Ch.224Disease(?)(1)

Diseases and epidemics are, without a doubt, one of the most influential factors in human history.

The Black Death, or plague, which began in Eastern Europe and spread throughout Europe and eventually the world… claimed the lives of no less than 100 million people during its course.

The world population, which had been 450 million at the time, decreased to 350 million after the Black Death epidemic. Particularly in Europe, which suffered the greatest damage, approximately 30-50% of the entire population died from the plague and its indirect effects.

This impact led to a decline in Europe’s labor force, causing the collapse of serfdom and the manorial system, ultimately laying the groundwork for the Renaissance and marking the beginning of the end of the Middle Ages.

The plague that spread during this period was so devastating that it accelerated the decline of the Yuan Dynasty as it passed through China, and its influence even reached the Korean Peninsula, where King Chungmok of Goryeo died from the plague.

Hemophilia, a genetic disease, while not as catastrophic, is still significant. The heir to the Russian Empire was a hemophilia patient… and the person who somehow improved his condition was none other than the mystic Grigori Rasputin.

This led Tsar Nicholas II and his wife to place blind faith in Grigori Rasputin, which became one of the reasons for the fall of Imperial Russia and the Romanov dynasty, triggering the Red Revolution in Russia.

To put it somewhat dramatically, hemophilia essentially provided one of the reasons for the establishment of the Soviet Union.

However, the influence of these various diseases that once ravaged Earth inevitably faded in this fantasy world, faced with all manner of magical treatment methods.

For example, a priest’s divine magic is overwhelmingly effective against all diseases unrelated to any mystical elements. Any severe illness—even acute plague that kills within six hours or terminal cancer—can be cured with a single divine spell.

Of course, the divine magic that cures diseases only affects the pure disease itself; its effects never extend to bodies weakened by the aftermath of illness…

But even this is a bonus, as stamina can be restored through divine magic.

Additionally, congenital genetic diseases or conditions like diabetes can be cured with a few potions or high-level priest magic, so in this world, deaths from disease are actually quite rare for a medieval setting—almost comparable to modern standards.

However, this doesn’t mean that divine magic has complete healing capabilities for all diseases in this world.

Why, there’s the Red Queen effect. Isn’t there a perfect example?

As magic capable of countering diseases evolves, so too do the diseases themselves, and at the pinnacle of this evolution are what I now suspect to be “magical diseases.”

Unique ailments where the disease process itself is activated by mystical forces. Infections whose mechanisms transcend ordinary diseases, becoming absurd manifestations of unfairness.

…In truth, while we call them diseases, many of them make you question whether they can really be classified as diseases at all.

Bizarre conditions where simply thinking about the concept causes infection. Ones that permanently banish the carrier’s mind to dreamland, inducing an eternal sleep state. Even those that turn the body into a viral bomb upon death.

While I can’t say there aren’t simple diseases caused by magical bacteria or viruses, even accounting for those, there are quite a number of diseases that make you wonder how they could possibly be prevented…

That’s why I was inwardly certain that the real culprit behind the mass fainting incident in our village was precisely this kind of magical disease.

‘…Symptoms include mild cold-like symptoms followed by fainting. Infection range doesn’t target specific individuals. No infection detected in intermediate-level or higher beings. Infectiousness proven by new cases emerging.’

While these various symptoms support my conviction, the ultimate basis for my conclusion is simply my intuition.

When narrowing the possibilities down to a simple yes or no, the idea that emerges is essentially confirmed. No, considering the precision of my intuition, this is most likely the correct answer.

From the objective facts laid out to the instinctive feeling that something isn’t right—when everything points to the same conclusion, it can’t be dismissed.

So while I had internally determined that some form of magical disease was the cause of this incident…

‘…But what should I actually do?’

In truth, it’s unclear whether knowing this changes anything immediately.

Magical diseases come in countless variants and types, making them impossible to characterize in ordinary ways. Especially with these magical diseases, the causal relationship between symptoms and causes is also magical, so analysis doesn’t necessarily help.

If there’s a disease that infects people who harbor certain emotions, I have no way to control everyone’s emotions to prevent it.

So in the current situation, all I can really do is find the infection route and prevent the spread of infection. In normal circumstances, this would essentially be the only method, but…

‘…Oh.’

Fortunately, I have “super intuition”—the perfect tool for this situation.

※ ※ ※

Super intuition. This overwhelmingly unfair ability compensates for my mental limitations at this point where deduction is necessary.

It’s a power that should never appear in detective stories, or if it does, it’s portrayed as causing trouble by relying on intuition to find answers. But when resolving the incident is more important than the deduction itself, such considerations don’t matter.

So I used the power of “super intuition” to narrow down the options and continue my reasoning…

‘…This is the cause?’

As a result, I noticed that the faint, suspicious salty and fishy smell emanating from Charlotte’s body when we ate chicken soup—something close to a sea scent, if I had to describe it—was present in all the collapsed people.

In other words, I realized that this sea-like smell was somehow related to the source of infection.

It was such a faint olfactory stimulus—a subtle scent of salty fish that even my sensitive senses could barely detect.

While I had some vague ideas, I limited myself to narrowing down the candidates while trying to find a way to track or address this smell.

‘…This definitely isn’t coming from here.’

Since the salty smell wasn’t just coming from the unconscious people but from somewhere else as well, I was convinced that the cause was related to this smell.

However, being convinced and actually finding it were clearly separate issues.

While my sense of smell is certainly excellent, it remains within the realm of common sense, so finding something from a thread-like salty scent is only possible in an entirely different domain.

And… fortunately, our territory has one person capable of such a feat.

“…I need your help. Can you find another source of this salty smell?”

“I can do it… easily. They messed with my kin and friends, so I can’t forgive them anyway.”

Hannah Wolfblood—someone more exceptional than anyone else when it comes to physical tracking.

Especially her tracking using the abnormal sense of smell of a pureblooded werewolf was in a realm that even I, with my intuition, couldn’t ignore…

“…Found it.”

“Where?”

“The logging forest near the village. Inside there… sir.”

The source of the salty smell that Hannah identified after just a few minutes of sniffing around was the forest where an ogre warrior once lived, now completely empty and used as an important logging base.

And in a situation where this fact was becoming certain, there was no need for hesitation.

Following my sense that something was seriously wrong, a substantial force was planned to investigate the forest.

The territory’s greatest forces—myself and Gus, Hannah for guidance and tracking, plus Droop Bazilit and his warg (a giant wolf mount) for my support.

This investigation team, reflecting my determination to quickly resolve this disaster by deploying no less than four intermediate-level forces, headed toward the forest to find the source of the salty smell…

“…What is that?”

What entered my senses—as I found the unusually foggy land and the strangely salt-laden air blowing from somewhere—was the source of the salty smell that I believed to be the cause of this situation…

It was a bizarre configuration—a small lake with waves crashing onto a not-so-large beach in the middle of the forest, clearly out of place.