Interspecies Trader

Wico paused for a moment to smile at us.

“Can you see where this is going?”

I had an inkling since she gave so many hints but Selva shook her head, which made her master grin even more.

“Then let me continue. The two new rulers were very popular with the population. They established fair laws and lowered the previously high taxes from the empire. The couple was an example of a perfect romance and many stories were created based on their actions and deep affection, especially when they swore eternal love to one another. Everything went great for around ten years until an event that changed everything happened. The queen was shocked to suddenly find out that her husband was having an affair on the side. Burning with rightful fury, she assassinated him and his mistress in their sleep and burned the house where they were having an affair.”

Wico chuckled a little while shaking her head.

“From there, she started to distrust men, to the point of absolute hatred, and her policies changed to relieve them of their rights little by little. The population was also outraged by the king’s betrayal, especially the young women who had grown up listening to stories of their supposed eternal love, which pushed them to carry out these new policies with fervor. The situation slowly got worse for men, with the queen removing their rights progressively, forcing them to an inferior status compared to women. She’s now dead but things continue to degrade for the men born in this country, and you’ve seen how it is today. That’s it! A ridiculous story in my opinion. Who needs love when you can have sex without it, anyway?”

“Your opinion is unnecessary, master.”

Right after uttering this, Selva stopped talking, lowering her head while looking deep in thought. I was glad to have listened to that story. It gave me a lot of hindsight into the history of the region and how impulsive felines were. That queen had no hesitation in killing the husband she previously loved and even burning the house where she found the two. Love was a dangerous game here.

We continued forward, chatting from time to time, observing the landscape otherwise. Nothing hindered our way and the return trip was a lot more peaceful than the outward journey.

**********

A few days later, in Geola’s city hall’s main meeting room. An emergency meeting was called today and the mood was very different from the previous time. Everyone was tense, looking at each other or whispering to their neighbors anxiously. Once all the participants were present, Crali Vejas spoke.

“Let’s start. Go ahead, Olaqin, you called for this meeting.”

“Yes. I, and the rest of the health ministry, believe we have a critical issue on hand. I’m sure some of you already know but we’ve found many people in Geola suffering from the same symptoms. Let me get straight to the point. We think a serious unknown disease is propagating at high speed in the city. In a word, we have a pandemic on our hands.”

“What?”

“Are you serious?”

“No way!”

Many of the officials shouted in panic but Crali calmed them down with a word.

“Silence! Olaqin, please give us more information.”

In a now quiet room, the man nodded and went over the information he had.

“We have identified more than a hundred cases of various degrees of infections, with a few people already succumbing to it. We believe there are several times more cases than that number, in reality. The disease is very infectious and is propagating at high speed. The symptoms are coughing, progressive weakening, dry throat, and respiratory troubles. Anyone under rank 6 can catch it, even though higher-ranked folks have less severe symptoms. We can’t even be sure that being rank 6 and higher is completely safe.”

“What about curing it?”

“I’m afraid we only have bad news about this. Herbalists don’t have anything to help, and life mages can only temporarily relieve the symptoms. We’re completely helpless against the disease right now.”@@novelbin@@

The whispering around the table started again but Crali didn’t immediately stop them. She bit her lips, thought for a moment, and opened her mouth again.

“Quiet. Does anyone have a good idea?”

They all looked at each other, with only a single woman talking after a few seconds.

“Except for the obvious things…”

“Fine. Listen well. Geola will be quarantined from now on. Use the army to stop anyone from entering or leaving. Only people from the government and the army are authorized to move in and out of the city. Establish temporary lodges to take care of the sick. Order the herbalists to look for a cure. Send people to the surrounding countries to check if there’s anyone who knows about this disease and how to cure it. Speaking of which, we’ll temporarily call the disease C1. This is a critical situation, and the future of our city depends on how many people we can save. Are there any objections?”

There was a moment of silence before a woman spoke up.

“People are going to riot.”

“We must stop them at any cost. We won’t have time to deal with healthy citizens. We need to focus all our efforts on containing C1 and finding a cure for it.”

“Yes, miss.”

“All right. Let’s do our best to go through this crisis. You all know what to do. Report any change to me immediately. More instructions will come as the situation evolves. Dismissed.”

The room soon cleared of all occupants except for two. Crali stared at her mother, still lying down on a sofa and reading a book as if nothing special was happening.

“Mom. Do you know about this disease?”

The woman didn’t respond and only turned the page of the book she was reading.

“Mom! You can’t be serious! The city you nurtured might disappear with this pandemic! All your efforts and all the people you care about might die! Mom! Why aren’t you saying anything!”

The woman still didn’t respond and her daughter shouted in full voice.

“Mom!”

Finally, Angin Vejas, high-ranked sorceress and Geola’s true power, opened her mouth.

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