Capítulo 779: 145. Highly Poisonous or Antidote (7k)_2
Fisher was well aware that what now appeared before his eyes was rely an illusion conjured by Dream Magic, yet he couldn’t help but sigh because if these scenes could manifest in a dream, it ant that soone had once truly witnessed these images—otherwise they couldn’t have been constructed in the dreamscape, just like the pale shade Valentina had seen in her dreams.
Fisher watched the young life that had perished amidst the crowd, then slowly stood to move forward, and soon amidst these people-stacks, taller than mountains, he saw a rarity—people still moving.
They were several individuals dressed in heavy black robes, with both horses and oxen fallen ill, lacking the beasts needed to carry the endlessly arriving, dood patients. They resorted to human strength to push carts piled high with dozens of corpses onward.
These individuals in black robes had a uniform appearance, clothed in heavy coats that were especially sweltering in this weather. Without a doubt, rely wearing these garnts while standing in Schwali’s sumr heat would imdiately drench one in sweat, making breathing exceedingly difficult. Yet for these people, the black robes were but the most basic of requirents.
Markedly characteristic was what they wore on their heads—seemingly crude masks made from so kind of leather, with elongated, bird-like beaks stretching from their cloaks. Glass lenses, akin to eyeglasses, were fitted at the eye openings, magnifying the exhaustion and pain hidden behind those masks.
Above their robes, at the chest level, was first a naplate inscribed with Schwali script, typically bearing the individual’s na followed by their hotown, and below the naplate, a slender treasure sword was drawn, thrust into the head of a dying serpent.
Rember, in the creation myth of the Mother Goddess, she saved an injured little rabbit, and after eating an apple gifted by the rabbit, she bore the child “Human.” Actually, the true “Human” in this religious allegory of a story was that very injured rabbit.
The rabbit had been bitten by a venomous snake in the forest, and in the teachings of the Mother Goddess Sect, that serpent represented suffering and disease. Therefore, the act of the Emperor slaying the giant snake at the founding of Schwali held profound symbolic aning; it signified that the struggles and oppression the Schwali people faced were coming to an end.
In other words, bearing the symbol of a sharp sword implanted in the head of the venomous snake also signified the identity of the figures before him…
They were doctors, who had sworn before the doctrines of the Mother Goddess to combat disease and suffering with every bit of their knowledge.
Nali’s historical records seldom ntioned the epidemic that plagued Schwali, because it was the epidemic that halted Schwali’s assault on Nali, pulling the nation back from the brink of extinction to the negotiation table. The Nali people remained silent about that disgraceful history, just as Balzac had said. It was already challenging for Fisher to grasp a general understanding of the epidemic’s ergence.
Watching the doctors in front of him, coughing while they transported the bodies, Fisher silently furrowed his brow. Those crude dical masks were utterly inadequate against the terrifying assault of the Death Rot Disease. The doctors on the front lines faced imnse risks of infection, and even with their life and knowledge exhausted, many of them could only persist in burning endless amounts of bodies.
“Cough, cough…”
One of the doctors pushing the cart fell to the ground in a bout of painful coughing. Yet, the colleagues pushing the cart next to him seed numb as they threw the doctor, already succumbing to death, onto the cart with the rest, dousing the pile of corpses with oil and silently observing the fragile Flas consu the bodies.
It was at this mont that Fisher realized that every doctor’s naplate bore the sa na:
“Torga Dalair.”
Fisher continued forward with a frown, passing the largest mound of corpses, over the foul stench carried by the hot sumr wind, and suddenly before him, he saw a figure dressed very similarly to the doctors, holding a notebook and collecting pus excreted by the Dead Rot Patients with so container.
Fisher paused, watching the figure clad in the thick beaked mask, with a hint of red hair peeking out from the black cloak, running tirelessly through the epidemic zone. He observed the doctor persist day after day in research, undeterred amidst the stench of death and pus-ridden surroundings, ceaselessly handling the bodies.
“Whoosh~”
A gust of putrid air passed by, scattering thesis papers full of Schwali script, drafts, and experintal evidence. Blood-stained sheets covered by the blurred ti and years of the dream realm fluttered about, and Fisher clutched many scattered manuscripts, seeing only the conclusions, but there were many more—more that he did not see, processes that countless days of repeated deaths and the witnessed ravaged lands had attested to.
“On the Origin of Death Rot Disease, Hypothesis One: Magic Power Source”
“On the Origin of Death Rot Disease, Hypothesis Two: Schwali Long-tailed Rat Mutation Theory”
“General Theory on the Origin of Death Rot Disease: Death Rot Disease Pathogen”
…
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“General Theory on the Prevention and Treatnt of Death Rot Disease”
“Study on the Antagonism of Schwali Casie Grass Secondary Secretions against Pathogens: First Theory of Failure”
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