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Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"Uwwaahh…" I let out a yawn as I reached for the doorknob. -Hm?-

*vwoom-BANG* *Fwip* Instinctually creating a blade of wind in front of me, I redirected the wooden shards flying at us around Ilios and I.

*Clunk* As I dropped the brass door knob to the floor, I stared at the elf on the other side of the empty doorway with an unamused look. -Are you serious?-

Her face was full of hostility. "Stay back your grace! I'll kill this foul monst-" *WHAM* Before she could react, I threw her into the wall with my aura.

The impact was strong enough to make the entire castle shake, but surprisingly, except for being knocked out, she seemed fine. -How resilient…-

Finally walking into the office, I sat down on the couch with Ilios and grabbed a small piece of buttered bread. -Not bad…- "How's it going, Helen?"

Finally turning to her, I noticed she was standing behind her desk wearing a frozen look of shock. It took a moment for her to finally come to her senses. "V..Vasilias?!"

"Who else would it be?" Using my aura again, I pulled the elven woman out of the wall and laid her on the ground. *crumble* "So, who is this?"

"Ah.. that's the uh.. grandmaster of the academy. The strongest mage in Kaelallan..."

"Ha-ha, very funny..." I spoke with palpable sarcasm.

But Helen just gave me a confused look. "..."

It took me a minute to notice. "W..wait, you're serious?" The elven girl looked like she was younger than me.

"She's actually 110.. despite her.. childish appearance..."

I could only show a look of awe. -To think I just threw an elderly woman into a wall...- Although I did feel a slight bit of pity, at the same time, she was the one to attack first so I felt no remorse. -Maybe she’ll learn to be more careful next time...-

"T..that aside.." Helen awkwardly looked me up and down before simply letting out a deep breath.

"Haah... I won't ask about what happened to your appearance since I probably wouldn’t understand it anyway, but…

" Finally sitting down at her desk again, she gave me a nervous look. "What happened to the nation ranks?"

"Ah, they're all dead." I leaned back with confidence. "No witnesses and no survivors."

Although I expected her to finally relax after hearing the news, her face was still covered in anxiety. "You met up with your Father already, right?"

-What is she worried about?- "Yeah, he just left to go to Bahamut again.

If all goes well, the Tower will be cleaned out pretty soon, so you shouldn't have to worry about a big war anymore.

" Giving Ilios the last piece of bread, I gave Helen a moment to speak before casually standing back up.

"Well, I'm tired, so I'm going to take a nap.

If there is some kind of emergency, you can wake me up. "

Giving a light wave as I walked back out through the empty doorway and passed by several panicking maids. I used my aura again to make sure there wasn't anything else that needed my attention.

But unlike what I expected, instead of everything being the same, I saw Oliver with his hand on his head. Although I wasn’t using enough aura to see it in detail, it looked like he was grasping his forehead. -Does he have a headache or something?-

Thinking it couldn’t hurt to be cautious, I made my way into the neighboring section of the palace and up to the royal bedroom.

-I'll just check his condition from here for now…- Flooding the room with my aura, I did a quick scan from his feet to his head.

At first, I couldn’t see anything serious, with only some minor bruising and a broken finger, but when my aura finally made it to his head, I noticed a very serious problem.

-What the…- His skull was only slightly fractured, but the whole front section of his brain was bleeding and swelling significantly.

-Sh*t! Won’t that kill him?!- In a hurry, I slammed the door open and rushed to the side of his bed. It was only then that I started to question what I was doing. -How the hell am I going to do this?-

I had almost no actual medical knowledge or practice whatsoever, but I at least had some confidence that I knew more than the people of this world. "Hooh.." -I've got magic... Something like this isn't impossible for me anymore...-

Reaching over to him, I set my hand on his swollen forehead. -Okay, first.. I need a much closer look…-

As my aura flooded his brain, an insanely detailed image of his head appeared in my mind, letting me easily highlight the problematic areas. -Alright, I need to stop the bleeding first...-

Using a mix of my aura and extra mana, I slowly started to take control of the blood in the front portion of his brain, forcing it to flow through the normal channels as if they weren't torn and tattered.

But that could only just barely give the cells a chance to heal themselves. -It's not enough…-

Needing to move my attention elsewhere, I brainstormed until I decided to just use earth mana and strengthening magic to 'stitch' the holes shut.

Although it was quite amateurish and definitely wouldn't hold for too long, it seemed like it would work. -With how fast he’s healing, it should only need to hold for half an hour or so...-

Finally turning to the swelling, I racked my brain to try and think of a solution, but nothing came to mind. -Sh*t.. his brain will crush itself if I leave it as is…-

Digging through my memories from Earth, I tried to think of any possible solution to the problem. -I could forcefully cool it all down, and try to quell it that way, but that has its own risks... Sh*t, what other options do I have?!-

But right when I was about to commit to it, thinking I had no better options, a story I heard on Earth suddenly came to mind.

-Wait.. I can shatter the front of his skull to give it room to swell...- It was a mind-blowingly risky play, but... -With magic, I can minimize the risk, so.. here goes nothing!-

Using earth magic, I shattered the front of his skull as cleanly as I could to give his brain room to naturally swell. *CrAcK*

It was a gruesome noise, but the cracks were so clean I barely had any bone fragments to get rid of. -Good.. the riskiest part went well…-

Not wasting any time, I quickly got rid of the few fragments I could find and cleaned up the internal bleeding as best as I could.

It wasn't until several minutes later that I finally finished with beads of cold sweat forming on my forehead.

"Phew..." I made sure to still keep an eye on his condition as I pulled myself away to catch my breath. -How in the world did surgeons on Earth do sh*t like that for hours?-

Although what I was doing was far beyond the mental capabilities of a human, I still felt a sense of awe that someone could work under such stressful conditions for so long.

"Haah... I'm really looking forward to my nap now..." -But I guess it'd be stupid to just leave him here...- Deciding it’d be better to make sure the swelling was handled properly, I put off my nap for a few hours to watch his condition. -I’m in too deep to let him die now...-

- Helen Kaelallan ~

"Haah.." I let out a deep breath as I leaned back in my seat and watched the maids start to clean my office. -We somehow avoided, not one, but two disasters…-

Looking down at the diplomatic papers spread across my desk, some untamed ideas started coming to mind. -The nation ranks are all dead, and the dragons are going to wipe out the Tower...-

At first, I tried to quell the stray, outlandish thoughts, but the more I thought about it, the more I succumbed to them.

-If the tower gets destroyed by the dragons, then the war will be stopped before it even starts... But wouldn’t that also create a golden opportunity?-

12 Nation ranks dying without a trace left an absolutely massive opportunity for Kaelallan to grow by swallowing nearby nations, but at the same time, it would definitely start a war.

-But without the Tower, those countries are left with no effective allies and disheveled leadership…-

A greedy smile slowly came to my face. -Wouldn’t that just mean they’re free food?-

Standing up and turning to look out the window, I overlooked the city below with a slightly crazed look. -I guess it would be shameful to not make use of an opportunity dropped at our feet, right?-