Chapter 43 Be strong
“Sister Anna?”
When Nana heard thunderous footsteps coming from the stairs, she ran to the door and took a quick look, but she was soon disappointed because she found out that the person who was coming was His Royal Highness, the Prince.
“Anna should still be working, but she will probably come by later.” said Roland when he arrived at Nana’s side.
“Work?” Nana had recently often heard this word out of the mouth of the Prince, “You mean she is burning this gray mud powder?”
“For now, yes.”
Nana pouted as she went back to the table. I also have a job, she thought. My job is to stay here and wait to treat the soldiers who are injured while defending the town.
Roland asked with a gentle smile, “How is it? Do you feel bored when Anna isn’t here?” as he took a chair to sit by the fireplace.
“Well,” Nana supported her chin with her hand so that she couldn’t nod and give a true answer. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to treat the injured, but … the sight of the injuries was just so horrible.
She could still remember when she had to treat Brian, it was the first time she had to treat a human. The man was covered all over in blood that it seemed like he had bathed in blood. A reddish-brown blood clot had solidified in the pit of his stomach, his mouth resembled the look of a dried fish, and he was disgorging white fluids and red blood. Then… Nana had fainted.
It was downright disgraceful.
Nana raised her head to secretly glance at Roland. She saw that he had leaned back in his chair and was snoring. The Prince seemed to be tired, she thought. His jobs were building the walls, training the soldiers, and protecting the town from the invasion of the demonic beasts.
When he came to request her help, although she first hesitated for a long time, in the end she did not refuse.
“You will encounter some things that make you want to live on, even if you will have to struggle to live on.” – Nana didn’t understand what this meant, but when she closed her eyes, Anna would appear within her mind – with her pair of bright blue eyes, just like a lake, surrounding her slowly. This was the reason she agreed to Roland’s request.
She wanted to be as strong as her sister, Anna.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard from downstairs again and Nana immediately jumped off her chair. She wanted to go to the door to see if it was Anna who came this time, but suddenly she was stopped by an invisible hand.
“Just wait a minute, there is more than one person.”
Nana patted her chest in dissatisfaction, “You scared me, sister Nightingale.”
Soon the door was open, and this time it was Brian, who was stationed here, who entered, “Miss Pine, please come down. You have a patient who got burned.”
This was work for her, right?
Nana took a deep breath, “I will come down.”
She walked downstairs while two guards were busy with carrying an unconscious person towards a bed. Standing beside the bed was a short man with a face full of anxiety. Brian walked up to the patient and neatly tied the patient’s hands and feet to the bed. When he was done tying, he closed up the area with previously prepared curtains and then led the little man out of the room.
When Roland came down he asked while rubbing his eyes, “What happened?”
“Your Highness, North Slope Mine sent a seriously injured person, he looks like he was scalded.”
The Prince walked over to Brian, “He was burned by the steam engine, right? Was there a problem with the engine? Did you send him to Nana?”
“He is in the medical room.” Brian pointed to the direction of the door.
“I need you to look into this case.” when he finished speaking, Roland walked towards the medical room.
Nana slowly stepped near the injured man, only looking at him carefully within her peripheral vision. When she saw his face, his facial features had turned into paste, forming a round ball. What should have been red skin was dehydrated and inhumanely white, it just looked like a rag was laying on his face. At his neck were blisters as big as small eggs, some of them had even been broken, and the mucus oozing out from the blisters mixed together with the blood in the pillow. In the flickering shine of the fire, his appearance was more horrible than the devil in her nightmares.
She took two steps back and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her father watching her, full of concern.
“Are you okay?”
Nana nodded, thinking of the words Roland had told her – “You only need to treat the injured the same as you treat the little animals.” She once again moved towards the bed and stretched out her hands.
An incredible feeling emerged within her body and gathered within the palm of her hand. She saw a ray of light being emitted from the fluorescent green liquid flowing out of her hands as it fell on the injured face. For her, this fluorescence light was obvious, but to others it seemed to be invisible. Then, the wounds began to change. The scorched skin was constantly shed off and new skin began to regrow at a visible speed.
The wounded man’s groans of pain gradually diminished until it stopped, and his breathing eased. It seemed like he just fell into a deep sleep.
Nana exhaled, relieved. This time her own performance was surely better than last time, and she thought, I should have made a great progress with my training, right?
“My God, is this what His Highness meant when he spoke of your healing ability? This is the first time I’ve seen you do this.” asked Sir Pine. Then he exclaimed, “Good girl, you’re awesome!”
“It is the power of the gods,” Brian said in the same tone of awe, “It was also Miss Nana who healed me when I was heavily injured, I really owe her so much.”
Ah, he is such a fool. Nana had to cover her face because of shame, doesn’t he know that it was sister Nightingale who smuggled him out and saved him on that day?
“When did that happen?” asked Sir Pine, full of wonder, “Why didn’t I know of it?”
“Oh… Their powers have nothing to do with God, they belong to the witches themselves.” Roland opened the curtain and stepped inside, coughed once and changed the subject, “How are his injures?”
“He has basically recovered,” Blaine excitedly said, “It’s like he was never hurt! Your Highness, with the help of Miss Nana, during the Month of the Demons, everyone who is fighting has a chance to survive!”
“As long as they don’t die on the spot, there will be no problem with saving their lives,” the Prince confirmed, indicating Brian that he should stop since the man woke up, “Your name is Titus, right?”
The man who was named Titus had a look full of confusion and asked “I … What happened? Am I dreaming?”
“You’re not,” Roland said. “You’re still alive.”
“Are you …! I have seen Your Highness at the square!” The man suddenly woke up like he was hit by lightning, jumped up from the bed, and fell to his knees, “Your Royal Highness, was it you who saved me?”
“It was the daughter of the Pine Family who saved you. She is a witch and has a healing ability.”
Nana’s mind froze, he directly said that she was a witch, would she be okay? Sure enough, the look in the man’s eye changed immediately, “A woman… she is a witch? Your Highness, aren’t they the devil’s …”
“Don’t speak such nonsense!” When Sir Pine heard him speaking such words about his daughter, he angrily cried, “My daughter has nothing to do with the devil, but she even saved your life instead, man! Do you think the Devil would reach out to you with a helping hand?!”
“No, no! Please forgive me for being impolite,” Titus pulled his head immediately into a deep bow, “Thank you for saving my life, Miss Pine.”
Nana suddenly felt inexplicably uncomfortable. If she could, she would immediately rush out of the room, but a voice in her mind repeatedly reminded her, “be strong.”
Later when Titus was sent away, Sir Pine worriedly asked, “Will this really be alright, Your Highness? In this way, I’m afraid, my daughter will no longer be able to lead a normal life.”
“You have to think on the bright side, Sir Pine,” comforted the Prince, “We have to take advantage in this kind of situation, so that we will be able to break the deadlock. With this, Nana will may be truly free in the future. Otherwise, in the following years, she will one day be exposed. Until then, I am afraid she can only live a life in seclusion. “
… Real freedom? Nana didn’t know what this meant, because even now she felt very free. But His Highness said when they would achieve it, sister Anna would also be able to leave the castle just like herself. Maybe they could even return to teacher Karl’s college, right?