Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Every mage within Kaelallan could feel the suction of mana as soon as it started, but only a few moved to help.

Michael, Mollie, and Udall were some of the select few that did their best to help.

After Michael's heart was broken a few days ago, he had spent his days drinking his problems away.

It wasn't until he felt that suction of mana that he realized how much time and effort he was wasting.

Throughout the afternoon, during the suction of mana, Michael and his group were running around and saving all those he could.

Once the suction subsided, he left the lower district to the knights and went to the upper district after splitting up with Mollie and Udall.

He rallied together knights and medics, swinging through nobles estates to take care and heal those that needed it.

Not long after the suction subsided, they ended up running into multiple people who were stealing from the huge noble estates. They were all caught, most being arrested but some being killed.

The chaos of the situation got Michaels mind off of Maria, and onto himself once again.

After covering most of the upper district, -I guess it's time for the royal palace..- Although it was trespassing on royal property and incredibly illegal, he couldn't just leave them to die if they needed help.

Secretly breaking off from the group, Michael started heading to the palace.

By the time he got there, the guards outside were just barely waking up.

"Hey are you guys alright?" Michael ran up to the two guards by the gate.

"Huh, what happened?"

"There was a disaster in the palace that made people pass out from mana exhaustion. I need you two to get up and come help me, the royal family could be hurt and no one in the upper district has awoken yet."

"We can't let you in the palace sir.." The knight turned around to his buddy, "go inside and see if anyone is a-"

Before he could finish, the doors to the palace opened, "The king is injured, please someone come help!" A maid stood dizzily in the doorway with blood dripping down her face.

Seeing the bloodied maid, the knights immediately panicked as they believed there might have been an attacker.

"Okay I'll let you in, just stay with me."

Running into the palace, the other knight stopped to help the maid.

"That maid said he should be around here.." Once they rounded the corner they saw Lawton laying on the ground next to Oliver who also had blood on his forehead.

"Okay, sir mage, I'm gonna need you to help move Sir Keen there, I need to take the king."

Giving a quick nod, Michael reached down to move Lawton.

Before he could move Lawton though, a mature woman's voice rang out. "Wait, take my husband to his room. I found a maid that will take care of it from there." Helen walked around the corner with a very young maid next to her. "Follow her, she will show you the way to his room."

"Right away your grace." The knight acted quickly on her orders, gently picking up Oliver and following the young maid.

"As for Lawton. Michael, I need you to try and wake him. He shouldn't be hurt so try injecting in some mana."

As a Nation rank mage, waking someone up from mana exhaustion wasn't a big deal, but it could cause some major side effects so he couldn't do it recklessly. -But orders are orders-

Michael reached down and injected mana into Lawton. Not long after, Lawton awoke.

*Gasp* Vividly remembering the incident, Lawton was in a panic. "What about the lord!" He looked around in a panic without noticing Helen.

"He should be okay. Lawton I need your help."

Realizing he failed to notice her presence, he shot up onto one knee. "What are my orders, your grace."

"I need you to find the grandmaster. She should be around here somewhere and she might have a better idea of the situation."

Immediately remembering where the grandmaster last was, Lawton gave a strong nod. "Right away your grace."

After he disappeared down the hall, Helen gave a harsh look at Michael. "I don't like you but you can be helpful. I need you to find an older elven maid and bring her to my office for me. Can you do that for me?"

"Of course Miss." Following her orders, he immediately started heading down the hall. Looking through the various hallways and checking several unconscious maids and butlers to look for the desired person, he ended up giving light treatment to several of those with light injuries.

After looking down several hallways and checking several rooms, he finally found the maid.

Elves were far more resistant to mana exhaustion since they had far better mana absorption compared to other species, but nonetheless, she had passed out and was still dizzy after just waking up.

"Huh?" Seeing the stranger, she made some bad assumptions and pulled out a knife from under her apron.

"Miss, I was sent by the Queen to find you. She asked me to bring you to her office."

Realizing Michael wasn't a threat, she lowered her knife, "Alright, I can.. walk there myself.."

To keep her from losing balance, Michael quickly moved over and supported her. "You just woke up after being knocked out by mana exhaustion, just let me lend you my shoulder."

"Thanks.."

After supporting her down the hall for several minutes, following the maids directions, she finally managed to recover some and started heading to the office on her own.

-I always heard elves were fast with recovering but my goodness..-

Before heading to the office on her own, she gave Michael a polite bow. "Thank you for your help with all of this chaos."

"No problem Miss, please be careful in case you haven't recovered completely."

"Thank you but your concern is unnecessary."

She quickly turned away and disappeared down the hall.

-Huh.. I wonder if she is married..-

-

"Haah.." Helen was sitting at her desk trying to slowly piece together the situation.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Come in."

The person to come in was a young human maid, "I have put the lord in his bed, I'd also like to inform you that the princess has returned."

"Ah, please bring her in."

"As you wish." Giving a polite bow, the young maid left the room again.

Not long after she left, the door opened once again.

An old elven maid came through the door and gave a polite bow.

"Hey Martha.. I called you in to ask a favor. Could you head down to the guild and put up an announcement saying people who keep track of the injured will be rewarded. I need to see the scope of this incident."

Martha gave a nod and turned to the door.

"Before you go, add that anyone who lost a family member will be compensated depending on the family's contribution points." This way, hard working families that lost family members will be greatly compensated and the slackers won't.

Once Martha left, Helen leaned back in her chair, worry written all over her face.