Of course, it was not merely a one-sided exchange where only the Martialist Association did as promised; the miraculous magical objects were the important catalyst that made the government so enthusiastic. In short, it was as what Defender Rock had announced, the meeting was only just the beginning.
In just a few days, the Design Bureau of Graycastle fixed all the flaws in Neverwinter's developments it had single-handedly embarked on. As the Battle of Divine Will no longer determined the fate of one world, every department had several hundred to more than a thousand members to ponder over the problems and improve the developments. For the first time, Roland deeply felt the survivors were not struggling alone; there were all kinds of non-negligible forces behind them. Even if the two worlds had never truly interacted, their fates were intimately tied together.
Roland relied on the surge of technological reforms and recruited even more people for the Administrative Office. In one go, he proposed more than ten new factories, from high-performance explosive compounds to various semi-automatic testbed machines. After resolving the manpower and economic limitations, Neverwinter, in its high-speed development phase, was able to construct and develop itself at his will. With the alleviation of conflicting views, this momentum did not stop at all.
With the widespread development of the technological revolution, Roland suddenly received an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
After being missing for close to a year, Joan had finally returned.
Roland immediately rushed to Neverwinter's first hospital with Nightingale upon receiving the news. After expanding King's City education and medical field from the previous winter, three medical treatment facilities were built by the Administrative Office at the south bank of the Redwater River, Kingdom Main Street and Longsong Stronghold that were responsible for simple diagnosis and disease prevention. And being the first medical facility built and Nana's permanent residency there, it naturally earned the name of 'first hospital.'
Upon entering, Camilla Dary gave him a slight bow.
Wendy and Tilly had returned to the front lines, while Scroll was busy with restoring materials, so the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island took up the mission of taking care of everyone. Additionally, she had seen Joan disappear with her own eyes and felt guilty about it. Now, Joan's reappearance impacted her the most, apparent from her bow towards Roland.
After all, she had always saw Roland as someone who 'stole' Tilly away and was the main reason for Ashes's sacrifice. If not for the reports that Sky-sea Realm might directly threaten the Fjords and Sleeping Island, she would never have shifted to Neverwinter.
But Roland did not mind that as he waved and asked softly, "How's she?"
"I guess… I can only say that she's fine."
"You guess?" Roland was perplexed. From his point of view, her safe return was already considered the best possible outcome.
"She… is back to her old self." Camilla gently combed Joan's hair and sighed.
It was only after her explanation did Roland understand what she meant.
Joan did not swim back to Shallow Port herself.
A resident fisherman of Neverwinter was the first to discover Joan. According to the report, while out in the sea to haul fish in, a heavy object had rammed into the aft of his boat and awoken him late at night. It was followed by nibbling sounds. Thinking that he had encountered a sea ghost and was about to prepare himself to fight to death, he saw a 'big fish' shaped like a human.
He caught her cupping cooked fish in her hands, nibbling away as though she hadn't eaten for days. Seeing the panicked fisherman, she merely produced a few weird sounds instead of attacking him, then retreated to the corner of the deck and fell asleep.
Having stayed in Neverwinter for a long time, the fisherman had long been influenced by its teachings and public announcements. The fisherman held an open mind and returned the boat to port—the rewards of saving a Witch was far higher than a boat of fish. To encounter such a special entity in the vast sea, he knew for sure that she was either a sea ghost or a Witch.
This 'big fish' was Joan.
"Lily has given her a check up. There are all sorts of parasites and infections on her, and some of them can't be removed, even with her abilities." Camila reported while her heart ached. "To eliminate any potential damage, I injected some Dreamland Water into her while she was asleep, then used a blade to cut out all the shell worms under her skin. In theory, these worms will only appear on old boats and very large whales."
"You mean to say, Joan didn't swim back from the Shadow Islands?"
"It is unlikely for her to be infected with them at that distance." She shook her head. "With Joan's speed, it wouldn't have taken her so long to return to Neverwinter. What I'm worried about is… the terrible ordeals she might had gone through which caused her to return to her original state."
She never had the time to remove the parasites and starved all the way until she got onto the boat for food before losing consciousness due to fatigue. All of these pointed to her arduous and dangerous journey. The long and excessive circumstances might had caused irreparable psychological damage to her, just like Maggie.
Camila had the ability to communicate with the mind and was not afraid that Joan couldn't speak. She was worried that Joan wouldn't recover and had to live the rest of her life like an animal.
Roland fell silent.
Indeed, the state of her body did not mean that everything was fine, regardless of Nana's magical bandages or Lily's Cleansing Water, none of them were capable of curing mental problems.
A rhythmic knock on the door suddenly broke the silence inside the ward.
Nightingale turned and opened the door in puzzlement, to see Mystery Moon's head poking out.
"Erm… I heard that Joan is back? Wait, hey, stop pushing me—"
The door was forced opened as a few girls stumbled and crashed into the room. Besides Mystery Moon, there was Summer, Sharon, and Amy. The last to walk into the room was Lily.
"I didn't have a choice, they noticed something amiss." Lily shrugged helplessly.
"Ahem! First off, I only heard that Joan was sick, that's why I'm here to visit her!" Mystery Moon insisted. "Although she belongs to the Exploration Group, Lightning and Maggie aren't around. So we are the only ones to accompany her, we are definitely not thinking of taking the opportunity to rope her into the Detective Group, much less—mmm—"
Summer had extended her hand to cover her mouth.
"It's just her wishful thinking; it has nothing to do with the rest of us." Sharon spoke up righteously.
"Sigh, is having another member not a good thing?" Amy scratched the back of her head.
"Hush!" Lily gestured for them to be quiet.
Roland could not help chuckling as he watched the internal strife between the Witches. He looked to Camila Dary, threw his hands up and shrugged. The latter was faintly startled, but her expression loosened up greatly.
Perhaps Joan had truly encountered something terrifying, but with the group accompanying her, Roland believed that Joan's recovery would fall back onto the right track.
…
"Hey, what do you guys think this is?"
"It looks like some sort of silk fabric…"
"How can there be silk fabric in the hospital? And its texture seems like it's of superior quality."
"Why don't we ask Aunt Camilla."
"… Why don't you ask her?"
"I don't dare to."
"I can hear everything." Seated by the bedside, Camilla Dary facepalmed herself. "That is the cloth used to wrap Joan's wounds. As we didn't have the time, we didn't throw them away. Be careful of the germs on them, the books from His Majesty had mentioned them before—do not casually touch with any sources of infection, didn't it?"
After Roland and Nightingale's departure, Camilla Dary was left alone with the Detective Group. The group surrounded the bed and busied themselves, but were unable to help much. It was nice for Joan to have such passionate friends, but the only problem was that they were slightly excessive with their talking.
"Are there any germs here? Lily, can you sense them?"
"Take it. Away. From me—now!"
"Hey, stop tearing it. What? It can't be torn… Sharon, help me out."
"It's really quite difficult to tear… Summer, why don't you try it?"
No. Camilla Dary corrected herself, it wasn't slightly excessive, it was just too much! Just as Camilla Dary made up her mind to tell them it was already late and that it was better for them to come tomorrow, Joan's eyelids trembled.
She immediately held her breath.
A few seconds later, the sleeping beauty gradually opened her eyes.
"Ya…"
Joan opened her mouth and released a weak exhale.
This caused the room to turn quiet immediately.
Indeed, she can't speak anymore…
Camilla resisted the pained emotions and extended her hand and placed it on Joan's chest.
In that instant, countless memory fragments surged into her mind! The moment she posed a question, she immediately received an answer—the power of Mind Resonance!
She saw the illusion of her being lengthened and distorted in the pitch-black seabed.
She saw the sky and ocean turn upside down as the seawater poured down in torrents.
She saw monstrosities scattered across the ocean floor, terrifying waves that surged towards the continent.
She saw the many layers of tablets in the mist, and the white-robed lady walking towards her.
The last thing she saw was an unfathomable circular pit that stretched out endlessly across the horizon.