He could hear the conversation from inside the hospital room.
"... Therapist. Thank you so much. Therapist, you saved my life."
"No, you won't be safe for a while, so be careful."
"Hehe. You're so kind, the heavens must have blessed me to meet you."
That was the patient who had been brought in with vomit!
He was still pale, but his eyes were open and he was grateful.
"What the...? What's going on?
Lance denied the reality before him.
"Did Chief Bucks heal you?"
"The head healer?"
"There's no way a senior would have treated such a bad patient! Who treated this patient?"
Raymond rolled his eyes.
"I did.
Lance huffed angrily.
"I... cured him."
"Don't tell me that ridiculous lie! With your healing powers, what...."
"I didn't cure him with my heals."
"What?"
Raymond sucked in a breath.
It was a gateway he would have to cross at some point.
"I cured him with the healing arts of medicine, an ancient practice."
"Of... what?"
Lance's eyes widened in disbelief.
He'd never heard of such a thing before.
But Raymond was unwavering, shamelessly pushing his point.
As he watched Lance's eyes, he recounted the scenario he had prepared.
"Not long ago, I was running an errand in the northern provinces, and I accidentally stepped on the wrong foot and fell off a cliff. I stumbled into an ancient ruin, where I was able to learn ancient healing techniques and medicine."
The so-called cliffhanger scenario!
It's a common repertoire in many novels, so it wasn't completely outlandish.
"What! You expect me to believe such a ridiculous lie...!"
That was it.
The patient, who had been listening to their conversation in silence, spoke up.
"Oh, that was loud. Come on, therapist."
"...!"
"I swear on my life that handsome therapist saved my life, and I'm not lying. I distinctly remember him stomping his feet to save my life."
The patient, Bent, had a vague memory of his surgery.
He'd been given a hallucinogenic herb, but it wasn't a perfect anesthetic, so he'd woken up halfway through.
"This is the evidence of the healer's work on me. Look."
Bent lifted his robe to reveal his stomach.
The incision was clearly visible.
"...!"
When Lance was speechless, Bent sneered.
"Come to think of it, I remember your face, too. Unlike my therapist, it was so ugly that I remember it clearly, even in my hazy state of consciousness."
An ugly face.
Lance's ugly, rat-like complex.
It was Lance's complex about his appearance that bothered Raymond the most.
A bastard, but with such a noble bloodline? Raymond was a strikingly handsome man.
"What the fuck are you talking about...."
Lance snapped at his patient, but was soon forced to shut up.
"He looked at me and told me to let him die."
"...!"
"If it weren't for that handsome healer, I would have died because of you, huh?"
Bent snapped.
"If you're ashamed of yourself, get the fuck out of here, because this therapist is a million times better than an asshole like you!"
"Woe, patient, you can't talk to me like that."
Raymond made an embarrassed face.
"Oh, did I say the wrong thing, the therapist, be still."
Bent picked up something lying beside the bed and scowled.
It was a syllabus.
Tsk!
A thunderbolt of piss flew at Lance.
"Ew, what the hell!"
Lance's piss-soaked arms shook with rage.
But he couldn't say anything more, because this time Bent heard the fecal matter.
"If you don't want to be covered in shit water, get the fuck out of here!"
"Hic!"
Lance ran away as if the soles of his feet were on fire.
Bent and Raymond were left alone in the hospital room, and they had a surprising conversation.
"I did what the healer told me to do, didn't I?"
Raymond gave a mock thumbs-up.
"Yes, excellent."
It was a conversation that would have made Lance, on the run, grab his head and fall over.
What Bent had just done had actually been done with Raymond!
Even the pissing on him!
Raymond muttered under his breath.
"That bastard isn't even a therapist, next time he comes over, really pour some shit on him."
"Haha! Okay, I'll definitely pour shit on him next time!"
Raymond chuckled.
Seeing the Lance bastard soaked in piss made his stomach turn.
* * *
Raymond's life didn't change much after that.
He cured the critically ill, but no one recognized him for it.
"An ancient secret art? Call it medicine? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Maybe he just got lucky and the bleeding stopped."
The evidence was right there in front of me, but I didn't even bother to look. No, they ignored it.
Because to them, Raymond was filth, pathetic scum.
Just one person.
Only Hanson, who had witnessed a miracle before his eyes, looked at Raymond differently.
"...Senpai."
"Huh?"
"...No."
Hanson looked very confused.
He opened his mouth to ask something, but then shut it.
"...I'll do the cleaning from now on."
"Yeah, but."
"No. It's my job as the youngest."
While he was saying this, Hanson snatched the mop out of Raymond's hand.
And there was one more person looking at Raymond in a different way.
It was Lance.
Whereas before he had looked at him with sneer and contempt....
"Now he's looking at me like he's going to kill me.
Raymond scratched the back of his head, feeling a sting.
Still, he wasn't as intimidated as before.
'If I'd gotten that look before, I'd have freaked out.
Raymond marveled at his transformation.
"Treating the vomiting patient gave me confidence, which is why I'm not as intimidated as I was before.
No longer was he a pathetic, unqualified therapist.
He was a therapist with the potential to be as good as anyone. Even if no one was willing to admit it yet.
"Just wait and see. One day, when I'm the best healer in the world, I'll be able to do all sorts of things to the Bellands.
That's how Raymond was playing out his dreams and hopes in his head.
Lance interrupted him.
"There's something I need you to do, old man."
"What is it?"
Lance's eyes grew cold.
"What does he want me to do?
Raymond felt suddenly uneasy.
This didn't feel good.
"No. It'll be fine. I have the power of a player now.
But when he heard Lance's next words, Raymond couldn't keep his composure.
"I want you to be a healer at the upcoming royal festival."
"...!"
Raymond's eyes widened to tears.
"Now... what did you say?"
"I asked you to go out during the royal palace festival. Why, isn't that a great honor?"
The Tanshin Festival.
It was a large-scale palace festival where all the nobles of the capital gathered for a banquet to commemorate the birth of the founding king.
So many people gathered that the palace healers were overwhelmed and sent healers from their respective healing centers.
As Lance says, it was a great honor for a healer to be sent to the palace festival. It's a sign of recognition.
"It's even more so as an apprentice, because you don't get to go unless you're a really promising apprentice."
"...."
"I suppose a senior who cured a vomiting patient would be qualified enough to attend."
Raymond bit his lip hard.
Anger surged through him.
"You son of a bitch.
Of course, Lance wasn't trying to give Raymond a good time.
Quite the opposite.
He wanted to put Raymond in the worst possible position.
The palace was a hellhole for Raymond.
Nightmares from his past echoed in his ears.
"Filthy bastard.
"Why was a filthy bastard like you born?
"You should have died. What? You're still alive?
Past.
Raymond's life in the palace had been a living hell.
His life at the Velund Sanatorium was also torturous, but what made it bearable was the hellish life before that.
Compared to my past at the palace, life here at the Belland Sanatorium was a paradise.
It was an agonizing and terrible time.
There was only one reason Raymond had to suffer so much.
'You have tarnished your mother's majesty.
Because he was the king's illegitimate son.
The Shadow prince.
Raymond's former nickname.
* * *
There were reasons why Raymond was treated so poorly even though he was the king's child.
First, there was the tradition of the Kingdom of Houston.
Most nations are harsh on their illegitimate children, but the Hustonian kingdom is even worse.
In the spirit of its founding king, the Kingdom of Huston honors chivalry. According to that chivalry, illegitimate children are completely unacceptable.
Therefore, the Kingdom of Huston does not recognize the existence of illegitimate children at all.
It's not just that they don't have inheritance rights, it's that they don't exist.
They persecuted and harassed them as unclean beings who technically shouldn't exist. Like persecuting a filthy monster.
Raymond, in particular, had to suffer even more because he was the illegitimate son of the noblest of kings.
A hideous filth that stained the king's dignity.
That was Raymond.
Of course, if the king had protected him, things might have been different. But the king who gave birth to him did him no favors.
In fact, when he first came to the Asylum, the people there treated him poorly.
But as time went on, and they realized that Raymond was only getting uglier and uglier, and that the royal family didn't really care about him in the slightest, they began to treat him more and more harshly.
-The king's filthy bastard.
-The only blemish on a great king who would rather be dead.
That's what they thought of Raymond.
"And you want me to go to the royal festival?
His heart sank.
Raymond always kowtowed to his superiors, but was it because he was so emotional? This time it was not so.
"Are you sure you want to send me?"
"Why, no?"
Lance smirked.
He didn't care if she didn't like it.
"As you know, your completion of your apprenticeship is in my hands as Chief Healer. If you wish to remain an apprentice for a millennium, do as you wish."
"...."
The tone was firm.
Raymond clenched his fists tightly.
He wished he could punch him in the face and silence his savage face.
"Would he really do that?
It was one of those moments.
[Suddenly you have a quest!]
[Guardian of the Banquet]
(Medicine Quest)
Rank: Half Scalpel
Difficulty: Upper
Quest Description: A banquet attracts a huge crowd. You never know what unexpected illnesses may arise, so as a healer, end the banquet without any casualties.
Conditions: End the banquet without any fatalities
Reward: Bonus Level Up x 3, 30 Skill Points
Perks: Someone's(?) favor, a bit of fame
Raymond blinked his eyes.
"Why is the reward so generous?
A whopping 3 level-ups and 30 skill points!
Compared to the previous quest, 'Treat Your First Patient', this was three times the reward.
'Could it be that there were some serious patients at the banquet?
We don't know.
But Raymond was bothered by the quest's difficulty level of 'Normal'.
If the banquet was a peaceful affair with no patients, it shouldn't have a difficulty level of 'Normal', right?