c7 (1/2)

“Yes! Thank you again sir, you saved us every time!!”

After leaving the headquarters, s.h.i.+zuru headed for the slum

People making money off lending money with excessive interest to cornered people, the very model of disreputable.

Several of such shady men were simultaneously making a 90 degree bow to s.h.i.+zuru.

“I’m very sorry again as well, our Ca.s.sie is hopeless … I’ve told her again and again to return what she borrowed but still …”

Recently she’s practically had her ears shut pretending not to hear.

It’s already imprinted on everyone who lends money to Casca other than s.h.i.+zuru that s.h.i.+zuru will be the one to return them.

An unreasonable queen.

After returning the money without incident, s.h.i.+zuru walked along the capital’s east ward’s main street.

His purse had gotten rather light.

Have to get some more cash out from the hidden stash in the clinic, s.h.i.+zuru muttered to himself.

Incidentally, he didn’t leave much money in the slum headquarters.

Because Casca will discover it with her animal intuition that were better than Lady’s and end up using them all.

She wouldn’t listen to anything she’s told, and doing so would only make himself more angry instead, so s.h.i.+zuru gave up.

Therefore he didn’t leave money in the headquarters.

“Doctor s.h.i.+zuru, good morning”

“Ah, good morning. Nice weather today, isn’t it”

Several of the people that pa.s.sed him by greeted him bowing their heads like this.

s.h.i.+zuru politely greeted each and every one back.

Being a skilled physician that could use healing magic, s.h.i.+zuru was well known throughout the capital.

In particular, within the east ward which was his operating area, one person out of every three could tell where his clinic was by memory.

After all, medical technology outside healing magic in this world isn’t very advanced at all.

The existence of magic that could heal injuries and illnesses on the spot slowed it down somewhat.

Also, magic users were a rare existence in this world.

The ratio of people who has magical power, the holders, were one in every hundred people.

And then they were divided into eight attributes, colors, and of them only white can use healing magic.

Furthermore, there’s nothing that says that every one those white magic holders have to study healing.

One would be very lucky if one gathered a thousand people and could find a healing magic user among them.

For that reason, if s.h.i.+zuru were to find another job right now, he would have gotten one before the day was over.

He had been sounded by n.o.bles and the like, seeing whether or not he would like to work for them exclusively.

In addition, s.h.i.+zuru was a magic beast handler who owned the high rank magic beast Lady.

He would be welcomed anywhere other than those areas that have a culture of shunning magic beasts.

And yet, there’s a reason why he stayed even though he really wanted to leave Black Maria.

There are actually several, but one of them was simple and clear.

“… if I quit, they’re going to chase me down and have me hanged …”

Black Maria was an organization that based its trade on secrecy.

Of course, since they needed to get customers to sell their services to, they do put their name up here and there throughout the capital, but anything beyond that won’t be known without thorough investigation.

If anyone carelessly mentioned that they wanted to leave, they would need to be erased for the sake of information security.

“There’s none of our targets that are still alive no matter how n.o.ble or rich they were … where can I go if I ran away”

To begin with, s.h.i.+zuru almost never left the capital ever since Richelieu picked him up seven years ago.

He only left the capital to visit nearby satellite towns several times, a real city boy.

He didn’t have any connections outside the city, and he wasn’t familiar with the land, either.

So in the end, he had no chance of leaving Black Maria.

Another day, another thought about leaving. It was still far in the future, and without even a decent plan, he sighed.

While he was deep in thought, s.h.i.+zuru arrived in front of his destination, the clinic.