Novel The Max Level Hero has Returned!

Chapter 76

Zip zip zip!! Tzzz!!

With an enormous spark, a light appeared above the territory’s town square. Then, the surroundings changed once the light went away.

This was the Ordem Territory. It was rather far from the Heins, and it was a region where tribes of the Thieves’ Guild, who looted plains and forests without settling anywhere, began operating. It had metal mines and large amounts of farmland, so it was also the family land of a venerable count. Although the territory was currently unstable due to the Thieves’ Guild turning the place upside down, it didn’t change the fact that it was quite a big and developed territory. Of course, the atmosphere was more depressing than what Davey had expected.

“Haha… It’s not pretty, is it, Big brother?” Winley said.

“Was there another attack?” Davey asked. He smelled the nasty scent of burning flesh once he amplified his senses. This odor of protein burning away was very similar to that of burnt human flesh.

The territory looked normal and quiet, but it had a strange gloominess. Looking around, Davey was starting to feel grateful that Baris and Winley had grown up so bright despite being in this kind of an atmosphere.

Winley frowned slightly. “This makes no sense… There shouldn’t be an attack from the Thieves’ Guild for a while…” Thinking that something had happened again in the territory, which had burning corpses, Winley mumbled in confusion. She thought that another incident where a large number of people had to be cremated had taken place.

“Unless these people died of an internal conflict, there’s only one thing that could’ve caused a mass burning.” With a cold gaze, Davey pointed to a group of people who were dressed in red cloth and red armor.

Looking at the red armored men who were using wagons to move the corpses of the residents, Winley widened her eyes. “W—What is this…” Her voice quavered, because she didn’t understand what exactly was going on.

“My, my, isn’t this Princess Winley? You’ve returned.” A man wearing a monocle emerged from among the knights and bowed to Winley. He wore a kind smile, but it looked odd for some reason. “My name is Count Lington. I was dispatched here from the Coalition for Disease Control… You are more beautiful than what I have heard. It seems that rumors don’t do you justice at all.”

“My apologies, but there is an important matter at hand. I think we may have to converse later.”

“Haha, I would like to as well, but the current situation is quite unfortunate.” Lington smiled awkwardly but still seemed friendly. His outward appearance was like an old-fashioned scholar. “First… I apologize for coming to the territory without notifying you, and for allowing the knights to roam freely.”

“…”

Lington squinted at Winley, who stayed silent with a complicated look on her face. He then said, “First, come in. We have just finished quarantining the royal palace that you will reside in with a magic artifact from the Holy Empire.” His words made Winley frown.

* * *

Baris wasn’t at the territory; it seemed that he was absent for whatever reason, meaning that the armored men were occupying the seigneur’s castle when he wasn’t present. This was quite a shitty situation, but there was a separate reason as to why Winley couldn’t formally complain any further.

“

Sigh

… I know that the situation may be uncomfortable, but please try to understand. Please have some tea. This is a tea brewed from beneficial herbs,” Lington offered.

“…To my knowledge, I don’t think I handed over the authority of the seigneur to you, Count Lington,” Winley replied.

“Haha…”

“Baris is the seigneur of the Ordem Territory. However, those rights belong to me when he is absent.” Winley looked displeased as she expressed her thoughts.

“I am aware. I know that it is brazen of us to come here and request for whatever we want.” This was honestly no different from a robber acting as the owner of the house when the actual owner had come back. But Lington was unperturbed. “However, as I told you before, we are from the Coalition of Disease Control.”

“…” Davey had heard about the Coalition of Disease Control before. They were a multinational organization that had special rights, since they had been acknowledged with the seals of the three empires’ emperors who had conquered the continent.

“It is true that the Coalition of Disease Control’s main purpose is to provide free medical attention all around the continent. It is an organization founded by the three wise emperors with good intentions.”

“I have heard of it, yes. However, what are the people of the coalition doing here in the territory?” Winley asked. Davey could tell that she couldn’t shake away her anxiety.

-How can you know without using [Check Information]?

‘Winley has a habit of grasping her skirt with her right hand whenever she’s anxious.’

-Your love for your younger sister is almost like a disease.

‘Why do you care that I cherish my sister this much? She is so cute.’

Winley was clearly prettier than most nobles, who were already known to mostly be quite good-looking. Her big, round eyes and cute facial features caught the attention of many sons of the nobility in the Rowane Kingdom. Rumor had it that she had rejected the marriage proposal of a foreign prince who had fallen in love with her at first sight when he had visited the kingdom for an international visit. But Davey didn’t know for what reason she had declined.

–

Tsk tsk.

Perserque stared at Davey pathetically as he explained, but he ignored her to pay attention to Count Lington.

“As you know, Your Highness, there is a wicked disease going around in the territory. The coalition is currently calling the disease, ‘Blood of the Demon’.”

“The… ‘Blood of the Demon’.”

“Yes. This nasty disease causes blue-black spots to appear on the affected and makes them cough up blood. It is fatal. This wicked illness is also known to be extremely contagious.”

Life drained out of Winley’s face, because Lington had mentioned symptoms that were the same as what Portna was experiencing. Winey hurriedly cried for help with teary eyes, “N—Now is not the time! Big brother! We have to hurry for Portna!”

“My, I have yet to greet Prince Davey. I have wanted to meet you ever since hearing about you. I heard that you have received a stigmata and that you have successfully harvested moon grass in your territory.”

“I’m fortunate that the conditions are favorable.”

Lington laughed exaggeratedly. “There is no result without a cause. It is probably because you are so extraordinary, Your Highness. Haha, I see that the shining individuals of our continent are gathered here.”

“My apologies, Count Lington, but I must leave. I have an urgent matter to take care of. Lindy!” Winley quickly shouted for Lindy, who was her lady-in-waiting, but Lindy didn’t show up at all.

“I’m sorry, but the servants of the seigneur’s palace and the knights are all under quarantine right now,” Lington explained.

“What?” Infuriated, Winley glared at Lington.

Lington answered while wiping the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. “It’s inevitable. The ‘Blood of the Demon’ is a highly contagious disease. It can be avoided if managed well, but it becomes uncontrollable if a single infected person roams free. Please understand.”

Not knowing what to do, Winley stared at Lington who bowed his head with a pale face. “B—But this is clearly an overreach of power…”

“I am aware. It is also true that we are shameless. However, Your Highness, I hope you understand that we acted according to the agreement of the Alliance of Nations. There were precedents set in the past for us to be given the authority of the territory in emergency situations,” Lington explained. “And, unfortunately, this disease is incurable, regardless of the level of holy power. It doesn’t work.”

“That can’t…be…”

“That is why we have stepped up, so please leave it to us. We will make sure to carry out an effective treatment method and give you good news.” Lington’s words were like a false commitment of good will.

* * *

There was nothing Davey could check for himself even if he spoke to Lington, because he had to go and see it for himself. He walked into the treatment center with an adequate excuse, quickly picking up the foul odor that blew toward him.

Groan

…

“It… It hurts…”

The center looked horrid. There were gruesome moans and groans of pain. There were also the bodies of residents who had already died from the disease. Portna, who was Winley’s knight, had been the only one suffering from the unknown disease at first. But numerous residents began suffering from the same thing in a matter of days. The red armored knights were loading the bodies onto a wagon and continuously burning them.

-The smell of burning corpses is sickening. My head aches.

‘Me too.’

Davey calmly walked into the center. Normally, this wouldn’t have been allowed, but he had come because he knew how to use holy magic and because Winley had pleaded so desperately.

The treatment center was a confined space made by layering several pieces of fabric. Here, people were treating quarantined patients who all had different symptoms.

‘No, instead of treatment… This is more like quarantining to prevent the worst-case scenario.’

The solution was horrendous, but also realistic in a way.

-…

Perserque covered her mouth and looked around in shock.

-I’ve never seen a disease this terrible in my lifetime…

“This disease shouldn’t exist.”

-What are you saying? And there’s a weird smell wafting through the air.

As Perserque mumbled, Davey walked into the special quarantining space where Portna was. Immediately, the strange odor intensified and assailed his sense of smell.

-Ugh…

Unlike Perserque, who immediately frowned, Davey calmly and somewhat stiffly went inside to see a woman who was tied to her bed. The woman was Portna, the escort knight whom Winley pleaded for Davey to save. Looking at the corpse-like woman, Davey said, “It smells like Blue Death Blossom.”

-Blue… What?

“Blue Death Blossom. It’s probably called the Tostart flower here.”

-I’ve never heard of it.

“It’s a rare flower that grows in extreme conditions. It’s difficult to see now.” The smell was strangely unpleasant, but was also strangely addictive. Taking it in, Davey continued to explain, “The Tostart flower is extremely poisonous.”

A drop of the flower’s essence was enough to kill hundreds of people. It was a flower loved by assassins, but it couldn’t be used if it was this difficult to obtain or harvest despite its high effectiveness.

Davey approached Portna silently and put his hand on her wrist to feel her pulse.

Thud… Thud Thud… Thud thud thud. Thud…

He could feel a weak pulse through his fingertips. Then, he released his mana to surround Portna to see through her. Since he didn’t have some high-tech equipment like a CT or an MRI available, he had no choice but to check her by using mana. This required an extremely delicate control of mana, but Davey was someone who had learned everything from Odin, the God of Mages.

Portna was so pale that she almost looked dead, but her prominent pulse indicated otherwise. She was said to have been exposed to the disease far sooner than the residents, but she was still alive when others were already dying.

“39.7 degrees Celsius. Her brain cells are going to cook,” Davey commented. Portna’s skin was as cold as a corpse, but her organs were extremely hot; her state was completely out of balance, and it was almost miraculous that she was still alive.

The disease had horrendous symptoms, outcomes, and deaths. Davey had expected this when he first heard it from Winley, but he couldn’t help but sigh at the complicated situation.

‘If Portna was a normal human, she would’ve already died by the time I got here.’

“I don’t understand. There’s no way this disease exists in this world…”

-What do you mean? Tell me, too.

“This disease was rampant in a different world. Since it’s a virus that was made in special circumstances, it’s not something like a cold, cancer, leukemia, or like the Black Plague.”

This was certainly a virus made from gene modification, meaning that this disease wasn’t natural. One could even call it a bioterror attack.

‘Even the people who made this virus died because of it.’

-It was made?

“Melting Acceleration Virus.”

-M—Melting… What?

“Melting Acceleration Virus. The method that the virus kills its host is wicked, but it is also quite contagious. It has a history of killing millions of people with one outbreak in a short amount of time. And…” Davey closed his eyes. “It took ten years to develop a cure for it. Two hundred million eight thousand people died before the cure was developed, and eighteen thousand people were saved from it. I think we’re going to have to make an antibody fast.”

Davey quickly grabbed a knife, tube, and a glass test tube that was nearby. He put holy power into the knife.

‘It’s important to disinfect.’

That was when…

“What are you doing?!” Someone’s wary voice stopped Davey.