And it came.
Ms Sharity approached the Plague Doctor, and bowed her head deeply. "Thank you so much. I owe you everything for saving not just Patty and I from the Noxeus, but Hannah too from those wicked people."
"It has been my pleasure, Ms Sharity. However, this was not something I did alone." The Plague Doctor took a step to the side, and ushered me forward. "This brave young girl helped me too."
"Huh? Wait—" I tried protesting, but suddenly found myself at the center of attention. Then I realized I was blushing, which made me even more embarrassed.
"She did?" Ms Sharity stared at me, disbelieving. But the Plague Doctor allayed those doubts.
"Indeed. She was at the gang’s hideout even before I got there. She would have saved Hannah herself if you had not found me."
It was like something clicked in the woman’s head; she must have remembered the probing conversations I had with her yesterday, and realized the Plague Doctor was not lying. Then she directed her gratitude towards me.
"You have my thanks too, Melas. For helping save Hannah. Thank you so much."
My first thought was to deny it. To have said something along the lines of ‘oh it was nothing’, but I knew it was not just nothing; I had put in a lot of effort to help them, and did a lot of things I would have rather never done to achieve it.
Plus, it was a happy ending. One I wished I could have gotten together with my own mom. But even if that never came true for me, I was content with seeing it happen to others. So instead, with my cheeks still flushed I accepted their thanks with all my heart.
"You’re most welcome," I said, beaming.
Chapter 9: Adventure
Miracles. What were they?
Back in my world, I always thought miracles and magic were basically the same thing. Just that one was the power of God, and the other was the power of… something else?
Depending on who you asked, it was either some innate power people had, or it was the work of the Devil. Or both were fabrications, and neither magic nor miracles truly existed. Different people believed in different things, after all.
But that was back on Earth.
In this world, magic and miracles were as real as Demons and Monsters. I knew it was real: I had seen a Saint— watched him perform the miracles only he could do. So I knew it was real. And magic was something I was capable of. So there was no reason for me to doubt the veracity of both.
But just as they were real, so were the parameters that defined them. Magic was something anyone could do; it was the manipulation of mana to alter reality to how you saw fit. Or something like that.
There were also supposedly side effects in casting magic en masse. Apparently, magic slowly killed the world, since it drained mana from the surrounding environment. That was how Hell became what it was today.
At least, that was according to the Church. What Hell actually looked like, and whether that was limited to only certain types of magic, all completely evaded me. What I knew for certain was that magic was entirely possible by anyone. Miracles, however, was a completely different story.
Miracles were the manifestation of the Goddess of Light’s powers in the world. Before the Great Hero Xander came about, miracles were never recognized by the Church. They were random events which happened to a very small number of individuals, which could never be replicated by anyone; so they were thought to be either complete lies but said individuals, or a form of magic that came about accidentally.
But after the Great Hero Xander enlightened the world— after he performed his Seven Great Miracles throughout Soli to unite the continent— only then were miracles officially recognized by the Church. According to his teachings however, only truly good individuals could perform miracles regularly. Because they were so good, the Goddess would channel Her powers through them. Everything else was an isolated act of the Goddess
It was said he did not so much as teach the First Saintess Xanthe how to perform a miracle, as he did teach her how to be pure of heart. Allegedly.
So only Saints and Saintesses could perform miracles. For they were the ones cleansed by the Church’s teachings. Taught all of the virtues to uphold, and sent on all of their righteous tasks to accomplish.
And yet, last night, I witnessed the third person not affiliated with the Church or the Holy Xan Empire performing a miracle. The first was my mom, on the day she died. The second was myself, after I killed Victor. And the third was the Plague Doctor.
He told me he could not teach me how miracles worked, for he himself did not know. It was less defined than even magic— more of a feeling he unlocked one time when he was younger. And he could simply do it ever since. So I thrust a hand out, and—
Why isn’t it working!
I had done a miracle before. I knew I did. Or at least, I thought I did.
Unfortunately, I was exhausted. Too tired to even remember what happened. And a lot of things happened that night. I only remembered a swirling of emotions, feeling a lot of things inside of me, before I suddenly was fine.
So there was no frame of reference for me to work with; I could only throw my hands up and sigh, as I had wasted the last hour trying to perform a miracle. It was probably a few hours past noon by now. And I was feeling hungry.
I only took a few hours to nap after I
