Inside the walls, a certain beautiful woman walked about, gaining the attention of many men. It was Vanessa—still beautiful, especially compared to other women.
The men greeted her with kindness and she smiled back, and such a smile could make quite a few men's days.
Vanessa and the others had a very good reputation here. After all, they did save many lives back during that massive beast tide.
Of course, Victor's and the other's reputations had been marred by Fargo's movements, but it had been softened by the Terran Mercenary's good movements.
At this time, Vanessa was heading to a makeshift clinic she had a major hand in. She created this in partnership with various medical professionals she gathered.
They pooled funds and rented out one of the better buildings—a custom building—in a good community. The custom building had two floors with a 150 square meter floor area. They designed it to be similar to the open plan of clinics back in Terran.
It really wasn't much, as none of them were able to bring a lot of hard money at all, but it was better than having none.
As such, this venture was ignored by Fargo and his men so far, as long as injuries and requirements of the Team—as well as the Rongo Mercenary Team's—remained the priority.
So—no matter how reluctant—they had to treat a guard's tiny stomach ache first before handling someone who was bleeding to death.
"Miss Vanessa!" the patients greeted her, followed by one of the doctors nearby. This was Dr. Cynthia, one of the doctors though she specialized in Ob-gyn and pediatrics.
Behind her was the de facto leader of the doctors, Dr. Volohov, a white-haired old man who had won many awards back in Terran.
Interestingly, Fargo had quite a number of doctors by virtue of a medical conference happening somewhere in Eden. However, despite all the doctorates and masters of these people, their use had become limited to injuries and first aid.
After all, Xeno was an entirely different land and their bodies had become very different back then.
Not to mention, the raw materials were also different, so they had a similar starting point as most people when it came to knowledge of medicinal plants.
Even with their identities back in Terran, they now all look at Vanessa, a young 28-year-old woman who only had some medical experience, for advice simply because she was here earlier than they were. She had also interacted with Aborigines and therefore had a lot more local knowledge.
Vanessa quite enjoyed the status quo.
"Could you send us some homeostatic medicine?" Dr. Cynthia asked politely, telling the number of patients that needed it, as well as the projections she had for future use.
Vanessa nodded, noting to send missions for various plants among her 'contracted' foragers. Of course, the patients had to pay a good amount for the medicines, and a lot of the profit went to Vanessa's pocket.
Rightfully so, she mused, as the clinic was her idea. It was her brother who protected their people, and they depended on her local knowledge as well.
Dr. Lu, a fifty-year-old man specializing in orthopedics, walked to her at this time. "Is it possible for us to write a summary of plant life so far for easy reference?"
After all, it was too inconvenient to wait for her to arrive each time. There were too many emergencies.
Vanessa frowned, but didn't reject too quickly. "Well if you can find enough paper and pen, I'll consider," she said, though her tone was extremely noncommittal.
The doctors looked at each other and sighed. As inconvenient as this made this to be, Vanessa wasn't wrong.
Although sometimes… they felt Vanessa was dragging her feet in sharing knowledge. But what could they do? She was their closest way to understanding this world.
Further, her family and suitors were the only ones strong enough and willing to help them out when they needed to explore the forests outside to study the plants.
Their backing also softened the doctors' fear of being uselessly bullied by the lord and his men.
So, for now, they could only follow the woman.
The episode passed quickly, and a few more patients entered. After paying the accountant for the basic consultation fees, they were then guided to either a doctor's consultation room upstairs or to the emergency room on the ground floor.
The day went on as usual, with a patient coming in here and there, some from injuries against mobs or poison from the plants or bugs outside, while some were injuries from the lord's men.
The day was much lighter than usual though, because none of the lord's party came by and acted important. Sometimes they came with the most minor ailments, and oftentimes some would come in an attempt to flirt with Vanessa. She always managed to get out by virtue of her brother's strength (not that they were afraid, rather it was not worth the trouble) as well as her expert flirting.
It was soon broken when a nurse yelled for an emergency, however.
"Doctors! We have a couple of patients coming in!"
Vanessa saw that there were patients—a lot of whom were bloody—and she headed to her office on the second floor. As the only healer in the village, she naturally enjoyed a great status. She had her own office and she could charge higher than others.
As she headed up, she ignored the newcomers, not caring about them at all. Fortunately for them, plenty of the doctors and nurses were there to assist.
First to be handled was the bloody group of teenagers, each handled by trauma experts and the like. It took a while and a group of medical experts to stabilize the three teenagers.
When they were taken care of and stabilized, only then did the remaining patients ask for assistance.
"Excuse me…" a man asked, and the nurse turned—immediately blushing at the sight of his handsome face.
It was a better-off couple and they didn't seem to have a lot of injuries. In fact, it seemed that it was only the woman who had a problem. At this time, she was being carried by the man. She looked very uncomfortable, continuously rubbing her head on the man's shoulder.
"Please! Help us!" The man said, looking a little pale, and the doctors and nurses nearby looked at the woman who indeed seemed to be very week.
"Drakey-honey…" the woman groaned wrapping her hand tightly around the man's neck. He paled in turn, but everyone just assumed it was because he felt heartbroken for his woman.
He looked awkwardly at the nurse, eyes filled with a desperate plea. "Please… help us."