Chapter 172: Running Out of Options

Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

- Oliver Kaelallan ~

“Ugh…” Slowly opening my eyes, I immediately realized I was laying in bed. -Huh? What am I doing here?-

Feeling something weighing on my chest, I looked down to see Lucy dead asleep.

I immediately noticed something off about her face though. -Was she.. Crying?-

Finally trying to move her down to my lap so I could sit up, a piercing pain shot through my head. “Argh…” Quickly reaching up to grab my head, the pain continued to worsen but eventually subsided when I stopped moving.

But the amount of noise and movement I made was already too much. “Nnngh.. Huh?” Lucy looked at me with wide eyes for a moment before the tears started to flow again. “You're awaaake!" She immediately slammed her head into my chest and started crying again.

Not really sure what to do, I simply moved my arms and embraced her for a moment. "I'm sorry I worried you…"

She continued to cry for a couple more minutes after that, but eventually, she stopped and sat up next to me.

-I should sit up too…- But when I tried to move, the sharp, needle-like pain shot through my head again. "Ack!" Although I tried not to show it, I gritted my teeth and immediately caught Lucy’s attention.

"Please just lay down Father, you're hurt… Sir Doctor said you shouldn’t be moving at all for a while."

-Sir Doctor?- It took a second for me to figure out who she was talking about, but I eventually just complied with her and relaxed again. "Where is your mother, sweetie?"

"Mother is doing some work. She was one of the first to wake up."

-First to wake up?- "What happened?"

"Well.. all I know is that it has to do with something within the palace sucking mana out of everything, including people... When I finally managed to get back to the palace, there were still people unconscious everywhere, but their injuries were minor."

"A mana suction that sucked mana out of people?" I honestly couldn’t wrap my head around the idea.

"The suction was pulling mana out of people and making everyone pass out from mana exhaustion.” She paused before noticing me trying to remember everything before I passed out. “I'll go get Mother, just stay still, Father. You hurt your head really bad."

"Alright.. thank you, sweetheart."

As she slid off the side of the bed, she moved over and patted me on the forehead before running out into the hallway.

With some time alone, I quickly tried my best to piece together my memories to figure things out as best I could.

-A mana suction so strong that it pulls mana out of people... How is that even possible? Could it have been.. a dragon?- Using memories of Vasilias in Kaelallan as a stepping stone, I quickly pieced together my memories and got to a point where I could remember most things.

But that was when one memory came to mind. -OH HELL, WHAT ABOUT THE TOWER?!- Suddenly remembering the situation with the Kingdom of Zan and how Vasilias was planning to stop the 12 nation ranks on his own, I broke into a panic.

-Right.. I called Lawton and Ms. Coletti to my office to send them after him, but...- Finally managing to recover the memories of right before the disaster, I tried to think of what to do, but nothing came to mind.

*Click* That was when the door opened again.

"How are you feeling?" As she walked through the door, Helen looked at me with a face of concern.

Urgently trying to figure out how to tell her about the situation, I averted my eyes. "Could be better."

*tap-tap-tap* Quickly walking up next to me, she threw her arms around me. "T..thank goodness you're alright..." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"Thanks for your worry, honey. But putting aside myself for a moment, what's the condition of everyone? I need to talk to Lawton and Ms. Coletti urgently."

As she pulled away, she quickly clammed up. "They.. aren't great… Lawton is not the worst possible situation, but.. Coletti is not in a great state. We think it might be more than just mana exhaustion for her."

"What do you mean?"

"She is still super pale and she hasn't said anything since she woke up."

"Haah… Sh*t…"

Helen immediately fell into a panic when she heard me curse. "What's the matter? Are you hurting somewhere?"

"No, no... It's not that..."

"Then what is-"

Realizing there was no need to hide it, I quickly explained the whole situation regarding the towers ‘under the table’ moves to her, and took extra care when mentioning Vasilias, but little did I know, it didn’t help alleviate my worries at all.

"I remember calling Lawton and Ms. Coletti to my office to give them a plan to help Vasilias in the shadows, but I can't remember what happened after that."

Helen's face was pale. Likely realizing how grim the situation was, and realizing how only one plan had the slightest chance of success.

The only viable plan was for Vasilias to win the fight cleanly without being heavily injured or killed, but in our eyes, that was nothing short of a miracle.

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"Vasilias is too young to fight that many Nation ranks no matter how much of a freak he is…" As she started feeling lightheaded from anxiety, she moved over and laid herself down on the bottom of the bed.

I wanted to comfort her desperately, but I couldn’t move a muscle. "I know… I don't know how I’m going to face Osto when he gets back.."

When I said that though, Helen jolted up. "What if we asked that halfie in the plaza for help?"

To her, it might have sounded like a decent idea, but I could only shut it down without the slightest bit of thought. "You didn't see them fight, did you? It wasn't much of a fight at all, and Vasilias never even entered his dragon form…"

As the hope drained from her face, she quickly laid back down. "Well.. maybe he will be alright then…"

"All we can do is hope and pray that Osto can get back in time…" -Even if he gets mad at me, at least he could maybe save Vasilias…-

Turning my head to the side, I looked out of my window towards the sunset. -It really is beautiful tonight…-

- Osto ~

“Haah…” I took a deep breath to shake off the discomfort from my humanoid form as I turned to run out of the forest.

It had been several hours since I left Bahamut and it felt good to finally be on the ground, but at the same time, I couldn’t dally. -I need to get back and tell Vasilias about the situation…-

But as I started coming up on the gate, I noticed that everyone's auras felt a bit weak, but after another moment, I figured it was just my mind playing tricks and continued into the city.

But that lack of worry didn’t last long.

As I passed through the lower district, mostly everything seemed normal but the knights were all frantically running around with medics, a sight normally only seen during times of crisis or invasion. -But considering the knights at the gate acted normal, that shouldn’t be the case…-

Quickly continuing all the way to the palace, my concern only continued to grow.

"We can't let you in sir." The knight at the gate stopped me as I got close.

"Why not? I'm Osto Whyte, I used to party with the Kaelallan family." Quickly holding up my ID, I showed my Kaelallan crest and expected to be let in, but the knight didn’t budge.

"We were told not to let anyone in, sir. It was an order." The knight seemed exhausted but I didn’t question it.

"Then how about you send someone in to tell the royal family that I'm here." Getting annoyed with the knights' lack of compliance, I contemplated forcing my way in. -I need to figure out what happened..-

But thankfully, a short moment later, a young maid ran out of the palace and came to the gate, "Please follow me, Sir Whyte."

Quickly making my way inside, I noticed the maids and butlers frantically carrying around piles of papers and some rarely seen calculation artifacts, but before my worries could grow too much, we finally made it to Oliver’s bedroom.

"Your Majesty, Sir Whyte has arrived."

"Please come in.."

Quickly opening the door, not knowing what to expect, revealed Olver and Helen laying on the bed.

I honestly didn’t know what to even think of the situation. "What happened?"

But Oliver was reluctant to talk, and even spoke with a sense of anxiety in his voice. "Haah.. it's a long story I'd recommend you sit down for..."

Instinctively complying, I sat down and looked at him with a worried look.

"Hooh.. where should I start…” Oliver spoke for quite a while after that, explaining everything that happened and the entire situation in extensive detail, but there was one thing he forgot to mention at all.

"So, what about Vasilias?" -He didn’t run away did he?-

But as I looked at Oliver, he just averted his eyes. "He.. left to go fight the 12 nation ranks alone.."

My whole world froze immediately. -He did what…-

"I was getting Lawton and the grandmaster together to send them out to assist him, but the mana suction I talked about earlier happened and derailed that plan."

As the realization that Vasilias could die finally came to mind, every other minor worry on my mind turned to dust, and my eyes filled with bloodlust. "You said the kingdom of Zan right?"

Oliver’s face was extremely pale as he tried to look at me. "Y..yes.."

Quickly standing up and walking out onto the balcony, I glanced over my shoulder and gave Helen and Oliver a look of fury. “If he dies, you’re dead.”

As their faces paled further, I leapt off the balcony into the garden before changing into my dragon form once again, not caring enough to make the light magic cloaking me any good. -It’s not like it’ll matter anyway…-

*Fwoosh* With a strong flap of my wings, I hurled myself into the sky and started making a mad dash for the Kingdom of Zan.

-Please, Vasilias! Hold on until I can get there!-

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