“I don’t have the time and effort to keep up with your jokes today, Sophia. Check on him, he needs treatment, don’t bother about the costs”, Olivia says with a faint smile on her face. “Hmm...”, it was at this moment that she had a close look at Andrew, although he seems to be in a stable state, he wasn’t good at all.

She rushes down to the bed he was lying on before saying with a serious face to one of the attendants, “Prepare for an emergency operation”.

The way she behaved right now was entirely different from how she seemed a moment ago. Even Olivia was taken aback, it wasn’t the first time she has seen her sister like this after all, but knowing that only serious cases could make her this way was why she was worried.

She thought that Andrew was stable though since he was breathing fine, and although she took the warnings of Lancelot seriously, it wasn’t to the point she thought it was “this” serious.

She and Sophia weren’t blood sisters, but her father found her when she was young and she had always taken perfect care of her like her younger sister. She was older than Sophia by a huge thirteen years, which places Sophia in her late twenties, about twenty-nine years of age but both of them were still unmarried though. Seems like they detested the idea of being submissive to a man or maybe being married would pull a hold on their work. But neither of them planned on getting married anytime soon.

Olivia came from a family of nobility which has been serving the kingdom through military exploits for ages now, that was mostly part of the reason why not much punishment was meted out to her despite her act of harming the daughter of a duke. Even the duke in question would be hard-pressed to do anything to her. But her father has died due to old wounds which spiralled out of control but her mother was still well alive even at this moment. Picking up the mantle from her father, she struggled hard to become a general while this younger sister of hers was hurt from not being able to do anything to help the man who has taken her in and taken care of her, hence she took the path of being a medical practitioner and it seems like she was close to being the best in the whole kingdom.

After taking Andrew to the operation theatre, she drove out Olivia and the girls not even maintaining any form of courtesy. Eve has chosen to stay behind and wait behind for Andrew’s treatment to be over with before going to rest, she hasn’t expected this scenario which was happening right now.

Although this world seems to be behind in military equipment and information networks, their medical facilities were of a good standard although not up to the point where electrical equipment like scans and the rest were being used, other non-complicated medical equipment was used which was good news.

After a little more than two hours of operation in which the girls were getting fizzy about all that was going on, Sophia finally comes out but her hair was already well packed at this moment, hence part of her beauty could be seen at this moment. After getting out, she immediately sits on one of the chairs which were close by obviously exhausted. The girls wanted to ask what the situation was with Andrew but seeing that Olivia hasn’t said anything, they just kept their silence to themselves.

After a moment of heart-wrenching silence for the girls, Sophia’s voice sounds out, “I thought you were stubborn about taking a doctor with you. What made you change your mind?”. “I didn’t change my mind. I didn’t bring any with me still”, Olivia says while breathing in relief. She understood that since Sophia was this way, then perhaps the issue must have been resolved. Although she hadn’t shown any emotion on her face, she was worried about Andrew also. He has tried his best after all in that fight and saved some of her troops, although not much, it was still safe on his part.

“Strange. Who fixed him up to that state then? He would have died if not for those fix-ups”, says Sophia staring straight at Olivia.

“Ohh, one of my soldiers happens to have dabbled a bit in the field of medicine and he was the one who took care of him to that state”, she replies. “Dabbled a bit? Seems more like an experienced medical practitioner. Why did he go into fighting when he has such skills? He would surely be more skilled than me if he had continued down that field. And isn’t there a special field like that in the military?”, Sophia just speaks off while rubbing her chin like a wisened sage.

“Ohh. Seems like I would pass down the transfer orders then, his fighting skills although adequate, his major skills shouldn’t just be abandoned”, Olivia smiles in reply without much thought to the issue. This wasn’t the kind of conversation taken between sisters but more like two elders who were talking about their experiences in life.

“What about Andy?”, seemed like Marian couldn’t hold it anymore as she says in askance. Sophia was taken aback when she heard that voice, she looks towards Marian and was shocked to see her looks, although she couldn’t be described as a world-toppling beauty, she could still cause some form of commotion if she grew up at this pace. She knew about Eve and although shocked about why she has followed her sister, she just puts it at the back of her mind, she was after all not too happy with her and has always blamed her for the reason her sister was sent behind the walls.

Eve wasn’t at fault as if Olivia has chosen to not poke-nose in other people’s business and just let things go the way they were intended to, she wouldn’t have been given such a mission that would make her have such a close brush with death.

Smiling Sophia replies, “He is good. He just needed a few fixing up, so all he needs now is some bit of rest for a month or more and he would be back on his feet”. “Huh, a month?”, Marian couldn’t help asking.

Since she has known Andrew since he became a hunter, even the most dangerous of injuries hasn’t taken him up to a week to recover from, so the predictions of Sophia had her in doubt if perhaps what she was saying was true.

“Yeah, that would be in the least. It could be more”, replies Sophia, after which she turns towards Olivia to say, “Come with me”. Without looking back to check if she was following her, she walks towards her office. Smiling wryly, Olivia directs the girls to wait for her while she follows behind her sister.

Olivia gets to Sophia’s office which was a direct contrast to her appearance. Everything was placed in order and it was all tidied up, just a book rests on her desk, apart from her chair, there were two other seats which were directly in front of her and a long chair which seems to be of the epitome of comfort by the corner, maybe it was where she lied on or for other guests.

Immediately as Olivia enters the office, Sophia jumps into her arms in embrace. Her previous carefree demeanour has vanished to whom knows where and she was behaving like a typical little sister. Olivia just smiles while patting her gently on her head, her hands going through her hair. After a moment of familial embrace, they talked about some stuff relating to the family while she was gone. She has been gone away from the kingdom for up to two months, her punishment was supposed to have lasted for just a month but she seems to have been carried away and thus roamed through the kingdom, after all, it was not every day that a general gets to be this free.

Wars were being waged on a daily basis between kingdoms and she would have been posted there already if not for her punishments since she couldn’t be easily found to relay the orders for her return, she had time to spare. Her mother missed her, but she was still in good health all the same.

“So what was the issue with the boy?”, Olivia asks at this moment. “You should know better than me since you are a fighter”, Sophia replies.

Olivia frowns in thinking after which her face becomes serious as she says, “Were the injuries that serious?”. “Saying it was serious is an understatement. His injuries have mounted up. He should have been recovering from a life-threatening injury before being inflicted with another”, Sophia replies.

On hearing Sophia’s words, Olivia just gives a summary of the situation which Andrew was in. After listening to the summary, Sophia nods in understanding before saying, “That solves the mystery then. His fighting again did more than just reopen the old injuries, they were worsened than the way they initially were and new wounds were even made. His being alive at this moment is nothing short of a miracle. He is truly out of danger now though, just a long rest would sort out everything”. “Who is that other girl that came along with you?”, Sophia asks after a moment of thoughtful silence.

Olivia was first taken aback by the question before saying, “Ohh, she? She and that boy seem to have some kind of relationship of one kind, they seem to take each other as family. She wants to be a doctor also, so would you be willing to pull the strings and teach her a thing or two about what it takes to be a doctor? Hope I won’t be bothering you with that task?”. “No problem about that, as long as it’s not that brat am doing it for”, replies Sophia with an angry expression on her face.

Olivia just smiles and doesn’t comment on that issue. They talked about other things which got them so engrossed that they seem to have forgotten the other girls in the hallway. The day was getting bright when all of a sudden, Lucas barges into the room where they were discussing, seeing that someone dares to disturb her session with her sister, Sophia almost flies to rage but Olivia calms her down, seems like she already sensed the approach of Lucas and wasn’t bothered by what was happening, talking with her sister have after all made her forgot all about the passage of times. They rarely had much time to talk after all since Olivia was always busy in wars and Sophia would be at the hospital.

After saluting Olivia, he delivers his message. It seems like the commander in chief of the army, the head warrior, the top general has called for her. She has to come directly to the headquarters for her detailed report of what happened while they were away and why she hadn’t come back although her punishment period was exhausted.