For the next two days, Theo went back and forth between Margaery's Chamber of Commerce and the outskirts of King's City.
Margaery would provide the ships to pick up the fugitives, and the First Army would disguise themselves as mercenaries and go to the canal wharf to arrange for the fugitives to board the ships.
As for spreading the news and enticing people to take the bait, the Black Hammer was already very familiar with this, so Theo wasn't worried about it. It was much more convenient for the Rats to do this than for the outsiders. Although the range was only in the Northern City District, the fugitives would certainly spread the news among themselves.Moreover, it was impossible for him to take all the people away at once. His Highness had told him that this matter could be done slowly, sending one ship at a time was one ship at a time.
On the day of the fleet's arrival, nearly a thousand homeless refugees came to the wharf, the effect was beyond Theo's expectations. If he only relied on the First Army to spread the news, it would already be good if there were a hundred people who believed it.
According to His Highness's screening requirements, he would first let the children board the ships, then the families with children, and finally the adults. As for the elderly … he found that there were almost no gray-haired old people in the crowd. Perhaps they were unwilling to go to such a remote place and risk their lives, or simply unable to escape from the Eastern Region to King's City.
The first fleet of ten single-masted ships set off after carrying more than 500 people. The rest of the people were driven back to the camp, but they also brought back the news that "the fleet will come again".
Originally, he thought that the first task given by His Highness would be completed smoothly, but he didn't expect that shortly after the merchant fleet transported the second group of people, Theo would encounter a thorny problem.
A strange disease suddenly appeared in King's City.
The first dead man found lying on the side of the road, black spots appeared on his body, his teeth fell off, his skin split open, and the color of the blood flowing out changed – it was as terrible as when a witch was swallowed by the power of the Devil. But the dead man wasn't a woman, but a male civilian living in the Northern City District.
Following that, several more corpses with the same symptoms were found, and some of the people who had been in contact with the corpses began to grow black spots, regardless of herbs or ice compress, they couldn't subside. Even when they were treated with bloodletting, the blood turned black, as if it was mixed with a lot of ink.
Fear soon spread among the people, and the number of people who went to the church to pray increased day by day, but everything was useless. More and more people appeared with black spots, even the refugees outside the city showed the same symptoms.
The High Priest of the Church stood up. He claimed that this was a conspiracy by the witches. They had released the power of the Devil to infect other innocent people. Currently, no treatment method could resist the demonic power, and those who were eroded would die in extreme pain. However, the Church would definitely not sit idly by. They had already developed a Holy Elixir, which was enough to suppress the evil power of the demons from Hell.
The sermon gave the infected a glimmer of hope. They sat around the entrance of the church every day, waiting for the holy medicine to be distributed.
Although Theo was deeply suspicious of the Church's claims, but just in case, he temporarily suspended the transport of the fugitives.
"Why did you stop?" Black Hammer was extremely puzzled. "Now those guys are also being eroded by the demonic power. If we don't send them away, are we going to let them stay outside the city to be the witches' seeds?"
"This is what the higher-ups want," he said impatiently. "It's fine if it's just ordinary refugees, but if the Western Region is also infected by this evil force, what will become of the kingdom?"
"Uh –" Black Hammer paused for a moment. "But what will become of the Western Region is none of our business. Sir Theo, why don't you just pretend that you didn't hear what the higher-ups want, and drag them all away. Think about it, this kind of evil thing is very likely to be eroded as soon as you come into contact with it. I don't want to stay together with a bunch of demons from Hell, even if it's separated by a wall. "
"Pretend that I didn't hear it? I only have one head, "Theo said coldly." You also only have one head. Just do as I say! "
After leaving the tavern, he found a shop marked with the emblem of Margaery's caravan, and showed his token.
"I want to see your boss, the sooner the better."
It didn't take long before he saw the female merchant again in the secret room of the shop.
"This disease certainly has nothing to do with the witches," Margaery said. "If the released demonic power couldn't even be resisted by the God's Stone of Retaliation, then they would have already turned the Hermes into a land of death."
"I also think so, but the most urgent task is to report this matter to His Royal Highness Roland. Although the two groups of people who boarded the ship didn't show any symptoms of the black spot, it seems that this disease didn't break out on the spot. If someone on the ship is infected with the demonic power, Border Town must immediately respond. " Theo took out a folded letter from his bosom. "I need your help to send this letter back to His Royal Highness as soon as possible."
"Of course," she nodded. "Merchants always pass messages the fastest."
…
After several days of sailing, Lucia felt like vomiting.
For the past month, she seemed to have been constantly on the run, fleeing from the Eastern Region to King's City, and then from King's City to the Western Region. However, the former was driven out of her home, while the latter was the last hope in her heart.
"Sister … water, I'm thirsty …"
Bell let out a painful cry, reaching out and grabbing her arm.
"Okay, I'll go get you some water."
Lucia grabbed the bag at hand and staggered out of the cabin. Lying on the lowest side of the ship, she reached out and dipped the bag into the river. The acid in her stomach bubbled up again, and she couldn't hold it in any longer, finally vomiting it out. The small amount of oatmeal in her stomach was completely vomited out, and acid water flowed out of her nostrils. She resisted the urge to burst into tears, clenched her teeth, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and continued to soak the bag.When the bag had absorbed enough water, she held it in her bosom and quickly ran back to the cabin.
"Water is coming, open your mouth."
But Bell's complexion was even worse than before, her cheeks were abnormally red, and her forehead was terribly hot.She closed her lips and let out intermittent sounds.
Lucia had to forcibly open her mouth and twist the bag tightly, letting the water drip into her sister's mouth.
"Don't get too close to her, the black spot has already spread to her neck, she won't be able to hold on for long." A middle-aged man with a weak breath in the cabin said, "We will all die here, you'd better take care of yourself."
Not long after leaving King's City, some people on the ship contracted a terrible disease. First, they had a fever, then black spots appeared on their skin, and the disease would rapidly worsen after three or four days. Not only would they fall into a coma, but they would also infect others with the same disease.Therefore, on the fifth day, the fleet specially cleared out a sailboat to carry the sick people. Lucia guessed that the reason why the other side didn't throw all the sick fugitives into the river was that some of their own people were also infected.
After the black spots appeared on Bell's body, she didn't listen to others' advice and resolutely followed her sister to this ship full of sick people.
In order to take care of the young Bell, she almost didn't sleep for two days.
Lucia still didn't give up, she believed that as long as they reached the Western Region, everything would get better.