Chapter 240: Chapter 238 – The first patient.

“So, how about the two of us grab some brew after we are finished here?”

“Some brew? Do you want to discuss the scripture of the radiant lady with me? How about you come to the sermon and pray with me then, Mr. Armand?”

“I uh… sermon?”

‘I didn’t think that I'd see Armand ever be dejected when talking to a woman…’

Roland along with a few other people were looking at Armand’s facade crumbling. They had come here to get checked up but he could not hold himself back from courting someone as beautiful as Sister Kassia. Regretfully for him, this woman was already in a relationship with the sun goddess, Solaria. The moment he tried his one-liner on the cat lady priest, she mistook it for a call for preaching.

‘At least he seems normal enough, he isn’t infected and Lobelia is next after her will be those two…’

The plan was to get Elodia’s two siblings here for a proper examination, but they weren’t the only ones here. Besides these two another duo followed them inside of the church. They were half-beastmen that belonged to the thieves guild and liked to hang around their leader Lobelia.

In the past, the two of them along with Lobelia tried to rob him of his possessions. They took him for a defenseless merchant that was new to the guild and wanted to teach him a lesson. Luckily for them, Roland was able to control his impulses and didn’t harm them too much. Ever since then he could tell that the two weren’t fond of him too much.

Perhaps it was due to the beatdown in the past or his relation to Lobelia, he did not truly know or care. Just as usual they were giving him that passive-aggressive treatment while not talking much but there was a slight difference. Jasper the one with the fox years and the louder of the two was acting strange.

‘Could he have it?’

“Oh, my skin feels a lot smoother!”

“That’s one of the gifts of the radiant lady, her light is capable of revitalizing a maiden's skin.”

There were after-effects of the divine-based healing magic. From what he could tell there were variants of healing spells. One boosted the body's natural mending capacity to rapidly seal any wound. The downside was that it would leave a scar, then there was divine healing which apparently turned the body back to a state in which it was healthier.

The drawback with those spells was time, the longer a person remained wounded the harder it would be to heal them with a divine spell. This could be countered by more powerful spells or higher levels. Thus if there weren’t that many wounds it would only de-age the skin cells.

“Jasper, you’re up!”

Lobelia with a smile on her face moved over to the young man with fox ears and gave him a smack on the shoulder. The response wasn’t what she expected as instead of going forward with a puffed-out chest he just took a step back. His forehead was full of sweat and it seemed that he was close to losing it.

“What’s wrong with you Jasper? Are you afraid of priests or something?”

“No, I just… Can we just get out of here? I don’t see a reason why we have to do this, will we have to pay that nun after she is done? Doesn’t this look a bit fishy?”

He turned to his friend Renny whose dog ears were flopping around while listening.

“Wait, we need to pay for this?”

Renny asked with concern in his voice but was quickly interrupted.

“No, you don’t, I will cover any expenses now, move and get checked, it won’t take long.”

Roland was quick to reply while taking a harsher tone with Jasper who for some reason was fidgeting around.

“No, I don’t really…”

“Why don’t you listen to the man, my small friend?”

While Jasper was backing away he bumped into something hard. When looking up he saw a large grinning barbarian woman that was strategically placed in the doorway. Before everyone entered the church Roland asked her a small favor. He had already realized that Jasper was acting strange. Grisalde was much taller and stronger, even when he tried he could not wrestle out of her grip.

“Bring him over.”

“Wayland, is this really necessary?”

Lobelia along with Renny tried moving closer but were unsure what to do. Quickly Roland answered the question with a raised voice while also quickly moving to grab the young man’s forearm.

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“Yes, he could be compromised, Sister Kassia.”

While caught by the large barbarian from one side and Roland from the other Jasper was dragged before the Priest. After pushing him down to his knees he was held in place by two people with superior strength.

“Stop with your squirming, this is for your own good.”

He tried to reason with the fox beastman but he was like an unruly dog at a veterinary appointment. There was clearly something wrong here, luckily with the two of them combining their strength, there was no escape. Sister Kassia quickly started focusing her divine energy on the man’s head.

“Wait… what is that black smoke?”

Lobelia shouted out while pointing towards Jasper. The moment the golden light surrounded his face, pitch-black smoke started escaping from his orifices.

“N-no s-stop… i-it hurts…”

“Hold him, he is infected.”

The moment Roland saw the change he could tell that this person had a parasite. The whole scene was similar to the one he saw back in the village. There the gold order member treated the afflicted people with her divine aura blade instead. It was slightly different here as Kassia was not a tier 3 class holder but thanks to being a priest her healing spell was able to perform at a similar capacity.

During the first stage of the treatment, Jasper’s body started convulsing. It was as if he was going through an epilepsy attack. Soon after dark smoke started rising from his nose, ears, and even eye sockets. His eyes started bleeding as if they were about to pop but before that could happen the healing spell took over.

“... he passed out…”

“What happened to him? Is he going to live?”

“I…”

In all honesty, Roland didn’t truly know what would happen to this person now. Back in the village, Loreena insisted on having the people with the abyssal larvae taken by the church. This wouldn’t be different, Jasper needed to be watched by people from the church and observed for any kind of relapse.

“I think we need to move him to a bed first, Sister Kassia do you have a room where you keep the sick?”

“We have a small infirmary, please follow me.”

The priestess was fast on the uptake, after seeing the dark smoke her smile was gone. Roland wasn’t sure but he assumed that clerics could feel corruption from evil deities like this. This was quickly confirmed as they left the room to go towards the infirmary. Before they could get there, an old man in full priest garb appeared before them.

“Sister Kassia, what is the meaning of this? Why do I feel the influence of a primordial evil in the house of the radiant mother?”

“Head Priest, this person…”

It was the Head Priest of this church that was able to feel the miasma arising from the previous treatment. Without thinking much of it Roland decided to use his identification skill to confirm something.

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