Chapter 4: By word of mouth

As Felix applied calamine on his patient's skin, he saw how the spots began to fade away. He kept improving on the potion's effect with his mana, wanting to get the skin-deep effects of the dragon pox out of the way as soon as possible. He could see gawkers coming to watch him work, more than one of them looking ill.

When Felix couldn't push the man's body further, he had him dress up and take another Safunamon cluster to chew on.

"Don't wash off the calamine until tomorrow at this time. When you take a bath, add baking soda to the bathwater. You will be just fine by this time tomorrow," Felix said. Then, he looked at the nearest potential patient, but the man he had been treating took hold of his sleeve and tugged.

Felix turned around and saw the man holding out ten golden coins.

"Thank you," this didn’t cover the press, which Felix still didn't know what to do with. If more people had had the dragon pox around here, he could have made a couple more uses, but that was about it. Yet, despite knowing all this, Felix still smiled brightly.

"If you have any other ills, now is the time to say so," Felix told the man, taking the money.

"I can't pay you," the man looked down at his feet, and then back up to Felix. "Can you heal me on credit? I have trouble breathing."

Something in the hopeful gaze spoke to Felix. He was not a moneylender; he was a healer. Now, more than ever, he had to remind himself of that.

"You can't take any more mana in your body for today, but if you come in here tomorrow, I can examine you. For now, eat this," Felix took out some Arabella Mushrooms and handed them over. They wouldn’t do much if the man had some lung scarring, but they should still calm him down, somewhat.

"Thank you," the man bowed low to Felix, much to Felix's confusion. “You are the first healer to care. Thank you!”

"Hey, can you heal me on credit, too?" Another voice came, as the man who had healed from dragon pox, straightened up.

Before Felix could respond and accept his fate, which was that he would end up broke and hungry under a bridge, the man narrowed his eyes at the person who asked the question.

"Why? Look at your clothes! You are not like the rest of us! Pay the healer, or you will answer me!"

"Godrick, you are one foot in the grave. Do you honestly expect…?"

"Pay the healer, don't be a cheapskate," Edward said, letting a fireball crackle over his palm. "Or do you think I am one foot in the grave, too?"

"He may be able to afford it, but the rest of us are dying here! We can't afford food, let alone healing," a woman in adventurer's gear said, tears streaming down her dirt-caked face.

Felix felt for her. For a moment, he saw his mother's face instead of the woman's.

"I will do my best by you, but I am not rich, either. I don't know if I can heal you all,” besides, Felix was running out of mana.

They were desperate, and they wanted their salvation. Felix wondered why there weren't any healers tending to these people.

Then, he took a good look at them. There were a couple whose gear was up to Edward's quality, but most wore glorified rags with holes in the gambeson, and the mail over them.

These were rough people who just wanted a chance to live another day. Felix could give them this chance if he pushed himself.

But, would it be enough even if he gave everything to these people? Could he heal them all?

"Pay as much as you can spare. That is final," Edward told the crowd, and Felix watched hope turn into anger. "Or do you want me to call the guards?"

"Edward!" Felix stood then and went to him. "You can't treat these people like this. They want another chance in life!"

"What they want is for you to end up like them."

"You can't say such things," Felix took a step back, confused at the coldness of Edward's gaze.

"You are a mercenary, Felix, which means you can't work even when you lose money. This is not a pink world; this is the world of Emporium. Now, everyone who can't pay, scram!"

Some people began to walk away, and Felix felt his heart was breaking.

"You want me to take blood money?" Felix asked Edward in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I want you to see things the way they are," Edward whispered. "Now, heal as many as you can, and we can go to the bounty booth next."

Felix felt bile rise in his throat. Yet, he paused, just as he was about to bend over. If he had been a healer, wouldn't he do the same? Heal only those who had insurance?

These people didn't have insurance. They lived outside the law. And so, they had little hope. If he wasted time torturing himself over something he couldn't control, Edward might drag him to the bounty booth and be done with it.

"Who is next?" Felix asked, his tone calm. His heart had already broken, and he was the first to dance over the chunks.

"Me! Heal me," the richly dressed man said, and Felix took one last look at Godrick. Somehow, he had felt better when he hadn't known his name.

Felix had to set a bone right and knit it with mana before it was time for the next patient. He could see the woman crying at the edges of the crowd.

The money he was getting from the paying patients might as well be coated with her blood.

"I can't do this, Edward," Felix finally said, collapsing. With the money he had now, he could heal some of the mercenaries who couldn't pay. He knew that much.

"You will never get a license at this rate," Edward told him, but still knelt next to him. "But you will save something much more important."

"And what is it?" Felix didn't know if he could keep on going. To be like a grim reaper and pick who lived and who died.

"Your soul," Edward told him, with a shrug. "Something I didn't manage to save, when it was my turn to pick. If you want to spend money on these people, do so. I won't leave you without a meal. Not tonight, not tomorrow."

"Edward… thank you," Felix said, finding the strength to get up. He then took out a mana crystal, something he had extracted from his own body long ago and ate it.

As the mana eased the kinks in his body and returned some of his vitality, Felix nodded at the crying woman and offered her his hand.

Even as he sent off Edward with all his winnings to get him the medical equipment he needed and some herbs, he still felt light as a feather.

The only question on his mind was whether he could keep his morals for longer, in the face of so much suffering.

For he knew that once Edward left him, he would be the one to suffer.