"Priest! Is the priest here!?"
"Hm…?"
Lucan was teaching Maris when he heard a loud voice. He frowned, not liking the interruption, but he was a priest.
"Priest?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Please continue with your self-study for a moment."
Leaving Maris behind, Lucan headed to the chapel. The temple doors were wide open, and several injured people were being carried in.
A large crowd of onlookers outside was peeking in to see what was happening.
"What's the matter, everyone?" Lucan asked. As he saw the injured people, he noticed Rina among them, her skin tinged blue.
"Oh, Priest!"
"Help us! They were attacked by a poisonous snake!"
"Calm down, they will be fine. So tell me exactly what happened," Lucan said, looking at Rina. He was relieved that she didn't seem to be in critical condition.
"We heard there was a large wolf in the nearby forest, so we went to hunt it, but we encountered a poisonous snake! We managed to kill it, but these guys got poisoned!"
"Help us! Our friends are going to die!"
"What a terrible thing…" Lucan muttered as he looked at Rina. Rina wasn't in a life-threatening situation, but she was the most injured. Lucan guessed that she must have stayed behind to fight alone and bore the most damage.
However, there was a problem. He could heal Rina, but it would take his mana. Then he wouldn't be able to heal the others. After some thought, he decided to heal Rina.
"Purify! Restoration!"
Purify was a spell that removed poison, and Restoration was a spell that healed wounds and restored vitality.
These two spells made Rina's injuries better, but she was still far from being fully healed. He needed to do more.
"Purify! Restoration!"
Lucan was glad that because of Maris, who was a Saint, this place had become a holy site, providing a lot of mana. Otherwise, he would have needed to use Detoxify and Rejuvenate potions.
"Purify! Restoration!"
After repeatedly casting healing magic on Rina for five minutes, her injuries healed, and she was free of poison. She was currently in a deep sleep but would wake up soon.
Now, it was the turn of the other three injured people. He cast Purify and Restoration spells on the three of them together. He continued casting spells, but his mana was depleting. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Using a lot of mana made his vision fade and his head spin.
"Purify… Restoration… Purify… Restoration… Purify…"
A strong dizziness hit him. He was happy he had done everything he could, but he still couldn't save them all. It was a good ending for Lucan, and if not for wanting to appear as a good priest, he would have admitted he couldn't heal the three.
Just as he thought he couldn't go on, someone ran up to support him.
"Priest…!"
"Maris…?"
Why is she here?
"Priest, you look pale… are you okay!?"
"I'm okay… no need to worry…"
Suddenly, his body felt light.
Mana that had been depleted surged back, even surpassing his limits.
The source of the power was clear—it was Maris, who was holding onto Lucan closely.
The blessing of the Saint…
"Priest…?"
"Thank you, Maris. I'm really okay now."
Smiling as usual, Lucan's words relaxed Maris's anxious face.
"I'll continue the treatment… Purify and Restoration."
"Ugh…"
The wounds of the injured began to close, and their pale faces regained color.
"Amazing…"
"Hey, are you okay!? Hang in there!"
The adventurers, who had been fretting, shouted joyfully.
Lucan continued to use holy arts in turn, healing all three dying, unconscious people.
"Thank you! Thank you so much…!"
"Priest, we owe you!"
Adventurers, who risk their lives fighting monsters, have a strong sense of camaraderie.
Some even knelt and prayed, clasping their hands as if in worship.
"Thank you… thank you…"
"I just did what I had to. I'm not a god, so please don't worship me."
"Priest?"
Placing his hand on the head of the girl who looked up at him curiously, Lucan silently patted her head.
Now, beautiful Maris exposed to people and this incident will invite more injured people... Damn it, let's trap her father now that things have been exposed.