IHDOE Ch 54

Hesitating, the three exchanged cautious glances. Tyron had clearly muzzled them with strict orders. Steels was the first to speak.

[Steels] "Haah... fine. Meeting here means we all had the same idea, so why tiptoe around each other now? Everyone's situation is obvious, and isn't time running out for all of us?"

Green and Riman turned their heads awkwardly.

[Steels] "Allow me to introduce myself, Lady Satina. I am Steels, currently serving as a guard in the North Gate."

The woman spoke up hesitantly as well.

[Green] "I am Green. I also serve as a knight."

[Riman] "...I am Riman."

Thus, the middle-aged knight who entered last finished his brief introduction.

[Riman] "I heard you are a saintess candidate capable of wielding holy power, Lady Satina. Is that true?"

With introductions finished, Riman got straight to the point.

[Satina] "It is."

[Riman] "Then can your power cure any disease?"

[Green] "Riman... is it for your daughter as well?"

[Riman] "Isn't it the same for you, Green? I heard your younger sibling is critically ill with the plague."

He turned his gaze toward Steels.

[Riman] "And Steels, your lover is in terrible shape too."

Turning back to Satina, he pressed on.

[Riman] "I won't waste time explaining every detail. As he said, time is of the essence. I ask for only one thing: please use your power to cure my daughter."

[Green] "Please, help me as well!"

[Steels] "I beg of you too!"

Surveying the three standing in line, Satina smiled inwardly.

Hook, line, and sinker.

When she first heard about the plague, she considered the situation: unknown disease, unknown transmission vector, unknown cure. For a physician, no scenario could be worse.

But does holy power need any of that?

With loved ones on the brink of death, how many people could remain rational? No matter how tightly Tyron clamped down on information, someone desperate was bound to seek her out.

Her prediction proved spot-on.

See, Tyron? You never stood a chance against me.

[Satina] "Fine. But in return..."

Her eyes gleamed.

[Satina] "Spill everything you know about the situation in this fortress."

---

The first patient appeared at the West Fortress a month ago. Though other cases might have existed earlier, the fortress officially recognized a soldier from the North Gate guard as patient zero.

Returning home after guard duty that day, the soldier skipped dinner due to a severe headache. Attributing it to exhaustion from overwork, high fever the next day, and he died a week later.

At the time, no one suspected a contagious disease. Yet a week later, the cases grew to thirty. By the following week, over a hundred.

[Green] "I heard there are over three hundred patients now."

[Satina] "That many?"

Healing dozens was one thing, but curing hundreds at once with holy power was impossible.

I could heal them in shifts as I did in the underground waterways, but their conditions are far more critical, and the mortality rate is high.

I need to figure out what kind of disease this is to cure them all.

[Steels] "We tried fever reducers and other medicines, but they only offered temporary relief. No matter what we use, the fever won't break..."

[Satina] "So all patients are currently kept in quarantine?"

[Steels] "Yes. The treatment center where my lover stays is one of them, and over ten similar facilities exist throughout the fortress."

Walking down the treatment center hallway, Satina nodded internally.

A sound decision.

Without knowing how the disease spread, keeping patients close risked further infection.

[Steels] "Normally, no one without authorization can enter the treatment center. Even approaching this area is forbidden for you, My Lady."

Yet Satina marched down the corridor with absolute composure, having arrived in Riman's carriage and passed the front gate with help from a guard bribed by Green.

The three were desperate to bring Satina to the patients, leaving her with nothing to do but walk inside.

Finally, she arrived where the patients were gathered.

[Caretaker] "Who goes there? Outsiders aren't allowed in—mmph!"

Caregivers tending to the sick raised an alarm upon spotting Satina, but she didn't need to lift a finger. The accompanying knights swiftly struck them behind the neck, knocking them unconscious.

Satina surveyed the patients lined up on cots.

Roughly twenty people in this room alone.

[Riman] "This child is my daughter."

He took hold of a young girl's hand. Wracked with fever, the child gasped for breath on the verge of death—in critical condition even at a glance.

[Riman] "Can she be cured?"

His voice trembled. He had defied Tyron's orders, contacted Satina, and smuggled her into the quarantine facility. If caught, dishonorable discharge awaited him.

He knew Tyron had assembled an investigation team working day and night, but what if his child died before they found a cure?

Countless people had already perished. Honor could be restored, but a dead child could never return.

He had heard the rumors surrounding Satina—the trash of House Bersabet who couldn't even wield holy power. If she truly possessed no power, his actions would amount to a meaningless gamble. Yet he couldn't sit idly by. He wanted to cling to even the slimmest thread of hope.

Satina held the child's other hand, offering a reassuring smile.

[Satina] "Don't worry. Your child will live."

---

News of the anomaly at the treatment facility reached Tyron immediately. He charged toward the facility after Satina, greeted first by white light leaking through the window cracks.

[Tyron] "Satina..."

He ground his teeth.

[Knight] "Lord Tyron!"

[Knight] "It's dangerous!"

Brushing past the knights attempting to restrain him, he burst inside.

Satina, Satina, Satina! Stubborn witch!

He thought threatening her would send her retreating in fear, yet she crawled right into a pit swarming with disease on her own two feet! That woman had never once acted as he wished.

He sprinted toward the faint sound of singing like a man possessed.

Though years had passed since he last heard her sing, he was certain. This spellbinding voice—capable of mesmerizing anyone even while chanting sacred hymns—belonged to Satina.

[Satina] "I don't sing anymore."

In his memory, eighteen-year-old Satina stared at him, heavy tears falling down her pale cheeks.

[Satina] "No, I can't."

Reaching the room at last, he found a woman wrapped in a halo of brilliant light, singing with a smile.

He had intended to mock her and demand she stop immediately, yet facing her directly, he froze at the doorway, rendered speechless.

Long downturned eyelashes, lips curved slightly upward in unhidden joy.

[Satina] "Does it still hurt?"

The day they first met ten years ago surfaced in his mind.

Then and now, the girl smaller than him remained unchanged in her beauty. She was dazzlingly beautiful, like a masterpiece crafted meticulously by a deity—so beautiful he wanted to shatter her to pieces instead.

Stepping forward into her sacred sanctuary, he grabbed her wrist.

Knights gasped in horror, and Satina turned toward him in shock. The serene, warm moment shattered under his heavy tread.

Shock flooded her tranquil eyes, swiftly replaced by intense disgust. Enjoying her sharp gaze with a slow smirk, he spoke.

[Tyron] "Entering a restricted area without authorization... Get ready to rot in a cell, all of you."

---

Of course, he couldn't throw them into prison.

News that Satina cured the patients with holy power spread across the West Fortress, throwing the entire stronghold into turmoil.

[Crowd] "Satina Bersabet cured the disease with holy power!"

[Crowd] "What? Wasn't she unable to use holy power? But she cured the plague completely?!"

[Crowd] "It's no lie! Dozens saw people who were on the brink of death yesterday running around perfectly healthy today!"

Public morale was already abysmal due to beast attacks; throwing Satina and the knights into prison would spark overwhelming outrage.

Damn it.

Tyron knew that using her holy power offered an easy cure for the patients, but he intentionally ignored it to avoid owing her a debt. Satina had paid him back for his childish stubbornness in the most effective way possible.

[Tyron] "What do you plan to do now?"

Slamming a report onto the desk, he sat across from Satina.

[Tyron] "The entire fortress is in chaos because of you! Do you think curing those few patients fixes everything? Didn't you hear how many patients there are? There are hundreds! Are you planning to cure every single one of them? Do you have any brain cells left? Are you prepared to rot in this place, singing until you die of old age?!"

Unlike the wildly agitated Tyron, she casually sipped her tea.

[Satina] "That's my problem, Tyron, so it's none of your concern."

[Tyron] "This is my fortress under my command! You've turned it into a complete disaster!"

[Satina] "Oh my. How tragic."

He swept his hair back in frustration, leaning heavily against his chair.

[Tyron] "Go back to the capital."

[Satina] "Hmm?"

[Tyron] "I'll handle the fortress myself, so pack up and get out of here."

[Satina] "Why should I?"

[Tyron] "Hey."

[Satina] "Besides, you'll regret sending me back to the capital."

She offered a faint smile.

[Satina] "Because I figured out the cause of this plague."

---

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