SYSTEM : Current progress of Trial is at 95%.“Whew....”
The situation was finally under control.
SYSTEM : The probability of the Bad Ending is currently 81%.The chances of getting a ‘clear’ was still on the low end. But if he recalled how it once used to be at 93%, things were much better now.
There were two main ways to get through the First Trial, commonly known as ‘The Black Death’, without incident.
One of them was for Dr. Sephia to create the cure after nurous trial and errors.
But that’ll take too long.
There was nothing more painful than enduring through sothing you didn’t know when it’d end. The standard strategy worked for the first route but it had been pointed out that it made the player passive.
Especially since the quarantine net had already been breached. Even the health care workers who’d been strict with their personal hygiene started getting sick and with the incubation period being all over the place, it was hard to set a quarantine period for close contacts.
He did as much as he could in the initial response, but only the Academy had been protected. If he dragged this out, then he might not be able to et the condition for the Happy Ending.
Hence, Verl decided to go with the second strategic route.
The hidden route to clear the Black Death scenario, and the figure at the heart of it.
Aether.
A character who originally didn’t have much to do with this Trial.
But in the story following the Black Death Trial, the player would realize that the one who spread this plague was closely connected to Aether.
Regarding ‘hierarchy’ alone, Aether was so ranks above that plague doctor. Aether might not rember, but that plague doctor would have known who she was from before.
The route was simple.
[Devise an encounter between ‘Dark Day Aether’ and ‘Entero of Pestilence’.]That much was enough for the plague doctor to misunderstand on his own and withdraw from the capital. If first-ti players stumbled upon this route, it wouldn’t be weird for them to question the developer about the plausibility of it.
The problem was not having a proper cause.
He hadn’t had a good reason to take Aether to the sewers on 672nd Street where Entero would appear. With the mosquitoes being the dium for the Black Death, it would’ve been suicidal to go down to the place infested with them.
─ What for? Why would I want to go there?
Anyone would react that way. And if you actually suggested this to other main characters like Lotte or Freyr, they answered with sothing similar.
But there wasn’t ti. Through brainstorming, Verl did his best to co up with several ways to persuade Aether.
The chances of Aether accepting his suggestion would normally have been less than 1% no matter the reason. He sohow had to achieve that brutal probability that sent many players on a reset marathon1 in one shot. Preparing a good, Verl called Aether.
And then.
─ Just give money and I’m down.
Those insane odds had been easily beaten.
He had expected the persuading process to be grueling, but that prediction was off by a long shot.
Is she the sa person that I know?
Verl even brought up that idea again.
He had also considered the possibility of Aether being a transmigrator. That would’ve been the best case scenario and made achieving the Happy Ending easier.
But if Aether was a player, then she would’ve tried to put off developing Flare for as long as possible. Because it was a well-known fact even for two-day-old newbies that the Black Death Trial was instigated through Flare.
On the other hand, a non-player being the possessor? That made even less sense. The comprehension of magic demonstrated by the girl during class was comparable to that of an Elental King.
Most of all, the fact that she completed Flare three months earlier than the original story showed that it was definitely the soul of the body.
Who knows. It could be a Nobel Prize winner who’s inside.... No, would that be improbable.
She was soone inscrutable no matter how much he tried to figure it out.
Aether readily agreed to accompany him down to the underground waterway. In return, she asked for one gold piece.
Verl had brought with him a decent amount of money from Kaurelia so he could easily spend a gold piece or two. In fact, there was no better outco than being able to eradicate the plague for a single gold.
SYSTEM : Current progress of Trial is at 98%.“It’s done.”
With a satisfied smile, Verl returned to his dorm.
Two more weeks, the ti it was going to take for Dr. Sephia to make the cure. If they just held out until then, everyone in the Academy was going to survive.
“Now I can focus on the First Prince.”
The second Trial following , . To skip this Trial, he had to save the First Prince who was imprisoned in the palace dungeons.
Verl was at this desk in the midst of thinking about detailed preparations.
─ Vrrrrmm.
The hotline within the dorm began to ring.
**“Kehugh, khek.”
Lotte collapsed.
Bright red blood seeped through her lips, appearing like the petal of a crimson flower. Lotte tried to rise but she couldn’t hold herself up. Gripping the bed post, the girl crumpled helplessly.
Lotte was a healthy child who’d never even shown signs of a cold until now. My brain montarily froze at seeing how pale she had beco.
“You, what’s wrong...?”
“T-talk.......”
“Talk? You can’t speak?”
Lotte barely nodded.
Why is she suddenly like this...?
Holding her throat, Lotte breathed with difficulty.
When I felt around her neck, there was so kind of hard lump. Then when I put my hand on her forehead, it was like touching the lid of a hot cauldron.
“I, I–.......”
It was like my head got shot.
I knew in my head what to do in this case, but my body didn’t imdiately move like I wanted. It was several seconds after that I snapped out of it.
It might already be too late, but I quickly wore a protective mask and grabbed the receiver in the room. Following the instructions for hotline use in ergency situations, I dialed soone.
Where the hotline was connecting to wasn’t the general hospital full of dical personnel, nor was it the Imperial Disaster Managent Headquarters with all the quarantine specialists.
The one who’d grasp everything and provide the optimal solution.
[Hello?]
Verl Horde.
No, the person who I’ve nad as a transmigrator from my world. Only he’d have the answer.
After taking a deep breath, I spoke in a calm voice.
“...Horde, I think Lotte is infected.”
[... Wait there.]
That was the end of the conversation. The last thing heard was soone running outside, then the receiver disconnected.
There wasn’t much I could do in the anti. There was nothing, actually. I could only bite on my lip as I watched my roommate’s condition worsen by the minute.
I didn’t know how long it was. Verl arrived faster than expected.
Along with two people in fully-ard hazmat suits.
Only ten minutes had passed between calling the hotline and arriving here. It was an insanely quick first response. This was why there hadn’t been any deaths in the Academy.
One of the people Verl had brought was Dr. Sephia Glyston. The laidback infirmary teacher with two-tone hair who used citrus-scented perfu. She examined Lotte’s condition, then opened her mouth.
“It’s still in the early stages. As long as it’s properly taken care of, we can prevent her from ‘ironizing’.”
Ironizing, the symptom which gave this world’s Black Death its na.
When the illness reached terminal stages, the skin beca tallic or coal-like. I didn’t know why that was since I wasn’t an expert. But one thing was for certain–it was a symptom that couldn’t be fixed with modern dicine once it occurred.
“I’ll show you how to make an oral rehydration solution (ORS) for patients so watch closely.”
The oral rehydration therapy (ORT) that Dr. Sephia taught was a little different from the one I knew back on Earth. I learned that you needed to mix the solution extracted from a citronella bark in addition to salt and sugar.
“Were you without a mask?”
“... Yes.”
Although the primary cause of this world’s version of the Black Death were flying insects like mosquitoes, it could transmit directly from person to person like Earth’s pneumonic plague. In that case, the average incubation period was about four days and it ca with additional symptoms like coughing and chest pain.
Lotte and I had spent at least three months together. If her sickness was only just beginning, then it ant that I’d be exhibiting the sa symptoms within a week.
“... Huu.”
A mont of silence. The air in the room sat heavily.
who was only in a mask. The three in front who were wearing thick full-body hazmat suits.
I’d persevered all this ti and now I was going to die? I didn’t know. There was no itchy throat or stiffening of the body. But sothing that bothered was the headache I’d been having every morning when I woke up.
“.......”
Unlike the first plague caused by mosquito bites, the second one transmitted via droplets had a worse prognosis.
Lotte was also aware of this; I could tell from the look in her eyes. She was the one in imdiate pain, yet the way she was concerned about who still had a small chance of being okay was, seriously... so frustrating.
Idiot.
That was indeed the only word that could describe Lady Saliere.
Footnotes
1. The process of resetting a ga until the player gets the desired character/items
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