The system was silent for a moment before a message panel popped up in front of him.
[Host's father can still live for 23 days. However, if he is kept in his current comatose state, he can live for 10 more days.]
Max's body trembled a little when he heard this and asked, 'Can you put him in that state?'
Another panel popped up in response.
[The system can, but it doesn't have the required energy to do so.]
'How much energy do you need?' Max asked.
[Host's current kill points should be barely enough. However, the system won't be able to answer any question the host has until the host gains more LPs or KPs.]
'Good. Use these KPs and do it.' Max said. Fortunately, he hadn't used or converted them.
Just as he said this, his KPs vanished and Ashton's previously knitted brows relaxed a little.
Noticing this, he relaxed a little and thought. '33 days...'
If he couldn't gather 200,000 SPs within these 33 days, Aston will die. Although he wasn't the original Max, his feelings for Ashton were the same as him, so he didn't want him to die.
Taking a deep breath, he glanced at Esther and Amelia and said, "Don't worry. Nothing will happen to him. Within a month, he will be the same as before. No, not the same. He will be in an even better condition."
It was as if his words had some sort of power, Amelia regained some light in her eyes and looked at him.
"Are you telling the truth? H-He will be alright?"
"Yes. He will be." Max nodded and said, "Now, you guys don't wear these sad faces. He would be disappointed if he knew you guys were behaving like this."
Saying this, he turned around and walked out of the room. Eva and Esther stared at his back, surprised.
---
After leaving Ashton's room, Max arrived in front of the guest room where Gene and her grandma were staying.
Just as he was about to knock, the door opened and a beautiful young girl who had the same hair and eyes as him appeared in front of him.
She looked at him up and down and commented, "So, you are my cousin, huh? You are not too bad looking."
Max smiled and nodded. "You are quite beautiful, too."
Hearing this, Gene's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly asked, "Really? I'm beautiful?"
"Ah...?" Max looked at her strangely and nodded. "Yes. Hasn't anyone told you that before?"
"My grandma and others had told me but no one of the opposite gender." She said with a pout and then asked, "Am I as beautiful as aunt Hannah? I heard she was a peerless beauty."
Max thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, you aren't as beautiful as her."
"Is that so?" Gene's face drooped.
Seeing this, Max coughed and said, "You are still young. As you grow up, maybe you will be as beautiful as her."
Gene's eyes lit up again, and she eagerly asked, "You think so?"
Just then, an aged voice sounded from within the room.
"Little Gene, why don't you let him come in?"
Gene pouted and turned around. "Come in. Grandma is waiting for you."
Max nodded, thanking the old lady for putting a stop to her questions.
He followed Gene into the room and saw an old lady, well, not too old. She seemed to be in her fifties and had some wrinkles on her pale face. Apart from that, she seemed quite healthy and if he looked carefully, her figure was not bad...
'Cough! System, stop making me more perverted.' He blamed the system.
If the system wasn't weakened after helping Ashton, it surely would've refuted his claims.
"Greetings, senior." He greeted her and then bowed toward her. "Thank you for helping my family. Without you, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened."
The old lady looked at him up and down before saying, "I had to. This is my niece's family, after all. And you don't have to call me senior. Call me grandma just like Gene does."
"Okay, Grandma."
She then said with a confused look on her face, "I seem to have seen you somewhere before."
"Oh? But I don't think I have seen you before, grandma." Max said.
The old lady thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. "I remember. I saw you in that Elvin city's auction house over a month ago. You were there right?"
"I see. Yes, I was there."
"Too bad I didn't recognize you or we wouldn't have to waste so much time finding your family." The old lady said somewhat regretfully.
Hearing this, Max chuckled, "Fortunately, grandma didn't recognize me or my family wouldn't have avoided the disaster today."
When the old lady heard this, she let out an embarrassed laugh. It was true. If she had recognized him, she might have left the Green Leaf Kingdom by now.
"Ahem... it's not true. That white robed girl would've saved them even if I wasn't here." She said,
Max nodded and then asked, "What's your plan, grandma? Are you going to leave as soon as you get my mother's sword?"
The old lady nodded. "Yes. I need to return to the central plains as soon as possible and recover so I can save my family."
"Recover? Save your family?" Max asked in confusion.
The old lady sighed and explained her family's situation and how she was injured and needed emperor grade healing medicine to heal.
Max went silent when he heard this.
After a while, he said, "Based on what you've told me, while avoiding the Thunder family's detection, returning to the central plains, and buying grade seven healing medicine isn't going to be easy and there a high risk of being discovered, right?"
The old lady frowned, thinking why he was asking this, but nodded. "That's right. If I was at my peak, there wouldn't be much risk, but now... the chances of getting discovered are quite high."
Max looked into her eyes and asked, "Would you be willing to stay and protect my family for a few months if I bring you grade seven healing medicine?"
His family would be safe with an emperor mage protecting it. Although he could ask Garima to stay, he had planned to go to the Ice Sovereign Mountain to get Lilly back because apparently, she was in danger there.