Chapter 17: The Situation of the Children
Chapter 17: The Situation of the Children?
A few days later...
The Fuller family group eventually managed to leave the area affected by the battle of the two Sovereigns, making their way back toward Saltstar City.
Without horses or a carriage, they had moved these days more slowly through the dangerous roads of the region. Luckily, none of the many dangers had victimized them these days. After passing through two villages without doctors, they finally reached a town this morning.
Vicente, Lauren, and Nina were even worse off than days ago, with the least fighting between life and death.
Upon reaching this place, Andrew immediately ran with those two guards to a local doctor's property.
After paying a local guard for information, they got the address of a doctor and directions to the place.
So, as the night chill slowly drove the people of this town into their homes, these three adults arrived in front of a residence on the south side of town.
This place looked quite noble and well-kept, with street lighting and a street paved with hexagonal stones.
There were no holes in the sidewalks, and all the residences in the area were large enough for families of 10, and each had its own design.
It was not hard to tell that this was a neighborhood of wealthy or even noble people.
"Please! Attend to us, Doctor Marcus, please! My children are at risk of death!" Andrew was not bothered by where he was and desperately shouted as he knocked on the door of that house.
He had Nina leaning on his chest, holding her with one of his arms while Vice and Lauren were in the arms of the two guards.
Each of them was dressed in clean clothes and had no wounds or bloodstains in sight.
Cleaning up and stopping bleeding was something anyone with the ability to control mana could do.
But these men, especially Andrew, were still dressed in the same clothes from that fateful day, not having had a single shower since then.
His beard looked sloppy, and his sweat stank so that only people as dirty as him or unconscious would not care to stand by his side.
Meanwhile, deep dark circles marked the outline of his eyes, eyes filled with sadness and regret.
But a gleam remained in them, something that showed anyone who saw him that he hadn't given up yet.
Amidst his cries, filled with emotion and fear, the door in front of him opened, and a man with white hair, wrinkles near his eyes, almost two meters tall, appeared there.
This person was dressed socially, with black suspenders holding up his trousers.
"Please help me save my children! I will pay you what is necessary!" Andrew pleaded with this person, even though he was unsure if this was the doctor of this residence.
That man had a serious expression on his face, having come to his door to see who was bothering his dinner.
He was no longer in office hours and did not receive patients in his home.
But seeing the little girl in the arms of the dirty man at his door, this old man could not help but change his expression a little.
Nina's chubby little body was as pale as a sheet of paper, she was trembling, and her eyes rolled continuously.
It was clear that she was suffering!
The man's eyes narrowed, and he asked. "What's wrong with this girl? What happened?"
He could refuse them or ask where they got the audacity to come to his door at such time of the night. But if he refused service, he was sure this little girl would die!
No matter how angry he was, he could not refuse to help these people!
This society might be complicated, full of people capable of committing atrocities. But many people had their moral principles and their professional honor.
Seeing that child who could die in a short time if not treated, he, a doctor capable of saving her, could not simply ignore her case.
As a father of 5, he would keep these people in his mind if he did not attend to them now.
"We were involved in a conflict of experts. We tried to escape as quickly as possible, but the two Sovereigns were too strong for us to escape in time." Andrew said as he passed his daughter's little body to this man.
Doctor Marcus heard this as he ran to his office in his residence. "What?" He voiced as he heard the title Sovereigns from Andrew's mouth.
As Andrew's group followed these men, a middle-aged woman and two teenagers appeared in a hallway of that residence.
"What's up, honey?" But seeing those injured children, Asher Marcus' wife answered her own question, 'Those children are not well.'
She was not a doctor but had helped her husband over the years and learned many things.
"Children, stay here, and don't bother your father." She ordered as she rushed into the office where those four adults had already rushed in.
While the two guards placed Vice's and Lauren's bodies on an armchair big enough for the two of them, Doctor Marcus was already with Nina on a stretcher, examining her little body.
"Doctor?" Andrew pressed his hands against each other, his heart thumping harder in his chest.
The doctor was silent momentarily as his eyes glowed a majestic green, matching the mana coating his hands.
Using an instrument that looked like a coin, he felt the problems in this girl's body more deeply.
"Father, I have good news and bad news." He said after a minute while his wife was already at his side helping him.
Gulp!
"What's the good one?" Andrew asked.
"Your daughter will live."
"And what's the bad one?" He took a deeper breath, bracing himself for whatever it was.
"Her sense of hearing is lost. She will never again distinguish sound waves... She's deaf, Father." He said about what he could do nothing about first. "Part of her brain has also been affected. But that I can try to repair.
However, you should know that there are no guarantees about the future. The procedure can generate sequelae. This can range from damaging her mobility to even her magical talents."
The people in that office were silent until Marcus asked.
"Do you wish me to proceed? But know that if I do nothing, her situation could be much worse."
"Please do your best, Doctor." Andrew sat down in a chair and lowered his head, hiding his face from the people there.
"Dear, get her ready. I will check the situation of these two before we proceed." He said before approaching where Lauren and Vice were standing.
While his wife was caring for Nina, this man quickly noticed that Lauren had lost her sight and also had part of her hearing affected. However, with treatment and patience, she would one day be able to hear normally again.
Lauren had other internal injuries, as did Nina. But they were the least of it, and with first aid and a few days of rest, she could fully recover from these injuries.
Looking at Vice's case, this man was positively surprised, noticing that this boy had suffered almost nothing compared to his sisters.
He was unconscious, and his hearing was also affected, but his case was the easiest to treat of the three.
'This boy seems to have been lucky...' He sighed as he put Vicente aside and wrote some things down for his wife to advance while he took care of Nina.
"One of the Sovereigns you guys ran into must be old Dax from the Bone Mountains... Sigh, you guys really had a lot of bad luck." He commented as he connected the cultivation level with these youngsters' suffering.
"But don't worry Father, these two will be fine after a while. Especially the boy."
"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you!"