Although Zach was speaking very softly, Drew felt his whole body shudder as if something had gripped his heart strongly. He already knew that Zach's words were both a token of thanks and a warning to him to keep what he knew to himself.
Of course Drew wasn't mad enough to leak the information regarding the person who was so important to a person like Zach with unlimited potential.
…
Marico woke up a few days after Zach used his AI Medical system to conduct the bone marrow transplant. Although he was still weak, vitality was gradually returning to his face. The previously sunken cheeks were now ruddier and tinges with a reddish hue instead of the corpse like pale ashen color.
The lack of blood in his body was being replenished by the new bone marrow in his body as well. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before he would be healed completely.
Despite not being completely healed, Marico was already feeling a lot better than he had felt in ages. He could actually feel strength in his body unlike before when it was only a deception for the people he wanted to deter from harboring designs on his Windsor family.
Drew had been a great help to him all these years and had always been there to take care of him whenever his illness returned but Marico clearly knew his own condition. He couldn't neglect the truth of his approaching death since Drew had never been confident in being able to treat his disease.
Therefore, when he woke up this time Marico was extremely surprised to find himself still in the realm of the living. The miracle that he had been hoping for really came when he had already given up on it.
Since Marico had no hope and had already accepted that the end of his life was nigh, he had made some preparations for the continued survival of his family. These included a series of orders that had to be carried out by his trusted people in the event of his death so as to not give those vultures any chance to dig their filthy claws to drink the lifeblood of the Windsor family.
But now that he had survived past his disease, there was no need to carry out those tasks posthumously. Since he still had the ability to take care of his family, there was no need for him to rely on others to do what he could do himself.
Instead of feeling sad about all the plans that could no longer reach fruition, Marico felt glad that he was alive to make new plans for the future of the Windsor family.
After contemplating for a long while as he rested to recover his lost vitality, Marico decided to make more plans for the future that made use of his presence to help Windsor family reach the top of Byzantium city.
Marico had seven children in total. Two of those children were the girls Clara and Violet. Most people had speculated that the girls wouldn't be able to handle the burden of the family after their father's death and would eventually become the weak link of the Windsor family sooner or later. Out of all his seven children, Clara and Violet were considered to be the least likely to excel amongst their siblings but reality had proven otherwise.
His survival this time was because of the two girls. Had the little girl, Clara not brought home Zach after her ordeal in the forest, Marico might have died in his bed already. Not only that but the girls weren't in fact useless. Both of them were extremely talented. The younger sister Clara was a battle maniac and a genius in augmentation magic that allowed her to increase her physical strength many times over. Her physical augmentation was so strong that her siblings despite being older than her fell far behind her. The older sister Violet was a talent when it came to management of the family. She had been holding the reins of the family in the absence of her father and had fulfilled the role in a dignified manner even though Marico didn't put all his trust in her.
Although the two sisters had their specialty, it didn't mean that they were not good in other aspects as well. For example, Clara despite being a genius mage was also quite good when it came to management. Her troops could be considered the cream of the top due to her training and battle tactics. Moreover, she had been assisting her older sister in her daily duties which allowed her to gain considerable experience in the family matters as well. Similarly, Violet was quite good at magic too despite not being a match for Clara.
After recovering from his illness, instead of gathering all his children to revise his plans for the future, Marico just called for Clara and Violet whom he considered to be the best amongst his children.
Both the sisters knew that the agenda of the meeting this time was to nullify their father's posthumous plans and to come up with a better future path for the family.
"Good good, both of you are here. Take a seat first." The old man perked up as soon as he saw the smiling faces of his capable daughters. He was especially happy to see his daughters doing well. In the past he had no choice but to be harsh with the two due to his condition but he was now willing to make up for it all. He was able to support them for a long time to come now.
"It's good to see you doing so well." Violet was the one to answer his excitement while Clara only nodded before taking a seat following her sister.
"I have called you here to discuss a few things with the two of you considering that you were the ones to hold the clan afloat in my absence all this time. I wonder if that old doctor told you about my plan to marry off Clara to Zach in case of my death." Marico looked at both of them and asked in all seriousness.
While Clara wanted to hide her face somewhere, Violet had no qualms about answering the question.
"We did. We heard him mention it once."
"Well, now that I am not going anywhere, there is no need for Clara to sacrifice herself for the family. She is my daughter and has no deficiency of suitors chasing after her. She can be matched with wonderful young masters of a family that is equivalent in status to ours. She doesn't have to bear hardships with Zach out in the wilderness anymore. I will take this opportunity to look for a suitable match for her as soon as possible. Our business partners would surely like to strengthen the bond between the families through a marriage in order to prosper together." the old man's voice turned extremely solemn as he referred to her sacrifice. There were even a hint of tears at the corner of his eyes. He looked extremely remorseful at the thought of marrying Clara off.
Violet tried to hold back her laughter as she saw Clara panicking at the sudden declaration regarding her marriage. There were visible changes in her expression even though she tried to hide her face behind her hands as if she was embarrassed to look at her father for suggesting such a thing in front of her.
"I think you are right father. There is no way that Zach can be a match for Clara even though he helped our family. We must find a good young master for my little sister instead. I don't want her to be wronged now that you are here to take over the reins of the family."
Before Violet could say anything else, Clara removed the hands covering her face and acted slightly indignant before butting into the conversation.
"Father, my apologies but I don't agree with your suggestion. I don't think that it is wise for us to distance ourselves from Zach especially when he is so full of potential. We haven't seen even half of what he is capable of. Our Windsor family must stick to him like adhesive if we have to in order to bring our family to new heights."
Marico acted surprised at Clara's opinion but didn't stop her from talking her heart out. Violet too didn't stop her and instead listened to everything she was saying with a mysterious smile on her face.
"He has already cured me. I don't think he has anything else to offer our family. We can't obtain any more benefits from him even if we marry you to him. I don't want my precious daughter to suffer because of him." Marico acted like a strict father-in-law assessing his daughter's boyfriend for the first time. No matter how much Clara praised him, he acted dissatisfied with Zach.
But the more Marico tried to disregard Zach's favor, the more Clara wanted to defend Zach.
"You are only saying that because you haven't witnessed his strength in battle. He is not only crafty and ingenious when it comes to battle strategies his method of training troops is so out of the box that even I can't stop admiring it. His forces are exceptionally disciplined and armed with weapons that I haven't seen before. Moreover, most of his forces are made up of common people instead of mages. You can't deny his ingenuity even if you want to. In my opinion, we shouldn't close off the door to the collaboration with him so soon. In the meantime, I shouldn't go out or get in touch with other men so that we can opt whether to collaborate with Zach or not at a later date."
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