I carefully lowered Elicia onto the soft mattress, ensuring her tattered, layered uniform didn't catch on the frame. She let out a long, exhausted sigh as her back hit the bed, her paralyzed legs resting limply on the sheets. She looked up at me under the dim mana lamps, her eyes soft.
"Thank you, little Ren," she whispered, her voice still carrying the weight of the massive emotional revelations she had just processed.
Before I could answer, the clinic door clicked open. The doctor returned, flanked by three of Tata's highest-tier specialized healers. These weren't ordinary medical staff; they were rare demi-human practitioners who possessed innate, high-grade Mana Regeneration passive skills. Two nurses immediately began uncorking premium, glowing blue alchemical potions, gently helping Elicia drink the dense fluid, while the lead healers took positions on either side of the bed. They raised their hands, summoning intricate, glowing green magic circles that hummed with pure, dense energy, beginning the grueling process of forcefully channeling mana back into her fractured core.
As the soothing light filled the room, the lead healer suddenly froze, staring intently at Elicia's face. He blinked behind his spectacles, his jaw dropping in sheer, unadulterated awe.
"Wait... you're... you're Lady Elicia Rynd! The Principal of Sisiphon Magic Academy... the Offspring Goddess!"
The other nurses gasped, instantly bowing their heads in profound respect. In the world of magic, Elicia's reputation was legendary. Her Divine Regeneration was so absolute, instantaneous, and god-like that the global registry had practically deemed her a literal descendant of the deities. Even here in the remote, newly liberated town of Tata, the common folk and demi-humans knew the name of the goddess who could knit flesh and bone back together without a single chant.
Elicia offered them a tired, yet effortlessly graceful smile, her prestigious administrative aura flickering back to life despite her weakness.
"Please, there is no need for such formalities right now. I am merely a patient in your care."
I stood silently in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed beneath the stolen vanguard cloak. Watching them revere her, a faint, bitter smile tugged at my fangs. The citizens of Tata were treating us like a pair of visiting deities… the bloody, terrifying demon who slaughtered their oppressors from the sky, and the benevolent goddess of healing who could piece the world back together. It was a bizarre, ironic pairing, but as long as those potions were filling her core, I didn't care what titles they threw at us.
After a few tense, quiet minutes, the dense humming of the green magic circles slowly began to fade. The empty glass vials of premium blue alchemical potions clinked together as the nurses stepped back, wiping the sweat from their brows.
I leaned off the wall, my jade and crimson eyes narrowing under the hood as I activated my internal appraisal skill, Inspect. A glowing, translucent blue metric overlay snapped into my field of vision, locking onto my sister's status. I skimmed down past her high-tier administrative titles straight to her energy reserves:
Mana Pool: (100% Full)
"Lady Elicia, you are fully restored, your core has entirely stabilized." the lead healer announced, bowing deeply as he lowered his hands
True to her legendary reputation, Elicia didn't even hesitate. The moment the infusion disconnected, she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and stood straight up like it was absolutely nothing. The paralyzing mana-clash that would have left a normal high-tier mage bedridden for a month was completely overwritten by her god-tier biology.
"Thank you all so very much for your swift and exceptional care," Elicia said, her voice carrying that radiant, effortlessly graceful authority as she went around the room, warmly thanking every single nurse and doctor in the infirmary.
I remained completely silent in my corner, a faint, wry smirk pulling at the corner of my lips beneath my hood. It was pretty ironic… I was technically the bloody hero who had single-handedly liberated their entire town from a tyrannical nobility, yet here she was, stealing the spotlight and receiving bows just by standing up. Typical big sister behavior.
Once the pleasantries were wrapped up, we quietly exited the clinic, stepping back into the shaded corridors of the outer entry hall away from the main streets. The moment the heavy doors clicked shut behind us, Elicia turned around to face me. Her sharp, analytical eyes immediately locked onto the raw, smoking burn mark on my cheek where the morning sun had scorched through my flesh earlier.
"Hold still, little Ren, Here." she murmured softly, stepping into my personal space.
She didn't chant, she didn't draw a magic circle, and she didn't use a single potion. Elicia simply reached out, her soft, delicate fingers gently brushing against my ruined skin. Instantly, a warm, pure white light pulsed from her fingertips. The agonizing solar radiation damage melted away in a fraction of a second, my cells knitting back together perfectly without leaving so much as a single scar.
"Thanks, Elicia, Now that you're back at full strength, let's head back to The Iron Ledger. We have a room to catch up on, and I need to get out of this daylight." I muttered, flexing my jaw as the soothing warmth faded. I pulled the heavy vanguard hood back down, completely shadowing my newly restored features.
As we navigated the long, sharp shadows cast by the buildings along the dirt road, Elicia suddenly slowed her pace. She looked down at my petite 5'5" frame, her analytical eyes tracing the heavy, stolen vanguard fabric that completely obscured my features.
"Little Ren, I've been thinking about this for a while, Mind taking your hood off?" Elicia murmured, her voice dropping into a quiet, serious octave.
A cold jolt of pure paranoia shot straight down my spine. My jaw tightened under the cloth, my dual-colored eyes flashing crimson in the dim shade.
"Is she insane?" I thought, my chest constricting.
She had just seen a stray ray of dawn melt a hole right into my face. She knew my Phase 5 demonic biology was violently allergic to solar radiation. Was she trying to kill me? Was this some twisted trap, or had her administrative brain completely short-circuited from the stress?
Before I could back away, Elicia stepped directly into my path, cutting off my momentum. She reached out, her soft, delicate palm pressing flat against the center of my chest, right over my dark dress.
Instantly, a bright, soothing white warmth radiated from her hand, sinking deep into my core. There wasn't a single wound on my torso, but her god-tier Divine Regeneration mana flooded my circulatory system anyway.
"I just cast a specialized minor protective healing variant on you, It's an advanced continuous-nullification spell. The moment a burn manifests, it instantly removes the cellular damage at the exact microsecond of contact. The healing loop is faster than the solar radiation."
I stared at her through the darkness of my hood. The sheer, absurd flexibility of her magic was mind-boggling… she had literally turned her legendary healing into a passive, real-time heat shield. Breathing a shaky sigh, I decided to place my absolute trust in my big sister.
I reached up with my right hand and pulled the heavy hood completely off my head.
I kept my Phase 5 wings tightly buttoned and buckled flat against my spine beneath my clothes, ensuring the public never saw them. Even though the townspeople of Tata were fiercely loyal and had completely lied to the LKBA Bureau to cover my tracks, my official 18-million-gold bounty as the "blood-sucking winged demon" was still highly active. Revealing my demonic wings in the middle of a crowded merchant street was a death sentence for my cover.
I stepped fully into the open, harsh afternoon sunlight, exposing my face and pale skin to the glaring rays beating down on the arid landscape.
I braced myself for the agonizing, blistering heat of cellular incineration… but nothing happened. The moment the golden rays touched my skin, a microscopic, faint pulse of white light flickered across my face. Elicia's continuous spell was working perfectly in the background, instantly wiping out the solar damage before it could even register as pain. There were absolutely no signs of burning. Elicia beamed, her eyes crinkling with immense relief as she patted my shoulder.
"Great, little Ren, Now you're completely safe from the sunlight. Let's get to that inn."