Chapter 16: 16

For the past 2 months, Lapis watched the human continent intently. She utilized her personal connections and the funding she had in order to acquire the herb the Demon Lord had told her about.

Her work was precise.

The 200 gold from the Demon Lord, the 1,000 gold he had borrowed from the firm, and finally, the 300 gold which Lapis had personally invested. So, with a total of 1,500 gold, Lapis formed a contract with the merchant firms in the human continent. The small and medium-sized firms then formed a contract with the pharmacist guilds in the larger cities, and those pharmacist guilds formed a contract with the herb gatherers in every village.

Thus, Lapis had indirectly hired 400 herb gatherers. A tri-party agreement was formed within half a month.

After a month, she had roughly 30,000 herbs in her possession.

The small and medium-sized firms, pharmacist guilds, and herb gatherers were all delighted by this request. They laughed, saying that some rich idiot had wasted their money. To them, black herbs were useless weeds, so being able to earn money for pulling out weeds was a great way to earn some cash for some people.

Lapis then closely observed a single island on the human continent. The largest island of the White Sea, Sicilia. The Demon Lord had prophecized that the first outbreak would be here.

“Miss, why would you come to such a shabby place like this again……?”

“It is all right. I am doing this because I love my work.”

One of the employees of the public bathhouse seemed perplexed as he bowed his head.

There were several doctors stationed at this bathhouse. This man was one of them.

He thought that Lapis was some esteemed lady from a noble family. She was so warmhearted that she would come to take care of the patients here every 4 days.

‘There are always ladies like this.’

The doctor chuckled as he guided Lapis to the far side of the hot springs. Occasionally, when the daughter of a noble household is dumped cruelly by a man whom they were heavily infatuated with, they sometimes heal the scar in their hearts by taking care of patients.

“How are the patients?”

“They’re the same. They keep shouting about how their bodies hurt. Truly, if they didn’t shout all the time and reserved their strength, they would probably be running around energetically right now!”

The doctor joked. Similar to how teachers scorned their students, doctors loathed their patients as well.

Lapis gave an appropriate response.

“I see. Is there perhaps a new patient?”

“Yes, a young man was admitted just yesterday. He’s been going on and on about how his armpits and groin area hurt. At the rate of how often he complains about his headaches, his joint pains, and how his muscles feel as if they’re ripping apart, I feel like I might die before him. He does have a bad fever, though. It’s probably a summer flu.”

Lapis stopped in place. She spoke in a brusque manner.

“I wish to meet that patient first.”

The doctor didn’t have any particular reason to stop her from doing so.

The two walked down the hallway of the bathhouse before entering a certain room. The patient who was staying in the room started to groan and shout the instant the door opened.

“Aah! I’m dying, I’m dying! Everyone! I’m going to die because of this quack!”

“Damn nudist.”

The doctor huffed and puffed as he approached the bed.

“A perfectly healthy-looking guy caught a little cold and now he’s trying to chase me out of town? You should just die, you son of a bitch.”

“Oh, dear me! Now the doctor is telling me to die as well. How can I live with such anguish!? That’s right, I should die. I should hurry up and die and then plead to Satan to kill this quack as well.”

“It’s because of that very Satan that my life has become this messed up, idiot. I’ve always wanted to give that guy a nice slap, so meeting him would be perfect.”

The doctor turned and gave Lapis an awkward smile.

“Apologies, Miss. This guy is my childhood friend and he’s had a foul mouth his entire life…… Just think of him as some uneducated sap.”

“Woe is me, who knew that one day a doctor would call me uneducated? Huh? How could anyone have possibly known that a proud helmsman of the Kingdom of Sardinia had become uneducated? Hey, you quack, you weren’t like this back when you were 7 years old and spent your time shitting and pissing on the Syracuse three-way intersection…….”

“Ah! Aaaah! You crazy bastard! Don’t say something like that in front of a lady!”

The doctor blocked the patient’s mouth roughly. The patient made a noise as he resisted. Lapis sighed mentally before sitting next to the bed and assisted the doctor’s medical treatment.

It wasn’t really much of a medical treatment. The conversation mainly consisted of asking him how his day was, how he was feeling, and whether the bathwater was good or not. When the patient said that his joints hurt especially, the doctor took some blood from his forearm.

“The hot springs are pretty nice, though.”

The patient spoke in a tired tone.

“There are a lot of pretty girls and the beer tastes nice…….”

“You god damn idiot, I told you not to drink alcohol, but you went and did it anyway.”

“I can’t help it. If you take alcohol away from a seaman, then you’ll just have a corpse. Oh right, I noticed this when I was taking a bath, but a spot appeared on the underside of my forearm. Look here.”

The patient lifted his arm and revealed a black spot that was the size of a thumb.

“……!”

Lapis held her breath.

The patient and doctor continued chatting casually.

“You’re right. Huh, what could this be?”

“It probably isn’t much, but my body hurts all over, so I can’t help but feel uneasy.”

“Your stamina has dropped a lot. It hasn’t even been half a month since you came back from the war, right? It isn’t a surprise that your body would go on strike. You just have a bad cold and flu. Hurry up and rest so you can get better already.”

“You sure? Are you certain it’s only a cold? It’s a bit weird. It’s not like I only caught a cold once or twice before, but it didn’t hurt this badly those times…….”

“It’s because you’re old. You senile, old man.”

“What was that, you quack bastard?”

Pain that spreads out from the joints, a severe fever, and a symptom where certain parts of the body start to become black.

Lapis recalled the Demon Lord’s words and got up.

“Excuse me. I suddenly remembered a matter I have to attend to. I will be taking my leave.”

“Ah, is that so? All right.”

“You do not have to see me off.”

Lapis said as she stopped the doctor from getting up as well. She handed the doctor 2 silver coins before leaving the bathhouse in a hurry. The doctor glared at the patient.

“She left because of you!”

“Eh? Why is it my fault?”

“You’re such a foul-mouthed person that a noblewoman like that miss couldn’t possibly endure it. Sheesh, this is why military people are no good. They only know how to brag and care little about what other people think.”

The two men started to argue again.

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On the other side of the bathhouse, Lapis couldn’t contain the panic in her heart as she walked down the hallway. The servants politely greeted Lapis thinking she was a noble, but Lapis didn’t have the time to respond to each and every one of them.

‘He was telling the truth. His Highness Demon Lord was right.’

She had to go see the Demon Lord right away. She then had to hand in a report to her firm. This was an emergency situation!

Two days later, the patient died after his entire body had turned black.

One week later, the doctor abruptly died as well.

Up to this point, none of the townspeople realized the severity of the situation. However, after 10 days had passed, every single person that used the bathhouse died. It wasn’t until the bodies of the entire population of the city had turned black within half a month of the first death did everyone realize what was happening.

An epidemic was running rampant.

* * *

The Keuncuska Firm was not an incompetent group.

If they were incompetent, then they would have never reached the top of the demon world. Even though it was a report from a minor employee who was scorned in the company, the firm executives knew how to take things seriously when the report turned out to be true.

The Keuncuska Firm executives gathered in a conference room. They were the highest executives that had supported the firm for the past hundreds of years.

“Who would have guessed that Dantalian was a prophet. What a surprise.”

A vampire spoke in a low voice. The other executives argued back.

“Nothing is certain yet. I still believe he is nothing more than a rookie Demon Lord.”

“Hah, seriously. He prophecized an epidemic. An epidemic which no one has seen before, at that.”

An elder of the wolf tribe commented.

“Do we need any more evidence? In general, an organization should be excessively cautious when it needs to be cautious and be excessively bold when it needs to be bold. We took a typically cautious stance when the report was first handed in because there was no evidence. There is evidence now. Comrades! Do not obsess over decisions you made in the past. Obsession is…….”

“The mother of regression and the father of ignorance.”

A vampire stated.

“The president used to say that a lot. It has already been seven hundred years since the president had passed away. The reason why the 7 of us were able to maintain Keuncuska’s position at the top was because of our close relationship with the Demon Lords.”

The executives silently listened to the vampire’s words.

The executives were all equal on the surface. However, the vampire was the de facto leader. He had protected the firm longer than anyone else.

The vampire spoke impassively.

“We have personally subjugated demons that were hostile towards the Demon Lords, and, in return, the Demon Lords show us endless favors. The relationship between the Demon Lords and the Keuncuska is beyond a blood pact. Dantalian may only be rank 71st, but he is also a Demon Lord. If he truly possesses the power of divination, then the Keuncuska Firm will support him fully.”

“I won’t accept it!”

An old goblin seated at the other side of the table shouted. There were numerous wrinkles on his forehead as he scowled.

“Divination? Bollocks, your brains have finally left your skulls because of your age, huh? How could the greatest executives of Keuncuska believe in such an illogical phenomenon like divination!? If the only 6 people in the world I can call my comrades were always this naive, then why did I try to stay alive for this long? If a thief stole one of your balls, then you guys would probably politely hand them your remaining one. How can you guys hold your heads up!?”

“Oi, our small outcrier friend.”

The wolfman growled.

“Three human cities have already been wiped out. Within only half a month from the initial outbreak, three cities have already been destroyed. I have lived for hundreds of years, but I have never seen or heard about an epidemic that works this fast. Experts are already predicting the death of almost half the population. How can you treat this as a lie?”

“How am I supposed to know? In any case, it absolutely wasn’t prophecized, period.”

The old goblin turned his head away as if he were sulking.

The wolfman snorted.

“You only know how to insist on things while providing no proof. If that is what you call logical, then that is some great logic you have there. I would rather become illogical if that is the case. I sincerely hope that you do not behave like this when you are in Her Highness Paimon’s presence.”

“Ah, why are you bringing Her Highness Paimon up all of a sudden? I’m just saying that it isn’t divination!”

The vampire slowly raised his right hand.

The conference room became silent in an instant. Only the sound of the goblin huffing and puffing could be heard.

The vampire spoke to the goblin.

“Torukel, my old friend. I believe that your words have some truth in it as well.”

Once he did, the goblin started going at it again as if he had never been quiet.

“As expected of a vampire, the aristocrat of darkness! You are truly different from a wolf who only has a mouth on his head! Hey, you foolish wolf. From now on, if someone asks you who you are, then answer them saying that you’re the fusion between an idiot and a dunce. Make sure you don’t bring up the name of our company!”

The other executives let out a sigh.

Despite being the recipient of the goblin’s harassment, the wolfman didn’t get upset and simply clicked his tongue in response. Despite being an executive, that goblin’s way of speech was too rash. If he didn’t have a knack for business, then he would have been kicked out of his executive position a long time ago.

“Now then, let us hypothesize that Dantalian does not have the power of divination.”

The vampire laced his fingers.

“He prophecized the outbreak of the epidemic and the outbreak truly happened. Comrades, if this was not through the power of divination, then can you guess how else he could have known?”

“Hm? Well, obviously…… Dear Lord!”

The goblin’s eyes opened widely. The other executives also became shocked once they realized what the vampire was hinting at as well.

The vampire nodded.

“There is only one other option left. Demon Lord Dantalian had intentionally caused the outbreak himself.”

“T-There’s no way.”

“This is what I wish to believe. I wish to believe that Dantalian does indeed have the ability of divination. If he does not, then that means he has the ability to create the worst contagious disease in the world at will. Personally…… I cannot imagine how we could possibly face such a Demon Lord.”

The vampire spoke his mind. If that were to happen, then they had no way to oppose Demon Lord Dantalian.

The greatest executive of the Keuncuska Firm who usually starts by showing tolerable Demon Lords their place. The vampire had reduced Rank 25 Demon Lord Glasyla-Labolas’ dungeon to ashes simply because he did not pay his interest.

This person had raised his hands in surrender.

Gulp!

Someone in the conference room swallowed audibly.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading. Torukel is pretty different here, huh. I guess he originally had a very, uh, goblin-like personality. Well, we’re nearing the end of this section of ‘Pave 10 Paths-.’ with 2 chapters left. Maybe I’ll finish by the beginning of next week. Please keep in mind that I’ll most likely go back to translating another chapter of Handholding before coming back to this (Although I still don’t have the scans, so you’ll probably see a rather hefty batch release once I get them), so keep in mind there’ll most likely be a long gap.

I’ll see you guys in the next release.

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