A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 244: Chapter 194: Precursor to the Plague_1

It’s really quite laughable that, despite having battled with the Ratmen, Duanmu Huai and his companions, along with most people in this world, still believe that Ratmen don’t exist.

The reason is actually quite simple.@@novelbin@@

Most people who have seen Ratmen are now dead.

As previously mentioned, the Ratmen’s method of combat is unique. They don’t immediately rush into battle, but instead, they first release a plague through masses of rats, significantly weakening the life force in a city. Then, when the city’s resistance is basically shattered, the Ratmen swarm into the city through tunnels. By that time, facing the incomparable quantity of Ratmen, the diseased soldiers have nothing but death to look forward to.

The initial event in the City of Silver was an exception, as the Ratmen were acting in conjunction with the followers of the Plague God. Yet even so, the only ones who managed to escape the City of Silver were a very select few. Considering the stagnation of civilization and the isolation of information in this world, even when people spoke of Ratmen attacks, most merely dismissed them as jokes.

These are the defining traits of a rat – cunning, insidious, and disgustingly pernicious.

According to this Sigma Priest, when he first arrived here, the plague had not yet spread to this city. At that time, everyone was quite welcoming to him, as the presence of a Sigma Priest could potentially offer the city protection against the plague.

However, it turned out that Sigma’s help was nowhere to be found and was of no use at all.

Because of this, the Priest gradually began to receive cold stares from the crowd, and when the plague broke out, he was deemed the root cause of the epidemic.

“Aren’t the Lords of the Southern territories doing anything about this?”

“I heard the Lords of several cities in the south died suddenly overnight, and many high-ranking officials also perished as a result.”

It must be those damn rats’ trickery.

The Ratmen are master assassins. Without leadership, high-level officials will fall into chaos, and with the rampant spread of the plague, they will find it even more challenging to handle the situation.

However, luckily, Duanmu Huai was not completely unprepared for this situation.

He wasn’t sure if what Kukulu and the others had prepared would work.

But now was not the time to use it.

“Now is not the time to consider these issues.”

Watching the Sigma Priest complain incessantly, Duanmu Huai furrowed his brows and spoke.

“Why are you here? Is it to preach or to help cure this plague?”

“Of course it is to cure the plague!”

Upon saying this, the Sigma Priest raised his voice, but the next moment, he quickly became lethargic again.

“However…as you, Sir Knight, can see, the people here do not believe in Sigma…”

“If that’s the case, then find another method.”

“Another method?”

“Hmm………”

Duanmu Huai thought for a moment, then tapped on the table.

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair…… Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme…”

“Sir Knight?”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, not only the Sigma Priest, but also Lorena and Bambi looked at him in surprise. Hocoughed and spoke again.

“Ah, it’s nothing, just a memory … hmm, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme … you know them, right?”

“Yes, they are………?”

“If you use these four flowers, you can concoct something called ‘Four Thieves Vinegar’, which can disinfect and suppress the plague to a certain extent … If you’re willing, you can try it.”

“Is that so? I see… I’ll give it a try.”

Hearing this, the Sigma Priest furrowed his brows and then revealed an enlightened expression, he nodded vigorously and stood up, giving a courtesy bow to Duanmu Huai before departing.

“Hmm, not too bad.”

Watching the back of the departing Sigma Priest, Duanmu Huai nodded his head. If this guy had insisted that as a member of the clergy, he wouldn’t resort to such crude methods, then it would be a different matter.

“Sir Knight, was that a song you were singing earlier?”

Only at this point did Lorena finally muster up the courage to ask the question that she couldn’t believe.

“Hmm, it’s a folk song.”

Duanmu Huai nodded. He was singing a very famous folk song in their world called “Scarborough Fair”. He was reminded of this song because he remembered a discussion on a players’ forum about the Ratman plague. A particularly knowledgeable player stated that the plague was essentially a copy of the Black Death, and then shared some trivia with everyone.

The trivia was that during the Black Death, something called ‘Four Thieves Vinegar’ was used by people for disinfection and prevention of the disease. The reason for its name was because during the period of the Black Death, many people died. In this process, four thieves took advantage of the situation to loot property. When they were caught, the soldiers were curious about how they managed to steal from so many houses of deceased without contracting the plague. They revealed that they had brewed a vinegar with four different flowers, soaked a cloth in it to cover their noses and mouths, and wrapped their hands and feet before each theft to prevent the plague.

Soon after, this “secret formula” began to circulate, and it was given the name: Four Thieves Vinegar.

The boss also informed the players that the song “Scarborough Fair” was actually about the Black Plague…

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Remember me to one who lives there,

For once she was a true love of mine.

Have her make me a cambric shirt,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Without any seam or fine needlework,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine”

As for the second verse of the song, “Tell her to find me an acre of land, between the salt water and the sea strand, tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather, and gather it all in a bunch of heather”, the meaning is that the man is already infected with the Black Plague. He asks the girl to find a plot of land for his burial, to clean the burial ground with a broom made of heather so that he can be buried…

Alright, it has to be said, many players expressed that they had learned a useless trivia…

But honestly, this knowledge indeed left a deep impression on many players. After all, “Scarborough Fair” was widely popular, and everyone thought it was a love song. The repeated phrase “Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme” was a bit strange, but everyone simply took it as an expression of love, like roses.

But actually, the original intent of this song was to help the general public remember the formula for the Four Thieves Vinegar, for future use…

Who could’ve thought it actually meant that…

Well, knowing this backstory, it’s hard not to feel a shiver down your spine when listening to the song.

Although that’s the case, there were indeed players who, following this approach, brewed Four Thieves Vinegar and sold it in the city area. It was well-received and seemed to have some effect…but whether it was nonsense or truth, Duanmu Huai wasn’t sure. But after all, why not try it as there were no losses, right?

After all, vinegar does hold disinfection and antibacterial properties. During flu seasons when we were kids, our families would burn vinegar for disinfection and prevention. It can’t be totally useless.

“In any case, nothing special.”

Duanmu Huai briefly introduced the situation regarding this song, then returned to the main topic.

“Coming back, what do you guys think about what the priest just said?”

Before leaving, the Sigma Priest also gave Duanmu Huai a clue, saying that when he was preaching before, he encountered people from the religious tribunal here.

The religious situation of the southern territories is somewhat different from that of Sigma and Bartonilla. They’re a federation of independent territories, so in terms of religion, it’s managed uniformly. Although they don’t have a national religion like Bartnilla’s Lake Goddess, they established a department to manage all religious sects, the religious tribunal.

However, unlike the Tribunal, this department seems to act more like a coordinator solving conflicts among different sects.

But not too long ago, according to the Sigma Priest, he saw people from the religious tribunal with a group of soldiers, seemingly tracking down a brother and sister.

“A brother and sister?”

“Yes, it’s said that the brother carries the bloodline of the Evil God, and some say that the current plague and rat infestation originated from him.”

When Duanmu Huai heard the Sigma Priest say this, he was taken aback.

“It’s likely a coincidence.”

Lorena voiced her opinion, and Audrey nodded.

“People always want to find a scapegoat during tough times. It helps to justify the guilt in their hearts. By blaming others, they convince themselves they’ve done nothing wrong.”

Audrey looked rather grim as she said this, perhaps reminded of her own past experience of being jilted at the altar. Duanmu Huai, however, felt it was not completely Audrey’s fault. But clearly, this wasn’t the right time to speak of it.

“Can the people here not be saved?”

Bambi frowned, asking uneasily. Duanmu Huai just shrugged.

“I can’t do that… even if Ann were here… I doubt it would help.”

Manaria’s magic doesn’t include curing plagues, that’s mainly the job of alchemists. But the plague spread by the ratmen is not ordinary, it carries a curse-like component. From that perspective, divine arts might be a better fit. Ideally, priestesses of Shalaya, the goddess of healing and mercy, should handle this kind of situation.

Having the Sigma Priest to halt the plague is much like asking a military officer to perform surgery on a patient, it’s simply a misfit.

Looking at it this way, it seems that the southern territories are not idle, but whether they’ve found the right direction… that’s unknown.

“In any case, there’s nothing we can do here. Let’s move on. We’ll go to the central region and see how things are there.”

This is only the border of the southern territories, but even so, if it’s already like this here, one can only imagine how bad the situation is inside. If the rat plague were to break out completely, there might be a large influx of refugees to Bartonilla. And for Bartonilla, which has just ended a civil war and hasn’t recovered yet, this is clearly not good news.

What exactly will happen… we will only know once we get there.