“You c-cured everyone?” Ms. Bargot was so surprised that she stuttered and could not gather her words. But that was only for a moment. Her eyes soon became calm.
“You are lying.” She was sure of it.
But Zich replied, “I’m telling you the truth. As you know, people who are infected by Galdurim get a small red dot behind their ears.”
“You even noticed that?”
A small dot on the back of the ear was a very difficult symptom to notice. Not only was it hard to see the back of people’s ears, but most people would think nothing of it. Rather than a symptom of a disease, most people would have thought of it as a person’s birthmark or something similar to that.
“When you infected people with Galdurim in the castle, I realized that the red dot was a symptom of a disease. Moreover, I also noticed that ordinary citizens in Ospurin also had the same dot behind their ears.”
When he came back to the village, the first thing he checked was the back of people’s ears.
“So since then, I started on my cure for Galdurim.”
“Even if you knew about Galdurim before, it’s still impossible. If you made the medicine, you must also know it too. One of the ingredients for that medicine is biolsam intestine. It’s an extremely rare and precious medicinal ingredient. Even if you were able to miraculously acquire enough biolsam to make medicine for everyone in the castle, it’s impossible to make enough of that medicine to cure all the citizens in Ospurin.”
Making the medicine was not a matter of manpower but ingredients. For that reason, Ms. Bargot was certain of her victory.
“Biolsam intestine? What is that?”
“Are you pretending to not know? If you don’t have that, you can’t make the medicine, so please stop your useless acting.”
“I really don’t know. Moreover, I never told you that I analyzed the medicine you handed to the assassins.”
“…What?”
When Ms. Bargot had asked Zich if he recreated the medicine for Galdurim after analyzing the medicine she gave to the assassins, Zich did not say anything during that time either.
“Biolsam intestines? As someone with only amateur knowledge, it’s an ingredient that I have no knowledge of. The ingredient I used was hulkum.”
“Hul…kum…?” It was a medicinal ingredient that even Ms. Bargot had never heard of.
“What is that?”
“Well, you know, the purple grass that grows all around us.”
Ms. Bargot could get a general idea of what he was talking about. Then her eyes widened. It was not because she realized he was talking about an extraordinary ingredient—it was actually the opposite.
Ms. Bargot shouted, “That’s impossible! That! T-that grass is—!”
“Yes, you are right.” Zich made a mischievous smile as he continued, “It’s just a weed.”
“…!”
There was a reason why Ms. Bargot did not know its name. In this period, hulkum was just a weed that grew healthily anywhere. Hulkum’s vitality was so strong, farmers called it ‘Demon Poop.’
‘But that weed is super effective on Galdurim and many of Fest’s diseases.’
Most of the medicine for Fest’s curable diseases used hulkum as the basis. It was extremely ironic that a weed that people inadvertently stepped on every day could cure some of Fest’s diseases when the most expensive and rare medicinal ingredients failed to do so.
“Do you understand now? I don’t know what biolsam intestines are, and I don’t know the ingredients for the medicine you gave to the assassins. All I know is that hulkum can cure Galdurim, and I made my medicine using that. So contrary to your expectations, obtaining the ingredients for the cure was not hard at all.”
Zich stretched out his fingers to the side. “Hulkum is everywhere around Ospurin. Moreover, it’s also very easy to make this cure.”
“Don’t make me laugh! There’s no way a disease that I made could be cured by a weed!”
“I can see that your pride has been hurt. But what can you do? It’s the truth. Well, it does sound funny when you say it like that.”
Zich stared impudently at Ms. Bargot. “Or perhaps, is it because your skills are just that lousy?”
“What!” Ms. Bargot looked furious. There was no trace of her self-confident attitude as she told everyone of how she experimented on people with infectious diseases.
“Ah, even if you made enough medicine for everyone, how could you have fed medicine to all the citizens of Ospurin while not getting noticed by other people…”
“You were the one who taught me how. You said Igram spreads between people who use the same water source. The medicine I made is in liquid form, and it’s almost tasteless.”
“…Did you perhaps!”
“Yes, you are right.” Zich replied energetically, “I drugged the well.”
“…!”
In times of war, people put poison in their enemy’s wells, but Ms. Bargot had never heard of anyone putting medicine in a well.
“It was really hard to secretly put medicine in many of the wells throughout this large city.”
Hans also nodded his head without much thought. With Snoc and Zich, they went around secretly putting medicine in all the wells in the dead of night. This was extremely hard work. If Joachim hadn’t provided them with great care, Hans would have totally passed out.
‘Wow, it really was medicine.’ Hans let go of his suspicions and vowed to never get found out that he doubted Zich’s words.
“After we spread the medicine, all the people I checked didn’t have the red dot behind their ears anymore. Of course, I can’t say for sure that I cured everyone in Ospurin, but it’s enough to not let you escape. Is my answer good enough for you?”
“…” Ms. Bargot did not say anything. She was wondering if she should believe in Zich’s words or not. But regardless, the situation was becoming disadvantageous for her.
“Is that really…true?” Joachim asked Zich. He wished with all his heart that Zich’s words were true, and one could see it clearly on his face.
“It’s true.”
Joachim fell into thought for a moment, but he soon made his final decision. “Round up Shalom and Ms. Bargot right now!”
“Yes, sir!” Brod loudly replied and led the other knights and soldiers forward. Joachim decided to trust Zich.
Ms. Bargot bit her lips; her piercing eyes glared at Zich. “…I didn’t think you would be such a hindrance.”
“People who fight against me usually say that.”
Then, her face crumpled. “I guess it can’t be helped. I didn’t want to use this, but…”
Ms. Bargot lamented and at the same time—
Pop!
Her clothes burst, and pinkish muscles erupted out of her thin arms, transforming her slim figure into an uneven shape.
‘Transformation!’
It was what Clovey and Shalom had used. Zich swung his sword against Ms. Bargot.
Clang!
Her palms, which had grown as big as a person’s face, blocked Zich’s sword.
Zich said to her, “Oh. Since you are the one who made it, it’s different for you.”
The speed at which she transformed was completely different from when Clovey and Shalom had transformed.
“I also don’t like myself in this state. It’s extremely hideous.”
Only her face hadn’t finished transforming, and it was a grotesque sight to see a human’s face talking on top of a gigantic monster’s body. However, her face began to change more and more, and likewise, her voice became rougher and even stranger.
[But it can’t be helped now!]
Ms. Bargot (although she had changed so much Zich wondered if he should still call her that) flung her arm widely, and Zich’s body went flying. It was an incredible amount of power. Zich kicked the ceiling and landed on the floor again. Everyone, including Joachim, was shocked by her transformation. However, since they already witnessed Shalom’s transformation, they quickly regained their composure.
“Knights! Surround that!” Brod seemed to not even consider the creature in front of him human as he called her ‘that.’ And with Ms. Bargot’s current appearance, he wasn’t really wrong.
[Kuuuuaaaah!]
While ringing out monstrous shrieks, she flailed her arms all around her. Ms. Bargot didn’t seem to have lost consciousness, but her personality seemed to have gotten much more violent.
“Kuh!”
“Kuah!”
Ms. Bargot didn’t use any skills like Clovey and Shalom, but her physical capacities were far superior to their transformed states. Knights blocked her attacks and began to withdraw. Some even flew in the air at the impact of her attacks.
“Concentrate on avoiding rather than blocking! Those in front, prepare for the next attack, and those in the back, lead the offense!” Knights began to move under Brod’s commands. They let Ms. Bargot’s attacks pass behind them, and those behind pierced and sliced with their swords.
Clash! Claaash!
The swords didn’t go through her hard skin. However, the knights hadn’t reached their positions by relying on luck. They attacked the same area or used their own skills to pierce her skin.
Crack!
One of the knights succeeded in penetrating his sword through her skin.
“Great! It worked!” The knight shouted to let others know of his success and pulled out his sword.
Splash!
Blood poured out of the wound and landed on the knight’s body. The knight wasn’t concerned since this amount of blood was nothing in battles. He was just glad that his attack worked.
“Huaaaap!”
Even though the creature before them looked scary, the knights attacked harder than before after they realized their attacks could go through.
“It regenerates!”
The knights were unshaken and continued to corner Ms. Bargot as if they were used to fighting against regenerating monsters.
Wobble!
“Huh?” One of the knights lost his balance and fell.
“What?”
“What is it?!”
The knight was taken aback since he hadn’t received a direct attack. “I-I don’t know. There’s no strength in my body…”
Even the fallen knight didn’t seem to know why he fell down. “My body suddenly lost all strength…Gruuah!”
Suddenly, foam came out of his mouth. Saliva dripped down, and soon, the knight threw up crimson blood. Then red spots appeared on his face, and his eyes turned upwards.
Everyone lost their composure from the strange sight in front of them, but this was just the beginning.
Drop! Drop!
Knights began to fall one by one, and they all showed the same symptoms that the first knight had shown.
‘It looks like they were infected.’ Zich thought the states of the knights were similar to the states of the infected patients he had seen in the villages. ‘But knights with high resistance to diseases got infected? In an instant too?’
Ms. Bargot had obviously used some kind of trick. While he was thinking this, Zich spotted the blood droplets on the knights’ bodies. ‘No wonder!’
As the number of knights decreased significantly, Ms. Bargot began to attack more vigorously; and while he struck down her attacks with his sword, Zich shouted, “Blood! You can’t touch her blood!”
People quickly adapted to Zich’s words and began to avoid the blood on the ground.
“As expected of someone who spreads diseases, you grow a bunch of diseases even in your own blood.”
[Fufufu! This one is specially made. No matter how high the knights’ resistance levels are, this will make them roll on the ground in an instant.]
Then Zich saw Ms. Bargot open her mouth, and he ran backward by instinct.
Spit!
Her saliva dropped onto the other side of the prayer room.
‘Does her saliva transmit diseases too?’ Zich clicked his tongue. ‘That damn Hero Party. It’s fine if they wanted to hide Fest’s identity, but they should have disclosed this kind of information.’