The girls all rushed to see Cain who was sleeping on a white bed. Zaleria made sure to put his body on a clean bed for them to see. Even though all the scars on his chest were already healed, Alice could sense the amount of healing magic that was used on him.
A long line of condensed healing magic crossed his chest vertically. It was where the incision was made to remove his heart and implant the dragon heart and the Draconis fundamentum.
“The operation didn’t go as smoothly as expected. What did happen?” Alice asked with a worried face.
Bela looked at her with a worried face, she didn’t want to be the one to say it.
“Cain had a change of heart in the middle of the operation. No, it’s more that he didn’t tell us until it was too late.” Zaleria said with an exhausted face.
“Did something bad happen?” The girls gasped at the same time. Chill ran down their spines expecting that Cain might not be well.
“After we took out his heart, Cain said that he wanted us to implant all the hearts in. So instead of two hearts, he now has three. Damn that rascal getting us into all that trouble.” Zaleria’s face twisted as she remembered all the work she did.
“I’m more impressed that he knew such a procedure, I’ve seen multiple sorcerers who trained in flesh experiments but none reach his level.” Bela smiled, to her Cain has an irreplaceable talent.
“So you mean?” Alice glared at them.
“We had to take one of his hearts first and implant the dragon heart. As we finished that Cain had already cast a spell on his dead heart and asked us to take off the second heart. As we took the second heart he gave us the first to the implant while he cast a spell on the second. And then we implanted the second one. Lastly, we implanted the Draconis fundamentum and closed his chest. Our biggest problem was the blood loss but he managed to pull through.” Zaleria sat on a chair and sighed.
“So he is fine now, right? The operation was successful, right?” Alice stared at her with a worried face.
Bela smiled and looked at her, “More than successful, the operation went smoothly considering how extreme it was.”
“Yeah, just wait till he wakes up. A dragon’s heart is already beating inside him, and who knows what he did with his other hearts? He could wake up on a whole other level.” Zaleria glared at the sleeping Cain.
Thump! Thump! She could hear the three hearts beating inside him. “Let’s take him back home so he can rest, I want to stretch my arms a bit.” Zaleria yawned, he hasn’t done such a thing in years.
Slowly, they carried Cain alongside the bed outside. Letting him rest in his room and warning the maids to not disturb his rest.
Sitting in the same room as Cain was, Sofia, Selena, Alice, Gracie, Amaya, Zaleria, Lexi, and lastly Hati. They all stared at Cain’s sleeping face. Knock! Knock! Chad opened the door slowly.
“How is he?”
“As you can see, sleeping. They said the operation was successful.” Alice replied.
“I see, but sadly, I do have some urgent news,” Chad said with a worried face. Sebas slowly walked from behind him with a golden scroll that carried the royal emblem.
“What is it Sebas?” Alice knew that it was something urgent if both Sebas and Chad came in at the same time.
“A messenger was sent to us by the king requesting Cain’s urgent arrival, the princess’s condition is worsening day after day. Pirate activities have been increasing in the sea so importing her medicine was becoming harder and harder. On top of that, the royal fighting tournament is approaching and the majority of people voted that the first reward will be her hand in marriage.” Sebas summarized the long scroll. The situation in the capital seemed to be getting worse and worse.
“So he only wants to throw all of those problems on Cain? Also is he really allowing his daughter’s future to be decided by voting?” Sofia gave the scroll a look of disappointment.
“I’m going to pull that man’s beard off!” Chad growled.
“Wait, he is the king, you know?” Sebas gasped.
“Who cares?” Chad replied with a passive face.
“Almost all the preparation for the wedding is done, all that is left is the bride price which is a ceremonial requirement. Especially in our public marriage.” Alice said as she thought about a way to solve that.
“We can just use something as a placeholder,” Sofia pulled out one of her rings, “For the public, we can just call this thing a rare ring of unimaginable value and be done with it quickly.” Said Sofia.
“I bet us four don’t care about such a thing and we can use that to speed things up, but what about Marina? Even if she agreed to this I doubt the public of Ourals will really be deceived.” Alice said and both Gracie and Selena nodded.
“You lass are worrying too much, I will deal with that. He is my son after all!” Chad said proudly.
“Bringing something decent for a single woman might be easy. But doing that for five, and two of them are daughters of lords is almost impossible without the master’s extraordinary talent.” Sebas cut him off. The public will be easily satisfied by a fake ring that they think is rare and exotic. More than a whole carriage of gifts and gold.
Chad glared at him and smiled, “What do you think I’m? I do have a few coins here and there.” Chad then walked toward Zaleria, “I know you dragons are a bit reluctant about giving people a ride but…there a place I need to go to quickly.”
Zaleria looked at him. “I wouldn’t mind carrying you with my claws, where do you want to go?”
“The ruins of Alseria, I did leave some sizeable shiny things there.” Chad smiled, Alseria was the country he destroyed by messing with their alchemy system. The county collapsed just years after he left.
“Alseria? Isn’t that country an abandoned wasteland filled with monsters now?” Sebas looked at them.
Chad slowly walked toward the arcane door and opened it, “Mei!” He yelled inside. Soon enough Mei emerged from the door with an annoyed face.
“What is it? Disturbing my work!” She growled at him.
“You can open a link to your grove on your own right?” Chad asked. Cain has already told him about a lot of things.
“I can, what do you need? I only follow Lord Cain’s words!” Mei gave Chad a cold look.
“As you can see he is sick. I want to go retrieve some of my treasures to pay for his bride’s price. I need you to help us get back.” Chad wanted her to go with them and then after they retrieve the treasures she would teleport them to her grove and from there they can use the maze to get back.
Mei thought about it for a second, “If it will help Lord Cain.” She agreed.