I Thought I Healed the Villain's Sickly Younger Brother - Chapter 1.1

“Saint Merrien! Where on earth are you?”

“Saint, the Duke Hartez himself has come!”

Worn-out priestly robes, with visible needle marks, bustled about.

Several lower priests in red robes were desperately searching for someone with perplexed expressions.

“Hmph, search all you want. I’m not coming out until nightfall.”

Merrien, hiding in the bushes a little distance away, peeked out only her head as she watched the priests’ movements.

“For the empire’s only saint, what kind of treatment is this?”

Merrien, or rather Han Ji-an, crouched down and grumbled while looking over her attire.

The holy saint’s dress adorned with jewels.

Yes, that’s how it appeared on the surface.

But upon closer inspection, not only was it faded in places, though not noticeably, but even the jewels she thought were real were actually well-made imitations.

The problem was that no one knew because no one looked closely.

It had been six months since she possessed ‘Merrien’, the saint from a novel she had only read three chapters of.

The only thing she knew was that ‘Merrien’, the male lead’s childhood friend, became a saint and went to the temple, only to be kidnapped and killed by the villain Archmage.

The problem was that this happened in chapter 3.

“……Of all things, to possess an extra who dies at the very beginning. Is this even possible?!”

When she first possessed the body, she was so shocked that she cried out in front of all the priests gathered at the temple.

“The Saint… doesn’t seem to be in good condition. It would be best for her to rest today.”

Soon, following the instructions of the High Priest, who clearly showed on his face that he thought ‘the Saint seems to be out of her mind’, she was grabbed by several people and dragged to her room.

Only after being left alone did she roughly grasp the situation.

……Or rather, she tried to.

This… Wasn’t this supposed to be a room exclusively for the saint?

The bed, the desk. Everything creaked as if it would collapse at the slightest touch.

It was called a grand room, but inside, nothing was in good condition.

The only fortunate thing was.

[Upon filling the healing gauge, you will return to reality after a verification process to check if the procedure was appropriate.]

[If you heal someone who goes against the original plot, the healing gauge will return to zero.]

A system window mentioning ‘reality’ was floating in front of her eyes.

For some reason, she could also see the heart rate of those whose eyes she met.

“…Right. According to the timeline, it’s still far from being kidnapped by the villain Archmage, so I just need to fill the healing gauge before then, right?”

That was the goal to return to reality, but…

[Healing Gauge 200/10000]

“Sigh…”

Now, six months later.

Seeing the absurdly low healing gauge, a sigh escaped involuntarily.

Below it was.

[100% Healing Gauge Limited Special!]

[You can completely heal negative effects or diseases possessed by specific individuals.]

Perhaps the system felt sorry for the meager increase in healing gauge over six months, so it added a ‘limited special’.

It’s not like this was a mobile game selling cash items.

‘It’s not even a healing gauge booster, how is it helpful to be able to heal a specific person only after achieving 100% healing gauge?’

Merrien silently pressed her forehead.

As a ‘saint’, the High Priest didn’t allow her to lay hands on the commoners who visited the temple for healing.

She could only heal occasionally when nobles came to visit like this.

The problem was that most of them were just feigning illness while flirting, so there was no way for the healing gauge to increase.

‘Is this even possible?!’

Merrien, who almost screamed without realizing it, quickly covered her mouth and rolled her eyes.

In that short moment, the lower priests had come a bit closer.

She moved her steps quietly, making no sound.

Towards the maze-like garden that seemed designed for days like this when she wanted to hide.

And surprisingly, there she encountered an unfamiliar creature.

“Hey… If you sleep here, your mouth will get crooked.”

She discovered a white puppy, or rather a ball of fluff, lying flat on the garden floor.

This small creature must have been extremely sleepy, as it was sprawled out and fast asleep.

“How did you get in here? Even the priests can’t come to this place.”

This garden was a place no one ever visited.

Or rather, it seemed like no one could enter. People would pass by as if they couldn’t even see this place.

Merrien tilted her head slightly and stared at the ground.

The puppy, small enough to fit in both hands, was breathing unsteadily…

“…Unsteadily?”

Finally grasping the situation, Merrien quickly crouched down and turned the puppy over.

“!!!”

What could come out of this tiny body? Dark red blood was pouring from the mouth of the motionless, limp puppy.

Without further thought, she infused it with holy power.

Fortunately, the healing seemed to work well, and soon the puppy was breathing evenly and slowly opening its eyes.

Empty-looking blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

Merrien became dazed, forgetting the urgent situation from just moments ago.

The small, precious creature blinking its eyes slowly was just too cute.

“…So cute!”

Unable to resist, she lifted the puppy and nuzzled her face against its tiny belly.

“Arf!”

“Even your voice is too cute!”

The startled puppy struggled as if asking to be put down.

But she only set it down on the ground after thoroughly touching its paw pads.

[+100]

[Healing Gauge 300/10000]

After satisfying her selfish desires, she casually checked the air and saw that the healing gauge had noticeably increased.

“…Why did it increase so much for healing an animal?”

More importantly, could the healing gauge increase even for healing animals?

Her orange eyes, now filled with curiosity, turned towards the ball of fluff.

‘It looks like Whitey that I used to have.’

Unaware of the grace that saved its life, the puppy was on guard, holding its head stiffly in a rigid posture.

‘What does this tiny thing know.’

Haha, Merrien laughed without realizing it and reached out her finger.

The hem of her dress had long been soiled, wet with muddy water from sitting down to heal the puppy, but she didn’t care about that at all.

Right now, this puppy was the top priority above everything else.

“Whitey, come again next time.”

She smiled, arbitrarily giving it the name ‘Whitey’.

Until then, the guarded Whitey slowly moved its small paws and brought its pink nose close.

Boop-.

The moist sensation touched Merrien’s index finger.