Chapter 478: The Han Civil War IV

Chapter 478: The Han Civil War IV

“Push!” I yelled.

It was cliche. It was classic. But there was a reason for it.

What other advice, what other orders could I give to a young woman giving birth? What else could I say that would permeate the haze of pain and exhaustion as I helped deliver new life?

We were in a crowded tent, the nameless woman’s close female companions crowding round. Nina was literally asleep on her feet in the corner, and it was only a matter of time before she toppled over. Auri was using her as a perch, my shoulder a little too crowded at the moment.

Iona was an unforgiving taskmaster, insisting that Nina keep up with our grueling, demanding pace, regardless of her skills or ability to stay with us.

I was of two minds about it. Part of me said that it was fruitless. Pushing people to exhaustion and then past the point didn’t develop anything. It was worse than taking a measured approach to things, then resting, recovering, and going again.

That was from a physical fitness standpoint though. Another part was practical. Nina was on track to become a Valkyrie herself. Her apprenticeship was primarily done via on-the-job training. This was the job. The demands being made weren’t artificial, they were a live, practical experience of what it was like to be a Valkyrie. A glimpse at what a fully matured [Knight-Errant] was expected to do regularly.

We were at the last patient. I was inclined to let Nina catch some shut-eye. She’d performed admirably, and given how Iona was turning something of a blind eye to it all, I think she agreed.

My girlfriend was patrolling around the tent, paranoid that general Biao Gong hadn’t taken a swipe at us yet, and was bound to at some point soon. I thought the mess at the triage tent had sorted that problem, but was willing to defer to Iona’s massively superior interpretation.

Another part of me stayed Radiance-focused on my patient. She’d pooped as most women do during childbirth, one of the small indignities that never got mentioned. One of the girls whisked it away, everyone pretending it hadn’t happened to not embarrass the lady any further.

“Okay, stop. Breathe.” I ordered the exhausted woman, checking the baby again.

The head was positioned right, the cervix was dilated, the cord wasn’t wrapped. Everything looked promising. The only part that had me frowning was the woman’s narrow hips combined with the baby’s large head.

Honestly. With the gods ripping ideas from all over the place, they couldn’t have made some quality of life adjustments? Even elves had to play the ‘big head, small pelvis’ nonsense!

The situation wasn’t close to dire. The worst-case scenarios had me performing an emergency cesarean, but I preferred not to go there if I didn’t need to.

I was getting a few dirty looks from some of the other women here. I was clearly young, new, not a dullahan, displaying at a low level, not part of the group, had a funny accent, and clearly didn’t have a child of my own. What could I possibly know of childbirth? What advice could I give? How useful could I be?

The argument had been earlier, but older, wiser heads had prevailed when presented with my utter confidence and command of the situation. I was in.

“Ready to go again?” I asked the sweaty, pained face.

With a grimace and a whimper she nodded and beared down again. Things shifted, things moved.

“Keep going!”

“Go!”

“Push!”

The entire tent got super busy as the miracle of life emerged. I tapped the baby with [Dance with the Heavens], and the same to the mother along with a hefty dose of [Sunrise].

Just in time to catch Nina as she toppled over.

“I’m awake!” She insisted, pushing herself back upright as she tried and failed to stifle a yawn. “Awake! What’s next? I’m - I’m ready.”

I patted her arm.

“We’re done. Come on.” I said, leaving the new mother to her expanded family. We were stopped on the way out by someone who had to be called Auntie, she just gave off those vibes so strongly. She seized my hand in hers.

“Thank you.” She said tearfully. “Thank you for helping my little Lin’er.”

I hit myself with [Sunrise], the burst of energy unable to fully ward off the literal 24 hours of full-time non-stop healing I’d just done. It was less physical tiredness, and more on the emotional and mental side. I plastered a smile on, too exhausted to muster up the energy for a real one.

“It’s no problem. I need to rest now.” I politely excused myself and Nina, and we were out. Iona was waiting for us.

“All set?” She confirmed.

I sighed, looking around, trying to think of anything else that needed to be done.

I didn’t see any injuries past a stubbed toe with my supernatural senses. It was why I had felt like I had time to watch over a childbirth, instead of expending my mana as quickly as possible to save as many lives as I could.

“All set.” I confirmed. “What’s the plan? We all need a break.”

Iona nodded.

“Get out of here, have Fenrir give us a ride, find a place to camp for the night while we all sleep. Plan from there.”

I arched an eyebrow at her. That wasn’t ‘immediately go find the Sixth’. I had no reason to object to the proposed plan though, and Iona wasn’t dictating ‘we have to go do this other thing.’ Just talk about it.

I was totally fine talking about things.

A pair of high-ranking commanders and their bodyguards materialized out of the darkness. None of us were startled by their approach. Iona and I had known they were there, and Nina was too exhausted to jump. The two commanders cupped their hands and respectfully bowed.

“My lady Valkyrie. Honored Oathbound.” The higher-ranking one said. “Your gifts of life here are much appreciated, and we are preparing a banquet in your honor. Please, would you give us face and attend? Great General Biao Gong is impressed with your prowess, and would like to reward you, as well as grant you a map of other places that could require your august presence.”

It felt like a trap. It smelled like a trap. Iona had predicted the heck out of Biao Gong and that he’d make some sort of move. For the life of me, unless they planned to open up with 10,000 crossbows after we’d sat down, I couldn’t imagine what the trap was though. I also didn’t know how to properly decline it without causing some sort of offense.

Like. I didn’t care that much about stepping on toes, especially because I was going away and not planning on interacting with anyone here again, but I was sure there were more problems that could be made.

Which was why I was shutting up and letting Iona take the lead.

She smiled and tilted her head at the men.

“Great commanders, you give us much honor and face by inviting us to such a celebration.” She said. “Sadly, we are too exhausted and tired at the moment to attend such a feast.”

“But of course, of course!” The commander replied. “We have prepared luxurious accommodations for all of you! Just as a soldier can’t go directly from the battlefield to meet the emperor, so too can you not directly go from your place of battle to meet the great general! Come, rest first, it will give the cooks more time to prepare.”

Iona’s smile was unwavering.

“Ah, but my beast, my bond companion Fenrir is far too large to land here! I am afraid that he would sow terror and cause problems, and with how generous your hospitality is, I couldn’t dare impose such a burden!”

The two went back and forth, each side deftly and politely trying to one-up each other without a single threat being uttered, a battlefield of words that I understood, but couldn’t follow in the slightest. Nina turned to me with confusion in her eyes. I shrugged, switching to High Elvish.

“Yeah, I have no idea either, sorry.” I told the confused kitsune.

Iona emerged triumphant from her battle of words, the commanders gracefully accepting their loss and retreating.

I think. It was hard to tell.

“What was that all about?” I asked as we hurried out of the camp. “I could tell they were up to something, but not what.”

Iona nodded.

“Good instinct. It was a clever alignment. They were trying to marry our interests together, correctly identifying that your mission was to heal as many people as possible. My bet is that map would’ve been real, and they would’ve given us the position of as many Chu armies as possible. Their goal would be to effectively recruit you to their cause. If they keep you bouncing between various disaster sites, you’d practically be an agent of theirs, regardless of your actual affiliation. The more we let Biao Gong do or give us, the deeper in we’d be.”

Huh. Yeah, that absolutely could’ve worked on me, especially if I wasn’t trying to get back to a predesignated spot. I could easily imagine it working on people with different [Oath] interpretations, trying to leverage their bleeding hearts to their advantage.

I could easily imagine [Oath] being weaponized against the wielders. Physical chains wouldn’t even be needed, just a never ending corridor of suffering, a sisyphean task to keep me busy for their own gain.

Iona flashed her shield towards the sky, Fenrir descended, and we all flew eastwards to try and find a spot to rest and camp. Once there and all set up, I popped into [Vault of Ages] to replenish our food supplies and get treats for everyone.

The moment I popped inside, hunger hit me like a sledgehammer. I was starving, literally. I’d gone 24 hours with barely a bite to eat, and the huge mana expenditure had taken a massive toll on my body and reserves. I found myself scarfing food even as I tried to collect enough for everyone else.

By the time I emerged all three of them were asleep, having passed out in the few minutes it had taken for me to ransack my stores. The light of two half-moons shone down on the Eventide Eclipse. Fenrir was curled up in a draconic pile, with Iona leaning against a leg, a quill in one hand and the start of a sketch in her notebook. Nina had her head in Iona’s lap, and Auri was perched on Fenrir’s nose.

I peeked at Iona’s sketch, then regretted it slightly. She was drawing the scene where I’d almost died, lying there with a sword through my head as Auri cried over me.

I’d been fine, but I hadn’t properly considered what that would’ve done to Iona. How that must’ve looked.

How had she felt in that moment, watching her lover die? She was my strength, my pillar, but I wanted to come up with something for her. Some way of letting her know I understood. That everything was alright.

Was everything alright? Was watching someone you love die and come back to life water off the duck’s back?

I took the first watch, spending the time watching the moons and mulling over life, and what I could do for Iona.

If I should do anything.

“Morning!” I delighted in being far too energetic and awake as I woke Auri up with a deep jug of her favorite juice.

“Brrpt...? BRPT!” I could tell the exact moment the smell of the juice hit Auri’s nose, as her tiny pupils enlarged.

“Brrrrrpt!” Auri dove head-first into the juice, starting to guzzle it greedily. I peeked in, double checking that she hadn’t fallen in this time. It had been years since the last incident, but...

Satisfied that Auri wasn’t about to commit suicide via gluttony, I sat down with everyone else around an oversized boar being twisted on a spit.

“Nice, Iona!” I gave the blonde a thumbs-up as I took my seat. Her long tresses shook as she denied it.

“Not me. This was Nina’s hunt.”

“Whoa. I’m impressed!” The thing was larger than Nina was, and probably had a more developed System to boot!

The kitsune flushed with pleasure under the compliment.

“Fenrir helped.” She said.

Iona and Fenrir snorted in tandem.

“You used Fenrir’s presence, that doesn’t mean he helped. Go on! Be proud! Take credit for what you’ve done!” Iona urged.

A bit more small talk, and we got down to the meat of the conversation.

“You implied that we needed to plan, which suggests we’re not immediately going to see the Sixth.” I said. “Right?”

Iona nodded.

“That’s right. Nina and I caught the hint of traffickers around the camp, promising that for an obscene number of gems, they can get them out of the camp, out of the warzone, and to a safe and promised land.” She snorted in disbelief. “There’s a chance it’s real, but it sounds like classic smuggling. Have people put themselves at the mercy of the smugglers, usually being ‘hidden’ in cargo containers and secret spaces, then hand them off to slavers. They’ll even cooperate until the box is opened, and whoops! They’re on an auction platform.”

Iona’s face twisted in disgust, and Nina shuddered.

“There’s a layer of deceit, underhandedness, and predatory behavior to it all that I just can’t abide by.” Iona concluded.

[*ding!* [Parallel Thoughts] leveled up! 234 -> 240]

Nothing really notable there. Was approaching another thought process, although I was unsure how many more would be useful.

The skill was also hard to upgrade. I’d researched thinking skills at the School, which had helped me grab one of the best in the first place.

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 96 -> 100]

A slightly increased range. Nothing special at 100.

Ugh. I almost regretted my stint at the School. I’d spent so much time honing and polishing my skills that they had nowhere to go for a long, long time.

[*ding!* [Persistent Casting] leveled up! 435 -> 511]

My eyes almost popped out of my head at that one until I remembered that it was the glue that had tied all my healing together. Of course it had seen a huge jump.

I was pleased with my levels, and I allowed myself to daydream over the possible class upgrades and possibilities for [The Dawn Sentinel].

I knew there was going to be an option to ‘normally’ upgrade it. Another variation of [The Dawn Sentinel], a Sentinel-Healer role. My guide, Librarian, had all but promised that a version of [Mother of Modern Medicine] would be available.

What else would there be? What special twist would the System throw at me, what unexpected delights would be delivered?

I felt more than ready to class up the moment I got the chance. It wasn’t an empty, hollow class like [Ancient Loremaster of Legend] felt. Indeed, if my offerings weren’t all black I’d be stunned.

I let part of me daydream over the endless possibilities the System could offer me, while another part chatted with Auri as we flew over the Han Empire.

“Hey Auri, your first big battle, how do you feel?” I asked my little phoenix.

“Brrrpt...” Auri turned away from me, hiding her face under a wing. I paused in my flight, putting my full attention on her.

“Auri, no. I love you. I promise. I’d never think badly of how you feel. Everyone processes differently.” I plucked Auri off my shoulder, cradling her in my hands as clouds drifted below us.

“Brrrpt...?” She asked nervously.

“Yes.” I reassured her.

“BRPT! BRrrrrrrrrrrpt!!” Auri started jumping around in my hands like she was filled with beans. “Brrpt BRPT brrrrrrrpt!”

I carefully schooled my face. I couldn’t claim that any reaction would be fine then have a horrified look at Auri’s utter glee over being free to ‘let loose’ and ‘show the utter superiority of phoenixes’.

She wasn’t human. The phoenix was the vainest creature on the planet. I had to remember that.

We were extremely close, and after an understandable juvenile phase, Auri had perfect control over herself, her flames, and her reactions to things.

At the same time, her core, her credo, involved ‘every problem can be solved with fire’, and it had taken me time to teach her that ‘burning every bad person wasn’t the answer.’

It was still core to her though, and she’d finally had a problem that could be gleefully solved with fire and flames, with a roaring inferno. She’d been able to let her little phoenix heart sing to the tune of a thousand blazes.

Of course she was happy.

It brought a tear to my eye that she was more worried about my reaction, than her direct happiness. In a way, she was all grown up, worrying about her friends and family before her own happiness.

“You did good, Auri.” I reassured her. “You did good.”

A small break in the clouds revealed the sprawling empire below us, and my eagle eyes caught the edge of a fluttering banner.

The Ironside Brigade.

“Let’s go!” I told Auri. “It’s the Sixth!”

“Brrrpt!”

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 27]

[Mana: 2,094,080/2,094,080]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,709,040 +(2,722,512)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 71]

[Dexterity: 24,260]

[Vitality: 49,132]

[Speed: 36,364]

[Mana: 209,408]

[Mana Regeneration: 209,424 (+272,251)]

[Magic Power: 241,906 (+7,015,274)]

[Magic Control: 241,627 (+7,007,183)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 580]]

[Celestial Affinity: 580]

[Cosmic Presence: 487]

[The Stars Never Fade: 17]

[Center of the Universe: 474]

[Dance with the Heavens: 580]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 580]

[Mantle of the Stars: 495]

[Sunrise: 480]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 520]]

[Radiance Affinity: 520]

[Radiance Resistance: 520]

[Nova Lance: 520]

[Lepidoptera: 520]

[Nectar: 520]

[Solar Corona: 520]

[Scintillating Ascent: 520]

[Kaleidoscope: 520]

[Class 3: [Ancient Loremaster of Legend - Spatial: Lv 256]]

[Spatial Authority: 256]

[Manuscript Mastery: 256]

[Blink: 78]

[Loremaster's Library: 256]

[Vault of Ages: 21]

[Rapid Reshelving: 104]

[Astral Archives: 256]

[Lust for Lore: 256]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 421]

[Parallel Thoughts: 240]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 580]

[The World Around Me: 100]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 580]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 580]

[Persistent Casting: 511]

[Imbue: 205]