23 Chapter 23 - Claret Became A Holy Maiden In The Villagers Eyes.

"Ah! Sister Claret is finally here! Thank the Goddess of Mercy, please give us your blessing."

Suddenly a middle-aged woman voice resounds filled with great relief after Claret has entered a large house that is currently filled with the suddenly unconscious villagers.

Soon, with the skills that her Mother Celine has taught, Claret started to work in order to figure out what is really wrong about the unconscious villagers while inspecting the current situation at the same time, while Theo can stand still at a corner while guarding the busy Claret while coldly observing his surrounding with tense body.

Even without any knowledge in the form of treating with the use of light magic, Theo can instantly tell about what is happening is because of the reason of dark energies base from his constant experience in the past.

"Let the light shine brightly upon you."

With the spell words spoken, Claret hands that have been put up while facing the unconscious young men in the bed have glowed in a golden light causing the frowning person to suddenly feel better, albeit remaining unconscious.

Although Claret can just instantly do a one time spell, she is in low-key mode at the moment, after all, she is merely an outside apprentice in the Church of the Goddess of Mercy besides, this situation right now is a good place to practice the other spells that her Mother Celine has taught her.

Is she being cruel?

Well, let just say that this will be a form of their payment because from what she can perceive, these villagers seemed to see her help as free one and was something that she ought to do like the kind and holy member of the Church of the Goddess of Mercy.

Hey, she needed the money alright?

Besides, what she is doing right now is pointless in the end, unless Claret finds the source of where the dark energies have been coming from this situation will never end.

Dark Disorder, it happens when negative energy has been intruded into the body of a living being, slowly weakening their body while sucking the life energies out of them as they died while remaining unconscious the whole time.

Soon, it took 3 hours for Claret to start feeling tired, not because her magic power needed a recharge but her mentality needed to be in concentration the entire time that she has been using magic.

Three types needed to watch out for when using elemental magic, physical stamina, magical power, and mental energy.

Right now, she has full of magical power since she was overflowing with it that she was having trouble controlling it, while her physical stamina is also great despite it being the lowest that she has, after all, in the beginning, she only need to kneel down while raising her hands toward the patients while concentrating with her mentality as she cast a spell.

"Here you go."

Claret who has given a white towel by Theo showed a smile back as she took it to wipe the sweats on her forehead.

"Sister Claret, please drink this water, I know that you are tired right now. Thank you for doing all of this."

Suddenly another person has appeared which was the young man Beck that has come knocking the door so early today, Claret who was given a cup of water to drink has offered her thanks while taking it in her hand.

However, when she glance at the cup of water, Theo's alarm voice sounds out causing Claret's eyes to blink, especially when the water was taken out from her hands so hastily.

"Don't drink it."

"Eh…?"

"There is something wrong within it."

Theo who felt a sudden threat at the water couldn't help but coldly glance at the surprise Beck causing him to be angry when he found out the way that Theo was looking at him wrongly.

"Hey what to do you mean by that look?! There is no way I will do anything to Sister Claret!"

Claret who stares at the cup of water in Theo's hands couldn't help but frown a bit before she appeases the currently angry Beck who started giving a furious expression to Theo with a soft and gentle voice.

"Theo didn't mean it like that. Can I ask where did you get the water from?"

Standing up, Claret walk closer to Theo before raising her hands up as light magic glowed toward the water which instantly reacted negatively as small dark energies emerge and disappear from it.

Beck who saw the unexpected situation has widened his eyes before mumbling about their water source has been from the long wood river that is connected at the Wood Forest which is near where the Villages are located.

A flash suddenly appears on Claret's mind as she mumbles some words.

Before she turned around and walked out of the large house, Theo and Beck following behind with a curious expression while the other villagers outside worried eyes glance at their figures.

Emerald's eyes stare in a certain direction while raising her right hand to point on it while showing a slender wrist with a simple bracelet with a purple stone on it making the two men's eyes to stare toward it.

"The source of the problem, Theo remember where I picked the bracelet from? In that location we will find what is really happening."

Glancing around at the people around her one by one, Claret's face brightens up while gently smiling while her entire body seemed to emit a holy aura making the people around her to feel comfortable and relieved from all worries.

"Please don't worry. I'll try my best to figure out what's the problem as soon as I can, I promise you in the sacred name of the Goddess of Mercy."

After acting as a holy maiden toward the Villagers, Claret still stayed two days going back and forth from home and to the villages while slowly treating the unconscious villagers.

At least, there was never another person that has become affected by the dark disorder again, while she has forbidden the villagers to drink the water from the river unless she cleanses the darkness within it before they can use it.

Well, Claret knew that the more time she took to remove the source of the problem will cause the negative energies out there to become stronger will cause the villager's life soon be in great danger, but she is waiting for something to happen the entire time though.

"Big Sister Claret, are you tired? Here is your water!"

"Big Sister Claret, are you hungry? Here is some fruits!"

"Big Sister Claret your sweating! Here is some towel to wipe it!"

Three young voice filled with reverence suddenly has taken Claret mind from her thought causing her attention to the three youngsters standing before her.

It was two young girls and one boy at the age of 14 to 16 years old.

There is Ariane who is the prettiest girl in the entire village, what with her pink wavy hair and lovely round hazel eyes along with oval face and pink lip, only 15 years old but she was already a blooming beauty.

While she doesn't look like a villager at all, though from what Claret has heard, her families have been a fallen noble in the last 3rd generation in another country and have to secretly migrate to another kingdom because of it.

It was her mother Celine who told her about it though while the villagers don't have any idea, well she was learning that there is a lot of mystery around her mother but well, Claret came from a different world though so it doesn't matter at all.

She will just have to wait until her mother finally ready to tell her all about what she is hiding.

And then the second girl is 16 years old named Elise, a pretty girl but because of some unknown illness that she was born with, it made her look like a 12-year-old child, Elise has straight long brown hair along with green eyes, which is more paler than what Claret has.

Oh, Elise is also the younger sister of Beck.

And then as she turned her attention at the only young man, who is the youngest among the three youth before her which is named Eloi, a 14 years old young man who has fiery red hair and black eyes who always has a boyish smile on his rather handsome face and the only son of the middle-aged man who always travels to the town in the village.

Though from what she can observe at the three youth before her, there seemed to be a love triangle blooming between them which made Claret interested in what will happen later.

Ah, young love sure is great.

However, from what she can see, Ariane has more a higher chance to be with Eloi since from what she observe Elise seemed to have a bit of low self-esteemed and depression because of her sickness, oh Claret admire about how this young girl can hide what she is really feeling inside with that innocent face of hers.

It is just too bad that Claret is different from the naive villagers as she too was quite good at wearing a mask if she says so herself, look at the villagers who totally buying her holy maiden images.

"Thank you, Ariane, Elise, and Eloi."

Seeing as the three people give her a dazzling smile, Claret felt a bit happiness at the cuteness before her, although she really wants to see Mariette again and pet those adorable panda ears of hers, it was just too bad that the beast family seemed to be staying mostly inside their home the entire time since the villagers seemed to fault them about their current situation despite the fact that she already explained about what is happening.

Sigh, this world is really harder to live, there is just too much difference between the races that are making it so hard to live peacefully together.

"I will come back tomorrow one last time to give everyone a blessing before I will go check the source of problem soon."

After speaking those words to the three youth, Claret wave her goodbyes to the villagers and Theo who has always been silent the entire time has instantly taken her to his arms with great familiarity as he dashes back home as he princess carry her once again.

Claret just blinks her eyes while one arm wrapping around his shoulder and the other gripping his clothes, this has been happening every day now that Claret and Theo has gotten used to it.

Being carried by a gorgeous young man, how can Claret dislike it?

Squishy that has been trying to discover the source of the negative energies with the exchange of delicious food has suddenly perceived his host current thoughts that she has easily shared with him which he can only roll his eyes toward the shameless partner of his.