Chapter 281: Dealing with the Culprit

In the Laboratory, Weiss transformed into her Blood Kin Demonized Humanoid Form. Holding a Test Tube filled with Demonic Wolf blood, she began using her Blood Drain Blessing.

The blood began to coagulate and separate as her ability operated, precipitating pale-yellow serum within just a few minutes.

“Blood Drain Blessing really is convenient. It saves far more effort than what we have to do.” Dorothy said with a smile from where she stood before another Experimental Table.

“Using this method wastes a lot of serum, and I can't use my Blessing for long periods either. If we want large-scale production, we'll still have to rely on your technique.” Weiss said as she looked toward the Experimental Table Dorothy was responsible for.

At this moment, beside Dorothy's Experimental Table, the assistants she had brought with her were continuously stirring the collected blood with glass rods to defibrinate it.

Just then, Leon came in with several people carrying a machine.

“I had the craftsmen remove some parts from a hand-cranked lathe and modify them. Can it meet your requirements?” Leon asked Dorothy for confirmation.

“Try turning it as hard as you can.” Dorothy suggested.

Leon had his subordinate grab the machine's hand crank and turn it as fast as possible. Driven by the gears, the cantilever fitted with Test Tube sleeves began spinning at high speed.

Dorothy observed it from the side for a moment, then raised a hand and said: “This rotational speed will do. It can serve as a centrifuge for the time being.”

After defibrinating the blood, using a centrifuge to accelerate its sedimentation and separation would allow the serum to be separated out quickly.

“Fresh blood has been drawn.” Rena came in carrying a wooden basket. Inside was a Test Tube Rack, filled with Test Tubes containing fresh blood.

With the syringes Dorothy had provided, drawing blood from the Demonic Wolves had also become much easier.

Three hours had passed since they decided to begin clinical trials directly, and they had finally discovered that the body temperatures of three Demonic Wolves had successively shown a clear decline, with their symptoms easing.

Ordinarily, it took a considerable amount of time for a living creature to develop antibodies after infection, but with the Magic Potions prepared by Weiss and Sally's Blessing greatly accelerating the life process, that cycle had been shortened considerably. After Dorothy arrived, she had also provided even more effective Magic Potions.

At present, they already possessed the capability to manufacture serum on a large scale, but whether the serum actually worked would still depend on its clinical effects.

Weiss bottled the serum she had produced in advance with her ability and said to Leon: “Take this serum and try it first.”

Leon nodded, then turned and called out to Sally, who was helping prepare medicines not far away: “Mrs. Hesh, please accompany Weiss.”

Weiss was going to conduct the first clinical application using the first batch of serum they had prepared, and having Sally assist her would help share some of her burden.

“Okay!” Sally immediately began getting ready.

“Miss Dorothy, could you teach me your method for separating serum?” Rena hesitated for a moment before asking Dorothy.

“Of course.” Dorothy gave one of the assistants she had brought a meaningful look. The other woman understood, temporarily stopped what she was doing, and stepped forward to begin explaining to Rena the process of separating serum from fresh blood.

Dorothy turned to look at Leon, quietly moved beside him, and lowered her voice as she said: “The Witches around you certainly seem quite committed to dealing with the plague.”

She could see the exhaustion on Rena and the others' faces. The plague had continued for many days, and they had been doubling as doctors and Apothecaries, rushing back and forth between the eastern and western ends of the island, examining patients and developing medicines. They had probably been overwhelmingly busy the entire time.

Even so, they had still devoted themselves wholeheartedly to resolving the plague, without the slightest complaint.

“Some of them have witnessed the torment disease brings to people, some have personally experienced the despair brought by disease, and some have resolved to eliminate disease through the technology of Magic Potions. This plague has brought suffering to far too many innocent people, so naturally, they want to do something for those patients.” Leon replied softly.

“Were you the same?” Dorothy asked.

“Of course. I once suffered from illness as well. Any normal person wouldn't want to see innocent people tormented by disease. Arachne deserves to be cut to pieces, and as for your Queen……” Leon paused at this point.

Dorothy gave a dry cough: “Mr. Fenrir, some things……”

“Yes, if it puts you in a difficult position, I won't say it. You know what I think.” Leon smiled knowingly, “What about you? How do you see it?”

“I can't defy Her Majesty. But on this matter, I also don't agree with Her Majesty supporting Arachne in using plague as a weapon. My homeland once suffered from a plague. Of course, it was only an ordinary epidemic. At the time, we didn't yet have the technology or resources to deal with that kind of plague. I personally watched my relatives die in agony, so on this point, I feel exactly the same as all of you.” Dorothy said softly.

“How much of that story is true, and how much is false?” Leon said jokingly.

Dorothy was tactful and smooth in how she conducted herself, so the possibility that this story had been fabricated couldn't be ruled out either.

“When a lady tells a story as a gesture of goodwill, surely a gentleman shouldn't directly question it, no matter what?” Dorothy raised an eyebrow.

“That's true. I was being insensitive.” Leon smiled apologetically.

“How confident are you that this serum therapy of yours will work?” Dorothy asked.

“Who can say for certain? Right now, all we can do is pray that it works. Let's prepare the serum first and worry about the rest afterward.” Leon replied.

……

A night passed. After briefly closing his eyes to rest for a while, Leon left the stronghold and returned to the eastern side of the island to check on the situation.

Tents covered with insect-proof mesh stood throughout the severe-case isolation area. Leon found Weiss and Sally resting inside the medical personnel's tent. Seeing them sleeping with their heads resting on the table, without even removing their protective clothing or masks, he hadn't intended to wake them. But before he could withdraw, Weiss reacted first, opening her eyes and sitting upright before rubbing them.

She carefully made out the figure wearing a Protective Mask at the entrance of the tent and asked: “Leon?”

“Sorry, I disturbed your rest.” Leon replied, “You must both be exhausted.”

“I'm fine. The time……” Weiss sleepily looked toward the standing clock not far away, then stood up, “It's been six hours since the first batch received the treatment. It's time to go take a look.”

“I'll go with you.”

They didn't wake Sally, who was still fast asleep. The two of them went together to a somewhat larger tent, where four patients lay. These were the patients who had developed critical symptoms the previous night. As the first group of clinical trial subjects, they had been injected with serum by Weiss, and now it was time to verify its effectiveness.

Leon noticed one particularly young patient among them. It was the same boy he had seen before. If the serum hadn't taken effect, then he and the other three patients most likely wouldn't survive the day.

At this moment, Leon felt somewhat nervous. The serum therapy they currently had was, after all, merely a crude recreation, using the technology available to them, of an old treatment method from the memories of his previous life. He wasn't completely certain whether it would truly work.

“Let's begin.” Weiss nodded to Leon.

Through her gloves, Weiss placed a hand on one of the patients. Her Creator Basic Blessing allowed her to directly measure temperature through perception. Making precise judgments required extensive experience, and Weiss, who had conducted research for years, was already thoroughly proficient at it.

The expression beneath Weiss's mask was just as tense as Leon's.

Before this treatment, they had already tried all sorts of methods to provide emergency treatment to these patients. They had even used Magic Potions, but none had shown any effect. All they had experienced was disappointment, again and again.

Throughout the several seconds of measurement, Leon waited nervously for Weiss's result.

Finally, Weiss spoke: “Thirty-eight degrees.”

Leon's eyes widened slightly. Thirty-eight degrees was still a fever, but previously, once the Red Death had progressed to a severe stage, there had hardly been a single case in which a patient's body temperature had fallen below thirty-nine degrees!

Weiss began measuring the other patients. The other two were also around thirty-eight degrees. When she reached the last patient, the little boy, Weiss placed her hand on his forehead and carefully measured for a long while before speaking in a very soft voice: “Thirty-seven point five……”

At that moment, the boy's eyelids twitched twice, then opened halfway as he murmured dreamily: “Mom?”

Leon and Weiss first exchanged a glance, then simultaneously began staring at the boy's face.

Not only had this patient's fever subsided, he had begun to regain consciousness!

“Hah……” Leon involuntarily let out a long breath. The string inside him that had remained taut every moment finally relaxed.

The two immediately began conducting further examinations. In the end, the boy fully woke up and lay there weakly looking at Leon and Weiss beside him. Perhaps because he couldn't recognize the lord he had met before through the mask, he appeared somewhat wary of strangers, keeping his mouth tightly shut and refusing to say a word in response to their questions. But when his family was mentioned, he finally asked: “Where are my mom and dad?”

“They're sick too, and they're in another room right now. You all had fevers, but after taking the medicine, you'll all get better, so don't worry.” Leon rubbed the boy's forehead, stood up, and left the tent.

Outside, he took a deep breath to calm himself, then called over the doctor on duty to conduct further examinations on the patients. Weiss came out shortly afterward as well.

“It worked. We did it!” Leon shared the joy in his heart with Weiss.

“It would be best to examine the second batch of patients as well to verify it. But there's a high probability that it's viable. We can now put the remaining serum into use and determine the most effective dosage.” Weiss appeared relatively calm.

“Right.” Leon nodded repeatedly, then thought for a moment before saying, “The work of preparing serum afterward should be something we can leave to Rena. I'll leave the patients here to you. There should be enough serum. Remember to give Adele some as well.”

“Leon, are you…… planning to do something?” Weiss suddenly sensed something and asked tentatively.

“I'm going to deal with the culprit behind all of this.” Leon replied expressionlessly.