The Origin of the Disease
The Origin of the Disease
"Your Highness, the refugees from the Eastern Region have just arrived at the dock!"
"That fast?" Roland was surprised but at the same time also pleased at the result. It appeared as one of the former members of the patrol team, who had connections with both government officials and their illegal counterparts, Theo was quite efficient. However, Roland instantly noticed something had gone wrong at the sight of the chief knight. The latter was moist with perspiration, brows furrowed.
"What's wrong?"
"The crews have caught a weird disease." Carter briefly described the symptoms. "There were only a few people who got infected at first. Now the disease has spread to all the passengers on the several boats we have, including the soldiers from the First Army!"
"A contagious disease whose main symptom was dark spots?" It sounded like a plague, which was also widely known as Black Death. Nonetheless, Yersinia pestis could not change the blood color and certainly would not result in cracked skins.
Roland's brows drew together.
He first thought of Lily, but he was not sure if Lily's ability could cure this unprecedented contagious disease. If she failed and also got infected, it would be a huge problem. So, he must act with an abundance of caution. Yet according to Carter's description, these patients would not hold up for long and he had no time to lose.
Anyway, he had to first cordon off the scene.
At this thought, Roland gave Carter his order. "Ask the First Army to circle out a caution zone outside the dock and forbid anyone to enter or leave it. Also, make sure to tell them that we, and also Miss Nana, are on the way."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"Trouble?" Nightingale asked.
"I'm not sure yet. It all depends on Lily's ability," Roland answered in a low voice. "Ask everyone in the Witch Union to come here. We probably can't have a nap today."
...
After thoroughly reflecting upon the matter, Roland felt it was advisable to stay away from patients before he confirmed that Lily's ability did work.
Fortunately, Lily's preservation ability belonged to the summoning type, which meant Lily did not need to touch her targets to apply her ability. Like most witches, her magic power was effective within a radius of five meters.
Given that, Roland asked two carpenters to build a rectangle box room with the help of Anna. The room was segmented by a windowed division, through which one could see the other side. Below the division hung a soft curtain drawn by Soraya, which had two symmetrically arranged holes where Lily could put her hands through. The soft azure curtain would tightly wrap around the little girl's hands to stop the airflow between the two sections. Roland believed as long as Lily washed her hands with alcohol later, she would not be infected.
There were around 50 soldiers from the First Army maintaining the order at the dock. They being able to keep self-disciplined despite the rampant plague was not because of their strong wills, but purely because of their firm belief that angelic Miss Nana would eventually cure the disease.
After the box room was ready, an infected soldier was picked out for treatment. Although there were dark spots on his arms, he still had the capability to walk on his own.
The soldier went into the room and stood still as instructed. Shortly afterward, Lily reached out her hands through the division to apply her ability. Meanwhile, Roland stood behind her, observing the patient through the window.
The magic power produced no audible sounds. After the little girl nodded her head, notifying that she was done, Roland asked the soldier, "How are you feeling now?"
"Your Highness?" Hearing Roland's voice, the soldier at once administered a military salute in excitement. With a little exclamation, he was rooted to the ground immediately. "Wow, I feel my strength has come back to me again. Good Gracious, Your Highness, I feel much better!"
Roland also noticed that the dark spots on the soldier's hands were fading rapidly. Now he was positive that the disease was not a plague, for he remembered that dark spots caused by a plague were originated from the concurrence of septicemia and hyper cyanosis. Those dark spots normally lingered on skins for quite a long time even after Yersinia pestis were killed. Lily's ability, however, did not include reviving muscles and skins.
Roland felt a little relieved after knowing that Lily could cure this unknown disease with her new ability.
"I'm glad to hear that. Call the other soldiers in. Ten at a time. No matter he has symptoms or not, everyone needs to receive treatment."
"Yes, Your Highness!" The soldier paused for a second and then saluted again. "Thank you, Miss Nana."
Roland corrected him with a smile. "You should thank Miss Lily this time. She saved you instead of Nana. You'll only need Miss Nana if your skins start to bleed."
"Real-really?" The soldier scratched the back of his head. "Well, thank you, Miss Lily."
After the soldier left, Lily glanced at the prince and said, "I don't mind you attributing it to Nana. I don't need anyone to thank me."
"Is that so? Then why did you stand so erect just now?" Roland looked at Lily's dangling double ponytail and gently rubbed her head. To his surprise, Lily did not protest this time but simply uttered a muffled snort.
Roland wondered what had caused the disease if it was not a plague. He was approached by Nightingale as soon as he walked out of the box room. Nightingale reported, "Your Highness, I've noticed something unusual. There seem to be... signs of magic power in the blood of those patients."
"What?" Roland was astonished.
"They look like glitters of stars at night in the Mist." Nightingale affirmed. "I've never seen such feeble magic power before."
This accidental discovery made Roland realize that the disease, which contained magic power, might have something to do with witches or the church. At least he was now pretty sure that the disease did not result from bacteria or viruses in nature.
"I see." The prince pondered for a while. "In that case, let's take some blood samples."
"No, you may be infected!" Nightingale stopped him, looking quite worried.
"Relax." Roland smiled at Nightingale. "Lily's new ability has completely got the disease under control."
Roland sampled the blood of an unconscious peasant. He put a slide with black blood on it under a microscope and adjusted the objective working distance. If the cause of the disease was bacteria, most likely he would not see anything. However, the image started to become clearer gradually. The moment the object came into focus, Roland almost could not believe his eyes.
In the confined microscope field, several worms with tentacles and big bellies were slowly wriggling in the liquid. Their tails ejected thin threads of slime from time to time. The worms were as small as unicellular algae, but like the parent algae Lily had created, they were not transparent. Therefore, it was hard to tell whether they were unicellular creatures or not.
Fortunately, the magic power carried by the worms did not affect the little girl's ability. After the blood mixed with duplicate algae was added to the sample, the clones soon began to attack the strange worms and assimilate them.
Out of caution, Roland instructed the recovered soldiers from the First Army to take the refugees to the box room. Each refugee would have to wear a mask when they entered. At the meantime, another box room was set up primarily for Nana to treat patients in critical conditions with cracked skins.
The treatment started at noon and did not end until the evening. When all of the 500 passengers on the 10 boats were healed, the multitude roared in ecstasy. Many of them knelt down to appreciate Roland's help. The loud chorus of "Long live His Highness" reverberated across the dock and lingered for quite a while before it completely died down.
"You don't look very happy?" Nightingale winked at him.
"I didn't cure the disease, but Lily and Nana, the witches did." Roland shook his head. "People should thank them instead of me."
Roland knew that before the public completely accepted the existence of witches, the sensible way was to hold back the truth. He breathed out a sigh, hoping that eventually, witches could meet the public face to face without fear or mortification.
Nightingale seemed to read Roland's mind. She patted his shoulder heartily. "We won't mind. You've already done a great job, and I'm sure that day will come sooner or later. Don't you think so?" After a short pause, Nightingale added, "Right, I forgot to tell you a piece of good news."
"What news?"
"The Witch Union is probably going to have a new member." Nightingale beamed.