Estimated reading time: ~4 minutes
Chapter 45
After I started treating plague patients, rumors even began to spread that going to the Eld Religion would cure the plague.
Alright, at least the reputation of the Eld Religion has not fallen.
But strangely, the number of plague patients does not seem to decrease at all.
No matter how many I treat, the following week the church is full of patients again.
Damn, I can’t keep up like this.
I’m not a doctor… having to see this many patients over and over again is just too much.
So I decided to investigate the fundamental cause.
My method involved using slaves as test subjects.
I had some slaves engage in various activities.
By examining the range of activities of the slaves who contracted the plague, I could search for the origin of the disease.
It’s fine as long as I can treat them quickly after they contract the plague.
I had the slaves investigate the plague for me.
And I discovered something unexpected.
The plague seems to be concentrated among those who frequent the Eld Religion’s church.
It’s likely the churches’ waterways and wells are the cause.
So those rumors that the Eld Religion is responsible for the spread of the plague may not be entirely baseless after all?
This is bad – if the Eld Religion gets blamed for this, I can foresee a future where I’ll be condemned.
So I tried using healing magic on the water.
And then—
The water instantly became clean, purifying the contamination.
Good, this should be fine now.
Thanks to this, the following week there were almost no patients.
The plague is resolved.
But strangely, only the water at the Eld Religion’s churches was contaminated.
There are quite a few Ilmann Religion’s churches nearby too, but there was no outbreak from their water.
This is very suspicious…
So I consulted Alto about the situation.
I had him investigate.
And shockingly, he discovered that the Ilmann Religion’s pope had used curse magic to spread the plague.
Because of this incident, the Ilmann Religion greatly offended Alto and received severe punishment, I’m told.
Not only that, they lost a considerable number of followers.
And many of those followers converted to the Eld Religion.
Many Ilmann Religion’s churches were demolished and rebuilt as Eld Religion’s churches.
Somehow, as a result, my religion has grown even larger…?
Am I imagining it…?
◆
【Gadentz’s POV】
I am the pope of the Ilmann Religion.
I was scheming in the shadows to blame the plague on the Eld Religion…
But somehow, the Eld Religion doesn’t seem to be declining at all.
I tried to spread rumors that you’ll get plagued if you get involved with the Eld Religion.
Yet for some reason the opposite rumor spread, that going to the Eld Religion’s church would cure the plague.
Just what is going on here…
However, the plague was still spreading.
I was being optimistic.
But then suddenly, the plague stopped spreading entirely.
Could it be…
The Eld Religion really was curing the plague…?
Then one day, messengers from the kingdom came to my room.
I pretended to be out, but the messengers forced their way inside.
「Is the Pope of the Ilmann Religion here!?」
「W-What do you all want…!?」
「We’re here to arrest you for the crime of spreading the plague!」
「W-What did you say…!?」
And so, my scheme ended in failure.
On top of that, it resulted in the Eld Religion expanding its influence even further.
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