In a secluded room in the nursing home, Louis leaned against the wall and let out a long sigh of relief.
He closed his eyes and began to replay the entire process in his mind, from when he passed out yesterday until now.
Although being unexpectedly brought here disrupted his plan to return to find Rick and the others, the moment he woke up from his stupor, he immediately realized that this was a golden opportunity!
He had been worried about how to find a reasonable explanation for his 'medical skills' that far surpassed common knowledge, to pave the way for using healing magic and Potions in the future.
And this place, currently filled with many elderly and sick patients and lacking professional doctors, was simply a stage tailor-made for him.
A bold plan instantly took shape in his mind.
The facts proved that his plan was a great success.
First, relying on his knowledge from his past life, along with the first aid techniques he observed from Doctor Gale, he helped reset the dislocated shoulder of the patient in the next bed, gaining the initial trust of everyone in the nursing home.
Immediately following that, a man with a severely infected leg and a persistent high fever became the target for his second demonstration of medical skill.
Although the orderly Felipe here had some medical supplies, he was helpless against such a tricky infection.
Louis merely pretended to be mysterious, using some herbs as a cover. On the surface, he was using his self-made 'miracle medicine,' but in reality, while everyone was away, he quietly cast the Healing Charm on the unconscious man.
He did not heal the wound directly; he only used magic to control the deterioration of the wound and accelerated the man's body's self-repair.
Fortunately, perhaps because the man's own recovery ability was good, just over ten minutes after Louis finished casting the spell, the man, who had been unconscious for two days, woke up directly.
This made everyone present, who had only been trying him as a last resort and held no real hope for Louis, extremely excited and delighted.
Two consecutive successes allowed Louis to completely win everyone's trust. By this point, Louis's persona as a 'medical genius' was firmly established in the minds of these survivors.
Therefore, when another elderly person suffered an asthma attack and was in critical condition, he was able to naturally step forward, guide everyone in performing correct first aid, successfully alleviate the elder's crisis, and pave the way for the later arrival of Rick and the others and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Pulling his thoughts away from the memories, Louis opened his eyes, a satisfied smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
Of course, Louis did this not only to resolve conflicts when Rick and the others arrived later.
His main goal was to create a plausible background for his 'superb medical skills.'
Louis knew clearly that he himself only knew some basic first aid skills, plus a smattering of knowledge picked up in a hurry.
But his magic was different!
Once he successfully left the impression of a 'medical genius' in everyone's minds, then in the future, if he performed some incredible 'medical miracle,' it wouldn't seem so abrupt.
For example, using the Healing Charm to instantly heal some not-so-serious wounds, or... successfully brewing those Potions with miraculous effects.
Potions like Dittany and blood-replenishing agents from Harry Potter had far better healing effects than his current half-baked Healing Charm.
It was just that he couldn't brew them yet, so he had temporarily set that aside.
With the 'medical genius' persona as a foundation, even if he truly concocted some potions in the future, it would only be seen as proof of his extraordinary talent.
This was just like his pendulum steel cone controlled by the Levitation Charm; both were intended to allow him to use magic openly and relatively unsuspectingly!
...Just as Louis was paving the way for his future, in the adjacent room, Rick finally laid out the whole story to everyone.
He told them Louis's true background and the reason why he decided to treat him as his son to protect him, laying everything bare.
"...So, even though Louis is not my biological son," Rick surveyed everyone, pausing his gaze on Merle for a few seconds, "I will treat him as my own son."
Originally, he hadn't planned to make this public so quickly; he wanted to discuss it with Louis first before making a decision.
But Merle, the big mouth, had already blabbed about it outside, and the current environment was relatively safe, so Rick decided to clear the air completely to avoid unnecessary suspicion and misunderstanding within the team.
After hearing the entire sequence of events, the few people in the room all showed thoughtful expressions.
They didn't say much, just nodded silently.
Everyone could understand Rick's reasoning. Louis acted out of gratitude, and Rick wanted to offer shelter to the child who had no home.
Only Merle still couldn't stand Rick's 'righteous' demeanor and spat out a few nasty remarks:
"Heh, I knew you couldn't produce anything good."
Rick ignored him, completely disregarding the provocation.
Next, he informed everyone in detail about the current situation at the nursing home and the facts concerning Guillermo and the others. After briefly discussing matters before returning to the camp, he stood up, preparing to go find Louis to communicate.
However, a few minutes later, when Rick found Louis in the lobby of the nursing home, he saw the boy holding a can of black spray paint, writing something on a huge white bedsheet.
"This is...?" Rick walked over, somewhat confused.
Louis heard the voice, turned his head, and seeing that it was Rick, a smile appeared on his face.
He put down the spray paint can and pointed at the huge cloth, explaining, "Officer Rick, when we go back, can we hang this up at the entrance to the city?"
"This way, survivors like us who still think there's a safe zone in Atlanta can be alerted in advance and won't be as defenseless as we were when we arrived."
Rick followed the direction he was pointing and saw that the huge white bedsheet had a shocking line of large black characters written on it:
[Warning! Atlanta has fallen! There are a large number of Walkers in the city!]
Rick looked at the words, then at the boy's face, which was dotted with a few specks of black paint from concentration, and felt like something was stuck in his throat, unable to utter a word.
His heart felt as if it were gently clasped by a warm hand, and a complex emotion surged in his chest.
Just a few minutes ago, he stood with Guillermo, feeling admiration for the strangers who were guarding the entire nursing home for that one man.
And now, the first thing this child, who had just escaped from the horde of Walkers and kidnappers, thought of after ensuring his own safety, was to put up a warning sign for those unknown strangers.
A rush of heat, mixed with shame and emotion, suddenly surged up Rick's cheeks.
Making a warning sign.
While this wasn't exactly an insignificant effort, it didn't take much time either.
But such a small, insignificant action could potentially save countless families and countless living souls.
Yet, none of them, the adults who had ventured in and out of Atlanta twice, had thought of doing anything similar.
This included himself, who was originally a police officer.
Rick could find countless excuses for himself: limited energy, critical situation, more pressing matters to handle... But at this moment, under the boy's clear gaze, any excuse seemed pale and weak.
He suddenly remembered his previous worries.
When he saw the corpses of the Walkers on the rooftop, all precisely headshot, he had worried whether a smart child like Louis, forced by the apocalypse, would become overly cold, perhaps even distorted?
After all, even for an adult like him, there was inevitably a trace of reluctance when facing those monsters who were once fellow humans.
But Louis never seemed to feel any sympathy for the Walkers.