Valerian, The Legendary

179 Injured.

Fragrantia jumped on the back of the thunder falcon and carried Valerian down carefully. Her shout had alerted the entire palace. The gentle Empress lost her composure for the first time. She carried his feeble body to his room. The maids had rushed to the outer ring of the palace to call off the Medicus.

Fragrantia placed the boy on the bed, and sat by his side, she could tell that his hand and leg are broken from the purple skin in the area. Fortuna had cast a wood magic spell and a few wines had been acting like a cast to hold the limbs in place. Fragrantia looked at the silver cat and she could tell that the dragon princess was not doing very well either.

She said, “Fortuna, you can rest now, I will have the best of the best look after him and nothing will happen. Thank you for bringing him back to us, but you need to rest as well.”

Fortuna cast a gaze on the Empress before she curled up near the unconscious boy. She was on her last leg, and as soon as he laid down beside Valerian she fainted as well. However, Fragrantia moved quickly and placed the cat near the fireplace. She reacted quickly as the body of the cat was glowing gently and soon after her body was placed on the floor, she morphed back into a silver dragon.

Fragrantia sighed at this and then she found a big sheet to cover the dragon. She did not want anyone to find out about her. To take an extra precaution, she cast a vine wall to hide the beast behind it. The door of the room was knocked, and before the guard could say anything, Fragrantia said, “Come in.”

An old man walked in with a slightly hunched back. The man had a gray beard and long gray hair on his head. The man looked at the Empress and bowed slightly. Fragrantia said, “Master Di, please look at him.”

The old man nodded and walked over to sit down beside the young man, and he placed two of his fingers to measure the pulse of the young man. He closed his eyes and held his breath to prevent the sound from interrupting the measurement.

After a few seconds, the old man opened his eyes and said, “His highness is suffering from severe physical injuries. His arm and leg were shattered brutally, and his back has a laceration wound which is quite deep too. From what I know, the prince is a grade six battle mage, so from the extent of the injuries, the opponent should have been a grandmaster. If that is the case, then, His highness is very lucky to have survived this ordeal.”

Fragrantia nodded and said, “Master Di, perform treatment on him.”

.....

The old man nodded and took out a few bottles and jars from his magical pouch. Then he meticulously cut away the brace of vines and applied a few pastes on the wounded areas before covering them with a cloth bandage. He said, “May I call over my assistant from outside, the prince needs to be turned over.”

Fragrantia nodded and the old man called in a pair of female assistants. One of them was none other than Consano. The academy was on break, so she has been spending her time under Master Di, learning the skills of a Medicus.

When she came inside the room, her face was filled with anxiety, after all, Valerian was a person who was always shrouded in a mist for her. However, now he lay in front of her in a condition where he almost went to the other side. Master Di said, “Turn over the prince on his stomach, but be gentle and careful with your movements, he is in a delicate situation.”

The two ladies nodded and they carefully helped each other turn him over. The old man looked at the wound and said, “The wound is caused by the battle aura of a grandmaster, and the aura has latched itself onto the wounded area. If the wound was a penetration wound, then death would have been a mercy. Now we can use the Dreadsuckle grass paste to treat this wound.”

The old man taught the two ladies as he treated the wound. Fragrantia was not in the state of paying attention to the old man, her mind was fixated on the person who did this to her child. She was angry at the situation. Thinking about this she took out her communication orb and contacted Ignis.

...

In the imperial palace of the Sapientia Empire, Ignis and Adele were looking at a few matters of the royal court while Ashlyn was asking people about the search operation, however, there was no result, the only thing left to do was to invade the Valkyrian border.

At this moment, Ignis took out his communication orb, and as soon as the connection was established, his face changed and began to worsen a lot. After a few minutes, he put down the orb and wiped a layer of sweat on his forehead.

Adele asked, “What is the matter?”

Ignis said, “Valerian arrived at the Lumen Imperial Palace a few minutes ago.”

Adele smiled and said, “Finally, this child scared me, was it him, who contacted you?”

Ignis shook his head and said, “Mother Empress contacted, and she wants to know, how Valerian was beaten a half inch to death, and who was responsible for this.”

He felt bitter in his heart, his own biological mother was asking him such questions as if he was the culprit. Adele did not have the time to react when Ashlyn rushed up to them and asked, “What did you say? Valerian was beaten half to death?”

Ignis nodded and said, “Apparently, among the soldiers sent forward by the Valkyrians, there was an old Grandmaster. He almost killed Val.”

Adele held her husband’s hand and asked seriously, “How bad is he hurt?”

She felt for this child. When she arrived here at noon yesterday, Ashlyn told her how he helped in convincing the Imperial Guardian to take action and how he volunteered to ‘lead’ the soldiers. She was impressed by his guts and character once more, and her soft heart almost melted. Now that she heard her little brother-in-law was hurt so severely, her maternal instincts overflowed.

Ignis felt a strong pain in his heart and told them about his condition. Immediately after, Ashlyn summoned Deputy General Kunta to ask if they found anything. The rescue forces returned yesterday after the army dispatched by the country arrived to take charge of the border region.

...

In Lumen Empire, the gossipy maids leaked the news that the fourth prince went to aid the Sapientian Empire in war, and he earned great merit, but in the process, he was grievously injured. Despite the identity of the fourth prince, the citizens did not know much about him. They heard that he was a student in the prestigious imperial academy and that he was very strong, but all this did not give them much of an impression of him.

However, if a member of the royal family was injured to the extent that he almost died, the citizens will still discuss this matter.

...

Fragrantia waited for the Medicus to leave, she sat down on the chair at the bedside and leaned back while looking at the child on the bed. It was as if a sleeping doll of jade. Consano wanted to stay but Fragrantia knew that Fortuna was still inside the room so she told her to leave as well.

The room was shrouded in silence. Fragrantia looked back at the wall of vines and sighed, “What made you so tired, Fortuna.”

She was really tired and did not know what to do about the two of them. The day passed quickly and in the evening when Fragrantia saw no sign of the two of them waking up, she stood up to inform the people that she will stay in this room for the time being when the door was knocked.

Fragrantia asked, “Who is it?”

“It is me, Priscilla, Your Excellency.”, as soon as she heard this, her sleeping rage woke up with full intensity. In her opinion, it was because of Priscilla’s dereliction that Valerian ended up in this state

The Empress said, “Come in.”

Her tone was cold, she wanted to see what this woman had to say in her defense. The door was pushed open and Priscilla walked over and knelt in front of the Empress, who asked, “What gave you the guts to appear in front of me after you failed your task so splendidly?”

Priscilla replied, “There is a reason why I accompanied his highness beyond the border. I seek a chance to defend myself.”

Fragrantia nodded and the shadow guard said, “If we had not gone to the end of the Valkyrian border, Fortuna would have lost her powers.”

The empress was shocked and asked, “What do you mean?”

Priscilla replied, “His highness staked his life because Fortuna’s magic core and her ability to fly would have been nulled if she had not passed this trial. Your Highness did not tell you this on the soul communication bead. Also, on my way back, I found something extremely important. It concerns the safety of Lumen Empire.”

Fragrantia raised her eyebrow and asked, “What is it?”