Meanwhile, Captain Amanda and Jeanne were in the medical tent, sitting outside the emergency room separated by a curtain.
Jeanne made a serious expression while her arms were crossed in front of her chest, one leg on top of another, and her fingers were tapping her arms rhythmically.
Captain Amanda was sitting neatly while staring at the curtains of the emergency room.
After a while, Dr. Leah finally came out, and Jeanne immediately stood up and asked:
"How is the situation?"
Dr. Leah's beautiful face frowned slightly, and she said, "Both of them have hole-shaped wounds on their bodies and they also got poisoned by scorpion venom. I've already injected the antidote serum into their bodies, but since the duration between the first contact with poison and when they got treatment was relatively long, the effect of the antidote will be greatly reduced. If you can give me the monster's carcass before the 48-hours pass, I might be able to do something about the poison."
"I've sent an order for someone to fetch the body," Captain Amanda said, nodding.
"One more thing, was there any roselle growing near the Scorpii's nest? In an urgent tone, Dr. Leah asked.
"Roselle?" Captain Amanda asked in a shocked voice.
Jeanne frowned and asked in a deep voice, "Is it a purple-colored broad-leafed plant?"
"Yes, that's Roselle!" Medic Alita replied.
Jeanne and Captain Amanda exchanged glances, and their expressions suddenly changed. They realized that they might miss something important this time.
Dr. Leah also grew anxious and her voice turned tense, "Why are you so careless! Roselle is a highly poisonous plant that grows well in toxic soil. If there is roselle growing next to the cave, it means that the soil contains a highly concentrated level of toxicity.
"Moreover, roselle has a parasitic creature called kudzu, about the size of a fingernail, and likes to infest themselves into the human body, sucking their blood while releasing violent neurotoxins in the process.
"Once infected, the human body would soon fall into a coma. If not treated immediately, the victim will die within 5 hours. Make sure to ask any soldiers who went down to the cave to have a medical examination immediately and then thoroughly clean up the body, burning the clothes they wore previously so that the kudzu couldn't spread out in the camp."
"Shit!" Captain Amanda couldn't help but curse on her stupidity and quickly opened the bracelet id to issue an order, "Stop the transportation of corpses immediately and gather the eleven soldiers that went into the rescue mission into the medical tent, right now!"
Meanwhile, Jeanne had already rushed out of the medical tent and ran towards Keiko's tent. She could feel her heart pounding crazily with anxiety.
The road leading to the military camp wasn't well-lighted, and Jeanne was almost tripped off several times as she ran.
After a few minutes, she finally arrived in the front of the tent and then rushed inside without hesitation.
When she opened the tent and rushed in, Seol-Hyun Ae, who was looking at a manuscript with a small flashlight, was startled by her. She quickly hid the book under the quilt, looked at her with a befuddled gaze, and asked in a surprised tone, "Major Armstrong, why are you here?"
"Where's Keiko?" Jeanne asked breathlessly.
"As soon as she came back, she immediately took a bath and fell asleep right away. If you're looking for her–"
Before Seol-Hyun Ae could finish her words, Jeanne rushed to Keiko's bed, lifted the quilt, and saw that Keiko was lying unconscious on the bed.
Her face darkened; she felt her heart sink into the deepest abyss.
She quickly pulled Keiko's shirt off, undressing her in the blink of an eye.
Seol-Hyun was stupefied by the sudden turn of events and couldn't help but exclaim, "Major! What are you doing?!"
Jeanne ignored Seol-Hyun's sudden cry and focused her attention on searching for any sign of poison on Keiko's body. However, because the lighting inside the tent was dim, she couldn't see anything clearly.
She then looked at the confused Seol-Hyun—to be exact, the flashlight in her hand.
"Hurry up and give me a flashlight and follow my lead!"
'W-what is this? Does Major Jeanne have this kind of kink?! no, no, I can't do this. This is too bold even for me…' Seol-Hyun blushed at her own fantasy. Then she shook her head and shyly rejected Jeanne's "invitation."
"It's not... Major, it's not good. Why do you want me to help with the flashlight? Just do it yourself. I...I'll not disturb you two…"
Seol-Hyun Ae got up from her bed hurriedly, ready to scurry away from the tent.
"Don't talk nonsense! Do whatever I ask you to do!"
But before she could walk out of the room, Jeanne grabbed her arm so strongly that Seol-Hyun let out a little yelp, and her voice was so cold and fierce that Seol-Hyun Ae couldn't help but shudder when she heard it.
"Y-yes, yes," Seol-Hyun hurriedly nodded like a chick pecking at rice and then did exactly what Jeanne ordered her: she quickly picked up the flashlight and helped Jeanne look at Keiko's body.
At that time, Keiko's t-shirt had been taken off by Jeanne, and the black tight vest inside was completely exposed.
But neither Jeanne nor Seol-Hyun Ae paid attention to it because a terrifying mark on Keiko's neck immediately caught their attention, and Seol-Hyun Ae took a deep breath.
The area around Keiko's nape was already bruised and had turned color, and the blood vessels that burst out looked very scary.
"This... what is this?" Seol-Hyun Ae asked in surprise.
"She's poisoned..." Jeanne said, biting her lower lip.
In the medical tent, Jeanne was sitting beside Keiko's hospital bed, looking at Keiko, who was lying on the bed with an expressionless face. It was unknown what was thinking about.
Keiko's treatment had already been completed by Dr. Leah, but it wasn't that easy to treat kudzu poisoning.
Other than performing surgery to open the back of Keiko's neck and remove the parasitic kudzu, they had to feed Keiko the antidote for the poison itself.
Unfortunately, Dr. Leah didn't have an antidote for kudzu in hand readily, so she could only do a general treatment for Keiko, and the poison couldn't be completely removed from her body in a short time.
Although it was not life-threatening, it would definitely affect Keiko's daily activities. At least for five or six days, she would sometimes fall into a coma again and wake up with a high fever.
"The kudzu poison was hallucinogenic. During this time, her mind may not be that clear and she may have hallucinations. I will assign a nurse to keep an eye on Lieutenant Keiko to prevent her from doing anything dangerous," Dr. Leah turned her head sideways and said to Jeanne. She paused briefly before continuing. "It's already past 9 PM. Major Armstrong should go to rest and get up early for tomorrow's trip."
"No, I'm staying here with her," Jeanne replied softly.
Dr. Alita raised her eyebrows and showed an amused expression. She only shrugged her shoulders before she continued to bury her head in the stacks of documents on the table.
It was nine o'clock in the evening, and an hour and a half had passed since the end of the underground cave battle. Fortunately, because Jeanne kept her eyes on Keiko, her poisoning was discovered early and she got treated promptly.
Other than Keiko, two non-commissioned officers—03 and 07, were also parasitized by the mutated kudzu plant, and they were treated quickly.
The room separated by thick curtains where Keiko and Jeanne stayed was actually Dr. Leah's office. Leah specially prepared this room for her treatment. After all, Keiko was her friend, and Major Jeanne didn't seem to want Keiko to be with other patients outside, and Leah herself had another tent.
Another ten minutes passed, Jeanne was still silent, and Keiko showed no sign of waking up. Alita finished her work, got up, and talked to her briefly.
"I want to go back to my tent to get a little rest. If there is anything, call me immediately."
Jeanne nodded, to which Leah replied with a smile. She then opened the curtain and walked out. As she passed the nurse on duty, she said, "Give Major Armstrong and Second Lieutenant Lee some space and don't go inside if it's not necessary."
The nurse was slightly taken back by Dr. Leah's instruction but quickly gave her an understanding nod, looked at the curtain-covered room, and smiled knowingly.
Meanwhile, in the patient room, only Jeanne and the unconscious Keiko were left alone.
Jeanne's expression softened, and her eyes returned to Keiko.
Seeing Keiko frowning, sweat dripping from his forehead, an expression like he was going through a painful nightmare, Jeanne's heart tightened, and she seemed to sigh softly.
She got up and left the tent, and after a while, returned with a bowl of cold water in her hand, then sat beside Keiko's bed while dipping the towel in the cold water before helping Keiko wipe off the sweat on her body.
Because of the wound on her nape, Keiko could only sleep on her stomach, so it wasn't easy to put a cold towel on her forehead, so Jeanne only wiped her with cold water and alcohol occasionally to cool her fever.
"Hey, you know, I've never taken care of anyone like this since I was a child, you are my first. After being spoiled by me, if you don't get better soon, do you think you'll get a chance with me?" Jeanne said softly while wiping her body.
Unfortunately, Keiko couldn't hear it at all.
"I told you to say goodbye to me before leaving the main city, are you really hate to see me? Do you know how many people are lining up to pursue me? But you actually keep avoiding me like I'm a snake. I know I sometimes can be a little too much, but that's because you're too dumb and stupid like a wood. If... if you could be more considerate and obedient, why would I think about plotting against you, and the two of us end up worse than strangers?"
Jeanne complained in a low voice, threw the towel into the bowl, and rubbed it a few times. Then she took out the towel, wrung it dry, folded it into a square, and spread it on the back of Keiko's head.
She picked up the water bowl and planned to go out to ditch the water, but her steps slowly halted as she got a glimpse of her blurred reflection in the water basin.
"Keiko… How could you... How could you forget me..."
Jeanne slowly clenched the edge of the bowl tightly.. Closing her eyes, she whispered to herself as if raving, her eyelids under her eyes slightly dampened.