Quinn

For the rest of the week, I continued to do the secondary health checks on the residents. Since not only Frances, Eden, and Sara but also Elizabeth, Maria, and Liam had affinity with healing magic, they became my subordinates and had started treating patients, thus easing my workload tremendously. By the end of that week, too, I had even more recruits, some from those who had already taken the health care course, some part of the health care committees, and some from the military department, adding a total of healers as my subordinate to twenty.

It appeared as of now, Norsewood's healer per capita was eight per one thousand people. In my opinion, that was too low, especially when a disaster strikes, such as a monster attack, raid, and war breaking out. I'd like the number to be at least twenty per thousand if possible, and perhaps we could get that once we've finished evaluating the citizens' status and with more returning to Norsewood, too.

It appeared Liam not only had affinity with healing magic but was blessed by Aulla, the Goddess of Healing, too. Hence, his ability to heal was extremely high as compared to the others, and both Elizabeth and Maria were damn proud of him. Not to mention Theo, who had taken Liam under his wings since we had departed Bedford. I wondered if the man had already considered Liam his son, and Maria and me his daughters. The fact that he was steadily courting Elizabeth was not lost on anyone here.

In terms of blessings and affinities, it appeared everyone who had already joined the military unit were blessed with at least health by the Goddess Arena, and had affinity with either fire, earth, water, wood, wind magic, or a combination of any of those. The men and women who had joined Robert in the woodwork department were blessed by at least Oldir, the God of Construction, with an affinity of either wood, earth, fire, metal magic, or a combination of any of those. Meanwhile, Darell and those in his department tended to be blessed by at least Rovian, the God of Blacksmithing, and had affinity with either metal, fire, wind magic, or any combination of those.

Kent and the men and women working in the agriculture department were all blessed by at least Ulra, the God of Agriculture; Imis, the Goddess of Harvest; or Qala, the God of Soil, and had affinity with earth, water, or wood. Mabel and the people in the textile department were blessed by Emis, the Goddess of Craft while Gladys and those working in the kitchen were blessed by Zota, the Goddess of Culinary.

I couldn't believe how close blessings and one's work interests aligned. At this point, I would say that a blessing had a very strong influence on how one chose one's career path, if they had the options. But in a world that was akin to a medieval era with a feudal system of governance, there was simply no choice for the commoners where a career was concerned.

For the nobles and the wealthy, sure, but for the likes of the peasants, it'd be farming the land ruled by their lords, paying heavy taxes, and living in poverty for them. This was indeed an outdated, unfair system where fifteen percent reigned over the other eighty-five.

With the implementation of education and the vocational courses, Norsewood was beginning to shift the balance, and in my opinion, it wouldn't be long before a near equality was met. Compared to every other region of Athol, and indeed, to the rest of this world, Norsewood would be the most progressive, and I, now as its citizen, was damn proud of that.

Apart from everyone getting damn excited regarding their status with blessings and magic affinities as to cause a series of endless chatter echoing throughout the lodge all week, there were also the elderly and those with vision problems, who had double the excitement because their eyes, either plagued by cataracts or glaucoma or simply due to aging or being born with sight conditions, were now fixed from surgery, magically done, or wearing simple prescription glasses.

Grandpa Joel and Grandma Liz were especially delighted now that they could see, since their vision had been clouded most of their lives as they had mentioned, and naturally, tears of joy flowed.

Grandma Liz couldn't seem to stop crying and would scurry over to me to take my hand to kiss in gratitude every time she saw me, to the point that I'd try to avoid running into her when I was in a hurry to get somewhere. Then she'd ambushed me during mealtime anyway. It seemed she simply had to present herself to me at least once a day, and it'd usually take me at least ten minutes to calm her down. I must admit the mana I gained from her feelings alone each day was enough to perform my routine elementals magic practice. She was that intense.

The loving husband and wife were also damn proud not only of their older son, Derek Porter, who had acquired such grand blessings from Ridall, the God of Education and Learning; Ulra, the God of Agriculture; and Imis, the Goddess of Harvest, but their younger son, too, Grant, whom I had saved from a life-threatening injury, was blessed by not only Ridall but Casyn, the God of Medicine, too. I knew then that I had found myself a research fellow and had recruited Grant into my laboratory.

Perhaps it was meant to be that he had been able to hang on and not give in to the deadly injury like so many that had been wounded during the raids months ago? Perhaps he was meant to join my team as a research scientist in this world? Or even better yet, the first modern doctor, too? I didn't know, but he seemed very promising, especially where his interest in learning medicine was concerned. But of course, that was not the only thing he was interested in. Apparently, he had an eye on my dear healer and number one nurse, Tiffany Haswell, too, since she had taken great care of him during his stay at the health clinic.

As the week progressed, so too did the mapping of Norsewood project. The image of Norsewood's land was now complete, and commencing forward, it'd be the border beyond, mostly St. Kilda, our new territory sitting next to Norsewood to the west, and the border that surrounded Norsewood itself such as Blackfield, the monster territory to the north; Ograd, the snow elves' nation to the northeast; Egral, the mountain dwarves' nation to the east; and the northern alps that curved around most of Norsewood from the east to the south and west like a lover's embrace.

When the map was shown for the first time to the Norsewood Committee, which were the elders and important members of Norsewood, there was a lot of marvel and stunned gasps. They simply couldn't believe they were seeing Norsewood's land from a vantage point they had never even imagined possible, like a bird. Indeed, now that the terrain of Norsewood could be identified easily and landmarks noted and named as well, from here onward, planning for the town would be a breeze, especially when it came to lakes and rivers, the sources of water for everyday living, as well as building roads and bridges.

And just like that, it was Friday afternoon, and I was finishing up with my last group of patients for the day. It was the Etons, Rory and Gemma and their twin sons, Hayden and Hunter.

"I'm blessed by Zota, the Goddess of Culinary, my lady?" Rory, a man in his mid-fifties, asked, looking very damn confused as he stared at his status card. "And not Ulra, the God of Agriculture?"

I tilted my head to one side. "Were you expecting to have been blessed by Ulra?"

"Well, I've been farming all my life, my lady," he said.

His wife Gemma nodded. "Indeed, my lady. I was expecting the same for myself. We as a family, and our ancestors for generations past, have been farmers."

"I understand you're confused," I said. "But of course, there's no need to pressure yourself into following what you're blessed with. If you love farming, then by all means, continue to do that."

Hayden said, "But they've never been good at it, my lady."

Hunter nodded. "They're horrible at it. Come to think of it, us, too. Our crops always fail, and we had to rely on the Porters for aid. None of us are blessed by an agriculture or harvesting sort of deity like Derek or his old man, Grandpa Joel. This could have explained why. Both Hayden and I are blessed by Ridall, the God of Education and Learning; Edon, the God of Arts; and Mihva, the Goddess of Communications. I don't understand what being blessed with communications and arts means."

I chuckled and then said, "I admit you two are the first of our residents I've seen blessed with arts and communications." I flicked my gaze to Hunter's notebook. Since they have started their vocational courses, stationery was necessary, and I have seen most carrying them around, Hayden and Hunter included. Because I couldn't help myself, I asked, "May I see that?"

Hunter looked at his notebook. "Uh, my book, my lady?"

"You're carrying it around wherever you go, and I'm intrigued to know what's in it."

He chuckled nervously as he handed the book to me. "It's nothing much in there, my lady. Just scribbles."