867: Sophie and the Illegal City
「After all, I only bring people misfortune…… Even here in this town, many have died because of me.」
Sophie muttered to herself as she finished telling her story.
Nelsh, the leader of the guards, seemed like he wanted to say something. But he kept his mouth shut, probably because he didn’t dare to speak up after seeing Sophie’s gloomy atmosphere.
But here we have Fran, someone well known for not reading the mood.
「What do you mean? Did something happen in this town?」
「Yeah, that’s right.」
「Did a lot of people die?」
「It was all my fault……」
Sophie continued her story while Nelsh was stunned speechless. Perhaps she subconsciously wanted to tell Fran about her problems.
It’s not like she wanted to tell us every detail, but she did not seem to hesitate.
「So many people died because of me.」
「What do you mean?」
「When I first arrived in town, there was a big battle over control of my power……」
Sophie acted as a traveling bard when she first entered town. Then, she apparently went around healing the wounded after the battles with antidemons.
But this was not solely done out of the good of her heart.
After killing her foster father with a cursed song, Sophie felt that her performances had been tainted. In order to rid herself of this taint, she thought she needed to save people with her songs first.
So that’s why she went around healing people with her music……
Those acts brought about an unexpected outcome.
The Adventurers Guild and Sanatorium showed interest in her, but many not so friendly organizations also desired her powers. There was a great struggle over who would obtain her healing powers and get a leg up over the others.
The war intensified between the gangs chasing after her and the guild trying to protect her, causing many to die in the process.
The conflict ended when Sophie joined the Sanatorium, but she still felt a deep regret for the trouble she caused.
Sophie worked hard to make amends. She saved everyone she could find: adventurers, outlaws, and even slaves. She continued to play every day from morning till night, even sometimes pus.h.i.+ng herself too far and collapsing due to mana overuse.
Before she knew it, everyone started calling her the saintess. But in spite of her fame, Sophie had fewer and fewer opportunities to appear in public.
「The management of the Sanatorium reduced the number of times they allowed me treat people.」
「Why? Isn’t that the point of the saintess?」
If Sophie continued to heal people, it would only boost the reputation of the Sanatorium, right?
However, there were advantages and disadvantages to having Sophie continue her saintess work.
「First of all, there’s the financial issues.」
Sophie took very little money because she was doing this as atonement for her sins, even after joining the Sanatorium.
That was the condition she made upon joining the Sanatorium. However, if Sophie continued treating large numbers of people at once, there would be little need for other healers.
The Sanatorium wasn’t a charity organization, so they couldn’t accept this.
If they stopped getting paid for treatments, they would not have the money to purchase necessary supplies, and eventually go under.
Another disadvantage was that the younger generation would not be able to gain experience. For newbie healers, treating patients was one of the few opportunities to level their skills.
If Sophie continued treating patients all by herself, they would have a rough time training the other healers. Apparently, they did almost run into that issue.
That’s why they decided to restrain Sophie from performing so often.
They ended up designating Sophie’s healing as a last resort after the other healers failed. However, because Sophie volunteered herself, she was placed in charge of healing the abnormal clients, mostly adventurers and outlaws.
Sophie accepted that because she was fed up with being made into a figurehead, but things didn’t turn out the way she expected……
She thought the people would be angry at this change, but having rare appearances apparently added an aura of mystery instead. The saintess’s fame grew even further, and soon everyone was practically wors.h.i.+ping her.
If that was the only problem, things would be fine aside from Sophie feeling a little uncomfortable. The real problem was what came after.
The adventurers and outlaws truly believed that Sophie would be there to heal them in their hour of need, so they pushed themselves even harder than ever before.
They knew she could bring them back from the verge of death, which made them grow careless. That led to an increase in casualties. Moreover, many people came rus.h.i.+ng into the city after hearing the rumors of the saintess. So despite the higher casualty rate, the number of adventurers didn’t change much.
No one seemed to care much about the situation, except of course, for Sophie. She had only the best of intentions, but her actions led to the deaths of others, so it’s not hard to see why.
Her anguish was compounded by the fact that she often saw her guards going too far in the name of the saintess.
She began to wonder if her presence was driving the entire city crazy. They were doing fine before she arrived, so was everything actually her fault?
In addition, she felt a sense of distrust toward the upper management of the Sanatorium. They were obviously using her for their own convenience.
Sophie began to hate her t.i.tle of saintess and avoided healing people. For the past year or so, she spent her time hunting antidemons instead of treating others.
However, that didn’t make her feel any better. Various things happened after that, and that’s when she ran away and met Fran.
「That’s pretty much my whole story. So, there’s one thing I want to ask you.」
「What?」
「Did you come here to kill me?」
「?」
What’s she talking about? As Fran tilted her head, Sophie exhaled lightly.
「Of course not. I knew you would never do that.」
「Nn. But why ask me that?」
「I overheard Filuria giving some orders to her subordinates. She said a black cat girl was working with the Beastmen Union to kill me, and to arrange for her capture immediately……」