Capítulo 143: Chapter 143: The City Where Black Rain Falls Part 8
"Master, I've checked everything!"
El who had returned from inspecting the warehouse was drenched in black rain. El shook off the rainwater and glared at the caretaker couple with a look of contempt on her face.
"The place is overflowing with food."
I expected as much. I nodded to El and turned my gaze to Lloyd, who was just coming up from the basement.
"Theodore, I think you should see this for yourself."
Lloyd's expression was unusual, and the caretaker couple's faces weren't much different. Leaving the couple sweating profusely behind, I headed to the basement.
"Ugh…"
From the stairs, a rancid smell was emanating from the basement. I had a bad feeling. I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve and slowly went down the stairs.
The inside of the basement was dim. Remarkably, Legion on my shoulder spewed black flames and lit up the lanterns on the wall. This revealed a basement that was larger than I had expected.
"Ugh…"
In the middle of the basement, there was a butcher's table for butchering meat. No, it looked more like a crude operating table. Knives stuck in menacingly, dried bloodstains, and buckets on the floor filled with red lumps…
"Is that… human?"
"I checked. It's not human. It's animal corpses."
"What the hell were they doing here?"
"We'll have to ask them directly."
"This is really troublesome."
I went back up the stairs. I heard Lloyd extinguish the lantern and follow behind me. The smell still lingered, so I shook my head, took a peppermint leaf from my pocket, and held it under my nose for a moment to catch my breath.
What on earth happened in the basement?
Could the caretaker couple really have been extracting and selling the hearts of the Altan people? But according to Draven, they had failed their first kidnapping attempt.
If so, what on earth were those "things" in the basement?
I sat back at the table and looked up and down at the sweating couple from head to toe. They were in a state of panic. They didn't seem loyal and looked like they'd spill everything under pressure.
"Shall we begin?"
"T-Th-That is…"
"Your fate could be quite different depending on how you answer now. If you speak honestly, you might be able to save your lives. But…"
"I-I-I will speak honestly!"
The man answered with a scream, and his wife nodded her head vigorously beside him.
"Y-Yes. We admit we have committed a grave mistake. B-But we did it just to survive. You might not understand, but managing these barbarian territories is…"
"It doesn't make any money."
"Yes, exactly! You understand. As expected, you know everything, even the circumstances of those below you. Yes, it doesn't make any money. In fact, it costs us money. We even used our own funds to set up fences for these barbarians…"
"Listening to your nonsense, it seems you still haven't come to your senses. Do you think I wouldn't know you built those fences to imprison them?"
"T-Th-That is…"
"Just tell me the truth. What exactly happened here?"
The man had his spirit broken again. He hung his head low and began to speak in a crawling voice.
"Yes. We…"
"….…"
"We embezzled the relief supplies sent by the lord."
"….…"
"W-We've committed a grave sin! You can take all the food in the warehouse! Please, please spare our lives!"
"That's not all, is it?"
"…Huh?"
I placed the bucket Lloyd had brought up on the table.
-Thud!!!
Thick blood splattered here and there. The caretaker couple screamed in terror and squeezed their eyes shut.
"The basement."
"...!"
"Tell me what happened in the basement."
"T-That…"
"Stealing relief supplies wasn't enough, you even tried to sell the 'Heart of Altan'?"
"N-No, it's not like that, great Saint! It's not!"
"Then explain what this is."
"...…"
"You won't open your mouth? Then let me guess."
"...…"
"You must have 'practiced' on animals in order to extract the hearts from the Altan people?"
"Hi-hik…"
The man's face had turned so pale that it almost looked blue. He gulped and began to mutter in a trembling voice.
"Just spare me. Please, just spare me. Spare me…"
After practicing to extract the hearts of children, he dared to beg for his life? What a shameless bastard. I looked at the man in front of me with a colder gaze than ever.
"Claiming ignorance won't work anymore. Tell me honestly who wants the Heart of Altan."
"I really, really don't know…"
The man started to cry, tears and snot running down his face. Disgusting wretch. Just as I was about to get up after I couldn't stand it any longer,
"Tomorrow. It's tomorrow."
It wasn't the man, but his wife who spoke.
"They said they would come to buy the heart tomorrow."
"Honey! They'll kill us!"
"We're as good as dead since we've been caught, you idiot! At least in prison, we might have a chance to live!"
When the wife screamed like this, the man fell silent again. I shifted my gaze from the man to his wife.
"They?"
"Yes, yes. It's the people who gave us the 'medicine'. The medicine made from the Heart of Altan. Thanks to it, we haven't fallen ill so far. So it definitely works. Great Saint, we were trying to do something good. We were trying to save the people of this city with the hearts of those useless barbarians!"
She shouted in a sharp and almost screaming voice. Of course, it was a story not worth hearing.
"… It would have been better if you had honestly said it was for money. Disgusting humans."
When I nodded my head El, she bound the couple with ropes. We had extracted all the information we could, so these two should be handed over to the city guards.
"El, take them to the city guards with Connie."
"Yes, Master."
"Connie, once you hand them over, you may return to the temple."
"But…"
"Listen to me. It will be much more helpful for you to go back to the temple and explain the situation there than to return here."
"…Yes, Sir Theodore."
Once the two left to hand over the couple to the guards, I planned to stay here with Lloyd. According to the wife's words, "they" were coming tomorrow…
Before that, we should redistribute the relief supplies to the people.
Just in case a major battle broke out and the warehouse got destroyed, it would be a disaster. Since the village situation wasn't good, they needed to distribute the supplies early. If Draven and the villagers were called over, it could be done quickly.
I headed to the warehouse with Lloyd. Just like El had mentioned, the warehouse was full of food. Most of it was barley, but there was a significant amount of wheat stored as well.
It seems the lord of Dehid had been taking care of the city in his own way.
Worried that the prolonged humid air from the long rainy season might have spoiled the food, I opened a sack full of wheat and took out a handful. Fortunately, it didn't seem to be spoiled.
"...."
But…
"...."
For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this.
No way…
Just in case, I used [Nature's Purification] on the handful of wheat in my hand. Clear green magic swirled around the wheat on my palm. Then…
– Rustle…
The wheat turned into "black powder" and vanished.
[Nature's Purification], as the name suggests, was a skill that purified toxins, curses, and diseases in food or water. It only purified these harmful elements and did not make the food or water itself disappear. However, the fact that the wheat had turned into black powder and vanished…
…Did this mean these relief supplies were the disease itself?
I hadn't imagined this at all.
I pulled out the dagger from my waist and sliced open another sack nearby. With my hand buried in the sack, I used [Nature's Purification], and the sack that was once filled with wheat became flat as the wheat turned into black powder and disappeared.
"Lloyd, please tear open all the sacks."
"…Alright."
Lloyd also took out a dagger and began ripping open the sacks. I placed my palm inside each sack and used [Nature's Purification].
Without exception, all the food in the sacks turned into black powder and vanished.
The warehouse which had seemed ready to burst with food now contained only empty and deflated sacks.
Now I understand…
As I had suspected, the "Black Rain" was merely a deception.
The real source of the disease was these relief supplies.
The reason the barbarians and beastmen from Altan did not contract the plague was very simple.
It was because the caretaker couple monopolized all the relief supplies.
If they had distributed the relief supplies to the villagers as they should have, the people from Altan would have also suffered from the plague.
It was ironic.
The greed of the caretaker couple saved the villagers…
Originally, the disease would have spread only among the lower class. However, as the caretaker couple secretly sold the food, the plague spread throughout the entire city.
Now I understood why there were no patients among the wealthy or in the temple. Since they did not receive the relief supplies, they had no reason to fall ill.
Moreover…
Since only the people from Altan did not fall ill, they spread a ridiculous rumor that their hearts were a cure-all to avoid suspicion. This caused the people to turn against each other.
…An impressive scheme.
If the people from Altan were to start a rebellion, the city which was already weakened by the plague would not be able to withstand it.
In that case, naturally…
They might even invade the surrounding territories.
Dihid was a city close to Lysette and Solen. Therefore, even a tiny spark could ignite a conflict.
The disaster that struck Dihid was not a coincidence.
The black rain and the incurable plague were merely the shadows of a grand conspiracy.
…This is getting bigger than I thought.
I stepped out of the empty warehouse.
The black rain was still falling outside.
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