Auren sighs as he sees his patient rush out, leaving his small private 'operating room'.
With the ecstatic woman gone, Auren doesn't rest. He immediately takes care of another patient—a barely conscious man who has lost the left side of his chest, including his arm and multiple organs. The Doctor carefully moves in his bed, looking a little worried.
From the looks of it... he got mauled... could it have been done by the beavers? No... even they do not have such a huge mouth and teeth.It looks like I haven't seen the worst of what this place has to offer.It makes sense, though. This place looks incredibly rich in resources at first glance—it feels like a little paradise. A temperate climate, lush forests, beautiful coasts, mountains in the distance, and yet there is no civilisation here? Of course, there must be a good reason.
Anyway, they had to cut off so much just to save his life. He doesn't have long to live in this condition. I guess I should get to work, but at this rate....
"I need him sedated," Auren tells the doctor as the man intends to leave after pushing in the patient's bed. "I need to cut..." Auren informs him.
"I can do that. I'll call in an anaesthesiologist," the doctor responds, before returning a minute later with an equally elderly female doctor.
Five minutes later, with the man now soundly sleeping, Auren slowly restores his body, focusing on his organs and bones before restoring everything else.
The process takes him almost two hours, and the man wakes up before Auren can finish his healing process.
Utterly confused, the man just smiles and lies there, staring into the air. "This colour... so this is heaven."
Not again.
Why are these people all reacting this weirdly? Also, he sees the colour? Did I awaken him... I guess the amount of Aura I poured into him was too much. I probably opened his Aura nodes, at least partially. This is such a hassle... another thing I need to take care of.However, he should be practising a meditation method. After a little bit of training, he'll be fine.
Auren continues, barely able to finish before his Aura is used up once again. The last thing he does is close the man's Aura nodes, carefully manipulating them via Azure Restoration.
This is a temporary fix... he might as well train to become a fully-fledged Nen user at this point.
I just told Vanessa to manage her Aura... I'm close to fainting as well. I guess I'm as much to blame as she. Nen is complicated... it's addicting... You want more and more. Limits to Aura are so frustrating. I need to train even more and increase my Aura capacity even further. It's gotten a lot better, but I'm still not at a point where I want to be.
Exhausted, Auren steps outside and addresses the doctor. "I'm done for today. I'll continue tomorrow."
"Thank you so much, Vice-Leader," the doctor whispers, quiet enough that nobody else hears him.
Both Auren and the doctor leave the patients behind. Auren briefly narrates his experience to the doctors so they know what happened.
He then walks to the still sleeping Vanessa and gently wakes her up.
"Let's go home," he says. "I'm nearly as drained as you are."
Vanessa yawns loudly, stretching her arms up. "I wanted to sleep a while longer, but okay. I'm sooo hungry!"
"..."
You did nothing but watch and sleep—you probably fought for ten minutes or so. At most. I'll let it pass this once since she at least managed to succeed in creating her Hatsu.
"We'll eat on the airship, but it's still a little early. It will take another few hours for dinner, I imagine," Auren replies.
"Vice-Leader..." the doctor chimes in. "It would be an honour to invite you to my home. Perhaps you'd also be interested to see how we live at this place. My shift is over, and I need to rest. I've been here for a double shift already."
"I wouldn't want to be a bother," Auren immediately says, trying to reject the man.
"It isn't a bad idea, though?" Vanessa says, slightly confused. "Why not take a look? You seemed interested in how people live here."
"Indeed," Auren relents.
She is right. This is a good opportunity to take a look, especially since this is a surprise visit.
"Then just for a little while," Auren says to the doctor. "You haven't even told us your name yet."
"You are asking this old man? Just an old... poor soul from one of the Empire's unofficial, yet so blatantly controlled puppet states—the Yuherta Principality in the south of the Empire." He exhales through his nose, as if amused by his own description. "I'm Nopper."
"Your surname?" Auren asks.
"In our Principality, a surname is not used," the doctor replies. "I guess you could now call me Nopper of Hollow Blade."
"It sounds stupid..." Vanessa mutters.
"Shut up," Auren urges her to stop, glaring at her.
Though I can't fully disagree.
The two of them, along with Dr. Nopper, leave the shack, Auren vowing to the remaining staff that he will return soon.
Walking through the construction zone, Auren sees that work is still going strong. There are still thousands of people working hard, seemingly not demotivated at all.
"We're working with a shift system," Nopper explains. "Work will never truly stop, only for a couple of hours every night. Because of that, we're making incredibly fast progress. Give us a single year, and I tell you this place will look like a true capital!" His tone brightens as he talks about it, pride slipping through. "Architects, city planners, engineers—we've got them all. Everyone wants to contribute, and everyone is slightly worried. That's why no one is even remotely complaining or slacking off. I heard the foremen are threatening people to go home and take a vacation day every now and then."
"Why?" Vanessa asks. "That sounds tedious."
"I also don't quite understand," Auren admits. "Pay is pretty much equal and not related to work performance. There is no reason to work like that." He glances across the construction, watching people move as if they're afraid to slow down. "Of course, I understand that no one wants to be accused of slacking off, but overdoing it like that...."
"Fear..." Nopper states. "They are paid, they are fed, they are clothed." He lists things off using his fingers. "I told you about all the benefits people get to enjoy here. They are wondering... when will the money run out? More people arrive after every new boat trip. What will happen to them when there are no supplies left?"
As if it will run out. Rakshala has so many tentacles in the V5 nations... she will extract more and more wealth... one way or another.
"The money won't run out for a long time... in fact, I'd say it will keep growing," Auren says. "As long as we're talking about just tens of thousands of people, I don't see any risk. Not even a remote one. Soon, this place will take care of food on its own." He pauses, then adds, already seeing the other side of it. "Though I guess nobody knows that. Reasonably, they would expect that we need to produce more than just food locally and as fast as possible, and also extract some of the abundant resources close by to trade."
Auren thinks for a moment, remembering some of the reports he did, in fact, read, before continuing. "I read that apart from wood, ore, herbs, and the monstrous beasts around here, the land is fertile. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. With the insane amount of land behind the entrance to the west, which we've secured by now, this land could easily provide for hundreds of millions—maybe a billion people."
"Do you live in a tent with your family?" Vanessa asks, looking towards the thousands of tents in front of her.
"You mentioned daughters and granddaughters, so you need quite a bit of space, right?" Auren confirms.
"We've been granted the privilege to live in one of the already finished container homes near the port," Nopper explains. "Because my granddaughter's condition is precarious, even with medicine, we've been kindly offered that space. Also, my... work as a doctor is highly valued." He looks a little embarrassed as he says it, as if he's not used to being given anything. "I am immensely grateful."
With endless people scurrying around them, some carrying supplies, others talking with each other, and countless kids playing around, the place looks genuinely filled with life. Soon, they pass through the tent city before reaching the container city close to the harbour.
Following Nopper, Auren, and Vanessa finally enter a medium-sized container building off to the side. They walk up a set of stairs before entering an apartment on the second floor.
"Grandpa!" As soon as they enter, a small boy rushes forward and hugs Nopper. Nopper smiles and takes him into his arms.
"I've brought some guests with me. Please prepare some food as soon as possible," he yells into the room.
"Yes, dad," a cheerful voice immediately replies.
Auren looks and sees two smiling women standing in the open kitchen, directly connected to the main living room.
Auren looks around the place carefully, trying to get a sense of how the people live here.
The apartment barely has any decoration, but Auren spots a TV, a game console with a few controllers, and bookshelves filled with a small collection of books. Everything else seems essential and practical. He sees a bathroom, two separate bedrooms, and a decent-sized living room, with the kitchen in the front part of the apartment.
Just a few minutes later, Auren and Vanessa sit on a large dining table with all the other members of Nopper's family. Auren counts a total of seven grandchildren, who he guesses are between the ages of one and ten, along with Nopper's adult daughters.
"Grandpa... who are they?" a small, sickly-looking girl asks.
"Good friends... coworkers," Nopper replies, a little reluctantly.
"Everyone here is nice, so they must be nice too," another energetic girl chimes in.
"Might as well tell them," Auren says, shrugging. "Lying is bad, right?"
"I'm one of the people in charge, and I've just arrived here to make this place a lot safer and help the people here, so I wanted to take a look around and see what people need." Auren pauses briefly, keeping his tone friendly. "Sorry for bothering you, but I wanted to see how you are holding up, and if you are missing things." He decides not to lie, but still says it in a roundabout way.
Meanwhile, Vanessa stares at the food. She sees lots of vegetables, mushrooms, and fish, as well as bread. "Food could be better..." she mutters silently as she pokes at her food.
Spoiled rich girl...
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