The Black Death (9)
The Black Death (9)
[The primary vector of the Black Death is the mosquito. Bite marks from these insects are extremely difficult to detect, so medical personnel are advised to determine the onset of infection based on symptoms such as headache, fever, chills, and swollen glands.]
[Additionally, effective as of this hour, the central government orders a localized restriction on movement for all citizens of the Empire. Those who are not medical authorities are to enter a period of seclusion. If leaving your residence is absolutely necessary, please contact your nearest administrative office via hotline.]
**
Two weeks had passed since the first case.
The streets were lined with charcoal briquettes. The state claimed it had launched an initial response, but it looked wholly inadequate.
As the situation grew dire, the academy transformed into a field hospital. The school had begun preparations to isolate and transport patients and to set up beds.
The academy lay in the heart of the capital. It was close to the Imperial Palace and connected to the marketplace. It was an ideal secondary command post in the event the Imperial Household collapsed.
From dawn until early evening, the primary activities were patient isolation and transport. It wasn't impossible to go outside during these hours, but obtaining an exit permit was no simple matter.
"It's about time. Let's head out."
"Yeah."
Around 10 PM, when population movement dropped to an extreme low, a handful of students gathered at the Grand Stadium. At the center of the group were members of the Student Council's Guidance Department. Starting from the academy's center, several dozen personnel assembled one by one, maintaining a safe distance. Rote and I joined the formation.
"Thank you all for gathering again today."
The head of the Student Council's Guidance Department, Shadiel Argana, greeted us.
Shadiel wore a black burqa. She wasn't the only one in such a ridiculous outfit. Everyone gathered here had wrapped their bodies tightly in cloth—to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes.
Of course, the risk of infection remained at all times. Yet there was a reason we had to come outside like this.
Falling ill was frightening, but the inability to see our families' faces was a terror beyond that.
To return to Earth, I had to study more magic at Tillet Academy. And to study properly, this epidemic had to be brought under control first. The original goal had to be postponed until daily life recovered and classes resumed.
Besides, if this continued, we were going to run out of food soon. A lack of food, clothing, and shelter forced people outside. I had long since abandoned the irresponsible thought of holing up in the dorm until the situation settled.
"We will now commence the northern purification operation. Please conduct all activities according to the guidelines distributed previously."
Manpower was already in short supply. The students had voluntarily relinquished their right to protection.
"What was the name of this scroll, again?"
"It's the Pulse Generation Scroll."
"Right. I've heard reports that it's especially effective for exterminating low-grade magic beasts. Moreover, I understand that the patent holder has arranged for it to be used freely until this crisis is resolved."
As the representative of House Argana, Shadiel conveyed gratitude to that individual. One by one, we picked up the EMP devices and climbed the back mountain.
The disinfection process was simple.
Areas with large mosquito populations were usually near water. In these regions, fire mages kindled flames and boiled the ponds outright. Fish surfaced belly-up, and lotus leaves turned soggy and limp, simmered like bok choy in sukiyaki.
Ecosystem destruction? We didn't consider it. No, we couldn't.
"Good grief, I never thought I'd use this here."
[Advanced Water Magic ─ Frozen]
Next, we rapidly cooled the boiled water using freezing. Here, we had the help of the young lady of Viscount Eliyev's house, renowned for Water Magic. In truth, no one besides Ireuka could use ice-based magic.
Probably.
[◇ Applying this Magic Art requires the following scientific knowledge.]
[─ Mpemba Effect]
"Just what kind of person are you...?"
"Who knows."
Ireuka asked, a tremor around her eyes. I could only give a vague answer. Who would believe me if I said I was drawing magical power from a Hardcover Book?
Hot water freezes faster than lukewarm water. The larvae in the reservoir must have been annihilated by the sudden temperature shift.
"But is this really okay?"
Someone voiced that doubt, but no one answered.
We made our way out of the mountain, installing scrolls along every path we took.
After freezing a lake like this, we would collect the fruit or peel from nearby yuzu trees and return. It wasn't for eating; it was a request from the Possessor.
This was likely the cure.
The Black Death was said to be so toxic that it killed even its intermediate host, the mosquito. If citrus-family trees contained a component that treated the Black Death, and if some mosquitoes that had been feeding on their sap had thereby developed an adaptation to the disease, then the entire situation made sense.
We had purified the lake and brought back what the Possessor had ordered. But there was no time to catch our breath. We immediately pulled brooms from the storage shed to clean the academy's vicinity.
"Ugh. It's iron filings everywhere!"
The streets were pure chaos. The final moments of those who met an inescapable fate lay exposed in stark reality.
Bodies turned hard as lead grew brittle and sloughed off like those of leprosy patients. The fragments clung to the ground under gravity's pull, then, over time, crumbled into powder like crushed pencil lead. The necrotic and pulverized tissue resembled bone ash raked from a crematorium.
Aside from a few students out for disinfection, University Street was empty. Only charcoal dust, briquette fragments, and half-oxidized lumps of iron littered the ground in place of garbage.
Every direction was catastrophe, or perhaps something beyond it.
We held funerals throughout the night.
**
How long had it been since we'd last attended school? It didn't feel like much time had passed.
Eating alone together in the dorm, I couldn't help but see my roommate's gaunt face. The refined features of a noble house's precious daughter had been halved in the span of a fortnight.
Yet the girl never lost her smile.
"We can at least do something. In times like these."
When I asked what made her smile like that, she only repeated clumsy sentiments.
A thought struck me then.
Idiot.
To describe the young lady of House Saliere in a single word, there was none better.
Nearly three months of cohabitation, and nearly three weeks of isolation. Was that enough time to grow attached?
I didn't know. I only hoped that, somewhere far in the future, before I vanished from this world, she would have forgotten me.
I shook off the idle thoughts and crammed my head with tomorrow's tasks.
"Teach me again today."
"Aren't you tired? Take some breaks."
"I'm fine, so hurry up."
We sat side by side at a desk barely three meters long. Though day and night had long blurred with disinfection and cleaning duties, I never felt like lying down in bed.
I placed a book on one side and Magic Paper on the other and began tutoring. The hours flew by like the sweep of a clock hand.
The number of fire magic spells Rote had learned grew exponentially with the time we'd lived together. If she learned one today, it was two tomorrow, four the next day, eight the day after. Estimated by geometric progression, the number of spells Rote knew had reached roughly eight hundred.
My material to teach was running out.
I had sensed it ever since our joint Flare research, but Rote learned quickly and applied her knowledge just as fast. At this rate, we would probably go our separate ways once we became second-years.
We would naturally forget each other. A brief, uncomplicated memory of school days. It had been a good acquaintance. Probably.
Anyway, I considered it fortunate just to have established a business relationship. The money Rote gave me was my entire income at the moment.
"Here. We should settle up properly."
Prices had risen as the plague persisted. Rote adjusted her tutoring fees to account for the inflation.
Still, wasn't this too much? I waved it off, thinking it violated the give-and-take principle. At that, Rote dug even deeper into her purse and placed the silver coins into my hand.
"We have to attend next term together."
"I can manage the second term somehow."
"Then we'll have to attend together until graduation."
"...Why are you worrying about my tuition?"
I also had the gold coin Teacher Herlein had given me as an academic stipend. My grades weren't bad either.
If this crisis could just be resolved, I should be able to graduate.
"The situation's different. I don't think you can do part-time work like in the old days."
"Even so, I still have the scroll patents. I can raise money with those."
Although I had released Flare for free, I was in the process of selling the EMP Scroll at a reasonable price through the Possessor.
"How much did you set the production cost at?"
"Two donghwa for a pack of ten."
That was the amount Professor Haspelt used to give me for daily food expenses.
"Definitely not enough. Take more."
A silver coin was forced into my hand. I placed an equivalent amount back onto the desk.
"If you're strapped for cash, why won't you take what people offer you? You gave up the Flare patent too, and no matter how many of those Pulse Scrolls or whatever you sell, it barely covers a bowl of soup a day."
She wasn't wrong.
One of my classmates had called me a bastard with no financial sense.
If someone gave you something, you should just take it—why refuse?
"Forget it."
"Why...? Do you hate it because it feels like going into debt?"
"Let's just say I got burned badly once, accepting something blindly when I didn't know better."
I had accepted from Teacher Herlein out of necessity, but I'd have to repay that soon, too.
"So I don't like having debt. If you really want to give me something, let's just go an extra hour."
"...You don't have to pay this back, you know?"
Rote gave a meaningful smile. She looked at me, her expression mixed with a tartness like a child twisting their face after biting into a lemon.
"However people live, we're born empty-handed and leave empty-handed. Nothing was ever truly yours, and nothing was ever truly mine. So couldn't the person who's less desperate yield a bit to the one who's more desperate?"
"You're casually spouting something a communist would say. Are you sure you're a noble?"
"In our family, we call that noblesse oblige."
"Heh."
When I came to my senses, a larger pile of silver coins had accumulated in my hand. It was an amount that could have been exchanged for gold. My mind went blank, and the difficult talk of the Black Death or nuclear fusion faded away.
Dealing with someone who held different values was hard. Perhaps because I had only ever seen people who gave and then took away.
A pathetic person who took the money and blew it all on gambling, a rotten bastard who screamed he'd die if I didn't co-sign his guarantee before vanishing into thin air, the motherfucking son of a bitch who embezzled research funds out of stipends—those had been the absolute majority of the humanity I'd witnessed.
I didn't know how to respond in a case like this. So I remained silent.
Rote tidied the desk and lay down on the bed. She had to sleep four hours and get up to prepare for the next night.
I left the curtain drawn back and breathed the outside air. Occasionally, the wails of those who had lost someone precious drifted in from beyond the window. The harrowing cries meant another night without restful sleep.
[Given the circumstances, it's remarkable that the academy has had no fatalities.]
You said it.
After a long wait, I saw someone appear below, gesturing up in this direction. They were wrapped head to toe in black, making identification difficult, but I could tell who it was without seeing his face.
After confirming that Rote was asleep, I picked up the calipers and yuzu fruit and, avoiding the dormitory supervisor's eye, went downstairs.
The afternoon of the 24th day after the Black Death outbreak.
At last, the opportunity to end this crisis had arrived.