Arc I – Beautiful World
Chapter 5 – A Great Plan, But Will It Survive Reality?
Day 5 Since the Summoning
The sun had already risen; after spending the night, the horses had almost reached the village.
The weather was vastly different from yesterday.
Instead ofbright sunshine, the sky was overcast with gray clouds, and a thick fog hung over the ground.
Alan sat, or rather fidgeted, in the saddle, holding onto Kamelia.
‘Sooo, I already don’t like this weather.
Fog and clouds are a classic omen for some fucked up shit.’
He squinted, looking into the distance.
‘Oh…
and here is the village!’
“Halt!” Kamelia shouted, stopping the horse, and instantly dismounted; the guards repeated the action.
Alan, on the other hand, began to slowly, very slowly climb down.
‘Right…
let’s remember past mistakes.’
He carefully jumped down onto the slightly damp earth, and instantly turned pale from the smell.
The village consisted of a few dozen houses, dirt roads that barely resembled roads at all, wooden huts with slanted roofs, piles of manure and mud on the shoulders, and absolutely empty streets.
Alan scratched the back of his head.
‘Yeah.
Exactly how I pictured it.’
He turned to Kamelia.
“What are we doing?”
The girl cast a sidelong glance at him.
“You are the one who volunteered to help with the sickness.”
Alan froze with his hand on the back of his head, and then smiled nervously.
“Hah…
well yeah…
right…”
‘THINK!
What’s the very first thing to do?
I need…
I need to check the sick?
Yes.
First I need to check the sick, look at their condition.
Damn…
I’ve never seen dysentery in real life…
this is gonna be very, very hard…
a traumatic experience, probably even…
STOP!
Enough thinking.
Do something!’
“First we need to check on the sick, let’s go into…” he pointed at the nearest hut.
“Into this house right here.”
Kamelia frowned.
“Are you…
certain?
My father told me one must not enter the homes of the sick, the miasmas can transfer to your body.” The guards behind them nodded, falling into a line.
Alan scratched his cheek.
“Sound advice, but dysentery isn’t transmitted…
I mean, dysentery isn’t transmitted through the air, only if you drink contaminated water or eat contaminated food.”
The girl raised an eyebrow.
“That is…
very well.
So be it.
Since you have put your own head on the line, you must surely know something.”
Alan paled slightly at the reminder; one of the guards behind Kamelia casually tapped his fingers on the hilt of his blade.
Alan swallowed hard, staring at the sword.
“Y-yeah…
of course…” he muttered, and then coughed, a bit too loudly; the echo carried through the empty, fog-covered streets.
“Then…
then let’s go into this house.
Don’t touch anything with your hands…
And we should cover our hands and faces with something…” he muttered.
Kamelia turned from the house to him.
“Cover them?
Will that help against the miasmas?”
Alan took a deep breath.
‘You’re really getting on my nerves with your miasmas.’
“Yes, exactly to protect against miasmas,” he replied, gritting his teeth.
“Do you have any clean cloths?”
Kamelia blinked.
“Clean?
Well…
unlikely.”
Alan ran his hands through his hair.
‘Mein Gott, what an indescribable idiot I am!
I got so caught up in planning that I completely forgot about basic protective equipment!
Maybe tear my shirt into masks at least?
No, not an option, it’s already covered in sweat and my blood.
What should I do…’
He turned to Kamelia.
“Listen, where’s the closest village to this river?
Not one of these six.”
Kamelia blinked.
“I…
do not know.” She turned to one of the guards, a man around thirty with thick stubble.
“Tirgo, I believe you are a local?”
Tirgo took a step forward.
“Yes, my lady.
The village of Holmvel is not far from here, roughly an hour on horseback.”
The girl nodded to the guard.
“There is your answer.
What next?”
Alan kneaded the hem of his shirt.
“Here’s the thing…
we need a clean blanket.
Preferably one you don’t mind ruining.
Or at least a clean one, and we’ll clean it later.
And gloves too!” He held up his hands.
“I know, I know!
I forgot!
But it can’t be helped.”
Kamelia pressed her lips together, but nodded.
“Tirgo, take two men with you and bring us this…
blanket and gloves.”
The man nodded.
“Yes, Your Grace.” He nodded to the two guards next to him, and they silently went to their horses.
Alan watched the guards mount their steeds.
‘Well…
in theory, we could take blankets here and boil them thoroughly.
But damn it, that’s in theory!
I’m not a hundred percent sure!
Who knows what condition blankets from the epicenter of dysentery are in.
I shouldn’t take any chances, it is my head on the line after all.’
Silence fell, broken only by the gentle babbling of the nearby river.
Kamelia exhaled.
“Well done.
You sent the guard away, and they will be gone for roughly three hours.
What shall we do in the meantime?”
“Let me think…” Alan said, scratching his cheek.
‘Okay, we have three free hours, like she said.
What can be done in that time?
Start preparing my plan?
Or at least gather the locals?
No…
without primitive personal protective equipment, I shouldn’t even stick my nose anywhere.
There’s no point.
So then what…
maybe try to find the source of the infection?
Hey, not a bad idea!
If we ride upstream, maybe we’ll find the root of the problem.
If not…
well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, we have nothing to lose.’
He looked at Kamelia, who was waiting patiently, tapping a finger on her wrist with her arms crossed.
“I think we should take a look upstream.”
Kamelia raised an eyebrow.
“Why?
What do you expect to find there?”
Alan sighed.
‘Oh no, it’s too long to explain…
maybe ‘because I said so’ will work?’
“Because I said so,” he said.
“I did put my head on the line after all, and I warned you that my actions would be strange.”
Kamelia narrowed her eyes.
“Yes, you did.
But I wish to know.
Even if I do not fully understand.
Would you like to do something without even understanding why?”
Alan froze for a second, then raised a hand.
“Fair point.
Listen then.” He lowered his hand.
“I don’t know if this will get through to you or not, but sicknesses don’t just appear out of nowhere, there’s a cause.”
Kamelia scoffed.
“Naturally there is a cause.
Miasmas, or the punishment of Svyatol for sins.
What next?”
Alan shut his mouth.
‘Damn it…
you’re on about your Svyatol again.
I am so sick of this!
How do I talk my way out of this now?
How do I explain the causes of infection so that she doesn’t perceive it as doubting her faith?
That’s the eighth “prohibition” I think…
alright…
just tell it like it is.’
“Listen, I’m gonna say something now, but don’t think that I’m…
doubting or anything.” He made a vague gesture with his hand.
“Everything is…
well…
not entirely because of what you said.”
‘Perfect.
Don’t mention this Svyatol directly, don’t provoke her.’
The guards behind them stood straight but kept their ears open.
His heart began to beat a little faster, his hands clenching into fists.
“Look.
Let’s assume that people upstream are defecating in the river.
Right?”
Kamelia nodded.
“Well, yes.”
“So,” Alan continued, “because of this, poison appears in the river.
The waste releases poison into the river, which flows downstream, and people drink this poison, which makes them sick.”
Her eyes widened slightly; she remained silent for about ten seconds, then lowered her hands.
“But…
how can that be?
Everyone does it, and has always done it.
What is the matter with that?
How can waste be poisonous?
It…
yes, it stinks, but poisonous?”
Alan waved his hand.
“I explained it to you, just like I promised, and whether you understand it or not is your business.”
Kamelia took a step closer.
“Is that so?
And how am I to know if this is even true?”
He spread his hands.
“Well, let’s go see for ourselves upstream!
I warned you about strange actions.” He took a step forward in response.
“What do you propose?
Stick around here?
Let’s at least go take a look, and you can see for yourself if I’m lying or not.”
The countess looked him in the eyes for another twenty seconds without uttering a word, then turned to the guards.
“I know you are eavesdropping, carry it out.”
The two froze; one swallowed slightly.
“Yes, Your Grace!” They ran to unhitch the horses from the trees.
Alan exhaled, quietly, unnoticeably.
‘I thought I was gonna get flogged right in that square.
Good, it worked.’
After about forty minutes of galloping along the river, the three riders and Alan, who was wincing as he sat behind Kamelia, passed another kilometer of the river.
The same fog, only the slope gradually rose.
Suddenly, Alan saw something massive in the river, hidden behind a light white fog.
“Stop!
Right here!”
Kamelia pulled back on the reins, stopping the horse; the guards stopped as well.
The girl looked where Alan was pointing.
“There is something in the river there…”
He carefully climbed down from the horse and stepped closer.
Suddenly, he smelled a pungent, almost toxic stench of rot; bile instantly rose to his throat, and he immediately plugged his nose.
‘FUCK!
What is that?!
It’s…
it’s not just some dead cow!
I know what dead animals smell like, it’s something similar…
but like a hundred times worse.’
Kamelia immediately plugged her nose, waving her hand near her face.
“Disgusting…”
Even the two guards behind them instantly pinched their noses with their fingers.
“What is that?” Alan asked.
Kamelia shook her head.
“I do not know, shall we go take a look?”
Alan nodded.
“Yeah.
But you realize we can’t touch it or get close, right?”
She cast a sidelong glance at him.
“Do you take me for a complete fool?”
Alan shook his head.
“Just in case.” Then he walked straight toward the source of the smell.
The river was quite shallow in this spot, about knee-deep, and littered with rocks.
Alan jumped onto the nearest rock in the river and peered closer; the visibility was sufficient.
He froze.
Before him was an animal, if you could call it that.
Something the size of a cow, resembling a rhinoceros in build, but without a horn.
The torso was covered in half-rotted fur; ribs and rotting meat were already visible on the belly.
The paws looked like a cross between a bear’s and an elephant’s; it had a long tail resembling a dog’s, and sharp teeth.
‘…’
His mind drew a blank; then he sharply jumped back to the shore, breathing heavily through his mouth, cold sweat breaking out on his back.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”
Kamelia did not take her eyes off the corpse.
“Do not yell like that.
It is simply a jerkos, a type of beast.”
Alan pointed his finger at the jerkos.
“Simply a beast?!
Why didn’t you warn me that creatures like this roam around here?!
I specifically asked you!”
The countess turned to him, still pinching her nose.
“You only asked me about races.
There was no mention of animals.
Furthermore, how am I supposed to know which animals are strange to you and which are not?
I do not know how it was in your world.”
Alan opened his mouth, then closed it.
‘Alright.
Calm down.
You’re in another fucking world.
Of course there are weird beasts here besides different races!
Though…
she reacted so calmly, it seems this jerkos is to her what a…
I don’t know…
a bear is to me.
Whatever, moving on.’
“It is strange what it is doing here,” Kamelia suddenly said.
“They rarely venture out of the forest.”
Alan turned to her.
‘Forest…
forest…
I think there’s one in the east of the county?
Judging by the map.’
“The one in the east of the county?” he asked.
Kamelia nodded, examining the corpse.
“Yes.
Many animals live in the forests.
Strange ones to you, I take it.
They rarely venture onto the plains.”
“To look for food, most often,” one of the guards behind them suddenly said; everyone turned to him.
Kamelia scratched her chin with her free hand.
“To look for food…” she froze.
“That is right!
Do you remember there were recent complaints about people going missing right by this river?”
One of the guards nodded.
“Yes.
And…
I believe I understand what you mean.” He pointed a finger at the jerkos corpse.
“It was devouring people in this spot.”
Alan squatted down.
‘Makes sense, ecology!
But another question arises.
Why the hell did this beast die right here in the river?
I doubt they have an instinct to die in water, let’s rule that option out.
The most logical thing…
is that someone killed it and dumped it in the river…
hey, that’s entirely possible.
But whatever, that’s beside the point right now.
We found the cause of the infection, but how do we pull this behemoth out of the river?
It must weigh as much as a car.’
He turned to Kamelia.
“Listen, we need to…
I don’t know…
pull this piece of shit out, burn it, whatever.
Anything so it’s not in the river, otherwise people will keep dying.”
The girl nodded.
“If you say so…
hmm…
pulling it out is unlikely to work, it must be heavy.
But burning it…
hmm…
I believe I have an idea.”
Alan raised his hands.
“Whoa, I was exaggerating!
Burning it will only make it worse!
We have to pull the corpse out of the river.”
‘Pull it out, right, but how?
I doubt they have excavators here.
Unless…
I read in a textbook once that they used horses to pull things out.
We could try that, but first…
why did Kamelia suddenly bring up fire?
She’s not stupid; she perfectly understands that it’s impossible to burn something in the water.
I should ask.’
“Listen, what was your idea about fire back there?”
Kamelia turned away from the corpse to Alan.
“We have a fire mage in our county.”
Alan’s eyes widened.
‘A FIRE MAGE?!
THAT’S JUST…
oh, wait.
Totally forgot.
I was summoned with magic myself, and they kinda tested my magic too.
Oh fuck…
this world is very, very hard to get used to.’
“And do you think this fire is strong enough to counter water?”
The countess nodded.
“Yes, his fire is far stronger than a regular campfire.
His name is Grakko, he is the best fire mage in our county.”
Alan opened his mouth, but fell into thought.
‘Wait…
we still have to put this carcass somewhere afterwards.
Burying it isn’t an option, it’ll poison the soil.
But burning it somewhere in a wasteland…
alright, this fire mage isn’t so useless after all.
Well then, the plan has shaped up to be pretty multi-step.
Check on the sick, pull out the corpse, teach hygiene and prevention, burn the corpse in a wasteland somewhere…’
He began massaging his forehead.
‘Aaaah!
It gets harder by the hour!
I thought it would be way easier!’
Alan exhaled.
‘Alright.
Alright.
My head is on the line, that’s great motivation, even better than five grand a month.
Let’s go.
Do or die.’