The doctor merely smiled at Leon's question.
"Despite your panic, I had the situation under control the entire time. Even if you messed up very badly, the damage would have been negligible and I could've always intervened the entire time."
Before, Leon would have been skeptical, but after he saw the doctor's calm and virtually flawless work. He actually believed the doctor's words that Boadicea was never in danger, however, he still wondered why the doctor did this.
"I guess that makes sense...but still why did you make me do it, Mister... I don't think I ever got your name?"
The doctor continued to smile softly.
"Call me Jizo. Think of it as a free lesson from me, although I'm just a doctor I am quite adept at using mana. So I'd thought I'd just give you a little lesson on controlling mana and using images to help you in your journey."
After Boadicea had been cured, Leon finally felt the feeling of panic and urgency evaporate and finally took a good look at Jizo. Jizo had long flowing blonde hair that was tied back, which made it flow to his back. Although Leon hadn't notice before, Jizo always seemed to have a perpetual smile and his eyes weren't shut but squinted most of the time.
(Authors note: He looks like Baek-Kyo from the manhwa, The Scholars Reincarnation)
"Well regardless, thank you."
Leon gave a little bow, as Jizo had helped cure Boadicea and even helped him learn something new about mana in the process. Plus he had educated Leon on some important information like how people would go undergo transformations that made them stronger.
Jizo guided the group back to the front room, while the old village chief picked up the sleeping Boadicea with the help of Leon.
"Just make sure the little girl doesn't use too much mana at once, that doesn't mean she can't use any, but using too much at one time might break the seal. The seal is limiting the amount of mana gathered by her mana core, so it doesn't overflow once again. When her body grows to handle the mana, it will eventually disappear."
Hearing that the solution would be able to save his granddaughter for quite a bit of time, the old village chief took out his bag of coins.
"So how much is the treatment?"
However, Jizo only gave a mysterious smile in response to the old village chief's question.
"You seem like a nice person, who was just genuinely concerned about their loved one. Since the treatment was so simple, I won't ask for any coins."
The old village chief stammered by the fact that Jizo was not asking for any compensation for saving his granddaughter.
"Ar-ar-are you sure? Please let me at least give you something, you did save my little angel's life."
However, Jizo merely opened the front double doors and shook his head.
"I insist that you keep the money. I'm sure you will need it a lot more than I will."
The old village chief still wanted to give something, but he could tell that Jizo was starting to get annoyed so he merely just bowed and took Boadicea back to the cart. Leon was starting to walk after the old village chief before Jizo said one last thing.
"By the way Leon, I hope you'll continue to become stronger as you'll need it for the future."
Leon had already walked quite far, but he could barely make out the words. The words were quite peculiar, but Leon didn't think too much of it as wishing a person to get stronger wasn't the weirdest thing in the world.
When Leon had reached the cart, the old village chief already sat in the passenger seat next to the driver's seat and Boadicea was already in the cart sleeping soundly. Seeing Leon approach, the old village chief stood up and gave the closest thing to a bow that he could do with a bad back.
"Once again thank you for your help, I would love to spend more time with you, but unfortunately we must head back to the village."
Although Leon was also going to leave to go to the inner parts of Mifis, he was still slightly disappointed that his traveling group was finally going to part ways.
"You're going back now?"
The old village chief looked embarrassed.
"Although we would love to stay, we still need to get back to our village, after all these men have to get back to their families and Boadicea needs to prepare to go off to the military academy. Plus there are few men left in the village, so if anything happens while we were gone, it would weigh heavily on my conscious."
Leon saw that the old village chief was sincere.
"Will you guys be safe going through the canyon again? Especially since you are missing people?"
The old village chief explained his plan.
"Since we no longer have to worry about money, we decided to hire some adventurers to come with us, and luckily there were a few in the village here who jumped at the prospect of a relatively easy job with decent pay."
The two of them talked for another thirty minutes before Leon stood on the road waving towards the group of villagers who had acquired a four adventurer escort. Leon had no doubt that the adventurers were most likely E-Tiers like himself since they had been cheap to buy however they would easily lose to Leon in a one-on-one, but with four of them. Leon didn't feel too uneasy about it.
As the group disappeared into the distance, Leon patted his horse, which he unhooked before the group left, and ran through everything that had happened since he left in his head. From the boring first week of traveling to curing Boadicea, the entire thing flashed in Leon's mind like a dream.
While he went through his memories, Leon realized something about Jizo's final words, as he was leaving.
'Wait a minute…'
Leon didn't realize how peculiar his words were, since he was already a distance away and follow the old village chief. However, as he looked back on the whole thing, Leon's suspicions grew larger and larger by the minute.
'Why do I have to get stronger for the future? And how did he know my name, when I never mentioned it?!?'