Chapter 186
Chris began by wandering through the streets, surveying the situation.
After gathering some information, he made his way to the treatment center where the patients were gathered.
“I’m a doctor. I’m here to help.”
Thanks to his disguise as a mage, the healers at the center welcomed Chris without suspicion.
“Oh, thank you so much! We’ve been overwhelmed with patients lately—there just aren’t enough hands to care for them all.”
“Are their conditions severe?”
“Yes. There are already over a thousand patients. So far, there have been almost no deaths, but judging by how quickly their conditions are worsening, many fatalities are inevitable soon.”
The healer’s tone was heavy.
“Can you describe the symptoms precisely?”
“They’re losing consciousness. All the patients complain of intense headaches and vomiting, then gradually slip into unconsciousness.”
“Any fever or other symptoms?”
“None of the patients have a fever. No respiratory or other symptoms either.”
Chris thought to himself.
‘This doesn’t look like a natural infectious disease.’
Among contagious illnesses, there are some that cause consciousness to deteriorate, but most come with fever.
‘It’s not encephalitis or meningitis either.’
The symptoms were identical to those caused by the “Malice Hemorrhage” poison Marisa had been developing.
Her poison was known to cause exactly these symptoms.
Could it really be that the poison Marisa leaked was behind this disaster?
Chris knew he needed to examine the patients more closely to be sure.
“May I examine the patients?”
“Of course. Please follow Lisa over there.”
“Lisa?”
“Yes, she’s a healer who recently joined us from another region. Thanks to her treatment, many patients have managed to survive so far.”
Chris tilted his head in curiosity and approached, then his eyes widened.
An unexpected figure was tending to the patients.
‘…That’s Marisa.’
Though she was disguised, even hiding her signature green hair, Chris’s eyes didn’t miss her.
It was Marisa of the Malice Mage family!
‘What is she doing here? Could she be trying to fix this mess?’
That seemed likely.
Marisa glanced sharply at Chris, who was standing awkwardly, and snapped sharply.
“New healer? What are you doing?! Don’t you see the patients’ blood pressure dropping? Come here and help!”
“…I think that treatment method is wrong.”
“What did you say?!”
“The blood pressure drop is due to brain edema. You can’t treat it like that.”
“…What?”
Chris applied the knowledge of the Uiseon family’s medical techniques to a patient struggling to breathe, and soon the patient’s condition stabilized.
“…What? How?”
Marisa’s eyes went wide.
By the way, poison and medicine are two sides of the same coin.
The Malice Mage family was also renowned for their healing arts, second only to the Uiseon family on the continent.
But what Chris just demonstrated far surpassed even Marisa’s skill.
“Ah, that’s because I’m a genius.”
A familiar, unforgettable, irritating voice made Marisa’s eyes widen even more.
Chris grinned.
“Long time no see. How have you been?”
* * *
Marisa immediately recognized Chris.
Though his appearance had changed, no one could imitate his uniquely annoying aura.
“Yes, how did you—?”
“Isn’t it natural for the Dark Mage family’s Grand Duke to come to a disaster zone?”
“Oh, but I heard you collapsed from poison as soon as you arrived here?”
For context, Alos had become poisoned after taking a tonic Chris gave him upon arriving in the western territory.
Despite his boasting, he was ironically the one who got poisoned first, and rumors spread quickly.
“Ah, that was a lie to deceive the enemy. But why do you look like that?”
Chris tilted his head.
“Am I really that welcome?”
Marisa’s expression was complicated.
She stared blankly at Chris, then quickly turned away.
“W-What nonsense! That’s absolutely not it! I just heard you were poisoned by the poison I developed…!!”
In truth, Marisa had been under immense mental pressure lately.
For some reason, the deadly poison she was developing had been released into the Dark Mage family’s water source, triggering this horrific crisis.
If things continued, she would be held fully responsible.
So she risked sneaking into the Dark Mage territory to try to fix things, and then heard rumors that Christian had been poisoned by her own poison.
Hearing that made her world go dark.
She was on the verge of collapse—but then Chris appeared.
Hearing his irritating voice and seeing his familiar expression, she felt an odd wave of relief and her eyes grew moist.
“I-I’m acting like this because if you collapse from the poison, it means my responsibility grows even bigger! That’s all there is to it.”
“You didn’t have to explain it in such detail.”
“…Yeah.”
Embarrassed, Marisa’s face quickly went blank.
‘That bastard.’
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since she’d seen him, but Chris showed no sign of being glad to see her.
Still, Marisa had wanted to see him quite a bit. Of course, purely as a friend—nothing else.
‘Now that I think about it, that bastard barely ever replied to my letters.’
At that moment, Chris said something.
“Anyway, I’m glad we met.”
“…Why?”
“Why? Because I’m here to help you. We’re allies who promised to support each other. You can’t die unfairly over this.”
Chris planned to use Marisa as a pawn later to get poison from the Malice Mage family, so he couldn’t let her die over this.
But for some reason, hearing Chris say that strangely eased Marisa’s troubled heart.
‘Ahem. Acting timid isn’t like me. I’m just being magnanimous.’
Anyway, there was no time for idle chatter.
“Marisa, what do you think? Is this because of the poison you developed?”
They needed to confirm whether the poison she leaked was truly the cause.
“…I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“The symptoms are the same, but my poison doesn’t have such widespread lethality.”
The water source where the poison leaked was quite far from the western territory.
Even if a large amount was released, it would have been diluted, so the actual dose each person ingested would be minuscule.
“It wasn’t developed for mass killing. Unless taken above a certain concentration, it doesn’t even take effect. So it’s not my poison.”
Chris nodded.
It was likely a similar but different poison.
Someone probably developed a poison that mimicked her symptoms to frame her, then spread it deliberately.
“Any guesses on what poison it might be? With this level of lethality, it could be a ‘Willpower Poison.’”
A Willpower Poison is made by a 6-star Master-class poisoner who infuses their poison with their will.
Because it challenges the limits of natural laws through sheer force of will, it has absurdly powerful effects.
“I don’t think it’s a Willpower Poison. None of the ones I know cause symptoms like this.”
Willpower is the crystallization of one’s accumulated resolve.
Each person can only have two or three at most.
Even the Malice Mage family had a limited number of Willpower Poisons.
‘Strange. If it’s not a Willpower Poison, it wouldn’t be easy to develop such a potent poison.’
Mixing new poisons isn’t difficult.
But creating an effective, usable poison is extremely challenging.
Especially one that causes such strong effects in tiny doses—even the Malice Mage family couldn’t whip that up easily.
“…Even if we try to treat the patients, it’s useless. If this poison causes symptoms like my ‘Malice Hemorrhage,’ there’s no way to save them.”
Marisa said helplessly.
She had only managed to prolong life, barely.
“Many deaths are inevitable now.”
But Chris shook his head.
“That was before I arrived.”
“…What?”
“Now that I’m here, none of these patients will die.”
Marisa looked baffled.
But Chris was serious.
“There’s a way to save them even without an antidote.”
And there was an even more important reason to save the patients.
“We need to restore the patients to uncover the poison’s true nature.”
“…What do you mean?”
“All the answers lie within the patients.”
Chris’s words echoed one of the Uiseon family’s mottos.
‘Most patients are currently unconscious, so proper investigation is difficult.’
Once their consciousness was restored through treatment, a thorough investigation could begin.
This was the Uiseon family’s method called “epidemiological investigation.”
Of course, just examining patients wouldn’t reveal the poison’s identity outright.
But there was crucial information to be gained.
The route through which the poison was administered.
By tracing that route backward, they could uncover the mastermind behind this disaster.
* * *
Two days passed.
Meanwhile, public opinion within the Dark Mage family worsened.
Chris, who had gone to uncover the truth, had instead collapsed from poison.
“Look at him, all high and mighty, and now this.”
“He’s nothing special after all.”
The Malice family members, especially those loyal to Marquis Langham, sneered.
Watching this, Marquis Langham contacted someone through a communication device.
“Long time no see, Marquis Langham.”
A low, sinister voice came through.
“Long time no see, Marquis Goras.”
A shocking scene.
Chris’s suspicion that the two were colluding was true.
“How is the situation progressing?”
Marquis Goras asked.
“You needn’t worry about Grand Duke Christian of the main family who went to uncover the truth.”
Langham replied calmly.
“The plan will proceed exactly as you desire.”
A dark laugh echoed through the communication device.
“Excellent. I will never forget the price the Marquis paid for cooperating with me. He will gain the power he desires.”
“……”
“At last, the era of the Nordians is coming to an end, and a new master will rise in the Dark Maga.”
A cryptic message.
The transmission ended, and the Marquis of Langham’s gaze darkened.
His eyes shifted toward the east wing of the main estate.
The annex where the Nordians resided.
Langham’s eyes grew icy cold.
In a low, quiet voice, he said, “Everything I do is for my father.”
While the Marquis of Langham engaged in his shadowy conversation, Chris was tending to a patient.
“…How on earth did you learn to do this kind of medicine?”
Marisa whispered in shock beside him.
“I told you—I just picked it up as a hobby, more or less.”