Chapter 101: Blood
In the following days after opening the clinic, Valens found himself in a monotonous rhythm of healing patients and trying to spread his image amongst them. He made a point of coming across as shady, noisy, and a touch crooked in the mind to fit the image of a Healer hiding from the Church in plain sight.
Garran, Dain, and even Mas took turns acting as guardians inside the clinic while Captain Edric demanded daily reports from Valens. Those generally consisted of the names of particularly suspicious people who belonged to the gangs, and a list of people under the influence—Lenora’s term for people whose souls were shrouded—was given to the Church.
The number was easily around hundreds, which was the sole reason why the Bishop decided to keep a close eye on those people rather than arresting each one of them. Valens agreed with him. There was, after all, nothing wrong with these people other than the fact that some interesting trick hid their souls, and unlike Jack who got delivered a book from a mysterious woman, the memories of these people were as normal as normal got in the poor ring of Belgrave.
Still, the fact that the clinic had changed the lives of Belgrave’s poor was enough of a justification for Valens for all the work he was doing here. The number of women and children needing immediate care was alarming, most suffering from contagious diseases that thrived in the narrow confines of their houses.
In a few days, the penicillin would be ready to work as a more permanent solution than visiting a clinic, and while the medication was a rather interesting matter in the Church, Valens felt confident he could make it a staple of the Blessed Father’s eternal grace.
Every day after work, he spent a few hours in the company office. Not only did newspapers arrive at their doorstep, but he also had access to classified files that Percival brought from the Cathedral, allowing him to familiarize himself with Belgrave and the Church.
As he’d learned, the new King, His Majesty Edmund, was seen as a visionary in Melton and praised especially by the companies that had the chance to expand their operations under his rule.
There were still voices raised against the changes he brought, though. The other day, Valens read a certain headline written by Edwin Trask, a journalist from Belgrave News, which mentioned that Melton was becoming too Caligian under Majesty Edmund’s rule, losing its traditions and virtues to the insidious claws of technology. The companies, once established to serve the public, were now filling their own pockets at the cost of the well-being of their employees.
It didn’t go as far as to accuse Majesty Edmund of being a Caligian spy planted and supported just for this purpose, but the rather specific details on the man’s past—like the fact that he had studied in one of the famous Caligian Academies for business before returning back to the motherland—suggested otherwise.
Valens was more interested in how he managed to take possession of the throne, though. Thankfully, in these times he had a bored Percival’s company to tap in.
“Melton endured the sheer stupidity of figureheads for more than a century,” Percival started when asked about this recent change in rule. “Even after the Caligian Reveal, the Church managed to hold onto its power by planting its own men on the throne—men who, on paper, had no relation with the Church itself.”
“Caligian Reveal? You mean the time when the Caligi Kingdom decided to disclose the information on those Gates?” Valens asked.