It was almost afternoon, and in the vige square, Ri could be seen teaching her apprentices with her usual enthusiasm, smiles on her face as she spoke and demonstrated with her hands.
The women sitting on the grass around her watched her with respect and eagerness to learn.
Nevertheless, all of a sudden, Ri began to act strange. Her eyes blinked several times as though fighting back a strong urge to sleep, her words and demonstrations became unclear as well.
"What is happening, Lady Ri?"
"Are you okay?" they asked, concerned about Ri.
"I—I am okay," Ri muttered while staggering backward.
She was okay until a few seconds ago when her head was greeted with a strange, indecipherable noise. After the strange noise, she began to feel strength leaving her body and her vision bing blurry.
She tried to fight against the weakness in order to continue teaching, but it was impossible. Each second, the strength in her body kept decreasing rapidly.
Before she knew it, all her strength left her, and her vision ckenedpletely as she began falling toward the ground.
"Lady Ri!" Thedies quickly moved from their positions to try and save her, but they were too slow.
Rinded on the ground, her body bing immobile.
Everyone around her became scared at once and began to panic. They approached her body and tried to wake her up, but there was no response from her. One of them even checked her pulse through their traditional method, but she felt nothing.
"What is happening to Big Sister Ri? She is not responding at all," the youngest among them, who appears to be around ten years old, shook Ri''s body and said worryingly—she is Bryce''s little daughter, Mitchell.
"I don''t know what is happening—I think she is gone," one of them replied to Mitchell with a scared expression on her face.
Everyone was worried and didn''t even know the next action to take, seeing that their beloved teacher didn''t respond to their calls.
Close to the vige square, Liara, who was observing some herbs growing among the weeds near the vige square, saw themotion and sprinted toward Ri anxiously.
She approached them and squatted beside her unconscious body and asked the otherdies what happened. They exined everything, worrying, and even Liara, who had a little knowledge about medical stuff, didn''t understand what happened.
Nevertheless, she wasn''t short of action like the otherdies and asked them to lift her gently and bring her to afortable spot under one of the big trees in the vige square.
After ensuring that she was in afortable position, Liara quickly checked Ri''s pulse and found it faint but steady, meaning she was still alive but unconscious. She felt relieved with this.
She grabbed a cloth, dipped it in cold water, and gently wiped Ri''s forehead, neck, and temples as Ren had taught her.
When Ri didn''t respond, Liara tried massaging pressure points on her palms and ears, then pinched her earlobes lightly to trigger a reflex, but there was nothing. She was only unconscious but wasn''t responding to any of the triggers, which made her worry. She even began to doubt herself.
''Could it be that I have been practicing the wrong steps all this while? I still recall Instructor Ren''s instructions, and I have done everything he instructed, but why is she not responding? I need to meet him as soon as possible to correct all these!''
While she pondered to herself, the others kept looking at Ri with worries while whispering among themselves.
At that moment, they felt a strong breeze against their faces as something came rushing toward them at an unnatural speed; it turned out to be Rowan.
Rowan arrived as soon as he got the notification from the system.
He saw the women gathered at this tree and immediately knew that she would be here and approached them.
He saw Liara trying to help while Ri was lying on the ground, unconscious.
"Lord Rowan!" thedies greeted one after the other.
"What happened to her?" Rowan asked with a worried tone.
"She was teaching us, and all of a sudden she began acting strange and copsed! Would she be okay, Uncle Rowan?" Mitchell asked with worries in her voice.
Rowan immediately noticed that she was the daughter of Bryce and didn''t mind her calling him uncle.
"She will be okay. Thanks for taking care of her, all of you. I will take her home now," Rowan let out.
''System, analyze her condition,'' hemanded internally.
[ Analyzing condition requires 10,000 evolution points. ]
[ Deducting 10,000 evolution points. ]
[ Analyzing condition... ]
[ Analysisplete. Revealing results. ]
[ Subject has undergone a rare evolution, potentially resulting in the acquisition of a new special skill or the enhancement of an existing skill which will arrive soon. Unconsciousness has urred due to a significant depletion of both physical and mental strength. Subject might remain unconscious for more than 24 hours. ]
Rowan observed the analysis with a slight frown before proceeding to look at her face.
''Rare evolution? This is new. What is she going to awaken? Is she going to be okay?'' he pondered worriedly.
He could still recall his painful evolution back then, which knocked him unconscious as well—he was expecting a quick evolution like that of ze, but it wasn''t anything like he expected; it almost cost his vige a lot during the war.
At this point, he couldn''t help but imagine just how much it would affect Ri.
But there was nothing he could really do. He asked the system for suggestions, but it said there was nothing, meaning she could wake up when the evolution settled.
He could only sigh and ask thedies to take Ri back home and take care of her.
He let ze out to protect them from any sort of danger when he was away.
After settling all these, he returned to the soldiers waiting for him, and they continued their journey to the river. On the way, Rowan was pretty worried about the condition of Ri and wished for her to recover quickly.
Brandon and the others tried asking him why he suddenly left, but he waved his hand and told them not to worry, that it was nothing.