"Do you remember what Sir Raymond said then?"
"Yes. He said he'd rather burn himself than burn these children, and as he took them away, he couldn't hold his head up."
"Exactly. He said that if he could save his patients, he was willing to die."
For the record, Raymond never said that.
The rumor has been passed around and continues to circulate.
"I'll always have a lot of respect for him."
"Yeah, me too. He's not just a healer, there's no one like him in the world."
"There never was a prince like him."
"But didn't you say he wasn't a prince because he was illegitimate?"
"I don't know, something like that. Anyway, he's a lot better than the princes that came before him."
And just like that, Raymond had won the hearts of the slumlords.
No one doubted him anymore.
To them, he was "our proud healer.
It didn't stop there.
Sometime later, something happened that won their hearts even more completely.
It was the day a patient died at the clinic.
"No! Hanson, apply pressure with the cloth there! Come on! Do it right!"
"Yes, sir!"
"He's going to die at this rate, damn it!"
It was a fall.
By the time they got to the hospital, he was already bleeding out.
The most critical patient, difficult to save even on Earth.
Even if the trauma team stayed in the operating room all day, there was no way Raymond and Hanson could save him, as he was in such a dire condition that the resuscitation rate was less than half.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't save him.
In the end, he went into cardiac arrest within an hour of arriving at the clinic, and died after CPR.
"Shit!"
Raymond shook his head.
It was the first patient he'd ever lost.
An inexplicable feeling swept through his chest.
He felt sick, frustrated, upset, and ready to burst.
-Doctors must learn and grow from their patients' sacrifices.
I tried to think of a common medical phrase, but it didn't come to mind.
I just felt like my heart was going to burst.
"I don't want to go through this again.
Raymond bit his lip hard.
'Of course I know.
When you're treating patients, you're bound to encounter things like this from time to time.
Any therapist, any doctor. You can't save every patient.
You're going to have to deal with this a lot.
The important thing is to do your best.
And to bury the patient in your heart and try to make sure it never happens again.
Even though I knew all of that, I couldn't help but feel upset right now.
"Damn it!"
In the end, Raymond couldn't hold back the tears that were falling, and they moved the people of the slums once again.
They'd seen him from the time he was brought in to the time he died.
They knew what he was going through.
They knew how desperately Raymond had tried to save his life.
They tear up together.
They thought the dead man would have been comforted by Raymond's efforts.
From then on, Raymond became a sanctuary in the Bay Area where no one was allowed to mess with him.
If you messed with him, you would incur the wrath of the entire Bay Area.
The people of the Bay Area would say to Raymond
"Could it be that Mr. Raymond is a man sent down from heaven for us?"
"Maybe he really is. In fact, I used to pray for him."
"Don't be ridiculous."
They laughed at each other.
For the first time, there was light in the Bay Area.
It was small and faint, but it was warmer than any other light.
Technically, of course, Raymond is only a healer.
He can't affect their lives in any way beyond curing their illnesses.
The people of the Bay Area still live in squalor and poverty.
But just as people often find solace in the stories of people they admire, the Bay Area's poor find joy in the stories of Raymond.
Then one day.
Raymond got a message.
[Your fame has surpassed the threshold!]
[You have a new title!]
[Title: 'Helper of the Poor' earned].
[Gain a bonus effect for gaining the title].
"Title?
Raymond blinked.
He did have such an entry in his status window.
"Your original title was Dirty Bastard, right? And a side effect?
Then the description came to him.
[Aid to the Poor]
Description: A title given to those who help the poor.
Title rank: Village level
Side Effects:
-Gain great favor with the slum people!
-Gain great influence with the slum people!
[Gain a bonus level up, as a result of gaining the title!]
[Gain 20 bonus skill points!]
Raymond's eyes widened.
"That's good?
His goal was to build up his skills and reputation in the slums.
Such a reputation would come in handy in the future.
"It feels good.
It felt like a surprise, a title so much better than his nickname, Dirty Bastard.
* * *
By the time Raymond was fully settled in the Bay Area, two vaguely familiar figures entered the Bay Area.
"It's been a while since I've been to the Bay Area."
"Indeed, my lord."
They were middle-aged men with the kind of plain-looking faces you'd expect to see anywhere. Their clothes were shabby, not much different from the poor.
But there was still something inexplicably foreign about them. Their shabby clothes could not hide their dignity.
King Auden and Chancellor Galman!
They had come to the Bay Area, just as I had told you.
They had magically changed their appearance and looked completely different.
"But is it okay for just the two of us to come out like this? If we go back, that fellow will make a scene again."
That friend.
Marquis Aris, the leader of the Royal Knights.
"What does it matter, we're in the capital anyway, and I can't do my job properly with an escort."
Galman shook his head in disagreement.
In fact, this wasn't the first time he'd gone unescorted.
He'd done it a few times before... no, quite often, and for good reason.
King Auden was the Swordmaster.
'Not that I can threaten his majesty without an army coming at me.'
It was then that Auden spoke up, as if something was amiss.
"By the way, something seems to have changed in the atmosphere, what do you think?"
At Auden's words, Galman tilted his head.
"Well?"
I don't think much has changed.
The ramshackle houses, the needy people, the heavy, gray air... were all the same.
"No, did something change?
Galman frowned.
Suddenly, Auden coughed.
"Kuluk. Cough."
"I... no, my lord!"
It was a harsh, raspy cough that lasted quite a while.
The barely-real Auden shook his head.
"That was ugly. I apologize."
"No, it's not, are you okay?"
"It's just a cough, where's the line between okay and not okay?"
Galman looked worried.
"A cough, your majesty, but even a Swordmaster can't escape illness.
King Auden was one of only two Sword Masters in the Huston Kingdom.
In other words, he was one of the two strongest in the Kingdom of Huston.
As a knight-king, he was revered and reigned as the Grim Reaper of the battlefield, but even he could not escape the disease.
Swordmasters and archmages alike were human beings, and they all grew old and sick and died.
"But you're so much stronger than the average person, you've never had any nagging illnesses, but you caught a cold this time.
Luckily, it wasn't anything serious.
It was just a lingering cough after a cold.
"Count Helien, a triple-A healer, has been working on you, so you should be better soon.
Galman shook his head.
"Do you have a destination in mind?"
"I don't know. We've come this far, let's get a drink."
"Okay."
He didn't really mean drink, just go to a bar and listen to people talk.
"So no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get above an F.
As I thought about it, I had a question.
"But what kind of mana am I using for my magic?
This was a very important question that I had overlooked until now.
Top lane, mid lane, and bottom lane are not compatible with each other.
This means that healers in top lane can only use healing, mages in mid lane can only use magic, and knights in bottom lane can only use auras.
But right now, Raymond is using magic.
He doesn't even have any mana in his mana heart.
"I've always assumed it was the player's ability.
Raymond shakes his head.
He would have to think about this later.
Right now, he had more important things to do.
"Senior, the meat is done."
"Yes, let's eat. You cooked it well enough to keep it juicy, right?"
I had to eat freshly grilled meat.
It wasn't polite to let the meat cool down.
"...But now that the plague is over, do I still have to eat meat?"
"Yes, because meat is always right."
Meat was indeed always right.
Because it's delicious.
Yum.
* * *
The children all recovered, and the incident made a huge splash.
People in the Bay Area now viewed Raymond in a completely different light.
Before, people in the Bay Area had viewed Raymond with mixed feelings.
But not everyone did.
Some viewed him with suspicion.
"Isn't he just playing nice for some political advantage, like the princes who came before him?
"Isn't it hypocrisy to pretend to care about us?
But those voices were silenced.
Raymond's behavior that day was enough to shake people to their core.
He cared about his patients even though he might die of the disease.
If you weren't moved by his saintly behavior, you weren't human.