"Ah, you're not allowed to heal me, Sarah. If you try, I will block out yourgh...! I will block out your mana... Now, come on Zero. Heal me, or I will most likely die in... ugh!... a couple of minutes."
'This crazy...!'
Seating himself on the ground in a lotus position, holding his bleeding wrist in his lap, the man truly looked like he was serious about what he was saying. Still, I had to hold back the turmoil inside of me, desperately not wanting Zero to get in control and activate that skill of ours.
Meanwhile, Sarah was pale with stress because of the unexpected situation, now standing up and getting to our instructor's side.
"Mikael?! Stop this! This is insane!"
A green wind flowed out of the princess's hands that hovered over the wound, but even after a couple of seconds, nothing happened. Instead, I thought I could see a slightly yellow mana act as a barrier, keeping the wind from healing him.
"I told you, Sarah. Either... Zero heals me, or I will die. Now, Zero, what will you do?"
Trembling, I put some strength into my legs and quickly rose from the floor, though in my head, it felt like it took an eternity. 'Shit! Stop it Zero, there's no way he is actually going to die! It's just some kind of test!'
Yet, no matter how much I tried to calm the young one inside of me, he wouldn't stop raging. A desperate feeling of wanting to save Dr. Smith was overwhelming me, but it felt like it was more of a detriment than a boon right now.
At this point, even Sarah had quieted down, while clenching her dainty fist as she appeared to know about the personality of the crazy doctor. For us, we had no idea what kind of person he actually was, not after he now threw our first impression of him being rational and calm right out of the water.
Inside of me was... pure stress. Enough stress to make me want to vomit, to make me want to scream, and to make me want to cry. Shaky legs brought me forward to the crazy man who was sitting on the now red floor, complementing his now blood-splattered lab coat.
"Good. Now... visualize yourself... either using your element... or just your mana... to make a miracle..."
His words had started to slow down a lot, showing that the blood loss was starting to take a toll on his body, only acting to exaggerate the feelings I already had. 'Damn it, Zero! He is doing this for you! Stop fucking around!'
Raising my hands, I tried to find a way to envision the everchanging water healing the man, but it just wouldn't come to me. Although a million different images were quickly showing themselves in front of our eyes, variations of the form our healing could take, every single one of them was slipping through our grasp.
Even worse, time felt like it was slipping through our grasp as well, with our mind unable to settle down enough to even try anything. To some extent, I felt like even the James part of us was having trouble gaining enough stability to do anything.
Then, the bloodied man opened his mouth again, his face complete with a warm smile, "It's okay... you can... do... it..."
*Thud!*
His body dropped to the side, signaling that time was up. And in turn, my mind went blank, and my vision blacked out.
****
[Sarah's Pov]
"Good. Now... visualize yourself... either using your element... or just your mana... to make a miracle..."
'This crazy...! I don't care what he said, if he passes out, I'll heal him anyway!'
I had always known that Dr. Smith was quite different from most people. From the way he would force himself to work overtime to take care of patients that other healers sent away because they didn't have money, to the way he more or less extorted the ones who did.
Naturally, no matter what he wanted to make it look like, my father had been well aware of his circumstances and had hired him not only as a way to disguise giving him a lot of money but also to promote his name in the kingdom.
In many ways, my father and Mikael were quite similar. Similar because they didn't live their life for their own sake, and similar because, in the end, they both truly wanted the people to live good lives.
Even after all that had gone down, this was part of the reason I couldn't hate my father. I hated the choice he made, and I absolutely hated the outcome, but I didn't hate him. Because that would mean that I ignored all of the good things he had done for so many people.
However, there was a man that didn't understand just how hard it was for those who had to rule, his ignorant view on life being the reason why I felt like I had to leave during the dueling event.
'-Aren't the ones who rule supposed to be the ones to protect?! If we can't even show consideration amongst ourselves, what kind of life will you give the people who believe in you!'
To me, consideration was a luxury that the ones who ruled rarely had the opportunity to give. Consideration could only exist if the threat wasn't dire enough. If you were allowed enough time to take everyone's perspective into exactly that, consideration.
And now, I could see the naïve young man struggling when facing reality, his mind not ready to deal with the unexpected. No matter how insane of a situation this was, if he couldn't remain calm in a situation like this, he had no business being a healer, and he absolutely had no business throwing around pretty words about changing the world.
It wasn't that I didn't like Zero. No, in fact, I absolutely loved his view of the world, and during our first meeting, I was almost convinced that he would be able to do what he said he would. But after getting a couple of days to think about it, I couldn't.
If I could, that would mean that I was the weak one for accepting things as they were, and that would mean that James had without meaning become my enemy. And more than that, I now got to see just how weak-minded the one the church regarded as special was.
His face was so pale that I suspected he might pass out any second, with tears slowly emerging in his eyes and his fists shaking. 'Can't be helped... In the end, he is just another youth. It would be too much to expect him to suddenly be able to handle a situation like this.'
Already preparing myself for the inevitable, I was now just waiting for the stubborn man to pass out so I could save him, and it didn't take long until my prediction was confirmed.
"It's okay... you can... do... it..."
*Thud!*
Now, time was of the essence. Hurriedly, I started to focus so I could cast a much stronger spell than I would have needed earlier. '[Gust of...' "Ah?!"
*DON!*
A blue wave of mana sent my body backward, making me fall to the ground, confused while at the same time fully knowing what was happening. Looking up, I saw the white-haired youth with blank eyes, his body shining in bright blue because of all the mana he was exhibiting.
Then, he reason spoke, and he spoke words that quickly connected the dots in my mind, "Thank you, Dr. Smith, but your acting is not that good."
From the body lying on the floor, whom I had thought to be unconscious, our teacher spoke, "Oh, so you knew? Well, even if you did, it isn't a lie that I'm kind of dying over here. So, if you wouldn't mind, could you please heal me now?"
Zero just nodded, raising his arms into the air. Then, above us, a transparent cloud of blue energy was being born out of nothing, slowly spreading out just to end up covering the entirety of the white ceiling.
"[Rain of Revival]."
*Drip... Drop... Drip. Drop. Pshhhht!*
As if listening to its master, the blue cloud cried, starting slow with just a few drops of rain, just to escalate into insanity with a huge downpour falling down on the three of us. What was truly absurd was that just a single drop felt like it carried equal power to a normal healing spell, and with thousands of drops falling from the sky, there was no doubt that this wasn't normal.
In just a matter of seconds, the wound on Dr. Smith's wrist had fully closed, and while fixing his posture, he allowed himself to also spectate the wonder that was happening above us, just as speechless as I was.
Once again, my mind was struggling with trying to accept the fact that Zero might prove my view of the world wrong. That there was always another way, even if one had to bend the rules of our current reality to attain it.
And just as I was thinking that, the cold and hard reality showed its ugly head once again.
*Cough, Splatter!*
"Zero...?"
*Thud!*