The nearest city and the doctor's next destination was around a week's journey on foot; however, by wagon would only take three days if lucky.
The route he would have to take would have him cross two bridges over some rivers while going south, which was nothing to worry about, but the one thing, though, was the hills in between the distance between the two bridges. The hills were covered in tall grass that would quickly go up to the neck of a human male in most places, which was worrisome since smaller monsters, beasts, or bandits could lurk there.
As a healer of the masses, most were required to swear an oath not to harm others; however, thankfully, monsters and wild beasts didn't fall under that category.
Still, people can be more frightening or dangerous than monsters, so the doctor must remain on guard for the remaining time between the bridges.
"WAAH!"
Loud cries from the newborn break the silence of travel after almost a day after leaving the village, resulting in stopping to the side of the road and climbing into the back from the driver's seat, the doctor checks the newborn to see what it is required to make it calm down.
"Now, little one, what is it that you require?" The doctor says in a soothing tone of voice as he gently rocks the baby back and forth
His actions appease the baby; however it still looks irked for some reason and making an educated guess, it was safe to assume that the little one was hungry.
While there was no way to feed the baby properly, he could make a substitute out of herbs and some water that would substitute just fine.
So while tending to the child's needs through speaking calming words and rocking it back and form, the doctor set forth to create the food for the newborn.
"Oh, I see your skin is finally changing, huh?" The doctor says as he notices that the red skin color that had first appeared from its birth had instead settled on a purple skin tone
For a tiefling such skin is expected, however, since most skin tones were shades of red, black, purple, and other colors similar to that, with some oddities appearing here or there.
After the milk substitute was made and put inside an empty waterskin, the doctor placed the opening to the lips of the newborn so it could 'eat' its food.
The drink he made had the slight taste of strawberries to it so that the baby would be more prone to eat it to not drink it due to the terrible taste that came from the various herbs and other items he added to the waterskin.
Thankfully the baby didn't complain about it, and to make it similar to the feeding that it would receive from its caregiver soon, he made sure that the baby got used to sucking out of the waterskin as he pinched the opening closed to make it as close to the real thing as possible.
Once satisfied, the doctor placed the baby back where it was, and it quickly fell asleep tired from the struggle known as living.
After returning to the driver's seat, they headed off again with the doctor, hoping that tending to the baby's needs would not slow him down drastically on the trip.
The doctor was going to the nearest city because he had seen a job posting in another town to the North promising good pay for a doctor or other healer in the city he was heading to currently.
The job was to work at a recently constructed arena in the city, and he would have to help heal the fighters after their matches, that is, if they didn't have any life or deathmatches. Beyond that, it was promised that all the commodities and necessities to carry out his work would be provided to him, which would be nice.
The last time he had gone through the city was a few winters ago, and it had indeed been very profitable, but it was just a bit too hectic for his taste since lines would form just for minor cuts and illnesses that would heal with time. If it were some farmers, he would understand that a day missed of work could mean life or death to them, but it didn't matter for most people in the city.
Still, adding an arena would be an exciting addition to the city since there was one thing the city has a lot of space.
The city was called Irondale, a large handler with various iron imports from the east, which boasted a high quality of raw iron and impeccable weapons that could go toe to toe with some dwarven smiths, as some of the more boisterous human smiths claimed.
That was why it was named Irondale, but besides helping with imports from the east, there was nothing extraordinary about the city.
So they probably constructed the arena to increase the flow of human traffic.
"HEY!"
Drawing the carriage to a stop, the doctor looked around to see who called out to him, only to see that his carriage had been surrounded after he stopped the carriage.
"Step out of the driver's seat, healer!" A man in front of the carriage says
They looked like bandits from the random gear they had undoubtedly scrounged from attacking passing carriages and travelers to get the mismatched gear they were wearing.
Complying with their demand, the doctor steps off the driver's seat but stays near the carriage.
The sound of footsteps behind him causes him to turn around, only to see the blunt end of a great ax moving directly toward his face.
Instinctively he ducks to avoid being slammed in the face with such a weapon since he already quite liked his face and didn't want any new rearrangement made to it anytime soon.
"You ain't no healer!" A voice shouts out
"You claim I am not a healer, and yet my license is right here in my sack," The doctor says as he deftly dodges full-fledged swings of the excellent ax wielder.
Just cause they swore an oath not to harm anyone didn't mean that they would stand still and take a beating from thugs and such.
'If only I had one of those living armors on me,' The doctor thinks as he dodges to the side and ducks as more bandits enter the fray.
Their assorted weaponry slash, stab and attempt to cut him, but the doctor dances through them all and evades everything in an almost inhumane feat of spatial Awareness.
Oddly enough, that was the spell's name that he was using to dodge all the incoming attacks.
[Spatial Awareness]
A spell similar to the spells Detect or Alert, but this one was different. Essentially an invisible field was created around the caster, with them having a 360-degree sense of things around them, and how well their senses were would allow them to determine what was in the field.
The spell was an excellent use for the doctor; the magic device he had in his pocket cast the spell, and all he had to do was supply it with mana stones, which determined the area of the field, which was about 2 feet away from his body right now.
He was not lying in a pool of blood because the doctor had trained his reflexes to dodge such attacks that his body felt it was simply moving on its own.
Now he could not simply continue to dodge the attacks that the bandits were dishing out to him so looks for a spear wielder since it was safe to assume that there was one of them with the assorted weaponry that these bandits carried on them.
Sure enough, there was a spear wielder; however, he was smart enough not to attack the doctor with the rest of the group for fear of accidentally stabbing one of his comrades trying to hit him.
The bandits created a small enough opening for the doctor to duck under them and get out of the surrounding group.
"Enough!" One of the bandits shouts while they stand near the carriage with a familiar bundle in his arms
With the doctor's attention on him, the bandit brandishes his shortsword while holding up the baby by its leg, and its bundle falls to the ground.
"WAAA!"
The baby's cries ring out as the bandit brings his blade towards the child and rests it near the baby's neck.
"Listen here you! Down on the ground or else!" The bandit threatens
"You dare to attack a healer of the kingdom of Valera and then threaten him as well?" The doctor states as he reaches into his pouch and takes out a piece of paper
Those words cause discord between the bandits as his words have an invisible impact on them, making them reconsider their actions.
"Bullshit! What would a healer of the Valera kingdom be doing here so far south of that frozen wasteland called home!" The bandit holding onto the baby says
"I'm a healer. I heal people; what more reason do you want than that?" The doctor says
"Well, even so, no one will know anything if you're dead!" The bandit counteracts
"True, however... the healers association will know immediately of my death and will be sure to investigate my death, and then your gaggle of bandits and thieves will be wiped off the face of the earth."
Those words caused the bandits to sweat buckets as the doctor spoke to them with such conviction and assurance that they began to doubt their actions now.
"N-no, they won't. Your just a normal healer; why would the association care about you?!"
"I am the Wandering Miracle," The doctor says straight-faced
The bandit's faces turn ashen as they hear the name of the one they just decided to rob.
The Wandering Miracle was the healers association's most potent asset as they were the entire realm's greatest healer who had, as the name implies, performed miracles for thousands of people.
However, many did not know their actual appearance, but their deeds were considered legendary.
To casually throw out the name is viewed as heretical by some followers and fanatics of the Wandering Miracle. They tend to rip out the tongues of those claiming that they are the Wandering Miracle.
"B-Bullshit!"
The doctor does not say anything and takes the magic device casting the Spatial Awareness spell out of his pocket.
"This is the identification token of the Wandering Miracle."
The device in the doctor's grasp was a silver disk in the palm of a person's hand with golden lines embroidered into it to make WM, which was the marking of the Wandering Miracle.
That was all the proof needed for all of them since while many did not know the face of the Wandering Miracle, their markings were, and someone having something so expensive had to be in at least contact with the Wandering Miracle.
Some of the bandits fall to their knees and bow down as if they were in the presence of royalty, while others back away from the carriage.
The bandit holding the baby, though, could not accept this as he did not believe anything the doctor had said since there was no way that they would meet the Wandering Miracle here, of all places.
"Damn you!!!" The bandit says as he swings his blade, intending to kill the baby.
That was as if the doctor had not grabbed the bandit's wrist and, with an iron grip, taking back the baby before he could claim the newborn's life.
Stepping back before the bandit can do anything else, he tries to attack the doctor and baby, but his comrades hold him back before he can continue trying to attack.
"W-we are sincerely sorry for stopping you, Mr. Miracle. Is there anything else that you might need before you continue onward?" A different bandit asks, afraid that he may incur the wrath of the gods for offending him
"No, all I ask is that next time you see a carriage with the red cross, leave them be or if you need assistance, ask them to attend to any wounds or illnesses. They should be adequately trained and equipped and will protect your identities and any other information you provide," The doctor states.
He then grabs the bundle that fell on the ground and again places the crying child inside before comforting it as he sits in the driver's seat and, with a flick of the reigns, starts again down the road.
Once a safe enough distance away and after confirming that they are safe is only when the doctor breaks down, sweating buckets at being able to get through those bandits.
"Thank the gods they bought that..."
The doctor was just a regular healer and not the Wandering Miracle that he proclaimed himself to be so thankful he could lie out of that situation.
While he took an oath not to harm others, that didn't mean he couldn't lie like anyone else, and thankfully, he was an excellent liar.