I Was Abandoned Because I Was Told I Had No Talent, but Four Incredibly Strong Yet Clumsy Older Sisters Took Me In. Even the Sword Saint and the Great Sorcerer Insisted on Me Being Their Top Disciple. As a Result of Raising Me in Such an Overprotective Way, My Ultimate Talent Finally Awoke. - Chapter 12

The Fourth Master and the Strongest Party

The next morning.

We decided to help with Soleil’s treatments.

That said, there wasn’t much I could actually do. I mostly just carried water and put blankets on the patients.

Meltya helped mix herbs with her magic, Viola-sensei quietly brought back a huge amount of food from somewhere, Reizel-sensei stood guard in the square, and Riene turned her face away saying “I’m not really helping or anything” while carefully handing out water to the kids.

A little past noon.

A group wearing white priest robes appeared at the entrance to the square.

The man in front was tall and skinny with narrow eyes. The church’s emblem was sewn on his chest. Four armed guards stood behind him.

“—Former Saint Soleil. The church orders you to stop your healing activities immediately.”

The man held up a document and declared it coldly. The whole square started buzzing.

“Stop…?”

Soleil stood up. The gentle smile she’d been wearing earlier had vanished.

“This strange illness falls under the church’s jurisdiction. As someone who has been excommunicated, you have no right to perform healing with holy arts. Cease at once and hand the patients over to the church’s management.”

“What do you mean by management?”

“That is an internal church matter.”

“That’s not an answer!”

Soleil’s jade-green eyes narrowed sharply.

“I was excommunicated. But that doesn’t mean I can just ignore people suffering right in front of me. Even without permission, if my hands can reach them, I’ll heal them. That’s all!”

“You heretical practitioner. If you refuse to obey orders, then by force—”

The moment the guards reached for their weapons and stepped forward,

“Why?”

My voice came out.

Clearer than I expected.

“Why are you stopping her from healing people?”

The messenger looked down at me with cold eyes like he was staring at something filthy.

“Children should keep their mouths shut.”

“But it doesn’t make sense. Soleil is just healing people who are suffering. Why would the church want to stop that? Does it cause problems if they get better?”

After I said it, I got a little scared.

But I just couldn’t understand why anyone would stop someone from helping people in pain.

The messenger’s face twisted ugly.

“Shut up. This is a matter between the church and the former saint. A mere outsider, a no-mark kid like you—”

“Are you planning to lay a hand on my disciple?”

A low voice that crawled along the ground.

Reizel-sensei was standing between the messenger and me. She hadn’t drawn her sword. But the overwhelming killing intent alone made the guards freeze as if their feet were nailed in place.

“Oh my♪ Sorry to interrupt your little discussion♪”

Meltya walked over from the other side. She was smiling. But her eyes weren’t smiling at all. Around her feet, the grass growing between the cobblestones started to wither and turn brown.

And Viola-sensei—before anyone noticed, she was standing right behind the messenger.

Without a sound. Like a shadow.

The moment he turned around, he met her cold red eyes deep inside her hood, and all the color drained from his face in an instant.

“…We will withdraw for now. However, the church will not overlook this matter.”

With trembling hands, the messenger put away the document and hurried off like he was fleeing. The guards half-ran after him.

The people in the square let out relieved sighs.

＊

“…Thank goodness.”

Soleil breathed out softly—then collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“Soleil!”

I rushed over in a panic and caught her body.

She was terrifyingly cold. She had been forcing herself to stay strong against the church’s pressure, but she had reached her limit. Using her own life force to slow the fading of other people’s divine marks was something no single person should be able to do.

“No… I can’t collapse yet… If I fall, the people in this town…”

Soleil muttered like she was talking in her sleep. A white robe fluttered in front of her.

“Oh my, your way of using life force is terribly inefficient♪”

Meltya stood in the center of the square with a smile.

With a soft tap, her staff struck the cobblestones. In that instant, a huge blue magic circle spread out and covered the entire square.

“Eh… Is this a mana amplification array…!?”

“I’ll make the vessel. Soleil, all you have to do is pour your healing spell into it♪”

As Soleil stared in shock, a strong hand rested on her back.

“If you collapse, Rut will be sad.”

It was Reizel-sensei. Hot red energy (body strengthening power) flowed directly from her hand into Soleil, rapidly restoring the strength she had lost.

Then, with a rustle, a bundle of grass was placed carelessly at Soleil’s feet.

It was Viola-sensei. She had fetched it from deep in the forest in an instant. It was the highest-grade catalyst for healing magic—black shadow grass.

Blue mana, red energy, black catalyst.

The power of the continent’s three strongest people was now fully backing up Soleil.

“…Everyone…”

Big tears spilled from Soleil’s jade-green eyes.

It was the first time the woman who had been carving away her life in solitude had been supported by someone else’s strength.

“Here I go…! Wide-area holy art—Sunlight Prayer!!”

Soleil raised both hands to the sky.

From the magic circle that had taken in the blue, red, and black powers, a dazzling white light shot high into the air and poured down over the entire town like golden rain.

Warm light wrapped around the people.

The divine marks on the patients that had been fading started regaining their original colors one after another.

It didn’t completely erase the cause of the illness. But the progression had been fully stopped, and the patients in town had recovered enough to live without fearing another outbreak for the next few years.

The whole town erupted in cheers so loud it felt like it might split open.

＊

“…Thank you. Really, thank you.”

Facing the miracle-like scene, Soleil bowed deeply to us.

“I could never have done it alone. …Hey, everyone. I’ve decided☆”

Soleil looked up with a huge smile.

“The symptoms in this town have stabilized for now. But unless we find and cut off the real cause, the same tragedy will happen again. My power alone isn’t enough.”

Soleil crouched down in front of me.

“If I’m with all of you, I can help so many more people from the root. —And I want to stay by Rut-kun’s side forever☆”

Only when she said that last part did the light vanish from her jade-green eyes, replaced by a heavy, dark color of obsession.

“Is that okay?”

“Of course! Let’s go together!”

The moment I answered right away, Soleil smiled as bright as a blooming flower.

“Yay! Then I’ll be the fourth master☆ I’ll take charge of Rut-kun’s health management! Twenty-four hours a day, I’ll watch over… I mean, manage you properly☆”

“Eh, master?”

“I’ll teach you healing arts too! And I’ll manage your meals’ nutrition, your sleep schedule, keep records of your body temperature—”

“Wait. He’s my first disciple.”

“Oh my♪ There’s no first-come-first-served rule♪”

“…(silently claiming the spot right next to me)”

“Aaah geez, another old lady joined! There are way too many now!”

The voices of the four masters and Riene overlapped, and the square instantly became lively.

I stood right in the middle, getting my hands pulled in every direction and spinning around dizzily, but I was laughing.

“I have four masters…!”

I counted on my fingers. Reizel-sensei. Meltya. Viola-sensei. Soleil-sensei.

“Amazing…! Four of them!”

When I genuinely got excited and my eyes sparkled, the four who had been arguing froze all at once like they’d been struck by lightning.

Reizel-sensei turned bright red all the way to her ears and looked away muttering “…That’s not fair.” Meltya whispered “So cute…!” and collapsed on the spot. Viola-sensei closed another meter of distance and breathed heavily through her nose. Soleil-sensei tried to hug me forcefully but got grabbed by the scruff of her neck by Reizel-sensei at the last second.

“…Is it gonna be like this every day?”

Riene, the only one left out, had a really distant look in her eyes.

＊

A few days later.

We left the town and returned to the little cabin in the forest.

The cabin was still the same as when it was just me and Reizel-sensei living there. It was way too small for five people plus one.

“Let’s expand it♪”

Meltya cut trees with magic, Reizel-sensei shaped them with her sword, Viola-sensei hammered nails at an insane speed without a word, Soleil-sensei drew detailed blueprints, and Riene grumbled “I’m not helping or anything” while polishing the window frames like her life depended on it.

By evening, the cabin had been expanded to about twice its original size.

There still weren’t enough private rooms for everyone, but there was a big open space where we could all gather around the campfire.

That night.

We ate around the campfire in front of the newly expanded cabin.

Meltya’s stew. Sweet berries that Viola-sensei silently put on my plate. Bread that Soleil-sensei baked. Reizel-sensei quietly gnawed on dried meat, and Riene sipped soup at the edge muttering “It’s not like I’m actually living here or anything.”

I looked around at everyone’s faces lit by the fire.

A month ago, I had been thrown into the forest all alone. I had nearly died. I hadn’t even been sure there would be a tomorrow.

Now, so many people were around me.

“—And like this, I ended up with four masters.”

I muttered it, thinking it was just to myself.

“Everyone is the strongest on the continent. And everyone says I’m their number one disciple—”

“Don’t say it.”

Reizel-sensei cut me off.

“…The number one is me.”

“No no♪ It’s me♪”

“…(silent pressure)”

“Rut-kun is my number one disciple, right☆ Right?”

“Your fights are seriously so stupid!”

I laughed.

I laughed really, really hard. I laughed until my stomach hurt, and I felt so happy.

When I looked up at the sky, the stars were beautiful.

It was the same cabin as the morning in the prologue. The same smell of campfire.

But back then, it had still been “the story before I got here.”

—Now, I’m right here.