100 pena.
That's dozens of times what Raymond is paying now.
It was ridiculous, but that's what these healers were getting paid.
They were charging at least 100 pesos for a single treatment.
That's a lot of money for a commoner who can afford it, let alone the poor.
"There's no way the poor can afford that.
It was Raymond's hope that he could get a raise.
To be honest, he wanted to charge as much as possible.
But if you try to rip off someone, they have to have money to rip you off, right?
Even the amount of money Raymond was getting now was almost marginal for the poor.
"There's probably no one in this slum who can afford such a large sum."
"What does that matter?"
"...!"
"The heels we use are a godsend, and if you want such a noble treatment, of course you have to pay for it. If you don't have the money to pay for it, you're a thief, and if you don't have the money to pay the rightful price, you'll have to scrounge."
Raymond frowned.
It was a ridiculous idea.
But it was an idea many therapists had.
If you didn't pay, no healer would bat an eye at a patient dying in front of them.
"That's not true.
Raymond's eyes narrowed.
He likes money, too.
But this wasn't it.
"Their behavior has a lot to do with the shoddy care people in the Bay Area have been getting.
They weren't even human beings, even if they wanted the money, and a healer had at least some decency to uphold.
"I see what you're saying."
"I'm glad you do, so go ahead and pay for your treatment at ...!"
"But don't you people realize that I'm a noble?"
"...."
The healers were dumbfounded.
Raymond leaned back in his chair and crossed his feet haughtily.
"You don't even say hello when you come in, and you talk so high. One would think you were nobles, Hanson, you see, they're threatening me?"
Hanson kept pace in a calm tone.
"Yes, I clearly saw them insulting and threatening the 'knight'."
"You're scaring the crap out of a powerless nobleman."
The rogue healers were speechless.
They were commoners. Raymond might be honorary, but they were not nobility.
The attitude they'd just displayed was plainly wrong.
"Oh, it's a misunderstanding. We didn't mean to...."
"Really? You must have been threatening me. We'll have to turn you over to the guards for contempt of nobility to get the full story. Hanson, open the gate! Let's take him to the Guard!"
For the record, this world is solely of the nobility, by the nobility, and for the nobility.
As such, the punishment for blasphemy is severe.
The healers bowed their heads in a huff.
"Sin, we're sorry, we were wrong!"
"Yeah, what, I can't hear you, you're a bunch of money-grubbing idiots."
"Please forgive us, we never meant to insult your lordship!"
"By the sound of your voice, you don't seem very remorseful. I can only hear your remorse when you lie on the cold floor of the prison."
The healers broke out in a cold sweat.
Raymond sneered at them.
"Get down."
"Is that ...?"
"On your backs, on your knees. Heh! Look at you squirming! Hanson, get ready to go to the guard!"
The rogue healers dropped to their knees in a heap.
Raymond looked down at them.
"Hey."
"It's ..., my lord."
"I don't care how you live your lives, and you're not going to be reformed just because I say a few words."
Raymond said briefly.
"Instead, I don't care what you do. This is a warning."
The healers nodded and scurried away.
"Is ... going to be okay? What if he tries to hurt me later?"
Hanson asked cautiously, worried about the aftermath, but Raymond was surprisingly cool.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. Hanson, do you happen to know my credo?"
"Put the patient before anyone else, is it?"
"No, you keep giving me some kind of misunderstanding... My credo is strong, strong, strong."
Strong, weak, weak.
Weak to the strong, strong to the weak.
Raymond smirked.
"They can't do any harm to us anyway."
* * *
The fleeing healers huddled together and turned on Raymond.
"We can't let them get away with this!"
"We have to do something!"
They're all going to be screwed if this continues.
Who would come to them for treatment when they charge dozens of times more?
Of course, they could lower their prices, but that wasn't an option.
"What do you think we should do?"
"Um...."
They looked thoughtful.
The other person is a noble, albeit an honorary one. A bastard, too, but of royal blood.
So they had to be as discreet as possible.
Then, one of the healers turned to the young figure in the corner and asked.
"Do you have any suggestions, Mr. Lance?"
To his surprise, the question was answered by a familiar face.
Mr. Lance!
The head healer who had been tormenting Raymond.
He had been disbarred as a healer for bringing Count August's clan to the brink of death, and now he was hiding out here in the Bay Area.
In fact, most of the healers here were in a similar situation.
Kicked out for doing something wrong, or disbarred.
Without such disqualifications, there's no reason to come to the slums.
"...It shouldn't be hard."
Lance said in a twisted voice.
He'd been through the wringer since he'd been kicked out of the Velund Healing Center.
"Not only was I stripped of my healer credentials, I had all my property confiscated, and I had to be tasered fifty times.
Lance gritted his teeth.
He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for deceiving a nobleman.
He almost died.
If he hadn't kicked himself, he might have died.
He still limped afterward.
"I will never forgive you, Raymond, for putting me in this position.
Lance made a hideous face.
The proud young healer was nowhere to be seen.
His eyes were dried up and venomous.
"All we have to do is spread the word that his cure is bullshit."
"How is that possible? The word is already out that his cures are excellent."
"We can bribe the patients who have been cured by him."
Lance said cheerfully.
"For ten pennies, the poor people here will turn around and sell him out, and then we'll catch wind of his lousy treatment and kick him out."
The healers slapped their knees in agreement.
"That's a good idea, let's do it!"
* * *
They immediately set to work on the plot.
Especially Lance, who was grinding his teeth at Raymond.
"What a chance for revenge.
Lance gritted his teeth.
He blamed Raymond for his downfall.
"You mean to tell me, for money, to slander him?"
"Yes. Say he made you sick."
"...."
But the other man's reaction was strange.
I thought he was going to take the bait, but he didn't say anything.
"Think about it. For beggars like you, the opportunity to touch money like this will never come again...."
"Shut up."
"...what?"
Lance made a blank face.
"What is this trashy piece of shit saying now, that I should slander him for a mere ten pennies?
The patient was genuinely outraged.
Raymond was the first kind therapist he had ever met. How comforted he was by Raymond's warm words, and now what?
"If you don't have enough money, 20 pena...."
"Shut up!"
Pfft!
Stars flew out of Lance's eyes.
A fist like a hammer slammed into his face.
"Kaboom!"
Lance rolled on the ground, unable to regain his senses.
He had never seen violence like this before, even though he was born with healing powers and had always been treated well.
"How dare you!"
Lance screamed, covering his face.
But Lance didn't know. That he was in no position to scream.
"What the hell. I'm kicking your ass!"
Pfft!
The fist struck again.
This time, both noses were bleeding.
The man didn't stop punching.
Puck! Puck!
"Kaboom! Now, wait!"
"You scumbag! How dare you look at me like that!"
As the commotion erupted, people gathered around.
"What's wrong, what's going on?"
"No, you scumbag."
The man repeated Lance's words, and anger flared in their faces.
"You scumbag."
"How dare you, our prince."
Raymond had only been here for a few days, but the people had been moved.
This attempt to slander him made them very angry.
"It's a good thing you didn't. I've always wanted to help you guys out."
"Let's do a good job with the threshing today."
Lance exclaimed in a panic as things took a turn for the worse.
"Now, wait! You don't think you're going to get away with this, do you?"
"And if it's not okay, what, call the guards?"
Lance's complexion turned white.
There was no way they could get help from the guards in the Lawless Bay District.
"Now, wait!"
"Shut up!"
Puck! Puck!
"Kaboom! Kaboom!"
There wasn't a single poor person in the Bay Area who didn't hate the rogue healers.
Lance, in particular, had gotten a lot of hate in his short time as an irredeemable scumbag.
"Quack!"
The paupers released all their pent-up frustration, and Lance was beaten almost to a rag that day.
It was self-inflicted.
* * *
"Mmph. Mmmm...."
Lance groaned.
He had used a heel on himself, but it had hit so hard that his whole body ached.
"Hey, are you okay?"
The other rogue healers looked at Lance with concern.
Word of what Lance was about to do had gotten out, and they were now public figures in the Bay Area.
They didn't dare go outside without fear of being stoned.
"Really, Raymond, we can't leave him like this."
The reason they had gotten away with being mean was because they were the only healers in the Bay Area.
If you disrespected them, you couldn't get treatment when you were sick, and everyone saw through them.
But now that Raymond had shown up, things were different.
"We must drive him away somehow."
"How do you suggest we do that, Lance?"
Lance gritted his teeth against the pain of the blows.
"Since it's come to this, let's use the Shadowlands Guild."
The rogue healers' eyes widened.
The Underworld Guild!
The various organizations that lurked in the Bay Area.
"Isn't that too risky, and who knows if we'll get the job in the first place...."
Even the Underworld Guild doesn't take requests from healers. They don't know what kind of help they'll get later.
Plus, Raymond isn't a normal healer, so why would he want to take chances?
"If we try to use the Shadowlands Guild, it could backfire on us.
Backlash.
The bloody retribution of an angry Shadowlands Guild.
But Lance was confident.