I thought I heard a voice.
It was a voice I’d heard somewhere before, and just hearing it seemed to lighten the heavy burden on my shoulders.
I had been treating patients since dawn. Even when noon came and went, the stream of people being carried in showed no signs of slowing.
I worked through them like an assembly line, performing the treatments without even pausing to ask for their symptoms. Each procedure took little time, but I was trapped in a cycle where those who recovered would linger to offer their thanks until the assistants were forced to usher them out. Under normal circumstances, such magic would command a steep fee; since I was providing it for free given the emergency, perhaps they felt a moral obligation to show their gratitude. Some went as far as to press their hands together in prayer, which I found more than a little awkward to handle.
In the midst of all that, I didn't have the luxury of going to see who the voice belonged to.
Some time later, the area near the entrance suddenly grew rowdy.
"What’s happening? Lina, could you go take a look?"
At Mira’s request, Lina headed out. She returned a few moments later and spoke briefly to the others in the room. Everyone except for Mira and Lina promptly exited.
"It’s okay. You can come in now," Lina called out toward the hallway.
A familiar face appeared in the doorway. It hadn't really been that long since we last saw each other, yet I felt a profound sense of nostalgia.
"You actually... came. Katia."
"Rein!"
Before I knew it, she was throwing her arms around me. She hugged me so tightly it almost hurt.
"Thank goodness... You're really safe. You're alive. You're so warm."
She repeated the words like a prayer. Her arms were trembling.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to make you worry."
Katia pulled back just an inch. Her eyes were bloodshot.
"I thought about it over and over... what if I didn't make it in time? If Rein was gone, I—"
She broke off as a groan echoed from beyond the door. There were still countless patients waiting outside. Katia noticed it too, and she slowly released her hold on me.
"...You're going to keep going until every last patient is healed, aren't you?"
"Yeah. I have to do what I can. What about you, Katia?"
"Me? I... I’ll do what I can, too. I’m going to head to the surrounding villages and scrape together every scrap of food I can find. I won't have you starving. Besides, I might find a lead on whoever planted that poison."
She spoke with a firm, decisive tone, her expression turning upward for the first time. The old Katia was back, and I felt a wave of relief.
"Thank you. Be careful out there."
"You're the one who needs to be careful, Rein. If you collapse on me, there will be hell to pay. Mira, Lina—look after him for me."
Katia stroked my cheek once, then turned and left the room.
◇◇◇
That day followed the same pattern. I healed person after person until I was on the absolute brink of depleting my mana, stopping only when Mira insisted. Even then, the line of waiting people stretched on into the distance.
When I finally left the room at Mira’s urging, those who hadn't been treated yet reached out, grabbing at my clothes as I tried to make my way to the carriage.
"Please, just one more!"
"It hurts so much, I can't take it!"
"Have mercy on us!"
Mira, Lina, the knights assigned to guard me, and the assistant slaves had to pry their hands away. Once again, all I could do was offer my apologies.
With a heavy heart, I returned to the Marquis’s Manor. I asked Marquis Ahrens for a moment of his time to hear the progress of the investigation.
"I apologize for disturbing you while you're so exhausted," the Marquis began.
"No, don't be. If anything, I'm the one who should be thanking you. The city is only holding together because of your efforts."
"Regarding the poison... it wasn't a natural occurrence, was it?"
"Indeed. Our follow-up investigation confirmed that the black kernels were dusted with wheat flour—likely to disguise the color. More importantly, we've identified a man who was buying up suspicious quantities of rye. Usually, when someone buys in bulk with a cart, they take it to a distant market to sell, meaning they wouldn't return for weeks. This man, however, returned to the same grain wholesalers every few days. He stood out because of it."
"So he brought the poison in, bought the rye here in the Territorial Capital, mixed it in, and then sold it back to the granaries?"
"Precisely. It was a calculated attack designed to cripple the entire city using a relatively small amount of toxin."
"Do you have any idea who would do such a thing?"
"I have political rivals, certainly. Especially in The Central. But they would gain nothing from destroying a Territorial Capital like this. Tax revenues would plummet, regional food supplies would collapse, and they would earn the hatred of the populace. It would even weaken our national defense. The only ones who would benefit from this would be..."
"Seltheim?" I asked.
"Yes. That is our primary theory for now."
The Marquis nodded slowly.
"But," I interjected, "if they tried to smuggle that much poison in from another country, wouldn't it be discovered at the border inspections?"
"You're quite right. Even if the poison itself is potent, the volume required to contaminate the city's supply would likely fill a small wagon. It's hard to believe such a cargo passed the border unnoticed. We still don't know where the poison originated."
"...Maybe they're growing that specific grain somewhere inside our borders. In a hidden field away from prying eyes."
"A hidden field..." The Marquis trailed off, his gaze drifting toward the mountains visible through the window. "Come to think of it, one of the men from the cold mountain regions mentioned seeing something similar..."
He shook his head. We didn't have enough information to jump to conclusions yet, and I knew it.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be making guesses when I don't know for sure."
The Marquis shook his head firmly. "No. Your perspective is quite valuable. I'll have the men look into it."
"Thank you."
"I believe I told you that I am the one who should be thanking you," the Marquis said, offering a faint, weary, yet kind smile.
◇◇◇
That night, I had a dream.
"Why didn't you save me?"
I didn't know who was speaking. But I recognized the face. It was the person who had been at the very front of the line when I called an end to the treatments. I found I couldn't move.
"Why did you stop before my turn?"
"I'm going to die."
"It hurts so much."
"I was important to someone."
"Why did you choose to rest?"
The voices multiplied. One, two, ten, twenty... I lost count. It was dark—pitch black everywhere I looked—yet their faces remained visible, floating in the void. Faces I recognized but didn't know, on and on and on.
Dozens of hands reached out from the darkness. They grabbed my arms, my shoulders, and my ankles, dragging me down.
"No," I pleaded. "I didn't do it on purpose. I ran out of mana. If you just wait until tomorrow..."
"It’s the same thing," a voice whispered directly into my ear. "To make us wait is no different than leaving us to die."
The hands jerked violently. My feet left the ground as I was pulled into the depths. The further I sank, the more the voices screamed. Please. Why. This is your fault. The chorus of accusations became a vortex that filled my mind.
I tried to use my magic. I felt that if I could just heal them all, they would forgive me. But my core was empty. No matter how hard I reached, I couldn't produce even a flicker of light.
Someone. Please, someone—
"—Lord Rein! Lord Rein! Wake up!"
My shoulders were being shaken forcefully.
I snapped my eyes open to find Mira’s face inches from mine. She was looking down at me with an expression of pure terror. Beside her, Lina was gripping my hand with both of hers.
"Lord Rein..." Lina whispered, her voice trembling as if she were on the verge of tears.
Outside, the sky was just beginning to turn gray. It was morning.
"...Mira. Lina."
As I spoke their names, the swirling vortex of the dream finally receded.
"You were having a terrible nightmare. No matter how much we called out to you, you wouldn't wake up."
My nightgown was soaked with sweat and clinging to my skin. My heart was still racing as if I’d just finished a desperate sprint.
Mira wiped the sweat from my brow with a handkerchief, then gently pulled my head against her chest.
"...It’s all right. We are here. We will always be with you."
Her voice was low and steady. She began to pat my back with her large hand, a slow, rhythmic motion like someone soothing a frightened child. Lina wouldn't let go of my hand, either. When I squeezed back, her small fingers tightened their grip around mine.
I let them hold me. Mira had a gentle, comforting scent. Every time I breathed it in, the echoes of the voices from my dream faded a little more.
I don't know how long we stayed like that.
"...I'm okay now," I eventually whispered.
Mira slowly released me, though her eyes remained clouded with worry. Lina still wouldn't let go of my hand. I used my free hand to pat her head once, trying to convey my apology for scaring her. Lina gave a small nod and, finally, managed a tiny smile.
◇◇◇
From that day forward, food began to flow into the city thanks to the cooperation of the units from the County of Laufen, the County of Werl, and the other lords' forces.
They used military horses to pull wagons, sourcing supplies from the villages of the Marquisate of Ahrens and bringing them into the capital. Since the city sat at the center of a fertile grain region, a round trip to the nearest village only took about half a day. As long as the blockade remained lifted, the threat of starvation was gone. However, the guard knights mentioned that the process of inspecting the grain for poison and organizing the distribution required an immense amount of manpower—a task House Ahrens’ exhausted troops could never have managed alone.
I continued my work, treating patients from dawn until dusk every single day.
Others who could use detoxification magic were helping as well, but we were nowhere near catching up. Even a skilled mage could only heal five to ten people a day at most. I was healing over a hundred daily. Consequently, the vast majority of those who collapsed were still sent to me.
Since the night of that first nightmare, Mira and Lina had begun sleeping beside me.
Exhausted of mana and desperate to escape the terror of those reaching hands, I would fall asleep while clinging to one of them.
The nightmare did not return.