A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 19.1
It was a rather shocking statement.
‘So they just froze people alive?’
This was something I’d never seen in the novel. Of course, the story was too busy praising the protagonists’ brilliant growth and impressive abilities for any need to show dark plot holes like this.
‘There’s not even a quarantine facility here… Well, obviously not.’
Even in the modern world I lived in, only recently had human rights concerns led to an increase in quarantine facilities. Before that, I’d heard people exposed to miasma were simply exiled to abandoned cities before they completely lost their reason.
They might not have been as dangerous as Awakeners, but ordinary people corrupted by miasma were still a threat.
‘No wonder Eston resented Edith…’
Given what she’d heard about the ducal lady, it was reasonable for her to assume Llewellyn would never come to purify them.
And in the end, that assumption became reality.
Once the initial shock faded, only bitter reality remained.
Perhaps the people of this village even thought it was a blessing that Ethan had used his ability on them. There was nowhere to properly quarantine anyone, but no one would want to kill their family or neighbors with their own hands, even if they were turning into zombies.
“My little brother is right in the center over there.”
Eston spoke in a subdued voice.
“He’s tied to a post, so I don’t think I can bring him to you. I’m sorry.”
“Did you come all the way here by yourself every time?”
“……”
Eston avoided my gaze without answering.
Realizing that was an affirmative, I frowned deeply.
‘She could have kept him somewhere else, but they insisted on doing it this way.’
It was probably the villagers’ doing. Most likely, only Eston’s little brother hadn’t been frozen, and they took out their envy over her healing ability on her by making things more difficult.
—Those terrible people. Those bastards… They begged on their knees for me to save their families, and then…
—Just because my brother bit someone, how could they snitch on him right away? He’s just a kid, not a beast. How could they go that far…!
Now I understood why Eston had said those things while rampaging yesterday.
“Let’s go.”
“Y-You’re really going yourself?”
“How else am I supposed to do this?”
When I started walking ahead calmly, she hurried after me in a fluster.
“It might be dangerous! And it won’t be a pretty sight…”
“They’re all trapped in ice anyway, aren’t they?”
“Well, some of the ice has melted for a few of them, and the smell is awful…”
Even as she warned me about this and that, she couldn’t bring herself to stop me. She seemed to feel genuinely guilty about dragging the Lady to such a gruesome place, on top of needing her to purify her little brother.
But her concern was unnecessary.
In my old job while researching cure-1, I faced not only those corrupted by miasma but also dead bodies every day for experiments.
‘Though, this’ll be my first time seeing people frozen alive…’
Maybe it’d be interesting?
A short while later, we arrived at the spot.
Up close, I could see why Eston had warned me so much beforehand.
“Grrr… grrk!”
“Kya ha ha ha! Kyarak! Kyak!”
“Ghk, gghhk! Food! Ggghhh… food!”
There really were a few who’d partially thawed out, with their shoulders sticking out of the ice. The sight of them, lower bodies still trapped in the ice, shaking their heads wildly and dripping black blood from their eyes, noses, and mouths, was grotesque and chilling.
“P-Please be careful!”
Some had their arms or legs, not their faces, thawed out.
Flap, flap!
Dodging hands thrashing in the air, reaching for anything to grab, I couldn’t help but grimace.
“It’s still cold out. Why are they melting so quickly already?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just that the sun’s been out a lot these days…”
Ethan’s ability, which froze this many people at once, was impressive, but it was only a temporary measure.
If the temperature rose even a little, it’d only be a matter of time before they all thawed out.
“You should tell your employer about this.”
“It doesn’t seem that serious yet… Is there really any need?”
Eston’s expression as she said that was surprisingly emotionless.
‘So she never intended to tell Ethan in the first place.’
She didn’t seem to care what happened to the corrupted ones if they broke free and attacked the village.
I said nothing more and quietly followed her.
As she’d said, her little brother was right in the center of those terrifying blocks of ice.
“Theo, I’m here.”
“……”
“You’re alright, aren’t you?”
The scrawny boy, who looked about eight or nine, just stared blankly into space without any reaction.
He looked terribly vulnerable, sitting there alone without a single precaution for safety.
Still, compared to the corrupted ones we’d passed, his condition was much better.
He wasn’t bleeding black, his body wasn’t rotting, and he wasn’t screaming or lunging.
If not for his dilated pupils, stained pitch black, he could almost be mistaken for an ordinary child.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
