Zich and his companions unloaded their luggage in a hotel at Ospurin. They stayed in a luxurious, expensive hotel; it wasn’t a place where aristocrats stayed, but successful merchants and wealthy people frequently resided in the hotel.
Thus, the price of one night in the hotel was considerably expensive, and because Zich, Hans, and Snoc each got separate rooms, the fee was three times more than the normal amount. However, Zich didn’t feel burdened by the price of the hotel since Joachim had reserved the rooms for them.
Since Zich had done so much to help them during the epidemic, Joachim had initially wanted to invite Zich to his castle. Furthermore, it wasn’t like Zich, Hans, and Snoc had simply helped them out. There was no need to even go on about what Zich did—Hans and Snoc had done the work of tens of people. All of Joachim’s task force greatly appreciated Zich and his companions. Joachim wanted to invite the three of them to his castle and treat them as esteemed guests. However, his plan fell apart as soon as he arrived at the castle.
“I’m so sorry.”
Joachim’s face crumpled intensely. His clenched fist trembled with humiliation, and he felt powerless. The gatekeepers had been ordered to prohibit all of Joachim’s guests from entering the castle. However, Joachim couldn’t blame the gatekeepers who also looked helpless. Their expressions betrayed the fact that they weren’t acting of their own free will.
As expected, the gatekeepers were working under the orders of the Draculs’ first son, Biyom. Joachim couldn’t understand why a son—not the feudal lord—would have authority over the entire estate. But judging by the responses of the people in front of him, it seemed like nobody could ignore Biyom’s orders.
Zich comforted Joachim. Zich was already satisfied that Joachim wanted to do something for him. The fact that he had developed a good relationship with Joachim after the regression also made Zich glad. However, Joachim wasn’t satisfied with leaving things like that, so he quickly reserved them a place. He asked them to stay in the hotel and said that he would visit them; then Joachim headed for the castle.
‘He’s quite unlucky.’
Zich thought that Joachim’s situation was like his past situation at Steelwall. But after seeing the way Joachim was treated at his residence, Zich thought Joachim’s situation was worse.
‘The atmosphere here is worse than Steelwall. How can he even swallow his food there?’
If Zich hadn’t planned to flip his household upside down at the end, he wouldn’t have been able to survive even one day in Steelwall.
‘Should I just take him with me?’
Zich started to seriously think about this matter. There was no harm to it, and Zich would welcome his past underling to become his subordinate again with open arms. All that remained was what Joachim wanted, and Joachim also had thoughts of leaving his family.
‘His hemophobia might hinder our travels, but I can adjust to that.’
And if things still didn’t work out, Zich could help Joachim settle in a place with good scenery full of mountains and pleasant waters.
‘I should ask his opinions about it first and plan later.’
After making his final decision, Zich decided to enjoy his leisure time that he wasn’t able to have for a while. He ate when he was hungry, slept when he felt sleepy, and had a drink from time to time. And since Ospurin was a sizable city, there were enough places for entertainment.
Both Hans and Snoc seemed very pleased with their stay. Hans enjoyed his freedom as much as he could while Snoc couldn’t get enough of the luxurious lifestyle he had never experienced before. Moreover, Zich planned to leave them alone for a while.
Several days passed like that. It was about time for Joachim to contact them, but they didn’t hear anything back from him.
‘Since the hotel is regularly receiving payments for our stay, I don’t think he forgot about us. He might be in some serious trouble.”
This meant that Joachim was dealing with personal affairs or threats against his own life— to the point that he couldn’t concern himself about Zich. For a moment, Zich thought about infiltrating the castle like he did before. But at that moment, a visitor arrived at the hotel. However, the person wasn’t Joachim; it was one of Joachim’s lieutenants.
“Hey, it’s been a while, Zich.”
Even though he was from a lower class than Zich, he was quite old and a knight of a noble, so he talked informally to Zich. Zich also didn’t say anything against it since this was normal. Only Joachim talked formally to everyone regardless of their status.
“Yes, it’s been a while Sir Brod. Did Count Dracul send you?”
“Well, kind of.”
Brod’s expression wasn’t good. It wasn’t because he didn’t like Zich— Brod had also worked with Zich at the village affected by the epidemic. It seemed like something had happened to Joachim.
Brod continued, “Count Joachim wanted me to pass on his apologies. He is sorry that he couldn’t keep his promise.”
“Is there something going on?”
“…He is confined in his room for failing to stop the epidemic properly.”
“Is it because everyone in the village died?”
Brod nodded. “Although he explained that the infection and fatality rates were extremely high and there were multiple diseases spreading…”
“It didn’t get through to them.”
“…Yes, the first son of Count Dracul thought differently from us.”
Brod clearly looked like he wanted to add all kinds of names before the ‘first son of Count Dracul’—for example, ‘that bastard,’ or ‘damn,’ or even ‘that greedy pig bastard’—or curses even worse than that.
“The first son? What about the lord of the house?”
“Our Lord is bedridden by an illness.”
“Is it an infectious disease?”
After staying in an infected village, the first thing that came to Zich’s mind when an illness was mentioned was an infectious disease. Yet, thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case. Brod shook his head.
“No, if it was, more people would have caught it.”
Zich nodded. Truthfully, he wouldn’t have cared if the Lord or even all the residents in this city, Ospurin, caught the epidemic. Zich was simply a person who tried to do kind acts, and he wasn’t actually a kind person. He was just curious.
“Then, is Joachim still imprisoned?”
“No, he was released yesterday.”
However, Brod’s face didn’t get any brighter.
“Something must have happened again.”
“It seems like another village was hit by an epidemic.”
He knew where this was going. The corner of Zich’s lips turned upwards; it was a fishy smile without a shred of positivity.
“You are saying that Joachim has been sent to that village.”
“Yes.”
Brod’s voice was solemn.
‘They are doing all they can to push him to death.’
Zich could easily figure out the first son’s intentions; however, the first son probably had other reasons to send Joachim off.
‘He probably wants to cut down the number of people who align themselves with Joachim.”
Joachim had said that he didn’t have many followers, but everyone who was in the task force was completely loyal to him. Although Zich considered the thought that Joachim might have won the hearts of the people around him in the short time he took command of the task force…
‘But for that to be the case, they seem too loyal to Joachim.”
That meant only one thing.
‘The first count must have sent Joachim’s followers to fight off the epidemic with him.’
It would also not be different this time. No matter how loyal they were, they were bound to feel fearful about death, especially towards infectious diseases that they couldn’t even see while they were dispatched to a village at the peak of their outbreak. There would be many sacrifices.
‘It would be most ideal for the first son if Joachim dies from the epidemic. And if Joachim doesn’t, the first son plans to decrease the number of Joachim’s followers by letting them die by infectious diseases or encouraging them to leave Joachim’s side to escape dispatchment.’
The whole situation was disgraceful. Zich wouldn’t have normally concerned himself in a power struggle between nobles, but Joachim was involved in this case. Furthermore, Joachim was getting one-sidedly beaten.
‘What was the name of that first son guy?’
Zich was sure that his name was something like Biyom Dracul.
‘He is a bad guy, right?’
Biyom satisfied all the conditions: he tried to kill Joachim, who had no greed for power and worked hard to fight the epidemic, simply because Joachim was a threat to his authority.
‘How should I fuck up this guy?’
Zich’s head spun, but then he realized that he was still in the middle of a conversation with Brod and pushed this thought into the corner of his mind.
“When is his departure date? Because of the connection we made over these past weeks, I want to help this time too.”
“What? Are you serious?”
Brod’s face immediately brightened up. Like that, Zich returned to a village infested by an epidemic again.
* * *
Drop!
Hans threw down a corpse into a large pit. The corpse waved limply like a doll that a child got bored of and discarded. Yet, it might have been wrong to compare the corpse to a doll. The corpse, which had died after going through all kinds of pain and despair, looked gruesome. However, Hans was used to seeing corpses in such states now. He had seen countless corpses over his stay in the village, and he worked mechanically like a machine.
Tree branches soaked in oil fell over the corpses, and over it, a torch fell.
Craaaackle!
A fire erupted out of the hole. The oil-soaked branches fueled the fire and continued to let it burn. After checking the pit swirl with fire and heat, people increased their distance from the hazard. Even if they were now used to this work, they still disliked the sight and smell of burning corpses. However, no one completely left the area. Everyone backed away to an area that didn’t smell as much and stared at the flaming pit as if they were standing in front of a solemn funeral.
“That was the last one,” Hans said calmly, and Snoc sniffled beside him. No matter how much they got used to the work, they couldn’t help but feel emotional after seeing the last villager burn. In the end, everyone in this village also died. The villagers’ symptoms were like the symptoms from the last epidemic that they saw and were all truly sickening diseases.
Failing gave them a bad feeling. However, they couldn’t go on with this depressing mood; although failing felt terrible, they had already gone through it hundreds and thousands of times. Furthermore, it wasn’t like they were the ones who set this goal.
‘Since he is going to buy time by making us stay here for a couple weeks anyway, I should start making my plans.’
Zich’s plan was to fuck up Biyom Dracul. Zich barely repressed his laughter that was about to come out. No matter how heartless or impudent Zich was, he at least had enough self-restraint to not laugh in this kind of atmosphere.
People didn’t leave the area until all the flames disappeared, as if they were wishing for the happiness and fortune of all those who died. Like that, the fire was extinguished. After that, they finally burned the whole village down and finished cleaning up. Then, they sent the news to Ospurin that their work was over. However, they didn’t receive any orders to return.