novelraw Chapter 240
Chapter 240
“…Just what kind of person is he?”
Kanna Cartier asked abruptly.
Flinch-
At the sudden question, Ludwig Allegro frowned and spoke.
“Hey, we were talking about snacks, why the sudden shouting? If you startle an old man like me, I might just kick the bucket. Be more careful.”
“To hell with snacks, I need an explanation that makes sense.”
Just as Ludwig said, Kanna's words were sudden, but from her perspective, it wasn't so sudden as she was merely voicing something that had been on her mind all along.
Seo U-jin.
Ever since that man left.
No, to be precise, it hadn't left her mind even once since she first heard the news that he had joined this Northern Subjugation War.
“A 1-Star Hero single-handedly took on the role of luring the minotaurs on the battlefield. And he evaded them using only his own abilities, without any strategy.”
“Wow. That's amazing.”
Ludwig's soulless reaction.
“…I wouldn't even be mentioning it if that was all. It wasn't just about dodging; he chose his evasion path in a way that helped the battlefield and reduced our allies' casualties, as if he was taking in the entire war situation at a glance. A man who has never even participated in a War against Demons before.”
“…That is quite something, Kanna Cartier.”
This time, it was Louis Button.
The sentence was a little longer, but that was all.
Louis, too, didn't seem genuinely surprised; his response felt more like a considerate attempt to match Kanna Cartier's emotional tone rather than a display of genuine astonishment.
“…I knew he was extraordinary, being the one The Order granted permission to establish a guild for the first time in 100 years, but isn't this going way too far beyond that?”
Kanna Cartier had roamed the battlefields of the War against Demons for decades and had experienced plenty of things that defied common sense.
In fact, considering that everything that happened where she was would not be considered common sense by ordinary people, it was as if she lived in a world beyond common sense.
But even she had never seen a case like U-jin.
“That… That's a straight-up monster.”
“Right. Seems so.”
“I think so too, Kanna Cartier.”
Kanna tilted her head.
How should one put it?
It was an expression that, while unable to pinpoint it clearly, definitely knew that ‘this isn't right.’
At the two men's indescribably ambiguous reactions, Kanna raised both hands, then lowered them with a huff.
And she muttered softly.
“…If you know something, say anything. Because I feel like I'm about to plant my holy spear right in the middle of our camp's main barracks.”
“And where is that?”
“Right here.”
“……”
Only then did Ludwig Allegro, clearing his throat with a ‘ahem-’ and pretending to listen, reply.
“…To be honest, I don't know much either.”
…Well, it wasn't exactly the answer she was hoping for.
Hearing Ludwig Allegro's answer, Kanna Cartier stood up with a scrape and picked up her holy spear, which had been set aside.
Of course, since her holy spear also relied on divine magic, it was impossible for it to exert its full power while the Black Sea was closed.
Crackle, crackle-
The fact that unrefined mana was sparking from her fingertips and her formidable expression created an atmosphere suggesting she might cause trouble at any moment.
Unable to watch any longer, Louis hastily agreed with Ludwig and replied.
“…It's true, Kanna.”
“……”
“Of course, we might know a few more fragments than you do, but that's all. We also don't know what his essential nature is.”
Clang-
Kanna Cartier, scratching her head as if she couldn't understand at all, put the spear down again and muttered in a drained voice.
“…Then at least tell me about those few fragments. If my intuition isn't wrong, the only breakthrough we can aim for in this situation is that ‘unknown something’ that man possesses.”
“……”
“And it seems you two agree on that point.”
Hoo-
Letting out a short sigh, Kanna shook her head and muttered.
“…I need to get a grasp of what's what. And what's this about him curing the Black Blood Disease?”
And at that low mumble, Ludwig Allegro retorted.
“Huh? What kind of nonsense is that? Why bring up the Black Blood Disease all of a sudden?”
“…Hmm?”
Kanna's head turned to Leonardo Louis Button.
“Didn't you know?”
Shake, shake-
“…This is the first I'm hearing of it. Why would the great plague from 100 years ago, the Black Blood Disease, suddenly…”
Kanna Cartier's face was colored with bewilderment.
It was only natural.
She had believed that the Black Blood Disease incident in the ‘Unknown Corner’ that the advance party had conquered was something Leonardo Louis Button had personally intervened in, and that ‘U-jin’ was merely the means he used.
Realizing there was a contradiction, Kanna took a piece of paper from her office side table and held it out to the two men.
“…This is a report I received separately this morning. As you can see, a soldier suspected of being infected with the Black Blood Disease was identified at the 3-star Anti-Demon Front,
“……”
“…You might think the credibility is somewhat low, as there was no detailed examination and the diagnosis was based solely on the opinion of a single healing priest, but.”
Hoo-
“…Respiratory symptoms such as rapid breathing, dyspnea, coughing, and phlegm. And hemorrhagic spots appearing with hemoptysis, along with black necrosis in the extremities. As far as I know, this is the Black Blood Disease.”
“……”
“Above all, the fact that using divine healing magic not only failed to improve the symptoms but actually made them worse is proof.”
Ludwig Allegro and Leonardo Louis Button let out low groans.
Heo-
It was understandable.
It was none other than the ‘Black Blood Disease’, the very thing that had pushed The Order out of the North, and Kanna Cartier herself had reacted in the exact same way when she first read the report.
“…The important thing isn't that the Black Blood Disease appeared. It's that the man named Seo U-jin resolved it cleanly.”
Just as Kanna Cartier said, the bottom of the report stated that a suspected Black Blood Disease patient had appeared, but through the measures taken by a 1-Star Hero named ‘Seo U-jin’, dispatched under Leonardo Louis Button's orders, both the spread of the disease and the soldier's death were prevented.
“…I went to check myself this morning, just in case, and indeed, there were no shortcomings in the follow-up measures. The Black Blood Disease hadn't spread at all, and while the soldier was in isolation, his limbs were moving just fine.”
Kanna Cartier's words were shocking enough for Louis and Ludwig as well.
One might ask what's so special about a single disease, but the Black Blood Disease was not something that could be defined as merely a single disease.
It was the worst disease, having killed the most people since the founding of the Guardian Cross Order, and a terrible illness that only worsened with The Order's divine magic instead of being cured.
With a fatality rate of virtually 100% and a transmission speed faster than any other disease The Order had ever encountered, earning it the name 'plague', it was truly the ‘Demon's Plague’.
The mere thought of it reappearing was enough to make one shudder, let alone to think that he had found the first infected person and dealt with it cleanly through preemptive measures.
This was practically impossible unless one knew about the infection in advance.
It was an act close to a ‘miracle’.
That wasn't the only surprising thing.
“…Furthermore, according to the commanding officer, the man named Seo U-jin stopped him from handling it the usual way and said that this Black Blood Disease had the characteristics of a ‘variant’. He said that while the previous Black Blood Disease was transmitted through ‘physical contact’, this variant starts spreading upon the host's death.”
“……”
“So he prevented the spread of the Black Blood Disease using a new disposal method involving Quarks…”
Feeling the gazes on him, Leonardo Louis Button shook his head.
“…Then I guess it wasn't your orders after all, senior.”
If it had been a development within the bounds of common sense, he might have been able to just nod and bluff that it was done under his authority.
But this was far, far beyond that standard.
He knew nothing about the ‘variant Black Blood Disease’ Kanna Cartier mentioned, let alone its treatment method.
If he could at least make up an excuse when asked to explain, it might have been different, but this was too much to just brush over.
Of course.
It wasn't that nothing came to Leonardo Louis Button's and Ludwig Allegro's minds as they listened to Kanna Cartier's story.
‘…The Saintess's prophecy.’
‘…The Saintess's prophecy.’
A variant of the Black Blood Disease had appeared, and he had noticed it and dealt with the first infected person using a method no one knew.
That phenomenon, which was no different from a ‘miracle’, was in a realm impossible to explain without something like the ‘Saintess's prophecy’ that U-jin had mentioned before.
Ludwig Allegro, who hadn't been 100% convinced by the absurd story he had heard from U-jin, became certain upon hearing this that U-jin's story was not a lie.
Leonardo Louis Button felt a mix of relief and joy inwardly at the thought that the Saintess was not a ‘false resurrected one’.
And ironically, the different alarm bells that should have rung only in the two men's minds were clearly audible to Kanna Cartier's ears as well.
“…Speak.”
The UMC, a secret intelligence agency directly under The Order.
And the ‘Exorcists’, an organization dedicated to handling Demonic Species.
As their duties demanded, the two men had poker faces that ranked among the best within The Order.
But even so, they couldn't hide anything from the eyes of a colleague they had shared meals with since childhood.
From their wrongdoings as little kids to their memories as priests in the capital.
Kanna Cartier knew everything, even the secret secrets the two of them held.
From the reactions the two showed just now, even if she didn't know the exact details, she could guess that there was some fact that pierced through U-jin's identity.
And just as the two were pondering her interrogation, wondering how much they should reveal.
- Commander, the advance party has returned.
The voice of an aide from outside announced the news that the 10-person advance party dispatched with U-jin had returned.