Chapter 44: Death’s Kiss

To be honest, I had no intention of returning this quickly.

If I hadn’t found evidence of Skyler’s crimes, I would have stayed in Delriat for at least another half year.

Delriat still needed my touch.

Wasn’t that the truth?

Just imagine a new governor taking over in its current state.

If I don’t put some safeguards in place, they’ll turn it into a complete mess again, just like before.

Now that there was so much more to squeeze out of the territory, whoever came next would try to grab a hefty share for themselves.

I couldn’t let anyone treat one of my achievements like that.

No matter who sat in that chair, I had to build a system that would keep running properly.

Of course, that would require the emperor’s help.

The governor’s authority needs to be limited, after all.

That could wait until everything was firmly in place.

For now, the priority was building up the capabilities of the Delriat Autonomous Territory.

“Come to think of it, there was a problem in the duchy too, wasn’t there?”

As I pondered inside the carriage, something from before suddenly came to mind.

It had been when I was checking the employee management window.

Even in broad daylight, more than thirty percent of the workers hadn’t shown up.

Things had recovered a bit since then, but the rate was still high.

Roughly twenty percent were always absent.

How is that even possible?

If they were following the schedule I’d set, there shouldn’t be any manpower leaks.

I could figure out the issue once I got there and checked.

Still, I kept looking through the employee management window.

With the emperor’s orders, the situation in Delriat had become critically important too.

Kuro better do a good job.

When I first met him, I thought he was just some loudmouthed dreamer.

You know the type—idiots who blame all their failures on external factors.

But Kuro was the kind who’d been screwed over by the world.

No one had expected the Delriat royal family to resist the Empire that fiercely.

“Oh? He’s already gone south?”

Kuro was currently in Lapitan, a small-to-medium kingdom in the southern part of the continent.

It was about the size of the Crawford Principality, so he should be able to make decent profits.

Tonics and amusements were always in demand wherever you went.

The brothers are both pretty capable.

I closed the employee management window with a satisfied smile.

At last, I had arrived at my sweet home—the Carius duchy.

“It has been a long time, Your Excellency.”

The moment I stepped down from the carriage, a welcoming voice greeted me.

It was Miller Xavier, the head butler, who had come all the way to the mansion entrance to meet me.

Judging by his bright smile, he seemed genuinely glad to see me.

I shook his hand lightly and glanced around.

“It’s awfully quiet. Where is everyone?”

“Ah, well… there is something you should see first.”

Miller Xavier’s face darkened in an instant.

It wasn’t hard to guess that something unusual had happened.

I had already noticed strange movements in the employee management window.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, this way, please.”

Miller Xavier led me to the workers’ dormitory.

It had originally been a small communal house near the barn.

But now its size had more than doubled.

“You’ve all been working hard, I see.”

“Haha! We tried to meet the requirements Your Excellency specified, but it ended up taking longer than expected.”

I had demanded sturdy brick houses with no noise bleeding through floors or walls.

They were communal, but they even had proper latrines and bathing facilities.

In this era, the average commoner’s home was made of uneven, low-quality timber.

And it was common to keep livestock on the ground floor.

It helped prevent theft and share body heat.

Plenty of people don’t even have that.

Even so, having a house like that meant you were doing pretty well among the common folk.

Most lived in hovels barely big enough to lie down in.

Vagrants without homes would buy coffins, lay sleeping bags inside, and sleep there.

It was far better than sleeping on the streets.

If it got too cold and they froze to death, they’d be buried right in it.

So compared to that, the Carius duchy was practically paradise.

They didn’t own the places, but they were provided with such excellent lodging.

Yet why were twenty percent of the workers constantly absent?

“A few weeks ago, one person started falling ill, and the sickness spread rapidly. For now, we’ve simply isolated them.”

“Ah.”

When the weather turned cold and dry, immunity naturally dropped.

No matter how good the lodging was, it didn’t guarantee no one would get sick.

On the contrary, communal housing like this was vulnerable to contagious diseases.

People constantly ran into each other while living there.

In a way, homeless people living in coffins were safer.

They were automatically isolated.

What kind of illness is it?

If it were just a common cold, it should clear up in about a week.

But this had been going on for three weeks already.

It was almost at the level of a plague.

“Do you know the name of the disease?”

“They call it Death’s Kiss… there are all sorts of symptoms, but the chills are especially severe.”

“Is there any improvement?”

“Perhaps because we’ve kept them warm, no one has died. The problem is that no one has fully recovered either.”

“What did the church say?”

In this era, doctors were either priests or mages.

But the latter were notoriously hard to meet.

The magic towers were located far from civilization.

Typical spots included the middle of northern snow-capped mountains or at the bottom of thousand-foot cliffs in the southern ranges.

How was anyone supposed to get there?

Naturally, the church was the first choice.

They were far more accessible.

But Miller Xavier shook his head with a bitter expression.

“All the priests are out on assignments and can’t be spared, they said.”

“What? How can that be?”

“After checking everywhere, it seems they’ve all been pre-booked.”

“By whom?”

“By… people with influence. I’m sorry. I should have arranged it before the situation arose.”

Miller Xavier simply bowed his head.

It was something he could have easily excused.

Until now, the Carius duchy had never requested a priest.

In the past, no one cared whether workers got sick or not.

The same went for other nobles.

They’d probably monopolized the priests to protect their own families from the epidemic.

“It’s fine. Thanks to the sturdy dormitories, none of the workers have died, right?”

Imagine if Miller Xavier had taken my words lightly and cut corners.

If the lodgings were drafty, the workers would have died long ago.

Like sick vagrants.

They wouldn’t have lasted this long lying in bed.

It wasn’t even a mistake.

Truth be told, I hadn’t thought this far ahead either.

My body’s just too tough, that’s all.

Being the strongest warrior of the north, Abel had never once suffered even a minor illness.

So sickness had never crossed my mind.

In any case, it wasn’t a dire situation.

Now that I knew the cause, all I had to do was solve it.

The problem was that it wasn’t going to be easy.

“If we can’t bring in a priest, there’s only one option left.”

“Surely not a mage? But they’re incredibly hard to find.”

“Because they’re all reclusive loners?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Still, we have to try.”

The disease was called Death’s Kiss.

The workers had been bedridden for three weeks already.

If this continued, some might waste away and die from exhaustion.

I needed a definitive solution before that happened.

Since I can’t make a cure myself, I’ll have to find someone who can.

The magic towers were impossibly far, but not all mages lived there.

There had to be some unaffiliated ones or wanderers who enjoyed traveling.

I’d met plenty of eccentrics who defied common sense so far.

With my decision made, it was time to cast the bait.

“Keep this place isolated for the time being. And you’ll need to visit the mercenary guild.”

“Why the guild?”

“To post a job request. We need a mage, after all.”

“Hmm.”

Miller Xavier let out a low groan.

He probably thought there wasn’t the slightest chance.

But I smiled and gave the order.

“The requirement is that they must be capable of treating plagues. The reward will be a one-year supply of booster good for men.”

“Pardon? What’s that?”

The Dried Cordyceps Pills hadn’t reached this far yet.

They were so popular that even in the west, supply couldn’t keep up with demand.

But most people who mattered already knew about them.

Rumors of truly good products spread quickly among the upper class.

It was something people couldn’t buy even with extra money—surely some mage would be interested?

“Just post the request exactly like that. If there’s no response, we’ll think about it then.”

“Yes.”

Miller Xavier still looked doubtful.

If I showed him the effects of the Dried Cordyceps Pills right now, he’d accept it immediately.

But I couldn’t do that.

There wasn’t enough stock, and there was nowhere to use it anyway.

Though I’m in the same boat, aren’t I?

I suddenly remembered the trouble I’d gone through after testing a few myself.

I really needed to find a lovely lady soon.

Ah, of course, Princess Eustia was off the list.

Clank! Clack!

A man in tattered robes stepped into Perias.

Suspicious soldiers immediately blocked the gate.

His appearance was so shabby and his face so rough that he looked like trouble waiting to happen.

A full search began at once.

“You seem to be an outsider. Do you have anything to guarantee your identity?”

“…”

Instead of answering, the man slightly lifted his robe.

A staff shaped like a serpent climbing upward was revealed.

It gleamed with an eerie orange light.

The soldiers frowned.

It was clearly no ordinary item, but they had never seen anything like it.

“What the hell is that supposed to prove?”

The gruff words had barely left a soldier’s mouth when someone suddenly stepped forward and blocked their path.

“Haha! My apologies for the rudeness. Are you perhaps a Sorcerer of Nermeia?”

“I am.”

“I’m terribly sorry. My men are inexperienced and failed to recognize the emblem. You may pass.”

“Thank you.”

Thud! Thud!

The man passed through the gate with unsteady steps.

The bewildered soldiers turned to their captain.

“If he’s a Sorcerer of Nermeia… does that mean he’s one of those freaks who brew bizarre potions?”

“I’ve heard that if they get upset, they dump poison in the water and wipe out entire populations. Is it really okay to let someone like that in?”

Nermeia was the magic tower in the great eastern forest.

Its mages specialized in potion research and had quite the infamous reputation.

Catastrophes on the scale of disasters occasionally occurred there.

Accidents like toxic substances leaking out—just as one soldier had mentioned.

“Sigh. We don’t have a choice. He’s not someone we can stop.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Report it upstairs and monitor his every move. Until he leaves the capital.”

The captain immediately sent a report.

For a while afterward, the capital’s security forces moved busily.

They discreetly but swiftly tailed the dangerous individual.

Whether they did or not, the Sorcerer of Nermeia leisurely continued on his way.

Toward his original destination—the mercenary guild.

“Traveling alone is exhausting. I should hire some people.”

Then, a certain notice caught his eye.

It took up more than half the bulletin board.

“Seeking a mage capable of treating disease? Reward… a year’s supply of tonic? Who puts up garbage like that instead of gold?”

The sorcerer was about to pass by with disinterest.

But some passing mercenaries shot crude remarks at him.

“It’s something you can’t buy even with money—the Dried Cordyceps Pills that keep you going all night without tiring. Ah, but looking at your face, I guess you wouldn’t need it anyway.”

“Heh heh heh! You’d need a woman in the first place for it to be useful.”

The sudden jeers.

Rough language was everyday fare in mercenary circles.

Most would respond with a few curses and move on, but the Sorcerer of Nermeia’s eyes flashed.

His expression turned vicious, as if something had scratched him raw.

“What did you just say, you rotten bastards?”

Soon after, an enormous boom shook the entire mercenary guild.

KABOOM!