Episode 15 – Story of a Certain Wicked Man (Part 1)

 

 

When the Dispensing Pharmacy Guild Master, Pierre had reached the possibility of pest victims, the sixth quarantine station which was set up in front of the sixth wall gates was blown away by divine arts.

 

「Enemy attack!! Close the gates!!!」

The gate guard shouted, the gates closed and the drawbridge was about to be raised, but failed. Even though portcullis was dropped, the water attributed holy knight created a boulder size ice block blocking the shutters, and entered through the gates by sliding. Although the five holy knights were infected by the black plague it seems like they have considerable skills, the armored knights that tried to block they were  were blown away by wind arts, crashing into the walls to their deaths. The amount of their divine powers and proficiency as a unit could be distinguished as royal guards of the kingdom.

「These guys, they’re strong!」

The imperial capital’s guardsmen held their gun, San Flueve’s holy knights pulled out their staff, and casts their divine techniques with each of their attributes according to command.

「Ready! First squad, fire!」

Although the musket squad fires from above the gate, an ice wall was created and could not hit them.

「Second squad, fire!」

Actually, bullets and shells cannot pierce even through normal ice, so the thin ice created by an advanced divine arts user has enough defense.

「Damn it, a high tier water attribute huh!」

 

Three of Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights have finally brought in a covered cage within the castle gates, and when they opened the cages, a horde of small white critters was released to the imperial capital. Half of them have died unable to endure the black plague, but those who had survived has scattered in the capital’s market very quickly.

「The squirrel, it flew?!」

People screamed because of the unexpected movements of the squirrel.

Some of them climbed up the gutter, and flew away, jumping from roof to roof.

The Nedale Kingdom’s merchants said that they were white squirrels, but they flying squirrels. Flying squirrels are also rodents. The first item to be sold in San Flueve’s Market is fabric.

When the fleas of the flying squirrel infected by the pest enter them, it quickly becomes a medium of infection.

 

「This is bad, emergency!! Close the second gates!」

The imperial capital is a vast fortified city, and although it is not as clearly separated as it was with a castle town, the administrative area where emperors, nobles, and military personnel live is clearly divided from the common area where commoners live. There are nobles who has their dwellings in the suburbs, but the military personnel lives in the imperial capital’s administrative area. From the standpoint of defense, the alleys are purposely created in an echelon shape so that every place could be observed. Even if the first gates in the outer layer were broken through, the second gates would block the enemy’s path.

The second gates leading to the court and administrative are were immediately shut down.

 

「Enter your houses and close the doors! Don’t let the infected squirrels go inside!」

Signal fireworks that are used to announce enemy attack were launched to the sky from the towers in the sixth gate, and the court of San Flueve Empire and the Imperial Capital Land Army was informed immediately. The watchmen of bell towers in various parts of the imperial capital began to ring the alarm bell loudly.

As soon as the alarm bell rang, all of the stores within the imperial capital closed their doors, and people started to hide inside the stores. It was arranged that passerby and beggars would also hide inside the stores. The people moved quickly to evacuate.

 

「Damn it!!!」

Guild Master Pierre who crawled out under the destroyed quarantine station tent opened the medicine box that he had kept very carefully although he was full of wounds.

「It’s now!」

The time to open the divided special medicine, sparfloxacin has come.

Falma had said.

No matter what color their blood is or what their status is, even if they are prisoners, give all of the patients that are still alive equally. If even one of them were not treated, or if those infected were allowed to move freely, they would become mediums and scatter the black plague.

 

「All of you! Everyone! First! Drink the medicine!」

Pierre shouted at all of those in his surroundings.

He gave all of them medicine, the gate guard, the crowd, the merchants, he soaks a brush in the ink-pot in his tool box, and marked everyone’s cheeks with ink. It is an unerasable ink that was supplied by Falma, and would identify those who are infected. And all of those who are marked must be taken to the quarantine zone.

 

「Make a wall of ice using divine arts here! It’s a defense so that it would not spread more than this!」

Pierre gave commands to the divine arts user, and creates isolation measures according to the manual.

He fixed the defensive line that was destroyed once again.

Rather than the enemy attack, the infiltration of the black plague is the one that must be stopped. It is an enemy far more frightening than a human enemy. According to what Falma expects, if even one of the people in the imperial capital were infected, 60% of those who were in the imperial capital would die.

 

「Don’t get beaten by something like the black plague! We will survive!」

That was the shout of Pierre’s soul.

Most of the rats and fleas that would become a medium of the pest within the imperial capital were exterminated. The people have also started to be hygienic. That is why, the interior of the imperial capital is the cleanest in the world if it is compared to other cities.

The residents washes their hands, gargles, and masks were also distributed. The black plague would not spread so easily. The spread of infection must not be allowed. But even so, it is a terrible epidemic.

「We’re now in the critical point! Hurry up and do the countermeasures!」

Pierre used the medicine unsparingly, and medicine for 91 people was consumed in the sixth quarantine station.

「The medicine would not be enough, stop it to the minimum!」

Pierre did not forget to drink the medicine himself, and wore a gas mask-like equipment.

 

The porters of the Nedale Kingdom that were left behind outside the castle gates took advantage of the confusion, they threw away their luggage, and tries to escape to where they came from.

「Stop right there!」

However, the Temple’s first chasing unit that had departed from Esthark has caught up and stopped them in their tracks.

The merchants whose escape route were blocked by horses makes frightened expressions.

「Hii, save me!!」

「Surrender you damn smugglers!! Surrender and I shall give you your life, however, if you would not, we shall kill you without mercy!」

The priest’s voice was firm and determined. The merchants who were terrified and kneels to the ground were captured, but a few merchants who have lost their reason due to being infected by the black plague raises their voices and swings their knives, only to be killed by the priests. The doctrine of the temple is to condemn sinners but save those who repent.

All of them have a high fever, so the merchants who surrendered were given medicine and immediately isolated by the priests, and the luggage that they had were burned together with the corpses of the merchants who had resisted.

 

「Move!!! Open the way!!」

The holy knights of the Empire’s land army and the Imperial Guards directly under the Empress had arrived, eager to take down Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights that had invaded through the castle gates.

They launched a pre-emptive attack while riding horses towards Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights.

「”Scorching Combustion （Enfer de brûlure）”」

The fiery red flames attacked the elites of Nedale Kingdom and their surroundings were covered with fire pillars. The flames of the divine arts entangled the attack target.

「”Wind Barrier（Barrière van wind）”」」

Negating that with a wind divine technique, the invaders delivers a counterattack.

Both sides fought with death just by their side without stepping back. The Empire’s order of knights also gave their all, shooting great divine techniques without thinking of the damages inside the city.

With the Empire’s pride on the line, they must take down Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights.

However, being cornered, surrounded by the Empire’s army at all sides, Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights had prepared for their death, and tries their last resistance. And,

「”Raging Windstorm （Storm van woede）”」

Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights released all of the flying squirrels in the cages, and all of the wind attributed holy knights releases a wind great divine art towards the remaining carcass. The rotting carcass of the flying squirrels flew far up in the sky.

A blast of wind with the pest bacteria blows through the imperial capital. The blast of wind broke the doors and windows of the houses and the wind entered the house. A merchant company collapses to the ground.

It looks like they planned on fanning a blast of wind, infecting the whole imperial capital with the pest.

 

「”Cleansing Wind （Vent de la purge）”」

「”Purification of the Land （Purification de la terre）”」

The order of knights from the temple area of San Flueve imperial capital who were late had counterattacked with wind attributed and earth attributed purification divine arts with Head Priest Salomon’s command. The wind full of divine powers bellows, creating a whirlwind. The imperial capital’s alley, spanning several tens of meters, became a purified land that wards off epidemic.

 

「Thou shall not use the art of the gods. Thou shall be deprived of your divine pulse!」

They were convicted by Head Priest Salomon’s dauntless voice.

The privilege of the temple. That is, the privilege that presides over the opening and closing of the divine pulse of divine arts users. It is a secret technique only to be passed to the head priests of the parish, and although the divine pulse cannot be closed if they do not know the target’s name, it is possible to one-sidedly disenable a target’s divine arts with a simplified method. Divine arts users whose divine pulse were closed will become ordinary commoners.

「Ohh!!」

The armed priests forms a formation, and encloses the holy knights.

The Head Priest started the long chants for severing the divine pulse. And seeing that, Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights attacks the Head Priest. But in return, the temple’s elite troops and the Empire’s order of knights covered the Head Priest’s incantation.

 

「”Imprisoning Flames （Prison de la flamme）”」

The Empire’s Imperial Guards’ high-tier flame divine arts user activated a great divine technique and surrounded Nedale Kingdom’s holy knights with a wall of flames.

 

「”Drought of the Holy Spring （Fermez le Puits sacré）”」

 

Head Priest Salomon’s secret technique was completed.

The ring of light that was shot from the staff attacks the invaders and were absorbed into their body. And countless ice arrows pouring down to them as if to follow it.

The invaders that lost their divine arts could not defend, and were pierced through.

One of the holy knight who advanced the black plague the most, tragically fell down to the ground, and took his last breath.

The flames created by the firewalls devoured the corpses, burning them not leaving a bone intact.

 

…━━…━━…━━…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E14 Part 3 – Isekai Yakkyoku – E15 Part 2