The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Caron was a man who deserves my respect as well.

Strong, kind, and loved by all, he was the ideal of a knight.

.

I have had such a man say some rather rude things to me.

When we were informed of his appointment as a brave man shortly before he was engulfed by the dragon factor and went berserk, what he said to me as part of the conversation was enough to make me upset.

I know he is not a sarcastic man. I was angry because he meant what he said, but I suppressed my desire to argue with him and asked him why he said that.

.

First of all, I will never be chosen as a brave man.

Although my name is mentioned as a candidate, it is actually Kalon who will receive the title of hero.

Kalon gave me a disgusted look.

<

I could not agree more with Kalon.

I am not that flexible in my thinking, and I cannot take the name of "brave" so lightly.

It was my childhood dream, a symbol of hope to save people.

In the end, the conversation ended without any reply.

I do not know what Kalon wanted to say now that he has gone out of control.

I don't know what he was trying to say now that he has lost control.

"U......gu"

I awoke to the cold of the ice, and a stabbing pain in my side made me writhe in agony.

Looking at my body, I saw a large dent in the armor of my torso where I felt the pain.

I raised myself up, astonished that my reasonably sturdy armor had been deformed so much, and removed my upper body armor, finally throwing my helmet to the ground and holding my head down.

"Why did I ...... ...... in such a place?"

My memory is a little fuzzy as to how I hit my head.

I must have hit my side, for my stomach is in great pain.

Why am I injured?　And I thought I was outside of Mearaq with Kalon--no, no....

As his hazy thoughts become clearer, he remembers that he is fighting alongside Usato and the others.

"Yes, I am with Kalon!"

Just before I fainted, I saw Usato knocked to the ground by Kalon's tail.

I was trying to save him when he was knocked unconscious by Kalon's tail.

"Where is Usato?

I looked around and found Amako a short distance away from me carrying the unconscious Lord Aruku on the back of the burin.

I heal my aching side with recovery magic and get up to call out to Amako, only to find her looking up at me with a worried expression on her face.

"Up ......?"

I look in the same direction she is looking and see a blue mass flying in the sky.

It looks like a large bird, though it is not visible from a distance, and it seems to be wandering around in the boundary.

"Kalon, is that you?"

The blue mass falls headlong to the ground, but just before it hits the icy ground, it changes direction and flies in a gliding direction just above the ground.

When I could finally see it, I was so astonished that I lost my voice.

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>

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"...... yeah,yeah......"

Usato clinging to Kalon flying gliding over the icy ground and Nea screaming on his shoulder . I let go at the sight of their unrealistic appearance.

......Oh, you look better than I thought you would.......

However, Kalon grabbed Usato by the clothes and threw him with all his might. He lands on his feet, puts healing magic into his right hand, and swings a fist at Kalon, but just before he hits Kalon, he pulls back his fist.

>

"Usato ......?"

What the hell is he trying to do?

Was he putting magic into his right hand because he was trying to strengthen his lineage?　But I believe that his lineage enhancement was not yet completed.

Why is he trying to make Kalon do it now?

No way, is he still trying to save Kalon?

"That's stupid ......."

I heard Master Farga's words too.

His body is out of control and he is on the verge of destruction.

As a proof, when Usato hit him, his body shattered despite the healing magic he had cast on it.

Usato, who saw the collapse of his body up close, must have known that he could not save Kalon. He should have known that, but he did not give up, and he was facing the fierce attacks of Kalon, who had turned into a dragon, even though he was covered with wounds.

Even if there is healing magic, magic with powerful healing power, there is a limit.

Nevertheless, Usato is not giving up and is trying to complete his incomplete lineage enhancement in the midst of the battle.

What makes you go that far?

Is it the idea of the lifeguard that drives you to such a struggle?

What makes you go that far? .......

"Just stop it, please. ......"

I whisper to him as he gets hurt.

I want to save Karon, too.

But he's broken to the point where I can't help him anymore.

"You don't have to go that far. ......"

My voice does not reach him.

I try to run away, but my aching side prevents me.

If not for this injury, I would still be able to fight, but all I can do now is watch with my fingers crossed.

Tears well up in my eyes as I feel ashamed of my inability to do anything.

In my despair, the vial fell to the ground, as if there was a hole in the bag attached to my waist from the previous attack.

"This is ......."

The vial contained water from the spring of Kureha.

This is the power that he decided not to use when he decided to fight with Usato and the others.

"......If I use this water. I'll take Kalon ......."

With trembling hands, he picks up the vial and stares at it.

With the power of this water, I can fight Kalon without worrying about my wounds. In return, I will die, and so will Kalon.

But I can save Usato and the others, and I can bring peace to Mearaq.

Usato will not have to get his hands dirty.

If my life could do that, it would be more than enough.

"......"

I am already prepared.

My sacrifice alone will save us all.

I can help him who saved my heart.

I will not drink this water as long as Usato lives. I know I am betraying his words, but I still do not want him to die.

I open the lid of the vial and bring it to my mouth.

Once I swallow this water, I will no longer be a person.

<

Just as the vial is about to touch my lips, the words of Usato from last night come back to my mind and I stop tipping the vial.

"I am ......."

He tried to stop me from dying.

He wanted to fight with me.

I was pathetic, I was ugly, I was uncool, and he relied on me to .......

I choose to betray him and die..,

"Ah!"

He throws down the vial he was about to bring to his mouth.

The vial is smashed against the ice, shattered into pieces, and all the water inside spills out.

There was no way I could do it.

Yesterday, I would have drank the water without hesitation for the sake of my mission. But now, Usato was still fighting.

There was no way I could betray his words in front of him, who was looking straight ahead with his eyes in a hopeless situation, as if he would break my heart.

Having abandoned the vials and the best means of protecting this city, I had abandoned my duty as a brave man.

From now on, I will no longer fight as a hero of Mearaq.

I am sorry, Master Norn, Master Falga.

If I were to fulfill my duty as a hero, I would risk my life to defeat Kalon and bring peace to Mialak, but I can no longer do so.

Now the man who cared for me and tried to save me is in danger.

As a knight, I fight for my dear friends who are fighting today."

I know I'm late in giving you an answer, but it's not too late.

Usato is still fighting and has not given up.

Then I, who have decided to fight with him, cannot give up either.

I can still do something ......!"

I can stand on these legs and I can do magic.

Without looking at the shattered vial, I slowly start walking in the direction of Usato and Karon.

Just then - something glows very close to where I am standing.

"What? ......?"

It was stuck in the icy ground, and at first glance it looked like nothing more than an iron rod, but it was the "staff" that Kalon wielded as an axe.

The staff flickered and glowed faintly, as if inviting me to join it.

A supreme weapon, whose true power can only be wielded by those who are worthy of it.

"Are you calling me?"

The closer we get, the more intense the light becomes.

...... I never thought that I, who renounced fighting as a brave man, would be qualified to handle the armor of the Lord Falga. I thought how ironic it was, but at the same time it made me realize how much I had been bound by the word "brave".

"Is this what you wanted to say?" ......

I was bound by the name of "brave," and I was trying to act in a way that would lead me away from the brave man I was trying to be.

What will I accomplish with my power?

To move according to one's own will, instead of following in the shadow of the hero whom I admired and becoming a martyr to his mission.

Forgetting the pain in my side, I clutch my staff with both hands and take a slow, deep breath.

"Piece of the divine dragon! Let my thoughts take shape."

The staff glows with the same beautiful radiance as Usato's cage hand.

It is not a mighty weapon that can kill Karon.

What we seek is a weapon to save and protect, just like him.

"This is my desire."

It was a spear.

The staff was the same as before the transformation, but the tip of the spear had a simple shape with a transparent ice-like blade attached to it.

It is placed in his hand and he grips it tightly.

---......Leona.

"Dear Falga, I have finally found the answer. I will fight with him--Usato--not on a heroic mission, but on my own will.

I put into words my feelings for Mr. Farga as they echo in my mind.

Silenced for a breath, Farga-sama spoke to me in a gentle voice.

---If you have found the answer, then follow it. The spear is the divine spear of ice that holds all things together. Unleash it, along with your former doubts, and bring this battle to an end.

Yes!

He flips the spear around and takes a throwing stance.

His target is Kalon, who is flying through the air and about to attack Usato. Facing him, Usato still tries to use his lineage enhancement, but fails at every attempt.

"Now I understand why your lineage enhancement is incomplete."

Like me, he is too tied down by the word "lineage enhancement.

"I want to help you, too. That's why..."

With my sights firmly set on my goal, I put all the magic I have into my spear. Then eight ice spears formed by magic are generated around me.

The spear in my hand is transformed into a glowing spear just like the ice spears.

"Ikkeeeee!"

I shouted and threw the spear at Kalon with all my strength.

Nine shining spears.

They emit a beautiful and powerful light, and are shot toward Kalon.

The spears were thrown at Kalon.

The battle between me and Mr. Karon was turning into a war of attrition.

I was searching for a way out by using healing magic and cutting down on my physical strength, and Mr. Karon was trying to kill me while disintegrating his own body.

The battle, in which both of us were cutting down on each other, was enough to shake my will to save Mr. Karon.

After healing my right shoulder with healing magic, I looked up at Mr. Karon flying in the sky and let out a sigh.

"Ouch... ....... It's really troublesome when you're flying so high in the sky. Nair, can't you grab me and fly?"

"Don't be absurd. You're heavier than you look, there's no way I can lift you with my strength.

"Yes, indeed."

I try to exchange pleasantries with Nair, but this is nothing more than an escape from reality.

The advantage of being able to fly is tougher than I thought. While he is flying, we can only wait for him to attack us.

Once, I tried to hold on to Mr. Karon and drag him into the ground battle, but honestly, I don't want to do it again.

"Usato, look at that!"

"Oh, Mr. Karon is here!"

Nair rushes to the sky on his shoulder and points his wing to the sky.

Quickly, he held up his fists and looked up at the sky to see nine shiny, glowing things moving through the sky.

They were moving toward Mr. Karon, who was flying around the sky in all directions.

"Ah!　Aaaaah!"

Mr. Karon immediately sensed the presence of the light and flapped his wings to avoid it. However, the nine lights turned toward the location of the fleeing Mr. Karon as if they had a will of their own.

One of the lights pierced through Mr. Karon's wing as he was still trying to escape. The light turned into a spear with a transparent tip and knocked him down to the ground and sewed him to the icy ground.

The next eight lights pierced into the icy ground as if to hold him down, as if to block his movement, and turned him into a spear made of ice different from the first one.

"Gee, gah!"

"Wow, I can't believe that even that Kalon's power can't shatter it. ......"

What amazed me was the strength of the spear, which completely contained even Mr. Karon's power, which far exceeded mine.

I recognized the handle of the spear that was stuck in Mr. Karon's wing.

The handle of the spear, which was of a simple shape unlike the ice spear, had the same pattern as the one that Mr. Karon used as an axe.

"This spear, I don't think this is the one Mr. Karon used ......, and this ice, I don't think this is the one!"

There is only one person who can create ice this strong.

I turned my face in the direction the light came from and called out his name with conviction.

Leona!

"Usato!　I've stopped Kalon!　You must save him with your power!

Leona was on her knees, breathing on her shoulders.

I look at my own hands and a pained expression appears on my face as I hear her words, holding my side.

"The reinforcement of the system that you asked for was not successful. ......!　I can't help Mr. Karon anymore ......!"

"No, no!　Your lineage enhancement is already completed!"

Completed!

You mean to say that my current enhancement is in a state of completion?

"If that's the case, then you can't help Mr. Karon even more ......"

"You are too obsessed with the success of the reinforcement!　What you should be looking at is not your own magical power!"

She broke off, took a deep breath, and raised her voice so that her voice reached me firmly.

"What you should be looking at is the sufferer of the moment, isn't it!

What you should be looking at is the one who suffers now!

It is not magic that you should see.

I look from my own trembling hands to Mr. Karon, who is bound and struggling.

That's right.

I was so intent on succeeding in strengthening the system that I didn't look at the "person" who needed to be healed at all.

"I'm an idiot!　I've been training too much and I've become a real brainiac!

"What, after all this time?

Yeah, it's really too late for that!　I said I would help you, but I myself forgot the most important thing!

I can't blame Rose for not noticing this. No, I'd rather have her beat me up for being so stupid that I couldn't notice such an obvious thing.

I was thinking only about the success of my own lineage enhancement, not about his suffering now.

"Of course you can't do it. Because, when I tried to help you, all I wanted to do was to heal you. So I didn't even think about how to fix you."

Strengthening the lineage of healing magic is the highest level of restorative magic that even heals illness.

When I saw Ms. Olga exercising her healing magic at the clinic in the Kingdom of Lingle, she was facing the patient head-on and applying healing magic.

Doctors and healing wizards are the same.

Without facing them, there is no way to know how to heal them.

I had forgotten the most important thing as a lifeguard and a healer.

Then you know what you have to do, don't you?

Yeah, Leona reminded me. I will never forget."

I looked at Mr. Karon again from the front.

His body was shattered, writhing in agony. The "human" I was supposed to heal was right in front of me.

As I walk up to him who is being restrained, I create a systemic reinforcement in my left hand.

I concentrate on Mr. Karon, not on the reinforcement, while I knead the magic power in my left hand. What I lacked was the awareness of the object to be healed.

I look at the person and imagine how I want to heal him.

"--Okay."

At that moment, something that had been missing in the reinforcement of the lineage up to that point was firmly in place.

Although it was a small amount of magic power, it had a certain dark green glow to it.

This is the true form of my lineage enhancement.

A beautiful deep blue, just like Olga's.

I clenched the light of the lineage enhancement overflowing from my left hand, made a fist, and held it at my waist.

"I will save you. For all those who wish you well. ......!!!"

I stepped forward with my left foot, and with the rotation of my hips, I fired my left fist with momentum into Mr. Karon's torso.

The fist, which was drawn out with a green trajectory of systemic reinforcement, was slammed into his chest with a wind noise.

"---Kagaaaa!"

As the fist slams into him, a large crack runs through his entire body, but the enhanced healing magic heals the cracks in his entire body in an instant at a speed unmatched by any healing magic up to now.

"...... Mr. Caron?"

The question is whether he was able to knock him out.

The system reinforcement was successful, but I still don't know if I was able to knock Mr. Karon out completely.

I call out to him after he has been immobilized by my fist.

At that moment, Mr. Karon's horns, wings, and tail, which were his characteristics as a dragon, are shattered into pieces and he returns to his human form.

"Leona!　Release the restraints!

"Okay!"

Leona, who was close by, pulled out the spear that was stuck in Mr. Karon's side, and all the ice spears that restrained him were shattered.

I hurriedly supported him as he was about to fall to the ground, and asked Nair to check if there was anything wrong with his body.

"--I'm all right now. There is no disturbance of magic, and the dragon factor in him seems to have been completely silenced.

"...... Well, that's good to know."

"Well, even though it's a lineage enhancement, when you use it, it really does look like something else."

It's like a new technique that combines fist with the enhanced lineage of healing magic, right?

It would be difficult to incorporate the lineage enhancement into the healing magic bullet, but as a healing magician, this is the best technique for me.

"This is the Miracle Technique which is the combination of the lineage enhancement and my fist. I guess you could call it Hisei Okuyoshi, One Point Concentration Healing Magic Shoken, or simply Hisei Shoken, Healing Punch, right?"

"Every time I think about it, you have miraculously poor taste in naming things. Well, isn't that childish part of you charming?"

"......"

What do you mean by childish .......

This reaction seems to me to be a beauty of style.

No time to be sober and depressed. ....... The battle is over and I'm getting tired, but my part in it is not over yet.

I see Amako running toward me with Bulrin and Aruk on her back. I wave to her and turn my body toward Leona, who is standing beside me with her spear as a support.

"Leona-san, you seem to be hurt, so I'm going to heal you.

"Uh, ah, ah... Please."

I touch Leona's hand and cast a healing spell on it.

Her face, which had been frowning in pain, gradually eases.

"That spear is the staff that Mr. Karon used, isn't it?"

"Yes. It seems that I have been chosen just like Kalon.

Chuckling, Leona looked deeply moved when she saw the spear she was holding in one hand.

"I have stopped chasing the shadows of the heroes I had been longing for."

"What?"

"A hero who fights with his mission and leaves his own life behind him. That was the heroic figure ...... that I longed to be, but that idea changed when I fought alongside you."

A hero who fights at the cost of his own life.

Hearing those words reminded me of Leona's appearance last night.

What she was going to do was not a mistake. The way she was going to protect Mearaq might have been the best solution.

But as a lifeguard, I could not approve of what she was doing.

"From now on, I will continue on my path as the brave Leona, with my own will and no one else's."

Does this mean that Leona has found her path?

I don't know what kind of change I could have made in her by fighting with me, but I am sure it is not a bad thing.

"Sometimes Usato. What is a brave man for you?

"What?　What is a brave man to me?

I don't understand your question, but for me, the heroes are ...... Inukami-senpai and Kazuki.

They are my friends whom I promised to meet again. ...... Is it hard to convey the meaning?　I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I'm going to say it plainly.

"You're a dear friend, aren't you?"

"...... hmmm, I see. It's not the answer I was expecting, but it's a good one.

Leona looked at me with a puzzled look, but then immediately smiled with a somewhat happy smile.

"I wish I could be as brave as you are."

"Huh?　What does that mean?

"Ah, ah!　The warding will be lifted!　Usato!

Leona smiles at me, and when I try to ask her a question, Nair suddenly shouts out.

Surprised by her voice, I look at the wards around us and see that they are being lifted, as if to let us know that Mr. Karon has been rescued safely.

Now Mialak is saved and Mr. Karon is saved.

We were also battered and bruised, but we were happy that we made it through without a single person missing.