“No, we’re g-going to need a hospital.”

Her cousin dropped her jaw, shocked.

“A... A hospital? Cessi, we already barely found any space to set this up...”

“I know, b-but look. Many p-people have b-been walking around in th-the water, some b-barefoot. There has to b-be dozens of d-diseases in this water. There might even be some p-people carrying diseases in the g-group. If we d-don’t do our best to p-prevent it from spreading now...”

“We’ll have a pandemic on our hands,” sighed Tessandra. “Damn it. ...But still, we have nowhere to set this up, and hundreds of people on our hands. Not much time either. What do you suggest we do? I know your mom had a full mountain available to set up a hospital, but we don’t have that!”

Cessilia smiled.

“Maybe we d-don’t need to g-go anywhere. The p-patients are all already h-here.”

“...I’m not sure I’m following.”

“Lady Cessilia!”

Bastat and Ishira arrived in front of her at the same time.

“We brought more fabrics, as you requested,” said Bastat. “I’ve also asked some of our best and fastest seamstresses to make more tents for the people to use. They will be ready shortly.”

“G-good.”

Cessilia turned to her cousin.

“C-can you and Sabael g-gather men and ask them t-to help erect p-pillars? As soon as the water g-goes down, we c-can set up more tents for p-people to be under.”

“Got it.”

Tessandra quickly left, grabbing Sabael’s shirt and pulling him along with her. The poor man had clearly learned to follow without too many questions... Cessilia chuckled but turned back to Bastat.

“Th-thank you, Lady Bastat.”

“You’re more than welcome, my lady. We are also working with the Yonchaa Tribe. They donated furs so we can make more coats and hand them out to the people to help them stay warm. Where do you want us to set up the tents?”

“Make sure to elongate the one we have over the q-queue, first. K-keep it far from the wall and out-t of the way, we c-can’t block the streets. I’m also g-going to need to set a larger one, near the d-doors. Enough t-to hold about t-twenty seats, b-but I need it to c-cover the sides t-too. With t-two entries opposite t-to each other, if p-possible.”

“Understood. I’ll relay that to my people.”

Lady Bastat quickly left without discussing Cessilia’s orders. She was wearing a strange colored wooden hat that kept the rain away from her, but also got her many surprised stares.

“You seem to have a plan in mind, Lady Cessilia?” asked Ishira, stepping forward.

“We need to c-create a temporary hospital,” she explained.

“A hospital? But there’s none here, and we can’t possibly accommodate all the patients in a tent! We do have a few White Houses in the Capital, but...”

“We d-don’t need to t-take anyone sick to the Capital,” Cessilia shook her head. “C-can you have healers come here t-to help us?”

“There’s ten of them already, but I can ask my cousin to send more. He said we’ll provide you with anything you need to the best of our ability. He sent word to the family outside too, so more might be coming here to help out.”

“That would be g-great. We need the d-doctors to look at the p-people here and find out who needs urgent c-care. If they c-can treat them where th-they are, they d-don’t need to send them to our t-tent. In the t-tent, we can assess who c-can be taken care of here, or send them t-to the Capital for further c-care.”

Ishira stayed stunned for a few seconds, taking the time to process everything Cessilia had said.

“...You want the doctors to go and find the patients?”

“Everyone is already g-gathered here. We c-can spot p-people with the first signs of d-disease... P-people are more worried about g-getting food than looking after th-their injuries or symptoms right now, b-but if we send the d-doctors to them, we c-can find and heal injuries, or g-give them medication early.”

“We can separate them from the crowd, give them first care before they get any sicker and contaminate more people,” gasped Ishira. “Lady Cessilia, it’s brilliant! We can even use our medical students to catch something as simple as symptoms or make bandages!”

Cessilia nodded, blushing a bit.

“D-do you think we’ll have enough p-people?”

Ishira glanced at the crowd, and nodded.

“We’ll have to! The Hashat Family always takes pride in being the best healers in the Kingdom! Even if there’s not enough of us, I can assure you, everyone is going to work twice as hard to make sure the tiniest wound gets treated!”

“G-Good. C-can you ask Lord Hephael if we d–!”

A terrible uproar cut her off.

Everyone who wasn’t already looking turned their heads toward the wall, where a large crack had appeared after the men’s repeated hits. The wall began to crumble, fast… too fast. Ashen and the others had to run as fast as they could against the water to get out of there. The King and the man with the ax even had to each grab someone else to help them get out of there as the rocks fell. The water being sucked through so suddenly caused the flood to rage toward them. Despite the water going down rapidly, two men were too late to evacuate the area. A large rock fell, seemingly toward them.

Just as everyone thought they were about to get crushed, a gigantic maw appeared, grabbing the rock like a toy between its fangs.

“K-Krai!” Cessilia exclaimed in joy.

The dragon had just flown in from the side, coming out of nowhere. It spat the stones into the river, glancing at the large water stream that was going under its body as if trying to grasp what was going on. Its eyes finally fell on Ashen, the only human in the area it probably recognized. It growled.

“Ugh,” Ashen groaned back. “Of course you only come now to help, huh?”

Krai swung its large tail left and right and lowered its head to sniff the King. Ashen took a step back. He had very limited trust in the War God’s dragon.

“Sir Dragon!” exclaimed Naptunie, who had just run to Cessilia’s side. “When did he arrive?”

“I d-don’t know.” Cessilia shook her head. “He p-probably can’t fly in this weather, he must have b-been hunting in the c-countryside...”

As long as the dragon hadn’t been hunting unreasonably again, she didn’t mind much. Dragons weren’t too fond of downpours like this, as it stuck them to the ground. Especially for Krai, who, unlike her siblings’ dragons, didn’t have a body made for water...

“I hope he’s not hungry,” muttered Nana in Cessilia’s ear. “We are already very busy making food for the people...”

“He’ll b-be fine,” said Cessilia. “...K-Krai!”

The dragon immediately popped its head up, the red eyes finally finding the Princess amongst the crowd. With the rain covering the smells and pretty much everyone wearing cloaks and hoods, Krai was probably having trouble finding anyone. As soon as the dragon saw Cessilia, its large tail swung again, hitting and demolishing a small portion of the wall in one blow. Ashen rolled his eyes, exasperated.

Still, the dragon ran to Cessilia, its large snout releasing large puffs of hot steam. She patted it, happy to see the familiar large figure.