Charlotte hadn't arrived yet, and people were starting to grumble.
"We need to start getting rescue teams together!"
We had maybe a grand total of 8 medics in our group of over 100 people.
However, we did have many able bodied people around able to fight.
"Mark, set up a team of people you think could survive and bring survivors back."
"Take two healers, max."
"Got it."
This was quickly getting complicated.
"Morgan, how is the defense of the camp going?"
"It's going fine, Claudie any news on Charlotte and Lucas?"
"No, Aura, Rose, and the others haven't arrived."
"It's been 2 hours already, they should have been back half an hour ago."
"I know."
"Maybe, maybe...."
She didn't say anything.
She didn't need to.
I knew what was on the otherisde of that unfinished sentence.
I turned on the comm orb in the center of the admin area.
"Claudia, we need more medical supplies, even the healers can't be on top of everything right now."
"Got it, Michael, did we need anything else?"
"More cots and blankets."
"I'll see what we can get the creation team to make, don't expect any miracles, but rock and root beds are definitely possible for now."
"As for blankets, we don't have yarn, but we can use monster hide."
"That works, thanks Claudie."
"Don't call me that Michael."
"Why, you love it?"
"We're on open comms jackass."
"Ah."
With that mess occurring, I turned off the orb and began to move towards the entrance where Morgan was.
I needed to see the damage, if any, we had sustained.
"Claudia? What are you doing here?"
"Here to check the defenses."
"Hey Claudia, about Michael, don't hate him too much, I know he's a bonehead, but he's a sincere person."
"I know Maria, I know, but sometimes he can be so idiotic."
I think he could learn a thing or two from Lucas' playbook.
"I really hope he can learn to be more like Lucas.
"Is that the person every-"
"Claudia, Front Gates, Right now."
Morgan ran past me.
I followed in suit, and so did Marie.
I liked Marie, and Michael.
Both were my friends, well, technically Marie was my subordinate since she was a viscount's daughter, and Michael our superior since he was a marquis' son.
Michael was the second son of the Arkhad March.
Thankfully he was never overbearing with his authority.
"Claudie, we need Aisha, Celeste, whoever is a medic in this survivor town."
The three girls supporting the one boy gathered much attention.
"Ms. Claudia, whatever injuries someone has got, if they aren't borderline dead, he has more injuries."
"What?"
Marie's eyes widened.
"He made sure everyone got out of a battle."
"With what?"
"A tyrant, Maria."
Everyone was taken aback, but Maria got curious about his injuries.
"I'll lead you to them, Marie, join us if you're that interested, but stay out the way."
"Yes ma'am."
She saluted in a playful manner.
"Quite the operation you've put together here."
"I could say the same, he's barely even alive."
"How did you manage to get him here, like this?"
"We used Aurelia's artifact to keep him going for now."
I turned to the people assisting the healers.
"Clear this room and get all the healers here now."
The girl nodded her head and everyone left.
I said room, but the rooms were more like cut out spaces with raised cots for the injured
Charlotte laid Lucas' body down on the raised cot.
"I'm going to try to talk with him."
"How would you do that?"
"He has an ego sword, that I can hear."
"I'll ask her."
"I see."
Inside the large room there was I, Morgan, Aisha, Celeste, Lauren, Korin, Charlotte, Aurelia, Rose, and Marie.
"Claudia we need a silence spell."
"Got it."
"Everyone here speaks not a word to the outside okay?"
"Why does that guy get more than one healer?"
The person in the room aside from us stared at us and said.
We all stared him down angrily.
I guess he felt differently after that.
"I'll cast a cloaking spell, too."
"That would be appreciated."
Charlotte assured me.
"Hey Aura, gotten anywhere with the sword?"
"He's asleep mentally too."
She didn't sound well.
"What about you Aisha?"
"It's like his body is rejecting our healing magic."
Aura responded to her with shocking words.
"It is."
"What?!"
"I need to know everyone in this room will not say a word to the outside world about anything about this. Swear an oath, if you cannot then, please leave."
Maria, Korin, and Lauren left.
I couldn't blame them, nobody did.
We all swore on mana, to not divulge information.
"His blood isn't 100% human."
"What?!"
Looks of shock filled the room, aside from me, Charlotte, Aurelia, and Rose.
Rose and I composed ourselves, while Charlotte likely already knew.
"He has part of spirits blood in him."
"His body rejects healing magic when he gets this injured."
"So this has happened before then?"
"He went missing for 3 months during his knights quest."
"His quest was 7 months long."
"He doesn't really talk about it, as many knights, but during the first few months he encountered a spirit that gave him blood."
"And during the last month, he was tortured by a demon, only to be ambushed by the demonic cult once he got to town, suffice to say, all the gold in my wallet, wasn't enough to get the healers to keep trying."
"Holy shit."
Morgan spilled.
Everyone else felt the same.
"I know it isn't my right to divulge that information, but it's important to how I know."
"I realize you would trust my words, regardless of proof, but I don't want to keep it from you guys, and I don't think he would either."
"So what caused the spirit blood to activate?"
"His injuries."
"He doesn't have full control over the blood."
"Sometimes, he experiences physical changes, mental changes, magical changes, and at times like these, internal."
"Theoretically his body will heal itself so, now we need to keep his body on full rotation for food and water."
"How do we do that Aura? There's no needles for injection."
"Simple, we feed it to him, already able to be eaten."
"I see.."
Many of the girls tilted their heads in embarrasment.
"I'll stay and watch him for the following hours, Charlotte, could I ask you to do it while I rest?"
"Of course, but you really want me to do it?"
"Yes, aside from me, who else would he risk his life like this for?"
Aisha turned even further away.
I stepped forward.
"Aurelia that's enough, we get it."
"I'll leave Celeste and Aisha healing his external wounds that aren't resisted."
"Aura, Charlotte, I'll leave you two to reviving our dear leader."
I smiled.
***
*Aurelia's Pov*
I narrowed my eyes as Claudia said 'dear leader'.
However I removed my suspicions when I realized everything was okay.
Rose spoke up.
"Alright people back to business as usual."
She announced to the room.
"Aurelia walk with me?"
I nodded.
"So was that your darkest hour?"
"If by that you mean, the reason I know when bad news arrives, yes."
"It's been a trying day for everyone, social barriers have decently fallen apart."
"There are some boneheads trying their power, but with you two princesses, and Lucas as the leader, we should have zero problems."
"Got it, what do I need to do?"
"Well, you are pretty amazing at paperwork or so, Claudia mentions from her time with you and Charlotte."
"So I'll have you train for that when he wakes up."
"I appreciate that."
"I will likely take up role as head administrator again, and free up Claudia to join the rescue team."
"I understand, thank you for helping me find Lucas, and trusting me with your story during our rescue."
"No worries, be careful though, I heard you have Emma in your group."
"What about her?"
"Well, she's kind of a snake, I don't mean to be a gossip either, since she's a rival of mine as a merchant, but she's gained a reputation for it around school."
"i haven't really noticed."
"Try asking your teammates."
"Got it, well, thanks for everything."
"Anytime."
I nodded my head and turned back to the room with Lucas and Charlotte.
"Charlotte I'll cast silence and cloak, go ahead and rest."
"Thank you my ever loyal duchess."
"Fufufu, any time my empress."
We had made a joke between ourselves.
I walked to Celeste.
"Where is he right now?"
"Somewhere between lalaland and narnia."
"I see, and how is his nutrition levels?"
"You probably will need to feed him in an hour or so."
"His body has begun to slow down the healing process."
"How is it internally?"
"Internally he's a wreck, he was closing in on the 4th circle from what I could see."
She elaborated on her statement.
"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say his body, mana pool, mana organs, and mana quality were essentially the 4th circle."
"So then, what was preventing him?"
"Possibly a lack of concept."
"Or it's possible his soul lacks the support to push through to the 4th circle."
"It's not that, we had that checked last time he had an incident."
"Ah. So what kind of concept do you think he'll awaken?"
"Probably some concept related to a knights code, or other."
"I think it would be some cooler concept like a samurai code, or dragon oath."
"He's not smart enough to do that."
"You're right, he's not."
"Don't beat on Lucas while he's asleep."
Celeste and I turned to the very tired looking Aisha.
"Aisha when was the last time you took a break or slept?"
"Before the minotaur in the center arena."
"So over 6 hours ago?"
"You've been healing for 6 hours straight."
"Yes."
"What about your mana, how haven't you hit mana exhaustion?"
"I have, multiple times."
"She kept drinking mana potions to restore her mana."
"She's probably hit mana exhaustion somewhere in the 20's."
Celeste upon sayinig out loud turned to Aisha in shock.
"Aisha, how are you standing let alone, not dead?"
"I don't know."
"I do."
"It's one of our artifacts."
"What?"
"Our family has a artifact that delays permanent damage."
"Fortunately the school has elixers, and after saving so many students I'm sure we can keep you from having your mana veins destroyed."
"For now, take this psuedo elixir made by Lucas, and heal some of that stacked exhaustion."
"If I had to guess, this psuedo elixir is stronger than some vitality ones."
"These are extremely potent, and have taken a terminally ill person back to full health."
"This should heal most if not all the damage being delayed."
"Now go rest, I'll take your place with the healing artifact."
I put my hands up against her back and pushed her into one of the chairs in the room.
Aisha at first resisted, but once she was sat down, she was completely out.
"Aura, who will take up your spot as you feed Lucas?"
"I'll have Lauren do it, I trust her."
We both persisted silently.
We were sitting, bodies over Lucas mana leaving our bodies and healing his.
***
*Claudia's Pov*
I left the room for the admin building, I needed to streamline our issues to get it ready for the handover to Rose.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to join the rescue team or the defense team.
"Hey Claudia, I'm ready for the handover."
"Great, so here are the problems we have had with each area in the camp."
"These,"
She pointed at some papers.
"Are the contents and inventory of the items in side the camp."
"And finally these are the order of priority of missions within the camp."
"Currently our top priority is to get everyone healed up."
"Following that we have rescue other students."
"Then we have protect the camp as our last top priority."
"Good luck, leader."
I grimaced at that.
"I'm leader now, but when Lucas wakes up, he should lead, we've all seen his ability."
"True."
"Oh, yes, Claudia, please join the rescue team about to leave."
"Understood."
"One last thing Rose."
"Yes?"
"The orbs in the center of the room are on a public line, make sure to note that."
I felt a chill up my spine.
"Thank you Claudia, sincerely."
"Does that mean your other manners were insincere?"
"No way, but I am truly grateful for your help."
"Nothing much to praise me for, Rose."
She turned and left me in the admin room.
"Rose."
The comm orb on my desk turned on.
"Go ahead, Aurelia."
"I need Lauren to the room."
"Understood."
The orb turned off, and the one in the center began to glow.
"Claudie, I nee-"
"I'm not Claudia."
"Sorry, could you get her?"
"I'm the admin now, what do you need?"
"Ah, I need some more blankets for the beds."
"Understood, could I get your name, and your department."
"I am Michael, and I'm in the rest unit, uh, ma'am."
"Okay then, Michael, I am Rose, there isn't much we can do right now, but I believe there are some beast hides that have been brought back that can be turned into a blankets."
"Thank you, uhm, ma'am."
"Very well, then."
I disconnected the orb.
I giggled to myself.
Claudia had some explaining to do.