Blood of Mercury

"What's the matter with you, Lord Arsu?"

Roland asked Chikajika with concern: "With all due respect, you don't look very good. Would you like to take a break..."

"Don't worry about it, Roland."

Akakaka's voice was unusually low and hoarse, her body was slightly hunched, and her upright posture lost her confidence.

His eyes were cold and tired, and he looked like an executioner or gendarmerie repenting to the gods. His expression is on the fine line between victim and abuser, and neither he is strong nor vulnerable can accurately describe his state at the moment.

It seemed that he knew something.

Roland's eyes fluctuated slightly.

"Did you... know something?" Roland also lowered his voice and asked Kajika.

Akakajika nodded solemnly.

He looked around and pulled Roland out. People around couldn't help but cast strange glances at him and Roland. It looked a bit like reproach, mixed with doubt and contempt.

If it wasn't for Akakaji's long red ponytail and Roland's short silver-white hair that proved their foreigner status, someone would have come to find fault at this moment.

In Caral, foreigners are always somehow respected. This is probably related to the feeling of the Caral people swaying between inferiority and arrogance.

They are outcasts after all. A humble mortal living in a country abandoned by God, who is not favored by the gods and has no miracles. Unlike those druid masters, for these ordinary people without occupations, they do not have the equality of wizards and the disgust of druids for those aloof gods.

Caral today is arguably polarizing.

Because of the influence of childhood education, most young people do not even believe in the existence of gods. In their eyes, those priests are just like wizards, evil spellcasters who extract power from the world, or liars who play some tricks. The so-called gods are nothing but an illusion they make up to deceive the foolish people.

But those old people who are old enough to remember the history of Kalar's founding and the existence of the gods are very secretive about Kalar's blasphemy. They dare not talk about similar topics at all, lest the gods will punish and destroy this sinful country directly.

Caral was still too young. If in a few decades, all the old people who remember the truth of the world die of old age, this country will be able to unite. But now, the old and new ideas are fiercely hedged. Instead, the Caral people had a strange thought mixed with inferiority and arrogance.

They look down on the foreigners enslaved by the gods, but at the same time envy their superior life because of the backwardness of Caral—even though most of them have never left the borders of Caral to see the outside world in their lives. This creates a bizarre situation in which the richer people in Caral have the more respect for foreigners. And even more contempt for Caral people; and those who have little culture or even know what the capital of the neighboring country is called, the more disrespect to foreigners, but they have to take into account the mentality of those rich and powerful lords.

Just like now, at the scene of a major disaster, a Suzer and a Fararu gathered together and pointed, but no one dared to express an opinion to them.

No one is blaming them. No one dared to come forward and ask them to join the search and rescue. On the contrary, they avoided them far away as if they were avoiding drunks. Immediately, a large piece of space was left around Roland and Chikajika.

This is also good, it saves Roland any sound insulation measures.

Roland cleared his throat, crossed his arms and asked Kajika in a low voice, "Let me guess... You know, is it something about the plague?"

"…Yes."

Akakaka nodded slowly, took a deep breath and then exhaled. He stretched out his hand to dig something from his waist, but he couldn't find it, so he retracted his hand sadly. Two hands clasped in front of chest.

"Perhaps you are wondering why I attach so much importance to this plague event... Yes, I do attach great importance to this plague, and attach great importance to it. Do you feel strange? Obviously I am not from Caral, and I don't know each other. Who are the people here. Even in my opinion, they are just some stupid people who have turned their backs on the gods, and it is better to die."

Akakajika leaned her entire body weight against the wall behind her, her hands clenching tightly against each other. He closed his eyes for a while and then said, "Not long ago, I intercepted a letter from someone to the Marquis of Saya...I think you can understand. Doing our business, collecting money and insurance Human life, although it's not a job with blood on your fingers, but you always deal with that kind of people. If you didn't have a lot of heart, you would have turned into a corpse in a ditch. "

"What did I say... Oh yes, I intercepted the letter. And I used a very wonderful technique to untie the wax seal on it, leaving no trace. It was sent by an unknown Druid, clearly wrote the details of the plague...very detailed. It's so detailed that it's easy to verify the message is true or false. But I'd rather the message is false, because if the message is true. It's really a huge catastrophe ."

Roland raised his eyebrows, but did not respond.

If he expected it well, this is probably another game planned by Farina. However, unlike the previous situation where Roland's eyes were smeared, Akakajika said this, and Roland basically understood what Farina wanted to do.

What she was going to do did not conflict with Roland's plan. It can even help Roland a little, and Roland doesn't need to risk entering the game to interfere with her plan.

After a pause, Akakaka continued: "As far as I know, this plague cannot be treated in any way. It is a real terminal illness."

"Those who are infected with the plague will have sunken bloodstains on their bodies, like ordinary bruises. This is the only symptom of this plague. People who are severely infected also have bloodstains on their clothing and houses, And all the bloodstains—both on living and dead things—continue to emit dust-like spores that infect everything around them.”

"People infected by the plague will initially have anemia, mild fainting, and decreased resistance. Then there will be fever, general weakness, and severe cough. After the bloodstains appear, there is no treatment. At this time, the patient will cough up blood, vision loss, and nausea. Vomiting, memory is severely degraded, logic is unclear, and finally it quickly deteriorates into liquefaction of internal organs and brain, and all bodily fluids begin to dry up. Seven days after death, the body will be dusted and fly in the wind... Once you touch this dust, you will become infected."

"During the entire infection process, the first two links vary depending on the individual's constitution. The onset time is about three days to two months. But once bloodstains appear, the bloodstains will be one day before sunrise and sunset. Covered all over and died utterly before sunset the next day."

When Chikajika said this, she smiled at Roland: "How do you feel?"

Roland shook his head slightly and whispered, "A huge loophole."

"Yes, a huge loophole, and this is the direct reason why I chose to bring you here," Akakajika smiled at herself, "Why does Marquis Saya have such detailed information? Since that Druid understands things Why don't you come and solve it yourself? Don't think I'm from Farrao and don't know about Druids... The Druids' prophecies are definitely not accurate to this level."

Because Farina's purpose is to show you this letter—

Roland was clear in his heart, but pretended to be confused.

So he continued: "In other words, this Druid must have some degree of understanding of this plague, or..."

"—He is the developer of the plague. Or one of them." (To be continued.)