His expression shifted from suspicion to shock, and from shock to fury.

"I told you this would happen!"

Riato practically roared, his entire face flushed red with anger.

"You can’t casually use medicine from an unknown source! Look at this! Just look at it! The wound is worsening! The infection is spreading! You’re gambling with Commander Hunter’s life!"

He spun around and pointed directly at Suzy, his finger trembling with rage.

"What exactly did you put on him? Are you trying to kill him?!"

Jason’s face instantly drained of color.

He rushed to the bedside, staring at the pus continuously leaking from Isaac’s arm, staring at the swelling flesh growing more grotesque by the second. Tears flooded his eyes immediately.

"Suzy...w-what’s happening..."

Suzy did not answer. She stood quietly where she was, still watching Isaac’s arm with an unnervingly calm expression.

Riato had already turned back to his medical kit, frantically rummaging through bottles of medicine and clean gauze. His voice was sharp with panic and fury.

"Robert, what are you standing there for?! Get her out of here right now! If she keeps messing around, your father truly won’t survive this!"

At this moment, Riato genuinely regretted allowing Suzy to interfere. He had clearly misjudged it earlier.

If Isaac lost his life because of this reckless nonsense...

Riato clenched his jaw hard.

Robert did not move. He stood beside the bed, looking down at his father’s rapidly worsening wound before slowly lifting his gaze toward Suzy.

Conflict churned violently in his eyes, as though he stood balanced between two impossible choices.

"Robert!" Riato stormed over, holding the medicine bottle, and shoved him aside. "You move too!"

By now, Jason was completely panicked. He stood frozen helplessly in place, not knowing what to do.

In the end, he turned toward Suzy again, desperately searching her face for reassurance.

"Suzy...say something..."

Suzy patted his shoulder calmly before looking back at Isaac. "It’s okay. Just wait a little longer."

Her spirit spring water would never fail. And more importantly, Suzy finally remembered.

Robert and Commander Hunter were father and son. The man before her, Isaac, was the future ruler of the White Tiger Base.

Now she understood why the name had sounded so familiar earlier.

In the dream, Wendy had also used spirit spring water to heal Isaac’s acid rain infection.

Because of that, she had gained the support of this powerful figure and later thrived inside the White Tiger Base. Even Robert himself had eventually fallen for her.

Except now... That storyline had focused on Suzy instead. The moment she realized that, her anxiety disappeared completely.

If Wendy’s spirit spring could heal Isaac, then hers naturally could too. Suzy’s confidence returned in full.

But from Riato’s perspective, things looked completely different. At this point, he was fully convinced Suzy was recklessly endangering a patient.

Hearing her casually say "wait a little longer," the hand he was using to clean the pus suddenly froze.

He turned his head and let out a cold laugh.

"Wait? Wait for what? Wait until his entire arm rots off? Your medicine has already worsened his condition to this point, and you still want to wait?"

Lowering his head again, he resumed cleaning the wound while shaking his head in ridicule.

"I’ve practiced medicine for thirty years and never seen anything this absurd. A little girl barely in her twenties, carrying some unknown ointment, dares to claim she can treat acid rain infection. Who do you think you are? What do you think that medicine is? A miracle cure?"

The moment those words left his mouth, the cotton swab in his hand abruptly stopped moving.

The pus he had been cleaning... Its color was beginning to change. It was no longer the yellowish-white pus from before. Now, it had turned into a thinner, clearer liquid, as though something had diluted it from within.

Riato’s eyes widened. He leaned closer instinctively, trying to get a better look. The more he observed, the more unbelievable it became. The blisters that had swollen again moments earlier had somehow deflated. Most of the fluid inside them had vanished, leaving behind only thin layers of wrinkled skin clinging to the flesh.

"Th-this..." Riato’s lips trembled.

The scene before him was simply too absurd. How much time had even passed?!

"Impossible...this is impossible..."

The words squeezed out between clenched teeth. His fingers hovered over the wound, trembling slightly, wanting to touch it yet not daring to.

Beside him, Robert’s expression shifted repeatedly.

Jason was utterly dumbfounded.

Even Leonard and Thomas, standing nearby, were equally stunned. The two exchanged silent looks with one another.

Then suddenly, Isaac moved again.

But this time, it was no longer the unconscious twitching from before. His brows furrowed tightly. His uninjured hand slowly curled into a fist, veins bulging across the back of it, as though he were desperately grasping onto something.

Robert noticed immediately.

"Dad!"

On the bed, Isaac’s eyelids trembled violently several times before slowly, painstakingly opening.

At first, he stared blankly at the ceiling. His pupils remained unfocused for several long seconds before clarity gradually returned. Then he slowly turned his head, sweeping his gaze across everyone in the room.

"Uncle! You’re awake!" Jason’s voice shook with excitement.

"Cough...cough..." Isaac coughed twice before letting out a helpless laugh.

"What are those expressions for? Every single one of you looks like you’re attending a funeral. I’m not dead yet."

His voice was weak and rough with the rasp of recent illness, but the teasing impatience in his tone was exactly the same as always.

Tears still clung to Jason’s face, yet his mouth had already split into a grin. He looked ridiculous, laughing and crying at the same time. Robert remained crouched beside the bed in silence.

Isaac glanced at the two of them and snorted in amusement.

"You’re grown men already, and you’re still crying? Aren’t you embarrassed?"

Robert calmly changed the subject. "Dad, how do you feel now?"

Only then did Isaac remember his injured arm.

He quickly looked down. Visually, there did not seem to be much change. But he could feel the difference.

Isaac stared at his arm for several seconds before slowly lifting his hand and flexing his fingers. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

They moved. Still stiff, but definitely moving.

Then he cautiously rotated his wrist. His wrist moved too. There was no unbearable agony like he had expected, only a faint soreness, similar to muscle fatigue after overexertion.

"Huh?" His eyes lit up.

He flexed his fingers several more times as though confirming it for himself.

"It doesn’t hurt anymore...Doc, my wound really doesn’t hurt anymore!" Isaac looked at Riato excitedly.

Only then did he realize the man looked as though he had been struck by lightning, frozen completely in place.

Riato’s mind had gone blank. He never expected Isaac to wake up this quickly. He had assumed it would take at least three to five days before consciousness returned.

But how long had it been?! Could it really be Suzy’s medicinal wine taking effect? Was that thing truly this miraculous?

"Doc?" Isaac called out in confusion.

Riato finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly asked, "Other than that, do you feel anything else?"

Isaac carefully assessed his condition again. "The wound doesn’t hurt anymore. Doesn’t that mean I’m getting better?"

Normally, whenever the infection flared up, the pain was so unbearable that Isaac nearly lost control several times.

Even when it was not actively worsening, sharp stabbing pain would pulse through the wound intermittently without warning.

But now... Nothing. No more stabbing pain.

If he had not looked at the wound moments earlier, he might have believed the injury had already healed completely.