"What is this...?"
Tents had been hastily set up in the village square, and Zoin tribe members dressed in white robes bustled about, carrying clean cloths and medicines into the tents.
Zeke recalled seeing a similar scene before.
"When the Red Flower Disease spread."
Unlike in his previous life, in this life Zeke had created a cure and stopped the Red
Flower Disease in the Alencia border region before it could spread across the continent.
But now, symptoms similar to the Red Flower Disease had broken out within the Autonomous District.
As Zeke was surprised by this unexpected situation, one of the Zoin approached him.
"First, cover your mouth and nose with this."
The Zoin handed Zeke a clean cloth to cover his mouth and nose.
Then, he led Zeke into a building on the outskirts of the Autonomous District.
The Zoin with white feathers didnʼt give off the intimidating presence of the warrior Blackwing Tribe.
The Zoin bowed his head in greeting to Zeke.
"Iʼm sorry you have to see this. My name is Spirit of the White Moonlight."
Zeke realized he was the chieftain from the colorful ribbons adorning his feathers and the ornaments he wore.
He asked Spirit of the White Moonlight,
"It looks like the Red Flower Disease has spread outside. Is that correct?" Spirit of the White Moonlight nodded at Zekeʼs words.
"Yes. A few weeks ago, monsters appeared, and the disease started spreading in the city."
Zeke asked Spirit of the White Moonlight,
"If itʼs the Red Flower Disease, Alencia should be distributing the cure as aid. Why has it spread this far?"
At those words, Spirit of the White Moonlight clacked his beak and said,
"We tried the Red Flower Disease cure sent by Alencia, but it was useless. The healers say that as the disease spread among our kind, it mutated, making the existing medicine ineffective."
Hearing Spirit of the White Moonlightʼs words, Zekeʼs expression grew serious.
"If itʼs a mutated Red Flower Disease... it might be even more contagious than the original."
"Yes. The mortality rate has decreased compared to before, but the contagion has increased, so the number of infected grows day by day. Among the infected, the elderly and weak are starting to die. Especially today, there were an unusually high number of deaths. And furthermore..."
Spirit of the White Moonlight furrowed his brow and said,
"Starting a few days ago, Magical Beasts have begun attacking. Weʼve fortified all entry points into the city, but we still havenʼt figured out where theyʼre coming from or what they are."
Zeke realized the situation was more serious than he had thought.
"A plague, and unidentified Magical Beasts..."
"Even the elders who insisted we must never accept human help have fallen ill and collapsed. In this state, we requested your assistance..."
Spirit of the White Moonlight had set aside his pride as chieftain and Zoin to ask for help.
Zeke asked Spirit of the White Moonlight,
"Does that mean a Magical Beast is hiding somewhere in the city?"
"Thatʼs what we suspect, but with patients continuing to increase, we lack the manpower to form a tracking team."
Zeke considered the possibility that the Empire had spread the mutated Red Flower Disease to pressure the ghetto and released Magical Beasts into the city.
In such a situation, the Autonomous District, which had endured for so long, would likely request aid first.
The Empire probably planned to station garrison troops inside the ghetto under the pretext of treatment and relief, gradually preparing for an invasion of the Central Continent.
"The Empire would certainly do something like that."
If so, the other Autonomous Districts in the ghetto region might have faced similar situations.
"I need to find a cure for the mutated Red Flower Disease quickly before it gets worse." He thought he needed to find out if the Imperial garrison had the cure.
But first, he had to deal with the Magical Beasts hiding in the city.
Zeke accepted Spirit of the White Moonlightʼs request and decided to hunt the Magical Beasts.
*
Waiting for nightfall, Zeke secretly deployed Ghost Troopers throughout the
Autonomous District to monitor the movements of the hidden Magical Beasts.
As night deepened, something caught the eye of one of the Ghost Troopers.
"A Magical Beast really was hiding?"
Zeke leaped toward the location where the Ghost Trooper had detected the anomaly.
The reason the Autonomous District could function as a city in this barren wasteland was the presence of water there.
And the movement of the Magical Beast had been spotted at the most vital spot in the Autonomous District: the wellside.
Zeke drew Roland and scanned the wellside.
His Dragon Eye pierced the darkness, spotting the unidentified Magical Beast hiding there.
Whoosh!
Zeke threw Anexiʼs Dagger toward the Magical Beast.
Clink!
Anexiʼs Dagger, attached to a chain, flew toward the Magical Beast.
But the Magical Beast was caught by the dagger far too easily.
Zeke pulled the chain to restrain the Magical Beast and slowly approached the wellside to check it out, only to be startled.
"A Zoin?"
What was bound by the chain was an elderly Zoin.
He quickly examined the Zoin.
The captured Zoin was clearly dead.
"Itʼs dead, so how was it moving?"
At that moment, the Zoin bound by the chain suddenly opened its eyes wide and began screeching.
"Kieeeek!"
It was a screech mixed with the Zoinʼs characteristic war cry.
Zeke suspected undead upon seeing the dead Zoin moving and making sounds, but he didnʼt sense the typical dark energy.
As he gravely assessed the condition, something flashed through Zekeʼs mind.
"The plague that broke out in Mycenae...!"
Fifty years ago, a plague had ravaged Mycenae, killing many people.
His great-uncle Rufus Agamemnon, a survivor from that time, had said that the dead rose and moved at night.
Zeke realized this Zoinʼs appearance matched the phenomenon his great-uncle had described.
The moment he realized it, Zeke pulled out Agamemnonʼs Mask and used the Great Purification skill.
Woooong!
A golden aura seeped into the Zoinʼs body.
Only then did the dead Zoin stop screeching and return to being a proper corpse.
Zeke released the chain and examined the dead Zoinʼs body.
When he pushed aside the feathers, he found traces that the Zoin had suffered from the Red Flower Disease.
"It has to be the plague from Mycenae."
Zekeʼs expression hardened as he realized this.
It meant the corpses there would soon rise as well.
He recalled the chieftain saying there had been an unusually high number of deaths that day.
It was then.
"Kieeeek!"
A screech echoed from the central square of the Autonomous District.
At first, only one screech rang out, but soon others followed in a chain reaction.
It was proof that the dead were starting to move again.
Zeke rushed hurriedly to the central square.
The square was already in chaos.
The Zoin who had died from the Red Flower Disease were rising, screeching, and attacking the living Zoin.
"Kieeeek!"
As the dead attacked, the Zoin who had been treating patients couldnʼt accept the situation and seemed unable to even think of fleeing.
At that moment, Zeke unleashed a Lionʼs Roar toward the central square.
"Grooooar—"
The Zoin, who had fallen into panic from Zekeʼs Lionʼs Roar, finally regained their senses.
Spirit of the White Moonlight spotted Zeke and ran toward him.
"Sir Zeke! The dead have suddenly come back to life!"
"It seems those are the Magical Beasts you mentioned. Itʼs a curse where those who died from the Red Flower Disease rise and move at night!"
Hearing Zekeʼs words, Spirit of the White Moonlight trembled his feathers.
He clacked his beak and said to Zeke,
"We must evacuate this place first! Come with us, Sir Zeke!"
But Zeke said to Spirit of the White Moonlight,
"I have a way to stop them."
Spirit of the White Moonlight was startled by those words.
"A way to stop them? How?!"
"First, Chieftain, lead the others to safety. Iʼll hold them off."
At Zekeʼs words, Spirit of the White Moonlight nodded desperately, like a man grasping at straws.
The chieftain led the tribeʼs Zoin to the city hall.
In the meantime, Zeke wounded his arm to spill blood and lure the risen ones.
"Come this way!"
They reacted sensitively to the blood of the living and chased after Zeke.
Zeke had heard from Rufus how the Agamemnon family head from fifty years ago had lured them, so he spilled as much blood as possible to draw them after him.
"Kieeeek!"
The dead Zoin screeched as they pursued Zeke.
Zeke led them toward the iron gate.
He shouted to those guarding the gate,
"Open the gate immediately!"
One of his authorities, Charisma, activated.
The guards hurriedly opened the iron gate at his command.
Rumble!
As the gate opened, Zeke led all the pursuing dead Zoin into the moat.
"Kieeeek!"
The Zoin who fell into the moat screeched, and Zeke donned Agamemnonʼs Mask and raised Roland high.
He used the Great Purification skill on the screeching Zoin.
Woooong!
A golden aura flowed from Zekeʼs body like rippling waves.
The Zoin watching from the ramparts knelt involuntarily upon seeing Zeke emanating a sacred aura.
The golden aura Zeke emitted seeped into the bodies of the dead, purifying them and returning them to corpses.
The Great Purification aura from Zekeʼs body spread throughout the city.
Woooong!
The golden waves created a beautiful halo of light exploding outward, and the Zoin in the city witnessed a miracle.
*
The next day, as the sun rose, the Autonomous District escaped the terrifying night.
Thanks to Zekeʼs power, the dead returned to corpses, and the progress of the Red Flower Disease in the infected halted.
The cure from Alencia was now sufficient for recovery.
Spirit of the White Moonlight welcomed back Zeke, whom he regarded as the tribeʼs benefactor.
"Truly, thank you. Zeke Draker. Without you, I dread what would have befallen our city..."
Though Zeke was human, the sacred light he had shown the night before was enough to inspire awe transcending race.
Thanks to that, Zeke and the Black Sword Knight Order were allowed into the Autonomous District.
The Zoin had a custom of placing the bodies of the dead in designated places.
But to prevent further spread of the plague, they broke tradition and gathered the corpses for cremation.
After the joint funeral, Zeke asked Spirit of the White Moonlight about the old castle where Helen and the others were isolated.
"Itʼs one of the ancient ruins. Itʼs a sacred neutral ground where representatives from each tribe gather when thereʼs business to settle."
The problem was that the old castle had lost its function as an Autonomous District. In other words, it was difficult to sustain daily life there.
If they were isolated due to monsters, there would be limits to how long they could hold out without food or water.
Zeke received a map from Spirit of the White Moonlight, who had marked the path to the old castle. He explained that monsters blocked the path and the ravine leading there.
"Weʼve tried, but itʼs impossible to pass that way."
They had no choice but to go around the ravine, but that would take too much time.
"By then, the isolated ones might not hold out until we arrive."
They had no option but to break through the monster-blocked path.
"I could go alone, but the problem is the return trip."
The question was whether he could lead the long-isolated group back while fending off monster attacks.
Zeke left field command to Decker and Farel for reconnaissance and headed to the ravine swarming with monsters with Boris, Klone, Felix, and Liam.
Riding across the wasteland, Zekeʼs group gaped at the sight of the ravine.
"Are all those monsters?"
An astonishingly vast number of monsters blanketed not only the ravine but the entire path to the old castle.
Zeke surveyed the ravineʼs terrain and said to his companions,
"Weʼll camp here first. Set up a base and scout the surroundings."