The husband and wife looked at each other with surprised eyes. They had strange expressions on their faces. 

(It is past midnight. Who could be outside at this time?) These were their thoughts as they communicated with each other with their eyes. After realising that none of them had an answer, the male started walking towards the door.

"Coming, wait up." The male said while moving towards the door. He was not scared at all. He was a farmer and taking a farmer lightly was a big mistake.

He opened the door and looked at the person who was knocking. It was too dark outside so he could not see his face. All he could determine was that he was a male according to his voice and slightly bulky body.

"Who are you?", asked the male after getting close to the person who knocked at the doors at this time of the night.

"I am a guard belonging to the Rokas clan. Is Lady Maria here?" It was one of the guards which were sent out in search of Maria. 

He had a hasty and worried expression on his face. He had already checked ten houses before coming here and did not have any progress in his search. He was expecting another no from the farmer in front of him.

"Yes, she is here." Replied the farmer. After hearing the person's identity and observing the uniform he was wearing, all his hesitation was gone and he replied immediately.

He was not worried about Maria's safety. Whoever dare hurt or kidnap the only apothecary in the city would face the wrath of the entire city. So he was not worried about someone impersonating a clan guard at all.

"Where is she?" asked the guard while trying to peek inside the house through the door.

He had a surprised expression on his place. He was expecting another no from here but got a positive reply instead. He was also feeling a bit happy inside. He finally had results after searching around so hard.

"I am here, young man. Why are you in so much hurry?" Maria slowly walked out of the house and looked at the guard.

"Lady, there is an emergency in the clan. The young madam is in pain and bleeding badly. Please come". The guard said hurriedly.

"Very well. Please wait for a second." Maria said with a serious expression on her face. Work was here. Looks like she would not be able to sleep tonight.

After telling the guard to wait, she turned towards the farmer and looked into his eyes.

The farmer also looked back at her. They kept looking at each other for a few seconds. The farmer even raised an eyebrow as if to ask if she needed anything from him. 

After a few seconds of staring at each other, he remembered something with a start and ran back towards his bedroom while saying "Oh sorry. I forgot." 

He opened a cabinet and picked up some bronze coins. He came back right after picking them up and handed them to the lady quickly. 

The lady bowed his head towards him a little while taking the coins. She tucked them inside a bag she was carrying.

"Go back to the clan and inform them about me. I will be right behind you." She told the guard to quickly go back and inform the clan head. So that the search for her may be called off.

The guard nodded and started running towards the city gates. She also started walking at a brisk pace towards the city gates. Soon, she lost sight of the guard in the darkness of the night.

Somewhere in Worlen, at a sharp turn to the right into a narrow street, in the shadow of a building, a banana-like fruit husk appeared out of nowhere.

There was not a sign of a single soul anywhere near that place. Neither was there a ripple or a disturbance. All the windows of the buildings near it were also closed. One second there was nothing there, the next, the husk appeared out of nowhere. 

Sparse torches were lightening the main streets at regular intervals. What little light that those could muster could not illuminate the narrow street. In addition, there was no moon or stars in the sky due to cloudy weather. So the narrow street was sunk into total darkness and it was not possible for anyone to witness this strange phenomenon.

Moreover, the husk was completely invisible due to the absolute darkness of the narrow street. Even if someone passed by near it, he or she would not be able to detect it without illuminating the place with some light source.

Nothing strange happened after the appearance of the fruit husk. In the next few minutes, a couple of night patrols passed through the main street near it. They did not pay any attention to a random narrow street near them. 

Along their patrol routes, there were dozens of such streets. It was not possible to check each and every one of them with their torches on such dark nights. Such things were done when they used to chase criminals. In normal times, they did not bother with it and stuck to their patrol routes.

A few minutes later after the second patrol passed by, a person in a guard's uniform rushed by after turning from the corner. It was the guard who had found Maria. He was rushing to the Rokas clan. 

His feet barely missed the fruit husk as he stepped into the dark narrow street and he did not register anything. 

He kept running towards the Rokas estate without turning back. That narrow street was one of the shortcuts leading to the estate and it was used by people when they wanted to reach it quickly.

In James' house, Rosa was checking the position of the baby in the womb. The baby bulge had gone down by a few centimetres and she knew that the delivery would happen in the next half an hour.

Her worries increased because the time was approaching and Lady Maria was nowhere to be found.

The blood loss was increasing and it would turn into a very dangerous situation soon if not handled in time. Cassandra's condition was already worse, to begin with. But it was worsening as the minutes passed.

As precautionary measures, Rosa had already sent for those clansmen whose blood matched with Cassandra. 

The concept of blood transfusion and mismatch was present in the world. The clansmen's blood would be extracted when they would arrive outside. 

They could apply the transfusion whenever they wanted because it was not that difficult to do it. And they had some experience with it. 

When soldiers got wounded due to various reasons, they often needed blood to survive in addition to first aid and general medicinal powder. So there was a proper register in the clan where everyone's blood type was noted down.

They had also registered some outsiders along with their addresses, in case there was some emergency and the blood donors could not be found or the donation buffer time was not up.

Rosa had already entrusted a maid to inform her when Lady Maria arrive. The said maid was waiting outside with others. In the meantime, she would keep monitoring the condition of the young madam.

As James was waiting outside for the news, the guard that met Lady Maria came back hurriedly and informed them about her. James released a sigh of relief and looked forward to her arrival.

Rosa and others inside the house were also informed and their worries were allayed greatly.

Lady Maria entered the city through the city gates and started moving through the streets. She was walking at a brisk pace and would arrive in about ten minutes if nothing unexpected happened.

After some time, she turned through a corner and stepped into a narrow street. Immediately, she felt that there was something slippery under her left foot. Her two feet were already in the street when she registered the fruit husk under her.

It happened so unexpectedly that she could not stop herself from moving forward by pushing her left foot back. So as a result, she slipped and fell forward.

In addition, she was walking briskly. So her movement had momentum behind it. She tried to save herself from the fall by trying to grab anything nearby but could not do so  She fell forward and her head crashed badly into the wall. 

She lost her consciousness immediately and slumped down in the dark narrow street. She was bleeding lightly from her head. Since the street was very dark, nobody from the main street could detect a fainted woman lying on the ground.

Back to the manor, Cassandra's condition had worsened. Her pulse rate was decreasing and her heartbeat was slowing down. 

The baby was about to be delivered and the time was critical. They had already waited for fifteen minutes but there was no sign of Maria.

Rosa was closely monitoring the young madam and blood was already being transfused into her. According to the guard, she should have arrived five minutes ago at the manor. But there was no sign of her till now.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE???", Rokas roared while addressing the guards standing in front of him. 

Nobody was able to answer him and the guard who met Maria was trembling as everyone's gazes were on him. 

Rokas did not pay much attention to him. He knew that none of his servants dared to lie to him. So he knew that it was not his fault. So he did not say anything to him. He addressed all of the guards instead of just him. 

Inside his mind, he was thinking that something must have happened with her. Otherwise, she should have arrived a few minutes ago according to the news he got.

Even then, he could not help but get angry. Why were they being so unfortunate repeatedly one after another tonight? First, his daughter in law's suffered from an emergency, then they could not find Maria for an entire hour. Now, after finding her, she went missing again. So Rokas could not help but roar out in his helplessness.

"SEARCH THE CITY FOR HER. COVER EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY. LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED. I WANT HER FOUND IMMEDIATELY. DEPLOY THE SOLDIER UNIT. MOVE OUT." He ordered all the guards to spread out to search for her. He even deployed the soldier unit to aid them in the search.

The guards then exited the manor and ran in different directions. Most moved towards the west because she was reported to be coming from the west gate. One of them ran towards the Rokas barracks. After he informed the soldiers, they became ready in mere five minutes and spread out.

In this way, almost two hundred and sixty men started combing through the streets in search of a lady. Some had light torches with them while some didn't have any light source.

Rokas also ordered all of his available sons to aid in the search efforts except James. He told James to stay with his wife. The brothers moved at high speeds and were out of sight in the blink of an eye. 

James felt as if the entire world was against him tonight. Everything was alright just a few hours ago. 

Now even the medic was missing. And the time was of the essence. At this critical juncture, anything could happen. 

He could not bear hearing the muffled sobs from inside the house. His beloved was in great danger. So He could not help but enter the house. This time nobody stopped him. He quickly moved through the living room and stepped into the bedroom. 

He was not worried about his two sons. Although they were also woken up by his shout and we're scared after seeing their mother's condition. But later, they were brought to one of the houses of his brothers and were made to sleep by the maids.