Winds of the Plague (2)
Delivering their findings to the supreme commander had been a success. And yet... Senia couldn't shake a lingering sense of unease.
"Senia? We got through it, so why the grim face?"
"...Just feels like something's off."
"Can't blame you. Look at this downpour. Traipsing out here in the dead of summer only to get drenched by rain is the absolute worst."
It wasn't merely the muggy heat or the damp air clinging to her skin. The itch in the back of Senia's mind came from a creeping dissonance—a detail that didn't match what she had previously heard.
'With a creature the size of a craggy mountain steadily bearing down from the north, we will soon have no choice but to abandon our home.'
She recalled the words spoken by the Sirens back when they still resided near Bebre Lake.
Had that thing truly been the size of a mountain?
"Phew... My head is throbbing."
Muniherr pressed his thumbs firmly into his temples as he stared out the window.
Realizing this was hardly a conversation fit for open ears, he had ushered the students into his personal command tent. What they laid before him, however, was something he couldn't possibly brush aside.
"Senia, was it? Astounding that she read all that."
At first, Muniherr hadn't believed a word she said. How could a student unravel such an intricate biological system, and on what legitimate evidence did she base her conclusions? It was virtually impossible to verify. A deduction built entirely on circumstantial insight, far too wild a leap to justify with a mere Mana Eye.
Yet even if it were circumstantial, the girl had laid out detailed anatomical diagrams with her own hands, lending staggering weight to her claims.
'What are you drawing?'
'The internal structure of a Scourge, including its mana circuits.'
'...Internal structure? In this sketch?'
When he had naturally pointed out contradictions in her theory, she had stood her ground without flinching.
'When an organism feeds purely on mana, other organs become obsolete. All they need to do is absorb mana coursing through another living creature's bloodstream.'
It was a terrifyingly sound premise. If mana served as its sole energy source, digestive tracts and excretory systems were utterly pointless; only a circulatory apparatus remained necessary. No matter what hole Muniherr tried to poke in her reasoning, the young woman parried with razor-sharp clarity.
'When Scourges cannot feed directly on blood, they disperse micro-spawn carried in their bodily fluids to seek other hosts. These larvae gnaw upon the host's mana, and once fully developed, they rupture outward through the flesh. Neither Orthoptera nor Canolatl ever had a way to counter such a cycle.'
'Indeed... Then how does this connect to the Lemterte Plague?'
'The symptoms give it away. The emergence of blue lesions and the gradual decay of one's mana circuits are definitive proof that Scourge parasites have infiltrated human blood.'
The link between the Lemterte Plague and the Scourges locked together seamlessly. The grim realization left Muniherr massaging his temples in mounting dread. If Team Tembris's deduction held true, it meant the vast majority of the current expeditionary force was already infected.
Research on the Lemterte Plague remained in its infancy. Scholars only knew it carried an incubation period, gradually eating away at the victim's mana until blue spots erupted across their flesh, culminating in the complete ruin of their mana circuits. This subjugation had been launched under the assumption that the Scourges were the root cause, but nobody had imagined these beasts were literal mana devourers.
"Perhaps we should discard the provisional moniker of 'Scourge' and christen them 'Devourers' instead," Muniherr muttered to the empty room.
Of course, the moment such truth slipped out, morale would plummet through the floor. Not a single soldier would dare raise a blade again.
Come to think of it, that boy...
As he weighed the imminent panic that would grip the soldiers—and especially the academy students—Muniherr realized Junon had displayed a completely different demeanor throughout the debriefing. Perhaps it was another leap in logic, but he couldn't shake the suspicion. Had Junon's shadowed expression stemmed from knowing the truth all along and deliberately keeping it buried?
He had to set that puzzle aside for now. Containing the fallout took precedence.
"Even under the best assumptions, this has become a battle against the clock."
If Senia's words were true, they needed to contact the Principality immediately. They had to relay every detail to Dahlia so that research into a cure could begin this very second. Yet an insurmountable obstacle stood in their path.
"Commander, an urgent report."
"Enter."
An adjutant opened the door to the office, wearing a face blissfully ignorant of the horrors Muniherr now carried.
"What is the situation?"
"It looks grim, sir. The downpour stretches all the way past Mount Utulum. The unstable earth has collapsed in severe mudslides, completely cutting off our route."
"Is that so..."
"I believe we must hold our encampment here and await clearer conditions before marching home. Wrapping up this mopping-up operation will take more time than anticipated."
Muniherr turned his gaze back to the window. The steady patter of drizzle had transformed into a torrential deluge, pounding mercilessly against the earth. Without a route through Mount Utulum, the subjugation force was effectively isolated.
To make matters worse, this northern frontier simmered under sweltering heat. The torrential rain did nothing to cool the air, instead smothering the camp in thick, suffocating humidity—a truly wretched environment.
"Issue orders for camp breakdown. We march back to the Principality tomorrow afternoon."
"Pardon, Commander? As I just reported, the rain—"
"There are matters far more pressing than rain. We cannot afford even a single delay."
Indeed, they could not afford to waste another second. In this desperate race against time, humanity held very little chance of emerging victorious.
Late evening fell over the encampment. The chittering squeaks of the rodent beasts gradually subsided, and the soldiers entrenched throughout the garrison finally began to catch their breath. Men who hadn't slept more than a couple of hours could at last stretch their legs and rest. To all appearances, it felt like a prelude to triumphant victory.
Yet it was nothing more than a hollow veneer. To my eyes, this situation looked nothing like a win.
"Ah, Sunbae! Did you rest well?"
"...What are you doing here?"
"I just finished resting too. Total coincidence!"
A rather unconvincing claim, considering she had been idling right outside my quarters, weaving mana between her fingers like string. Clearly, she had grown bored while waiting for me.
Catching on to my gaze, Renias hastily tucked her hands behind her back, letting out an awkward giggle. "Ah...? Th-This was just... Hehehe..."
Setting that clumsy excuse aside, I looked at her. "Did you need something?"
Whenever Renias sought me out, it was usually to ask for training advice or simply because she had time to kill. But this was an active battlefield. Operating here as a soldier, she wouldn't come looking for me over trivialities.
"Um... I wanted to check if you were hurt."
"Why would I be?"
"Well, Sunbae, your unit was deployed much further back than the main force."
Originally, that rear perimeter was expected to see minimal monster traffic, which was why our squad was lightly manned. Out of genuine kindness, she was worried that an unexpected swarm might have caused me harm.
"Sunbae?"
"...I didn't get hurt or anything."
"Really? Well, that's a relief, but..."
The bitter taste of looming failure wasn't something that easily washed away, even when met with such pure, earnest concern. I simply couldn't bring myself to tell her that an incurable plague was about to sweep through the entire army. Yet whenever things grew quiet like this, the silver-haired girl had a knack for completely unpredictable behavior.
"Wait, Renias? What are you—"
"Sunbae, for someone who isn't hurt, you don't look very relieved at all."
"Hold on, just—"
Panic flared through me as two pale, delicate hands reached up and firmly grabbed my cheeks, pulling my face downward. My eyes locked directly onto hers. Her dark eyes narrowed into thin slits, brimming with blatant suspicion.
"Remember what I told you before? You promised never to lie in front of me. But right now, you're telling a huge fib, aren't youuu?"
...I couldn't exactly deny it. But rather than her accusation, our current predicament seemed infinitely more pressing. I wanted to ask her to let go, but judging by her stubborn glare, reasoning wouldn't work. I had to tread carefully.
"Uh... Renias? Mind if I ask you something...?"
"Ask what?"
"Aren't we... a little too close?"
"Close? What's wrong with being clo—"
The sharp tension in her narrowed eyes dissolved instantly, swept away by a sudden tide of fluster. Just like moments ago when she claimed she hadn't been waiting. Only now did it register in her mind how dangerously close our faces were. Jerking back as if zapped by static electricity, Renias snatched her hands away.
Overwhelmed by mortification, she whipped around, crouched down on the spot, and buried her face completely in her hands. Looking for all the world like a frightened little rabbit curled into a ball, she mumbled through muffled fingers.
"I-I heard that... when people lie, their pupils shake..."
So that was why she had dragged my head down to meet her eye level without warning.
"That varies from person to person..."
"I-Is that so...?"
She peeked hesitantly over her shoulder, checking my reaction with an impossibly sheepish expression. Ridiculously cute. Still, thanks to a certain girl turning herself into a blushing rabbit through her own antics, the heavy gloom sitting on my chest lifted just a little. I always felt this way around her—being near Renias had an uncanny way of grounding my restless mind.
I owed her a great deal. Moments like this made me forget the suffocating despair and look toward whatever lay ahead.
"I didn't get hurt, but the overall outcome wasn't great. I guess that part was a lie."
"Eh... What happened, then?"
What happened, huh? That was a delicate question. I couldn't very well announce that the entire subjugation force was on the verge of developing Lemterte Plague symptoms. Instead, I told her a few deserters had broken rank. Renias gasped in alarm, fussing all over again about whether I had sustained any hidden injuries during the commotion.
"More importantly, did any new word come through while I was asleep?"
"Um... There was something, but it's a bit strange..."
To my profound surprise, the news she shared revealed that, unlike in the previous timeline, the truth regarding the Lemterte Plague remained entirely under wraps.
Rumble, rumble—!
"Damn it, not again!"
The earth trembled violently, sending wild ripples cascading across the lake before spraying frothing water in every direction. Even now, the Sirens had found no definitive answer to this endless onslaught.
"Th-The Hyplisia barrier...!"
As the saturated ground gave way, the protective wards holding the Devourers at bay fractured. A direct breach had opened for the relentless swarms of squeaking rodents clawing at their borders.
"Follow the standard protocol! The young warriors will hold the line while the rest of you fill the fissures and burn the incense!"
"Understood, Elder!"
Despite abandoning their ancestral waters near Bebre Lake to flee southward, the Sirens had been hounded relentlessly by these apex scavengers. Devourers—creatures whose very name heralded their gluttonous nature. Because they fed upon mana, the very essence of life, the demi-human Sirens served as prime prey for the beasts.
Ostracized and reviled by humanity, where could the Sirens possibly turn for salvation?
Driven to utter desperation, they had eventually resorted to ancient rituals forbidden by human laws to summon a guardian. Since then, they had thrown everything they possessed into sheer survival. They had received tremendous aid from a young girl who hadn't even come of age, forging a life alongside her while desperately searching for a lasting solution.
Yet even that had its limits.
All they had achieved was temporary evasion, never true deliverance. Was there truly no way to permanently rid themselves of these vile vermin?
'O Guide... please, reach out a saving hand to your wretched servants...'
The Siren Elder offered a silent, fervent prayer. He prayed that someone—anyone—would completely eradicate the living mountain of stone that served as the beating heart of this wretched plague.