A single carriage rolled through the forest of the Kingdom of Kishirika.
Adventurers hired as escorts surrounded the carriage, keeping a wary eye on the area.
However, the adventurers already looked battered and exhausted.
“This is ridiculous! Four monster attacks in one escort mission? That's just bad luck taken to the extreme!!”
“I'm terribly sorry. Once we reach the town safely, I'll make sure to pay you extra…”
“Ah, no, I didn't mean to blame you, sir… Sorry about that.”
Amid the tense atmosphere, a strange group appeared.
From the bushes on both sides of the road, a group wearing crow-like masks suddenly jumped out.
“Hyahhaaa!! You there, caravan!! Stop right there!!”
“Wh–who the hell are you!? Bandits!?”
“Any wounded among ya!? There gotta be, right!? Of course there are!! Surround ‘em!! Don't let a single one escape!!”
“““Hyahhaaa!!”””
“Uwaaahhhhhhhhhh!!”
The masked group charged toward the adventurers.
The adventurers tried to fight back, but between their exhaustion and being outnumbered, they were quickly overwhelmed—
“““HEAL!!”””
“…Huh?”
The masked group began casting healing magic on the adventurers, swiftly treating their injuries.
“W–what the hell? What's happening?”
“Hey, you there!! You're the leader of this party, right!? You're the most injured one!! No-Face-sama!! Please!!”
“W–wait, No-Face!? You mean the same No-Face who cured the illness of the ‘Golden Princess' and the ‘Silver Princess' before disappearing!?”
The masked group parted to reveal a single man standing among them, exuding an overwhelming presence.
A golden light flickered in his eyes beneath the mask.
“Hyahhaaa!! Great work on the escort job!!”
“Uh… wait, this is totally not what I expected!?”
“Hyahahahaha!! Relax, no need to be tense!! I'm not here to hurt anyone!! Extra Heal!!”
“The pain in my body… it's gone!?”
“Monsters have been appearing more often lately, so be careful, okay? Oh, and by the way, there's a town half a day from here that sells this amazing milk pudding—you've gotta try it.”
“Uh, okay…”
“Hyahhaaa!! All the injured are healed!! Withdraw!!”
As the masked group began to pack up, one of the adventurers called out to them.
“W–wait!! Who are you people!?”
“We are the Indiscriminate Healing Magicians, Nightingale! We heal anyone injured—traveler, adventurer, or bandit!! We heal the sick too!! And don't worry, we turn the bandits over to the guards after healing them!!”
“N–Nightingale…?”
And with that, the masked group departed, leaving behind a fully healed group of adventurers.
Later, though they faced a few more monster attacks, the adventurers easily fought them off.
They received a hefty reward from the merchant and spent the evening at the tavern, spreading rumors about the mysterious masked healers.
“Ask, I can see why people call you ‘Mysterious Heal Man.'”
“Eh?”
“That Hyahhaaa!! thing you do when healing. Where exactly is the gentlemanly behavior Princess Christina keeps insisting you have?”
“I mean, I try to act gentlemanly at first, but once I start healing people, I just… get hyped. I don't know why, it just happens.”
After healing the adventurers, we returned to our base.
In a certain forest within the Medicus territory, we'd built a small hidden village that served as our headquarters.
The slaves we bought from the slave traders all live there now.
Today, my sister came to inspect the place and observe our “Unrestrained Healing Magicians, Nightingale” in action.
“I must say, I'm impressed.”
“With what?”
“It's been only a month since you bought those slaves, and nearly half of them can already use decent healing magic. What kind of training regimen did you use?”
Indeed, learning magic isn't something you do overnight.
Casting requires both knowledge and control over one's mana, which is why nobles—who pass down that knowledge through generations—tend to produce more mages.
So how did former slaves learn to use magic so quickly?
The answer: body modification.
While experimenting on my own body, I discovered that humans in this world have something like a “mana circuit” running through them, similar to blood vessels.
Mages expand these circuits gradually through mana manipulation, which allows them to cast spells.
But I can forcibly widen those circuits—and once that's done, all that's left is to teach them the theory. Then, boom, they can use healing magic.
Although… the side effects were a bit unexpected.
“Hyahhaaa!!”
“No-Face-sama, who's our next patient!?”
“It feels so good to help people!!”
Yeah… they all kinda ended up like that.
The mana circuit abnormalities can't be healed even with healing magic, so they'll be spending the rest of their lives going around shouting Hyahhaaa!! while helping people.
“So instead of more ‘No-Faces,' we've basically created an army of ‘Mysterious Heal Man.'”
“There are ‘Mysterious Heal Girls' too.”
“Fine. From now on, ‘Mysterious Heal Man' will officially be one of No-Face's subordinates. That way, we can explain why their appearances overlap.”
“Having ‘Hyahhaaa!!' minions kinda kills the cool image, though…”
“Deal with it. I'll guide the princesses into believing that ‘No-Face' is the mysterious leader of a healing mage organization operating out of the Medicus territory.”
As expected from Nee-san.
Now I can act like a masked hero and look cool doing it.
… I should probably practice not yelling Hyahhaaa!! every time I heal someone, though.
“Haa, so much to do. I still have to prepare for the academy.”
“Academy?”
“Huh? The academy. You know—the Royal Magic Academy in the capital? All nobles have to enroll at fifteen to learn magic.”
Oh, really?
“But you're sixteen already, right, Nee-san?”
“I'm the heir to the Medicus house. Since Father and Mother are away on diplomatic business, I was exempted for a year to govern in their place.”
“Sounds rough. Good luck with your studies.”
“It's not that bad. I already learned everything they teach first-years by the time I was ten. …And don't give me that look, you're coming too.”
“Eh?”
Oh, right. I'm fifteen this year.
The academy, huh…
In my past life, I couldn't even attend elementary school because of my illness, so this might actually be fun.
I wonder if I'll make a hundred friends.
Afterword – One Point Trivia
Author: “By the way, the ‘Unrestrained Healing Mage Corps' didn't go crazy because their mana circuits were forcibly opened. They just started imitating their savior, Ask, out of pure admiration. Of course, Ask has no idea.”