Volume 2 Chapter 14 Part2

Episode 14 - Targeted San Flueve Imperial Capital (Part 2)

It became midnight, and the atmosphere of the night became dense.

After leaving the Esthark Village, Falma found the 8 family members who have escaped from the village inside a deserted house along the way to the imperial capital. Among them, three had a high fever, and the children there could not move, they could only make they bodies closer to each other. The children were fast asleep. They were the ones who escaped from the village, frightened after the fever began.

He(Falma) created a divine field inside the mansion. The territory that was purified even drove out mosquitoes and small insects. They woke up due to Falma’s footsteps.

「Y-You chased us, you chased us who have started to get sick right?!」

The father stood up staggering with his frightened voice, he asked Falma while panting due to his sickness while pointing a short sword.

From how they saw him, Falma was shining with light. Especially when holding the Medicine G.o.d’s Staff, they could see him shining in the dark. Falma also knew about that, but he cannot hide it.

「Did you come to kill us?! Am I right?!」

The mother protects her children.

「No, no, I don’t wanna die!」

When their nerves reached its max, the intruder said.

「I came to save you」

「He?」

「You are, Herman-san of the Esthark Village right」

Falma gives the medicine together with the water he created to everyone, and to be sure, he casts “Relief of the Origin” to them.

After casting the spell, Falma staggers, and sat down on a decaying chair.

「Drink the medicine, and after you feel better, please return to the Esthark Village. Also, as much as possible, please do not touch humans or animals. If you started to have a hard time walking, borrow a wagon at the highway」

Falma says “as travelling expenses”, and gives them gold coin.

「What happened to Esthark Village?」

「18 have died. However, everyone have taken the medicine, so I think that they would calm down after a few days」

「Y-You, who are you!」

「I am just a pharmacist」

Falma answered quietly.

At that time, the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the forest in the night, and a fire pillar created by flame divine arts have appeared several kilometers away.

Leaving the deserted house, Falma quickly rose in the air with the staff on one hand, and when he have reached enough alt.i.tude, he narrowed his eyes towards the flames.

The patients who were left in the forest could only look at each other.

「A person? H-He flew……」

「There’s no way that a human could fly right」

“Did we have hallucinations due to the high fever”, someone said.

And just like that, they fell to sleep. Even so, the medicine that entered their bodies continued to show eminent effects.

「It’s there」

Falma descents with the Medicine G.o.d’s Staff, and ran towards there. The third chasing unit of priests that have left Esthark was surrounding wagons and the ones who pulled them, incinerating them. The corpses and cargo had already started to carbonize and sparks were rising.

「They were already dead?」

「Yes, Medicine G.o.d-sama, they were already dead. It was, they had just died when we came. That’s why, we are incinerating their corpses together with the cargo. Their nationality is Nedale Country」

It looks like the porters of the Nedale Country have been infected by the black plague, dying while leaving their load on this place. The doc.u.ments of their transportation were left, and the priest shows that to Falma.

「What was their load?」

「According to the doc.u.ments, high-cla.s.s woolen fabric and rare dyestuffs from colonies. But, the load inside was removed from here. It must be placed in another wagon」

「This should not be the end, there must be other porters. I will go ahead of the chasing units」

「We will take care of this」

Falma floated to the air, and uses the divine technique “Disease Destruction Sanctuary”. Activating the spell, a blue wave runs through the sky as if it was an aurora. With this, it should cover a radius of several kilometers.

When he finishes activating the divine technique and descends to the ground, Falma fell to his knees. His breath was also rough.

「Are you feeling bad somewhere」

「Ah, no, that is, probably, no……I think……」

(The degree of fatigue is rising? It’s somewhat different from usual”.

He could not catch his breath. Even if he casts divine techniques using the Medicine G.o.d’s Staff, he had never got tired like this up until now. However, something is different. “Did I get infected by the plague”, he worried. Just in case, he has taken the preventive medication against plague but…….

「Are you out of divine powers」

「Eh? I wonder if it is so」

The female fire attributed priest Kiara noticed something, and touched Falma’s back with the portable divine power gauge. The divine power gauge is something that every divine arts user would bring with them, and divine arts users would use divine techniques while taking a look at the remaining gauge. The best way is to grip it with their hands, but it could measure wherever it touches the body. The gauge was transparent, it was well over the gauge.

「n? Did you do something?」

Falma doesn’t notice that his divine powers were being measured in secret, and gives a strange look at the female priest whose expression was frozen.

「Excuse me, your divine powers are not exhausted at all. Please take some rest. You must be tired」

He had never felt that his divine powers have decreased at all, so Falma thought that his divine powers are infinite.

(Thinking of it again, there’s energy that is being used, so it shouldn’t be infinite huh)

Thinking of it in physics, it was very natural. If powers are used, some other things would be spent.

(I should ask help to the Head Priest in the imperial capital, and start seriously experimenting about divine arts. I might even die, if I would use it without planning at all)

“I have died from overwork once, would I die like that once again”. Falma thought.

(Well, a.s.suming that I die)

He was spending all his time and effort on spreading medicine to the commoners of the imperial capital, the study of divine arts, and he had always left his own affair aside. He had learned today that if combined properly, Falma could heal people who cannot be cured with just medicine if his healing effects would be added. “It is worth trying after this difficulty ends.” he thought.

「I am very ashamed to offer this humble thing to Medicine G.o.d-sama but, please」

Bread and water, and an apple were placed in front of Falma. For almost a day, he had not taken anything through his mouth, and have not rested at all. It was a hard bread, but the person’s kindness added to the flavor, and the bread tasted delicious.

「Is it okay? Thank you」

Too much fatigued, Falma could not fly anymore, so he rode the horse together with Kiara, and advanced towards the imperial capital.

「This is, for humans, well, a.s.suming」

Kiara calls out to Falma who riding on her back and was very tired, leaning his body on her.

「Great divine techniques could not be used consecutively. The divine techniques would exhaust divine powers, but it would also exhaust one’s mind. This might be rude but, firstly, children cannot cast great divine techniques, you must make your body rest. Today, how many times did you use divine techniques?」

She is young, but she is a priest who talks in a tone of a mother. “I used “Disease Destruction Sanctuary” a lot of times, and also used divine techniques to a.s.sist the healing of the patients”, Falma remembered.

「Around, a hundred, I think. I might’ve used more, I don’t remember though」

「Did you use it so many times. Oh really! That is absurd, child, what are you thinking! Who told you that you can use it that much, you might die you know?!」

And, when she heated up that much, the surrounding priests scolded her, “don’t be rude to the Medicine G.o.d-sama”.

「Thank you, Kiara-an」

“Her words are strong, but she’s just probably worried about me”, Falma thought and got thankful, and took a nap on the horse. Kiara held the rope that was binding her and Falma properly.

After making the horses run for a while, a new fire occurred far ahead. Falma felt the fire and woke up.

「It looks like they found them」

Making the horses hurry, they saw the scene where 4 porters who survived were caught by the 2nd chase unit, and their loads getting burned. The porters were obediently tied up. They were already infected with fever, and doesn’t have any strength left to resist.

「W-We were just hired with a contract!」

「We don’t know a d.a.m.n thing about the load」

The porters who were tied up started to say their excuses.

They were men from the Nedale Country.

Falma went off the horse, and approached them. They made a dubious face because of the appearance of a child.

「How many cargoes are going towards the imperial empire? What are their loads? If you answer, we will give you medicine, if you won’t, then just die」

He threatened them with an emotionless tone.

「There are 4 more wagons going to the imperial capital. Two wagons are woolen fabrics, one is spices, and the last one is animals」

They must have wanted their lives, they started to talk. They bought a horse that would pull the load along the way, so they expected that it would arrive at the imperial capital tomorrow.

「Animals……?」

Falma felt a bad feeling.

「It’s the white squirrel from the Pante Island」

(A rodent. It could be a carrier of the pest)

Falma’s intuition was raising alarms. Humans would get infected by pest bacteria through the fleas of rats and rodents like squirrels. The load this time might be a main source of infection.

「The Pante Island’s inhabitants have been annihilated. You knew about that right? Why would you bring animals from an infected island. You, you guys were infected by that, your comrades died from that right!」

Falma asked the 4 porters while silently holding back his anger.

「I-I dunno, what’s the connection with that. Those guys, they just couldn’t endure the long voyage, it doesn’t have anything to do with us after reaching land!」

The porter rebuked. It is a world where diseases are caused by miasma and evil spirits.

The idea of small pathogens infects animals to animals, unless they are the commoners of the imperial capital, the commoners of other countries could not have them.

“We just carried products that might be sold at a high price”, they said. Even if they were told that 18 people had died because of them, they would not understand. They were also just victims.

「How many went towards the imperial capital」

「There are 24 porters, and 5 holy knights」

「Holy knights?」

Holy knights, generally, they are divine artist knights who have become a master-servant with n.o.bles.

「There are 3 wind attributed, and 2 water attributed. They are the Kingdom’s knights」

「Why are the Kingdom’s holy knights guarding a small caravan!」

The ones that guards porters are normally commoner bodyguards. It is impossible that divine arts users, or in other words, n.o.bles, would guard merchants.

「I dunno, they came with in the port along the way……」

「This is……there is something. Normally, people would not forcefully sell shady products taken from an infected island. Because the next year after they do that, they would not be allowed to enter San Flueve Market. It would be a problem of trust」

Kiara felt the conspiracy. Falma also agreed.

(The mission of the holy knights that are with the Nedale Country, is to spread disease to the Empire?)

“Thinking about it carefully, I have thought that there was something strange. Elizabeth, the Empress, she has been infected by tuberculosis alone. Normally, getting tuberculosis alone is unnatural. The source of infection cannot be found.” Falma doubted. He thought that there might have been tubercle bacillus that came together with the tributes given to the Empress. He felt that because that plan has been destroyed, this time, they are trying to completely spread epidemic throughout the imperial capital. A huge number of squirrels infected by the pest bacteria, if they were released in the imperial capital……

“Don’t tell me, Nedale Country deliberately spreads the plague, and tries to destroy the Empire using that……”, when Falma started to get very agitated because of that,

「We already said enough right. Give us medicine, please, you have it right?」

The porter begged for his life. They are just bullets. Bullets for carrying the black plague……

「Medicine G.o.d-sama, would it not be better to not give medicine to sc.u.m like these」

Kiara loathed.

Falma, it would be a lie if he did not have the feeling of not giving them medicine. But even so, he had decided to himself that as long as he is a pharmacist, he must heal people equally. That is why, Falma will give them Medicine.

Their testimony might be of help to grasp the logistics of the infected cargo, and to prevent the occurrence of smuggling countries.

「After they recover, pa.s.s them to the empire, and punish them with the empire’s rules」

After saying that, Falma gripped the Medicine G.o.d’s Staff. He had taken a nap on the horse, so he could already fly.

「The imperial capital’s in danger」

The priests pray with grat.i.tude to the boy who floated in the air, disappearing in the sky with the rising sun.