"Huh?!"
Sara suddenly looked up and noticed Luo Ge standing in the doorway. She froze briefly, her tone rather sharp. "Y-you... why haven't you left yet? Didn't I already tell you to leave?"
"Damn it! You must have stayed here on purpose to laugh at us, didn't you?"
"Evil noble brat..."
Luo Ge ignored her.
Then he saw an old man with a white beard carrying a medicine chest draw aside the curtain to the inner room and slowly walk out.
Karen immediately went up to him nervously, while Sara wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and grew just as anxious.
The old man came out, shook his head at the father and daughter, and sighed. "...I'm sorry. I've done everything I can. There really is nothing more I can do. Make the funeral and cremation arrangements soon."
"Please, Master Pierre, you have to save Funika! I can't lose her!"
"Ah, there's nothing I can do."
"Unless... unless you can find an intermediate-rank magician, and one proficient in Intermediate-Rank Healing Magic at that. Only someone like that could be confident of curing your wife's illness."
"An i-intermediate-rank healing magician?"
Karen turned deathly pale, and Sara's expression filled with the despair of shattered hope. Both father and daughter looked ashen.
Magicians were already rare in this world, and those proficient in healing magic were rarer still.
Never mind that this was a remote backwater near the Asura Kingdom's border-even if they went to a big city... and found a magician skilled at that level of magic.
They could not afford the exorbitant medical fee for hiring an intermediate-rank magician, even for a single treatment.
Finally, just as everyone fell silent.
"Um!"
"May I ask what happened here?"
It was Luo Ge who broke the silence.
"Karen... who is he? I don't think I've seen him in the village before." The old man also gave him a curious look.
Before Karen could speak, Luo Ge introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Rog Greyrat."
"Oh! So you're a noble's child." Perhaps because the surname Greyrat surprised him, the old man's gaze lingered on Luo Ge for a few extra seconds.
"May I ask... what exactly happened here?" Luo Ge asked again.
The old man glanced at the grief-stricken Karen, then helped explain. "To tell you the truth, Karen's wife suddenly contracted a strange illness several years ago. That illness... by my judgment, it would take at least intermediate-rank healing magic to cure it."
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to help."
"Karen, please accept my condolences. The village still needs you as a hunter. Pull yourself together soon." With that, Pierre turned to leave.
Suddenly, Luo Ge smiled. "Well, isn't that a coincidence?"
"I happen to be a magician too, and when it comes to healing magic, I'm a professional."
"Huh?"
Pierre stopped and turned to look him over. "Child, you don't even look like an adult yet. Even a noble's child should still be studying at a magic academy at your age, not graduated yet, shouldn't you?"
"Stop making trouble here. This isn't a game of house for children."
"Oh?"
"Is that so?"
"But... you're not the one who actually gets to make the decision here either, are you?"
Luo Ge ignored the old man and turned his gaze to Karen beside him, his tone serious.
"Sir, I'm willing to help you, as repayment for leading me out of the forest yesterday. So, may I ask..."
"Are you willing to accept my help?"
"C-can you really help me?"
Karen's voice trembled.
"If that old man wasn't lying, and Intermediate-Rank Healing Magic can cure your wife's illness, then... I do know a little."
"As it happens, I'm a magician too."
After a pause, Luo Ge continued, "I don't intend to offer charity from on high or make grand claims like 'leave everything to me.' As an equal, I only want to know..."
"Whether you're willing to accept my help."
"If you are, I'll help as repayment. If not, just pretend I never said anything."
"You're a magician?"
"Really... you really aren't lying to me? Can you save my wife?" Karen began to waver.
"All you need to do is answer me!"
"Do you believe me, Karen?"
Luo Ge narrowed his eyes slightly and looked straight into Karen's eyes, his gaze seeming capable of piercing a person's heart.
"No!"
Sara suddenly grabbed her father's arm and said agitatedly, "I won't accept it! Dad, are you really going to believe him? You'd be better off trusting the monsters in the forest than a noble."
"But our family already has nowhere left to turn, doesn't it?"
"But he's a noble... those nobles are all greedy bastards who'd eat you alive and not even spit out the bones."
"Besides, he's just a little kid. He looks about the same age as me."
"Knowing intermediate-rank magic-that sort of nonsense... isn't that a little too ridiculous?" Sara was extremely agitated and full of resistance.
"Sara... I'm sorry. As your useless father, all I can do is trust him and try anything at this point." Karen gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind.
He turned to Luo Ge and took a deep breath. "Please help me. Even if you fail in the end, it's all right."
"As long as you can save my beloved, I'll serve you like an ox or a horse. Even if I have to die, I won't complain."
He knelt down.
Luo Ge stopped Karen, then smiled confidently. "Good. I'll help you!"
"...Thank you."
Karen's face was full of gratitude.
Huh?
Wait!
Pierre stood to the side, dumbfounded.
These two... one actually dared to say it, and the other actually dared to believe him!
An intermediate-rank magician-did they think those grew on trees?
Never mind how rare magicians already were; those who knew Intermediate-Rank Healing Magic were rarer still.
"Karen!"
"You really have gone senile!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Why are you desperately turning to just anyone for treatment? How could a child who looks this unreliable possibly know Intermediate-Rank Healing Magic?"
"Rather than believe his lies, listen to my arrangements and have her cremated soon... make the funeral arrangements as soon as possible!"
"At least that way, your wife can suffer less from her illness before she passes."
"Please..."
"Shut up, old man."
Luo Ge spoke casually, his tone unhurried. "Just because you can't do it doesn't mean others can't either. Are you so eager to deny me because you're admitting your own incompetence?"
Being talked back to like that by a child.
Pierre felt deeply humiliated. He was so angry he nearly hurled his medicine chest at him, but then thought better of it. Why was he quibbling with a little child?
Although that was what he thought, he still could not help snorting when he saw Luo Ge's confident expression.
And so he decided to stay and see the final result. It would not be too late to leave afterward.
In any case, he would stay here and expose this swindler who specialized in deceiving people in front of everyone.
Afterward, Luo Ge followed Karen into a side room farther inside.
Lying in the sickbed was a middle-aged woman who looked somewhat like Sara, with a head of blond hair.
The woman lay in bed with a deathly pale face and such faint breathing that she looked as though she might pass away and leave this world at any moment.
If he did not save her now, it would probably be too late.
Throughout the process, he did not waste a single word, instead proving himself through action.
Luo Ge quickly stepped up to the bedside, gently placed both hands on the woman's body, and began treating her with the God-Rank Healing Magic he was best at.
There was no incantation.
"Huh?"
At the sight, Master Pierre wore a disappointed expression, as though his suspicions had been confirmed.
Ridiculous. He didn't even know something as basic as magicians needing to chant?
If he really came from nobility, how could he be someone who didn't even know such basic common sense about magic?
A fraud!
Just as I thought... Karen and his family had run into a fraud!