Chapter 278: A Specific Cure for the Plague

A ship docked at the Pier. Leon stood behind the jetty wearing a protective mask, watching Dorothy lead her attendants down the gangway.

That day, Dorothy wore a solemn black formal dress and a hat covered with a black veil. She looked completely different from her usual self, when a smile was always hanging at the corners of her mouth. Dorothy, who appeared here today, seemed exceptionally serious, even somewhat unsmiling.

“Looks like you've already started dealing with the plague.” Dorothy glanced at the Pier, where all the ships were docked in port and almost no people were gathered.

Clearly, Leon had already sealed off the island. When she arrived, if Leon had not notified them beforehand, she would either have been persuaded to turn back or her personnel would have been isolated for ten days.

“You came a little late. The situation here is urgent.” Leon said with a frown.

“I also happened to have a lot of things to investigate on my side. I've already rushed here as quickly as possible.” Dorothy replied, “Looks like Arachne played us.”

“Didn't your previous letter say she'd been recalled? And she still pulled something like this. Is she really not afraid your Queen will kill her?” Leon stared at Dorothy and asked.

In a sense, being recalled already counted as a warning and punishment. From the sound of it, Queen Alice had basically already concluded that Arachne had killed Leon's clients, but because there was no evidence and she could not convict her according to the rules, she chose to recall her to prevent future conflicts.

For Arachne to still pull something like this at such a time, behaving as though she were defying the Queen, felt somewhat incomprehensible.

“In my view, Arachne has already realized that we may be preparing to kill her. With your support, I'll be able to set up a killing trap for her at sea. She probably did this to hold you back. According to my intelligence, she should already have set sail on her own from somewhere else. Just yesterday, we confirmed that she passed one of the locations we monitor along the sea route. She's already at least two hundred kilometers away from the Empire's coastline.

As for Her Majesty, as long as Arachne has now proven the results of the plague she developed, and as long as Her Majesty still intends to use the results of her research as a strategic weapon, no matter how she punishes her, she surely couldn't kill her, could she?” Dorothy replied.

Leon let out a long breath in irritation. Arachne really was a lunatic, but she was not completely mindless in her madness. Although this move harmed herself eight hundred to injure the enemy a thousand, the blow to Leon's side was indeed considerable.

“If you're determined to kill her, you can't delay any longer. Catching up with them won't be easy.” Dorothy urged.

“I do want to kill her, but right now we have to deal with the situation here first!” Leon said.

Even if this was a scheme Arachne had deliberately devised to hold him back, he still could not ignore it. Adele could manage the territory, but she had no way to deploy his subordinates. Rena could temporarily command the subordinates in the Labyrinth Fortress on his behalf, but she was completely unfamiliar with territorial affairs. Right now, without him personally enforcing strict supervision over the territory, things could very easily descend into disorder.

“So what exactly is the situation right now?” Dorothy asked.

Leon did not explain it verbally to Dorothy and instead directly handed her a report.

Dorothy took the report and quickly flipped through it. As a Great Witch who had conducted medical research before, she soon finished reading all the information and showed a somewhat surprised expression: “Have you dealt with plagues before? The number of deaths already greatly exceeds the number of new infections. Haven't you basically finished dealing with it? You've already brought the plague under control!”

“Brought it under control? There are still almost three hundred people waiting to die! You call that under control?” Leon frowned.

“Once they're all dead, the plague will disappear from your land. This plague weapon needs to guarantee a high mortality rate. Given Arachne's style, she would definitely focus heavily on that. But a high mortality rate means patients have fewer opportunities to infect others. Once you find a targeted way to reduce the infection rate like you have, the number of infections will naturally decrease as the patients die. I'm impressed you managed to think of Magical Insects as the means of transmission. Very few ordinary people would immediately arrive at the correct answer.” Dorothy said.

When a plague spread, very few people would immediately associate it with the possibility of animal transmission and carry out large-scale extermination, yet Leon had immediately found the right direction. That was extremely rare.

“If you want my advice, you shouldn't be using things developed by the Church to prolong the lives of these patients. It's completely meaningless and only increases the risk of the plague spreading. On the contrary, you should find a way to reduce their suffering.” Dorothy handed the report back to Leon.

Leon frowned. Dorothy was clearly more in favor of killing the infected people to control the plague. It sounded cold-blooded, but it was indeed the most practical approach.

“Even if I kill these patients and eliminate the infected people on this island, there are still infected people in Caster City. Can I kill them there too? And what about those Magical Insects that can spread the disease? Who knows whether some of them have gone dormant somewhere on the island, waiting to spread the plague again next time?

If we're going to deal with Arachne, developing a specific cure against this plague is absolutely necessary!” Leon said.

“A plague carefully cultivated by Arachne isn't something that can be dealt with so easily. I assume you've already tried it too. Fever medicine is completely useless. Once the disease breaks out, death is inevitable within several days.

To tell you the truth, in order to oppose this plague weapon, I personally tried researching medicines against Arachne's plague before, but the effectiveness was mediocre.” Dorothy shook her head.

“I'll try my method again. These are extraordinary circumstances, so you should come take a look too.” After Leon finished speaking, he had someone arrange a carriage to take both him and Dorothy toward the area near the Labyrinth Fortress.

“Right, you should put this on too.” Before getting out of the carriage, Leon handed Dorothy one of the face masks they had made themselves.

“This is to reduce the risk of infection? Fine.” Dorothy put on the face mask, “The plague Arachne developed should theoretically be ineffective against people who possess the Moylai Blessing. That was a requirement the Queen raised when she first had her develop it. But well, just in case.”

Not long after entering the Labyrinth Fortress, Dorothy could tell that there were not many people stationed there. Because of Leon's isolation strategy, production on the Labyrinth side had also stopped, and most of his subordinates had been sent to the eastern side of the island to provide support.

However, Dorothy still sensed several presences, and her gaze shifted toward the nearby stable: “Those are…… Demonic Wolves?”

What stood inside the stable were not horses, but a group of abnormally large wolf-shaped creatures. They seemed to be Demonic Wolves commonly found in the Labyrinth. The stable had been strictly partitioned off and was also covered with thin gauze for isolation, so only their silhouettes could be vaguely seen. If Dorothy had not been a Witch capable of sensing Magical Beasts, she probably would not have been able to determine what creatures were inside.

“These are experimental subjects.” After saying that, Leon headed toward another nearby building.

As soon as the door was pushed open, they could see that this warehouse had now been transformed into a temporary Laboratory. Rena and Weiss were working around the clock to find a specific cure for the plague.

Rena and Weiss simultaneously stopped what they were doing and turned around. At the same time they saw Leon, they also saw Dorothy behind him.

Rena immediately became tense. She had met Dorothy before and had a certain understanding of what the other woman was capable of. This was not someone who could be considered particularly safe.

Weiss, meanwhile, showed a somewhat astonished expression. She could guess that the woman was Dorothy, and this was the first time she had ever seen this Great Witch in person.

Leon ignored their reactions and Dorothy behind him, immediately asking: “How are those Demonic Wolves outside?”

“They endured it, without exception. Judging from the experimental results, Headhunter Rabbits can't withstand it, but Demonic Wolves can withstand this Red Death. They showed some symptoms, but there was no danger to their lives at all……”

“Then are there any individuals that have recovered?” Leon interrupted Weiss before she could finish explaining and continued asking, “When can we produce serum?”