“Did something happen?”
“No, I was just taking a stroll in this bright night and found you awake.”
Now that Joachim mentioned it, Zich noticed that the moon was especially large and bright today. Even a person who didn’t normally stroll for a hobby would have felt a strong urge to go on a walk.
‘What made him become a Demon Person?’
‘Currently, there are too few clues. But it must have been something huge for someone who has hemophobia to start using an ability like Blood Domination.’
“Sir, how is the Count’s condition?” Zich asked to grasp Joachim’s current situation.
“You must have heard the rumors. To tell you the truth, his condition is not very good. It has been half a year since he fainted, but he is still unconscious. I am very worried about him.”
Zich could see that Joachim was clearly worried for his father. At the least, it didn’t seem like Joachim was the type of son who wanted his father to die to gain more power.
‘It’s probably different for that bastard Biyom though.’
“I guess that’s why the first son of Count Dracul has full authority.”
“Well, he is the oldest. Of course, he should take it.”
But Joachim’s voice had a hint of bitterness to it that indicated his negative feelings towards Biyom. From then on, Zich continued to ask about Joachim’s current situation. Of course, Zich was indirect in his questions since he didn’t want to raise Joachim’s suspicions.
Many conversations passed between them, but Zich wasn’t able to gain much information. However, it wasn’t all useless since he gained assurance that his guesses had been correct.
‘The Count lost consciousness half a year ago, and he is still bedridden. Biyom Dracul took that chance to grasp power, and he is now pushing Joachim and his forces to the edge. It’s a common story.’
If he looked around the world, Zich would be able to find at least dozens of similar stories. Then Zich suddenly came up with a funny thought.
‘Should I play a trick and make Joachim Dracul succeed as the Count?’
It wasn’t a bad thought.
‘Then, I can fuck over Biyom at the same time.’
The best way that Zich liked to play with people was to give them a false sense of hope and quickly take it away; but he also liked the method of taking away what his opponent wanted or valued the most.
‘I should stay next to Joachim and make him the Count. At the same time, I can beat up the assassins who’d probably come to make Joachim into a Demon Person and extract information from them.’
It was a plan that perfectly suited Zich’s tastes. If he wanted to carry out this plan, Zich had to establish a greater sense of trust with Joachim. He couldn’t simply remain as the traveler who helped Joachim greatly; he had to become a confidant who Joachim trusted enough to confide in about the next course of action.
With that in mind, Zich talked to Joachim all night. He lacked time, especially considering that Joachim would likely be confined in his room again when he returned to Ospurin. However, Zich’s worries about lacking time disappeared when Joachim’s task force received another order from the castle. It was a shitty order that told them to relocate immediately to another village hit by an epidemic.
* * *
Soldiers skillfully blocked the roads leading to the third village and separated the infected villagers from the uninfected villagers. Their bodies were now accustomed to the work. After they separated the villagers into different zones, they began to give out treatments. However, since they had failed to save the first and second village, no one was hopeful about their ability to save the third village. And they began their work with low spirits.
In addition, there were significant casualties among the task force. Although the soldiers and caretakers had taken extra precautions when dealing with the patients, some were infected. If most of Joachim’s task force couldn’t control mana and didn’t have a strong immunity towards diseases, they might all have died like the villagers. Naturally, people’s morale was at rock bottom.
Then, they realized that the disease spreading in the third village was different. Its deterioration rate was slow, and symptoms weren’t as severe as before. It was a terrifying thing to discover a new disease with a high number of infectants, but everyone’s faces were bright. They hoped for survivors this time.
But even that hope soon disappeared. Although the disease’s deterioration rate was different this time, in the end, its fatality rate was also 100 percent. Just like that, the third village disappeared. And something that happened three times was bound to happen another time; an epidemic spread in another village, and the task force forced themselves to move once again.
As he moved the corpses again, Zich scowled.
‘This is definitely weird.’
Not only was it strange that there were so many outbreaks, the infection and fatality rates were way higher than normal. Furthermore, all the villages were at a considerable distance from each other. If the epidemic had spread across closeby villages, the trend was understandable, but that was not the case.
‘It almost seems like someone has purposely staged it.’
Zich analyzed the information he already knew, such as the assassins he met some days ago. However, there was no need for him to deeply think about this matter. The word epidemic immediately made him think of one person.
‘Did that bastard already begin to move?’
Zich didn’t know the person’s name, age, or gender. However, there was a figure who left clear marks in history and made the whole world tremble in fear just by their nickname. Their appearance started with the extinction of a kingdom’s capital due to diseases. Because the world was in chaos, the medical system, managed by multiple countries, couldn’t operate properly, and epidemics spread easily through armed conflicts. Thus, in the beginning, people simply thought that a severe epidemic was spreading.
However, the epidemic started to spread all over the world and began to kill more humans; and soon, people realized that there was a being artificially spreading diseases all over the world. They only found out about the being’s existence and didn’t find out anything about their identity. As a result, people began to call the person who could control diseases with the name: “Demon Person, Fest”.
‘The only thing well-known about Fest was that Glen Zenard killed them. Their identity was a mystery till the very end. But was that Demon person here at a time like this?’
It was too early to be sure, but there was a possibility.
‘If Fest is here, that means there are two people who could be Demon People here.’
Two Demon People. Before the regression, any normal person would have flipped their eyes and thrown a commotion at hearing that there were not just one but two Demon People in their residence.
‘Anyhow, I think I’ll only be able to find a solution after returning to Ospurin.’
There was nothing much he could do while he was stuck in the countryside. In the worst-case scenario, Zich planned to leave Joachim’s side for a moment to make some changes in Ospurin. Yet, since Fest might be involved in this case, Zich decided to wait and watch for a little longer.
‘If Fest is involved, I will have to return to Ospurin anyways.’
A few days later, all of Zich’s predictions were proven exactly right. After they burned the fourth village down and finished all their work, everyone’s expectations were at the lowest of the low. They expected to go to another village soon. Yet, in contrast to their expectations, they received an order to return as soon as possible.
At the capital of the Dracul estate, Opsurin, an epidemic was spreading.
* * *
They were finally going back as they wanted, but there were shadows cast on people’s faces. The capital city was being swept by an epidemic, and they didn’t know how severe the situation was.
The fact that Ospurin was hit by an epidemic seemed to indicate the severity of their situation—especially considering that the current diseases were worse than anything they had ever seen. The task force quickened its footsteps. A large portion of the party, especially knights and officers of high position, had families in Ospurin.
When they arrived at Ospurin, the situation wasn’t as hellish as they expected it to be. But the ominous black smoke that shot up into the clear sky made their hearts heavy.
Joachim led his forces to Ospurin and observed the civilians’ complexions as he headed for the castle. He could instantly tell that there were fewer people in the streets than usual; and the faces of people who were wandering around were filled with fear. But thankfully, the epidemic didn’t seem to have completely spread throughout the entire city.
“Open the gates!” Joachim shouted when he arrived at the castle. Before, the gatekeepers turned away Zich and his companions under Biyom’s orders, but this time, they opened the path for them.
‘I don’t know the exact situation, but it seems like the residents in the castle are taking this current situation very seriously.’
For Zich, this was welcoming news. He had to get inside the castle to retrieve information so that he could stir something up.
Even if everyone was allowed past the castle’s gates, not everyone could enter the castle. Joachim picked his closest subordinates and asked Zich to also accompany him. This was because Joachim thought he would need Zich’s broad knowledge and wisdom; besides, Zich’s efforts to earn Joachim’s trust was also paying off.
When Zich entered the castle, he could finally meet Biyom face-to-face.
‘He looks like the opposite of Joachim.’
In comparison to Joachim who was tall and skinny to the point that he looked gaunt, Biyom was short and obese.
‘How can brothers be so different from each other?’
The only characteristic they shared was that they both looked like they were suffering from a chronic disease.
“I have arrived, brother.”
Joachim’s voice was filled with dissatisfaction. It was natural for Joachim to feel this after all he had gone through; he and his task force had moved from one disease-ridden village to the next without much rest. Considering all this, it was astonishing how little dissatisfaction he showed.
“Welcome.”
Biyom’s response wasn’t all that great, and it was clear that he didn’t look favorably towards Joachim. However, his eyes, which looked smaller under the piles of fat, darted and made him look anxious.
“You heard about the situation, right?”
“That an epidemic was going around Ospurin?”
“Yeah, as I expected, it seems like you guys brought the diseases from the villages.”
This was absurd. The words he said to his younger brother after Joachim worked so hard in the infected villages were unbelievable. However, Joachim was used to this, and he didn’t get agitated. Zich thought it was ridiculous that Joachim was even used to a situation like this.
“That’s impossible. To prevent ourselves from spreading the diseases, we waited for a long time before we returned to the city. There was no one who developed symptoms in that waiting period.”
“There could have been someone who showed symptoms, and you might have hidden that fact!”
Joachim let out a sigh. “Then, what should we do now? Should we stay far away from Ospurin again? Should we stay there for several months this time?”
“Obviously you and your men should do that, but since I’m so generous, I will give you a chance to make up for the sins you might have committed. Stop the epidemic from spreading in Ospurin.”
“I understand.”
Joachim wasn’t even surprised since he had expected this response. If it weren’t for this reason, their return would have been pushed back even further.
‘I guess he considers me experienced in this field.’
Joachim mocked himself. It was ridiculous to call himself experienced when he couldn’t save a village even once. But soon, Joachim made a firm resolve. This was the Dracul estate capital, Ospurin. If this city also reached the same fate as the villages, the number of deaths would be incomparable to the ones in the villages.
‘I really have to stop the epidemic this time.’
“I will move immediately, so please give us some support.”
“I will leave that up to Shalom.”
The old man beside Biyom nodded slightly. Was he serious? Biyom had continuously played tricks on their support supplies, so Joachim looked at him doubtfully; but in the end, he looked away.
‘He can’t play his usual tricks since Ospurin is involved.’
Joachim moved out to begin his work in stopping the epidemic, but as he was leaving, he heard Biyom’s voice.
“Ah, and don’t think about returning to the castle until the epidemic is over. The epidemic can’t spread inside the castle.”
“…I understand,” Joachim replied while gritting his teeth and tightly clutching his two fists.