Inside the long corridor of Aphro Grace Hospital, Vania, dressed in a white nun’s habit, walks alongside Sister Anlei. Sister Anlei has come to the hospital on business and takes the opportunity to visit Vania, who has been assigned here.
"At first, I thought you might have trouble adjusting to the work here, Sister Vania. But it seems I was overthinking it. You’ve been doing an excellent job here. If it weren’t for the Historical Scripture Department needing an experienced manager, you might have achieved quite a lot here."
Walking beside Vania, Sister Anlei smiles and speaks. Vania responds with a humble tone.
"Thank you for your praise. Helping patients recover from their suffering is simply practicing the teachings of the Holy Mother."
"Practicing the teachings? Hehe... Indeed, reverence for the Holy Mother isn’t just expressed through prayers. It requires action, and you’ve grasped that well... However..."
As she speaks, Sister Anlei glances at Vania with a gentle expression and continues.
"However, I heard from Dr. Cade that there have been rumors recently in the main inpatient building, where ordinary patients are treated, of patients recovering significantly overnight... Some even claim to have seen a white nun, and a few patients have called her an angel. Sister Vania, do you have anything to say about this?"
"Ah... that..."
Hearing Sister Anlei’s words, Vania momentarily looks flustered. After regaining her composure, she quickly responds.
"I’m sorry, Sister Anlei. That was indeed me using my abilities to treat those ordinary patients... I saw that many of them were poor workers injured on the job. They couldn’t afford proper treatment, so I thought I could help them... I know this violates the rules, and if it has caused any trouble for the hospital, I apologize..."Vania lowers her head apologetically as she speaks to Sister Anlei, who continues with a kind expression.
"Your compassion is commendable, Sister Vania. It is a necessary quality for us as servants of the Holy Mother. But you must also understand that compassion has its limits. Using extraordinary powers on ordinary people who are unaware of the mysticism world is not a good thing. While your intentions are good, it can lead to the spread of mysticism, making ordinary people curious about mystical powers and tempting them to seek it out. This could ultimately harm them and others through the cognitive poison contained in mystical knowledge. For the sake of the greater public, we must use our mystical powers cautiously."
Sister Anlei admonishes Vania, who nods in understanding after hearing her words.
"I understand, Sister Anlei. I will be more careful in the future."
"Good... That’s all I ask. Now, I should be going. May you walk further on the path guided by the Holy Mother, Sister Vania."
Sister Anlei bids farewell to Vania, who respectfully performs an internal gesture of the Radiance Church, thinking to herself.
“Perhaps the one guiding my path now is not the Holy Mother, but Aka…”
Vania reflects inwardly. Ever since her prayer to the Holy Mother for healing failed last time, she has been deeply unsettled. Fortunately, at the critical moment, Aka bestowed upon her a new divine revelation, directly granting her a wealth of knowledge about the human body. This allowed her to use her own will, based on this knowledge, to complete the healing.
“Unlike the Holy Mother, who provides guidance to her followers, Aka seems more inclined to bestow knowledge, allowing me to see the truth of things. Is this Aka’s nature as a deity? Not so much benevolent, but more aligned with knowledge and wisdom?”
After exchanging a few more words with Sister Anlei, Vania watches her leave. Once Sister Anlei is out of sight, Vania lets out a long sigh and prepares to return to her work at the hospital.
At that moment, Vania feels a strange sensation. She pauses, then touches the area below her collarbone, hidden beneath her nun’s habit.
“This is... Miss Dorothy. She’s calling me…”
Feeling the unusual signal from the marionette mark on her body, Vania quickly walks forward. After turning a few corners in the corridor of the Mystical Injuries Department, she enters an unmanned storage room filled with bedsheets and pillowcases. Closing the door behind her, she takes out the holy scripture she always carries and flips to the page where she communicates with Dorothy. Sure enough, there is a new message from Dorothy, asking if she is still working at the hospital.
Seeing Dorothy’s handwriting, Vania doesn’t hesitate and immediately picks up her pen to write in the Holy Scripture.
"Yes, Miss Dorothy. I’m still working as a temporary healing nun at Aphro Grace Hospital. Is there something you need?"
Vania writes her response, and soon Dorothy’s handwriting appears again.
"Good. I need to find someone. He’s a Beastman from the Wolf Blood Society, named Davic. He’s a thin man with dark hair, severely injured by Aeromancers’ attack and lost a lot of blood. He might have been sent to a hospital three days ago. I remember your hospital is the largest center for treating mystical injuries in Tivian. Have you seen a patient like that?"
Dorothy’s words appear on Vania’s Holy Scripture, and Vania pauses for a moment before recalling something and quickly responding.
"Miss Dorothy, I think I remember that patient. A short man with small eyes and prominent cheekbones, right? I know him. He was brought here a few days ago by the Hunters from the Serenity Bureau. He was severely injured, mostly with cuts. I even participated in his emergency treatment."
"So he is at your hospital? How is he now?"
Dorothy’s handwriting appears almost immediately after Vania’s response, and the hurried script shows her urgency. Seeing this, Vania realizes that Davic must be of significant importance and quickly writes back.
"He survived after our emergency treatment, but he’s currently in a coma. It might be due to a head injury from the fight or lack of oxygen to the brain from blood loss. He hasn’t shown any signs of waking up yet. He’s now in a specialized confinement ward receiving further treatment. A few Hunters are stationed here, taking shifts to guard him around the clock, waiting for him to wake up. It seems they want to interrogate him. I still change his bandages regularly."
Vania writes this in her holy scripture, and her words soon disappear into the page. In a carriage far away, Dorothy reads Vania’s response and feels a surge of relief.
“So he was taken to the hospital after all. I knew the Hunters wouldn’t let him die just like that for the sake of information.”
In the carriage on Basket Neighborhood in South Tivian, Dorothy thinks to herself as she looks at Vania’s message in the Literary Sea Logbook. She has now located Davic, and the next step is to figure out how to retrieve the stone tablet. However, this presents a significant challenge.
“Davic is still in a coma, so there’s no way to question him. And he’s in a hospital controlled by the church, guarded by the Hunters. Even if he wakes up, getting close to him for interrogation will be extremely difficult.”
Sitting in the carriage, Dorothy strokes her chin in thought. As she ponders, she lifts the curtain by the carriage window and looks out at the street.
Outside the window, Dorothy sees a street covered in a thin layer of coal ash. Across the street stands a four-story standalone building, its doors tightly shut.
This building is one Dorothy found near the site of Davic’s ambush. According to interviews conducted by her corpse marionettes with the local residents, a group of strangers arrived in carriages not long ago, broke into the building, and carried out many items.
After a search by her small corpse marionettes, Dorothy confirmed that this building is Davic’s residence. There are clear signs of a search, and the basement has been emptied.
It’s obvious that the strangers the neighbors mentioned were Hunters. They somehow obtained information about Davic’s residence, ambushed him when he left, and then searched his home. Most of the items related to mysticism were taken by the Hunters, including the stele Dorothy needs.
Dorothy’s original plan was to either retrieve the stele directly or capture Davic. After studying the stele for so long, Davic might have memorized the Universal Language inscribed on it. But now, both the tablet and Davic himself are in the hands of the Serenity Bureau, which complicates matters.
“Hmm... What should I do now? Both the person and the stele are with the Serenity Bureau... Gregor just arrived in Tivian and hasn’t had time to settle in. He’s neither familiar with the place nor has any influence here, so he can’t help... And I can’t directly oppose the Serenity Bureau. This is quite troublesome…”
With a slightly troubled expression, Dorothy thinks to herself. After a moment of contemplation, an idea strikes her.
“Well, Davic is still in a coma. Maybe... I can try this…”
Suddenly, Dorothy has a plan. She picks up her pen and writes in the Literary Sea Logbook.
"Sister Vania, you mentioned that you’re currently responsible for caring for the comatose Davic, right? There’s something I need to ask of you."
Dorothy’s words quickly appear before Vania, who is still waiting in the storage room. Seeing this, Vania pauses for a moment, then picks up her pen to respond.
"Please, go ahead, Miss Dorothy."
…
Aphro Grace Hospital, Mystical Injuries Department.
Deep underground in the Mystical Injuries Department building is a specialized area for treating dangerous patients. Those suffering from cognitive poison, mental instability, or dangerous members of secret societies are sent here for confinement and treatment. Almost every city’s Mystical Injuries Department has a similar facility.
Dressed in her white nun’s habit, Vania walks down a long underground corridor, carrying a bottle of medicine. On either side of the corridor are rows of thick iron doors stretching into the distance. These heavy doors seal off windowless rooms, from which occasional muffled banging and agonized screams can be heard. Combined with the dim lighting, the scene is somewhat eerie.
Vania walks quickly and soon arrives at one of the iron doors. After a brief knock, the door opens, revealing a young Hunter in black clothes, looking tired. He blinks at Vania and yawns.
"Ah... Sister Vania. Is it time to change the medicine?"
"Yes, and to check if the wounds healed by mystical means have reopened due to incomplete recovery. Mr. Chuck, you look so tired. Hasn’t your shift ended yet?”
Looking at the Hunter, Vania asks curiously. She then glances into the room behind him and sees another Hunter leaning against the wall, resting with his eyes closed.
"It’s almost time. The next shift should be here soon. Please come in and change the medicine, Sister Vania. I hope this guy wakes up soon so we don’t have to keep guarding him day and night.”
The Hunter speaks with a tone of complaint, and after exchanging a few words with him, Vania enters the room and begins the process of changing the medicine and checking the patient’s condition.
Vania glances at the thin, pale man lying unconscious on the bed. She first changes the IV bottle, then lifts part of the blanket to examine his body.
Davic’s hands are shackled to the bed with chains connected to the floor, and his arms and body are wrapped in countless bandages. To conserve spirituality, the Healing Prayer Priests only healed the most severe wounds, leaving the rest to be treated through conventional means, which requires regular bandage changes.
Vania unwraps part of the bandages on Davic’s arm and begins to change the dressing. As she does this, she glances at the two Hunters behind her, confirming that they aren’t looking her way. She then quietly pulls out a red pen from her sleeve and draws a mark next to Davic’s wound—a symbol she is very familiar with, a combination of an inverted pentagram, an eye, and a cup.
After drawing the mark, Vania quickly wraps new bandages around Davic’s arm, concealing the mark beneath them. She then picks up the used bandages and medicine bottle, stands up, and bids farewell to the two Hunters before leaving the room.
After Vania leaves, the Hunters close the heavy iron door and return to their seats. The young Hunter named Chuck glances at Davic lying on the bed and mutters in complaint.
"Tch... When is this guy going to wake up? Guarding him day and night is like being in prison."
"Who knows... The team that brought him in was too careless. They hit him so hard he’s in this state... If he doesn’t wake up, all our efforts will be wasted..."
The other Hunter, resting against the wall, responds. After a few more complaints, the Hunters sit quietly in their positions, waiting for their shift to end.
About half an hour later, the previously silent bed suddenly stirs.
"Cough... cough... cough..."
The sound of coughing startles the two dozing Hunters, who quickly rush to the bed. They see Davic coughing weakly.
"What’s wrong with him?"
"Not sure. He hasn’t shown any reaction for the past few days. He wasn’t coughing like this before. Should we call a doctor?"
As the two Hunters discuss what to do, Davic suddenly stops coughing. His eyelids flutter, and then, before the Hunters’ eyes, they slowly open.
"Where... am I..."
Davic murmurs with a dazed expression. Seeing this, the Hunters widen their eyes in surprise.
"He... he’s awake!"
"Quick! Go report to Mr. Edmond! Tell him the guy’s awake! I’ll stay here. You go!"
The two Hunters speak excitedly. Meanwhile, in the distant carriage, Dorothy watches the scene in the hospital room through the eyes of her living marionette.
With a slight smile, Dorothy uses the marionette mark to control the comatose Davic, making him speak in a confused tone.
"Who... are you?”