After the meeting, the two official representatives specially stayed behind to meet with Luo Lan, promising that the government would further promote more aid projects, including considering the experimental data of the first generation of nuclear weapons.
Of course, what made them make such promises was not simply the word of the Martial Artist Association alone. Those magic creations with miraculous effects were also an important reason for the government's proactive approach. In short, as the Warden of the Rock had proclaimed, this meeting was just the beginning.
In just a few days, the Graycastle Design Bureau filled in all the gaps left by Neverwinter's independent development, with hundreds or even thousands of people thinking about and perfecting each project. The Battle of Divine Will was no longer just the fate of one world. For the first time, Luo Lan deeply felt that the humans who remained in the world were not fighting alone, and that there was a force behind him that could not be ignored. Although the two worlds had never had real contact, fate had closely linked them together.
Taking advantage of this wave of technological reform, Luo Lan ordered the Administrative Office to increase the recruitment of workers and planned more than a dozen new factories in one go, to launch various new products from high-performance composite gunpowder to semi-automatic machine tools. After solving the constraints of population and economy, Neverwinter, which was in a period of rapid rise, was fully able to build and develop itself according to his will. At least before the main contradiction of survival was alleviated, this momentum would not stop.
Just as the technological innovation was in full swing, Luo Lan suddenly received an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
Joan, who had been missing for nearly a year, was back.
After receiving the news, he and Nightingale immediately rushed to Neverwinter First Medical Institute - since the decree to expand the scale of public education and medical care in the royal capital was issued last winter, the Administrative Office has built three medical institutes on the south bank of the Redwater River, in the central section of the Kingdom Avenue, and in Longsong Stronghold, responsible for simple diagnosis and epidemic prevention in each district. The city west hospital, originally converted from a noble courtyard and famous for Miss Nana Wawa's residence, naturally received the title of "First Institute."
Walking into the ward, Camilla Dairray bowed slightly to him.
Wendy and Tilly had returned to the front line, and Scroll was busy copying data, so the chief butler of Sleeping Island naturally took over the task of taking care of everyone. What's more, she had personally witnessed Joan's disappearance, and her guilt was even stronger. This could be seen from her initiative to salute him.
After all, she always thought that she had "snatched" Tilly, which was also the main reason for Ashes' sacrifice. If it hadn't been for the information that the Sky Sea Realm might directly threaten the fjord and Sleeping Island, she wouldn't have moved to Neverwinter to live.
Luo Lan didn't care too much about this, waved his hand and said softly, "How is she?"
"I can only say... she's fine."
"Only?" Luo Lan asked in confusion. In his opinion, being able to come back safe and sound was the best result.
"She... has returned to her previous appearance." Camilla stroked Joan's hair and sighed softly.
It wasn't until after listening to her story that Luo Lan finally understood what she meant.
Joan did not swim back to Shallow Beach Port by herself.
The first to discover her was a Neverwinter fisherman who made a living by fishing. According to that person's report, when he went to the outer sea to fish, he was suddenly awakened at night by the sound of heavy objects hitting the stern of the boat, and then he heard bursts of gnawing sounds. He originally thought he had encountered a sea ghost and was planning to fight to the death, but unexpectedly he saw a "big fish" that looked like a human.
She was holding the fish body boiled in the pot and gnawing fiercely, as if she hadn't eaten for several days. When she saw the panicked fisherman, she didn't attack him, but made a few strange calls, and then shrank into a corner of the deck, as if she had fallen asleep.
Influenced by Neverwinter's long-term publicity, the fisherman brought her back to Shallow Beach Port with a try-it-and-see attitude - the reward for saving a witch was much higher than a boat of fish, and if it wasn't a sea ghost that could be encountered on the vast sea, it could only be a witch.
This "big fish" was Joan.
"Lily has already done an examination for her. She has multiple parasitic infections all over her body, and some bugs cannot be eradicated with her ability." Camilla said with heartache, "In order to eliminate the hidden dangers as soon as possible, I poured sleeping fern into her while she was unconscious, and then used a knife to scrape out the shelled worms embedded under her skin. In theory, these worms only appear on old ships and giant whales."
"In other words, Joan didn't swim back from the Shadow Islands?"
"That distance is not enough to get them," she shook her head, "and at Joan's speed, it wouldn't take so long to return to Neverwinter from the ruins. I'm worried about... what terrible encounters she experienced that caused her to revert to her past state."
Ignoring cleaning up parasites, being so hungry that she went on board to find food, and being so tired that she was almost unconscious, all indicated that this journey was full of danger. Under long-term excessive stress stimulation, the witch was likely to suffer irreparable psychological trauma. Macy was a typical example.
Camilla had the ability to communicate telepathically and was not afraid that the other party would not speak. What she really worried about was that Joan would never recover as before and would only live the rest of her life like an animal.
Luo Lan couldn't help but remain silent.
Indeed, being physically unharmed did not mean that everything was fine. Neither Nana Wawa's medical bandages nor Lily's purified water could cure psychological closure.
Suddenly, a rhythmic knock broke the silence in the room.
Nightingale turned around with some doubts and opened the door, only to see Mystery Moon's head poking out from behind the door.
"That... I heard Joan is back? Wait, hey, don't squeeze me—"
The door was suddenly pushed open, and several people stumbled into the room. In addition to Mystery Moon, there were also Aisha, Sharon, and Amy. Lily was the last to enter the room.
"I can't help it, she found out." Lily said helplessly.
"Cough cough! First of all, I just heard that Joan is sick, so I came to visit her!" Mystery Moon said firmly, "Although she belongs to the Exploration Team, Lightning and Macy are not here, and only we can accompany her. We definitely don't have any ideas about taking the opportunity to pull her into the Detective Team, and there is no—um—"
Aisha had already reached out and covered her mouth.
"This is just her personal delusion, it has nothing to do with us." Sharon said righteously.
"Hey, isn't it good to have one more member?" Amy asked in surprise, scratching the back of her head.
"Shhh!" Lily made a silent gesture.
Looking at the infighting group, Luo Lan couldn't help but smile. He looked at Camilla Dairray, shrugged his shoulders, and spread his hands. The latter was slightly startled, and then her expression relaxed a lot.
Maybe Joan had encountered something terrible, but with such a group of people accompanying her, he believed that she would return to normal sooner or later.
...
"Hey, look what this is?"
"It looks like a silk..."
"Why would there be silk in a medical institute? And this texture looks very high-end at first glance."
"Why don't we ask Aunt Camilla."
"...Why don't you ask?"
"I don't dare."
I can hear you all. Camilla, who was sitting by the bed, put her hand on her forehead and said, "That's the cloth Joan used to bandage her wounds. I didn't throw it all away because I was busy at the time. Be careful of the bacteria attached to it. His Majesty's books said, don't touch possible sources of infection casually, right?"
After Luo Lan and Nightingale left, only she and the members of the Detective Team were left in the ward. The latter were busy around the hospital bed, and they had helped a lot throughout the day. It was undoubtedly a good thing that Joan had such a group of enthusiastic friends. The only problem was that they talked a little too much.
"There are bacteria on this? Lily, can you sense it?"
"Take it, away, from my, face!"
"Hey, don't tear it. Huh? This thing can't be torn... Sharon, can you help me?"
"It seems quite difficult to tear... Aisha, do you want to try it too?"
No, she corrected herself, these guys weren't talking a little too much, they were talking too much! Just as Camilla was planning to use the excuse that "it's getting late today, come again when you're free tomorrow" to send them back to the castle, Joan's eyelids suddenly twitched.
She quickly held her breath.
A few seconds later, the girl who had been sleeping slowly opened her eyes.
"Ah—"
Joan opened her mouth and let out a weak cry.
This made the room instantly quiet.
She really can't speak anymore...
Camilla suppressed her heartache and reached out to put her hand on Joan's chest.
In an instant, countless fragments of consciousness flooded into her mind like a tide! From the moment she asked the question, she would immediately get an answer. This was the resonance of the soul!
She saw herself being infinitely stretched in the dark seabed, like a twisted phantom.
She saw the sky and the ocean reversed, and the seawater poured down from the sky.
She saw black, dense rib monsters all over the sea, forming waves of shocking waves, launching a charge against the mainland.
She saw layers of standing steles in the hazy mist, and a woman in white walking towards her.
The last thing that caught her eye was a wide, boundless, and bottomless circular hole.