How the Villainous Consort Avoids His Death Ending - Chapter 119.2
Fortunately, no patients exhibiting full-blown plague symptoms had appeared yet. Even so, I could not settle my mind as the wretched scene from the original work, Tristan dying in agony with his skin rotting away, kept surfacing in my mind.
However, I had to hurry my actions before more time passed. I struggled to steady my resolve and went about my daily routine every morning.
Every now and then, I could see the Grand Ducal Castle’s soldiers piling up straw and burning dead livestock on the outskirts of the village. They were pigs or chickens suspected of being infected with the disease carried by the black rat swarms. Whenever the flames blazed up, wrapping around the carcasses, several children watched the sight with terrified eyes. I knelt on one knee in front of a small child who looked about Constantine’s age, held their little hand, and quietly consoled them.
“It will be better soon. You saw the grandfather physicians making medicine in the big house over there, right? As long as you take the medicine, no one will get sick with that disease.”
“Sob…… sniff…… R, really?”
“Of course. I promise. The Grand Consort does not lie.”
“But the big brothers said Grand Consort is a pot-bellied devil grandma. Sob, waaaaah.”
“……”
Even so, isn’t “pot-bellied grandma” a bit much at this age? I didn’t know when the “Grand Consort Valpurgis devil myth” had spread all the way to this remote village.
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Four days had already passed since we stayed at the village chief’s house. It was deep into the night, well past midnight.
Perhaps because of the continued tension for days on end, or because I could not control my anxiety as the descriptions from the original work kept surfacing, I had not been able to fall asleep on time lately. To make matters worse, Tristan had gone out to inspect the waterways on the outskirts of the village and had yet to return.
As I repeatedly drifted in and out of a shallow sleep, tossing and turning while waiting only for Tristan to return, it happened.
Just as I was on the verge of falling into a faint slumber, faint footsteps were heard from beyond the hallway, approaching rapidly. Someone pounded on the door in a rush. As soon as I, startled awake, stood up from the bed, the door was thrown open violently.
The person standing alone in the hallway was Valerian.
The lamplight flickered, casting web-like, sparse shadows on the man’s face. Green-gray pupils shimmered strangely in the darkness.
Valerian’s face, having burst into the room in a hurry, was deathly pale. His white forehead, beaded with cold sweat, and his parched lips looked ominous.
“Your Highness…… Grand Consort. It is a disaster! His Excellency Tristan……!”
“What is the matter? What has happened to His Excellency?”
“His Excellency headed toward the old warehouse on the outskirts of the village a short while ago. He went down to examine the basement, which had no stairs…… but, the locking mechanism seems to have broken, and the door will not open.”
In an instant, my fingertips turned ice-cold. Staring at Valerian with a stiff face, I questioned him accusingly.
“Does that make sense? What are you saying! Why did he go down alone? Were you not with him? Where is Sir Johannes? Where are all the knights!”
“Yes. B, but His Excellency dissuaded me, saying it was dangerous for me to go, so he went down himself. The knights……”
Valerian leaned his hand against the wall, gasping for air. His slender fingertips were trembling.
“A report came in that a fire broke out near the livestock sheds. As the knights were dispatched urgently, most of the manpower was dispersed. Just then, a child went missing…… and His Excellency said he would search for the child and check around the nearby warehouse……”
“An old warehouse basement, of all places. Is that not a place highly likely to be infested with the black rat swarms……”
The color was slowly draining from my cheeks. I clutched my chest and inhaled urgently. Valerian approached and grabbed my hand firmly.
“Grand Consosrt, please calm down. His Excellency will be fine. Once the day breaks, I will immediately call together the dispersed knights and soldiers. With just a few people using force, we will be able to break the lock quickly.”
“‘Once the day breaks,’ you say? You know full well that the black rat swarms bring the plague. What might happen by then!”
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