Chapter 263 263: Grade One Merit.

Leo and his people worked tirelessly. Snow and Lily handled the children and the women who were rescued from the debris. Anastasia had arranged for the best equipment to be airdropped for medical purposes and they were saving a lot of lives.At the same time, Leo had consulted a lot of high level engineers about the reconstruction of the village. The magnitude of the earthquake was so high that almost the entire village was destroyed. While they were at it, they had to do something otherwise, how would the people live when they were gone?

They worked with great enthusiasm but time stopped for no one, and before they knew, the sun was gone and the sky turned dark. The entire village was lit up with solar powered lamps that were brought over by the people from the cardinal foundation.

Leo sat under a sturdy tree, and Lily came over to his side. She sat down in his lap and Leo patted her head as he asked, "Did you eat something?"

Lily nodded and said, "Protein Bars taste nice."

Leo smiled and found the girl taking out a couple of protein bars from her pockets and handed them to him. She said, "I noticed that you were very busy during the lunch. You gave up eating when someone called for your help to move a huge tree to save a native."

Leo smiled and ate the Protein Bar, and asked, "Where is your Ma?"

Lily pointed at the camp where the women who lost their husbands were gathered and said, "She is telling them to not give up hope and keep striving for their children. Many people even lost children. Baba, I am feeling sad."

Leo hugged her in his arms and patted her back as he said, "Life is like that my love. Sometimes we have flowers and sometimes it is the thorns. I am here with you, and I assure you, even the darkest of times pass. Nothing stays the same, happiness can only be found when you work hard for it."

Lily nodded as she gradually let loose and sobbed in his arms. She was a child and although she had understood what was going on, but she was still affected by it. Her mother had told her already to keep calm and to stay strong but now when she sat with Leo her heart poured out.

Leo held his daughter as she silently prayed for the souls that passed the realm of mortality.

...

After a few minutes, Lily calmed down and then the young man took her to find Snow. The young lady had finished talking to the women and told them about the various things they could do continue living and how the Cardinal Family was always with them and will help them regain their footholds.

Lily suddenly said to Leo, "It would have been better if the homes stay safe during the earthquake. Once something breaks it never stays the same."

Leo nodded and then Lily asked, "Can you make something like that Baba?"

'Ping: Touched by the grieving people, Lily wishes to build homes that wouldn't break from earthquakes. Task, clean up the entire village and fund the reconstruction. Reward: Earthquake resistant homing technology.'

Leo sighed and said, "I will try. Don't worry."

His words caused Lily to calm down, and after a few minutes, he spotted Snow coming over, and they both moved to the tent set up for them. They would spend the night sleeping inside a camping tent. Inside a sleeping bag.

…

The people worked through the night, they only stopped after they realized that no more people were left buried under the debris of the fallen houses or the trees. The young man woke up and stood atop the trunk of a fallen tree. He looked over the settlement of camping tents and then he heard a few sounds coming from the back. Snow had woken up and came to follow him.

She asked calmly, "What are you thinking about?"

Leo sighed and replied, "The landscape is so desolate. It pains me to look at the settlement of tent camps."

Snow patted his shoulder and stood close to him, as she asked, "Can we do something about this?"

The young man nodded and replied after some thought, "I will fund the reconstruction. For the next quarter the company will not make any profit. We will just cover the amount we can put in here for reconstruction of the village. However, the plan that I have in mind might cost a bit too much."

Snow smiled and replied, "Why do you worry so much? I will handle the finances."

The young man smiled and replied, "Yes, well, I will go and talk to the engineers and they will come up with something to handle the reconstruction plan better."

Snow nodded and then the young man walked out from the situation. Leo discussed the situation and the ideas with the engineers, and they all agreed to oversee the situation for free. Just when Leo committed to reconstruct the village as per Lily's wishes, the system pinged in his mind, 'Ping: The seismic resistant structure technology has been delivered to the data bank of the Cardinal Group.'

Leo then took out his phone and made a call directly to Percie. The lady responded quickly and he said, "Alright, Percie I need your undivided attention for the moment."

Percie sat up straight in her chair and asked, "What is it, Sir?"

The young man took a deep breath and replied, "Open the tech bank of the Cardinal Group, the old server, and locate a file called, SRS."

The details of how to find the file came to his mind from the system. Percie got to work, she used her ID and password to access the server of the old Cardinal Group, then she quickly found the file, before she replied, "Yes, Sir, I have the file."

The young man replied, "Email me that file."

The file was sent to his inbox and he said, "Good, that would be all."

The call was finished and Leo showed the data from the file to the engineers. He said, "I have only one requirement, every structure in the new village should be built with this technology."

The engineers read the documents and then they were shocked. The leading engineer said, "Sir, this technology is worth billions, and you are willing to use it here on a small village?"

Leo smiled and replied, "Jenkins, this technology was stowed away because although the company invented it, we didn't have the funds to imply it and shortly after that, everything fell apart. Probably it was the oversight of the management that took over after us, they didn't do anything with it. Otherwise it would be a common technology used in the Clover Nation.

Also, no matter what the technology is worth, it is made for one purpose and that is to make human lives more convenient. Nothing is worth more than the human life. Use this technology, I will bear the expenses and also make sure the quality is the best. This will be the first project done by our group, and I want it to become the example."

The people nodded and they began to form plans, the bulldozers and diggers were used to remove the debris. The rescue volunteers were now tasked with collecting the important things and valuables from various fallen houses, and then the survivors were asked to recognize the goods.

In the aftermath, in the population of eleven hundred people, fifty have died in from crushing under the debris. They were mostly older people, and some of them happened to be the young children, unfortunately Leo could do nothing for them.

There were four hundred injured, they tried to wake up from the shocks, but before they could move out, they also got caught in the debris. Many homes fell because of big trees falling over them. The village had mud houses, and they were not built to handle high impacts.

The injured were being sent to the city depending on the intensity of the injury, while many were being treated on the spot. By the time the military and the disaster relief units arrived at the village, things had been taken under control. Leo was guiding the clearing squad, when Lily came over to him and said, "Baba, some people from government are looking for you."

Leo picked her up and then headed towards the so-called base camp. It was only the second day, but the speed of work was shockingly fast to the government officials. Leo came to found three men sitting on the chairs across Snow, and asked, "How may I help you gentlemen?"

The man in the middle chair stood up and said, "Mister Cardinal, your wife has already filled us in about what is going on here, and on the behalf of the entire government, you have my gratitude."

That said, the man bowed his head, and Leo was shocked. He helped the man up and said, "I am just doing what a man should."

The man said, "I am the mayor of the nearest city, for your actions here, I will recommend your name for a grade one merit. Thank you again."

The people were shocked, Grade One Merit meant, if it gets cleared, then Leo would be equal to a small level government official. This was great news, but before that, Leo had to deal with something else.