Chapter 518

Chapter 518: Treatment, ritual, and Gunpowder

When Heidi saw that her new patient was an Elf, she felt a bit surprised.

She rarely treated Elf patients. It was not just psychiatrists like her. Most other kinds of doctors also usually did not deal with Elves.

The Elven race had a body that made other races envious. Besides their long lifespans, they almost never became sick. Most of the time they were unbelievably healthy and could live well even in harsh conditions. Along with their strong bodies, their minds were usually very tough. Maybe to adapt to their long lives, Elves had very stable mental states. They were not as strong as the Senkin, who were known as having “stone hearts”, but they were much stronger than Humans.

Because of these gifts, many great pioneers and adventurers in history had Elven blood. They were good at, and dared to, move through the “border” seas. They could survive the dangerous fog and illusions there and still return home. Now, among the many city-states on the Boundless Sea, almost two-thirds of the “border” city-states near the eternal Veil had been founded by Elven pioneers. The most famous of them was Lightwind Harbor, the city of adventure.

In all Heidi’s years working as a psychiatrist, she had almost never heard of an Elf with psychological problems.

Of course, mortals always had weaknesses. Even Elves with such great “talent” were no exception. Compared with Humans, they grew slowly and learned more slowly. Their minds were so tough that holy powers could hardly bless them at all. Only the power of the God of Wisdom worked on them in a normal way. The blessings of the other orthodox Three Gods had very little effect on Elves. Strangely, the Senkin, who also had very stable minds, did not have this problem and were much better off in this regard.

Many people had guessed what caused Elves to be “hard to bless”. After all, the mental toughness of the Senkin was also high, yet they did not have this “weakened blessing” flaw. Among the many guesses, one theory spread quite widely: the old and stubborn heretic worship in traditional Elven culture had made them hated by the Gods. Only the God of Wisdom, as the Protector of all rational beings, was willing to show them mercy.

In history, before the new Age of City-States began, during the Dark Age and the old Age of City-States, this “god-abandoned” nature of the Elves, plus the natural prejudice between different races, had even caused many bloody conflicts. But in the end, Elves used the steam rifles and high explosives they invented to reach mutual “understanding” with the other races of the mortal world.

After that, this long-lived and broad-minded race graciously accepted the signals of reconciliation from Humans and Senkin. They had lived in peace with the descendants of those short-lived races up to this very day.

Heidi walked up to the bed. She tested the Elven maiden’s breath and checked her heartbeat. Then she opened her medical case and calmly laid out different potions and devices on the small table beside the bed.

Those days of conflict and darkness had already become history. Short-lived Humans and Senkin could only learn their ancestors’ stories from books. Even the long-lived Elves now treated those distant days as small, unimportant events that had happened when they were young, or during their parents’ time.

Today, the Elves’ “god-abandoned” nature still existed. Many of their old families, while accepting the teachings of the God of Wisdom Rahm, still kept many mysterious and traditional heretic beliefs. But this did not stop them from being a very important part of the civilized world.

In fact, because of their great skill in mathematics and machinery, and because their faith in the God of Wisdom Rahm grew deeper and deeper, the Elves held a key position in this age of steam and electricity. If not for their clear disadvantage in numbers, their influence on the Boundless Sea might already have surpassed that of Humans.

In any case, in this age, no one kept nagging about the Elves’ folk heretic beliefs that had survived until now. No one talked about their bodies that could not be blessed by the Three Gods.

Heidi lit a delicate censer. A calming scent slowly spread beside the bed. In the drifting aroma, the Elf maiden on the bed seemed to relax her brow a little.

Heidi bent down and lifted the maiden’s eyelid. She held a faintly glowing purple crystal before the maiden’s eyes and slowly moved it left and right.

“You are still trapped in a dream,” Heidi said softly. “Your tense and uneasy feelings have woven themselves into a cage that protects you. But now you need help, so you will leave a ‘key’ to someone you choose to trust. This person you trust deeply will appear in your dream. They will help you fight the things that frighten you, or help you find the way out of the dream…”

Heidi slowly swung the crystal. With the incense smoke rising beside them, she spoke in a low, gentle tone that sounded almost magical next to the maiden’s ear.

As a psychiatrist, she had many ways to help her patients. In normal treatment, she was very good at using questionnaires and psychological hints to check a patient’s mental state and give targeted guidance. But when things were not so normal… she also had many other methods that worked very well.

These very effective methods included blackjacks, golden needles, and gunpowder. They also included Focusing Incense, potions, and ritual crystals.

After all, psychiatry was a line of work full of danger. On normal days she did not only deal with sleepless, nervous students and office workers. She also dealt with the filth that jumped out from her patients’ dreams and imaginations.

“Now you are starting to feel a little calmer,” Heidi continued. “Because the person who will help you will soon appear in your dream…”

As Heidi kept speaking gently, she noticed a faint silver light appear deep inside the Elf maiden’s pupils. This was the sign that the blessing of the God of Wisdom Rahm was starting to work. Luckily, even though this race had a “god-abandoned” nature, they could still accept Rahm’s blessing in a normal way. This eased Heidi’s heart a lot, as a believer of the God of Wisdom.

“You have left a door for them,” Heidi said. “That door is very close to you. You have already given the key to the person who will help you. Now you are hiding in a safe place, quietly waiting for that door to open…

“You feel safe, because you know that the one who will walk through that door is the person you trust the most…”

Heidi spoke softly. As her last words fell, the Elf maiden’s breathing clearly became long and calm.

This was only temporary.

But Heidi had already prepared for the next step of “treatment”.

She quickly left the Elf maiden’s side. Holding the purple crystal pendant she had just used for hypnosis, she lay down on an empty bed beside it.

She gripped the purple crystal that she had received from her father and quietly recited a prayer to the God of Wisdom Rahm, then slowly closed her eyes.

After a while, she opened her eyes and sat up with a puzzled look.

She had not fallen into any dream at all. Had the hypnosis failed?

Heidi got up from the bed. She carefully checked the surroundings, then walked back to the bed where the Elf maiden lay.

Her patient still lay there quietly, with no sign of waking.

After checking again and again for quite a long time, and trying hypnosis twice more to no effect, Heidi found that she simply could not connect to this Elf maiden’s dream.

A wave of frustration rose in her chest.

She stood by the bed and stayed frustrated for a while, quietly thinking about other treatment plans. After who knew how long, she sighed, rolled her sore shoulders and neck, and stood up to walk toward the ward door.

But before she touched the door, footsteps sounded from outside. Then she heard a key turning. As the handle turned, the council clerk in a dark blue uniform opened the ward door.

“Miss Heidi, how is the situation?”

The staff member seemed to have been waiting in the “safe zone” outside for a long time. Now he asked about the progress of the treatment, looking rather nervous.

“There is still no effect,” Heidi said, shaking her head with regret. “The usual hypnosis methods failed. I may need to prepare some stronger rituals or potions.” As she spoke, she lifted the purple crystal pendant and hung it back on her chest. Then she picked up her heavy case. “I need to go back and think carefully about the next treatment plan.”

“…All right, I am sure you did your best this time,” the staff member sighed with understanding. “Other psychiatrists have tried before, but none of them could break into this patient’s dream. Because the situation is too strange, the priest sent by the Cathedral is very worried that this is some kind of bizarre mental corruption caused by the Sun going out. They take it very seriously… But there is nothing we can do. If even an expert like you finds it so tricky, then we really cannot rush it.”

Heidi nodded lightly.

Vaguely, she felt the purple crystal pendant on her chest give off a faint warmth.

“Do you need us to arrange a vehicle to send you back?” the staff member asked politely.

“No need. My car is parked outside,” Heidi said, shaking her head.

“All right, then I will not see you off. Just go back the way you came. I will go and check on the patient again.”

Heidi gave a small sound in reply and showed the staff member a friendly smile. Then she turned and walked toward the long, deep corridor outside.

Behind her, the staff member in the blue uniform also turned and walked toward the Elf maiden who was still asleep.

Footsteps sounded behind her, now about five meters away.

Heidi silently lifted her case. Her other hand reached for the hidden compartment at the bottom of the case. Then she turned around with a blank face and pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

The bullet pierced the back of the figure in the blue uniform and burst into a hazy cloud of blood.