Chapter 961

When Fran and Izario arrived at the gate, they found the situation quite dire.

We heard many adventurers shouting while fighting off the antidemons right outside the gates. Meanwhile on the inside, many wounded lined up in rows. Pretty much all of Bultori’s adventurers were here, and half of them were already incapable of combat.

With the hordes already at the walls, they wouldn’t last another hour.

「Little lady! Can you heal them? If you can’t, I’ll go help the wounded!」

「I can heal! You take the outside!」

「Nice! I’m on it!」

「Nn!」

Fran had grown quite fond of Izario and clearly had a lot of respect for him.

Maybe that’s because his freedom was close to Fran’s image of the ideal adventurer. Now that her target of admiration asked her to take on a task, she would of course get extremely motivated.

（Master, let’s save everyone!）

『Yeah! First spam a couple Circle Heals to avoid any casualties. If there’s anyone still in danger, we’ll give them a Greater Heal afterwards.』

「Nn!」

Fran landed on the main street and checked her surroundings.

「Ugh……」

「Aghah……」

「It hurts……」

More than a hundred adventurers were lying on the ground, most of them without any caretakers. Those who could still fight were outside the city walls fending off the antidemon invasion. Those who couldn’t were stuck here due to the mana drain.

There was at least one doctor-looking guy giving them first aid, and a few healers going around too. Unfortunately, the combination of mana drain and evil intoxication made it difficult for them to move and cast spells. There was no way they could save everyone’s lives.

Fran walked through the main street with the wounded adventurers lying on the ground, activating area-wide recovery spells in succession.

Because we prioritized area of effect, the healing each person received was rather low. Those with more severe injuries wouldn’t be fully cured, but it should at least help them survive.

After Fran and I applied Circle Heal about 20 times, we saved the majority of the adventurers. Some started to stand up with surprised looks on their faces.

Their wounds had suddenly been healed without any indication of who did it. All they could do was glance around in confusion.

But there were still a few who could not get up. Some of them had already passed away, and others had severe injuries that could not be cured so easily.

We gave a quick silent prayer to those fallen, then started applying Greater Heals to the seriously wounded.

「Phew…… That’s the last one.」

『Alright, let’s go help outside.』

「Nn.」

Fran turned on her heel, but a panicked voice came from behind her.

「W-Where are you going!?」

Behind us was the town doctor with a white beard. The elderly man looked anxiously at Fran after seeing her heading for the city walls.

「I’ve done my job here, so I’m gonna help the outside.」

「There is no need for such a precious healer to risk that! You must stay inside until the battle is over!」

「I’ll be fine.」

「What are you saying!? Leave such danger to the adventurers!」

He was the type of guy to go out of his way and rescue people next to the battlefield, when he could have easily ran away. Must be a good man at heart. His tone of voice seemed a bit arrogant, but his concern for Fran was genuine.

I guess he thought Fran to be a healing specialist. Well, that’s not surprising. Given her age, many might expect her to be incapable of combat. Besides, even non-adventurers tended to wear armor on this continent. It’s hard to tell if someone’s an adventurer just by their appearance.

「I’m fine.」

「What? Wait――!」

The doctor tried to stop her again, but Fran ignored him and headed for the walls. We didn’t have the time to explain the situation in such an emergency.

Fran jumped over the wall with aerial hop, leaving the doctor and adventurers behind. It seems those guys finally realized that Fran was the one who healed them.

From there, we had a good view of the battlefield below us.

「So many antidemons, and a lot of wounded.」

『They’ve been left behind.』

Our forces didn’t have enough hands to take the additional wounded inside the walls. Those fallen and injured were simply left there on the ground.

「I’ll help them.」

『Yeah! It doesn’t matter if we accidentally get the antidemons too, just heal everyone!』

「Nn!」

After Fran landed outside the wall, she took out several antidemons while healing the wounded who were unable to move. With this, the surrounding adventurers realized Fran’s arrival.

Fran continued spamming healing magic to restore the rest of the adventurers. Fortunately, most of them were gathered in front of the gate, probably because the antidemons had pushed them all the way back.

Thanks to that, we managed to heal a lot of them at once.

Izario, who had gone to the rescue before us, was a short distance away from the gate. He applied his usual defensive style to attract the antidemons’ attention.

Since he never made significant attacks while releasing a huge amount of mana, the antidemons must have thought of him as a free dinner.

Aside from the antidemons closest to the gate, most of the rest focused on Izario. This seemingly reduced the pressure on the adventurers.

The adventurers also had time to relax now that Fran showed up.

「Y-You saved us!」

「Get back on your feet while you still can.」

「R-Roger!」

The adventurers seemed to at least recognize Fran’s identity, so they obediently followed her instructions.

We sent the adventurers to guard the gate to avoid getting too close to Izario. Fran took a stand in front of them to block the approaching antidemons.

If the horde ever turned their attention to us, we’d go on the offensive with area-wide spells, but Izario managed to perfectly control their attention.

By purposely showing off his mana, he managed to lure all of them to himself. Many years of experience on the continent must have given him a good understanding of how much mana he needed to release in order to attract antidemons within a certain range.

「Only the big one left.」

『Yeah.』

Fran gave a sharp stare to the source of our troubles, the giant antidemon still sleeping while holding onto his knees.