Eight patients, all of them recovered within a day after being healed by the Lampiy... Liberty. Her name is Liberty. Siohel shouldn't forget about that, she cannot risk ruining her relationship with her future golden egg.

  "And you're saying she didn't even use white magic? Lampiys with three lines usually have access to it right?" Asked her superior, a man with a rotund physique and an ugly head of blonde hair. She once had to sleep with him to get her current position, now she has a chance at having enough power to push him off his.

  "She says she does have it, though she didn't use it. Presumably to show us her skill in medicine." Was this the case? There was no proof that Liberty truly did want to show off, for all they know, the Lampiy hated using white magic or better yet, she just didn't feel like using it.

  On top of having a casting limit of 3 per day, white magic is very costly, often requiring several materials for it to even be cast. There's probably something similar in that bag of hers, though Liberty never saw her pull it out once.

  "She also kept some kind of parasite that stuck itself in one of our hunters, he's relatively new so he must have been unaware of the areas we wished for them to avoid."

  "Or he skipped the lessons that's recommended to the newly registered." Her superior's guest was as good as any. Plausible even. "Why do we keep people like him in our guild? Do they not risk the Cleaners breathing down on us just by existing?"

  "He has potential, and everyone knows it." However, the moment he shows signs of being incompetent a second time, he will be immediately removed. "We should be patient with him, I'm sure that a single mistake would make him more cautious from now on."

  "... Very well, it's your job to oversee everything he does." Or in other words, it will be Siohel's fault if he fails again.

  "I'll make sure that he is well taken care of." She bows in respect, not because she truly feels this way, but because this is a necessity for someone of her position. "His full potential will be realized under my care."

  That or she gently lets him down if he is lackluster during her observations.

  "Do that." The director sighs anyway, as though this whole thing was exhausting to him instead of everyone else. "Sometimes, I hate that men have no choice but to fight in order to survive, this world of ours is full of monsters and people like him are needed but not when they're incompetent."

  Siohel let her superior talk, she ignored most of it, keeping only enough information to talk and egg him on when he stops and asks her something. Most of it was useless babble, as expected, her superior got his current position because of his father's connections, and nothing else beyond that.

  'You are one of the incompetent fools you so venomously talk about.' She silently seethes. One day she will remove this man from his place of authority and throw his corpse in a ditch. 'One day.'

  "Well, I must be going, I'm glad that you found someone so competent, you need to take her before everyone else does, you know how it is with the rising Medicine Blocks, most of them may be fools, but others are as competent as this girl."

  "Yes, of course." She was already planning on doing that anyway. "Should I tell her to come to you?"

  "Earlier, I remember you said that she is young despite having three marks?" Siohel could tell that the gears in his head are turning, lust will soon take over logic and he will agree to this. "Yes, you did, fine, bring her to me, I wish to see her skills for myself."

  'And once you prey on her, I'd have someone actually competent on my side.' The other receptionists are not enough, they are just shills, people who will be louder than the commotion of this man's death will produce.

  "I'll make sure to tell her this." Siohel hated the thought of throwing such a competent person into the jaws of this predator but it needs to happen in order for her plan to succeed. Without the Lampiy, she would not stand a chance against the director.

  "Mhmm, do that." The man waves her off. "I must go now."

  The door to the recovery ward closed and silence finally blessed her ears. His voice was annoying, what he looked like was annoying, everything about that predator was annoying. Whatever redeeming qualities he has was probably locked in a lead vault deep underground, because not once in the five years that Siohel worked under him did she see anything.

  "Well, now that we're alone, can I ask you where that girl went?" An old man with a patchy beard and a head that's almost all gray hair, asked. He still had muscle definition to him despite his advanced age, "she says that the bandages on my back need some replacement, and I ain't taking anyone but her."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The type to refuse anything that doesn't fit their worldview. Stubbornly at that.

  "She says she will be busy for the next few days, you will have to be tended to by one of our sponsored Leeches instead, as they are meant to." A bad customer is always capable of getting on her nerves. "If you refuse, then we are not eligible to take responsibility for your death."

  "You act like your paid Leeches are worth anything!" Why were there nods of agreement? "Those quacks have spent weeks taking care of us and we haven't gotten anywhere! That girl only needed a day."

  "Well, then assume that someone so competent must have thousands of clients lining up to meet her on the daily, pity yourself, for you are not special enough to actually be her priority." Siohel said with a sneer, she rarely held contempt for their registered hunters but sometimes, they just acted too much.

  "Is she really tending to a lot of people every day?"

  "As far as I'm aware? Yes." She didn't know anything about Liberty truth be told, other than the girl is a competent leech. "Why do you ask? You think you need another surgeries?"

  "Yeah, I think so, my stomach has been aching since this morning."

  "That's because we were told not to feed you, she ordered it herself, and I'm sure she knows more than you do so give up on weaseling your way out of this." Especially since her position is at risk if he dies. "You're gonna have to deal with the stomach ache until evening, the same goes for the next two days, though I was told to feed you very little food tomorrow."

  "Oh, she said it herself?"

  "Yes." Did Siohel really need to repeat it? "Why, do you want to do the opposite? Do you have knowledge on medicine?"

  "No, I can't even read."

  "Clearly." Siohel rolled her eyes. Everyone except her couldn't read, this is a room full of illiterates. "Well, I'll get going now, best you all rest. Patient. 2, 4, 5, and 7 will be able to leave tomorrow, but you should take it easy still. Oh and you." Siohel turned to the man who didn't wake up until earlier. "Drink a lot of water, it is important that you do this, according to Liberty."

  "I'll do that." He murmurs, it seems he was still stuck in whatever haze put him to sleep in the first place. "How did she remove the miasma in my body?"

  Miasma. If only he knew what he was actually dealing with, and that he was a hazard in this room.

  "She says you had no miasma, just parasites. Don't worry about it, plenty of those around recently." Siohel used all of her will power to not look at a certain kid. "Good luck to all of you, may you have a successful recovery."

  Siohel left for her own office, there, she reviewed countless papers, time flies, and by evening, she had only finished a fourth of the three stacks of paper on her desk. There is a lot of work to do... Tomorrow.

  Putting on a coat as well as grabbing a lamp, Siohel went and walked into the dimly lit streets. Rumors have been going around that a lycanthrope is actively hunting people at night but she hasn't encountered any yet, however, just to be sure, she carried a revolver with her armed with silver bullets. Expensive little things.

  Her heels clicked against the dirty cobblestone, it was the only sound audible right now. She's also the only person on the streets, which isn't rare, more often than not, she walks back home all by herself.

  Nothing has happened to her so far, which was... Interesting? To say the least? Her peers have often talked about how they "coincidentally met" an adventurer while going home, stating that they were clearly being targeted by that particular person.

  Siohel has never experienced that, so she always believed they were lying. 'I really just don't get it.'

  Howling wind brushes her hair and the sign above her creaks, the rusty hinges it hangs on needing oil. Her lamp also died, leaving her in darkness.

  Siohel hastily searched for her matches, she finds it in her pockets, a stick comes out of the box, sulphur rubs against sulphur and it ignites. Calmly, she placed it on the head of her candle, Siohel covered the fire until it grew big enough to not die from being exposed to wind.

  She looks around, nothing.

  The streets are still dirty, there is nothing special about them, and no one snuck up on her while she was stuck fumbling under the darkness. She was safe.

  She passes an alley way, the light of her lamp does illuminate it but even with next to no light, if she just squinted, she would have seen a shape within: large, bulky, canine, with a frame that is hard to fit inside a carriage and muscles that can break through stone.

  Underneath it is another shape, this one is more humanoid, its claws had sunk into the human's shoulder, its fangs had already torn his throat. No screams came from the victim, and even the sound of drowning cannot be heard, as their mouth had already been covered by furry hands.

  Crimson liquid flows out into the streets, too little too late, Siohel had already passed it and the chances of her stepping on it and noticing something amiss have turned close to zero.

  The silver bullets would not be fired tonight.

  Despite specifically being made to last as long as it physically could, the candle Siohel is carrying died just before she reached her home. This is why it isn't worth it to buy candles, only the rich can use these things, they only last for what? 10 minutes at best?

  Siohel had a scowl marring her features as she entered the slightly luxurious building she bought with the money her superior gave her. She had been living here for three years and what was once an empty room had become something that felt welcoming.

  There is a metal chimney on the back, logs of alchemist's charcoal next to it, and a fully stocked kitchen slightly further away from that.

  Siohel smiles as she hangs her coat on a rack next to the door, her shoes come off and she walked barefoot into her personal space. She passed her single-person bed on the way to the chimney, once the charcoal started burning, boiled some water and poured it all into a pitcher.

  While it cooled, she replaced the kettle with a pot, poured milk into it, reminded herself to buy more tomorrow, and then she cut up some potatoes, carrots, as well as a bit of jerky. They all go into the boiling milk.

  And finally, she starts cleaning herself: the boiling water is poured into a basin of cold water, a rag is then dipped into it, and Siohel starts cleaning herself. She rubbed the wet fabric on her arms, torso, stomach, legs, every inch of her was thoroughly wiped.

  Dinner finished cooking by the time she was done, she eats, reads, plans, and then goes to bed.

  Siohel ended her day with a smile, as fate finally handed her something she can actually use.