I Became the Only Healer in the Academy - Chapter 25.2
“Father?”
“Oh, you’re here.”
“Is Dad also not feeling well?”
“Yeah, something’s off today.”
While the mother appeared relatively better than the father, there wasn’t much of a noticeable difference; their complexions were both dark.
“Hurry, let’s go. Right away.”
Feeling an inexplicable sense of unease, the man promptly took them to a nearby hospital.
“Haa…”
“Are you okay? You both don’t usually have any chronic illnesses…”
The doctor’s expression was so rigid that it seemed discomforting to consider it as a mere examination for headaches.
“It seems like you’ve been affected by a curse.”
“What? A curse?”
“I’m puzzled as well. It’s hard to understand how people who are not hunters can be affected by a curse that typically targets only hunters. Have your parents ever entered a gate?”
“Of course not!”
The doctor was well aware that he had asked a foolish question.
Usually, encountering a monster that casts curses was difficult, and to reach the location of such a creature, one had to defeat the monsters in their way.
Ordinary people like the man’s parents naturally didn’t possess the capability for such tasks.
“You should go to a better hospital. It seems like the pain is getting worse even now, and there’s nothing more we can do at this point.”
“T-That’s…”
The man’s parents had already lost consciousness due to the pain.
“I-Is it… because of me?”
As the man pondered about anything related to curses, the recent events he had engaged in came to mind.
Confronting the spiritual entity.
“How could it be…”
However, the idea of cursing his own family, who weren’t even present at the scene, was incomprehensible.
“A sudden…mutation?”
A single possibility emerged – that the monster might be a mutated one, possessing different abilities from others.
Moreover, this monster was susceptible to physical attacks, unlike other similar spiritual entities.
“Protector…?”
“Oh, yes. Exactly.”
“You need to go to a larger hospital as soon as possible.”
“Yesm, I understand.”
The man immediately took his parents to a nearby larger hospital.
Upon arriving at the largest hospital in the area and undergoing an examination, the doctor’s expression was hardly different from the one he had encountered earlier.
“We need to monitor the situation…”
“How… What will happen? Will they be okay?”
“I can’t say for sure. It’s the first time an ordinary person has experienced a curse meant only for hunters… For now, there’s nothing we can do other than minimizing the pain.”
“Usually, curses are lifted after a day, aren’t they? Right?”
“…That’s only for hunters with immunity.”
The doctor left without saying more, leaving the man lying on the bed, looking at his parents who couldn’t regain their senses.
“Is it because of me… Because of what I did…”
An overwhelming sense of guilt began to overwhelm him.
If he had just left the gate, if there had been only other monsters near the gate, if the Association hadn’t canceled today’s hunts.
“Do they have to live like this for the rest of their lives?”
It was a despairing statement that was difficult to accept.
If there had been precedents like this, there might have been some research findings, but during visits to the hospital, there were no cases similar to this one.
As he tried to come up with a solution, he found himself sinking into increasingly desperate thoughts.
If the curse doesn’t lift, if the pain continues to intensify, and the painkillers prescribed by the hospital have no effect.
If there’s no solution in hunter-specific hospitals, and he, with no knowledge or connections in this field, wonders what he can do.
The man stepped out of the hospital with an expression that seemed drained. As he took a deep drag from his cigarette, a call came in from someone.
“Hey… what’s up? Want to grab a drink? I had a good day today.”
“I’m at the hospital for a bit…”
Upon mentioning the hospital, an urgent voice came from the other side.
“What? Are you hurt?”
“Oh, no. It’s not like that.”
“…Then what’s going on?”
“I-It’s not that big of a deal.”
“…Which hospital are you at?”
Although he tried to downplay it a bit, the grim situation he found himself in seemed to seep through his words, making it difficult to manage the most desperate situation he had faced so far.
“It’s a hunter-exclusive hospital.”
“Hang on.”
The call was abruptly cut off with just a “wait.” The man tossed the longest-burning cigarette he had been smoking into the ashtray and sat down in the same spot.
After a while, the friend who made the call arrived at the hospital and spoke, looking at the man who was hesitating.
“…What happened?”
When he heard about the hunter-exclusive hospital, the man thought someone might be injured. Seeing the man completely unharmed, he could guess that someone else must be injured.
“Well, you see…”
The man poured out everything that had happened today.
He wasn’t the type to easily share such stories, but he felt that if he didn’t confide in someone about today’s events, the growing guilt would become unbearable.
“…What? A curse?”
His friend was also left speechless.
An ordinary person being cursed, and in a situation where even a hunter-exclusive hospital couldn’t provide treatment—it was a desperate situation, leaving them both lost for words. The friend simply sat beside him, offering a cigarette without saying anything.
“…Give me one more.”
As they went through one cigarette after another, they sat in silence, unable to exchange any comforting words.
‘Wait a moment. Could it be… that person?’
The man thought of the academy.
The only person in the academy, no, the only person in the world with healing abilities.
“There might be a possibility.”
“What? What? What possibility?”
“Hmm, first, let’s see if the curse is lifted tomorrow. Let’s wait until tomorrow before making any decisions.”
“Y-Yeah. I don’t know what will happen, but thanks.”
“It’s not certain yet.”
Looking at the man who seemed to regain a bit of composure, his friend watched him with relieved eyes.
