<Chapter 124>
#14. The Calm Before the Storm (6)
A silence fell after Calix’s bombshell statement. Though it wasn’t particularly difficult to understand, Calix added a more detailed explanation for those who couldn’t follow.
“While grass grew abundantly elsewhere, not a single blade of grass was growing in the area where the village was located.”
“…A drought…?”
“That’s right.”
Nodding, Calix added further explanation as he looked at Malek, who seemed to be furrowing his brow, not quite understanding the situation.
“Recently, drought conditions have been occurring in parts of the continent. In fact, it’s closer to desertification. Part of the journey I took with Melty was to confirm this situation.”
“…I never heard anything about this?”
Looking at Malek whose expression had hardened, Calix nodded slightly and continued.
“That’s because it hasn’t been widely announced yet. The areas affected by drought are literally just parts, and most of them are small plots of land, so everyone has been treating it as insignificant.”
“It’s understandable that you wouldn’t know. The drought areas have been gradually expanding, and only recently have people started recognizing the problem and discussing it…”
Angel nodded deeply as he added explanation to Calix’s words. Turning his gaze to Angel sitting beside him, Malek pressed the area near his eyebrows with his hand, wearing a tired expression.
“If it’s not known in other regions either, it’s practically an isolated situation. Are you certain it will spread to other areas?”
“There’s no need to doubt the spread within the village. The traces were all identical.”
Calix continued in a composed voice. Looking at the traces of the village that had turned into ruins, it seemed that the people who had lived there had died quite some time ago. The faint bloodstains on the crumbling walls of houses and worn items made it possible to roughly guess the situation.
“I’ve heard about a new type of disease with unknown cause or treatment. Moreover, the area where this disease occurred was also experiencing drought.”
At Calix’s calm explanation, Melty could easily recall when that conversation had taken place. Melty had been present during that conversation.
“Who was the source of that information?”
“…Johaim. It was Johaim-ssi.”
Melty’s eyes wavered as he answered Malek’s question instead of Calix. With his hands on the floor, Melty leaned his upper body toward Calix and urgently spoke.
“B-but! Johaim-ssi said he would look into it and contact us, but there’s been no word yet.”
“He might not have discovered anything yet, or he might not have been able to contact me. The situation was what it was, right?”
“That’s true…”
Melty quietly agreed with Calix’s words. As he said, there was a good possibility that they hadn’t received Johaim’s contact. They hadn’t returned directly to the Padrian mansion after meeting Johaim, and they had spent quite a lot of time at Durasen Botenta’s mansion.
“But there seems to be something more important. If it’s an epidemic, you might be infected right now, isn’t that the case?”
“…That’s right. We need to be careful.”
“Melty. Don’t come into contact with that guy, come over here.”
At Calix’s words, accompanied by a bitter smile, Malek hurriedly led Melty away. Looking at Melty’s brown eyes as he took a seat behind Malek with a bewildered expression, Calix felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
“I can’t keep my brother close to someone who might have caught an infectious disease. He has a weak constitution too.”
“Hey, brother. I’m not that sick anymore.”
“Shhh! Stay still.”
“…It’s true though…”
Mumbling and slightly pushing his opinion, Melty had no choice but to close his mouth when faced with Malek’s stern expression. Calix also kept seeing Melty’s dejected figure, but he agreed with Malek’s decision.
Because his blessing was ‘Immunity,’ he thought there wouldn’t be a big problem for himself, but he couldn’t be sure if it would affect others. From the sensations he felt, he could be confident that he wasn’t infected. But when he heard Malek murmur, “You never know,” even his own confidence felt shaky. He had to be extra cautious considering it was Melty’s safety at stake.
“I agree with Brother’s opinion.”
“……”
Malek’s face crumpled at the word ‘Brother’ uttered by Calix. Melty, sitting behind him, clearly showed signs of shock, having not expected Calix to say such a thing.
“We should observe for about three days first. Since it wasn’t feasible to convey the situation from the outside, we had this conversation here, so that’s how you should understand it.”
“B-but it might not be an epidemic.”
“Yes. Still, it’s better to be careful.”
Melty pressed his lips shut at Calix’s soothing words.
‘Who are you to say that.’
Melty’s eyes, looking at Calix with displeasure for freely roaming such dangerous places, quickly filled with worry.
“I’m fine, really. Nothing’s certain yet, and it’s just speculation for now. But I thought everyone should know, so I shared it. Tomorrow’s schedule will proceed without changes.”
At Calix’s clean summary of the situation, all those gathered nodded their heads up and down. With that, the meeting was quickly wrapped up. Malek was the first to lead Melty out. He kept examining Melty with eyes full of concern and worry.
“Why aren’t you leaving?”
After Melty and Malek had disappeared, Calix questioned Angel, who was hesitating and remaining inside. At his question, Angel, who had been gauging the situation, cautiously opened his mouth.
“Well, something occurred to me.”
“What occurred to you?”
Calix, not hiding his annoyance and threatening that he wouldn’t let it slide if it was useless talk, made Angel rub the back of his neck. It might be blowing things out of proportion, but because of the ‘what if’ scenario, he had to tell Calix.
“The disease you discovered occurs in drought areas, right?”
“Yes. Probably?”
“Could it be because of ‘Avartia’?”
“I don’t know about that. People don’t usually live in areas where Avartia grows.”
Rubbing the back of his neck vigorously, Calix exhaled deeply. He still felt the lingering presence of Melty’s hands, which had been busily moving around just moments before, offering to dry his wet hair.
“But why do you ask?”
“How long might the incubation period be?”
“Well. At the shortest, about three days. At the longest…”
Narrowing his eyes to estimate the flow of time, Calix frowned as he looked at Angel. He wasn’t someone who would bring up such a topic without reason.
“Am I missing something?”
“Ye-es… Perhaps.”
“What is it?”
Looking at the puzzled Calix, Angel gave an awkward smile.
“The refugees who entered Padrian territory around the time of the last exchange meeting.”
“……”
At Angel’s words, Calix belatedly recalled them. He finally remembered the large number of people who had suddenly arrived around the start of the exchange meeting. He had completely forgotten about them because things had been so hectic.
“What about those people?”
At Calix’s question, Angel swallowed a sigh. Despite having brought it up this far, Calix didn’t seem to have noticed anything. And seeing him like that, Angel, who had clearly grasped the situation, smoothly recited the parts that concerned him.
“They migrated to Padrian because of the drought, didn’t they?”
“…Ah.”
At Angel’s additional explanation, Calix, who belatedly recalled the details about them, ran his fingers through his hair irritably. He had certainly thought it strange that they had come to Padrian, not to the nearby territory of Durasen Botenta. At the time, even Durasen, whom he had met at the exchange meeting, had answered that he didn’t know the reason, so he hadn’t thought much of it, and then completely forgot about it due to the series of incidents that followed.
“Ha…”
With a low curse, Calix rubbed his face dry. Realizing that Calix had finally caught on to the situation, Angel hurriedly spoke.
“For now, as you instructed then, we provided residences in the outskirts, separate from the existing inhabitants. Since we explained there was a shortage of houses and space, no one particularly objected.”
“…But movement would still be free.”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
At Angel’s flimsy answer, Calix let out another deep sigh from within. There was no time to breathe amid the consecutive accidents occurring one after another. He covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath to calm the throbbing headache.
“Well. There hasn’t been any separate contact from the mansion, right?”
“No.”
At Angel’s answer, Calix organized his thoughts and roughly rubbed his face. Soon raising his head to look at Angel, Calix gave brief instructions.
“First, inform them that we will depart early tomorrow morning. And we’ll increase our speed during travel. Send word to Jenny through a carrier bird in advance. We need to keep our distance just in case.”
“Yes, understood.”
Leaving with the words to rest well, Angel withdrew. Left alone in the tent, Calix locked the entrance from the inside and laid down his heavy body. There were many unresolved issues, but he didn’t want to care about them, so he had intended to ignore them all, but it seemed like that wasn’t going to work.
“I just want to give it all up.”
The truth he couldn’t bring himself to say finally popped out.
If he managed it thoroughly and eliminated those who had contracted the epidemic, it would be resolved. Of course, without a cure, quite a few people would die, but honestly speaking, Calix didn’t care how many died.
‘It’s the Sarvie guys who should be treating this in the first place.’
The reason Calix was rushing around like this was simple. First, to solidify his position until he obtained the family head seat, he needed recognition from people of other families. It was also to prevent their stupid actions from causing more trouble. And just a tiny bit of responsibility was the entirety of the reason Calix had taken on so many annoying tasks.
Around the time Calix was immersed in the agony of whether to give up or not, a small shadow flickered at the front of the tent. Frowning, Calix turned his gaze to the owner of the shadow that was irritatingly going back and forth around the tent.
The irritation disappeared from Calix’s face as he easily identified the figure with perked-up ears and a plump body, clearly well-dressed. With a smirking face, Calix watched his actions beyond the tent. After hesitating for quite some time, he seemed to have gained courage and opened his mouth in a small voice.
“Knock knock. Are you there?”
