Chapter 224: Chapter 224: Noble Lineage

As Mika stepped through the massive glass doors of Little Haven Medical Centre, a gust of cool, purified air greeted him, carrying the faint scent of flowers and medicine mixed together.

The soundscape also changed completely.

Instead of the dreary quietness or the beeping one would normally expect from a hospital, there was laughter. Actual laughter.

Children, dozens of them, were running through the open corridors, their little hospital gowns and medical bracelets fluttering as they played.

Some chased each other with toy syringes, others giggled while trying to ride the small, electric scooters that nurses had allowed them to borrow.

Bright murals covered the walls, vibrant depictions of forests, starry skies, and dragons playing with children.

Everything here felt...alive.

Mika couldn’t help but smile as he looked around.

This wasn’t just a hospital. It was a dream that had come to life.

Little Haven wasn’t like the cold, grim medical complexes built for efficiency and profit. It was a place that breathed compassion. Every corner of the building seemed to exist for one reason, to make children happy.

He could see why.

Fauna had always been extraordinarily fond of children. She had adored them, cherished them more than anything else in the world.

The war had left her deeply scarred. Mika remembered it clearly: she had seen too many small, lifeless bodies, too many young faces turned pale and cold, too many parents screaming into the void.

It had almost broken her.

So this, this entire place, was her answer. Her way of healing that wound.

She had created a sanctuary where no child ever had to fear pain or death again.

Instead of crying, children laughed here.

Instead of fearing needles and doctors, they played games and ate candy while getting their checkups.

There was even a mini amusement park inside the hospital.

Mika glanced to his left and saw a huge glass partition revealing the inner play zone, colorful carousels spinning slowly, tiny rides shaped like dragons and spaceships, a cheerful arcade buzzing with lights and sounds.

To the right, through another glass wall, there was a petting room filled with rabbits and cats, where nurses helped kids cuddle with animals.

A room down the hall was packed with plush toys, beanbags, and even a miniature restaurant where all the meals were designed for children—bright, creative, and healthy.

Everywhere he looked, there were smiles.

Some waved at him as he walked by. A few even ran up to nurses holding ice cream cones or balloons with the hospital’s mascot, a chubby white bunny named ’Haven.’

For a moment, Mika stopped in the hallway and took it all in.

She did it.

Fauna had actually done it. She had taken the horror of her memories and turned it into something beautiful, something that radiated hope instead of despair.

And she had done it for them.

He could almost picture her, her gentle eyes, that tired but unyielding smile, her soft voice saying.

"If children can smile, then the world is still worth saving."

It was...admirable. Even Mika, who was rarely sentimental, felt a flicker of warmth in his chest.

Of course, there were many people who didn’t admire her. Not everyone saw her kindness as something noble.

In the corporate medical world, Fauna was a nightmare.

Where others saw hospitals as profit, she saw them as promises. Her Little Haven network, hospitals scattered across every major city, provided completely free medical care.

The bills were paid entirely by her foundation, funded through her research and the many blessed technology she had patented.

She had singlehandedly destroyed the global monopoly of pharmaceutical conglomerates.

Because of her, countless medical corporations had lost trillions.

They hated her. Despised her. Considered her the one person standing in the way of their control over humanity’s health.

But none of them dared touch her.

Because she wasn’t just Fauna.

She was The Plague Maiden. A battle angel who had once faced the death gods themselves during the war, wielding her healing powers like weapons to turn curses into cures.

No one, not even the highest of nobles or corporations, wanted to risk her wrath.

Smiling faintly at that thought, Mika continued walking down the gleaming white corridor until he reached the main lobby.

It was massive, a cathedral-like open space with sunlight streaming through the glass dome above.

Hanging gardens cascaded from the balconies of upper floors, filling the air with a soft floral fragrance.

Holographic displays floated over the reception desk, showing patient schedules, waiting times, and gentle messages like "Smile today, you’re getting better already!"

Dozens of people filled the area, families waiting for appointments, doctors in pristine white coats moving gracefully, nurses guiding patients to elevators.

Yelena had told Mika that all he had to do was walk up to the main desk, say his name, and the receptionist would personally escort him to Fauna. Easy enough.

Or so he thought, until shouting broke the calm atmosphere.

"Do you have any idea who I am?!"

Mika turned his head along with half the lobby. At the front desk, a young man dressed in expensive ivory clothes slammed his fist on the counter, glaring at the terrified receptionist.

His perfectly styled hair and gemstone ring screamed nobility.

Behind him stood an entourage, a line of well-dressed women, a handful of servants, and several towering bodyguards, each radiating faint divine energy. Blessed warriors. A and B class, at least.

At the center of the entourage sat an old man in a wheelchair, his thin face set in an expression of weary arrogance.

The young man’s voice rose again.

"I am Einz Hawthorne of the Hawthorne family! The noble house of Hawthorne, saviors of the Western Front! Do you understand what that means? People beg to stand before me! And here I am, asking you, politely, to arrange a meeting with Lady Fauna herself, and you dare reject me?"

Spittle flew from his lips as he yelled, and the poor receptionist, clearly trained to stay calm, could only bow her head slightly.

"I’m very sorry, sir." She said softly. "but Lady Fauna does not take sudden appointments. She is currently unavailable. However, if your father requires immediate attention, we can have one of our specialist teams—"

"I said I don’t want your specialists! I want her!" Einz snapped, slamming his hand down again. "My father is ill, and Lady Fauna will see him personally. Don’t you understand who we are?"

Whispers rippled through the onlookers.

The Hawthornes were old blood, a noble line from the last war, granted their status for valor and sacrifice.

But in the centuries since peace, nobility had twisted into something else. Privilege. Arrogance. Power without empathy.

They saw themselves as gods among mortals, untouchable, superior, which was quite obvious with the way he was acting right now.

The receptionist, caught between irritation and duty, managed another steady tone.

"Sir, Lady Fauna hasn’t taken personal cases in years. She only supervises the hospital now. I can assure you that her disciples, all trained by her directly, are the best in the world. They can—"

"Enough!" Einz barked, his voice echoing across the hall. "How dare a mere desk girl tell me what Lady Fauna can or cannot do?"

He took a step forward, and one of his guards immediately placed a hand on his shoulder to restrain him, murmuring.

"Young master, please, this is not wise—"

Einz shoved the guard’s hand away, straightening his coat with a sneer.

"You’d better do as I say." He barked, jabbing a finger toward the trembling receptionist. "Or I’ll make sure the world knows this damn hospital turns patients away!"

"I’ll have every news feed, every media outlet broadcasting it! The Hawthorne family’s word carries weight, you’ll be ruined before the day’s over!"

He leaned closer, his tone twisting darker.

"And you..." His eyes slid down to the young woman behind the counter "...I’ll make sure you lose your job. I’ll see to it you never find work again. Not in any hospital. Not anywhere."

Then his lips curled into a vile smirk.

"Though, I admit..." He drawled, voice lowering. "You’re quite pretty. It wouldn’t be hard to make sure you crawl into my bed by the end of the night. Who knows? Maybe that’ll save your career."

Gasps rippled through the lobby. The receptionist’s face hardened, fury flashing behind her nervous eyes.

She clenched her fists beneath the counter, doing everything she could not to slap the man in front of her.

Even so, her voice trembled as she said quietly. "Please leave, sir. This is a hospital."

"Not until I get what I came for." Einz’s grin only widened.

Mika watched the entire scene from a few meters away, expression unreadable and honestly none of it surprised him.

Not the arrogance. Not the entitlement. Not even the threats. He’d seen it all before, countless times.

This was what nobility had become.

Nobles like Einz had become a stain on society, the rot that thrived in the peace others had died to build. To them, titles and blessings meant divinity. They believed themselves gods, while the rest of humanity was made to serve beneath them.

People used to whisper that the world’s balance rested on two pillars: on one side, the nobles, federations, and corporate lords; on the other, the Battle Angels.

They say only the Angels presence kept the scale from tipping, kept the powerful from devouring the powerless.

Without them, Mika thought grimly, the world would collapse into a tyranny of the blessed, mortals reduced to slaves in all but name.

But what truly irritated him wasn’t the noble’s words, he’d heard far worse, it was the effect those words had.

The children.

The laughter that had filled the air moments ago had vanished. The little ones who had been playing in the halls were now silent, their smiles gone, clutching at their parents’ clothes and peeking out from behind them with wide, frightened eyes.

Some were near tears.

This place, Fauna’s haven, her dream, was supposed to be a sanctuary. A world where children could forget pain and fear. And this pompous fool had turned it into a scene of tension and fear within minutes.

That was what ticked off Mika and even though he only came here to meet Fauna, he decided to help the poor receptionist who was stuck between a rock and hard place...