Big sister stood at the doorway, her staff tapping softly against the marble floor.
"I have a word for you, Anton. It is about..."
She stopped mid-sentence, her crimson eyes sweeping across the room until they landed directly on me.
Even with my usual deadpan face, I couldn't help but let a genuine smile slip onto my lips.
"Hello, Big Sis."
Before Elicia could speak, Chris bolted up from his chair, his eyes wide as he stared at her white-and-gold robes.
"Eirene... that's your sister?! You're Elicia! The Offspring Goddess! You're famous across the entire realm for your healing abilities! You hold the gifted Divine Regeneration! Please, Madam, save my child!"
Elicia stepped closer, her eyes locking onto Lukreia, who was still thrashing weakly in her father's arms beneath the cracked blue crystal. Her expression hardened slightly.
"Wait... she's infected."
"Please heal her! I'll give you anything! As the Governor of Lulu City, I will hand over my entire inheritance, my lands, my wealth...just save her!" Chris pleaded frantically, his voice raw with desperation.
Elicia held up a gentle hand, her silver hair shimmering in the office light.
"There is no need for that, kind sir."
"No, you don't understand! This isn't charity! Name your price! Land, titles, gold, absolute political backing...anything! Just heal my daughter!" Chris pressed, stepping toward her with tears welling in his blind eye.
"No worries, sir. I don't need any reward, I am a healer. That is my duty." Elicia said smoothly, her tone filled with warm, absolute authority.
She raised her ornate wooden staff, pointing the glowing crystal tip directly at Lukreia. A blinding, golden light erupted from the staff, engulfing the small girl in a wave of sacred, comforting warmth. The remaining blue crystal bindings shattered into harmless dust, and the calcified dark veins crawling across her skin dissolved instantly.
Within seconds, Lukreia's skin returned to its soft, natural color. However, the heavy humerus bone blade protruding from her forearm remained...a permanent physical mark left behind by the Nightwalker virus, even after the infection itself was completely eradicated.
Lukreia slowly opened her clear, healthy eyes, looking up at her father's face. "Papa..." she whimpered softly, before her eyes fluttered shut and she slipped into a peaceful, natural sleep.
Elicia lowered her staff, her breathing steady.
"Sir, she is fully healed now. She just needs rest. You may head to the recovery wards."
She then turned her crimson gaze toward the two women standing near the door.
"Excuse me, lasses. Mind guiding this man and his daughter to the infirmary?"
Patricia and Catherine nodded without a second's hesitation. As former party members of our older brother, Elias, they recognized Elicia instantly. Having served under Elias as their group leader for years, standing in the same room with both of his little sisters at once filled them with immediate, deep respect.
They bowed low toward Elicia.
"We submit to your command, Lady Elicia."
With that, Patricia helped support Chris as he carried his resting daughter, and along with Catherine, the three of them quietly exited the office, leaving me alone with my sister and Chief Anton.
What a pity, Sister, you pierce your own hands to pull thorns from the feet of beggars, completely blind to the fact that they will gladly step on your bleeding palms to reach a single coin. Your beautiful, boundless kindness is nothing but an open invite for a world of wolves to tear you apart piece by piece.
A year of relentless trauma, betrayal, and neglect had forged this absolute conclusion inside me. To me, altruism was never a genuine moral virtue...it was a hypocritical illusion, a psychological tool used by the weak to survive or by the powerful to manipulate the masses. In a cold, indifferent universe where only individual strength and survival mattered, selflessness was a facade. I viewed true altruists with a bitter mix of pity and contempt, seeing them as foolish victims of societal brainwashing who traded their precious, finite lives for abstract concepts that meant nothing in the end.
Elicia turned her head toward me, her crimson eyes softening as a brilliant, radiant smile lit up her face.
"Little Ren! Long time no see!"
Before I could even take a step back, she lunged forward and threw her arms around me, pulling me into a suffocatingly tight hug. Being three inches taller than me and far more generously endowed, my face was buried straight into her chest.
"Sister... you're suffocating me!" I muffled against her robes, tapping her arm weakly with my left hand.
"Oh… Oh, my Ren... you haven't changed a bit! Look at that flat, grumpy face of yours!" She let go with a bright laugh, taking a half-step back while keeping her hands firmly on my shoulders.
Her eyes instantly darted down to my waistline, her expression lighting up with pure, ecstatic realization.
"Look at your tummy! It's completely flat! That means my nephew is finally here! Where is he?! Where is my little nephew?! Tell me!"
"Hey, hey...stop overexaggerating, my son is perfectly safe. He's back home sleeping in his crib."
Anton cleared his throat loudly, knocking his knuckles against his desk.
"Well, are you two quite finished? The Commander has crucial intelligence regarding the situation at the perimeter."
Elicia immediately straightened up, her cheeks flushing slightly.
"Oh, I am terribly sorry, Chief! Just... a long-overdue family matter."
We took our seats in front of the desk, and Elicia's cheerful demeanor instantly vanished, replaced by the grave, focused expression of a Branch 1 Commander.
"From the reports coming in, these monsters are far more organized and devious than we anticipated, a massive swarm of winged variants attacked the hundred-mile quarantine line...nearly a hundred of them. They have bone claws sprouting from their forearms and skeletal wings. Almost half of our newly deployed recruits along that sector were overwhelmed and converted into thralls in a matter of minutes." Elicia began, her voice dropping into a serious tone.
It made complete sense how Elicia knew this so detailedly. The Bureau's structure was strictly divided: Branch 1 was responsible for logistical supply lines, rations, and field medical support...a role tailor-made for Elicia's unmatched healing capabilities. Branch 2 handled active border patrols along the quarantine zone, while Branch 3 fortified Caria City itself to ensure no infected crossed the perimeter. Elicia had personally been out on the frontline borders just hours ago, desperately trying to heal every corrupted soldier she could reach.
"Our patrol lines were completely demolished, half of the recruits perished. I managed to cleanse a few, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming, and my mana pool hit critical levels during the assault. Fortunately, my Branch 1 unit held the line long enough to repel the primary wave, but the damage was done. Several winged abominations breached the perimeter and are currently heading toward the surrounding rural villages." Elicia continued, her hand tightening around her wooden staff.
Anton's jaw tightened.
"This is a critical emergency. If even a single infected reaches a populated settlement, it will trigger another widespread outbreak."
Elicia turned her head toward me, her crimson eyes searching my face. It felt strange seeing her without her usual reading spectacles on.
"Little Ren... you've done more than enough, I heard how you rescued Grand Mage Catherine and guided the survivors out of that nightmare. I just want you to be safe now. You have a son back home who needs his mother." she said softly, her voice filled with genuine warmth and concern.
Despite my cynical outlook on her selfless nature, I couldn't deny the genuine affection in her voice. She truly cared for me and Cliff after everything I had survived.
"Indeed, you deserve a long rest, Eirene. You sacrificed your right arm in that battle and still got your people out alive. You fulfilled your mission above and beyond. As for your official contract reward, here are four gold coins to cover your expenses." Anton agreed, nodding firmly as he opened a side drawer on his desk.
The moment the word 'arm' left Anton's mouth, Elicia froze completely.
She snapped her head toward me, her crimson eyes widening in total, horror-stricken shock. "Arm?!"
Elicia's face drained of color as she stared at me.
"Tell me, little Ren... what happened to you?"
I let out a low sigh, unhooking the clasp of my canvas cloak and letting the dark fabric pull back from my right side. Where my elbow should have ended was a flat, tightly bandaged stump.
"Eirene, what is the meaning of this?! Where did you get this?! How in the gods' names did you lose your right arm?!" Elicia stammered, her voice cracking as she took a step toward me.
"She was bitten by the Archdemon candidate during the outbreak, to stop the virus corruption from reaching her heart, she severed her own limb on the spot without hesitation." Anton interjected calmly, adjusting his papers.
That single sentence hit Elicia like a physical strike.
She stood there, entirely frozen. This wasn't the first time we had been through this song and dance. The first time, she had healed my severed left arm back in the northern plains. The second time, she had healed my left arm again after another catastrophic encounter. Now, a third time, my right arm was gone from the elbow down.
As I completely predicted, her initial horror dissolved straight into pure, unadulterated fury.
"Eirene!" Elicia practically shrieked, marching straight over to my chair. Before I could even react, her fingers clamped down on my right ear, twisting it hard.
"Ouch..."
"You are far too rational for your own good, sacrificing your own body parts like they're disposable garbage just to survive! You are reckless! You are impetuous! How do you expect to hold and care for your own son with a missing arm?! You're a mother now, Eirene! I refuse to let my nephew grow up without a mother or watch you throw your body away! Just how atrocious do you plan on being?! You are skating on paper-thin ice!" Elicia scolded, leaning down until her face was inches from mine while twisting my ear into a painful, full rotation.
The pain shooting through my ear was brutal...a full 360-degree wrenching sensation. Keeping my face completely deadpan, I silently channeled my mana, casting a low-tier Pain Manipulation spell to completely numb the nerve endings in my earlobe.
Elicia's eyes narrowed instantly.
"Casting a numbing spell to bypass your punishment?! You young lady..."
A bright, golden aura suddenly flickered over her fingertips. The moment her holy magic touched my skin, my numbing spell shattered into absolute nothingness, and the full, unadulterated agony of her ear-twist slammed back into my nervous system twice as hard.
"AH! AH! AH! Big Sister! Stop, stop, it hurts! How did you even do that?! I yelled out, a genuine pain as I patted her hand frantically."
Elicia let out a sweet, terrifying little chortle.
"Hehe... it's a new spell I developed! I reverse-engineered my own numbing magic specifically to counter yours!"
I gritted my teeth as the pain throbbed. Learning a highly specific magic counter just to bypass my pain mitigation during a lecture?! It was utterly absurd. Her boundless, altruistic kindness meant she would never use such a spell against an actual enemy or patient, rendering this brand-new magic completely useless against the rest of the world...created purely to discipline her younger sister.
"Okay! Okay, Big Sister, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" I groaned, tapping out.
Satisfied, Elicia finally released my ear, blowing a soft breath of air onto her fingers.
"Well, you better be! That stunt of yours was entirely too much. I won't stand by and let my little sister suffer like this."
Without another word, she took hold of my right stump. Her staff flared with a blinding, divine golden radiance as she channeled her signature Divine Regeneration.
I watched in dull silence as the magic went to work. First, the bone structure flared and extended from the joint; second, the muscle fibers woven themselves back into place; third, fresh pale skin sealed seamlessly over the flesh. Within ten seconds, my right hand and arm were fully restored, complete with working fingers and no scars.
"There, good as new. Don't make me do that again, Ren." Elicia breathed, stepping back with a satisfied nod.
"Thank you, sister," I muttered, flexing my newly formed fingers.
How unfortunate... Sister hasn't changed at all.
The first time I crossed you, did you not dismiss it as a foolish mistake and quietly forgive me? Of course you did. Why? Because a first mistake is easily excused as an accident, a lapse in judgment, or pure bad luck. Everyone slips, so why hold a grudge?
The second time I failed you, did you not leave me with a sharp warning, playing the patient, protective older sibling? Naturally. Because a second offense shifts the narrative...it is no longer a mistake, but a choice. It proves that the lesson was ignored, that caution was thrown to the wind. People do not get angry at second chances because of the act itself; they get angry because the repeating pattern proves you simply did not care enough to adapt.
But a third time? You forgot that I am far too cunning to be outmaneuvered twice, let alone thrice. You fix my flesh again and again, believing your lectures will reshape my survival instincts. But in a world of wolves, your endless forgiveness is nothing more than fuel for my survival.