291 – Poison Route

Hibi has died. I thought I must have misheard, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.

From what they’re saying, she noticed some suspicious presences outside and went to go look with her attendants, then was killed. The inside of my head goes pure white. I stand in mute shock at the edge of the village, listening to what they are saying.

『Hey… Partner…』

……

『That is… Anyway, wouldn’t it be better to heal these guys?』

…A-ahh, that’s right. There’s people on the verge of death… I don’t know what the situation is, but that comes first. Having…lost their intermediary with the dragon-god, Hibi, they have to be pretty anxious. To calm their nerves, I want to start healing right away. Is that okay, partner?

『S-sure…』

I move close to the particularly ill-looking man whose status I looked at before, Roji. His eyes are closed and his breathing is rough. The hand he rests on the wall is clenched in agony. Beside him, a woman he must know is flustered.

Noticing my approach, Roji opens his eyes and sheds tears.

“F-for dr-dragon-god-sama to worry about a person like me…”

Roji says as though satisfied, the strength fading from his hand. His body slips and his face hits the wall. Then his knees buckle weakly as he collapses to the ground. 

The woman beside him screams and holds his upper body. The other Lithovars also clamour in worry and rush over.

“Th-that’s why I told you to rest!”
“His family were meant to stop him!”
“It couldn’t be helped! When Roji heard that dragon-god-sama had come…”

I signal her with my eyes, and my partner nods slightly in return.

“Gaah”

She uses [High Rest]. Roji is wrapped in gentle light, his complexion quickly improving. The Lithovars watch over him with bated breaths, but when he cracks open his eyes, they cry out “Ooh!” in joy.

“I’m… alive?”

With eyes round, he gets up.

“I-I thought it was completely hopeless…”
“Amazing, that’s dragon-god-sama’s healing magic for you!”

The Lithovars rouse. The gloomy atmosphere has been dispelled a bit.

…Thanks, partner. If I’d stayed absent-minded, it might have been too late. Anyway, we need to quickly heal the rest of them.

Nevertheless, it’s surprising to see you take action for humans when you’re usually so indifferent about them. Is something maybe changing inside you as chances to interact with the villagers increase?

『…It was strange for you to be shocked that much, is why. 』 

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Ah… Thanks for worrying about me.

Looking at his status, the [Poisoned] and [Paralysed] have become [Poisoned (minor)] and [Paralysed]. Checking again after another use of [High Rest], they change to [Poisoned (minor)] and [Paralysed (minor)]. With one more use, the status conditions have completely disappeared. It looks like paralysis and poison can be reduced through [High Rest], more or less. Since [Rest] line of skills work by giving the target life force to stimulate their natural healing capacity, that that might have gone without saying.

It’s a great discovery, but having to heal them beyond their maximum HP is bad for efficiency. Especially since I have no idea how many I need to treat.

I want to hear what they have to say, but… I’m not sure whether or not I should use [Humanisation Technique]… Probably, if I became a human, the village would panic. With time, I’m sure they’d understand, but with MP being so important now, I don’t want to waste it on [Humanisation Technique] if I can help it.

About Hibi…and these status conditions… There’s lots of things I’m curious about, but what’s most important is ensuring there are no more deaths. I go around the village while my partner heals people with [High Rest]. Putting off the curing of the status condition, she’s using the minimum amount of MP for [High Rest], prioritising the relief of their symptoms.

In total, this village has around three hundred people… It seems over half of them are suffering from these strange conditions. Looking at the statuses of the remaining half, I can see that they also have the conditions, and their HP is being chipped away. They’ll soon need [High Rest], too. What’s worse is that the people whose symptoms I alleviate are soon suffering again. My MP is meant to be bottomless, but with this much, the bottom is visible. Why has this happening…?

As I’m going around healing people, [High Rest] increases from level 6 to 7, then [Brave Hero] also increases from level 6 to 7. Listening to their conversations, I learn some new things.

Hibi and her attendant’s corpses bore sword wounds, and also had traces of having been moved. It’s clearly the work of an outsider. No one in the Lithovar village uses a sword. Everyone here uses spears by choice.

There’s also talk about whether or not Derek who came by the village recently is suspicious. He didn’t seem like a bad guy, but…it’s unthinkable that he was coincidentally loitering around in the area now that this has happened. A sudden visit from an outsider…the murder of the dragon-god’s miko, Hibi…a mysterious poison… It’s probably correct to assume they’re all related.

What’s more, is that the Lithovars have absolutely no idea what the poison causing their symptoms is. Almost at the exact same time as they found Hibi’s body, the villagers started feeling ill. The onset was fastest in those with weak bodies, but other than that they had no points in common, as it was not as though they had all gone to somewhere strange or eaten anything weird. I can only think it’s affecting them indiscriminately. Where could it possibly be…

Suddenly I remember that Hibi’s body had apparently been dragged… Doesn’t that mean the guys that killed her didn’t want the location she was killed to be found?

She noticed a strange presence near the village, went towards it, and was killed. Maybe it was the ones who came to prepare the poison. If they don’t want the place they killed her to be found, then that must mean that it’s the place where they prepared the poison.

But for a poison set up outside the village to make its way in so smoothly is strange. There must be some sort of vector.

For people to have eaten the exact same food would be rare. What the villagers must have all ingested in common… Could it be the water?

The moment I think that, I use [Status Inspection] on a nearby water barrel.

【[Cursed Water Barrel: Value F-]】
【A barrel filled with cursed water.】
【Those who drink the water inside will be inflicted with various status conditions.】

They did it to the river… Probably, Hibi was killed on the riverside.

…The target is probably the entire Lithovar tribe. Adofu said to me that they’re feared as a tribe of demons. It also looks like they were capturing passers by and sacrificing them to the manticore. It wouldn’t be strange for them to have incurred someone’s enmity.

But what they did was necessary to save their own lives from the manticore. Quite a few sacrifices would have come from the village too. Plus, with the manticore gone, the Lithovars want to treat travellers kindly. That much was clear from Hibi’s attitude towards Derek. Once people come into contact with them, they’ll soon realise that they’re the same flesh-and-blood humans as themselves.

Probably, there are those who hate the Lithovars without ever having seen their faces. They killed Hibi who came to them without a will to fight, then strewed a curse into the river to weaken the whole village. Their methods are all too cold-blooded.

Probably, the ringleader had someone they knew abducted by the Lithovars. They must have thought it unforgivable and sought revenge. I can’t say that I completely don’t understand their feelings. But even so… I’m sorry, but I can’t contain my anger. With restless feelings, I clench my teeth.

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