When the hour was up, Karl did the sa as last ti, and dumped the remaining food into the cloak of the closest person who had one, then bowed politely to the crowd as Lotus transford back.
"That is all for today, Goddess willing, we will be back again." He inford the crowd.
With an entire hour of healing, almost all of the most seriously ill in the Redwood Sprawl had been treated, and even the clinic doctors had stopped bringing patients to them for treatnt.
Karl could see the river down one of the side streets, so that was the direction that he led Lotus after she picked up the donations from the ground. They ended up walking so distance west down the river to the nearest bridge, which conveniently put them in front of the bakery where they had stopped yesterday.
"Go ahead, you've earned it. I won't even tell you not to get caffeine." Karl agreed after Lotus gave him a pleading look.
They returned to the maid café and Lotus was instantly sward by the staff.
She was passed around between the hugs of a half dozen workers, and Karl did his best not to laugh as he was completely forgotten.
Again.
Even when he took the seat across from her, everyone was gushing about how she had helped all the people across the river as Karl sipped on a matcha latte that had been placed in front of Lotus.
"What possessed you to go to the Sprawl on your own to heal the masses? Weren't you worried that soone would try to abduct you as their personal healer?" One of the servers asked.
Lotus laughed and gestured across the table. "There aren't many people in the city that could take away with Karl there. But everyone was so happy to have show up and heal that they didn't even try to make trouble."
The staff seed to finally notice that Karl was sitting right across from her, then did a double take as they noticed his armour.
"Wow, that's... sothing. No wonder you're not afraid of being stolen."
Karl chuckled. "I take it that you've seen sothing like this before?"
The server nodded. "Yeah, I don't know that pattern, but Guild War Champions all have the sa sort of design to their tabards. Silver for regular and Gold for Elites. But, you're a Monarch. Doesn't that an that you defeated an Overlord in battle?"
Many more than one, actually. But Karl just winked at the server and made a shushing gesture. That made her laugh, and turned the conversation back to Lotus' healing skills.
While everyone was distracted, Karl quietly changed back into regular day clothes, pants and a buttoned shirt, but kept [Eternal Lightning] active on both himself and Lotus, just in case soone from outside the café tried sothing stupid.
"I got a ssage from my mom earlier. Dad's leg grew back in only fifteen minutes after he started sitting under your tree. Now, he'll be able to go back to work, and Mom won't have to stay ho to care for him." One of the girls ntioned.
Karl rembered the one, as the man looked a lot like her. They had arrived just after the second location had been picked, so they must have lived nearby.
Karl sipped the sweet beverage, and watched as Lotus held up a cup to her hair before changing the hair colour to match the pale shade of the iced coffee, but with green tips.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I've had the sa for too long. It's the [Pleasant Appearance] spell, one of the early ones that all Nature Cleric Acolytes learn from the senior students. Mostly it's used to do our makeup, as the Sisters don't let the Acolytes have such luxuries." She explained around a mouthful of cake.
Karl slipped a few slices into the beast spaces for Cara and Remi, then nodded in understanding.
"I wondered why your hair colour continues to change, but if it's a common spell for Nature Clerics, it makes sense."
Lotus laughed. "Oh, it's all Priestesses, and most of the Priests as well. Even Tessa knows it, but she never uses it anymore. Once she picked the War Goddess, she said that she didn't have to worry about it anymore, and she just went for the sa boring brown braid every day with no makeup."
Karl smiled at the thought of Tessa with actual makeup on. It would be completely out of character. Even Lotus rarely had visible makeup, she just randomly changed her hair colour.
"Why not try to link the spell to your mood? You could have hair colour that perfectly suited your day?" Karl suggested.
Lotus shook her head vigorously. "That's been tried. Our hair just fades back and forth between forest green and bubblegum pink, depending on what we're doing. The emotional link doesn't work at all."
No, that sounded like it worked perfectly. It just didn't match any outfit that they would wear.
Once Lotus was wired and too full to eat any more, they got up to go, and were escorted to the door by the servers, who were insistent that they didn't need to pay today after helping so many people, including family mbers of the staff.
So, they were in a great mood as they made their way back to the Inn, where everyone else would be waiting for them.
Including a number of the people that Lotus had healed, as they learned the mont the crowd in the tavern began to cheer for her.
The rest of the group ca down when they heard the commotion, and took a table in the back corner closest to the kitchen, where they could chat with everyone at the sa ti.
"You know, you could get properly wealthy with a skill like that." One of the sailors pointed out.
Lotus shook her head. "I'm a Priestess, rember? We take a vow of poverty. Plus, Karl is properly wealthy, and he's my security, so it all works out in the end."
The Sailor laughed. "Properly wealthy, but staying at the Laughing Dragon and not at one of the Royal Inns in the Stone Chapel district?"
Lotus scrunched up her face into an overly dramatic disgusted expression. "Eww, pretentious Nobles and harp lodies about chaste handholding under the moonlight."
The whole room burst into laughter. There were certainly no songs about chaste handholding in a bar full of sailors, that was for sure.
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