章節 11: Tension
"Renee is a follower of my church. None of you can take her." At this moment a childish voice interrupted the crowd. The atmosphere that seemed to rile up died down very quickly as no one expected a child to speak out. Much less a child to claim it was her church that they were building.
The crowd truly didn't believe this, but as Renee didn't deny it it made everyone stunned. This effect was further enhanced by the fact that Alma was wearing a simple cloth dress that was dirty and looked just like the clothes the poor people wore when they could barely afford food. Not to mention that despite looking healthier thanks to the food Alex had given her, she still had some signs of the malnutrition of the common man.
Seeing the crowd stunned and speechless someone quickly spoke up and addressed Alma, "Child please do not lie. This cultist church will be destroyed eventually, just look at this house near you. Who in their right mind would build up a house with holes like this in just a few days."
Alma's voice came once again except with a hint of coldness in her tone, "This church is for Lord Alex! Whoever wants it destroyed will be killed!" As soon as she finished her words, the spear she had put away was pulled out and grew into the proper size as she got into a stance ready to fight.
"Witchcraft!"
"No, it is a Divine Artifact!"
"It is used by the cult so it must be a blood weapon!"
Soon everyone in the crowd came up with an idea of what weapon could change sizes. Alma on the other had put on a proud smile as she described her weapon, "This spear is a divine artifact created by Lord Alex personally! It is indestructible and can never dull! As I am still growing, Lord Alex decided the spear should change sizes!"
The more Alma spoke the more it seemed like a child showing off their favorite toy. Renee who had been standing to the side silently decided that this was a great chance to defuse the situation further, "Lady Alma, your spear is wonderful, but should these, who don't even believe in the Lord's greatness, hear about the grandness of the spear."
Alma quickly calmed down as she focused back on the situation at hand. "Alright. Those who wish to personally feel the greatness of the spear can step forward."
"That is perfect my Lady..." Renee calmly turned back to the crowd as she looked at them with a serious expression. "As for you. Please note that this building next to us is made of crete and is in the process of demolition. The reason it looks like this with holes is because the weaker stones have been removed. Do not think we are some crazy cult for ridiculous reasons. We are a church with a God we believe in. If you have any other thoughts, please come to talk in a calm environment so all thoughts can be calmly talked through. After all with how you came here, you could have just killed yourselves for no reason."
Seeing no one wanting to come near Alma shrugged her shoulders, "Well if nothing else I will continue with the demolition." As soon as Alma turned to finish her demolition work a voice interrupted the silence.
"I don't believe it!" Dario stole someone's branch that they had brought as a last-ditch measure to knock Renee out. Dario on the other hand ran at Alma who had her back turned and attacked!
Alma noticed him charge and quickly moved her spear around as she knocked the wooden 'club' out of the man's hand. She then proceeded to accurately pierce his eye killing Dario instantly. "If you are prepared to hurt someone, be prepared to be hurt back." With that simple line, Alma simply went back to work as the crowd of people quickly dispersed. No one came here to die, instead, they all came here to help someone they thought was in trouble.
Despite Alma who was still in more or less rags, no one dared to help move the priest's dead body. All fearful of the power of the divine spear crafted by a god. Even if Renee wore better clothes than Alma, no one dared to treat the child with disrespect and left Dario's body to rot as they went back to the work they had to do. After all they were almost always busy with something, and when they had time they did something to get food into their stomach.
That said many decided to follow Renee's instruction and decided to talk to her when they had time and in private. Still, at that moment no one dared to speak and simply left.
Renee stood still and watched everyone leave. *sigh* "I need to solve this problem before it disturbs Lady Alma more." With renewed vigor, Renee quickly started making some plans to allow better acceptance of her God in hopes that this situation would not happen again.
After standing still for nearly half an hour a loud rumbling sound awoke her. The building that Alma spent a long time demolishing finally went down and became a pile of rubble. "Ahh~ Finally done with the first part." Alma turned to Renee, "Do you think the clearing of this area will become possible now?"
"Yes, thank you for your assistance my lady." As she bowed to Alma she paused before speaking, "Lady, you have said you learned everything to start growing the apple tree?"
"Yes? Is there a problem?"
Renee suddenly realized the answer to all her problems as she smiled brilliantly, "How long will it take to make the tree grow?"
"About an hour for the tree to grow into a sapling, but if we can get a thunderstorm I can make the tree grow faster and grow into a small tree within an hour. Unfortunately, we need pollinators like bees or butterflies to get the fruit automatically... Well~ we could pollinate manually to get the fruit to grow."
"Lady? If I could suggest something? Although I am unsure if we can get a thunderstorm and make the tree grow faster, I know we need to get some trees planted, so if you could, please plant a tree this upcoming Sunday. I wish for the first tree to be planted at the center of town."
"Center of town? So everyone can get fruit when they need it?"
"Yes! And also to make a demonstration! We can show people that this is what our god provides! To show them the power of knowledge passed from OUR God!"
Alma suddenly became excited as she quickly started imagining everyone in town watching as they grew the tree and falling to their knees as they praised Alex. "YES! Three days from now we will make the demonstration!"
***
"Hello, I heard that there was a war going on here?"
"Old man you are obviously too old to fight, please leave. You might be slightly stronger than other old people, but this is war and we can't drag you with us."
"Oh I-"
"I said you can't fight with that cane of yours!"
"Please, at least listen to your elders words before interrupting them." The 'old' man glared at the soldier. "I am here as a healer. You see I hate to see so many people dying, so I came to help."
"A doctor?!"
"Yes."
The soldier suddenly bowed and apologized before quickly pointing the 'old' man to a tent where there were injured soldiers. Since he was a guard he couldn't leave his post but still closely watched him as he walked directly to a tent that held the wounded.
"Hello?"
As the 'old' man stepped inside he was met by several people all walking around checking the patients. As soon as his deep voice sounded several people turned to him and if they knew what to do they looked at each other before one of them lifted up their hand making everyone else get back to work as he walked up to the 'old' man.
"What do you need? We won't waste medicine on old men like you."
"Oh, you don't need to waste medicine on me. I am a doctor you see. Have been for the past ten years."
"Ten years? You look like you are over 70 years old, so I won't expect much."
"Oh please, I only look like this due to a previous patient. They believed that I tried to kill them and used a bunch of things on me in a dangerous manner. The man didn't even only use my safe medicine! He then became fully cured due to my treatment and left me like this. After which he apologized profusely. The only good thing is the amount of ingredients for my medicine I obtained! HAHA!"
The man looked surprised and put on a look of understanding as he understood that medicine used in the wrong way would just kill the patient. "Alright, then how old are you?"
"I turned 82 this year."
Suddenly the man became angry as his face quickly turned red, "How dare you! Old man! Get out of here!"
"Haha! I still got at least 40 years so don't count me out yet. Besides I just want to help."
"Who even are you to claim you can help! Look around you! This is a serious place so get out of here!"
The man put on a harmless smile as he looked very casual despite being yelled at, "Who am I? Well, my name is James. I am a doctor."
Just as the man was about to start yelling again a man's yell came from outside, "We need help!"
Suddenly two men rush in with one nearly being dragged to the tent. The man who wanted to yell at James more stopped himself and focused on the new arrival, "Bring him here!"
James on the other hand smiled happily and spoke as he followed the men to a nearby 'bed' that was really just some cloth on the floor, "Here comes my second patient today."
"What happened?"
"He was shot in the leg a few days ago, but it was nothing and he was sent out again. Now he is like this!" The man lying down was breathing heavily and clearly had a fever.
"Get some water!" The doctor spoke quickly as he ripped open the pants of the man and looking at the injured section.
James who was looking from behind spoke calmly, "It appears to be an infection of tetanus from the metal."
The doctor looked in surprise as he looked at the wound more closely before nodding, "Old man it looks like you at least know a thing or two... We need to amputate it."
Hearing the doctor's words James laughed loudly, "HAHA! Amputate? You truly don't know how to treat it so you chop it off? HAHA! What a primitive method."
The doctor frowned as he looked back at James, "Old man you are a fool if you think you know a better way to treat this!"
James casually rolled his eyes as he spoke to the patient instead, "Boy I know a way to save your leg. At this stage you can have this doctor cut your leg at the knee and have a fifty-fifty chance of survival, or you can go with my plan to save your leg and life. If you don't believe me, you can also wait a week after my treatment where you will either be cured like I said, or need to chop off your full leg at the waist.
Of course..." James turned to the doctor, "So long as you know your medicine you should know that he still has a chance of survival even if I fail in my week time. Which I won't."
The doctor frowned as he looked at James, "Are you crazy! So long as we treat it now we have a decent chance to save him! If you wait he has a far lower chance of survival!"
The young man looked at his leg with great pain as he thought about the solutions before gritting his teeth and looking at James, "What is your name sir?"
James smiled as he knew the man took the chance, "It is James."
Looking at the smile the man decided, "I am willing to take the chance. If I don't heal just kill me for being an idiot."
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