Chapter 553

### Chapter 407 Investigation

North Coast of Conquer Sea, Vanaha.

In the northern suburbs of the seaside town of Vanaha, Dorothy, who was leisurely wandering around, discovered a large walled courtyard at the foot of a hill as she was preparing to return to the city. Upon her keen observation, she noticed some issues with the iron frame of the large iron gate at the entrance of the courtyard.

From the comparison of the cleanliness of the inside of the screw holes on the iron frame and the frame itself, Dorothy judged that there must have been a sign hanging on it not long ago, but it was recently taken down. This situation piqued Dorothy’s curiosity, and she manipulated a zombie puppet to enter the buildings inside the courtyard for a quick look, but the outcome of her inspection surprised her.

Through the labels posted on the pillars inside the building, Dorothy learned that this courtyard was the “North Hill Psychiatric Hospital,” the second psychiatric hospital she encountered in the Vanaha region.

Just yesterday, after dealing with Massimo, Dorothy encountered an Anxika Psychiatric Hospital on her way back from the seaside to the city. At that time, she remarked on the beauty of the scenery there, which was beneficial for the recovery of the mentally ill, but she didn’t expect to find a second psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of the city just a day later.

On the quiet road at the foot of the hill, after standing in front of this new psychiatric hospital for a moment with her parent zombie puppet, Dorothy continued on her way to the city without lingering too long. However, her expression had shifted from relaxed to slightly grave.

‘Vanaha… From my earlier view from the hill, the size of this city shouldn’t be too large; it might not even match Igewent. It’s questionable whether there would be even a hundred thousand people in the whole city. Does a city of this size really need two psychiatric hospitals?’

As she walked, Dorothy thought to herself. In her impression, even Igewent didn’t seem to have a dedicated psychiatric hospital, yet this city had two—something about that seemed odd.

‘And the sign for this North Hill Psychiatric Hospital seemed like it was only just taken down recently… What could be the reason for them to remove the sign temporarily? Was it broken and needed replacing? Or was there some other reason?’

With a hint of doubt, Dorothy manipulated the small zombie puppet still inside the psychiatric hospital to begin a simple investigation. In her preliminary scouting, she found that, although the windows and doors of the North Hill Psychiatric Hospital were tightly shut, it was still functioning.

Using the small zombie puppet’s visual feed, Dorothy saw many patients wearing hospital gowns inside the rooms on both sides of the long corridor. They were of all ages—men and women, old and young—all thin and haggard, either lying on their beds staring blankly at the ceiling or sitting by the windows staring vacantly outside, each one sporting large, dark circles under their eyes.

Dorothy quickly swept through several buildings within the courtyard with the small zombie puppet, discovering around forty to fifty patients. Each appeared dazed and devoid of spirit, their dark circles suggesting they hadn’t slept well in days. Despite the psychiatric hospital having a spacious courtyard, no patients chose to go outside; they all remained in their wards.

Inside the entire psychiatric hospital, there were over a dozen staff members. According to Dorothy’s observation, they were quite diligent in caring for the patients, helping them eat and wash. Some patients occasionally erupted in hysterical screams, and the staff would promptly intervene to subdue them.

As Dorothy made her way back to the city while observing the conditions of the psychiatric hospital with her zombies, after more than an hour of observation at various locations, she didn’t find anything overly unusual. She overheard conversations among the caregivers, realizing they seemed to be just ordinary residents of Vanaha discussing trivial matters about work and life, with no connections to the mysterious. There were no extraordinary signs within the entire psychiatric hospital.

If there was something peculiar about this psychiatric institution, it was that the symptoms of the patients were strikingly similar. In Dorothy’s perspective, the symptoms of mental illness should be diverse; there should be all sorts of manifestations, yet here, every patient exhibited signs of neurasthenic dementia, all sporting dark circles under their eyes as if they hadn’t slept properly.

If a few patients showed these symptoms, it could be overlooked, but if all the patients in the entire psychiatric hospital were like this, it became strange.

‘Could the people in this city all be afflicted with the same type of mental illness…?’

Having nearly completed her inspection of the North Hill Psychiatric Hospital, Dorothy thought to herself. If the symptoms of the patients were more varied, she might have thought nothing was amiss; however, the strikingly uniform symptoms gave her the impression that they were all suffering from the same mental illness.

Yet, mental illness is not contagious; how could identical conditions appear in large numbers?

In a moment of contemplation, Dorothy continued her observation of the psychiatric hospital for another two hours, but still couldn’t gather any more useful intel. However, she learned from the staff’s conversations that the sign that had been removed was due to municipal beautification efforts, and the old sign was taken down the previous afternoon. The new sign had not yet arrived.

After failing to gather more information, Dorothy recalled the small zombie puppets she had spread throughout the North Hill Psychiatric Hospital and, having retracted them, continued on her way to the city. By this time, the sky had gradually darkened, and a new night was about to fall.

Once back in the city, Dorothy quickly found a decent-looking restaurant, ordered some specialty dishes, and began her dinner.

‘Though that psychiatric hospital I visited during the day seemed mostly fine at a glance, the nearly identical symptoms of the patients are somewhat concerning. Is there an epidemic of such mental illness in this city?’

Sitting at the dining table, as Dorothy chewed on some Castilian ham, she reflected on what had transpired earlier in the day, being exceptionally sensitive to such suspicious matters due to her long immersion in the Secret World.

With questions circling in her mind, Dorothy decided to inquire further. While eating, she controlled the zombie puppets she had sent out earlier to search for the White Stone Craftsmen Guild and brought them back. Although those puppets hadn’t found the guild, they could now help her gather information about the psychiatric hospitals.

Thus, under Dorothy’s manipulation, several zombie puppets began to strike up conversations with nearby residents of Navaha, subtly inquiring about matters pertaining to the psychiatric hospitals.

After some inquiries, Dorothy learned some slightly valuable information from a vendor at a snack stall.

“Ah? You’re asking about the psychiatric hospitals outside the city?”

“Yes… I was surprised to see that there are two psychiatric hospitals in this city while I was walking outside yesterday. It’s quite unusual. I’m from Faraluo, where my hometown is about the same size, but there isn’t a single psychiatric hospital, so I’m curious as to how there are two here. Are there patients from other cities being sent here for treatment?”

In a narrow alley, under Dorothy’s control, a traveler zombie puppet licked a piece of round candy it had just bought and spoke to the vendor who sold it to him. The vendor pondered for a moment before replying.

“Well… It’s rare for a guest to explore so many places on their first day here. However, you’re slightly mistaken; there are not just two psychiatric hospitals in our city, but three. Moreover, these hospitals are not meant for treating external patients. Most of the patients inside are our own Navaha people.”

“Three psychiatric hospitals, and all the patients are from Navaha? How… is it so common for this city to have mental illness?” Listening to the vendor’s words, the traveler zombie puppet unexpectedly spoke, and the vendor nodded quietly.

“Yes… from time to time, someone in this city suddenly becomes very dazed and strange. A person who was perfectly normal could just turn silly, occasionally going into fits and screaming, especially at night when they create quite a ruckus, making it hard for people to sleep well…

“According to the older folks in town, this is a unique illness we have here, known as hypersomnia. It has been occurring for quite some time, so everyone is somewhat used to it. If someone in a household suffers from this illness, they just have to consider themselves unlucky.”

“Hypersomnia? So this illness has been around for a long time, huh?”

“Yes, but in the past, there weren’t many cases. You might not even find one in a whole year. But I don’t know if there are more people or some other reason—over the past seven or eight years, the number of people with hypersomnia has gradually increased. Because of the rise in patients, the city specifically built psychiatric hospitals to accommodate them—one, two, three. As the number of patients increased, we built three psychiatric hospitals in just these last seven or eight years, and it looks quite frightening since some families even have their entire households admitted. Some young people find it scary and run off to Trua.”

The vendor sighed as he spoke to the traveler zombie puppet. After hearing the vendor’s words, the traveler zombie puppet nodded and retrieved a few coins for the vendor.

“Thank you for your response, sir. Please give me another piece.”

To support the information source’s business, Dorothy instructed the traveler zombie puppet to ask for another piece of candy. After accepting the payment, the vendor smiled and handed over a new piece, which the traveler zombie puppet realized was shaped like a crescent moon.

“Sweet dreams, guest.”

“Sweet dreams? What a peculiar way to offer well wishes.”

“Haha, it’s just our custom. When eating these crescent candies, we always say that. When I was little, I would ask my parents for these crescent candies, and I’d always say I wanted sweet dreams.”

The vendor continued to explain to the traveler zombie puppet. After hearing the vendor’s words, the traveler zombie puppet examined the crescent candy in its hand and murmured.

“Sweet dreams?”

After inquiring with the citizens about the psychiatric hospitals, Dorothy began to retract all the zombie puppets. While eating dinner, she couldn’t help but furrow her brows at the recent events she had encountered in Navaha.

‘Hypersomnia? According to what this vendor said… this mental illness seems to have existed in this city for a long time, something the locals are quite familiar with. However, in the past seven or eight years, the incidence of this illness has suddenly surged, prompting the continuous establishment of so many psychiatric hospitals…

‘Tsk… It feels like there’s something unusual lurking behind all of this…’

Finishing her piece of Castilian sausage, Dorothy solemnly pondered in her heart.

…

Evening time, somewhere in Navaha.

In an ordinary living room, a woman dressed in a black robe, around forty years old and somewhat plump, sat on a single sofa with a serious expression looking ahead. In front of her, standing on the carpet was a well-dressed man in his thirties. Facing this man, the woman spoke.

“What’s the current situation? Gomez, has the church fleet’s attempt to investigate been clarified? Are they really just here to drop off people?”

“Ms. Garcia, after our investigation, this church fleet appears to be a convoy. The reason for their arrival in Vanaha should indeed be spontaneous. They encountered another ship sinking at sea and rescued a group of people, then brought them here. They seem to be simply delivering people without any involvement in other extraordinary matters. They should have had no discernible impact on us or the city.”

The man named Gomez respectfully replied to the woman named Garcia, who after hearing this, paused for a moment before continuing.

“Spontaneous… solely delivering people… not involving any extraordinary matters? Hmph, if that were truly the case, then what about the commotion at the port that afternoon when they arrived? What about the noise at the Ruined Stone Beach? If they were merely delivering people, wouldn’t such incidents not occur?”

With a cold snort, Garcia stated, her expression revealing a deep distrust.