My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 312

Despite everything—the stress, the compressed timeline, the looming battle—Lyra found herself smiling. "That’s... actually a good point. He does need multiple people keeping him from being reckless."

"Then we figure this out together," Seraphina said. "After he comes back safely. After we break this human army. After we’ve proven his settlement can’t be easily destroyed. Then we sit down—all four of us—and work out how this relationship actually functions."

"Four?" Lyra asked, confused for a moment before understanding. "You’re including Satou in that count."

"He doesn’t get to just passively accept whatever we decide," Seraphina said with a slight smile. "He’s part of this relationship too. He gets a voice in how it works."

"Fair point."

They stood together as darkness fell, two women from completely different backgrounds united by love for the same complicated, kind, occasionally reckless demon lord candidate.

"He’ll come back," Seraphina said with absolute certainty. "Satou is too stubborn to die. Too determined to protect what he’s built. He’ll kill Richard Clay, cripple Chronus, and return in time for the battle. I know it."

"Yes i know , he will " Lyra said with a smile shown on her face.

Behind them, the settlement continued its frantic preparations. Warriors training even in darkness. Construction crews working by torchlight. Supply teams reorganizing stockpiles according to new distribution plans.

Two weeks. Maybe less. Then everything would change.

But for this moment, Lyra and Seraphina stood together on the wall, united in their determination to protect what Satou had built and ensure he had something worth returning to.

[Medical Building]

While Lyra and Seraphina bonded on the walls, Jessica was in the medical building organizing her expanded team.

The space had grown significantly over the past months—what had started as a single room with basic supplies had expanded into a proper medical facility with multiple treatment areas, supply storage, and even a small surgical space.

Now Jessica was pushing it to its limits.

Twelve trainees sat around her—goblins, hobgoblins, even two young orcs who’d shown aptitude for healing magic. Most were barely competent, their magical abilities just strong enough to stop bleeding and stabilize wounds. But Jessica would take barely competent over nothing.

"The most important thing in combat medicine," Jessica explained, demonstrating on a training dummy, "is triage. Not everyone can be saved. Some injuries are too severe, some patients too far gone. Your job is to identify who can be helped and focus on them first."

A young goblin raised her hand hesitantly. "But Miss Jessica... how do you decide? How do you choose who lives and who dies?"

It was the question Jessica had been asking herself since learning about the compressed timeline. Two weeks until battle. Two weeks until this facility would be filled with wounded defenders, and she’d have to make impossible choices about who received treatment.

"You don’t think of it as choosing who dies," Jessica said, keeping her voice gentle but firm. "You think of it as maximizing who lives. If you have three wounded soldiers and one is already dying while two can be saved with immediate treatment, you focus first on the ones that needed immediate effects since we need all the hands that will need during the battle.

"What if you make the wrong choice?" another trainee asked, genuine worry in her voice.

"Then you learn from it and do better next time." Jessica met each of their eyes in turn. "I won’t lie to you. Some of you will make mistakes. Some patients will die despite your best efforts. That’s the reality of combat medicine. You can’t save everyone, and attempting to will get more people killed as you exhaust yourself."

She demonstrated basic healing magic—the kind they could learn with practice even if they’d never develop her level of skill. How to channel magic to stop bleeding. How to stabilize broken bones temporarily. How to identify life-threatening injuries versus ones that could wait.

The trainees attempted the techniques on training dummies and minor injuries volunteered by warriors. Most struggled initially, their magic flickering and unreliable. But that was expected. Competence came with repetition.

"Keep practicing," Jessica encouraged. "By the time the battle comes, I need each of you capable of handling at least ten patients independently. Not perfectly—just adequately. Keep them alive long enough for me or the more experienced healers to provide advanced treatment."

As the training session ended and students dispersed to continue practice, Jessica remained in the medical building. She needed to organize supplies, prepare triage protocols, set up multiple treatment stations throughout the settlement.

But she also needed a moment to process everything.

Two weeks until an army arrived. Two weeks until the settlement—her home—faced its greatest threat. Two weeks until she’d be working frantically to save lives while knowing many would die regardless of her efforts.

And somewhere out there, hundreds of miles away, Satou was in danger. Moving toward a target that could kill him. Taking risks that made her heart clench with fear every time she thought about it.

Come back to me, Jessica thought fiercely, her hands clenching into fists.

The medical work was consuming, which was good. It kept her mind occupied. Kept her from dwelling too much on the fear that lived constant in her chest—the fear that Satou wouldn’t return, that she’d never see him again, that the last kiss they’d shared would be the final one.

But she pushed that fear down and continued working. Because Satou would want her focused. Would want her preparing to keep people alive during the battle.

And when he returned—when, not if, she refused to consider alternatives—she’d be ready. Ready for him, yell at him, kiss him senseless, and then yell at him again for being reckless.

She smiled slightly at that mental image, finding comfort in the certainty. Satou would return. He always did.

She just had to keep everything together until he did.

—----------

Nightfall - The City Gate

Full darkness brought its own complications.

From their concealed position in the forest outside Valstrath’s outer walls, Satou and Sylvara observed the city with growing concern. The gates were well-lit—torches every twenty feet along the walls, braziers illuminating the checkpoint, and a constant flow of guards checking the last few travelers trying to enter before curfew.