【Interstellar Contract Magician】Ruyuanke

Soldiers passing by the doorway walked with steady footsteps. The moment they caught sight of her, they immediately stood at attention, bowed their heads, and saluted.

"Healer!"

She simply nodded slightly, her expression natural; she was already used to this form of address. But something stirred within me.

"Dear Healer"—I've heard that title before.

It is the official title for a new woman who has awakened healing abilities.

In this human interstellar empire, the new men are fighters, sources of manpower, and providers of strength; while the new women—rare in number, extremely rare—are healers, stabilizers, and the last line of defense connecting life and death.

I've seen some fragments in the remaining memories of this body. The original owner used that ability.

I closed my eyes. The pain of those memories surfaced little by little as my thoughts drifted back.

That kind of healing... isn't simply about expending physical strength, nor is it about exhausting mental energy or focus.

It's a kind of ability that... drains away all your physical strength, mental energy, attention, and even the depths of your consciousness at once.

It felt like something reached into the deepest part of my body, uprooting all the energy, will, spirit, and breath I could grasp, even taking away my ability to breathe.

It's not exhaustion. It's—the soul being exploited.

I recalled with a slight tremor:

The first time I tried it, I didn't feel "tired". Instead, it felt like someone was forcefully sucking the air out of my lungs, as if they were squeezing my heart and lungs together until they were about to break.

Those green lights... that green light used for healing...

It's not played externally.

It's more like being squeezed out of the bone marrow.

Every ray of green light felt like it was being scraped away from the gaps between bones and nerves, almost taking away everything that had been recovered from the last rest.

Once used, it will make you feel like a machine that has been drained of its oil, unable to even stand up straight.

The original owner used it. They almost died from it.

I remember that near-death feeling. It wasn't exhaustion. It was emptiness. It was an emptiness where even the body's basic instinct to "live" had been stripped away.

Looking at this soft-spoken, clear-eyed girl before me, I feel an indescribable respect rising within me.

There was also a slight palpitation in my heart.

The fact that she can stand here smiling shows that she has experienced that kind of pain of "her soul being emptied" countless times.

Despite the experiences, she remains gentle.

Seeing me staring at her, she smiled gently and said in a professional yet friendly tone:

“I know your physical condition. With injuries like yours... any other soldier would have died long ago. The fact that you woke up is luck, and it's also a testament to your body's resilience.”

I tried to speak, but she gently pressed my shoulder: "Don't force yourself to talk. The fact that you're awake is the best thing."

Clear. Warm. Steady.

The more she acts like this, the more I—

The "gentleness" of those with healing abilities is a gentleness born from repeatedly being pulled back from the brink of death. It's not innate; it's something the world forces them to develop.

perhaps.

A ridiculous thought suddenly popped into my head:

So, those women... can exist in this way. Not the weak, not rare, but the strongest kind of people on the war planet.

As I looked at her, a kind of unspoken awe gently settled in my heart.

She is light.

Not a warm light, but the last ray of light on the battlefield—

A lighthouse-like beacon that can pull people back from the brink of death.

I remembered that magnificent building, which resembled a church.