because healing potions were too expensive. A single bottle cost a full five gold coins, and no one could bear to use one. Since the school infirmary was free anyway, they might as well save them.

And speaking of money, the guards from the middle district and upper district had also given each of them a small pouch filled with gold coins last night. After counting them, they found thirty gold coins per person.

That money was probably paid out of the guards' own pockets. On one hand, it was a reward; on the other, it carried the meaning of hush money.

Compared to genuine nobles and wealthy merchants, guards were indeed not much. But when one thought carefully about it, a guard's position was basically equivalent to a police chief's. That was no trivial matter.

Especially since not only had a guard died in this incident, but there were even shadows of Curtain Star City's upper ranks behind it.

If it had merely been a human trafficking case cracked by four adventurers, at most it would have become gossip for ordinary people over tea and meals. But the situation was complicated, so naturally the truth could not be made public.

The guards had their pride too. With guards involved in the matter, once it was revealed, they would not be able to show their faces on the streets.

So it was foreseeable that the public version would differ greatly from what had actually happened. Within a few days, Pei Renli and the others would probably hear that Curtain Star City's guards had cracked a major criminal case, while the heroic guard Chatin had unfortunately perished, and so on. Their names would not appear at all, and there were probably only a handful of people who even knew about the incident.

He casually opened the Demon King System and saw that the number beneath the Reputation section had changed from 5 to 6.

Based on how he had earned reputation before, as well as the number of people at the school who had heard Pei Renli's jade-like broadcast at the time, he could infer from that one additional point of reputation that perhaps a dozen or twenty-some people knew of this matter. That was already an inflated estimate; it was likely circulating only among a portion of the powerful and wealthy.

That was not much of a pity. Pei Renli had gotten the money, after all, and he was not counting on reputation to improve his combat strength.

Furthermore, the guards' act of paying hush money itself confirmed for him that Curtain Star City's upper ranks had been involved in this matter.

But whatever the truth was, it did not have much to do with Pei Renli. The information he could infer was extremely limited, and besides, he had no time to ponder it.

The hourglass displayed beside the Demon King System had already drained considerably. Two weeks had passed, leaving roughly four-fifths remaining.

But he could not simply calculate that as two months left for Pei Renli, because he was not sure whether the hourglass's flow would suddenly speed up. In any case, his priority still had to be increasing his strength as much as possible.

Actual combat was the sole criterion for testing truth. That saying applied to Pei Renli as well.

Every time he took on a mission and experienced a real fight, he discovered exactly where his shortcomings lay.

For example, he still needed to strengthen both his offensive and defensive capabilities.

At present, his offensive spells consisted only of Magic Missile, Force Ray, and Burning Hands. Their limitations were too great, and their power was not high either. As for things like Force Fist, which he had never practiced enough to master, they could not even be considered.

He had only one defensive spell, Mage Armor, and that likewise needed to be improved as soon as possible.

He also needed to enhance his battlefield control abilities. After all, casting through rune magic was very slow. It was manageable when teammates were helping him, but if he had to fight alone, lacking battlefield control would be extremely troublesome.

Improving his offensive capabilities would be easy enough. He only needed to focus on finding some practical evocation spells. Battlefield control would not be difficult either; the enchantment and conjuration schools had plenty of such spells, and he only needed to practice them more.

Improving his defenses, however, was rather troubling.

There were not many low-level defensive spells, and even fewer that were useful and practical. Moreover, Pei Renli felt that this method of "stacking armor" was not reliable either. After all, stacking armor was equivalent to preparing to take a hit.

After mulling it over, he thought he might discuss this issue with Eve and Teacher Grace to see whether they had any good suggestions.

But no matter what he did, practicing spells required time. Though his rate of improvement was already incredibly fast, he still felt that it was neither stable enough nor sufficient enough.

It would be best if there were some way to quickly raise his combat strength, such as relying on external items.

Conveniently, he had money now.

Thirty gold coins was absolutely a vast fortune to ordinary people, but if he wanted to buy magical items that could drastically increase his strength, it was clearly still far from enough.

However, he should not forget that they had rescued a young lady yesterday. The reason the guards had paid them hush money rather than finding a way to physically silence them was probably related to that young lady.

After all, outsiders might not know the truth, but would the young lady they had rescued not know it either?

At the time, she had said she would pay Pei Renli and the others a quite considerable reward. Given that even the guards did not dare act rashly, her family background was certainly not to be underestimated. He could look forward to that reward.

It was just that he did not know when the reward would reach his hands, so he still needed to think carefully about how to make use of the thirty gold coins he currently had.

Beside the desk, a shadow twisted and turned into Lavna. She looked at the pensive Pei Renli, then respectfully lowered her head and said, "Your Majesty the Demon King, there is something I do not know whether I should say."

"What?"

She pointed at Pei Renli's waist.

"Have you forgotten that you still have a Spear of Blessing on you?"

"..."

Pei Renli really had forgotten.