The doctor closed the door behind him as he directed a friendly smile at the three of them gathered in the medical room. "Ah, are these your friends from school? Very nice, I do need to disclose some… news to you regarding the assignment of your heart healer, so if we could get a few minutes of privacy…"
"No, it's fine," Sorenon remarked with an anxious expression as he shifted his glasses nervously. "Have I been assigned a heart healer yet?"
The doctor heaved a sorrowful sigh. "I'm afraid not yet. But I'm sure that we will get one soon, so don't get your hopes down too much."
Of course, even though he said, Sorenon couldn't help but feel disappointed by the news.
Cæ frowned lightly. "If I may, why is it so difficult to get a heart healer?"
The doctor turned to him with a complicated expression. "Unfortunately, for invasive heart healing, we need a senior healer, and they are in short supply. Each heart healing session takes about six hours, after all, sometimes even longer. Meaning that they very often can only do one per day."
He turned to Sorenon, heaving a sigh. "At this moment, your condition is not critical enough to put you in emergency care, but it is serious enough that only a senior mage or above can conduct the healing process. After all, if not for the pain suppressants and the heart stabilizing system…"
He gestured to the machine connected to Sorenon's heart.
"…You would not be in the condition you are in right now."
Sorenon heaved a shaky sigh. "So then… when can we expect to be assigned a heart healer?"
The doctor winced a little at the question. "I will do my best to ensure that you get assigned one as soon as possible; however, it is difficult for me to make any promises, unfortunately. I will let you know as soon as I get another update."
Sorenon nodded reluctantly. "…I guess I will just have to wait."
"I will try my best to get you higher on the wait list."
"I do recall reading that there were five hundred heart healers on retainer in this hospital," Cæ remarked. "I'm truly astonished that it takes this long to schedule a heart healing."
"The number of healers and doctors is indeed great," the doctor replied patiently. "However, the largest issue is that there are also a large number of patients who are on the waitlist. The fact of the matter is that invasive healing inside the body is different from, perhaps, less time-consuming healing you students might be accustomed to seeing in combat. Healing flesh is entirely risk-averse and more superficial and temporary, but healing damaged organs is a very delicate and risky process if rushed, especially the heart. That is why even senior heart healers take a quarter of a day for each healing surgery."
Cæ frowned at the answer, but nodded lightly. "I see, I wasn't aware that it took so much time. I suppose that does explain why they do so few healing surgeries each day."
"Well then," the doctor turned, smiling at Sorenon. "I will be sure to inform your parents as well. Please call if you need anything."
"Yes, doctor."
Soon enough, the doctor departed from the medical room, leaving the four of them alone.
The mood had darkened despite the gentle light of the evening Sun lightly illuminating the room.
Natana looked deeply sorrowful, while even Kelton looked solemn.
"Heh," Sorenon smirked. "I guess this means more free days for me. Have fun with school hahaha!"
An uncharacteristically melancholic smile emerged on Cæ's face for just a moment as he gazed at Sorenon knowingly.
He tried framing it as a positive thing to lighten the atmosphere.
"Tsk, you lucky rascal!" Kelton barked at him, playing along while Natana simply gazed at Sorenon with a bittersweet smile.
The four of them spent a little longer with him, keeping him company and cheering him up. They told him about the hype and anticipation that had captured the entire magicademy as well as all the new students from the slums, keeping him engrossed and engaged.
Eventually, of course, they had to leave.
"We will come visit again," Natana promised as the other two nodded.
Sorenon beamed with appreciation, nodding to them.
"I will look forward to it."
CLACK
They departed from the medical room as Natana and Kelton trailed behind Cæ with gloomy moods.
The sterile odor of medical rubbing alcohol and the sickly energy in the air from all the patients in the hospital didn't help.
It wasn't exactly the warmest atmosphere, especially with approaching dusk.
"Those bastards better find him a healer surgeon tomorrow," Kelton growled.
"…I hope he can come to school soon," Natana murmured. "If he stays away too much, he will definitely fall behind."
Cæ turned as he spotted the old poster that he had seen the other day.
One that announced the number of heart healers they had at their disposal.
Cæ frowned.
The explanation of the doctor seemed sound, but he couldn't help but scoff at the rate of healing surgeries completed each day.
Just one?
All those resources and training spent on training heart healers for them to only produce one, or at most, two healing surgeries a day?
That felt wasteful.
It also felt off.
Strangely enough, the problem remained stuck in his head.
He wasn't able to let it go very easily.
Virtually any other person in his position would simply shrug, mourn the inadequacies of healthcare, and move on.
But not Cæ.
Intuitively, he felt that there was something there.
He had learned to trust his intuition.
The moment they got back to the Elendir Institute of Magic and he back to his dorm room, he immediately began browsing the maginet as he dug through whatever he could on the matter of heart healers.
Heart healing as a process was comprised of multiple phases divided by layers and chambers of the heart, as well as a myriad of protocols that needed to be followed to ensure the health and life of the patient to the greatest degree possible.
All of these took time, and the deeper the surgery had to extend within the body, the greater the skill it took.
Magic was power.
A single mistake, and it could instantly kill a patient.
Senior heart healers typically worked on cases where the depth of the required healing surgery was quite high, making it impossible for apprentice healers to complete the surgery.
This meant that the number of heart healers who could handle more complex surgeries was not very common compared to the number of people who needed them. And given that each surgery took a lot of time, it was no wonder that the supply of heart healer surgeons was in short supply relative to the demand.
In which case, it was no wonder that Sorenon wasn't able to get his hands on a heart healer surgeon.
"Strange… are there truly that many patients needing healing surgery for their hearts?"
He couldn't help but find that a little bizarre, but perhaps it was more common than he intuitively figured. What his mind kept going back to was how low the number of invasive heart healing surgeries per day was.
He couldn't quite point his finger at it, but it was what drew his attention the most.
"…Speaking of which, I do have a healing class tomorrow," Cæ remembered. "I should be sure to inquire into this."
A professor of the Elendir Institute of Magic was sure to have more knowledge on this matter than he could get simply by digging for things on the maginet.
"Especially when the healing professor is a master mage."
This was what attracted him to the class the most.
Having a master mage for a professor was a privilege that only the students of the Elendir Institute of Magic could possibly have. No other magicademy in the country had the clout or the ability to attract a master mage to serve as a teacher.
In the case of the Elendir Institute of Magic, however, the sheer quality of the labs and facilities were so high that even master mages found it worth it to conduct research within the campus in exchange for teaching a class of some of the most talented students in the entire country who would go on to become the next generation of leading mages.
The deal was so good that even master mages found the benefits in networking with these future powerhouses, not to mention the heirs of powerful families who would go on to lead their families.
Hours went by as he dug more into the matter of heart healers and heart healing surgeries, gathering every scrap of information he could.
Forums online described experiences with heart healing as extremely tiring and tedious. Not only did it take forever to get assigned a heart healer if one wasn't in critical condition, but it was also extraordinarily expensive and could even bankrupt ordinary citizens if not covered by their insurance.
Heart healers were also among the most well-compensated healers in the industry, making multiple times what other doctors did, displaying an absence in the supply of heart healing surgeries.
Even people in the inner city found it difficult to pay for healthcare in general, but especially heart-healing surgeries. The people of the slums, of course, didn't even know of the concept of it.
This was despite the fact that, according to some studies, there were more heart healers than other kinds of healer specialists. There was more to the issue that he wasn't able to understand, but his interest was strangely hooked on the matter.
It was only after the Sun went completely down that he put the matter away and went to sleep.
The next morning, he headed to class, immersed in thought.
Despite having slept on it, his curiosity about the matter only grew stronger.
He found himself pondering it, not entirely sure what about it even held his attention.
"There's something there."
It was a strange thing to say about a matter that he knew very little about.
It was also vague.
But his intuition on the matter was strong.
Eventually, he got to the first session of healing magic.
He had already been interested in this topic because healing magic was useful in combat and because it was a valued skill and a large industry, but now he was especially curious to learn more about healing magic.
STEP
The entire class straightened in their seat as Master Zymshir was a man who was garbed in a baggy magical raiment of a simple light blue color, brimming with magic and encrypted runes and magic circles.
His light green curly hair was combed neatly, while his spectacles also seemed to brim with magic.
At his belt was a wand holster, along with several curious tools that eluded the students' attempt to decipher their purpose.
He had a powerful, heavy presence.
One that grabbed attention.
"Good morning," he spoke with a dignified and measured tone, in contrast to the noisy cacophony of greetings from the eager students.
His expression remained unchanged as he raised a hand, snapping his finger.
Suddenly, the subject of the lecture was written on the board.
[Healing Magic]
The students gasped with shock.
He didn't use a magic circle.
He didn't use an incantation.
He simply willed it.
Cæ's eyes sharpened.
This was not pure magic.
He had seen Headmistress Lenolia cast simple magic without needing an eidos trigger.
He could surmise that master mages had reached such a great degree of mastery with their magic that they weren't strictly dependent on magic circles or incantations for the spells they had the greatest degree of experience with.
It was a testament to their skill as mages.
He directed a knowing gaze sweeping across the students.
"Let us begin."