Everyone's gazes shifted towards Cecilus. He stood in the open, beside his golems, making sure everyone was able to see that he was there.
"It's Cecilus! He's the one who helped rebuild our homes! He's here to help!" The panicking boy, still sitting on top of the giant flower, began to calm down as he realized someone had arrived.
Cecilus, however, had other thoughts. Uhhh... I'm the one who caused this... Man, I didn't expect them to instantly think I was their savior. Did I become popular somehow? Well, with me here, I can easily resolve this by making them back off and seek aid for their bleeding companion on the ground. I wonder if they have the necessary common sense to look past the slave girl and run away?
Cecilus then ordered his golems to slowly bend the stem of the flower to gracefully let them down. Meanwhile, he approached Marina.
"I'm going to need you to be quiet for a second and allow me to resolve this. Just stick next to me until I have them leave." Cecilus spoke his words softly so only Marina could hear.
Marina nodded quickly and moved closer to him.
By that point, the boys had already been let down. They all began to crowd around the one who was injured. The kid who was knocked out had regained consciousness and regrouped with the rest.
"Cecilus! That bitch did this to us! You need to punish her!" One of the kids spoke up in anger while pointing.
Cecilus then looked behind him at Marina, who was covered in bruises and had an eye that was swollen. Man, when did I become a babysitter? I'm not your parents. Why are you crying to me? I just need to dissolve the situation and leave. Curse my good nature and amazing personality!
He then began to speak.
"I see more injuries on this girl than you all collectively. I will take you guys to get fixed up by my good friend, Celtis, the doctor of the village. All on me, of course. Then you will go your separate ways. You were blocking my way going home, and I just don't appreciate that. If I see this again, I'll have my golems splatter your organs and dye this path red!"
"But it's all that girl's fault!" One of the boys spoke back.
The gall on this kid. Lying to my face is diabolical! Does he know I have no intention of hurting them?
"Shut up and put your head down, you idiot! You want to die?" The kid with a bleeding eye grabbed the arm of his friend and pulled him down.
"So you all are going to follow me back to the village, alright?" Cecilus took the opportunity to get verification from the entire group.
The group of boys all begrudgingly nodded their heads; a look of fear could be seen in their eyes.
Despite his intimidating declaration, Marina was confused. He's treating us with no charges, but is mad at what we did and threatening us? Is he just pretending not to want to help me? But if he really wanted to help, there must've been better ways to go about it... Doesn't matter, though, this crystal allowed me to fight back, so next time I'll be able to protect myself!
The entire group proceeded towards the village in order to treat the wounds that many had received.
***
Celtis was a doctor who lived near the outskirts of the village. He was the only practicing doctor on the western border of the ascended continent, so he had many people from other nearby towns travel to him to get treatment. The main reason he had chosen this village was because it was close to the residence of the duke of the borderlands and an offshoot branch of royalty, the Crow family. Being the doctor of both those families was a great source of income for Celtis.
He possessed the fortifying magic type, which was a form of healing. The reliance on his magic alone wasn't a problem because he had studied to be a physician under his father before lucking out with a magic type that fit him.
Today was an ordinary day so far for him, where he didn't have much to do. Regular check-ups on the nearby elderly were the content of most of his days. Since he was the only doctor around, going in for little things was pricey, so his schedule was never packed.
However, unlike the usual, he saw the door to his clinic open and a group of seven children walk in. Some were battered and bruised, while one had a bleeding eye. Celtis stared at the boy leading them all. His most annoying patient, Cecilus, was in front of him.
Celtis had always enjoyed the money gained from the rich families he took care of, but Cecilus was an anomaly. No matter how much money they could give him, he would never be happy seeing the boy's face.
When Cecilus was younger, he would purposefully injure different animals and bring them to Celtis. He said he found it interesting watching them heal from magic, but Celtis felt like hell whenever he dealt with it. His simple and unpacked days became horrid, long, painstaking hours of intensive effort to cure whatever the hell the demonic boy did to the animals.
It didn't stop at that, because later on, the crazy boy would injure himself, and then come running to Celtis in order to fix him. To make it worse, if Celtis failed, he would be punished by the royals.
Celtis began to ask about the large group that barged in.
"Cecilus, what do you want?"
"These children need healing. I was hoping you would patch them up quickly, as a favor for a good friend." Cecilus responded with a wide grin.
Good friend, my ass! You're just exploiting me! Celtis nodded without a word and began to place his hands on the back of the child with the bleeding eye. His hands then started to glow blue as the blood dissipated, and the boy's eye started to look undamaged. He then went through the rest of the group, fixing them all up.
"Ok, you should be all fine. Don't do whatever caused this to happen anymore. Even I can tell this happened unnaturally. Got it?"
The boys all accepted the doctor's order while Cecilus began to speak.
"Alright, everyone needs to go their separate ways now. If I see any disturbances again, you know what will happen."
Everyone started to leave except Marina, who was quickly stopped by Cecilus.
"Not you, I still have business regarding you that I need to take care of."
Marina raised an eyebrow, slightly curious about what she was needed for.
"Return the crystal I gave to you, it's quite expensive and not expendable."
Cecilus brought his hand in front, signaling her to give it to him.
Marina then gave it to him seemingly unwillingly. Wait, that was him who gave it to me! Does that mean since I can't use it, I'll have to deal with them again? I guess there's a chance they'll listen to him and stop harassing me. Also, why did he help me?
Her questions were then answered with Cecilus's next statement.
"Well, I don't hear a thank you just yet, so I'm going to guess that my acting is just phenomenal, and it actually sounded like I was annoyed about the path being blocked. Anyways, you're not out of the park just yet. I still want to be repaid for my kind gesture. So we are both going to go have some fun." Cecilus' smile widened even further.
Marina stared at him in fear. Kind gesture? If you're asking for payment, then it isn't kind at all! Also, what's with that evil smile? He isn't going to make me do anything crazy, is he?
"Ok, so our next destination is a very nice garden, and right on time, there will be our local unsuspecting gardener!"
Gardener? Maybe it won't be so bad. Marina seemed to relax slightly.
Cecilus, on the other hand, could not contain his happiness. My family's gardener will never see what hit them! He's usually pulling weeds at this hour. Now with this girl's plant powers, we can put weeds in the garden and they will never end! No one will suspect me of it, too! I can't wait to see the look on his face going crazy when weeds start popping up everywhere! Finding a new way to prank people will never get old...
I will probably have to explain things to her first. Eh, whatever, I'll figure it out when the time comes for it.