[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 35: Healer’s Paradise

The last traces of the hearty meal lingered on Xion’s tongue. The warm soup was delicious, and so was the freshly baked bread. It tasted particularly nice when eaten on a slightly chilly morning.

Clearing his throat, Xion was about to speak but halted. "Old man" felt like the wrong name to call someone who had been nothing but kind, even if the said old man never complained.

After some internal debate, he settled on the simplest form of address. "Mister."

Xion slightly leaned forward on the sturdy wooden table, "Mister, can you help me with something?"

Berry glanced up from his plate, meanwhile, his jaw was busy chewing on an impressively large chunk of meatloaf. He raised a bushy eyebrow, silently encouraging Xion to continue.

"I need to open a temporary clinic. As you already know, I am a healer, but I am not good with anything else." Xion scratched his chin in embarrassment.

"Things, eh?" Berry swallowed noisily, finally clearing his throat. "Like?"

Xion sipped his purple juice, grimacing slightly at the tartness. The fruit was delicious, but the acidity felt like it was scrubbing his teeth. "Like knowing the customs of the market, prices of the herbs and... not getting kidnapped."

Berry threw his head back and let out a loud laugh, "Pfftt Hahaha... Of course! I know just a place for yah!" Berry slapped the table, nearly spilling Xion’s juice. "No kidnappings on my guard!"

Not an hour later, Xion found himself standing in the room in the middle of the bustling market as Berry had promised.

The clinic’s interior was modest but undeniably pristine. Wooden shelves lined the walls, gleaming faintly in the sunlight streaming through the open window.

A faint scent of herbs mingled with fresh wood polish. The strange combination oddly calmed his nerves.

"Being in His Grace’s service has many benefits!" Berry grinned proudly, flashing a set of shockingly white teeth that caught the light so perfectly.

Xion nearly squinted. For a moment, he couldn’t decide which was shinier: the old man’s teeth or his bald head.

Shaking the absurd thought from his head, Xion focused on the task at hand. His eyes caught the wooden board nailed above the entrance, proclaiming in bold, uneven letters: "A Cheap Clinic for the Sick."

Xion’s lip twitched. He had scrawled that sign in a rush during an emergency at his last location. He never intended to see it again, let alone reuse it!

"It sounds a bit absurd now," he muttered under his breath. But with no time to create a new one, the sign stayed.

Unlike the noisy bazaar he had been in before, this district bustled with a certain sophistication. The roads were wide and fairly clean, stalls were neatly arranged, and the air smelled of freshly baked bread and exotic spices.

Nobles strolled alongside commoners; their elaborate clothing easily told them apart.

Berry’s earlier words echoed in Xion’s mind: "This here is Uzera, Healer’s Paradise! Nobles, merchants, and even high dignitaries come from far and wide. They’ll pay a pretty coin for their aches and mysteries. A perfect spot for yah, little healer."

And so began Xion’s grand opening of the clinic in the middle of the market. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

The clinic wasn’t empty for long. Soon, a small line formed outside, ranging from frail old men to children tugging on their mothers’ skirts, all eager to see the miraculous healer who could even heal the Blight Spot.

It was not hard to guess how they knew about it. Even sitting inside, Xion was able to hear the loud cheerful voice, telling others about his personal experience.

His first patient was an elderly woman with a walking stick. She shuffled inside, looking around curiously before stopping in front of Xion.

"Madam, how can I help?" Despite only his lips being visible under his grey robe, he asked with a polite smile.

She squinted at him. "You’re the healer? You look... scrawny." She poked his arm with her bony finger. "Do you eat enough? I’m not paying a healer who faints mid-treatment."

Xion resisted the urge to facepalm. "I assure you, I’m fine. Now, what’s the problem?"

"My son’s goats won’t produce milk!"

"I’m... not a veterinarian."

The elderly woman frowned, "What’s a vet-ri-nanny? We can’t afford a nanny for a goat!"

For the next five minutes, Xion tried, and failed, to convince her that healing humans and animals required different expertise. She left grumbling about "useless quacks."

Xion, the useless Quack, "..." I am not!

This was definitely not how he expected his day to start. Though he was not in urgent need of Merit points, he still needed to gain experience in dealing with Mana.

Only then can he treat the sweet angelic Rael’s problem.

As he was about to call another patient inside, he heard the cheerful voice of a child.

"Young master!"

A cute child with dark purple eyes and the same-colored hair bobbled in front of him.

"Sir Berry said you’d need someone to run errands."

Listening to the familiar high-pitched voice Xion immediately sat straight.

Was this cutie, not the dirty boy who helped him clean the herbs?

This time, the kid had definitely taken a bath before coming here. Though his new clothes were a size bigger on his scrawny frame, even that could not dim the excited gleam in those bright eyes.

"Can I help you? I won’t make a mess, I promise!" The dirty boy rubbed one of his feet on the floor.

The sight tugged at Xion’s memory. There was a time, long ago, when he was just as excited as this boy.

He wobbled on her toes as he tugged at his mother’s big hand, softly begging to join family trips.

"I plomish... w-won’t make a mesh. Can I come with you, pleash?"

His eldest brother laughed at him before gently taking their sister toward the car. The second brother definitely gave him a smack or two, though he could not quite recall the rest.

But even with the gap in his memory, he could not forget how his mother would just stare at him with those heavy dark eyes and then silently move away as if he had some kind of disease.

"Young master?"

A soft call brought him back from his reverie. Clutching his hand hidden in his robe, Xion smiled slightly.

He motioned the boy closer. Patting the coarse purple hair, he spoke as gently as he could, "You can, but before that, we need a name for you."

His words made the ten-year-old child stiff in his place. "M-my name? C-Can I have one? But, young master," the excited flicker in his dark eyes dimmed.

The dirty boy looked at his feet. "I don’t deserve the name. That’s why my grandfather sold me..."

The words tugged at Xion’s chest. "If I say you deserve it then no one can say it otherwise."

The sudden heavy voice made the child look at him blankly. He blinked, "Then... What is my name?"

Xion thought for a moment. "You know there is a goddess of the night called NOX. She brings joy even in the darkest of the nights."

Xion’s mind whirled as he said, "Noxian." The word sounded strange on his lips, and he wasn’t sure if the boy would like it, but there it was. Too late now to turn back.

The boy did not react. Then his lips moved as if he was testing the name, "Noxian". Those wide eyes shimmered and then big drops of tears fell like a rain of pearls.

Xion panicked. "Hey, what’s wrong?" he rushed to the boy’s side. His hand fell on the boy’s trembling shoulder. "If you don’t like it, we can change it. No need to cry, okay?"

Xion knew he had a bad naming sense that was why he had borrowed the name from some novel he had read. Who would have thought that he would make the poor child cry?

While Xion was wondering about the new name, the crying boy fell into his arms. His thin arms wrapped around Xion’s waist while he stammered, "Noxian... I like it. N-no, I love it! Thank you y-young master!"

Xion exhaled heavily. "As long as you like it, Noxian," he said softly, ruffling the boy’s unkempt hair.

The boy pulled away from his embrace. His eyes light up with a grin. A few watery beads continued to roll down his cheek as he declared, "Yes! I am Noxian!"

Xion couldn’t help but laugh.

From that moment on, every time Xion asked Noxian to fetch the herbs for patients, the boy would beam with a silly grin and then trot over to the shelves to gather them.

Before he knew it, a dark blanket had covered the once-clear sky. The wind carried a chill making Xion shudder ever so slightly.

Following Berry’s advice, Xion shut the clinic early and went back to the inn hand in hand with little Noxian.