Chapter 190: They Are Both Mad Women

"But we need to think of the bigger picture here--"

​"I know that." Kelly snapped her head toward Viper, her eyes narrowing as a dense, suffocating aura surged outward from her frame.

​’This?! What sort of bizarre suppression is this? She is only an F-Rank Awakened, her mental pressure shouldn’t be this absurdly powerful,’ Viper thought, a cold sweat breaking out on her neck as she adjusted her footing with a slight frown.

​"You are only thinking about the isolated lives of those hospital staff members—what about the front-line Awakened who will be throwing themselves into the meat grinder to protect the citizens and the entire city?!" Kelly demanded, her question instantly striking Viper silent and leaving her stunned.

​"Besides, you certainly don’t strike me as someone who would randomly bleed your heart out for ordinary civilian staff, so why are you so adamantly against me ordering them to stand their ground?" Kelly stood up from her chair, stepping closer to Viper with deliberate, measured grace:

​"Tell me... who exactly is working inside that hospital that is so precious to you?"

​"....?!"

​"It’s your cousin, isn’t it?"

​"You?! How on earth do you know about her?!!" Viper asked, her sharp demeanor cracking into outright shock. Kelly had only awakened from a long-term state of mental decay this very afternoon—there was no possible way she could have gathered fresh intelligence on the outside world, so how could she know such private details?

​"Back when I was still actively running the Ashville family as its head, I made it my personal business to thoroughly investigate every prominent figure operating within the underground forces," Kelly explained coolly, her voice dripping with strategic composure. "I just didn’t expect she would still be serving as a medical practitioner in that exact hospital after all these years."

​"You are correct... my younger cousin is indeed working in that hospital," Viper confessed, staring straight into Kelly’s eyes, "but I still don’t understand your underlying reasoning for preventing them from evacuating with the rest of the First District."

​"What do you honestly think will happen if the outer wall falls?" Kelly countered sharply, while Juliana, Sara, and Tang blinked in quiet confusion. "Do you truly believe that underground emergency bunker beneath Silverspire will protect those people if the surface is completely overrun?"

​She didn’t wait for an answer, driving her point home: "The Grand Hospital is an Awakened-tier medical institution. Almost all of its staff members are trained Healers, Priests, and specialized support Mages. Although the major guilds possess their own internal medical corps, having a massive centralized medical hub on standby is never a bad thing."

​"So you intend to force these peaceful medical practitioners to fight on the frontlines?"

​"Not exactly... My plan is to establish a massive, fully fortified field hospital camp directly behind the outer defensive wall. Their primary directive will be to rapidly treat and stabilize the wounded combatants, ensuring our high-tier fighters can return to peak combat condition to continue holding the line." Kelly explained, casually taking another crisp bite of her apple.

​"I understand, but what exactly do we stand to gain from such an enterprise? We cannot generate any real corporate profit from a charity relief camp," Juliana pointed out, tilting her head thoughtfully. She continued: "If we set up the hospital as a secondary emergency medical center, we will end up depleting our own personal stockpiles and medical supplies just to cure the wounded."

​"That is precisely where your reasoning is flawed, little sister," Kelly said, glancing over her shoulder at Juliana with a confident glint in her eyes.

​"Who said anything about utilizing our private resources? The city leaders will be forced to provide every single scrap of raw medical supplies required for the operation... And with those free, city-funded resources, we will heal every single injured fighter originating from the Awakened Association." She offered a calm, predatory smile.

​"Huh? I still don’t see how we make a single cent of profit from that," Juliana admitted, her brain momentarily short-circuiting as she tried to follow the financial logic.

​"Our real profit doesn’t come from the city or the Association... Our money comes directly from the elite guilds."

​"....?!"

​Everyone in the room stared blankly at Kelly, still completely baffled by her master plan.

​Kelly let out a soft sigh, lightly perching herself against the edge of the long dining table: "There are more than twenty top-tier guilds that will be forcibly deployed to join this defensive battle. We all know these grand guilds already maintain their own private corps of support Mages, Healers, and Priests who are far more experienced in high-intensity combat. But even with all their field experience, they cannot possibly patch up or heal every single falling guild member—doing so would drastically exhaust their spirit energy reserves in the opening hours..."

​Her smile widened, brilliant and calculating: "So, when their internal healers run completely dry, their high-ranking wounded will have no other operational choice but to crawl straight to our field camp for emergency aid."

​"We will charge a flat operational fee of twenty thousand A-Rank Evolution Stones for each guild that wishes to utilize our medical facilities." Kelly emphasized, her tone leaving no room for debate. "Strictly A-Rank Evolution Stones."

​"Why exclusively demand A-Rank stones? And isn’t twenty thousand an absurdly astronomical price tag?" Viper asked, completely stunned by the sheer nerve of the demand.

​"A-Rank Evolution Stones can be readily harvested from A-Rank, S-Rank, and SS-Rank Dungeons—you can even find them abundantly scattered in SSS-Rank Dungeons," Kelly broke down easily:

"It is the most common high-value currency in circulation, and any guild capable of holding a spot in the top twenty can easily clear A-Rank dungeons in their sleep... As for the quantity, charging twenty thousand is actually me showing them extreme mercy simply because we share the same city."

​She casually tossed the remaining half-eaten apple across the table to Juliana, who caught it instinctively.

​"Twenty thousand A-Rank Evolution Stones if they wish to secure our full medical backing during this tide. As for the city leaders, the bulk supplies they furnish will easily cover our base operational costs... Not only that, but following this crisis, the Grand Hospital will officially rebrand and change its name to the Aetheldawn Hospital."

​Kelly turned her gaze back to Viper: "As for the physical security of the medical camp, I am placing that responsibility entirely in your hands."

​She then looked over her shoulder toward Juliana: "I also recall that a few smaller guilds recently submitted their allegiance to our family. Send them an immediate directive: when the tide finally hits the city perimeter, their sole assignment is to guard our field hospital. As guilds ranked below the Top 100, the major factions won’t care in the slightest what they do on the sidelines... That is the complete strategic layout I came up with just now," she concluded smoothly.

​’She just came up with all of that on the spot?!’ Tang thought, his mind completely blown:

’She effortlessly transformed a catastrophic apocalyptic crisis into an absurdly lucrative, high-yield investment!’

​’Using a monster tide to secure massive amounts of high-tier cultivation resources while simultaneously reaping astronomical profits... Not only that, but she is leveraging the emergency to forcibly rename a premier hospital to elevate the prestige and reputation of the Aetheldawn name worldwide. This woman is infinitely more dangerous and terrifying than I initially estimated... I think I actually prefer her docile state.’ Viper thought to herself, swallowing hard before offering a sharp, respectful nod:

​"I understand completely. Consider it executed."

​"Good. Now, Juliana—how many Spirit Energy Restoration Potions can you personally synthesize in a single day?"

​"Huh?"

"There’s even more?!"

​Both Tang and Viper were rendered entirely speechless.

​"Well, using the high-tier cauldron Husband gifted me, as long as I am supplied with the raw herb resources, I can easily refine up to a hundred... or perhaps even more than that." Juliana answered, her eyes brightening as she caught on.

​"What about high-grade Health Potions and temporary Stat Boost Potions?"

​"It’s the exact same throughput as the Spirit Energy Restoration Potions. In fact, if I condense the liquid formulas into compact pill forms instead, I can effortlessly produce over one hundred of each type per day."

​"Excellent. Tomorrow morning, Tang will go out and buy every single raw material and resource required for the recipes. Synthesize as many batches as your energy allows. When the tide reaches its peak, we will sell them to the desperate guild leaders for a baseline price of 1,000 B-Rank Evolution Stones and up per pill."

​"Brilliant!! If we manage to sell just one hundred pills, that will yield an instant profit of one hundred thousand B-Rank Evolution Stones!" Juliana cheered with a radiant, money-loving smile.

​’These two women... They are completely, unhinged mad women.’

Both Tang and Viper thought in perfect, silent unison.