Defected Dark Healer’s Rise to Wealth
“──Welcome back, Brother Kiwi!”
The next place I arrived at was the research facility we had seized from that infamous criminal organization.
As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by none other than Tigar the Fierce Claw, a former prison warden of the Eightfold Gate.
For some reason, he spread his legs wide in a bow-legged stance and lowered his head deeply, mimicking the mannerisms of a Yakuza thug.
“I’m glad to see you’re doing well, Tigar-kun.”
“Yes, sir! Thanks to you, Aniki!”
I continued walking further into the facility.
“……”
“……”
“Tigar-kun, why are you following me?”
“Well, I figured I’d be at your service if you needed anything!”
“No, not really. I’m just here to ask a few questions.”
“Yes, sir! I’ll answer anything!”
“I don’t think I have anything to ask you, though…”
As we talked, we eventually arrived at the facility’s central space.
Accompanied by Tigar and Shes, I opened the door to the expansive research lab.
“──Ahhh, Eureka! Eureka!“
With a whoosh, a figure dashed straight toward me.
“E U R E K A A A──!“
It was one of my direct subordinates—an elf named Anemone.
Gone was her usual languid demeanor; instead, she approached me with an unnervingly high level of excitement.
“Hey, Anemone. What’s got you so—”
“Kiwi! Oh, you have to listen, you have to listen! Eureka! Just now! I have made a discovery!“
“Oh? A discovery?”
“Heh heh heh… Tell me, Kiwi, do you want to hear it? No, no—you must want to hear it! I know you do!”
Anemone grabbed the collar of my lab coat and started shaking me excitedly.
Ah, this feeling… I recognize it.
Yes, I remember now.
It’s just like back at the orphanage when I once fed a stray dog on a whim.
It jumped on me, playing and clinging to me, and by the time I finished dealing with it, I was so exhausted I couldn’t move for half a day.
“You remember I’ve been researching holy arts, right?”
“If I recall correctly, it was a study replicating the Attraction divine technique used by one of the sages from the Western Elf Nation?”
That sage hadn’t died for thousands of years. Which meant their research had remained a mystery for just as long.
Anemone, fascinated by this mystery, had been pursuing what was widely dismissed as a pointless reinvention of the wheel.
“The sage’s name was… Mallow, right?”
“Nope! It was Melissa.”
“Ah, right. That one.”
Their names were both plant-based, so I always got them mixed up.
In both the Western Elf Nation and this demon country ever since the war began, those two names frequently came up in conversation.
“The experiment on attracting holy forces together had been working for a while now. It’s natural—same types of energy naturally attract each other. But Melissa? She could attract both holy energy and magical energy. That mystery had haunted me for years… but—”
“Judging by your tone, you’ve finally solved it?”
“Exactly!”
Anemone placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest proudly.
“It happened when I was in the middle of my research, and, well, I had to go pee.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I rushed to the restroom, and then, out of nowhere, I suddenly needed to poop too! You’ve had that happen before, right?”
“Hmm. I have. After all, urination and defecation are both controlled by the same pudendal nerve, so it’s a natural bodily response.”
“Yes! That’s exactly it! And when I realized that, plop!—Eureka struck me like lightning!”
Anemone dramatically raised a single finger.
“It all comes down to one thing. Just like how the urge to pee and poop is triggered by the same nerve, both holy energy and magic energy ultimately originate from a single source!”
“…Life energy!”
“Exactly! Life energy! Melissa wasn’t attracting separate energies—she was directly drawing in life energy itself!”
Life energy—its true nature remained a mystery.
But one thing was certain: it was the source of all living beings’ vitality, an undeniable force of existence.
So Melissa’s divine technique manipulated that?
Now that was a sage worthy of their title.
“Ahhh, it feels so good to finally solve that mystery!”
“Glad to hear it. Sounds like you’re really relieved.”
After all, it was a puzzle she’d been struggling with for years.
Elves truly have a whole different scale when it comes to their worries.
“…Is it just me, or is this really not the kind of conversation we should be having in such loud voices?”
“No, I think so too, Sis Shes.”
Shes and Tigar, who had been quietly listening in the back, sighed with exasperated expressions for some reason.
Why, though? This is a highly meaningful discovery.
“…Oh, right. I didn’t come here today for a research discussion, Anemone.”
“Huh? Oh, really?”
“I came because I have questions for you, Rose, and Kinsenka.”
“Hmmm? Rose, huh? Well, she and Kinsenka went to the restroom the moment you arrived, but…”
“──Call it the washroom!”
A sharp voice scolded Anemone from the back of the laboratory.
It was Rose, fussing over her neatly styled red bangs as she and the ever-gentle Kinsenka hurried toward us.
“And anyway, don’t associate me with the washroom right after that conversation!”
“Oh, come on, Rose. But you did go to the restroom, didn’t you?”
“I did not!”
“Huh? Then why did you go in there?”
“T-That’s…!”
Rose was at a loss for words, her face turning red as she glanced between me and Anemone.
“Well, well, does it really matter?”
Kinsenka stepped in, almost as if throwing a lifeline.
“More importantly, Kiwi, you had something you wanted to ask us, right?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right.”
We couldn’t let the conversation derail any further.
“Actually, I have something to tell you all, and also some questions about how the strike force should operate.”
“Strike force?”
I explained to the three of them—just as I had to Shes—that we would be acting as a mobile medical unit.
They listened with serious expressions, but when it came time for their response…
“‘Drop Rain of Light at full power and return.’”
All three of them answered in unison with just that.
“Honestly, all elves are basically guerrilla fighters by nature,” Anemone added.
“Yeah. We were just assigned areas, and when we spotted enemy forces, we’d attack and retreat. That was about it,” Kinsenka said.
“There were designated units, but they were only gathered for scheduled reports and damage assessments. There wasn’t any real system for managing guerrilla fighters. Sorry if that’s not very useful,” Rose concluded.
“…I see. Thanks, that’s helpful.”
So, elf strike forces operated by assigned zones, focusing on instantaneous firepower with a hit-and-run strategy.
Since my team would be a medical unit, I wasn’t sure how much of that approach we could incorporate.
“By the way, the mobile medical unit—including you three—starts immediately. Meaning today. Milphobia will send out a call for assembly soon. From tomorrow onward, I’ll be counting on you.”
“Ugh. So, no research for a while…”
“That’s the duty of a military doctor. Military orders come first—you’ll have to accept it.”
“…Well, given our positions, I guess we have no choice.”
Each of them had their own reaction, but in the end, they all agreed.
I understood.
Being unable to conduct research must be stressful, and for elves, who practically worship research, it was even worse.
“──Ah, that reminds me.”
I glanced toward a particular seat in the laboratory.
I hadn’t seen her today.
And just as I was thinking that, the pointed tip of a witch’s hat peeked out from behind the chair.
“So there you are, Mukomuu.”
“──Eep!?”
The hat jolted upward, and then, tripping slightly, Mukomuu finally revealed herself.
Mukomuu Mirmiheart.
A witch who had once been exploited by an underground organization, inadvertently becoming the creator of New Water Medicine, a potion infused with a harmful, addictive spell.
Now, she was using this laboratory to research a new potion—one free from any addictive properties—by applying the same spell-infusion process.
She still wore her signature witch look—a black witch’s hat and black robes.
Well, she was a witch, so maybe that was her formal attire.
“I’ve been looking for you. Why were you hiding?”
“N-No, um, th-that’s, uh…”
Mukomuu’s eyes darted around nervously.
Her voice trembled, and her behavior was outright suspicious.
I had suspected for a while that she wasn’t particularly fond of me, but… well, whatever.
“By the way, since I’m here, there’s something I’d like to ask you too.”
“S-Something you want to ask…?”
Mukomuu gulped audibly, staring at me with the look of a rookie researcher on the night before a thesis defense.
Why was she so nervous?
It wasn’t even a difficult question.
“Mukomuu—how’s the progress on the New Water Medicine application research?”
