Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

The group didn't get Politics that well, but Rain's explanation was simple and concise, so they could tell that it couldn't be helped. It was annoying, but it couldn't be helped.

In any case, as soon as the group arrived, they found dozens of people around the Church. The situation was a lot worse than they had expected… the smell of blood was in the air, and people were groaning in pain left and right.

"You guys are finally here!" Terra said while she was changing the bandages of a wounded soldier. "Sorry for this, but I will have to give you some orders. Jori, go look for water and bring as much as you can. Reca, look around for the people that need help moving people. Liss, you should use your magic to sterilize the tools on that table."

"O-okay," Jori said, and then the group split.

"Rain, since you are young, people might feel not so safe in letting you heal them, focus on dealing with minor wounds until they change their minds about you," Terra said.

"Understood," Rain said.

Rain wondered why someone as young as Terra was the one organizing things there, but he didn't see anyone older. Something was off… still that could be considered later. Rain looked around for people that had swallow wounds. Most of them could rest at home for a few days for the wounds to close, but they needed to return to the battlefield so they didn't have time to waste.

Just as Rain had expected, the first patient refused him, but he ignored the guy and used Revitalizing Wind. Before the guy could complain, he felt his wounds closing and the pain decreasing. Moreover, that happened in no time.

"... Sorry for doubting your skills," The soldier said.

"In your place, I wouldn't let a kid heal me either," Rain shrugged.

Rain looked for someone nearby that needed treatment and saw his skills in action. For someone that could use healing magic from a distance, one didn't have anything to fear.

While he was working around, Rain noticed that some people came from the Church and began to heal the wounded. It looked like they meditated inside to recover their mana. Regardless, their numbers weren't even fifteen in total…

Aside from Jori and the others that were helping to do miscellaneous things, Rain saw a bunch of kids around his age working around. He imagined that they were the war orphans that lived with Terra and Asche.

Around noon, things calmed down a bit, so the people began to relax. Still, soon enough, another large group of people arrived to be treated. Now Rain could understand how short-handed the people were.

"Anyone who works a little bit for fifteen years can unlock the Healer's Path, but leveling up Healing Touch isn't their focus… since most people in the country are warriors, they focus on using Mana to kill the targets faster," Rain thought.

Although Rain had quite a bit of mana and his healing skills worked fast, he still had to take a break in the afternoon since he used all of it. Jori, Reca, and Liss also looked exhausted. It seemed that fighting monsters was easier than treating the wounded.

"Thank you for your hard work," Asche showed up and then said. "We can deal with the rest of things from here on out."

"Were you inside the church all the time?" Jori asked.

"Yes, I was managing the resources that we have," Asche said and then sighed while looking around. "We receive donations of materials and supplies quite often, but those won't last if things remain like this."

It seemed that Asche was also part of the faction that wanted to deal with the enemies instead of just reacting to their actions. Still, it wasn't up to them to decide if they should go or not. Considering the soldiers that they healed to them, the group realized that they still lacked something else…

"You didn't look fazed today," Asche said while looking at Rain.

"Letting the situation affect me negatively wouldn't change a thing, so I did what I could and didn't think of anything else," Rain said.

"I suppose that is the right way to look at things… Still, we are used to seeing wounded people, but the atmosphere is something that I can't get used to," Asche said after a long sigh.

That was only natural; they were only kids, after all. If that didn't affect them, they would become messed up adults… the downside was the fact that they saw plenty of wounded people, and they still wanted to risk suffering the same fate or worse. That was brave of them, but it also was a bit of a difficult mindset.

For Rain, he could only risk his life for his family… but those kids weren't like that.

"They fight for their freedom and not to lose anything else… they aren't wrong, but they need more than just that," Rain thought.

The group split up again, and those thoughts still stayed with Rain. He wondered why that was… he didn't know that well, but he was still worried about them. Considering the life experience that he had, he was supposed to be around 33 years old mentally, so perhaps it was around the time some people would think of having a family and looking after the next generation.

Even if those kids weren't his family, trying to make sure that they wouldn't dash to their deaths seemed like the right thing to do.

"Oh boy… I guess I am becoming a meddlesome middle-aged man," Rain thought.

The group worked for a few days together, tending the wounded, but the pace eventually slowed down. Considering what they knew, it seemed that the magic people stopped sending monsters to attack, and they didn't want to risk the lives of their soldiers. At that point in time, Rain realized that they were truly cautious about every single soldier at their disposal.

Around the same time, things began to change in the capital; more and more soldiers were arming themselves and leaving the place. On one of those days, Rain woke up and didn't find a single job listed on the board, and he was able to tell that things were starting to move.