037 - The Saint of Healing I

 

"Thank you. Thanks to you, I've been feeling much better."

Those words from her grandmother might have determined her fate.

Mizetta sometimes thinks that way.

At first, Mizetta would lie her hands on her grandmother's painful waist and pray, "Heal, heal." She couldn't answer if asked who she was praying to. It was simply a pure prayer of a five-year-old child.

Mizetta's prayers were answered.

Or perhaps it's better to say they were fulfilled.

After soothing her grandmother's back pain many times, Mizetta found herself healing her parents' pains as well. In the life of modest peasants, minor pains were commonplace. Muscle aches, fingertip abrasions, or crushed beans underfoot, the list was endless.

"You've completely recovered."

"Thank you, Mizetta. You're such a good child."

Being praised and appreciated was certainly nice. But what made Mizetta happiest was the smile on the faces of those she healed.

She was truly happy to see them smiling so genuinely.

Eventually, the targets of her healing extended beyond her family, and before she knew it, Mizetta was working at the village clinic. There was an old doctor from a town outside. Mizetta learned medicine from him and developed her own system of healing magic.

What once was a vague and simple prayer had evolved into precise and intricate magic.

There were specific ways to use magic for fractures, illnesses, each requiring their own approach.

The old doctor wasn't capable of using magic, but he was an expert in treatment. He knew the human body well and understood how humans fell ill, got injured, and how they could heal.

And more than that—he knew his own ignorance.

Once, there was a patient who was beyond the old doctor's help.

A boy of the same age who had been bitten by a snake in the forest near the village. The old doctor said, "There's no medicine." Antidotes were needed for poison, and the clinic didn't have one for snake venom.

It was Mizetta who detoxified the boy.

Her strong prayers, somewhat vague and omitting complexity, neutralized the poison in the boy.

After that incident, Mizetta became even more famous.

What was once a small village's little healer became known to the neighboring village, then the neighboring town—and before she knew it, even to the Count Muller's mansion.

She gained an embarrassing nickname—'The Saint of Healing.'

 

Mizetta agreed to marry Eckhart Muller because there was simply no reason not to.

After all, she was just a peasant girl from a small village.

When the count's messenger came and said, "Come," she had no choice but to go. And if the count's son, with a serious expression, said, "I want you to marry me," she had no choice but to nod. Even if Eckhart was a slightly overweight middle-aged young man, Mizetta's response wouldn't have changed.

It was a natural feeling for Mizetta, being a peasant girl.

It was sad to leave her family and everyone in the village behind, but when she actually met Eckhart, he said, "Leave them to me." He also promised to treat Mizetta not as a mistress, but as a first wife.

Of course, Mizetta didn't believe everything blindly.

But she felt like she could trust Eckhart Muller, the second son of the Muller family, to some extent.

He seemed earnest, sincere, and a little clumsy.

So—she didn't know.

She didn't know that Eckhart had a fiancée.

She didn't know that her fate was being weighed against another woman's.

She didn't know that the fiancée would end up being sentenced to death by burning.

Even if she had known, it probably wouldn't have changed anything.

 

Mizetta, 'discovered' by the Muller family, was initially housed in a villa owned by the count. There she met Eckhart, became engaged to him, and received an education as a noble.

Being nothing but a village girl, Mizetta knew nothing about the etiquette of noble society, and it was impossible for her to suddenly behave as Eckhart's fiancée.

The butlers of the Muller family strictly drilled her in etiquette and taught her how to behave as a noble without wasting a second. The most difficult lesson was "do not be overly modest."

Everyone working at the villa seemed much more important than the people in Mizetta's village, and probably they were. For example, if there was a dispute between a servant of the Muller family and Mizetta's father, regardless of who was at fault, Mizetta's father would be punished.

That was Mizetta's world, and it was probably similar everywhere.

Bottomless pit of malice and unfairness.

The shape of the world hadn't changed.

Only her position had.

As Eckhart's first lady, she became someone who was deferred to by everyone working for the Muller family. Although Mizetta herself hadn't changed at all, her position had changed—and people had to adjust their attitudes to that 'position.'

Mizetta's conclusion was that she had to get used to it.

Since she was needed by the Muller family, she had no choice but to do so.

And so, after going through the training as a fiancée—indeed, it could only be described as training—and somehow shedding her village girl demeanor, Eckhart, with a pale face, came and informed her of the death of Count Muller.

And finally, Mizetta learned about Euphemia Grimwood.

 

After that, it was a tumultuous period.

The eldest son of the Muller family succeeded to the family estate, not Eckhart. There seemed to be some trouble with relatives at the time, but Mizetta wasn't aware of the details. The only things she understood were the ones directly involving her. She didn't understand anything about noble society, and she wasn't required to.

That is, things involving herself.

Firstly, it became impossible to announce Mizetta as Eckhart's fiancée in a grand manner as initially planned.

The script the Muller family had in mind was this: execute Euphemia, who deceived the nobility, by burning her at the stake, introduce a 'Saint of Healing' who was much more suitable as Eckhart's fiancée to the nobles, and slowly resolve the issue with the Grimwood family.

They planned to kill an innocent girl just to make things easier for themselves, but to Mizetta, everyone were just like that and even those around her didn't shed any compassion at all when she asked them about the girl.

She had heard stories of a wicked magistrate kidnapping village girls when he went to collect taxes. And there was probably no punishment for him. So when she heard about the circumstances that led to Euphemia Grimwood being sentenced to burning at the stake, it didn't shock her much. Even if the truth was obvious to those who saw it—it wasn't something she could speak of.

Seeing Eckhart show his vulnerability, Mizetta didn't feel disappointed and thought, "Pure madness...", as if it were the root of all problems.

Perhaps Eckhart didn't ask for Mizetta's opinion because complaints were just that—complaints. It was no different from the elderly patients at the clinic complaining about their back pain.

"What did I know about her..." Eckhart muttered ironically.

His profile as he grumbled was somewhat comical.

After all, they were just facing the consequences of trying to kill someone for their convenience. And now, suddenly showing concern for a girl named Euphemia was meaningless. If they were capable of such consideration and maybe a drop of empathy, they shouldn't have resorted to burning her at the stake in the first place.

Anyway, Eckhart dealt with the issues of the Muller family while venting his frustrations to Mizetta.

The matters of inheriting the family estate, assisting Eckhart's brother who had succeeded to the family estate, and future plans. Various issues within the territory. Additionally, Eckhart had to graduate from the royal academy.

And then— one day, a man with a face like a mantis appeared.

It was Count Leopold Illyrus.

The count glared at Mizetta with a disturbing gaze and said,

"'Saint of Healing' Mizetta. Your custody has been taken over by the Illyrius family. We need to make a name for ourselves. Both you and Eckhart."

 

Ah—Mizetta thought to herself, I've come a long way.

She realized that she was no longer in a place where she could heal people and see their smiles.

Pure madness