novelraw Chapter 351: It's Going to Rain
Chapter 351: It's Going to Rain
"It's so quiet outside. Where did those people from the Turan Family go?"
Right at this moment, holding the wound on his severed arm, Balzac leaned against the prison door and constantly peered outside. Through the narrow crack in the door, he couldn't see a single person from the Turan Family; he only saw a vast expanse of white snow in the center of the tribe's plaza. He spoke somewhat anxiously. Turning his head back toward the inside of the room, the complexion of Heidelin—who had taken a punch from the Snowflake Knight—was growing increasingly pale, and slight signs of delirium had already begun to appear.
Balzac gritted his teeth and shouted loudly toward the outside,
"Hey! The person your manager wants is about to give out! Get over here quickly!"
However, it remained dead silent outside. No one responded to Balzac. Infuriated, he violently delivered a kick to the prison door, yet unexpectedly, this kick directly kicked open the wooden door of the Snow Fox-kin's house. Not a single sound came from outside. Balzac, however, hopped back first, deeply afraid that several Turan Family members would charge in from outside and beat him up.
"Whoosh, whoosh~"
However, contrary to Balzac's expectations, it was still dead silent outside. Aside from the agonizing wails coming from within the quarantine zone, there were no other sounds. He quickly realized some unexpected turn of events had occurred outside. He hurriedly ran outside again, only to see that not a single Turan Family member could be seen outside.
"Wait, Clan Chief Dar... the... those people from the Turan Family outside seem to be gone. Should we... should we go sneak some healing medicine or something? I think Heidelin is about to die."
Clan Chief Dar's eyes lit up slightly. He and a group of miniature Snow Fox-kin quickly gathered behind Balzac, observing the situation outside alongside him. Just as Balzac hesitated, Clan Chief Dar, listening to the increasingly agonizing sounds of pain coming from the distant quarantine zone, gritted his teeth and said to the several elders beside him,
"You guys, go sneak the medicine. If there's a chance to run, run immediately. Take them and Juna with you, and wait for me outside.""Father!"
The several elders held back Juna, who wanted to say something, simply looking at Dar and asking,
"Clan Chief, what about you?"
"I... we cannot abandon those clansmen who are still infected with the plague. We must return to Mya to fetch the medicine again."
"Clan Chief, but our carriage has already been destroyed by the people from the Turan Family. Are... are you planning to go into the quarantine zone to fetch a spare carriage?"
Clan Chief Dar nodded. He sighed and said,
"Due to how extremely contagious that plague is, once I bring the carriage out, you all will drive it out of the tribe. I'm worried about bringing the plague to other places. When the time comes, after you fetch the medicine, return to the vicinity of the tribe. If the Turan Family returns, you must travel far away and leave the tribe to preserve our bloodline. Tell the other demi-humans about what the Turan Family has done, lest they repeat past mistakes."
The several Snow Fox-kin elders sighed, yet there was not much hesitation. Taking one final look at Dar, they swiftly darted out of the storage room with Balzac in tow to fetch the medicine to treat Heidelin first.
And Dar also sneakily left the storage room, running towards the quarantine zone at the very rear of the tribe.
At first, Dar was extremely cautious, deeply afraid that the gang from the Turan Family would discover him. But the further he walked, the more bizarre he found things. Even though he had already arrived deep within the tribe, he still hadn't seen a single Turan Family member. It was as if they had all evaporated. Bearing doubts and anxiety, he arrived at the entrance of the quarantine zone enclosed by wooden walls.
Logically speaking, this place should definitely be heavily guarded by Turan Family troops. Yet right now, the entrance was completely empty, and the wooden door of the quarantine zone was even open a crack...
Could it be that the clansmen broke out of the quarantine zone and drove the Turan Family away?
But why wasn't there a single sound just now, not even the sound of gunshots or shouts?
This eerie situation made Clan Chief Dar nervously swallow a mouthful of saliva. But without hesitation, he walked through the wooden door and into the quarantine zone. Inside the originally spacious quarantine zone, tents were erected one after another. Inside the tents lay weak Snow Fox-kin. But even the weak ones were those with the mildest symptoms of the plague.
"Cough! Cough! Blergh!"
Dar looked towards the front of the quarantine zone. Among them were many clansmen whose bodies were covered in massive pustules, tortured to the point of no longer resembling foxes. The entire quarantine zone was filled with weak coughing and the intense stench of rot. The massive amounts of black pus and blood flowing out of the infected individuals in the tents were left uncleaned, flowing out of the tents like small streams. Corpses and clansmen on the verge of death lay together; graves and sickbeds were indistinguishable from one another, much like the gradually blurring boundary between hell and the mortal realm.
Dar's eyes reddened. Looking at the tragic scene before him, he actually lost the strength to even take another step forward. Enduring the heart-piercing pain, he slowly shuffled his feet forward, only to suddenly hear a weak call from the side.
"Clan Chief... cough, cough, cough!"
Dar hurriedly turned his head to look to the side, only to see many guards still gripping weapons in their hands, as well as clansmen who hadn't been infected previously, now lying weakly on the ground. They looked with considerable worry at Clan Chief Dar, who had walked into this quarantine zone. They wanted to persuade him to leave quickly, but the words that left their mouths all turned into blood-stained coughs.
They had only been locked in last night. Less than a few hours after coming in, severe fever and coughing symptoms began to appear. Seven or eight hours later, severe pain wracked their entire bodies, completely depriving them of mobility. If left untreated at this stage, the afflicted individuals would grow "Death-Rot Pustules" within a day or two, and subsequently die amidst intense agony.
Dar had just wanted to go over and converse with them a bit, but he noticed that the several snow foxes whose consciousnesses were still relatively lucid were shaking their heads at him non-stop. Then, they used their heads to point towards another direction in the quarantine zone. Dar was slightly taken aback. Following the direction of their reminder, he looked over, only to see a thin, frail black figure standing in the center of the quarantine zone.
He simply stood quietly in the center of the quarantine zone like that, looking at the Snow Fox-kin lying in the tents whose lives were uncertain. Most crucially, within this overwhelming blackness of despair, Clan Chief Dar actually couldn't perceive a single trace of that figure's scent. It was as if that person held no emotions or thoughts whatsoever at this exact moment.
But from his height, Dar still recognized that it seemed to be a human, and furthermore, not a member of the Turan Family. He subconsciously opened his mouth and yelled at that person,
"Hey, leave this place quickly! There is a plague here..."
The figure's shoulders trembled slightly, after which he turned his head around. That beaked mask that seemed embedded onto his face startled Clan Chief Dar, causing him to freeze in place for a second. However, upon seeing the spare carriage behind the figure, Dar still mustered up his courage and walked toward the figure step by step.
"Leave this place quickly! That crude mask on your face absolutely cannot prevent the plague. You will also be infected, you..."
Hearing his words, the beaked-masked Erwind was slightly taken aback. As if awakened by Clan Chief Dar's words, his statue-like body finally opened its mouth. Only, his voice sounded rather strange; it didn't sound like a normal human.
"An interesting specimen. The primitive Death-Rot pathogenic bacteria originally would not infect you, because the immune systems of most demi-human species, including Snow Fox-kin, are notably stronger than humans. But now, your entire tribe is infected by the plague. You came into contact with a West Continental."
Dar's forward-moving steps paused slightly. He looked at the person before him spouting bizarre vocabulary endlessly with unbelievable disbelief, murmuring in confusion,
"What... what bacteria? And what is immunity... Are you a physician?"
Specific expressions couldn't be seen on Erwind's beaked mask, nor could Dar read any scent from his body. His voice remained as calm as ever.
"...I used to be, but that was a very long time ago."
"You... No, you are very knowledgeable about this plague. Then my clansmen, how long can they still hold on? I will send someone to fetch that Anti-Rot Agent right now, I will go right now..."
However, upon hearing his words, Erwind shook his head, saying somewhat amusingly,
"Human ignorance always yields irrevocable consequences. The antidote you traveled hundreds of miles to seek is actually the very virulent poison that caused your tribe to fall to this state. The Anti-Rot Agent developed by Tolga is a secondary plant secretion capable of inhibiting Death-Rot pathogens. It has excellent curative effects on diseases caused by many microorganisms and has been widely applied for a century, significantly prolonging human lifespans. Because of this, it was praised by people as a 'Panacea Potion'."
"They had only just figured out the mechanism of action of this medicine when they conceitedly believed they had grasped the mysteries of life, wantonly proclaiming that humanity had already conquered the Death-Rot Plague that once swept across the human realm. Yet little did they know the demons spawned by the Panacea Potion had already set their sights on them. The massive abuse of Anti-Rot Agents catalyzed the mutation of the bacteria. Even though Tolga had repeatedly reminded them when delivering the Anti-Rot Agents, they still failed to learn their lesson. The suffering your tribe endures today is the bitter fruit brought about by ignorance..."
"Moreover, even if you had brought the Anti-Rot Agent back earlier, it could only treat individuals who hadn't yet grown pustules. You delayed for far too long; most patients have already entered the pathogenic phase. Your immune systems have already been overrun by the thrice-mutated toxic bacteria, and your collapsing organs are continuously hemorrhaging. Most Death-Rot Plague patients will ultimately die of organ failure. Those patients sent in yesterday could still be saved using the Anti-Rot Agent, but can you fetch other Anti-Rot Agents back within today?"
Upon hearing this, Dar looked blankly at the sky. He saw the dark clouds above growing thicker bit by bit, as if serving as a prelude to some kind of weather. His body suddenly went limp, and he collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground. Covering his furry head in agony, he whimpered for a long time before lifting his head to look at Erwind before him and said,
"Mr. Physician, I understand. Since this is the case, you should leave quickly while you still haven't been infected. Perhaps you can still make it to the city to find an antidote... As for my clansmen, they have already tried very hard to fight the disease. Even if they fail in the end, they are my closest beloved ones. I want to stay here and walk the final stretch of the road with our family... Ah right, when you go out, please trouble yourself to inform the other Snow Fox-kin and tell them to leave and never return to the tribe."
Clan Chief Dar stood up and tremblingly walked toward a small tent in the quarantine zone. Inside that tent lay four or five Snow Fox-kin of varying ages. The oldest was roughly the same age as Dar, while the other four ranged from youth, adolescent, to childhood.
They were Clan Chief Dar's plague-infected wife and four children. At this moment, Dar's wife and his two oldest sons had already passed away, leaving only older sister Juna, whose entire body was covered in pustules, and younger sister Juna, who had been coughing up blood non-stop.
Juna's younger sister wasn't much younger than her older sister's child. She looked like merely a tiny little fox. The agony all over her body simply made her continually cough up blood and call for her kin.
"Sister... sister... it hurts..."
"..."
Beside her, the older sister Juna, covered in Death-Rot pustules, was clearly already not long for this world. She only panted weakly, unable to even utter a single word in reply. Dar quietly leaned against the edge of the tent, as if wanting to merge as one with this purgatory.
Whereas Erwind, standing in the center of the tribe, only watched the sisters lying together in the tent. His body, covered completely by clothing or a mask, dazedly felt the warm breeze of the Schwari fields. That was the fragrance of the golden wheat fields...
"Sister, cough, cough... Papa, it hurts..."
"Sina..."
"Rumble, rumble, rumble!"
In the sky of the Northern Border, thick dark clouds constantly collided and rubbed against each other. Despite it being such cold weather, the majestic might of lightning was gradually brewing. That distantly transmitting rumbling sound prompted Erwind to fish out a traditional Schwari gentleman's hat from his embrace. He didn't look at the several Snow fox-kin leaning in the tent again, but merely said suddenly,
"It's going to rain..."
Dar, who had closed his eyes and was shedding tears, immediately opened his eyes upon hearing his voice. However, upon opening his eyes again, that originally thin and frail black figure had already vanished without a trace. There were only the cold raindrops of the sky that began to fall slowly with a pitter-patter. The raindrops grew heavier and heavier, quickly forming into a torrential downpour that covered this quarantine zone enveloped by the plague.
The freezing torrential rain pierced through the thin tents, actually raining directly upon the numerous patients within them. The flowing water continuously converged, ceaselessly washing away the pus and blood. In despair, Dar wanted to shield his daughters, who were on the verge of dying from the illness, from the last bit of wind and rain. Heart filled with indignation, he yelled loudly at the sky,
"Moon Princess, if our ancestors truly committed such grave sins, then simply take our lives away!"
However, the sky held only the sound of thunder; no one else responded to him. Unable to hold on any longer, he laid tiredly atop his sons and daughters, wanting to simply wait for the descent of death just like this. Yet unexpectedly the next second, when he caressed older sister Juna's body, he didn't feel the bulging, deformed Death-Rot pustules in the slightest. He only felt a patch of smooth, water-soaked fur.
Dar hurriedly opened his eyes and stood up, only to discover that at some unknown point, the breathing of his two daughters before him had gradually calmed down. Those Death-Rot pustules instantly dissolved away, leaving only faint red, swollen marks. It was as if this entire plague had merely been an illusion, vanishing completely amidst that torrential downpour.
Filled with a mixture of astonishment and extreme joy, he dashed out of his tent and inspected the other clansmen tent by tent. To his delight, he discovered that, just like his two daughters who were still alive, their symptoms were gradually vanishing...
Could it be the blessing of the Frost Phoenix? Could it be that the Moon Princess forgave the mistakes of our ancestors?
In astonishment, Dar stood in the middle of the quarantine zone. The flowing water accumulated from the rainwater on the ground continuously shifted towards the distance. Soon, Dar noticed a large patch of blood and pus in the distance shifting away as if possessing a tangible form. It was as if the tangible plague had released the hands strangling the necks of the Snow Fox-kin.
He seemed to have understood something. Looking at the torrential downpour filling the sky, he felt somewhat worried about personal gains and losses.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble!"
"Mr... Mr. Physician?"
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(End of this chapter)