Chapter 3
When Astraea fainted, Nesrin quickly caught her in her arms.
"Astraea!"
"Princess!"
Everyone exclaimed at the sight of Astraea losing consciousness.
At the sight of her daughter, Nesrin took a deep breath instead of panicking to assess the situation.
"Lloyd contact the physician and tell him to come quickly. Also, I want you to check everything she ate just now in case she consumed something."
"Anna, go inform Callyx that Astraea has fainted," Nesrin quickly ordered.
"Yes, your Majesty."
Trying to keep calm, Nesrin quickly instructed everyone around her on what to do. Her knight Lloyd bowed and followed her orders.
"Kaine, help me take Astraea to her room."
Kaine quickly, yet carefully, took Astraea from Nesrin and walked as fast as he could towards her room. Nesrin followed along with her hand holding Astraea's limp one. She prayed that nothing wrong happened to her daughter as she tried using her healing powers on her. Though, for some odd reason, it did not work.
They both arrived at her bed chambers and gently laid her on her bed.
Nesrin felt like crying at seeing her daughter's unmoving body. She couldn't forget the pain she heard in her child's voice when she said she was hurting.
Luckily, it didn't take long for the Imperial Physician to arrive.
Sensing the urgent situation, the physician quickly did a thorough check-up on Astraea.
As this happened, Anna reached the meeting hall and informed a close guard that was guarding the door.
The guard immediately interrupted the meeting Callyx was in and whispered the news of Astraea in his ear. Callyx felt his heart drop at the sudden news.
Without hesitation, he stood up and all the nobles followed.
"Due to an emergency, I have to leave. Duke Havenash may lead the meeting and report to me later," he quickly instructed, and the nobles bowed before he left in a hurry.
By the time the physician finished the check-up, Callyx stormed inside his daughter's room and everyone bowed in greeting.
"How is she?" he ignored them and went straight to the point.
"It seems that there is nothing wrong with her body," he shook his head.
"How can that be? She felt pain in her chest before she fainted," Nesrin mentioned.
"I apologise your Majesty, but I sense no irregularities with her body."
"She couldn't have fainted for no reason!" Callyx angrily shouted.
Before he could scare the physician anymore, Nesrin calmed him down.
"Thank you, doctor. You may leave," Nesrin kindly dismissed him.
Sweating, the physician quickly fled before he could be threatened anymore by the scary Emperor. He really was someone to not mess with when he was angry.
Callyx quickly went towards his daughter and carefully held her hand.
"I don't understand. What happened?"
"She suddenly said she was hurting near her chest. Then she felt dizzy before fainting. She was perfectly fine before," Nesrin exasperated, not knowing why this happened.
As both of them thought about what to do, an idea came to Nesrin.
"Cal, we should ask someone from the Tower to come."
"From the Tower? Why?"
"Maybe it's something to do with mana?" Nesrin concluded that Astraea's body was fine.
"But Astraea was born without mana," Callyx mentioned to make her remember.
"I know but I mean you have a lot of mana and I do too, so it's worth a shot."
Agreeing with his wife, he quickly called the Master of the Tower.
Evander Duras, the Master of the Tower, was deeply acquainted with Callyx as he was his old teacher when he grew up. That was why Evander immediately arrived from the urgent message Callyx sent by mana.
When Evander suddenly appeared in the Princess's bedroom, everyone apart from Nesrin and Callyx was surprised.
"Greetings to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor and her Imperial Majesty the Empress," Evander quickly greeted.
"Astraea fainted and the physician said there was nothing wrong with her. Although she has no mana, please check her condition," Callyx wasted no time to say.
At the sound of Callyx's plea, Evander was quick to take action. He went to Astraea and delicately held her hand before assessing the mana in her body.
Everyone held their breath as they waited in silence.
Callyx was getting impatient, wanting to see his beloved daughter open her eyes as soon as possible.
After a while, Evander opened his eyes before looking at Callyx.
"The physician is right. It's not her body but her mana," Evander concluded.
"B-but how? She was checked when she was born and you said she had none," Callyx and Nesrin were both confused at this sudden news.
"Well I suspected it before, but there was no way for her to not have any mana. I think it was sealed all this time. I suspected it would appear at a certain age and I guess the time is now," he explained.
"Then is she okay?" Nesrin asked.
"I'm afraid the seal suddenly opened and all of her mana exploded. Considering how small and young she is, she couldn't take all of the mana in her body. That's why she suddenly felt pain and fainted. But that's no surprise because it appears she has inherited her mana from your Majesty," Evander informed them both.
"In fact, the mana levels I can detect from her seem much more than your Majesty's. And since your Majesty has more mana than everyone in the Tower, that is a lot for a small body to deal with. Remember when your mana manifested?"
Remembering the painful memories, Callyx shivered.
"Oh my gosh," he held his face out of worry.
"What is it?"
"When my manifested, it was very painful. And I was only 15. Astraea is 5 so I can't even imagine how painful it is for her," Callyx revealed.
What Callyx said was right. They all looked at Astraea and her face was morphed in pain. Even though she was unconscious, she looked like she was struggling.
"What should we do?" Nesrin quickly asked.
Evander glanced at the Imperial couple before looking at the little girl beside him.
"She won't be able to wake up until she has completely infused all of her mana into her heart and body," he went straight to the point.
"What!" Callyx exclaimed.
He was worried. It was difficult for him to manifest his mana when he was a teenager, so asking a toddler to do the exact same thing was out of the question, especially as she was unconscious and had no knowledge of mana.
"Is there any way to help her?"
"Since your Majesty has already perfected manifesting and has a large capacity of mana, you can help navigate her," he started explaining as fast as he could.
"You would need to hold her hand for long periods and help be the tunnel to channel her energy around her body as she tries to manifest herself. That's all you can do."
Nodding, Callyx fell into thought about what to do. Since he was the Emperor, he had a lot of worries, but he could not think about anything else other than his daughter at that moment.
Callyx sat where Evander was and hurriedly held his precious daughter's chubby hands. Carefully, he closed his eyes and felt the mana passing through his body and felt hers.
Sweat formed on his forehead as he channelled everything. It was an extremely difficult task. One mistake and the whole process could backfire. Evander would not have suggested it if it were anybody else but because it was Callyx, he trusted him. Callyx was the best swordsman in the Empire, and he had a monstrous amount of mana in him. Therefore, Callyx was the right person for this.
When he was born, Evander was immediately informed about the prince's unusual mana capacity. When he checked, he thought no one could beat him. But now, Princess Astraea surpassed him. Although he couldn't measure It perfectly, he knew from one touch that it was an amount that could be dangerous if not handled properly.