Lady Karina Zlatan was badly injured. For a 9th-tier warrior to be so battered, her opponent must have been another 9th-tier warrior of greater strength or a powerful artifact.
Given the size and devastation of the blast we had seen earlier, the elders concluded that it was both. She had minor injuries from combat while the major ones were caused by the severe force of an artifact power blast.
Regardless of what had happened, she needed treatment immediately. Unfortunately, the only healing mages we had were 6th-tier or below.
That was far from sufficient to take care of the general who was in a critical state.
"We have some 8th-tier healing pills on us. We can use them as a temporary measure." Great Uncle August said as he took out a glass container from his space ring.
"Nirad should have at least a 7th-tier healer who can keep her stable." Great Aunt Solia added.
"The imperial family will probably send over a regiment with a 9th-tier healer soon."An elder from another family also spoke.
"Indeed, such a commotion and her the general's presence shouldn't be a coincidence. His majesty will probably react quickly." Another elder added.
"Then that begs the question, should we stay here and wait after feeding her pills or should we rush her to the city?" questioned a Zocraten elder.
This was a legitimate dilemma. As loyal nobles of the empire, they were going to do their best to treat one of their strongest warriors. But at the same time, they didn't want to be blamed for shifting her somewhere without waiting for the army's reinforcements.
If they did go to the city and the army arrived at this location instead, they would be blamed for delaying her treatment. The same case was if they stayed here and the army went to the city first.
This wouldn't be such a serious dilemma if the emperor wasn't someone who is extremely caring for his elder sister. We have to tread so carefully because of them.
The elders then started to argue about which of the two directions would be better. The argument was between the noble clans that weren't Vornix and Zocraten as they didn't hold as much influence as us.
They had to tread much more carefully than clans with prominent status.
Plop!
August popped open the glass container of light green pills that had dark blue lines crisscrossing. Solia crouched near the general and carefully pried her mouth open.
August followed suit and dropped one of the pills into her mouth. Solia then closed the general's mouth. The general's superhuman survival instincts played their part as she subconsciously swallowed the pill.
Gulp!
Even if inclusion, 9th-tiers have tons of natural defense mechanisms but also methods of accepting treatment.
A light green glow emanated from her body for a moment as the very minuscule scratches and cuts on her body rapidly healed. The major injuries didn't even stir.
August looked at this and sighed. "This is as far as an 8th-tier pill can help. 9th tiers are completely different species."
Granduncle August could only do this much. 9th tiers needed so much energy to heal their extremely tough bodies that even 8th tiers could not compare. the difference between the 9th tier and the 8th tier was the difference between a small monkey and an armored elephant.
"Don't sigh brother. The only ones who carry 9th tier pills are 9th tiers." Grandaunt Solia said softly as she patted the back of her elder brother.
Solia was only in peak 7th tier while August had only recently become an 8th tier. There would be no point in carrying 9th-tier pills that could only be made by the family's few 9th-tier alchemists.
The ingredients needed to make such pills were also so rare and exorbitant in price that only a couple a dozen were made every year.
I learned all this from the books I had been reading recently. It was the only reason I could understand the severity of the issue. Lady Karina was bleeding from her many injuries and was losing too much blood.
We needed to make a decision quickly or things would get worse. I could no longer tolerate the arguing that was going on by the other nobles.
"Shut up! All of you shut up!" I yelled. This caught the attention of everyone as they turned to me.
The elders from my clan and others frowned as they weren't expecting a junior to intervene. Even my parents looked at me with a confused expression.
"How dare a junior.." before the random elders could admonish me, Martin stood in front of me.
"Shut up." He said in a soft tone but it sounded heavy to the elder who spoke. August and Solai reacted quickly as they covered me as well.
It didn't matter if I yelled at a bunch of elders from outside of my family. We are the strongest family present and no one had the right to admonish me, the heir of the clan.
"You must have a good reason to interrupt so go ahead." said Martin as he looked at me with interest.
Uncle Martin knew that I wouldn't be so disrespectful and loud unless I had a legitimate plan. The elders didn't say much after he spoke because even they knew that sitting around and arguing was only making it worse. If I could offer a way out, they would gladly take it as long as I took responsibility.
"Mother, do you have something to give me?" I asked as I turned to my mom.
She was standing there with a smirk as she understood what I was talking about. She nodded and took out an ornate box from her space ring.
"Here. I was told to give it to you when you got to the capitol but situations change." she said in a nonchalant manner.
"Hah." I sighed. My mother's timing for things is so good that I want to cry.
I took the box from her and only glanced at the decorative red dragon on the top. The imperial family's logo can be admired later.
Inside the box was a single badge that was the size of a child's palm. It was an black. shield-shaped badge. There were two red dragons facing each other on the left and right sides of the badge.
The highlight was the golden, sheathed sword in the middle that was painted down. the letters "SSB" were written cleanly at the bottom tip of the badge.
I picked up the badge. As soon as it was revealed, a surprised gasp sounded.
"I can't believe it."
"That badge..."
"Does that mean..."
All sorts of murmurs started as they were taken aback. They must have heard how I had lost my core during the attack. They knew that a warfare strategy genius like me would be offered a position in the SSB but they were expecting it to be later.
It had not crossed their minds that the looming war would have brought forward the offer of recruitment to me so early.
"Take it." I gave the box back to my mother. A small needle was carefully placed next to the badge so I needed both my hands.
I took the needle and pricked my finger on it and a drop of blood came out. I put the drop on the badge before the wound healed in the next instant.
The badge glowed a subtle red as I felt a connection attempting to establish a link to my mind. The badge needed my permission to do this and I gave it as the link was harmless.
The empire wouldn't risk pissing off one of their strongest clans by placing a trap in a mere badge. Regardless, the badge was checked beforehand by my grandfather for sure.
If that weren't the case, my mother wouldn't have given it to me. If she could trust it, then my grandfather could trust it.
My grandfather being an experienced 9th tier wouldn't miss any hidden dangers.
"Anybody there?" I called out while focusing on the link.
I waited a couple of seconds as nothing but silence returned from the badge.
"Hey!" I said once again finding the silence strange.
After a couple of seconds of silence, I spoke again. I was going to bother whoever was on the other end as much as I could.
"Yooooo!" I tried my best to sound as annoying as possible.
It seemed that the third time was the charm.
"This better be an emergency or I'm reporting you to the general." an annoyed voice of a man sounded. The voice was full of fatigue and age.
"How are you going to report when the general is with me." I said jokingly.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Both of us went silent as the elders around stared at me for the awful timing of the joke.
"Ryan Vornix I presume?" The man on the badge said after processing the shock. It seemed the badge was registered to me.
I guess the general was either assured that I wouldn't reject her earlier offer or the registration happened after I did.
"Yup, that's me." I said calmly.
'How far from Nirad is she? How's her condition?" he asked. As I had guessed, the SSB knew at least something of her circumstance to ask me this.
"5 miles north of the city, on Phalan road." I told him the relative location of our area and then explained how bad her condition was.
"Her condition isn't very good. we healed the minor injuries with a pill but she still has received major damage. She is bleeding at a considerable rate. The situation is critical." I empathized that she needed immediate treatment.
"Bring her to Nirad immediately. There is an 8th-tier healing mage stationed there. She should be able to handle it until our 9th-tier healer arrives." the man gave out his order.
The elders didn't even taste a second when they heard this. They carefully made a bed of mana under Lady Karina and floated her up carefully. They nodded at me and then flew away at a brisk but careful speed.
They would reach the city in a little over 5 minutes with their speed.
"How long until the reinforcement arrives?" I asked the man after that group was out of sight, The remaining elders perked up their ears. Until those guys arrived, they had to be responsible for everything.
"We would have teleported them within minutes but there is some sort of spatial interference in play around Nirad. They will teleport to the nearest city and fly over within an hour."
The man no longer spoke in a tired or annoyed manner. His voice had become softer as there was some relief in it. With how deeply spread and informed the SSB is, they must have long reacted to what happened before I even called.
He probably didn't pick up the call on the first 2 attempts as they were busy reacting to the sudden events.
"Alright then. Let's send this here, we also have to head to the city ourselves." I said, trying to end it there.
"Sure. I shall meet you when you arrive at the capitol." The man caught off the call, not before I caught a sense of amusement in his voice.
Since no one was in the mood to eat lunch in the open, we quickly packed at rushed our way to the city. We made it there in 20 minutes.
After they confirmed our noble identities, the city guards let all of us in seamlessly.
All the noble clans split up as the grandaunt Solia assured them Vornix would handle the matters from there. The other noble families were glad to hear this.
Though they would not get any credit for aiding Lady Karina, it's not like they actually helped. They rather not be involved or named at all. No attention is the best attention when it comes to the current emperor.
Once we had made it to the hinn we had reserved months in advance, I quickly confronted my mother.
"You didn't have to give it to me but at least telling me about it would have been nice."
I was complaining that I wasn't even informed that the identity badge was left for me by the general before she left our estate.
"I didn't really have the time my child. I couldn't bear to do so when you were occupied with healing." she said with concern.
My mother really was being considerate. I nodded my head as I agreed that telling me about the badge would only burden me when I couldn't even move. Plus my mind was overly occupied with too many things as it still is.
'How about after I recovered?' I asked even though I knew the answer.
"Hmph, you were so busy that I didn't even see you unless it was dinner. You know I don't like talking about business during dinner." she replied.
I sighed in defeat as her reasons were foolproof. I was running around training Risa and getting rid of Elina's attackers. I need to spend more time with my parents as Elina is doing.
She had already missed her eldest son for 3 years. I couldn't make her heart take any more neglect. I vowed to find more time for my mother and even my father.
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Author:
I jammed my finger yesterday while playing basketball. It is pretty bad as I have it wrapped up in sports tape and bandages. My entire index finger is swollen and blackish-blue in color.
Still expect chapters to be sent out. I can still type with one hand albeit very slowly.
I'll let you guys know as I recover.