Imperial Throne

Chapter 118: The Healer

The next day, Monica departed after having breakfast at the Lord’s Manor of White Mountain City.

Cindy held little Cindy in her arms and stood quietly by one of the windows, watching Monica board the carriage and set off under the protection of numerous guards.

She watched the departing carriage with a rather complicated expression.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t noticed Monica’s coaxing.

But Cindy was also very aware that Monica’s coaxing came with a warning—as to whether that warning came from Marquis Visen himself or from Monica personally, that remained uncertain for now. What was certain, however, was that the Kasein Family had already become aware of White Mountain Territory’s growth over the past year. At this point, it served more as a signal.

Cindy gently kissed her daughter’s forehead, then rubbed her cheek softly against her daughter’s.

Little Cindy let out a stream of giggles, reaching out her tiny hands to grab her mother’s hair.

“It’s because your mother is useless... unable to give you a peaceful future, and even forcing you to bear the blood debt of your mother.”

Tears fell softly onto Cindy’s face along with her mother’s whispers.

But Cindy simply giggled and reached out her tiny hand, trying to catch the tears that had fallen from Cindy’s face.

...

After a week of rest, Yam was actually already able to move freely.

However, he was not yet ready to spar with others. Otherwise, the injuries that had just begun to heal would be aggravated again.

What he did not expect, though, was that Monica had arrived at Westerburg with a team in tow.

“Sir Yam, we meet again.”

In the reception room of Westerburg, Monica stood up with a smile to greet Yam as he arrived.

At that moment, Monica gave Yam the impression that she, rather than himself, seemed more like the true master of Westerburg.

“Yes, I didn’t expect to see you again under such circumstances. I must apologize,” Yam responded politely, then invited Monica and the middle-aged man beside her to take a seat. “May I ask who this is…”

“This is Knight Eric,” Monica introduced with a smile. “After my father heard about your injury, he suspected that the Fertile Territory was again attempting to stir up trouble. So, he sent me to check on the situation, and brought Knight Eric along to heal you… Rest assured, Knight Eric is a very skilled healer.”

Hearing Monica’s introduction, Yam was slightly taken aback.

Healer—not a physician.

The latter referred to ordinary people without bloodline abilities, while the former referred to a Bloodline User with healing powers.

According to legend, the first physician in this world was a relative of a healer. Refusing to accept that he could not treat injuries due to his lack of bloodline power, he repeatedly experimented and gradually developed a healing system. His descendants, and even his friends’ descendants, continued to refine that system. Today, the entire system had evolved into distinct fields like emergency care, routine nursing, battlefield first aid, post-battle recovery, and illness diagnosis and treatment.

But all of that was ultimately a framework designed for ordinary people.

While it was also effective for low-tier Bloodline Users, it still couldn’t compare to true healers—and for Fourth-Tier Bloodline Users and above, conventional treatment for ordinary people was nearly useless.

“Please rest assured.”

Knight Eric, who had remained silent until then, smiled and extended his right hand upon seeing Yam’s surprised expression.

A faint milky-white glow slowly emanated from Eric’s right hand.

Yam immediately recognized Eric’s bloodline ability.

Second-Tier Bloodline [Luminous Mayfly]’s [Healing].

According to what he had read in books, Yam knew that all known healers in the world relied on the incredibly rare and harmless magical creature, the [Luminous Mayfly].

Most magical beasts possessed a degree of danger and destructiveness. Only a very small number were harmless.

And the [Luminous Mayfly] was one of them.

These tiny insects, no larger than a fingernail, were considered excellent natural healing agents—when crushed and applied to wounds, their juices could rapidly close cuts, reduce swelling, and dissipate bruising.

However, to extract them into Bloodline Potions, one had to harvest their brood nest.

For the [Luminous Mayfly], this was a catastrophic blow. Once the brood nest was destroyed, all homeless [Luminous Mayflies] would die within a single day. Cultivating them artificially required an extremely long breeding cycle—[Luminous Mayflies] were a unique type of magical insect that lived around their brood nests. Once a colony reached a certain size, the brood nest would cease producing more mayflies and enter a prolonged dormant state.

This dormancy usually lasted more than twenty years, sometimes even thirty or forty.

Only when the queen inside the brood nest awoke would a second queen be born.

However, if the new queen was not removed from the brood nest before completing the replacement ritual, she would devour the queen that birthed her and become the new ruler of the brood nest, then begin expanding the swarm. But if she was removed before devouring the previous queen, she would establish a new swarm and form a new Luminous Mayfly brood nest.

Theoretically, as long as two Luminous Mayfly brood nests could be maintained, one could perform a harvest every twenty to forty years and cultivate as many healers as possible.

But in reality, it was not that simple.

Each Luminous Mayfly brood queen could produce a maximum of three queens in her lifetime. After that, the first-generation queen would die. Thus, a single brood nest could only give rise to at most two new nests through artificial intervention. Moreover, when the number of brood nests within a certain region reached a critical threshold, all the queens would enter dormancy. They would no longer produce new queens, nor would they birth new Luminous Mayflies.

As for how large this regional threshold was, no one knew for sure. The only actionable knowledge was that once all brood nests stopped reproducing and became inactive, it was time to "prune" them. Otherwise, all Luminous Mayfly brood nests would eventually die off, as the queens had no predatory capability, and Luminous Mayflies themselves had very short lifespans.

In addition, another limitation to cultivating healers was that such Bloodline Users were extremely difficult to awaken.

No one knew the exact reason.

It was precisely because of all these constraints that healers were so rare and were the most treasured individuals and guests among all Bloodline Nobles.

After all, when a Fourth-Tier or higher Bloodline User suffered injuries inflicted by other Bloodline powers, only the special abilities of a healer could truly cure them—this was why, despite the respect physicians received, they could never replace the role of a healer among high-tier Bloodline Users.

In fact, the higher the bloodline tier, the greater the healer's tier requirement.

Though it was just a faint glow, when it fell on Yam, it brought a warm sensation.

Soon, a tingling numbness came from his broken bones, and he could clearly sense that they were healing rapidly.

Yam glanced at Eric.

Based on what he had read from the books recorded by Baron Ster, a Second-Tier healer should not possess such powerful restorative abilities. Both the Luminous Mayfly and its corresponding bloodline ability, Healing, were only known to treat surface-level wounds and had no effect on internal organs or bones.

“You’re a Third-Tier healer?”

“Yes.” Eric did not deny it. A calm and pleasant smile still hung on his face. “Bone injuries are not my specialty, but since I’ve reached Third-Tier, and your injuries are not critically severe, plus your subordinates have excellent physicians who performed very effective post-battle emergency treatment, my abilities could work quite well.”

Soon, Yam felt a sense of lightness.

He moved his body slightly and discovered that the tingling pain and discomfort had completely vanished, which greatly surprised him.

“All done.” Eric withdrew his hand and smiled gently. “Just rest for two more days and you’ll be fully healed.”

“Thank you.” Yam sincerely stood and expressed his gratitude.

Eric waved it off casually and turned to leave the reception room. “I suppose you two have some matters to discuss. I’m also quite interested in this place, so I’ll take a walk. Farewell.”

Monica stood and saw Eric out with Yam. Only then did they return to their seats.

This time, Monica’s expression turned more serious. “Sir Yam, my father needs to know—was it the Fertile Plains that targeted you this time?”

“No.” Yam didn’t think much of it and had no idea about Monica’s earlier coaxing of Lily. He shook his head, indicating that it wasn’t another lord from the Fertile Plains trying to stir up trouble. “I still don’t know what the enemy's real goal was…”

Yam then recounted the earlier events to Monica.

However, this time he deliberately concealed the involvement of the Shelf Mercenary Group and those green-haired individuals. Instead, he described the enemies as mysterious figures attempting to divert Westerburg’s attention. He portrayed his own appearance and ambush as coincidental. Based on Aliman’s previous statement, the enemies clearly had not expected his presence here, so pushing the entire incident as a coincidence posed no issue.

After hearing Yam’s explanation, Monica did not notice any inconsistencies, and thus concluded that it must have been a coincidence.

Logically, the commander of Westerburg had the full capability to handle the matter independently. That person had merely chosen to seek Yam’s help, thus involving him in the incident and forcing the enemies into desperation, escalating the conflict.

Subsequently, Monica suggested to Yam that they could frame the incident as another attempt by the Eastern Mountain Territory to provoke war and use it as grounds for a retaliatory battle.

But unlike Lily’s hesitation, Yam rejected the proposal immediately.

Monica didn’t press further.

After that, Monica left behind some medicine to accelerate Yam’s recovery and prepared to take her leave.

She had originally planned to stay in Westerburg for a day or two, but seeing that Yam’s injuries were not as severe as the rumors claimed and that the entire matter indeed appeared coincidental, she changed her mind and decided to leave that afternoon.

“By the way.” As Monica was preparing to leave, Yam suddenly spoke. “Miss Monica, some time ago I heard a merchant caravan in a tavern mention a very strange person. But when I questioned them further, they couldn’t say much. They only caught a glimpse of the person from afar. The individual had such a distinct appearance that they remembered it vividly. However, when I asked other merchants and mercenaries, none of them had seen such a person. So I got curious if someone like that actually exists.”

“A strange person?” Monica raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Go ahead and tell me. I can’t promise I’ll know, though. And you know how it is with merchants and mercenaries—they don’t always speak the truth.”

“Yes, I know.” Yam nodded with a smile. “According to their description, this enemy had green hair, wore a mask with a terrifying design, strange tattoos on their body, and wasn’t a Bloodline User.”

As soon as Yam finished his description, Monica’s expression changed drastically.

“Where did you hear about this?!”