Kalen pulled himself together.
"Well then, write your name, your request and the price to be paid here"
The knight looked at him seriously.
"Is it true that the witch has returned?"
Kalen nodded.
"It is true, and she is willing to help you all... for the right price"
The knight held his ground and was the first to take the clipboard from Kalen's hands and write down his request. Gradually, the others stepped forward and wrote down their requests.
Contrary to what Kalen had thought, some of the people had actually come in groups, so the number of petitions was only 17, although there were still a lot of them.
Kalen took the clipboard from the last person and waved goodbye before turning to enter the mansion, but as the last person left, a little girl appeared behind him.
The girl looked up at Kalen with happy eyes, who turned and returned a gentle smile.
"Are you here to make a request?"
The girl felt powerfully as she reached for the long robe she was wearing, then pulled back the hood to reveal her face.
Kalen kept his gaze calm, but inside his mood was not the best as he saw the girl's condition.
The girl's skin was dirty, her cheeks sunken from malnutrition and her lips dry and chapped from lack of water.
"I understand, write it down and we'll see what we can do"
The girl took the clipboard and stared at it without doing anything. Kalen saw this and asked her.
"What's wrong?"
The girl handed the clipboard back to him with some embarrassment.
"I... I don't know how to write"
Kalen took the clipboard and smiled.
"Don't worry, I'll write for you"
The girl felt and Kalen took the pen to write.
The language and writing in Urasis was different from her own, but for some unknown reason she was able to understand the local language perfectly, as if it were her native tongue.
The girl hesitated for a few seconds before beginning her request.
"My name is Lilia and I want some medicine for my mother who is sick... she has some purple spots all over her body and it hurts every time something rubs against her body"
Kalen wrote the girl's name and request on the sheet along with the others, and already he began to notice strange things.
First of all, the girl had no family name, which indicated that she was poor... if her appearance was not enough to prove it.
He also did not know the name of the disease or how deadly it was.
Requests to the witch were usually expensive, so only wealthy people or people who had saved for a long time could make a request, but Kalen doubted that the girl had anything to pay for it.
He felt bad about asking, but it was his job.
"What will you pay with?"
The girl's eyes widened in surprise, as if she remembered something, and she reached into her robe before pulling something out and handing it to Kalen.
"I heard that I have to pay with money"
Kalen looked at what the girl handed him and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
'I don't think it's enough...'
The girl held a ticket and some small coins in her slender hand.
Kalen had no way of telling the girl that much more money was needed, so he just wrote on the clipboard before looking back at her with a small smile.
"Don't worry for now, the payment will come later, for now we will check your request and, in a few days, we will look for you"
The girl broadened her smile and nodded happily.
"Thank you very much!"
With that, the girl started to leave the mansion, walking quickly.
This made Kalen even more worried, since the town they all came from was almost two hours away on foot and it looked like the girl had come alone. But there was nothing Kalen could do to help her, so he just hoped that nothing would happen to her on the way.
Watching the girl disappear into the distance, Kalen entered the mansion and sighed as he read the contents of the clipboard.
He felt bitter because he was sure that they would not accept the girl's request at such a price.
Sighing, he made his way to Jerome's office and knocked on the door before the butler's voice gave him permission to enter.
Once inside, Kalen watched as Jerome wrote something in some notebooks, then stopped what he was doing and looked at Kalen.
"Well?"
Kalen went over and handed him the clipboard.
"These are all the requests"
Jerome took the clipboard and began to read the contents. His face didn't change until near the end when he read the girl's request.
"They're all good, even if there are too many, they're not a problem... but this one..."
Jerome put the clipboard down on his desk and looked at Kalen.
"If the description of the woman's illness is true, then the reward isn't nearly enough"
Still standing, Kalen kept a straight face and asked.
"What is this illness?"
Jerome snapped his fingers and one of the books on the shelf that covered the entire wall of the office began to float until it reached Kalen.
Kalen opened the book while listening to Jerome.
"A decade ago, a plague ravaged the kingdom in which we find ourselves. It was called the Purple Death because of its great lethality and its symptoms"
"The first symptom is the appearance of purple spots on the skin, like giant bruises. Then the patient begins to feel pain all over the skin until it gradually becomes so intense that they would rather remove the skin themselves than continue to feel such pain"
The book was more graphic, showing the symptoms in different patients and their stages. There were even pictures of patients in their final stages, pictures... not as pleasant as Jerome had explained.
"The epidemic didn't last long, mainly because it wasn't very contagious and because the lethality was such that people died before they could infect others. But there was one problem... and that is that the medicine, while not hard to come by, is quite expensive because it is so rare"
Kalen closed the book and fell silent.
"You have to understand that we are not a charity, if you bring your feelings into it, you will have a bad time. We can't save everyone, we are not gods or omnipotent"
Kalen nodded and took his leave after receiving his next order.
As he walked to the other side of the mansion where his next task was, he had time to think things over. It was true that he didn't have the power to help the girl, it wasn't that he didn't like to help others, but not if it meant compromising his own safety.
It might be a selfish thought, but people die, and it's not always possible to help, not when you have circumstances of your own that make it difficult.
Minutes later he reached a large metal door, sighed, and knocked three times.
A few seconds later, the door opened and Adaire peered out without letting Kalen see the contents of the room.
"What is it?"
Kalen handed her a tray he had picked up earlier.
"What you asked for"
Adaire looked at the tray and took it, whispering things Kalen didn't understand.
"Thank you, you can go now"
Kalen nodded and went back to his work.
For the rest of the day, he did homework after homework, which wasn't too difficult and he finished earlier than expected, which gave him some free time for himself.
Even though he wanted nothing more than to sleep and recharge his energy, Kalen walked out into the courtyard of the mansion and sat down on the grass, closing his eyes.
'I haven't had much time to try this...'
Kalen concentrated, and shortly after he felt something happen in front of him, he opened his eyes to see the air distort and a white scroll appear in front of him.
Kalen smiled, took the scroll, and opened it.
[For completing the three trials, you will receive the greatest rewards]
[1. Monk's Bandage]
[2. Gold pouch]
[3. Summoning Paper]
After completing all three trials, Kalen expected something more... not just three rewards. However, he was not disappointed and continued to read the description of each one.
[Monk's Bandage]
[A bandage worn by a monk throughout his life, stained with his blood, sweat, sorrows, and joys. The bandage has both defensive and offensive properties, though its great versatility also affects its potency]
Instinctively, Kalen brought his hand close to the scroll and suddenly pierced it, as if the scroll itself were a portal.
Not daring to keep his hand inside the scroll any longer, he grabbed something he felt inside and pulled it out.
A white bandage, just over a meter long, emerged from the scroll. Kalen frowned at the bandage.
'How is that supposed to work?'
Although the scroll had more or less explained its use, he had never held a relic in his hands before, so he didn't really know how to use it. Still, he had a vague idea, so he circulated his aura from his core through his arm to the bandage.
Incredibly, his aura passed from his hand to the bandage as if it were part of his own body. The bandage remained limp until Kalen tried to move it with his aura.
It was an incredibly difficult task as Kalen barely knew how to use his aura, let alone outside of his body. Concentrating as hard as he could, Kalen watched as the bandage moved slightly before going limp again.
'Fuck... it might be a nice relic, but if I don't know how to use it, it's useless'
But Kalen wasn't depressed, he understood that this was his first time experimenting with a relic and that he still had a long way to go to control his new power.
But before continuing to test the bandage's usefulness, Kalen moved on to the other rewards.