I’m Not a Saint, Not a Priest, Just a Healer.

Once adventurers entered the guild, they didn’t leave right away. So the guild office was packed full without a single empty spot.

“Ugh, the stench of sweat. Go take a bath once in a while.”

“…Get your hand off my head.”

Yona was stroking Alec’s smooth bald head with her right hand. That hand, with each finger tightly wrapped in holy cloth, was caressing Alec’s head.

“No, I’m just applying some healing to your roots.”

“My baldness is self-inflicted, you crazy bitch. I’m not dying! My roots aren’t dying!”

“Shouldn’t I say you’re the crazy one?”

“Ugh, really.”

Alec’s face flushed with exasperation. Sensing his patience was reaching its limit if she continued, Yona slowly lowered her hand.

“They said one of the scouting team died the other day. But you think the subjugation force will get here this fast?”

Those damn nobility were famous for being sluggish in their actions after all. The biggest lesson Yona had learned in her 3 years in this world was to not expect speed from the nobles. Those bastards believed that speed was inversely proportional to saving face.

Alec took out a towel and wiped the sweat from his head.

“It’s a demon though, a demon. Plus it’s in the Catacombs. This is an incident that will really get the lord’s eyebrows twitching rapidly.”

Yona had seen the lord from a distance before, and just imagining the rippling fat and dripping sweat it would take for his eyebrows to twitch that rapidly made her snicker inwardly.

Ah, how disgusting.

“They seemed to have departed from the castle this morning. They should arrive soon, right?”

“That’s faster than expected. Makes you wonder if his eyebrows really did twitch that vigorously?”

Yona was inwardly surprised. It was also unusual for those self-important priest bitches at the cathedral to move so quickly.

“Anyway Alec, you’re joining the subjugation force too, right?”

“Of course. That’s why I’m just lazing around here waiting.”

“Good. Then let’s be in the same party.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Alec readily agreed. While Yona was a bit mentally off, her skills were undeniable. Her movement abilities were top-notch and her technique was excellent. As a vanguard always risking his life, Alec was grateful to have a capable healer like Yona watching his back.

No sooner had they discussed forming a party than the captain of the lord’s subjugation force came barging in. After some discussion with Mary and the guildmaster, he immediately opened recruitment for adventurers to join the force while explaining the situation.

Naturally, Alec and Yona signed up, and now they were aboard the wagon preparing to depart.

Sitting inside the heavily canvas-covered wagon, Yona stretched out her legs with a yawn. Including Yona and Alec seated in the very back, the ten adventurers tightly packed inside were mostly fellow copper-ranked adventurers Yona knew.

However, their respective skills varied wildly. Unless she had partnered with them before like Alec to be certain of their capabilities, Yona didn’t hastily form parties.

But this was an officially assembled subjugation force, so the party composition would likely be random. Including Alec who had requested to be partnered, a party of about four would probably be formed.

“Alec, how much reward did you sign up for?”

“Ten silver coins.”

“Oh.”

As a vanguard, he was being paid decently. Yona was also getting ten coins. As essential yet scarce roles of vanguard and healer, their compensation was quite generous.

‘A demon, a demon…’

It had already been three years since she was randomly flung into this world. During that time, she had awakened her holy power, been designated as a healer, and spent about two and a half years working as an adventurer.

In those two and a half years, she had never directly encountered a demon before. Most of her jobs had been dungeon explorations or subjugation of magical beasts and evil spirits. But today was different – a battle against an actual demon.

She couldn’t help but feel tense.

“Hey, little lady. Feeling nervous?”

“I told you not to call me that.”

The axe warrior Miscott, who was seated next to Alec, grinned mischievously as he addressed Yona. They had been in the same party two or three times before.

His skills were so-so, but he was the type to recklessly throw his body into combat, making Yona’s job as his focused healer unbearably difficult at times.

“First time facing a demon?”

“Yeah. You got any good intel?”

Though Yona had bristled at being called a little lady, she lowered her tone a bit in response to Miscott’s question. Maybe this battle-crazed guy knew something useful. For adventurers, information was directly tied to survival rates.

“It’s my first time too.” Miscott shrugged with a grunt.

Just as Yona was about to snap at him for getting her hopes up, a booming voice rang out from the wagon staging area.

“We depart now! All party leaders, report to the command tent for briefing! Everyone else, rest up during the journey!”

For now, Yona didn’t need to go. The lizardman warrior Kairoc cleared his throat loudly and headed off to what was presumably the command tent.

Alec tugged Yona’s arm, leading her over to one of the few available log seats.

“Hey, Yona.”

“What?”

His tone was quite serious. Picking up on that, Yona also composed herself momentarily.

“Have you ever faced a demon before?”

“No, isn’t that what those priest bitches are for?”

“But we’re the ones doing the actual fighting, right?”

“You little brat.”

“No, I mean I’ll be fighting too, but so will you as the healer, right?”

He wasn’t wrong – that was the healer’s role, working in tandem with the vanguard as an inseparable set.

“So?”

“I just have a really bad feeling about this one. I trust your skills of course, Yona, but I need you to be extra cautious this time.”

“When am I not cautious? If you die, I die too. You know that, right?”

“No…I know that.”

Alec’s face was quite tense. Seeing that, Yona also couldn’t help but feel tenser as well. Why was he being like this today of all days?

“Anyway, I’m just saying my gut feeling is really bad this time. That’s all.”

“Sheesh…you and your gut feelings. Fine, I got it.”

If his gut was telling him something was off, then she’d just have to make sure he survived. Yona stroked the tightly wound holy cloth on her right arm.

An embarrassingly low-grade holy cloth not even worth an official ranking, yet she had endured for three years with just this. As a healer, her job alongside the vanguards put her in the highest mortality rate bracket whenever they ventured out.

The brutal healer profession with an average survival span of just one year. Yet Yona had managed to survive three years so far in this line of work.

“Just make sure to watch my back too, Alec. I’ll watch yours while you watch mine.”

“Don’t worry about that. What vanguard doesn’t protect their healer?”

“There are plenty, you brat.”

Yona smiled wryly as she lightly punched Alec’s shoulder. For such a bulky bald guy to be worrying over meaningless things like this, it had an endearing quality to it.

“Alright, gather round everyone! I’ll call out the party formations, so hurry up!”

Another assembly call came from the distance.

“That’s just your gut feeling messing with you, so don’t overthink it. I’ll keep a good watch, and you watch my back too. We’ll cover each other, right? Why’s a big lug like you getting so worked up?”

“…Yeah, okay. I’m counting on you, Yona.”

“Yup, I won’t let that trust go to waste!”

Yona gave him a thumbs up with a bright grin.

What a cute brat.