In the latter half of the night, as the night grew quieter and the sky began to lighten, the white fox was seen scurrying back into the house with its tail wagging.
"Who won?" Hikari, who had been holding me until now, rushed forward without even finishing her yawn.
"That must be us!"
The white fox held its head high, looking like a victorious general, and proudly stroked a bald patch near its mouth, saying with a charmingly naive look, "Of course, even if Big White really is willing to hurt us, in the end, the medical expenses will still have to come out of his pocket, right?"
"You don't have to."
Hikari's eyes lit up immediately, and she excitedly pointed to herself: "Healing spells are so simple! I just happened to have learned a couple of spells from Yao-jie, so when we were out and about, everyone's injuries, big or small, were all taken care of by me."
The white fox suddenly opened its eyes wide, pushed me aside and rubbed against me, almost whimpering ingratiatingly. Its tail swayed happily from side to side, completely unlike its previous state of being sucked so hard it questioned its existence. It immediately lay down sideways in the crook of the girl's thighs: "Aww, this is great! Quickly, let me see. I feel uncomfortable all over, and my whole body aches."
"It's no wonder you're in pain after getting beaten up." I choked on my words, then looked at the girl who was holding a ball of pure white light in her hands. "I haven't heard you talk about it much these days. I thought you were just someone they took care of and treated like a mascot. I didn't expect you to have healing abilities."
"However, I have heard some of the academy's instructors talk about it in private. They say that this technique is not only troublesome to learn and laborious to use, but it is also difficult to cure minor illnesses and cannot cure major illnesses. For beginners, it is not even as useful as [Liquid Life], which can be exchanged for two copper coins in the alchemy workshop next door."
"Mr. Yumi!"
Hikari cried out in grievance, her cheeks puffed out: "I'm very useful too, I'm not just some simple mascot!" She then explained, "After Sister Yao taught me, she said that although you can't see the difference in general, my healing magic is different from others! No matter how big or small the injury is, as long as it's not a blown-up head or heart, I can pick up the severed limbs and put them back in, and they'll work just as well as before!"
She paused, then let the ball of light she held in her hand drip down her fingers like melted butter. When it was almost completely gone, she flipped her hand and held it in mid-air, like a loving mother's gentle caress, stroking it softly and soothingly from head to toe.
May all living beings soothe the pain and suffering of the wounded.
As she chanted softly, scattered specks of light emanated from the void around her, drifting down like light goose feathers, and quickly merging into the white fox's body upon contact with it.
The abnormal crimson that had been visible on the outside faded, and the bald patches of fur were once again covered by fresh, new hair, making them appear even softer and smoother.
Sensing the change in itself, the white fox leaped up, tentatively jumped a few times in place, then chased its tail around a few times, grinned, and excitedly panted.
"I feel like I could eat two more buckets of pudding!"
Looking at the white fox's energetic appearance, and then at Hikari's proud posture as she awaited praise, I sighed, reached out, and gently stroked the head that had automatically come closer.
Okay, I'm still an idiot, but now I'm a useful idiot.
"Mr. Yumi is the idiot."
Hikari muttered to herself, turned around, grabbed her pillow, and ran to the next guest room to go to sleep.
...
The next day, around noon, after enjoying a feast of meat specially prepared by the white fox, I was reluctant and sleepy when Hikari, who had woken up and was full of energy again, dragged me along with the white fox's leisurely pace to the outskirts of the city.
Like other city-states of this period, the further one ventured out of the city, the more rugged and untamed the streetscape became, a picture of untamed growth without any oversight. However, along the sections of the city walls, one could occasionally see well-dressed guards patrolling, the tall and sturdy ramparts seemingly capable of repelling any enemy. Armed mercenaries and caravans moved back and forth, some carrying bulging loads on their backs, indicating they had gone hunting.
The prey referred to was not ordinary wild beasts. While such creatures might be dangerous to the average person, they weren't worth the effort; at most, they would just provide some more food. Rather, it was the monsters that could emerge from the Shadow Forest or even the forbidden zones at any time. Although a few were not particularly dangerous and carried high-quality, rare materials, many renowned hunters had perished if they weren't handled with utmost care.
The main purpose of building the city walls was to protect against the sudden surge of beast tides that would come at the end of each winter.
“Recently, because of that rumor that suddenly spread, there have been more people coming and going in this area than in previous years. Most of them think that some kind of strange encounter has suddenly appeared, and they want to try their luck, or come to do business.” The white fox explained as he led the way, “However, most of those who were looking for the strange encounter did not find the place, and a few of them crawled back to the city crying. However, a few of them, for some reason, suddenly went mad.”
"Crazy? It's not like those dangerous forbidden areas, how could he be crazy?" I yawned, barely managing to keep my eyelids open to stay awake.
But the white fox's whimpering sound, when it reached my ears, turned into a hypnotic whisper.
Although she knew the other person was talking to her, she still felt increasingly distant and ethereal: "I don't know either. All I know is that when Da Bai came back from the healing hall that specializes in treating those unlucky people, he kept talking about things like 'mental pollution'."
"Oh, and also, when those guys were brought back, we went to the gate a few times to check on them. Most of them were struggling and yelling things like, 'I don't want to see anymore, don't look anymore, I won't look anymore, please let me go.' Look, just like that guy over there."
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