Chapter 277: The Red Death

Several days later, Arend Island, Severe Patient Isolation Zone.

Leon wore protective clothing and stood among the open-sided isolation tents, where he could see from afar the patients lying inside the tents, struggling to breathe.

“Lord Viscount, this is the report compiled at six this morning.” The doctor accompanying him on the inspection carefully handed the report to him.

Since the plague control measures had been implemented, statistics and reports had been compiled once every twelve hours.

Leon flipped through it. According to the statistics from the past half day, there were sixteen newly discovered infections, seventy-seven new severe cases, twenty-five new deaths, and a current total of three hundred and forty-eight infected people.

“The number of new infections has already begun to drop substantially. Your measures have been very effective.” The doctor said.

“……” Leon looked at the report without commenting.

This was the sixth day of the lockdown. Ever since the plague had been discovered, it had erupted rapidly. The number of infected people was still increasing, but the rate of increase had clearly slowed.

The measures he had ordered—halting work, isolation, and compulsory mask-wearing—had suppressed person-to-person transmission to a great extent.

But this plague did not rely entirely on person-to-person transmission. It was primarily spread through bites from the plague Magical Insects released by Arachne.

These Magical Insects were extremely small and could coexist with the Pathogen itself. They were the size of ants, able to squeeze through virtually any gap, and could fly as quickly as flies. Unless they were flying in swarms, they were almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

Because they were Magical Beasts, they were extremely aggressive toward humans. They would specifically search for gaps in clothing, or even actively bite through clothing to sting people and inject venom. Their bites caused no pain whatsoever. Judging from experiments on animals, only an extremely small amount of venom was required to cause the disease, making them extraordinarily difficult to guard against.

Moreover, these Magical Insects could reproduce on their own on the island. In just the few days spent studying them, Rena and the others had already observed a new generation being bred in the Laboratory. They did not need to mate at all, laying eggs on their own, and new Magical Insects could hatch within a single day. The newly hatched Magical Insects carried the infectious agent as well. These were probably pathogenic carrier organisms that Arachne had cultivated over many years of researching plague weapons.

This plague weapon was extremely lethal. At first, infected people would develop cold-like coughing and sneezing, while some would also develop red rashes. If they did not take Number Nineteen Holy Water as a delaying medicine during this period, the illness would progress into a severe stage within five days, causing intense fever and hallucinations, with red blotches appearing around the lymphatic areas. Shortly before death, they would develop the highly distinctive symptom of shedding bloody tears. Because of these characteristics, Leon temporarily named the disease the Red Death.

One particularly concerning point was that a very small number of Red Death patients would grow patches of hair or scales on small areas of their skin after infection that did not belong to humans. Some also developed changes in their eyes, and horn-like protrusions would grow from their heads, making Leon think of the Demonic Human Form of Witches, as though traits of Magical Beasts were appearing on their bodies. These patients died somewhat later than other patients, but their hallucinations were far more severe, and by the end they basically became impossible to communicate with.

At present, Leon still had not found any method to cure the Red Death, nor had there been a single case of spontaneous recovery. The expected mortality rate could be said to be one hundred percent. Of the more than three hundred people currently infected, even those with mild symptoms could only wait for death in despair.

Leon had spent a large amount of money purchasing the raw materials for Number Nineteen Holy Water and handed them over to Weiss for compounding, but the Holy Water could only delay the arrival of severe symptoms by a few days. Once the severe stage began, the patients could still only survive for around three days.

With such high lethality, person-to-person transmission alone might not necessarily have been able to cause a large-scale epidemic. Many patients might die before they had the chance to infect many others.

But even though Leon had devised isolation measures, those Magical Insects were still spreading the disease everywhere.

Leon could only order large-scale extermination efforts, mixing Magic Essence and poison into insecticide and distributing it throughout the island to lure and kill those Magical Insects. He also used sulfur and medicinal herbs for fumigation, periodically carrying out insect extermination and disinfection in the houses where people lived, while distributing beekeeping clothing and protective equipment to the residents.

These methods were indeed quite effective and greatly suppressed the momentum of the increase in infections.

At present, the number of new infections had already begun to fall clearly below the number of deaths. This meant that the actual number of infected people had begun decreasing, but if they merely waited for all the infected people to die in order to bring this plague under control, the death toll would probably reach four or five hundred. For the population of this small island, that was already an extremely serious mortality rate.

Leon suddenly stopped walking because he noticed a small figure lying inside one of the open severe-patient tents. It seemed to be only a child.

Leon went forward with some concern and looked twice, suddenly realizing that this was the little boy whose parents had encouraged him to give Leon a flower wreath at the market before.

Leon silently watched the boy, who was not even ten years old, lying on a mat and struggling to breathe, his consciousness blurred. He turned to the doctor and asked: “When was this child brought in?”

“He only developed severe symptoms this morning. From our current investigation, this disease progresses especially quickly in children. I'm afraid he won't last three days.” The doctor sighed.

“His family……” Leon said quietly.

“Well.” The expression beneath the doctor's mask became somewhat complicated, and his gaze shifted toward two tents ahead, “His mother is actually lying in the tent next door, while his father was also registered as infected three days ago.”

Leon walked forward two steps and saw the woman lying unconscious inside the tent as well. This meant that none of the family of three had escaped the plague's pursuit. Sooner or later, all of them would die.

As for a specific cure, Weiss and Rena were still working hard to develop one.

Leon glanced again toward the place in the distance where black smoke was rising. That was precisely where the bodies of those who died from the disease were being disposed of. At present, all corpses could only be cremated to prevent further spread.

Leon softly sighed beneath his mask and quickly walked through the severe-patient isolation zone filled with the aura of death.

Then he gave the doctor several instructions and had someone prepare a horse, intending to head to the Labyrinth Fortress to check on the progress of developing a specific cure.

At that moment, the sound of galloping hooves came from nearby. Leon turned his head and saw Adele, wearing a gauze face mask, riding over with attendants.

“Leon!” Adele shouted toward Leon as soon as she dismounted, “We just received news that patients with the same symptoms have appeared in River Valley County as well!”

“Have the local Sacred Healing Order and Security Bureau been notified to organize isolation measures?” Leon asked Adele.

“The people in charge of the Security Bureau and Sacred Healing Order in Caster City both replied that they don't have enough manpower or resources. They even hope we can allocate funds to help them properly settle the patients. Since the disease spread there from us, they believe we should take responsibility.” Adele said.

Leon smiled bitterly and shook his head. Even at a time like this, public institutions were still shirking responsibility back and forth, trying to get money from him while also pushing responsibility onto him.

“They can have the money, and I can provide supplies as well, but they must implement the isolation measures I specified in Helenburg. I don't have time to argue with them right now. If there are any problems, I'll settle accounts with them afterward.” Leon waved his hand.

The appearance of infected people in Caster City, the closest city to this place, was something Leon had anticipated.

If the plague began breaking out in Caster City and even Southport County, then even if Arend Island survived this outbreak, new infected people would still be imported from Caster City in the future. And if the Pathogen mutated, it would probably become even more troublesome.

“I understand.” Adele immediately nodded and prepared to carry it out.

Now that Leon had completely taken control of the island as its Lord, Adele also fully obeyed his orders and deployment.

When Adele first saw the statistical data from the plague outbreak, she had been startled and, for a time, could not think of what to do at all.

But at the critical moment, Leon personally took on the responsibility, decisively issuing a series of measures to combat the disease, and they had been quite effective. This made Adele feel a clear sense of reliability from Leon.

“Wait a moment.” Leon stopped Adele and looked her over briefly, “You don't look very well. Have you been getting proper rest?”

“These past two days, nobody's really had time to rest. You're so busy too, so of course I can't slack off.” Adele lowered her eyes and smiled self-deprecatingly, then sighed.

“Take care of yourself.” Leon said.

“Mm.” Adele nodded, then mounted her horse and hurried toward the harbor.

Leon’s horse was soon prepared as well, but just as he mounted and was about to head toward the Labyrinth Fortress, a subordinate carrying a message came rushing down the mountain road. As soon as he saw Leon, he waved and shouted loudly: “Mr. Fenrir, the Witch you told us to wait for has arrived at the Pier!”