"You must be Lord Charles and Lady Sasha," an aged voice suddenly called out from behind the pair, drawing their attention.
Looking back, the Town Lord and Lady were met with the face of an old man who, despite clearly getting on in years, still had a robust figure and straight back. This old man wore long white robes and had a green cross badge with a golden '0' pinned above his chest, identifying him as a Grade 0 Spirit Doctor.
As for the red flame crest stitched onto his shoulders, it signified he was a member of the Balfour Family Guard.
Hurriedly wiping his eyes dry, Charles quickly got to his feet before bowing deeply to the old man, "Thank you for looking after my daughter, honourable healer."
Sasha also got to her feet and bowed along with her husband, "Thank you, Doctor Thompson."
Sasha actually recognized this old man as he had treated her a few times in the past.
In fact, the nearly 100-years-old Walter Thompson was the best and most respected Doctor in the Balfour Family's employ, just one step away from becoming a true Spirit Doctor.
Shaking his head, the old man sighed and said, "There's no need for you to thank this old man. I haven't done much."
Turning his head, Walter looked down at the sleeping Eris and said with some regret, "You've raised a good daughter, Little Sasha. She didn't hesitate to risk her life to save the lives of her friends. Such courage and strength are commendable."
Choking up once more, Sasha felt tears leaking from her eyes again as she simply nodded, unable to speak any words at the moment.
After giving the parents a moment to grieve and compose themselves, the old doctor continued, "The General would like to meet with you both as soon as you are able to."
With this reminder, Sasha suddenly perked up as she thought to herself, That's right, Grandmother is here! If anyone has a way to heal Eris' arm, it's her!
Seemingly realizing this point as well, Charles swiftly asked, "Where can we find Marquess Balfour?"
"The General is waiting for you in your study," the old man replied before seeing the pair off.
As he looked at their quickly retreating backs, though, Walter couldn't help sighing again. Being a Peak-Rank Grade 0 Spirit Doctor, he knew very well that even the Marquess would be powerless to help in this situation.
Just as Sasha was about to leave the hall, however, she paused and turned back to ask, "Doctor Thompson, has a young boy with spikey black hair been here recently?"
Ever since arriving at the infirmary, Sasha had felt that something was missing, but being distracted by Eris' condition, she hadn't given it much thought.
Only now that she had somewhat calmed down did she realize that Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Given how close the two of them were, it was quite odd for her little nephew to not be by her daughter's side.
Tilting his head slightly, Walter was confused for a moment before he recalled something and said, "Oh, that boy. He should be together with the General."
Sasha was caught slightly off-guard by this revelation; however, she soon understood.
Lucas was no ordinary 10-year-old, so he no doubt had the same thought as she did and had tagged along with her grandmother, hoping to ask for her help.
Nodding in thanks, Sasha turned around and raced after her husband, who had gone on ahead to offer formal greetings to the grandmother-in-law he had never met before.
…..
"So, you suspect that the explosion wasn't some kind of natural phenomenon, but rather something artificial?" Celestina asked.
"That's what it felt like at the time. Aunt Farah might be able to describe the details more clearly," Lucas nodded.
Pursing her lips, Celestina muttered to herself, "If that's the case, things may become more complicated."
Mulling over the implications for a moment, General Balfour eventually shook her head and set the matter aside. There was nothing she could do about what had already happened, so she saw no need to worry about it while there were other, more pressing issues to handle first.
"Do you have a rough idea of the scope and scale of the disaster?" Celestina asked next.
"En, judging from the intensity of the explosion, the height the mushroom cloud rose to, and the time it took for the shockwave to reach Redwood Town, the fireball radius was probably 15 kilometres, with the heavy blast radius being closer to 30 kilometres. As for its exact epicentre, it must have been roughly 400 kilometres directly west from here."
"Given the intensity of the explosion, I would assume all the Wild Beasts within a 1,000 km radius were adversely affected," Lucas replied.
The young boy was about to continue with his analysis, but when he saw the confused look on his new Master's face, he realized he had made a small mistake and quickly walked over to a nearby desk.
Pulling out a slim, flat, wooden stick, Lucas handed it to Celestina and explained, "This is a ruler I developed. From the initial black marking on its edge to the final one is 1 metre. 1 metre can be divided into 100 centimetres or 1,000 millimetres, while a distance of 1,000 metres is equal to 1 kilometre."
Holding the ruler in her hands, Celestina studied the measurement tool carefully, impressed by the level of detail that was put into its production. She was also curious why this ruler didn't use one of the Rockwell Kingdom's more common units of measurement, but that wasn't too concerning for her.
Many shops and professions had their own standards for measuring things, so seeing another one in this small town didn't come off as strange to the experienced Marquess.
What did surprise Celestina, was when Lucas continued by pulling out a set of weights and explaining how he derived 1 litre of volume as the amount of space in a 10 cm cube, and how 1 kilogram of weight was equal to 1 litre of water at room temperature.
Quickly absorbing all this new information, Celestina found herself appreciating Lucas' system of measurement more and more, realizing that it was far more thought out, complete, and comprehensive than any other system she had encountered before.
Even the Imperial Standard which was used in most of the Rising Sun Empire didn't have as much detail as this one.
While all this was going on, Helen just stood to the side, marveling at the interaction between the noble Marquess, and the young country boy.
When Lucas and Celestina first arrived, Helen had expected the former to give a simple report detailing the events of the previous half-day.
At some point, however, things morphed into a kind of intellectual discussion, covering not just the timeline of the current crisis, but also about hypothetical causes of the explosion, potential implications, as well as a bunch of random detours to explain all of the changes that had been popping up in Redwood Town over the past year or so.
As Lucas was rolling out his various proposals over the past 9 months, Helen had often been skeptical of not just their usefulness, but also their practicality. However, when her work repeatedly became easier and her quality of life continued to improve as a result of the young boy's ideas, she gradually got used to Lucas making random changes all over town.
Having all these innovations and development laid out before her now, Helen was stunned to realize just how many novel ideas and concepts had been introduced to Redwood Town without her noticing.
It was while Lucas was demonstrating a calibrated spring-scale he had pulled out from somewhere that Charles approached his study and heard one familiar and one unfamiliar voice seemingly immersed in a deep, technical discussion.
Although one of these voices clearly belonged to an adult woman and the other was that of a child, the two spoke as if they were equals engaging in a serious exchange of information and ideas.
The doors were open, and Charles knew that there was no way the woman inside hadn't sensed his approach, but he still knocked to announce his presence, despite the fact that it was technically his office.
Upon hearing the knock, Lucas looked up and his eyes brightened upon seeing his uncle. Charles was a little worse for wear, with multiple hastily treated injuries all over his body and blood that had still not dried on his clothes; but he was alive and mostly intact, which brought a faint sense of relief to the young boy.
Seeing a solemn and gloomy look on his uncle's face, however, made Lucas realize Charles had already found out what happened to Eris, causing his own mood to sour once more.
Lucas had gotten a bit too caught up in explaining metric units to his new Master, which had distracted him from all the turmoil going on around him, but his Uncle Charles' appearance had abruptly brought him back to reality.
"Greetings, Marquess Balfour, I'm, I mean, I am Baron Charles Newton. I offer my deepest thanks to you for coming to my people's aid in this crisis," Charles fumbled through an awkward noble greeting and gave a somewhat sloppy bow, clearly not used to this type of etiquette.
Just as Charles was finishing his brief self-introduction and salutations, Sasha arrived and followed up with a far cleaner bow, "Sasha Balfour greets the Matriarch. I, too, offer my sincerest appreciation for the timely assistance which has been provided to our humble territory."
"There is no need to offer any thanks," Celestina answered in a calm tone before lowering her own head, "It is I who should apologize for not arriving sooner. Had I been able to respond just a bit faster, perhaps your child would not have been injured so grievously."