*Splash*
"Good morning!"
"HUAAAH, *cough* *cough* what?"

To get woken up by a splash of cold water is never a good feeling. Where am I? This isn't the dirt underground dungeon from before. It changed from dirt to blocks of stones. The open metal bars turned into an enclosed room with a small metal door that has a small sliding peep hole.

*clang* *clink* *clang* *clink*

I can't move, my arms and feet are bound by chains. So they went straight to torture. After I give all my info I would be finished off, right? I have regrets but those things won't matter now. At the very least, I would have liked to taste the fruits I planted.

"What do you want to know?"
"How cocky for a prisoner? Looks like you don't understand your situation."
"Hooh, then explain it to me."
"hehehe, let's see if you can still talk like that later. Oi, tell the captain that he's awake and ready to 'talk'."

Captain, huh. I don't even care anymore. Nothing would change anyway. I should have technically died in earth when I was transported here. Dying again is nothing anymore.

"Hey, looks like we finally caught you."
"Oh, looks like its the Knight Captain. Now that I remember it, I haven't gotten your name."
"As I thought this is the perfect look for a traitor like you."
"I didn't think you have such hobbies. As expected of a group of idiots who only know how to fight."
"Do you really think you escaped us. My people were always following you since you escaped the forest. We knew what happened from your conversation with that transporter to you begging for food on the roads. hahaha It's these very 'idiots' you mocked that captured you."
"Ah, you just admitted to being idiots."
"SHUT UP!"
"Guh, Kicking someone as soon as you hate what they have to say. How violent."
"Shut up! I don't want to hear that from a disloyal backstabbing bastard like you."
"I'm amazed you talk about loyalty when the knights just switch masters when the royal family changes."
"Wrong! We are Knights! We are the very picture of Loyalty, Chivalry, Compassion and Honour! A servantwho became a traitor like you can never amount to us. You have no right to judge us."
"Of course I have the right. I can see you so of course I can judge you. Loyalty? you who only follows the order of those at the top no matter who they are. There is conflict with the royals now with the nobles, right? The prince was almost assassinated twice, right? The current prince and the princess will soon die. Once the nobles take over would you not follow them? Would you not wag your tails to be loyal dogs to whoever takes over!!"
"Y-You mongrel!!"
"OH, are you angry, are you upset? Chivalry? Is your chivalry torturing this old man who lost an arm? Is this also you compassion? How disgusting!"
"Shut up, You'll be staying here until we are done with you."
"Oh, I thought if I said who my master is you would send me off without the pain. My master is Earl Gin. When I went to his town the last time that was me reporting. If I was compromised I would say 'I don't have coins for the entry fee' and if I had something important to report I would say 'I'm here to sell my wares straight from the royal capital, I have a lot of liquor that the Earl likes.' There now I said it so send me off now"
"Hahaha, As expected of spineless traitor you easily give up information. Oi, go ahead and prolong as long as possible. I have to make a report."
"Can't even honour your word to an almost dead old man. As expected of you."
"Keeping a word to traitors like you, how laughable. Hmmp!"
"Gah!"

Did you really have to kick me as you leave the cell. Well, I did all that I could. I made trouble for the Earl Gin while sending the knights on a wild goose chase. It's not much but that is the best revenge I could do in this last moments.

After that they cut off my tongue and sent me to the academy to be used as a practice dummy for knight students. They made sure to keep a healing instructor on hand and a group of healing students to give them experience too. I don't feel anything though. I already accepted the end, I won't be fazed no matter what they do.

They sent me to be a sparring partner for the knights. I was given a blunt short sword and if the knight students can give me a somewhat lethal blow they would pass this assessment. However, to make sure I'm not killed the healers are on standby to heal me. As long as I'm not cut to pieces this will apparently continue. They can heal limbs and stabs to the heart and if the head doesn't get knocked off my body they can heal it back. I do have a helmet to protect my head since even if they can heal it, its still dicey to have it smashed.

The healing for the knights are usually given to the healer students so they aren't healed as fully as me. The pain will make them learn and it will also help strengthen their resolve. That's good and all but the sparring dummies like me can't stop for a whole day. We are thrown into battle after battle until one student gets lucky or we get unluckily killed. However, for me the Knight Captain showed no mercy and only let the almost graduating class to be my opponents. They are good, make less mistakes and know where to hit without killing me. As [Butler] I have quite a good defense but that means nothing if I have to fight enemies I can't permanently put down. My title {Immortal Princess Protector} is basically useless since it only strengthens my defense while passively healing me if I am defending the princess. Now that I remember I got that defending the princess during a monster horde during her usual hunting. The head maid went back midway to fetch the princess' bracelet. I went back barely alive from that and from then on the head maid never left the princess's side and I was tasked to fetch or arrange anything.

I switch to the healers academy every other day. I am given a paralysis debuff and the healer teacher would wound me in different parts of my body to let the students try and heal me. Like the knights academy I was also given to the graduating class of the healers academy. It's good right? They would heal me faster and better right? No, A very Heavy NO! Since they have higher skill than the newbie healers they are given different subjects. For example, Heal someone who is poisoned, Heal someone who was given a curse, Heal someone who has a missing arm. heal someone who got bludgeoned in the head. Etc,,,. In comparison the knights sparring is better since at that place I can defend myself, in the healers class I can't move since they know how to avoid healing my paralysis, what talented students.

Ten year, I was used in the academy for ten whole years. I would grimace or groan sometimes when I was wounded, smashed, poisoned, stabbed or any kind of attack possible but now I won't even mind if someone hacked my other arm off. Right I still have one arm. Every time they fully healed my arm to regrow the head maid would come and slice it off, again and again and again. The war stabilized when the princess started bombing the towns of the nobles. The capital got ambushed when the princess and the prince started to go around stomping noble town after town but the queen held the line well. She used all the trump cards and countermeasures the late hero king left behind. I have to thank the Knight Captain for that since he still thinks I work for those nobles and he wanted to rub my so called 'failure' of a master Earl Gin. The recruitment was a sham, they wanted the enemy to feel they have the advantage and make them act bolder, making it easier to find out who they are. I guess if I went with them I would have been kept hidden until the whole thing was done after all. They properly knew I didn't do anything. My resistance and suffering back then was futile. hahaha How laughable. Since I injured the princess and made the head maid and Knight Captain mad I got sent here. I regret doing what I did before but I got over those regrets in my second year here. I have nothing to do but wait for my torture everyday so I stopped thinking about such things. It would be one less suffering I have to endure.

Today I am 'stationed' at the healers academy. I wonder which poison they need me to try today. There was a time they made me drink acid and burned my insides. I felt that a bit. Anything is fine as long as it's not the itchy powder, that thing is hell even for my situation.

"Alright everyone. Today is your last day as apprentice healers. Tomorrow each of you will officially be healers. Some of you have already places you will be stationed at or lords to serve. You have completed all of the lessons splendidly so I can confidently say, All of you are healers that can represent our academy. Congratulations, we don't have a lesson today but as a bonus we will go over the parts of the human body again to refresh your knowledge."

Ah, we are doing that today? This is where they lay me down on a table and open me up by slicing my skin from the part where your collar bones meet all the way down to your joystick. Doing this will be bloody and deadly but this is also an exercise for everyone. The students have to hold a remote crystal, they need to channel healing magic through it that goes into the table I am lying on.

This is also a trap set by teachers, they observe those who take this seriously through a crystal monitor. They disqualify those who don't send healing magic into the crystal or slack off in their power. They want to put the message that they need to do their best until the end or it could cost them everything.

How troublesome.

"Okay lina your next. Let's say we caught a spy and he ingested a suicide pill before we could get information. Show me how the pill scatters into this person's system and how it should be treated in the different stages it affects him."
"Yes, First the pill dissolves into the stomach. Here you can simply extract the stomach before the pill fully goes into the patients system. After that the poison will circulate into the blood of the patient. From here you need to purify the blood to get an effective and efficient use of your mana. When it fully circulates the poison will start destroying the body. The priority is the brain, head and heart. If we do a focused [Medium Heal] on those parts we effectively save their knowledge while saving their life. Once it past that point only the advanced skill [Resurrection] can revive the person however since such a skill can only be used by heroes, because of its huge mana cost, us regular healers have to work fast before it gets past that point."
"Perfect answer. Now I will give this person a poison pill. It's the special neon green coloured one so you can track the circulation in the veins. I want you to heal this person when it fully circulated in his body. Ready?"
"Yes"

Ah, I feel it circulating in my blood stream. If I look down I can probably see green stuff start to circulate from my stomach going to my head. It burns my body a bit. Last year the one they used was a berserk drug that makes me lose control. I can barely recall what happened during it. 

Ah, I feel it affecting me already. My flesh is starting to decay, it feels like my body is deflating and a lot of ants is slowly removing my flesh bit by bit in a quick but orderly order.

"Alright, Start healing."
"[Medium Heal]"

Ah, I'm being healed. Wait this is wrong the light she is emitting is stronger than anything I've seen. All my wounds are healing. My tongue, my arm, even my paralysis is healed?

"E-Eh? What? This power is [Full Heal] + [High Regeneration]. Looks like you awakened a title, Lina."
"Yes, teacher I got {Healing Saint}"
"S-Saint!! We have to report this to the queen at once. A saint has been born to the kingdom. From now on the royal family will take care of you and you will be given the position of royal healer. Congratulations, Lina. Looks like your future is now secure."
"Thank you! Teacher."
"Ah, Congratulations. My arm feels ready for combat use. It feels like its already at full strength."
"The criminal is loose. Hurry inform the guards. We don't have any debuff users here. Hurry! Students get behind me, when someone is attacked the person on the right heal them. Keep a tight formation and rotate those who are injured."
"Calm down, teacher. I won't do anything. Ah, is this the knife you used to slice me open a while ago?"
"He has a weapon now. Everyone Stick together. Buff the front line with all the defense buff you have especially slash resistance."
"Relax, relax. I won't do anything. Oh yeah Lina Congratulations. A smart student like you will most likely make it far. Well then Everyone GOOD BYE!!!"

The students and teachers around look panicky and scared. It's not like I will do anything. I will run though. I will dash out the door with all my might.

"Eh?" "Kyaaa" "A criminal escaped" "He has weapon."

Lot's of people are here ah. Looks like I scared a lot of people on my way. I'm not going to hurt you people so calm down.

"There he is stop him."
"Oh, Knight Captain. Fancy meeting you here. Ah, is that your son? I guess you are here for his final assessment."
"Shut up! Give yourself up. We will make you suffer more."
"As stupid as ever huh. Do you really think that is the way to stop someone."
"Get back here."

As if I will stop. If I stop running I won't have a next chance. Ah the father/son duo is chasing me. How respectable for the son to be able to keep up with me and the Knight Captain. The apple is still an apple huh? Is that how the quote goes? Never mind its the same.

"Your escape ends here. This is a dead end."
"How perceptive Knight Captain. As expected of you, how kind. To explain something I can see myself. How respectable."
"Shut up!"
"As expected of you, you only know one type of reply. They do say that mercenaries are dumb but you really take it to a new level. As expected of a captain. You even have captain level of dumbness."
"Shut up! My father isn't a dumb mercenary. He is a Chivalrous Knight."
"I won't do it again. It's too much to go into an argument with the same thing for two generations. I came here for a reason. One I knew you won't give up following me. Two the incinerator here is warm during the winter."
"Hah?, how does that matter."
"Because of this *stab*"

I rushed into the Knight Captain and stabbed him right below his jaw and pierced into his brain using the knife I stole and channeled my basic fire magic into the blade my mana capacity can't compare to the princess but I still have enough juice to roast you from the inside. So long Knight Captain, just in case they can still save you using the new {Healing Saint} I'll give you a cremation funeral. Have you been slacking off since I the nobles have been put down, captain? Your reflexes is ridiculously slow or is it that I'm just faster and have more battle sense because I am literally fighting for my life for the past ten years? 

"FATHER!!!!!!! You Murderer! I'll kill you and claim revenge!"
"I'm sorry but you won't, Bye"

I say that as I stab myself with the knife the same way I did to the night captain while making sure I am leaning towards the incinerator. I never intended to escape, I was planning to make sure I die without chance that the healers can heal me back. The Knight Captain is just extra. Sorry but you can't claim revenge if I did it to myself first, hahaha.

70th_Food_Envoy

This isn't the end, I will spoil you this much. I already declared I will continue this for five volumes to think of this as the closing curtain for the human continent.