Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 60: Preparations

"So, it is that serious, huh?" Julien asked, leaning back in his chair.

The weight of the hunter’s words settled over the table, dismissing the taste of the expensive buffet.

An entire elite Association team vanishing without a single distress signal was not a minor inconvenience.

Julien shifted his focus back to the immediate problem.

"What about Maya? Will she clear the District 9 Gate now that we are pulled out?"

Blaze scoffed, hearing that.

"We never know what that woman is going to do. Frankly, we didn’t expect her to come out to the ruins to stop you. The situation was escalating fast."

He leaned forward, his eyes locking onto Julien.

"If she hadn’t stepped in when she did, either the other Guild Masters or I would have been ordered to put you down permanently."

Julien coughed, his hand instinctively rubbing his throat where the rope had burned him just a few hours prior.

He managed an uncomfortable smile.

"Well. Thanks for not coming, then." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Don’t thank me yet," Blaze said, pushing his chair back and standing up to his full, towering height.

"Focus on surviving your raid."

"Wait," Julien called out before the big man could walk away.

"Where is Kiara?"

"She is in the central hospital near the guild," Blaze replied, adjusting his heavy shoulder plates.

"The mages brought her and her mother there after the first wave was contained. I suggest you find her. You are going to need your strategist."

With that, Blaze turned and walked out of the dining hall, leaving the three of them alone in the quiet room.

Chris let out a long breath, pushing his half-eaten steak away.

"Put down permanently. That is a fun phrase to hear over lunch."

"Are we going to meet her?" Alice asked.

"Yes," Julien said, standing up and grabbing a stray napkin to wipe his hands.

"We need our full party."

********

The District 5 Central Hospital was located just two blocks away from the Hunter Association headquarters, but walking through its doors felt like entering a palace of healing.

There were no blood-stained stretchers lining the hallways or desperate, screaming patients clutching cheap bandages like in the back-alley clinics of District 9.

Instead, high-tier healers in white robes roamed the wide, brightly lit corridors, their hands glowing with faint, comforting yellow mana.

Chris kept his arms tucked close to his sides, looking incredibly out of place.

Even with his fresh shave and clean bandages, his armor scraped loudly against the floors.

"This place probably costs more per hour than our old apartment cost for a year," he muttered.

"Don’t touch anything," Julien whispered back.

"If you break a vase here, I’m adding it to your personal debt ledger."

They navigated the signs until they reached the high-security intensive care wing.

A nurse pointed them toward a suite at the end of the hall.

The room was vast and highly luxurious, featuring comfortable visitor chairs and massive windows letting in the afternoon sun.

In the centre of the room lay a state-of-the-art medical bed.

Kiara was sitting on a stool beside it.

She was leaning forward, gently holding her mother’s pale, unmoving hand.

"How are you?" Julien asked, breaking the silence as he stepped into the room.

Kiara jumped slightly, her head snapping toward the door. Her tired eyes widened in pure awe as she took in the sight of him.

"You’re alive," she breathed.

Julien scoffed, doing a small, sarcastic bow. "Yes, alive and well. All in one body, too. No shadowy roommates trying to hijack my vocal cords."

Kiara let out a breath that sounded halfway between a laugh and a sob.

She carefully placed her mother’s hand back on the bed and stood up.

"I was about to come see you at the Association, but the doctors wanted to run a few more diagnostic tests, and I didn’t want to leave her alone."

Julien nodded, his gaze shifting to the quiet woman resting on the pillows.

"How is she?"

Kiara’s smile faded.

She crossed her arms, looking down at the floor.

"She is physically stable. The healers here are amazing, so they fixed the minor mana burns and stabilised her core. She’s normal... but there is no response. Just like always."

Alice walked silently past Julien and Chris, toward the medical bed.

Slowly, Alice reached out, her glowing fingers brushing lightly over the mother’s chest.

"Her spirit is still there," Alice murmured, her voice carrying a strange, resonant echo in the quiet hospital room.

"It is very faint, like a candle fighting a strong wind, but it is holding on."

Kiara looked up, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

She nodded firmly, her jaw tightening with renewed determination.

"Of course it is. That is why I’m still here, hoping."

Julien gave them a moment, letting the heavy emotional weight settle before he clapped his hands together, shifting the atmosphere in the room back to business.

"Alright," Julien said, his tone turning serious.

"Kiara, we have a mission, and we need your help."

Kiara blinked, wiping her eyes with the back of her glove.

She immediately snapped back into her role, her posture straightening.

"Of course. What is the target? Did Gina give you a hit contract to pay off your penalty?"

"Not exactly," Julien said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We are raiding the Red Gate in this district right after the second wave breaks."

Kiara stared at him in silence for three agonising seconds.

"Of course not, idiot! Why did you agree to that?!" Kiara shouted, her voice echoing loudly off the hospital walls.

The door to the suite swung open, and a stern-looking nurse poked her head in, aggressively shushing them before pulling the door shut again.

Kiara ignored the nurse, marching right up to Julien and lowering her voice to a furious, harsh whisper.

"Are you insane? You don’t even have a combat class!"

"What could I do?" Julien shot back, throwing his hands up in defence.

"She basically forced me! She had me trapped in a mental void, floating in mid-air with a multi-million credit debt hanging over my head. It was either take the real estate deal and the raid, or get my brain crushed like a grape."

"But you know you can’t clear a Red Gate," Kiara said, poking him hard in the chest.

"You can’t even open a new inventory tier. You told us yourself, the System requires you to be on the verge of getting slaughtered to unlock Tier 2. If you try to find that edge inside a Red Gate, you will just die."

"Yes, I know," Julien said, catching her finger and pushing her hand away.

"I did the math. My base stats are an E-Rank liability. Going in there right now is guaranteed death for all of us."

Chris leaned against the hospital wall, crossing his arms. "I really don’t like where this is going. If we are guaranteed to die, why did you look so confident in the dining hall?"

"Because I have a plan," Julien said, a sly, overly ambitious merchant smile spreading across his face.

"A plan to level up fast before the second wave hits."

Alice drifted away from the bed, floating closer to the group.

"What is it?"

"We are in District 5 now," Julien stated, his eyes brightening with the thrill of pure capitalism.

"We are surrounded by rich, desperate hunters who are about to face a massive crisis, and we have exclusive access to a high-end market that has never seen my unique items."

Kiara frowned, deeply confused.

"So?"

"So," Julien laughed, adjusting his jacket.

"I’m going to maximise my sales."