— Seven.

Every time Kudkan recalled those words, strength would go into his cane with a crack.

— That will be the end of the deaths.

It wasn’t that he believed the Febryan’s words, even briefly.

It wasn’t that he had expectations.

Especially that left-behind court pharmacist.

She was a girl with excellent talent for deceiving people.

At first, she had carefully examined the patients’ symptoms, so she seemed different from the pharmacists who had left first.

But from some point on, she would hastily leave the hospital room after looking around carelessly, too carelessly to call it treatment.

Once, Kudkan had chased after her and said while suppressing his bubbling anger:

— What makes you different from the Febryan court pharmacists who left first? Can’t you truly see those who have caught Ompupus here and are becoming living corpses?

That was the first time.

The first time he faced the cool shadow cast on her face.

— ……You definitely said it was the last.

— …….

— That there wouldn’t be an eighth.

Jane then took one step closer to Kudkan. She stared at his faded pupils, then tilted her head.

— Aren’t you going to wash your hands?

— ……Hands?

— You briefly touched an Ompupus patient’s hand earlier. You seem to go wash your hands every time that happens. Even though I clearly said it’s not a disease that spreads that way.

— …….

— As if it’s dirty.

— …….

— It’s really strange. Looking at it, Elder, you never go near the patients, so why do the Andis people say you take care of them?

Kudkan found Jane’s expression too unfamiliar.

— As if bewitched by something.

Because no one until now had ever looked down on him as ridiculously as that girl did.

Even the Febryan cardinal shows courtesy to me!

From that day on, Kudkan didn’t detain Jane.

He only watched her movements from afar.

She continued to spend most of her time outside. Then she would stare piercingly as if observing something.

The end of her gaze was mainly where Febrya’s priesthood personnel gathered.

And today, it finally seemed like their conspiracy had begun.

It was then.

When he saw Jane politely greeting Mallen.

Strength went into Kudkan’s hand gripping his cane once again.

“Elder, what are you looking at?”

“……Nothing. More than that, what happened to those who went to Dhoamang?”

“They should have arrived by now and meeting Hoelriban.”

Kudkan nodded.

“Then let’s wait and see.”

Hoelriban.

At that one name, Kudkan’s cloudy pupils that had been faded until now flashed with different colors, revealing crimson greed.

“For him to start a war.”

Along with a sharply edged voice.

“For Andis.”

***

At that very moment.

A man sitting at the top of Dhoamang’s luxurious magic tower was suffering from a very serious murderous impulse.

“Hoelriban, don’t forget the fact that you’ve stolen all the opportunities for other Andis people to become mages.”

“Right. You monopolized the dragon’s blood!”

“If it weren’t for you, we might have been able to become mages as strong as you.”

……They’re barking pitifully.

Begging to be killed.

Hoelriban sincerely thought so as he took out magic parchment from his drawer. Then he ignored the Andis people yapping in front of him and smoothly wrote elegant letters.

[Pisio. Can I commit murder?]

Then a reply quickly appeared on the parchment.

[No.]

[Not many, just about three or four.]

[No.]

[Pisio. Insane dogs are barking in front of me.]

[Bark along with them.]

Hoelriban closed his eyes.

And gently placed his fist against his throbbing forehead.

Be patient. You’ve endured well until now.

If he didn’t endure, his date with Pisio this evening might go up in smoke. When Hoelriban was repeatedly breathing in and out slowly to regain stability,

The Andis people spectacularly shattered his tearful efforts.

With even more ridiculous bullshit than before.

“We sacrificed for you.”

……Sacrificed?

The Andis people’s nonsense continued.

“So fulfill your responsibility and duty for Andis, Hoelriban.”

“Start a war. Save Andis from Febrya.”

“With your power that we sacrificed for.”

Hoelriban laughed.

What did you do to me?

Sacrifice?

Hoelriban briefly wondered if the Andis people of similar age to him liked joke competitions enough to risk their lives.

The only one who could use the word sacrifice, at least in this place, was Hoelriban alone.

Nine years old.

From the age of nine until thirteen, he had sacrificed for Andis. Drinking dragon’s blood every year that would kill ordinary people with just one sip.

But now they were claiming that Hoelriban had become a strong mage through their sacrifice, so by his common sense, he could only think they were having a life-risking joke competition.

Hoelriban’s gaze rested on the desk.

[No.]

[No.]

[Bark along with them.]

It was Pisio’s handwriting, as upright as his character.

……This is driving me crazy.

Hoelriban scraped together his patience that was running out.

And asked with modest tolerance.

“Can you get me dragon’s blood even now?”

A cute sophistry came back.

“You can’t die until Andis becomes independent.”

“……”

From then on, it was a vicious cycle.

They claimed like parrots that they had sacrificed and forced responsibility and duty on Hoelriban.

Hoelriban found it very difficult to suppress his exploding murderous impulse, so he called the guards and had them driven out.

Alive.

He let them out alive…….

Hoelriban was more proud of himself than ever before, almost to death. When he was sighing deeply and dry-washing his face in the office that had become peaceful—

“An interesting case.”

The shadow of someone lying on the railing behind the curtain cast long.

Hoelriban said quietly toward that place.

“It would be a damn case.”

At his words, giggling laughter and the sound of a book closing with a thud came.

The shadow opened the window with a leisurely gesture. The layered curtains fluttered in the incoming wind and then were completely drawn back.

Soon a beautiful being revealed itself.

Desian.

He was a being called a demon.

“It is an interesting case.”

He was walking slowly through the middle of the office, lightly tapping the poetry book he was holding against his lower lip.

As if intrigued.

“There are traces. Traces of my power, very faintly.”

Hoelriban asked while unbuttoning his shirt that had been buttoned up to his neck.

“……Is it enough to affect me?”

“Not at all. Not even a speck.”

“How about finding and killing them if you’re interested?”

Hoelriban then called Desian’s name half a beat late.

“Lu.”

Lu, who was leaning against the wall, quietly opened the poetry book he was holding.

In the silence, only the clear sound of poetry book pages turning rang out.

It meant he had no particular intention to kill.

But he was somewhat interested.

“……Should I go say hello.”

Rustle.

Sweet and languid laughter was added to the thin paper sound.

“After a long time.”

***

It’s hell.

That was Jane’s impression the moment she first looked around Andis’s capital.

The Ompupus endemic disease that first broke out here was called by the terrifying name of demon’s disease despite its low mortality rate.

There were various reasons, but the biggest factor was still the disease’s symptoms.

The muscles of the entire body slowly dying.

In the end, they became disabled like living corpses, unable even to blink their eyes.

The result this disease brought to Andis was terrible.

Piles of living corpses.

Mountains and fields were filled with corpses that couldn’t quite die. The corpses had been someone’s father until yesterday, mother, child, and siblings.

Alive but no different from dead.

Terrible corpses that weren’t corpses.

Since they weren’t dead, they couldn’t be buried in the ground or thrown into the sea.

The living didn’t want to become murderers.

But because they were no different from living germs, they were processed that way for the reason that it was frightening to keep them at home.

In that hell, the Febryan people made a giant statue of Anaxionia and went around proselytizing.

— Believe in the god Anaxionia.

— Only those with faith will be saved from suffering and disease!

……It’s hell.

A thoroughly insane hell.

Thinking so again, she suddenly discovered something strange.

Ompupus had broken out 6 months ago, and priesthood personnel had been stationed there for 3 months.

But when Jane actually came to Andis, not a single Febryan had caught the disease, as if by magic.

Not a single one.

Unless there was artificial intent, it was something that couldn’t happen probabilistically.

Jane immediately re-examined the patients’ conditions.

A disease where muscles die.

That wasn’t a disease but a poisoning reaction caused by a toxin called Lireltra.

Lireltra.

It was a poisonous plant Jane knew all too well.

***

The bare face of artificial intent was terrible.

The poisonous plant Lireltra, and the herb Malimahoni used as an antidote to Lireltra.

Both plants only grew in extremely dry regions. In other words, they were poisonous plants and herbs that couldn’t grow on Andis, an island surrounded by sea on all sides.

So the Andis people couldn’t have imagined it was a poisoning phenomenon.

Moreover, they couldn’t obtain the herbs either.

Jane felt disgusted.

Even though she had found the cause of Ompupus, it was difficult to move easily.

Currently, all the Febryan people stationed in Andis except for her belonged to the priesthood. If her guess was correct, Ompupus must have been planned by the priesthood.

Therefore, there was no way…… to send a messenger to the court.

Jane flopped down on the bed.