Stitches was part of a large group of healers and people of similar capabilities who had been conscripted from the same area. Since Stitches' plane was located pretty far from the border between the human and the demon realms, his hometown wasn't in any danger. But that also meant he had a long way to travel by boat.
A lot of the demons' initial attacks had been executed thanks to the widespread portals in the human realm, and until the people in charge figured out how the demons had infiltrated the portals, they would be shut down. Without portals, the only way to travel was through the Void using ships and boats. Since not everyone used or could afford to use portals, it wasn't a new means of transport, and there were a lot of void boats, but not enough for the entire army to go around.
But since healers were a highly requested type of personnel, Stitches didn't have to wait long before a boat came and picked up the group he was in. The boat was given an armed escort as it passed through the Void on the way to the Starsling Kingdom's area of the border. The healers didn't have to be right where the action happened, but they had to be close enough that the wounded fighters and mages didn't die on the way to the healers.
During the transport, the only thing special that happened was the raid of a group of pirates. The raid failed miserably, and the pirates that survived were forcefully enlisted and joined the crew as criminal soldiers. The encounter with the pirates and the subsequent time Stitches spent talking with the captured ones was what set him on the eventual path of piracy.
Though, Stitches didn't have any intentions of deserting at the time. Even when he listened to the pirates who had either ended up as pirates because they fled the war or were pirates even before the war broke out, Stitches still planned on serving his country. As a healer, he wouldn't be on the front lines. And when else would he be able to train his inclination as much as he could during a war? While he didn't like the war, it wasn't like he had a choice, so he decided to make the best of it.
And for a couple of months, it worked out great for Stitches and most of his patients. He had gone from a fourth level mage to one at the sixth level in that time. However, his straightforward attitude and loose mouth tended to land him in trouble from time to time. Most of the time, the trouble was made to go away or ignored since Stitches was a great healer and he had accumulated a lot of merit.
But as always, there were exceptions, and that was what eventually led him to choose his current life.
Stitches had pretty quickly garnered a reputation as one of the best healers below the high levels. And since the high level healers were busy and not as numerous as the healers at lower levels, most people wanted to be healed by Stitches. He did a good job, and as long as you brought the limb that got cut off, it could be reattached. Internal injuries weren't a problem, either.
However, just because people wanted to end up at Stitches when they were injured, that didn't mean they got to choose who healed them. For most people, it was only wishful thinking. That was where the exceptions started coming in.
Saying that people couldn't choose who healed them or patched them up after returning from battle, only applied to common people. High-ranking people in the military or nobles and royals naturally didn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
Stitches didn't particularly like that since he was also a commoner, but there wasn't much he could do about it, and most of those who could choose him tended to give him some extra money. However, what Stitches really found issues with were the shitty bastards who ignored the queue. Even when Stitches was busy healing someone, those bastards would come right in, push his patient off the table, and force Stitches to heal them instead.
More often than not, it would end with the so-called patient being in a more dire need of healing after visiting Stitches than before. Considering they were healthy enough to force their way through to Stitches and try to force him to heal them, Stitches didn't see an issue with showing them what actual injuries looked like.
Although the pompous and ignorant bastards who ended up beaten by Stitches complained to people higher up in the military's food chain, most of them were ignored. Stitches' merits and reputation weren't for nothing, and if the military indulged spoiled brats who treated the main force of the army like dogshit, no one would want to serve anymore. Rebellion and mutiny were two of the last things the ruling class wanted to happen in the middle of a war with the demon realm.
However, the incidents kept happening, and dissatisfaction regarding Stitches kept building among the higher-ups. It was their kids and relatives who were beaten and injured at the doctor's office after all.
And then the last straw came.
Stitches was working on a patient in absolutely emergent need of healing. The fact that the person was even alive long enough to reach Stitches was a miracle, and as soon as Stitches stopped pumping life force into them, they would die.
Stitches was tense and worked with absolute focus. The entire tent and the people waiting could tell that it was serious. Even some people who would pester Stitches to hurry up or to heal them first were dead silent.
That was when one of Stitches' repeat offenders swung by.
Stitches was pretty sure he heard someone say they had cut their arm fighting a heinous demon. It was only later he found out that it was an accident from when the rude bastard was showing off his nonexistent sword fighting skills.
However, that rude bastard showed no hesitation as he shoved Stitches' patient off the table and down on the blood-soaked ground.
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