A few hours later.

Graven woke up from his sleep, feeling refreshed. ​​

He exited the room and went outside to find Grandpa. He found him feeding his chickens on the ground outside the house.

"Grandpa, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.

Terros nods his head. "Sure! Let me finish feeding the chicken first," he said and continue throwing the feeds into the ground.

A few minutes later, he finished with his task and joined Graven on the wooden bench. He looked at him. "What is it, son?" he asked.

"Grandpa, let's administer the medicine to the rest of the men," Graven said.

"Okay, no problem. I'll bring the herbal medicine to the headquarters and administer them to the infected men," Terros said.

"Thank you, Grandpa! I'll go home first to check on my wife. Then I'll drop by in the headquarter this afternoon to check on the progress there," Graven said.

"Okay. Leave everything to me. You can take a rest in your home with your wife as much as you can. Horace will make sure your businesses and the South Pond Town is well taken care of," he said.

Graven sighed. "I've been away from my duties and responsibilities for a while," he said forlornly.

"Don't over-stress yourself too much. Your sister-in-law is already back home and we already find the cure to the black liquid. Just enjoy the few victories you had and leave the rest of the problem later to solve. Take a break and take a breather beside your wife," Terros told him.

"Thanks, Grandpa!" Graven said.

"You go now and visit your wife today and sleep there for the night. Tomorrow you will stay here so that we can continue your medication the whole day. We can't let Laura witness your vomiting and high fever. It will alarm her greatly. You will only go back to her side if you're finally cured," Terros said.

"Okay, got it!" Graven said. "I'll go now. See you later in the headquarter!" he said. He looked at Veronica and nods his head.

She waved goodbye at him.

Graven initiated the teleportation process in his mind and disappeared from the place.

Veronica went to Terros's side. "He's gone home back to his wife?" she asked.

"Yes. He instructed me to administer the black liquid to the rest of the infected men. And tomorrow he will also take the medication the whole day," Terros replied.

"B-but you didn't tell him about his twin brother yet? Why?" Veronica asked.

Terros sighed deeply. "I want him to have a rest first before telling him about his missing brother. I will tell him after he finished taking the medication," he said.

"Okay. So, do you want me to go with you to the headquarter and help you administer the herbal medicine to the men?" she asked.

"Sure! That would be better," Terros responded.

"Alright, I'll just return to the Windless Mountain after the men finished taking the medicine," Veronica said.

"Thank you for all the help, daughter!" Terros said.

Veronica smiled. "Don't mention it. Helping you is a pleasure of mine," she said. "I'll go back inside and prepare the medicine to bring to the headquarter," she said.

"No need to do that, leave it to me. Just prepare the dishes for lunch, so that we can go to the headquarter early," he instructed.

"Okie Dokie," Veronica said and turned around going back to the house to prepare food for lunch.

One hour later.

Terros and Veronica gathered around the table in the kitchen to eat their meals.

"What do you think Graven will do to save his men from the clutches of the deranged King?" Veronica asked.

Terros took a deep breath. "I have no idea. We haven't talked about that yet. But I'm planning to go with him next time to the castle and meet the King," he said.

Veronica's eyes widened in alarm. "Huh? Are you still not dropping that stupid plan of yours?"

Terros shook his head. "I just can't stand on the sideline and watch Graven tormented by that King over and over again! I need to do something to end it!" he said in a serious tone.

Veronica sighed. "Grandpa, all I ask from you is never go there unless you have a concrete plan! Remember that place is the King's territory! And he had Graven's men imprisoned inside that place as a bargaining chip. It's not easy to kill the King unless Graven is willing to sacrifice the precious lives of his men just to kill the King!" she reminded him.

Terros nodded his head. "You got a point. The only thing standing between the King and his ultimate death is Graven's men that he had imprisoned inside. Without the men, it's easy to finish him for good!" he finally said.

"So... the main focused right now is how to rescue the imprisoned men? Get them out of that basement and destroy the King's place? And deliver a painful death to the King once and for all!" Veronica said.

"Exactly! But that is the most difficult part. How to rescue the men? There got to be some other way!" Terros said.

"Yes, there's got to be a perfect way. But right now, it's hard to think about it. Maybe one day, the idea will come to us like a spark of light. But right now, we have to finish eating the soup because it's getting cold," Veronica said.

"Alrighty!" Terros replied.

They resumed eating their cold food.

One hour later.

They get ready to teleport to Graven's headquarter.

Meanwhile...

At Graven's manor.

The couple just finished eating lunch together with Laura's family and currently cuddling in the bed.

"How's it's going?" Laura asked.

"You mean, the new coal mine and the thugs?"

"Yeah. I hope you settled everything already," she said.

"It's 50% in completion. My men and I are working on it peacefully. We try to remind those thugs calmly that we already bought the property, and they have to vacate the place and transfer to another area that they can call their own," he lied again. It's almost believable in his ears.

"I hope it won't end up in a bloody fight," she said.

"We're trying to be considerate... but if they will use violence against us then we can't tolerate them anymore," he explained. "By the way, is everything okay here?" he asked, changing the topic.

"Yes. Everything is okay, we're all good here," Laura replied.

"Good! I want to sleep for a while. I'll go back to the headquarter later, then spend the night here with you, because tomorrow night, I might not be able to come home," he said and planted a kiss on her lips and another kiss on her baby bumped.

"Okay, go to sleep now," Laura said and ran her fingers through his hair, giving his scalp a gentle massage.

Graven smiled, he loves the way she massaged his scalp, it's soothing to the skin and feels heavenly. "Continue what you're doing to my head, my love, I like it! It feels so good!" he said and shut his eyes to sleep.

Laura kissed his head lovingly and continue with her massage.

Graven finally falls into a deep slumber.

Laura gazed at her husband's face adoringly for a long time. She finally found peace on her husband's side together with his family. Luke and the vampire couple are the farthest things from her mind right now.

Inside the walls of this manor, she felt secured and well protected. She finally found her happiness, beside her husband.

A few minutes later, Laura had dozed off on the bed as well

Two hours later.

Graven woke up and found his wife sleeping beside him. He planted a kiss on her lips and got up from the bed.

Laura's eyelashes fluttered. She saw her husband taking some clothes from the closet. "Husband are you going back to the headquarter now?" she asked.

"Yes. Continue your sleep. I'll return home tonight," Graven replied.

"Okay, take care of yourself," she said and closed her eyes to resume her sleep.

Finished donning his clothes, Graven went to bed and planted a kiss on his wife's head.

Then he vanished from the room.

A few minutes later, Graven reappeared in the headquarter.

Terros and Veronica just finished administering the herbal medicine to the men.

They joined Graven on the table.

Terros saw the sadness and worries that were etched on Graven's face. "Thinking about your men imprisoned beneath the crumbling castle, son?" he asked.

Graven nods his head. "That is my main concern nowadays, Grandpa. How to rescue my men underneath that castle? Once I'm inside, I'm powerless. Without my power, I can't fight the King and rescue my men," he said with a gloomy sigh.

"I understand your difficulties, son. How many minions exactly the King had?" Terros asked.

"I dunno the exact number. I have seen a few of them. I think not many," Graven replied.

"Good! Can you describe to me the whole place?" Terros inquired.

Graven pondered for a moment.

"The whole place consisted of chambers, rooms, and pools filled with dark liquid. That's all I can see in there. And there was also this doorless room. The door only appeared if the King entered and made an exit. They imprisoned me in that room. My men were in the other room. I saw a few numbers of furniture like tables and chairs..." Graven elaborated further.

Terros rubbed his jaw in deep thoughts. "Hmm... can we bring something in there, like explosives or something? Human weapons? Like guns and dynamite to blast the whole place?"

"It's easier to bring human weapons inside, but those things will be confiscated by the King's men once everyone was already inside the basement. The King is not stupid even though he was born thousand years ago," Graven said.

Veronica was silent the whole time while listening to the men's conversation.

Suddenly, Graven remembered his brother. He looked at Terros "Grandpa... before I lose consciousness, I remembered seeing my brother in the forest? Where is he right now?" he asked.

Terros and Veronica looked at each other.