Everyone looked at Joren confused. Even his own companions didn't know what he was doing. Joren wanted to look holy or divine as he entered the building, but judging by the looks on the people's faces and the fact that they didn't lower their weapons, he decided to cut his act short.
"Sigh, you guys are no fun. Arent, you are supposed to be the typical 'I'm in danger so when I see someone who looks divine, it must be a sign from heaven' type of people in this situation?" Again, they all looked at him with confused faces.
"Nevermind. I'm here to help. We all are, but mostly me. I know about your little problem. The innkeeper told us about what happened here and I cured her son so I came here to cure the rest of these people." 'No, I didn't. I thought the perpetrator was here because I felt a large amount of Infernal energy but I guess it was all these sick people.'
"Y-You cured this curse? How is that possible?! Not even the healers we hired could do that. The herbs and healing potions didn't work either. So how?" The village chief replaced his caution and confusion with curiosity. At this moment, he didn't see an outsider in front of him, he saw his people's salvation
"Please help us! As the village chief, I'll do everything in my power to repay you. Please!" He wept and begged on his knees grabbing at Joren's pants. [A/N: Trousers, not undergarments lol]
'This sight is familiar' Joren thought
"Chief!! You can't get down on your knees like that!" The people behind the chief all cried out, telling him to stand up.
"Right! He's lying! How can these people help when we ourselves have tried everything we can? Don't fall for his trap Chief, it's happened too many times already!" The middle-aged man with dark hair spoke, clenching his fists in anger.
"QUIET!! How many have we lost? Our brothers and sisters, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, our families and friends have lost their lives because of this curse! Don't tell me what I can and can't do when it comes to the well-being of our people! Bill, you should know better!"
The middle-aged man, Bill, looked away. He didn't want his people's lives to be put in the hands of strangers. Their village had been raided a few times already, some even disguised it in the form of help so he couldn't help but be wary of Joren and his group.
'A leader who knows when to put his status aside for the sake of his people. I like this man. Too bad he isn't a Noble. I would love to have a Noble bow down to me. In due time. Wait, I shouldn't be thinking like this right now.' Joren extended his hand, putting it on the Chief shoulder.
"Fear not Village Chief, I don't want any compensation. Do I need a reason to help others in need? We are people, not goods." 'Fuck that, if it wasn't for that golden bitch, I wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place. Whatever.'
The Village Chief looked at Joren, tears falling down his face, his tired eyes finally finding some relief in this horrible situation. "Thank you! Thank you! I don't care if you don't want any compensation, I'll pay you back no matter what!" With a fierce determination, the Village Chief spoke.
"Let's not linger any longer. Is this all the people who are cursed, or are there more in the village who aren't here?" Joren asked
"These are most of the people. The ones who didn't come here are the ones who wanted to stay with their families."
"Okay. Let's do it like this. Chief, gather everyone in the village who is infected and bring them here. Tell your people with arms to guard this place so it doesn't get rowdy. People might get desperate and do things they would regret. My team will separate the dead from the living in this place and I will start with the treatment right away." Everyone paused and stared at Joren.
"What? Chop chop people, we don't have all day! Let's go!" Breaking from their trance, they scattered to perform their duties.
"Nice job, the way you took command." As he looked at him, Glenn remembered his time with James, Joren's father. 'You would be proud of him my friend.'
'I bet he's thinking about my dad and saying 'You would be proud of the man he's becoming.' He's got that type of face on right now.' "I've learned from the best." He said, complementing Glenn.
"Ha, I guess you did. Now let me go help the others."
After about an hour of waiting, everyone who was cursed was brought to the building which turned out to be the town hall. The cries of mothers and fathers could be heard, begging for their child to be cured. Children on their knees holding their older or younger siblings pleading for help.
Joren looked around and hundreds of people were laid out around him. Some were awake, others half dead, and a few coughed here and there. Extending his mana range, Joren encompassed the town hall and spread his mana throughout the entire building.
'Phew, let's get to work.' Focusing on his left hand, he channeled the golden lady's power. Joren thought that going from person to person would take too much time and energy, so he came up with a better solution. He connected everyone to his mana, and he would spread the power of the golden lady through his mana which then would cure everyone. At least that's what he hoped.
Picturing his mana as strings, Joren connected it to every person in the building and those in the vicinity even if they weren't infected. He didn't want to take any chances.
The divine energy flowed through his body which then flowed through his mana. Surprisingly, his hand or mana didn't glow bright golden this time, it was the standard color of mana, white. But the intensity of it was greatly enhanced.
Bit by bit, the divine energy seeped into everyone. They could feel a soothing, cleansing power enter their body. They felt calm, at peace, like nothing terrible could happen. Those who were angry calmed down, those who were worried were now unconcerned, and those who were skeptical now trusted.
While everyone started feeling good, Joren started to feel horrible. While his body didn't hurt and he wasn't in any pain, the mental strain he was putting on himself wasn't like anything he's done before.
'Fuck!! I really am doing this protagonist bullshit! I promise I'm going on my villain arc after this.' He could feel the Infernal energy eating away at his mana, seeping into his body. But the divine energy kept warding it off, destroying almost every bit of infernal energy that entered his body, almost.
Finally, after a grueling thirty minutes, he finally cured everyone and those who could have been infected. He even cured the dead bodies and the plants alongside the animals that happened to be in the vicinity.
Collapsing to the ground, Joren huffed and puffed tiredly, sweat dripped from his forehead and his head was throbbing like Zeus when Athena was born.
"Joren! Are you okay?" Pantera rushed over to him, giving him some water to drink as she helped him up.
"Yeah, just a headache, it'll go away soon. How's everyone? Are they healed?" Joren did feel that all the infernal energy was purged from them but he still wanted to ask if they were okay. 'I really am becoming the Protagonist.'
"All of them are fine. Even the ones who passed have been cured. They can get a proper burial now."
Everyone crowded around Joren, thanking him from the bottom of their hearts. If not for him, they would have lost their loved ones. So many had already died, so they were grateful that their remaining friends and family were able to survive this crisis.
The Village chief grasped Joren's hand and thanked him for everything he had done. "Now our village will survive this crisis."
"No, I don't think it will, not yet at least." Joren didn't hesitate to shoot down the Chief optimism.
"What do you mean?" While the Chief was thankful for everything he had done for them, he was still worried that Joren would extort them as it had happened before. The only difference is that the people were actually cured. 'Was I wrong to trust them?'
"I only healed the people. But your land is still cursed. Eventually, you all will come back down with the curse if nothing is done. We need to find the source of this outbreak."
The Chief relaxed knowing that they weren't going to get extorted. "The source of the curse? While I don't know where it is, I do know people said that it originated in the forest just past the farmland. Bill sent a search group to see if they could find it but they came back without any answers. You should ask Bill to help you find the source. Since you were able to cure us, I'm sure you can find what caused this curse."
The Chief called for Bill, but he didn't answer. He kept looking and asking around but no one knew where he was. They all thought he was with the village chief.
"Where did he go? He's usually here with us."
"Chief, may I ask who Bill is?" Glenn asked stepping forward
"Bill is an herbalist. He specialized in healing and medicinal herbs. He was the one who helped in halting the curse."
"Halting the curse?" Joren thought back to when he saw all the people inflicted with infernal energy poisoning. It didn't seem like the 'curse' was halted to him.
"Yes. Before he entered the forest, the people were dying at a rapid pace, and those who weren't were sick became sick, sicker than anything we've ever seen. Vomiting, bloodloss, blindness, bone decay, you name it. It wasn't until after he came from exploring the forest that he found an herb that could halt or slow down the curse."
"Wait, I thought you said he didn't find anything."
"He didn't find anything related to the curse, but using his herbalist knowledge, he found a way to slow down the curse."
Joren thought about what he was told before putting all the pieces together. "Can I see the medicine he used to halt the curse?"
"Of course." Shortly after leaving to get the medicine, the Chief returned with a bottle of grayish-purple power in a small glass bottle. "This power is made from crushing many herbs. You mix it with water to halt the curse."
Joren examined the bottle shortly before smiling. He sensed infernal energy in the powder. 'Gotcha you bastard!'