Azra entered the old lady's bathroom with a bundle of clothes that Nem, the old lady, gave him. After Azra washed himself, he left the bathroom carrying the dirty and ragged robes. He left the room dressed in a simple outfit consisting of a white shirt and brown pants.
Since everyone in the village already knew about him, Azra wasn't concerned about covering his face, but he still felt that robes were more fit for an aspiring saint. That was why he planned on asking Nem for a washboard and maybe some needle and thread, so he could fix his robes and continue using them.
However, Nem snatched the robes from his hands.
"Give me those. Come back tomorrow."
Azra didn't know why, but Nem had become grumpy when he washed up and shooed Azra out of her house. Though, since she asked Azra to come back the next day after taking his clothes, she probably wasn't mad at him.
Azra looked down at the clothes he was wearing. Seeing a young man in them must have reminded Nem about her son, who still hadn't returned from the war.
Azra turned around and headed back to the square where most of the village had gathered. He dearly wished to go to Mirabelle's house and fall dead asleep. But it wasn't time to rest just yet.
If things progressed as Azra hoped, Lo would have told the surrounding villagers some details about what had happened during their trip to the forest. He also hoped that rumors regarding his healing abilities had begun spreading.
Azra stirred up quite a ruckus upon his return.
Even when his face and hair had been caked in dirt and with most of his appearance hidden by the airy robes, Azra had been stunning enough to make both men and women look twice.
Although he hadn't gotten as clean as he wanted to, Azra was almost like a new person with a clean face and his still-wet hair glistening in the afternoon sun. Added to the uprolled shirt sleeves and the wide shirt neck revealing some fair skin and collarbones, it was almost enough to make the villagers swoon.
However, there was an exception.
A middle-aged man, not even tall enough to reach Azra's chest, came almost bursting through the crowd at Azra's reappearance.
"Is it true you can get rid of the Rage Powder?!"
"Under the right circumstances, yes."
Azra answered the question with a mix of humility and confidence. A calm person might have questioned what those conditions were, but the short man was too happy at Azra's confirmation to do that.
The man in front of Azra cheered and danced a little on the spot before dashing away. As he ran away, he left a few words to Azra.
"Please stay here. I'll be right back."
The villager darted toward a nearby house. A nearby farmer took the opportunity to introduce the short man as Mahenny, a guy who always forgot to introduce himself.
He came back a short while later, carrying a cage. A blanket partially covered the cage, so Azra only saw a few tufts of fur. But he did hear some growling even from a distance.
Combined with the guy's words, it was evident that there was a beast affected by the Rage Powder inside the cage.
When the short man arrived in front of Azra, he became slightly subdued as he looked at Azra.
"Um, this is Tissa. Do you think that maybe you can take a look at her and then also maybe, um, get rid of the Rage Powder?"
While nervously asking Azra for his help, Mahenny removed the blanket, fully revealing a large pure-white rabbit.
As Mahenny removed the blanket and the rabbit saw everything around it, it began trembling in rage before bursting out and frenziedly attacking the cage that was restraining it. Thankfully, the rabbit wasn't too strong, and its attacks only dented the cage's metal wire.
Azra kept his composure despite the rabbit's outburst and the hunger in its red, bloodshot eyes as it stared at everyone around it, clearly wishing to devour them.
"Tissa, right? Alright, let's see what we can do to help you."
Azra knew from how the people in his home village acted around pets that the owners would immediately start liking a person who talked to their pet as if it could understand them, so he directed his words and gaze at the rampaging rabbit. And while beasts at high enough levels could understand humans even without the help of inclinations, most newborns couldn't, yet humans still acted as if the beasts understood every word they said.
Azra assumed that even a beast affected by Rage Powder would be no exception. Based on Mahenny's expression, he was true.
"That's right, baby. You're gonna be alright."
"But before we begin, we should go someplace else."
"What? Why?"
Mahenny naturally wanted Tissa to get fixed as soon as possible and was reluctant to agree to any delays. Even while desperately begging Azra for help, he wanted Azra to follow his whims.
"You'll understand if you move closer to Lo and Erlo."
Most of the villagers who stood close and wanted to see Azra heal Tissa backed away at those words. They remembered Lo's explanation. The waste that came from the process of removing Rage Powder from a beast was foul-smelling enough to make a man cry.
However, Mahenny had ignored everything other than the fact that Azra could help a beast get rid of the Rage Powder in its body. Mahenny walked over to Lo and took a deep breath since he hadn't believed it at first. Only the reactions of the other villagers convinced him to listen to Azra's suggestion.
Mahenny immediately regretted taking such a deep breath, and he started coughing while rubbing his nose at the same time.
"Cowtits! You're right. Let's go far from the village."
Mahenny bent down and picked up one of the buckets with water since he understood the need for washing the beast after the process finished.
Azra and a few other villagers followed Mahenny to the outskirts of the village. He only stopped when they were more than a dozen meters away from the nearest building, a building that was an outhouse at that.
Mahenny stopped and looked expectantly at Azra.
However, Azra turned around and measured the distance between their location and the village before looking at Mahenny.
"I advise we walk a little further."
"Really?"
"Well, I guess we could do it here."
Azra reached out his hands to receive the cage, but before he could, he was interrupted.
"Damn it, Mahenny! Get a move on. I can still smell Erlo's all the way here. I won't let your impatience ruin the village."
Azra recognized the man as Haddie's husband and gave him a grateful nod.
Since the other villagers also started hollering, Mahenny reluctantly agreed to continue walking. They ended up coming to the middle of one of the fields that the village abandoned due to the current circumstances regarding the drought and lacking manpower. The waste wouldn't affect any crops, farmers, or the village, so it was the perfect spot.
"Is this enough?"
Mahenny sourly asked Azra and the others while handing over the cage.
Azra didn't say anything in response since Mahenny would understand soon enough.
Azra carefully avoided the rabbit's teeth and claws as he placed the cage on the ground in front of him.