41 Chapter 41: Society in trouble

"Ugh…"

Groaning, I opened my eyes and stared at the white, sterilized ceiling above me. My body ached like hell, and I winced when I tried to sit up. Pain lanced through me and I sank back into the mattress, reluctant to move any part of my hurting body. Relaxing my muscles, I closed my eyes and gently allowed myself to drift back to sleep…

"Richie! Are you finally awake?!"

For a moment, I thought I was imagining things. Dad went overseas to carry out a mission of vengeance against the Syndicate. There was no way he would be here…

"Mr. Huang, it might be best to let your son sleep a bit more." a nurse's strict voice spoke up from somewhere just beyond my vision.

"Oh, sorry."

Nope, not my imagination.

"Dad?" I sat up, grimacing as red-hot agony lanced through my body. Putting on my glasses, I stared at him in confusion. "Weren't you hunting down the Syndicate? What are you doing here?"

"Ah, ha ha…I rushed back immediately when I heard that you got severely hurt." Dad scratched his head sheepishly. "Don't worry, I already took care of the Syndicate. They won't be bothering us ever again."

"I see. That's good then."

Was there going to be any other outcome now that Dad had taken to the field himself? I had never doubted that Dad would succeed in his mission. If he wanted something dead, it would dead no matter that it had an immortal body or had lived for millennia.

"Sorry to worry you, but I'm all right." I creaked my neck from left to right to ensure that it was working properly. Then again, it wasn't my neck that the Lycanthrope Alpha broke. It was my damned ribs. At least I was breathing properly again.

"Oh, I'm not worried. Your school has one of the best healers in the Federation." Dad was smiling. "Mary Cure, right? She used to be a colleague of mine. I always knew that you're in good hands."

"Eh? Teacher Cure used to be your colleague?" I gaped at him. Dad nodded.

"We used to be in the same party when we were a lot younger. But now that she's got a family and kids to look after, she retired from the mage scene and became a teacher."

Wow, I so did not know that. Then again, this was Dad's alma mater. It seemed that Teacher Cure used to be a student here as well. So it wasn't strange that they knew each other. Fate had a weird way of coming full circle.

"I heard everything, though! How you got hurt…you're a hero!" Dad winked at me. "Rushing over to save your girlfriend…little Richie has grown up now!"

"Huh? Girlfriend?" I stared at him blankly. Dad blinked and began to look uncertain.

"That beautiful girl isn't your girlfriend? Alicia Violet, wasn't she? I was sure you were going out with her…"

I shook my head. However, anything I was about to say was cut off when someone entered the room.

"Student Richard! You're finally awake!"

Alicia Violet looked like she was going to cry. She approached me and clasped both my hands, forcing a smile.

"Thank you for saving my party members. I was so worried when you didn't wake up. Teacher Cure has been treating you, but…"

"…eh? How long have I been out for?"

I glanced around and realized that I wasn't in the infirmary, but a hospital. That meant I had been transferred from Teacher Cure's care to public healthcare facilities. Well, that made sense. A hospital would have better medical facilities.

"A week, from what I've heard." Dad shrugged. "Mary healed your fatal injuries and stabilized your condition, but you were pretty banged up. So it's normal for you to fall into a coma." He turned to Alicia. "Come on, Daughter-in-law, Richie's all right now. You can stop crying."

…daughter-in-law?

Did he just call her Daughter-in-law?

Alicia nodded, but didn't protest at the term of address. Okay, this was just creeping me out.

"What happened while I was out cold?" I asked.

"Hmm? Nothing much, I supposed. I unpacked my stuff, settled the administrative matters regarding the Syndicate – we're getting a huge influx of cash for that one." Dad grinned. "Oh, and I'll have to write a couple of reports. They're still not done yet."

That wasn't what I was asking about, but okay. Whatever.

"What about Adrian?" I asked, changing the subject. I was responsible for his safety, after all. "Did he find his family?"

"Cecilia's taking care of him right now." This time it was Alicia who answered. She smiled and wiped her eyes. "She asked me to express her thanks to you on her behalf. Adrian too…he was worried. I'll let him know that you've finally woken up."

"That's good." I wasn't sure what else to say. This was feeling pretty awkward. At least Adrian was all right. I always suspected that he was from the Stuart clan, but the fact that Cecilia was taking care of him and called him her cousin had confirmed it. Now that Adrian was with Cecilia, he was no longer my problem. I focused on Alicia, my hazy memory solidifying in my mind. "How are the rest of your party? Are they all right?"

"None of them were hurt. You saved us. Nicholas, Elliot and Jin Hao are all doing fine. They would visit, but none of us knew when you would wake up." Alicia continued to smile. "They also want to thank you personally."

"I wasn't able to save all the members of your party," I pointed out, still remembering the corpses in the clearing, along with Tao Zhou's death.

"You did more than enough, son." Dad placed a hand on my shoulder. "At the very least, you prevented their party from being annihilated."

"…right."

The two of them lingered for a bit longer, before leaving. I had just woken up, after all, and they wanted to let me rest. According to the doctor, it would take a couple of days before I fully recovered. Even with healing magic, my injuries had been pretty severe.

On the other hand, I could feel my body adapting and strengthening from the experience of this battle. The next time I fought a rank D monster, I was going to be a lot more prepared.

*

"Richard!"

Dong Fang Yue Chu and the rest of my society members showed up the next day.

"You are all right!"

"Why are you talking as if he was going to die?" Stanley Lee asked, rolling his eyes. "The doctors already said that he just needed a few days of rest before he fully heals. That's what the coma was doing – helping his body heal from the damage he sustained."

"Still, it's so good to see Senior Richard up and recovered." Harvey Deng was looking immensely relieved. "We really need him back!"

"No, you don't," I replied in reflex. "You have President Yue Chu to take care of you guys."

Everyone, including Dong Fang Yue Chu, shuffled their feet and avoided my gaze. I frowned, detecting some sort of unease.

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"What happened?"

"Nothing much." Wang Fei looked uncomfortable. "It's just that the Protection Period is ending soon."

"Right, I almost forgot about that." I turned to Dong Fang Yue Chu. "I hope you didn't have trouble while I was out. Did the prestige points go through? Did they allow you to register the entire level under Ultimate Outcast Society, or did they require me to do something before they recognized the prestige points as under our society?"

Prestige points were useless for the individual, after all. They were meant for the society, not the individual. For individual achievements, we had rankings. The missions did not add to my ranking, but they certainly helped me in terms of monetary rewards and unlocking higher-ranked missions for me to take in future.

"No, there was no problems with the admin stuff. Who do you think I am?" Dong Fang Yue Chu puffed his chest out. "I can handle all the paperwork. In fact, I already took care of that. As per your instructions, the whole level in the Rear Building is ours. Our society has expanded!"

"That's great." I didn't understand why they were so glum then. "I hope you guys are putting the facility to good use."

"Yeah." Stan nodded. "We sure are. Thanks for helping us secure them."

"Um…should we tell Vice-President Richard, though?" Wang Fei was looking very uncomfortable.

"Best not to," Dong Fang Yue Chu whispered. "He's only just recovered. No point making him worry.

"Tell me what?" I asked, causing everyone to jolt. Now that I looked at them, there were only four of them. The other three first-year students who joined our society the other time were conspicuously absent.

"Our society was challenged a few times while you were out," Harvey explained. "Not the first-year students, because of the protection period, but…"

"I tried to hold them off, to stall them, but I couldn't reject all of them. You know the school rules. We need to at accept at least one or two challenges a week. We are not allowed to refuse them all." Dong Fang Yue Chu scratched his head. "And since I'm the only one who's valid to accept a challenge…"

"It was only a couple of losses, so we didn't lose that many prestige points," Wang Fei assured me. "But…"

Stan sighed. "We've another couple of challenges to face next week. Right after the protection period ends."

"From the Thunder Hammer Society and the Crimson Spear Society." Harvey counted them off. "President managed to get rid of the rest, but we still have to accept at least a couple. And they are asking for a team battle."

That didn't sound good. At least not for my juniors. They were looking pretty nervous.

"We need to get stronger," Stan declared fiercely. "We can't let those bastards keep looking down on us!"

"But how?" Wang Fei asked timidly. "The challenge from Thunder Hammer Society and Crimson Spear Society is in the next few days. We won't be able to prepare ourselves in time...we're still so weak. And they're sending all their second-year and third-year students against us!"

I recognized the tactic. Often, the not-so-strong societies would look for new, weaker societies who still hadn't developed a good team, who comprised mostly of first-year students, and targeted them. Mostly because victory would gain them much-needed prestige points.

"If we lose too many battles, we would lose the rooms you worked so hard to obtain for us." Dong Fang Yue Chu's shoulders slumped. "Worse…if we lost too many prestige points, we'll be forced to disband."

Our members would be poached off by other societies, and our rooms taken away from us. That was the worst thing that could happen to us.

"Thanks to Senior Richard's efforts and accomplishments, we should still be safe on prestige points." Harvey smiled reassuringly. I felt bad. My junior somehow thought with me around, we would be able to solve everything. I hated to tell him that I wasn't a god.

"Until President Dong Fang lost those matches and a bit of prestige points." Stan sounded bitter. "A few of the members also quit after that because they got scared of being targeted. At this rate, we're going to lose all those prestige points that you earned in less than a month."

I straightened my back, my mind churning as I thought of several solutions. Biting my lip, I made my decision.

"Don't worry about it," I told them as I put on a false façade of confidence. "I'll take care of them. The team battles, the challenges…I'll take care of all of them."