“What do you mean ‘that kind of guy’? Don’t you know Lord Karai protected our research institute? Without him, we would all have died in the fire started by those Count Trow bastards!”

The things they were saying were ridiculous.

“They say the magical barrier flashed gold.”

“The fire started by Trow’s men bounced back and burned them instead!”

It was all nonsense. The new researcher inwardly sneered.

‘Do grown adults still believe in magic?’

He didn’t believe the rumors that Leah Piert was a mage either.

He thought it was just a false rumor spread by the Piert ducal family to protect the lady. He even believed that Helix, the so-called Guardian of Mana, and Karai, the supposed barrier maker, were actually the lady’s lovers.

‘Tsk. Everyone falling for such obvious tricks!’

Clicking his tongue, he followed Leah Piert and Helix into the patient room. The chief physician was pointing to a patient while speaking.

“This patient is in the best condition regarding both physical strength and toxicity level.”

“Good. Helix, let’s try.”

At Leah’s words, Helix carefully extended his hand.

“Ugh…”

Leah slightly frowned and groaned.

“Helix, Helix. Lower the output a bit.”

“Like this?”

“Just a little more…”

The researcher watched them and grumbled internally.

‘What are they doing? Did they come here to play pretend?’

But then something unexpected happened.

“Cough!”

The unconscious patient woke up, coughing up black blood. The chief physician quickly raised the patient.

“Co-cough!”

“What are you standing there for! Quickly bring a bucket!”

“Uh…? Yes!”

The researcher hurriedly returned with a bucket.

The patient’s eyes regained their light after vomiting what was clearly a mixture of poison and dead blood.

The patient even managed to part his dried lips and stammered a question.

“Where… am I?”

The previously unconscious patient had regained consciousness. The researcher involuntarily swallowed.

‘What’s happening?’

But that wasn’t the end of it.

“Ugh…”

Another unconscious patient in the adjacent bed began to twist and groan.

“Oh, this patient is…!”

The chief physician spoke urgently.

“Wake the other researchers and nursing maids!”

The researcher, dumbfounded, ran out to wake everyone.

‘How is this possible?’

His mind went blank as impossible things happened before his eyes. What was happening through Helix’s fingertips was something he wouldn’t believe even in dreams.

“What? The patients woke up?”

“That’s impossible! These patients haven’t woken up once since they were moved to this room!”

The researchers and nursing maids who came running, rubbing their eyes in disbelief, were shocked.

“Cough!”

“Urgh…”

“Waaah… Mom…”

The unconscious patients were waking up, coughing up bloody phlegm, sweating, and crying.

“Huh? What?”

The researchers with medical and pharmaceutical backgrounds rubbed their eyes at the sight before them.

Even after rubbing their eyes and looking again, the patients were still awake, causing their eyes to widen.

The cause of this phenomenon was clearly only one thing: Helix, who was extending his hand toward the patients.

“What… what did you do?”

The most senior researcher stepped forward and asked. His voice trembled.

Helix calmly replied, “I tried to push out the poison inside the patients. I’m not sure if it worked well.”

The researchers couldn’t believe their ears.

‘Tried to push out the poison inside the patients.’

‘Is that something you can just casually try?’

‘How do you push out poison with your hands?’

‘Idiot, he probably directed with his hands and pushed with mana… but can mana even push out poison?’

Yet it had actually happened.

Looking at the stunned researchers, Leah, standing beside Helix, tilted her head.

“It seems successful, right?”

“It’s more than that!”

The chief physician shouted, trembling with excitement.

“Not just this patient, but all the patients in this room have been treated together!”

“…Really?”

In response to Leah’s reaction, the researchers who had somewhat regained their senses began examining the awakened patients.

“Gasp…”

“My goodness. Impossible.”

“Is this medically possible?”

Leah hit her chest.

“So is it a success or not?”

“The poison has been neutralized!”

One researcher shouted loudly.

The patients who had just risen from their beds began to shout along.

“This is a miracle!”

“He’s a saint!”

“A saint has appeared!”

The new researcher was astonished.

Helix’s ability was real. The patients he had awakened were proof.

‘Is he really the Guardian of Mana or whatever?’

Then were the things his senior researchers and others said actually true?

‘He could identify chemical components and conditions just by looking!’

‘He’d talk about mana flow and somehow know the patient’s condition like a ghost!’

The new researcher’s face turned pale.

‘If Helix’s abilities are real, then Karai’s abilities must be real too!’

Not knowing this, he had been giving looks like “why is he even here?” whenever Karai passed by. How pathetic he must have looked.

‘Moreover.’

The new researcher’s head turned toward Leah with a creaking sound, like something broken.

‘The rumor that the lady is a mage…!’

He began to hiccup.

“Saint!”

The patients, all awake now, surrounded Helix, poised to pray.

Helix politely denied it.

“…A misunderstanding. I am a guardian.”

“A guardian saint has appeared!”

“…”

In the commotion, as the new researcher was quietly backing out of the room while hiccupping, a large hand gently landed on his shoulder.

“Eek! Hi-hiccup!”

“Oh my, did I startle you? That must be uncomfortable. Let me help.”

It was Helix’s voice. The new researcher desperately squeezed out his voice.

“N-no… hiccup! I’m fi-hiccup!”

“Hey! How dare you reject the saint’s blessing!”

“Are you refusing the grace of our saint?!”

The patients, who had somehow become Helix’s followers, scolded the new researcher. With a pale face, he was forced to receive a mana infusion.

The patients cheered when they saw him freed from hiccups due to fear.

“Indeed, the saint’s blessing even cures hiccups!”

“Long live the guardian saint!”

***

Rikeil, who rushed to the research institute after hearing the news, was surprised.

“Everyone?”

He asked again.

“Helix detoxified all the patients in the research institute?”

“That’s what I said.”

Leah answered with a proud face.

The chief physician was nodding his head frantically beside her, with an expression of having witnessed a miracle. Ruyan also chimed in with folded arms, saying, “That’s what they say.”

“By the way, little brother, what happened to Count Trow’s remaining men yesterday?”

“What do you think?”

Ruyan said indifferently.

“We captured them all.”

Rikeil held his head.

“We don’t have proper places to detain them…”

“Don’t worry, brother. It won’t take long.”

Ruyan explained.

The knights and soldiers of Count Trow that he and the Piert knights had captured all confessed readily, leaving nothing to t*rture or threaten them for.

“Even the knights?”

“The Trow family is like a sinking ship now. Knights have to retire when they get old, and why would they remain loyal to the Trow family that has no future?”

They had worked reluctantly due to their employment relationship. But the imperial men left behind by the Oken crown prince treated them like underlings, and the count treated them like expendables.

Now that they were caught doing the dirty work ordered by those men, they had no reason to remain loyal.

Leah grinned, “Everyone in the capital will know.”

The many citizens who heard the Trow family knights’ confessions firsthand.

The knights and soldiers who would badmouth Count Trow, their former employer, to wash their hands of guilt.

It was only a matter of time before rumors spread. Helix nodded as well.

“The citizens who rushed to the Trow estate will also spread rumors.”

“That’s right, little brother. What happened to those people?”

“Who do you think I am? I played along with them before they could turn into a mob.”

Leah wanted to ask if “playing along” meant smashing things together, but she held back and listened to Ruyan’s story.

After the commotion by the riverside yesterday, citizens marched toward Count Trow’s mansion in an orderly fashion.

This was thanks to Ruyan leading the way and the Piert knights preventing any rash actions from behind.

“Everyone surrounded the mansion, and then…”

“And then?”

Ruyan gritted his teeth.

“That old raccoon Count Trow openly hoisted a dragon flag and stood his ground.”

“Gasp.”

Leah was shocked.

“Dragon? The Oken Emperor’s flag?”

“The Oken Crown Prince’s flag.”

Rikeil let out a groan.

“He’s doing everything to survive.”

“That’s what I’m saying, brother.”

It was an obvious ploy, but ignoring it could give the empire an excuse, which would be troublesome.

“So what did you do?”

When Leah asked, Ruyan answered with a satisfied face.

“We left the building with that flag alone.”

“Left it alone?”

“And thoroughly demolished the rest—walls, buildings, everything.”

What kind of selective destruction was this?

“…”

Everyone was speechless for a moment. Rikeil, who regained his composure first, changed the subject.

“The patients Helix treated are going home, so rumors about Saint Helix’s miracle will spread quickly.”

“Saint…”

“Helix, that’s relatively mild. Have you ever been called Lily of Peiren or Flame of Peiren?”

“…Leah, you’re right.”

Leah, the most experienced with rumors in the Piert family, spoke confidently.

“As big brother said, various rumors will spread. Most of them are favorable to us.”

“That’s right.”

“The fake medicine incident has likely lowered trust in our family. The good rumors spreading now are welcome. I think we should take advantage of this opportunity. We should row when the tide comes in.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

In response to Rikeil’s question, Leah looked around at everyone.

“Let’s take extraordinary measures while public opinion is on our side.”

“Extraordinary measures?”

“Let’s launch the new blue cold medicine with great fanfare. At a surprisingly low price.”