"What am I even doing here?"
Harik asked as he looked at the bandages in his hands, while trying to save the random guy in the clinic. His eyes then looked at the rundown clinic that could barely hold 5-6 patients at a time.
Still, the line outside seemed endless, as the number of people only kept increasing.
"Hey! Work faster!"
A feminine voice rang through, waking Harik up from his stupor. He took a glance at Iris' glare before shrieking and then getting back to work.
While he could have healed the patient in an instant, he didn't. Instead, he used the bandage and herbs in his hands to heal the patients manually. Wasn't just him, but Iris too wasn't using her powers, and using the bandages and herbs to stop the wounds and treat the infection.
"Why are we not using mana again?" Lily, the girl who could somewhat use healing magic, grumbled as she ran, transferring bandages from the storeroom to the 'doctors'.
Using mana would be much more efficient than this.
"Ask Neptune," Harik complained too, making a not so pleasant expression. Was this really going to save his wife? It didn't seem like that.
"…" Hearing Neptune's name, Lily shut her mouth again and continued working as usual.
"Hey kids! Where is the rest of the anaesthesia?" Shouted Iris as she tried her best to save the old guy on the bed in front of her. Without powers, it was rather hard to do all this, but because his contractor had asked her to do so, she was going to do this with no question asked.
"Take the next patient," Lily looked at the line of patients outside before sighing," but still. What is even the purpose of this? The guards are just gonna come and stop this, anyway."
"Just be happy that we weren't killed," rebuked Jasmine, who looked at the tired expression of Lily.
It wasn't just Iris or Harik, but everyone else present here was refraining from using any form of mana at all. Nobody knows the reason, but none of them were against this.
People carrying all forms of disease appeared in the clinic. Minor cuts to major diseases. All forms of people appeared in the clinic. And despite the shop being open only for a couple of hours, the line was never ending…
'FREE MINOR TREATMENT CLINIC!'
"Maybe that's what he wants? For the trouble to come find him, rather than the other way around?" Harik spoke as he treated that patient with the best of his ability without using any mana.
Because of his angel blood, learning first aid came naturally to him. And Iris was someone who prepared for any and all situations while she was surviving at her lowest, obviously including basic aid.
The kids simply did what they learnt during their survival days.
"What is going on here?!!!"
And as everyone predicted, a couple of guards appeared only 3 hours after the clinic had been opened. Such a business was clearly a big loss for other healers in the town, given how much profit they could have raked out of these people's desperation. And also for the demon worshippers who were profiting from people's desperations.
"Who is the owner of this place?!!"
A loud voice rang through the ears of everyone as one of the guards shouted again. It was a rather hoarse voice carrying traces of mana in them. Perhaps they were trying to intimidate those inside?
They were about to shout again, but Harik moved out of the clinic first. He looked at the fat guards standing with an annoyed expression. The guards observed Harik coming to them while they gauged him. Specifically, his power levels.
"May I help you?" Harik asked as he kept most of his mana hidden, maintaining at the level of an average human. Seeing this, the guards leaked a sly smile before they narrowed their eyes at the clinic.
"Is this place run by you?" The fat guard asked with a haughty voice, making Harik ponder over a moment before speaking.
"No. It's run by our benefactor, Sir Neptune. He is currently out of the shop."
"Neptune?" The guards looked at each other before the other guard shook his head, signaling that he didn't know anyone with that name. And after confirming that Neptune wasn't anyone who held a significance in the city, they both sighed in relief before showing their true nature.
"I don't care who he is. Tell that son of a b*tch to shut the shop down. It's killing the business of hardworking people and, as per the law, it is deemed illegal in the city," the guard spat and then spoke in a mocking tone. He looked down at Harik as well, before making lewd faces at the ladies in the clinic. Especially Jasmine and Lily.
Iris, who was hiding behind everyone, peeked at those guards.
Though what was going on in her mind differed totally from others. She wondered if this whole scenario was something that Neptune planned as well.
There was little purpose in this 'free clinic' and the fact that they weren't using any powers could be a fake show of their lack of power. This could attract some bugs… but why?
That was all she could figure out.
According to her, if Neptune wanted to wipe out anyone in the city, he has more than enough power to do so. So why choose this tiresome method? Was he afraid of someone… or was there something else going on all together?
"We will return within a few hours. By then, shut down the clinic. Or things will get messy for all of you," the guard gave a last warning before glaring at Harik and then walking away with a haughty smile on his face.
Harik simply returned with little emotion written on his face. Though as soon as he entered the clinic, he looked at Iris and asked,
"Is there any purpose to it at all?"
Iris looked at him, and then finally shook her head. Even she can't bullshit about it anymore.
"So, what do we do now?" Lily, who was watching from a distance, asked as she looked a bit worried about the whole thing that happened outside.
"Well. We haven't been given any other instructions. So we do what we were told to do without making any changes," Harik spoke with a sigh as he then looked around at everyone staring at him.
-Clap!
"Alright everyone. Let's get back to work. Hopefully, the owner of this shop has some purpose behind this," Iris spoke as she then too began moving to the next patient, who was just observing her with an enchanted look.
Not minding him, she began healing him the same as before, without using any powers. Same for Harik, who joined her immediately after.