Chapter 6 Prestigious Healer

After my encounter with the seventh prince of hell last night, I decided that I need more training. And I need to get enrolled as soon as possible so I can stay in my own dorm and have the freedom to sneak off when I want to.

And the only way for me to secure a dorm in the academy is if I have a talent to show. 

Right now, I am in the kitchen with my mother, helping her prepare dinner for tonight. Truthfully, I am nervous. I can’t show them my real talent, but I can pick one among the many other talents I acquired last night. And the one talent that I see fit to present as a mediocre huntress is: healing.

As far as I remember, hunters with healing talents usually stay at the back of the groups so they can provide assistance whenever the teams are in trouble. I want to become a huntress and kill demons, but I also do not want to stand out too much or I might get picked out for important and time-consuming missions.

I need to have as much free time as possible and get called on special and dangerous missions, which most healers are required to attend as some hunters might need our aide.

Now or never, Zarah. Tonight is the night that I’ll show them my ‘talent’.

Looking cheerfully at my mother, I grabbed the knife on the nearby counter. “Mom, mom! Look!” 

My mom looked over at me and burst out screaming when she saw me holding the knife over my wrist, which probably isn’t the best image that I can present as it looks like I lost my marbles.

“Zarah, put that down! What are you doing?!” My mother’s scream alerted the others. My mother stands by the fridge, closest to the open door frame that leads to the living room. My brother and father rush in to see what my mother is so freaked out about. Their brown hairs were disheveled from training earlier and even more so when they see what I am doing. My brother especially so because his hair is long and tied to a ponytail. 

“Zarah!” My brother screams when he sees me hovering the knife over my wrist. He tries to run and grab the knife away from me, but I have already sliced my hand with it. Pain surges over my body as my blood starts to pool out of my wrist. “What are you doing!?” He screams and takes the knife from my hands while I bleed. His silver eyes, like mine, were wide with worry and rage.

“Ducal, get the first aid!” My mother yells, trying to push my father out to fetch the medicines in the cabinet.

“Just wait!” I yell with my uninjured hand outstretched while the other one bleeds. It is painful as hell, but I did not let it show on my face. “Look, I’m fine.”

“Zarah, enough!” My brother yells at me and slams the knife on the table with such brute force that I am afraid that he might have broke it. “This is-” My brother pauses when he sees me hovering my uninjured hand over my injury.

“Just watch.” I say the words more calmly this time when I summon the magic that I stole from the demon the day before.

The wound on my wrist gradually began to close in a matter of two seconds without leaving any scar. In the hunter's society, I know that people see healers as valuable because there are only a few of them on the team. I choose to show this talent because there’s a high chance that I will be kept in the back if I have this type of talent.

After the wound closes completely, I look up to my family with the biggest smile on my face. “See? See?” I boast to them before looking at my father. “What do you think, dad? Do you think I can start training as soon as possible and perhaps return to training as soon as possible? And perhaps, get admitted in a dorm?”

Now that I think about it, getting a dorm will increase the possibility of getting a roommate, which can hinder my original plan. I guess that I am just going to leave it to luck on who my future roommate would be considering if things go the way as planned.

I honestly expect them to have proud and joyous expressions, but what really caught me off guard were the stunned looks on their faces, like they'd seen me morph or something.

“T-The time.” My father stumbles and shakily glances at my mother. “How fast did she close her wound?”

“Less than two seconds.” My brother is the one to answer as he was the closest one to me. He turns to our father. “Dad, I think it’s the fastest rate of healing a small wound among the other healers.”

What? 

What did he say? 

I stood there dumbfounded as I watched my family have a meeting without me and talk about my ‘healing talent’.

I have zero knowledge about the abilities of genuine hunters and huntresses with healing abilities. But I do know that they are pretty rare and usually well guarded. I never met one when the apocalypse started, and I have no idea how their magic work.

Did I overlook something by chance? Now, I wish that I had studied more about talents.

“Logan, get a timer and make sure to time the healing. I am going to cut a vein on my arms. Let’s see how fast she can stop the blood.” My father marches over to grab and wash the knife before positioning himself beside me.

“Ducal, don’t be an idiot!” My mother shrieks. She’s clearly as horrified as I am at what my father plans to do. He hovers the knife over his wrist.

“I’m not. I’m testing my daughter’s talent.” He says and fixes me a gaze that’s hard for me to ignore. “You got this.” Then at my brother, he says, “Are we ready?”

My brother nods while my mother backs away. She clutches her hand firmly to her chest nervously. “Ready.” My brother responds and gives me a look that makes me come closer to my father in preparation for their little experiment.

With one precise and swift stroke of the blade, my father grunted in pain as he drew blood. Blood gushes out like a fountain when he hits a vein. I nearly panicked at the sight, but I kept my nerves cool.

Because if I don’t, it’s going to go badly for my father, who trusts me.

The moment I rest my hands on my father’s arm, my brother starts the timer while I focus on closing the wound. Switching talents came easy for me because I already knew the tricks from my past life to glide around it. The wound closes without any difficulty and leaves a scar.

“Two seconds to stop the bleeding, and another three to close it.” My brother makes an announcement, shocking my parents and confusing me.

“Is…” I gulp. “Is that a record breaker or-”

“It’s a miracle!” My father laughs and clutches my shoulder. His eyes twinkle proudly as he looks at me. “You have the talent of high healing!”

Shit. What? High healing? That sounds important. I don’t want to be too important!

“It’s got to be a fluke. Maybe we should try again? How about I heal Logan next?” I suggest, but no one is paying attention to me anymore as they are busy gushing out about my ability.

“She can be a scholar!”

“I knew that she was destined for a greater gift.”

“Dad, can I supervise Zarah on her training?”

They seem pretty excited, which worries me even more. I screwed up. This is definitely not part of the plan!

Next time, I note to myself, I should do more reading on hunters' talents.