The Saintess's Healing
"Elisha, promise me one thing. If he ever tries to make you possessed, throw him out without mercy. That man wants to use you as really…."
"As a disposable tool. I know."
Sohee was a little surprised by how detached, yet firm, her words were.
Even so, Sohee couldn't help but warn her one more time. No matter how fated their bond within the story might be, Elisha had been mentally dominated by this man for a very long time.
"Threats, coercion, pleading — none of it. And if he so much as raises a hand to you, call me right away. I'm the manager here, and I have a duty to protect my guests. I will protect you. I promise."
"…It's a little late to be hearing that, isn't it? I had to die first."
With a bitter smile, Elisha retired to her room. And nearly an hour had passed since then — for better or worse, she hadn't made a single request of Sohee.
"This is nerve-wracking. Stay still, would you."
"You're fine with this?"
"I'm fine, so I won't call you."
Sohee understood it perfectly well in her head. That didn't make her heart any easier.
"You told her you'd never do possession, so maybe she's steering him toward regression or reincarnation instead? Send him off somehow, accomplish her one goal, and be done with it…."
"That's Elisha's call to make."
"…I suppose so."
Sohee was pacing back and forth across the lobby with a sigh when something strange rippled through the air, and she looked up toward the second floor. A blue glow, blooming from somewhere up above, was spilling all the way down the staircase.
"What is that…?"
"Gyaaargh!"
The moment the question formed, a hoarse scream tore through the motel. With no time to think, Sohee sprinted up to Elisha's room on the second floor.
"Elisha! Elisha!"
Between the cracks of the door she'd been pounding on, light burst through — so intensely blue it was blinding. Sohee yanked at the handle in a panic, but the door was locked from the inside.
"No! You can't, Elisha!"
cause trouble in Wicheon, and the penalty is Character Deletion. You vanish from everyone's memories, from every work you ever appeared in. All those years of hardship, all that hard-won endurance — simply wiped out of existence.
Unable to wait a second longer, Sohee smashed her fist down on the door handle. With a crunch of breaking wood, a round hole punched through the door, and she wrenched it open.
"Elisha! Stop right now—!"
Gripping the ruined door, Sohee froze on the spot.
Elisha's magnificent silver hair billowed in every direction. A cerulean shimmer wreathed her entire body, and from her right hand an unmistakably enormous orb of light was pouring out without pause.
"Gyaaagh! My leg! Uuugh!"
As if Dylan's howling hadn't reached her at all, Elisha slowly turned her head and looked at Sohee.
"Sohee?"
"…Elisha."
When Elisha saw her, her eyes rounded. She'd only climbed from the first floor to the second, yet Sohee's forehead was drenched in sweat, and the door handle was broken beyond all function.
Sohee hesitated, then stepped one foot into the room.
"Elisha, calm down. This is — this is Wicheon, and the law here is — the law is really strict."
"……?"
"If you hurt someone, then you'll really—!"
As Sohee frantically poured out her words, Elisha finally seemed to understand, and let out a short laugh.
"Is that why you came rushing up here?"
"…Why do you look like that? Don't tell me you've decided to give up on everything and end it all here."
"End what, exactly?"
At a single gesture from Elisha, another scream rang out. Dylan was pinned beneath the massive holy power, sitting immobilized on the sofa.
"Manager! Somebody save m—!"
"I'm healing him."
Healing?
Sohee's gaze drifted, unbidden, to the enormous blue power.
So that's what holy power looks like?
Sohee knew Elisha was a saintess, but she had no way of verifying whether that power was truly holy power. Watching Dylan scream like he was dying only deepened her unease.
What if she was calling it holy power while actually destroying Dylan? What if she intended to burn herself away along with him?
Just as she stood there, uncertain what to do, a familiar voice reached her ears — thin and faint from somewhere far below.
"It's holy power. Leg healing. In progress."
Only at the Moon Jar's emphatic assurance did Sohee finally breathe a little easier. Elisha, for her part, squared her shoulders with obvious pride.
"Good medicine is supposed to taste bitter, after all."
"Who — who on earth heals someone like this?!"
"Oh, right, I never mentioned it. I thought I'd heal my wounded heart while I was at it."
With that, Elisha drove even stronger holy power into his leg.
Whatever she said, to all appearances she was hammering a gigantic boulder straight into Dylan's leg. With every heavy thud, thud, Dylan's face flipped between a sickly blue and deathly white.
"Don't worry and go back down. Hoe-Bing-Hwan may be your specialty, but healing is mine."
With those words, Elisha drew closer to Dylan. At the sight of her smiling face, Dylan broke out in a cold sweat and clutched the armrest of the sofa.
"I'll make sure this leg of yours heals perfectly, Father."
Uuuuaaagh.
Having seen enough, Sohee pulled the broken door shut. Though even that merely flapped like a curtain, offering precious little soundproofing.
How much time had passed? No more screams could be heard. And a short while later, Elisha emerged, cool and composed as ever.
"The healing went smoothly. Father will be out as soon as he comes to."
Not long after Elisha came down to the first-floor lobby, Dylan kicked open his door and burst out. Between his ragged breathing and footsteps that were unmistakably furious no matter who heard them, the staircase rang out.
"I'll — I'll report every last one of you fiends for this!"
"On what grounds?"
Elisha looked at him with a smirk.
"That I healed the leg you've been crippled on your whole life?"
"Y-you — you demon!"
"How hurtful. And here I thought you said there was no saintess in the world like me."
Dylan could do nothing but glare at her. In truth, she had repaired his leg — if he dared lay a hand on Elisha now, the situation would only turn against him.
He spat a low curse as he swept his glare across everyone gathered in the lobby.
"What a revolting lot you all are! Doing Hoe-Bing-Hwan in a place like this? You can't even read the room — you'll fall apart on your own soon enough, no help from me needed!"
Dylan spat on the floor and turned away. His mood was filthy, but his stride was remarkably light, which only made his blood boil harder.
"One moment."
Elisha stopped him in his tracks.
"You've been here quite a while. Aren't you forgetting your Hoe-Bing-Hwan consultation fee on your way out?"
"C-consultation fee! There's no such thing!"
It was as if a storm had torn through. The one who had exerted every last ounce of strength was Elisha, yet somehow it was Sohee who'd been drained completely.
The Hoe-Bing-Hwan Motel had never had a consultation fee. Charge one, and not a single guest would ever walk through the door again.
But Elisha had no intention of letting Dylan walk away scot-free — not after everything he'd put Sohee through.
And as payment, ten gem-encrusted rings now glittered in a heap on the lobby table.
"Father, your stomach's been troubling you as well — shall I heal that too? You might cough up a little blood."
Before Dylan left the motel, Elisha had wrung these out of him through what she called healing but was unmistakably blackmail.
She let out a long, satisfied sigh and looked at Sohee.
"Consultation fee for troublesome guests. Does this cover it?"
"…Who exactly was the troublesome one here?"
In this moment, there are no troublesome guests. Only slightly sensitive VIP customers.
Sohee gathered the brilliantly sparkling rings into both hands.
"At this rate, I could take ten guests a day. You could just lie around all day doing nothing."
"Haha."
Sohee tore her eyes from the gems and looked at Elisha. For the first time since arriving here, Elisha was laughing out loud.
With the laughter still lingering around her eyes, Elisha asked,
"My healing was good, wasn't it?"
"Yes. Genuinely impressive but… is that how it's normally done?"
"Of course not. You're supposed to calibrate it finely, to what the person receiving it can endure."
"I knew something was off. So, feeling better now?"
"Very much so."
Spark. In those unmistakably lifeless eyes, a single ray of joy had flickered to life just now. The prickly, hysterical Elisha was gone from this place. All that remained was a girl grown gentle, the edge of her resentment wholly worn away.
"I've decided. I want to Dissolve."
Elisha went on, her face utterly light.
"I trust what you said — that if I want to go back, regression is the way. But… in the end, I don't want to regress."
"I see."
Sohee nodded, as if she understood the truth of her heart.
"It turns out I loved Cedric far more than I ever realized."
It was Cedric who had been the deciding factor in her giving up regression. Given this one, irreplaceable chance at Hoe-Bing-Hwan, Elisha had examined her own heart more carefully than ever. Yet no matter how many times she turned it over, Cedric stood at the end of everything she wanted.
So a life without Cedric. Is that something I need?
If I went back, could I look at Cedric and simply walk past?
The plot is already fixed — I'm fated to be abandoned for the real saintess. So wouldn't it be better if I were the one to say I'm leaving first, that we should never cross paths again? Could I really turn my back like that?
She knew herself. She knew she could not.