OBS Chapter 219: Traces of Plague
Chapter 219: Traces of Plague
On the side of the road leading to Saint-Remy, many corpses that could not be cleaned were piled up here. The stench emanating from them was so bad that even crows were unwilling to approach, leaving only maggots in the meat and rats running back and forth between the corpses.
"squeak……"
A rat that was slightly larger than an average rat was squatting in the middle of the road, constantly gnawing at the meat it had torn off a nearby corpse. Judging from the speed at which it ate, this kind of meat was like a delicacy to it.
However, just as the mouse was enjoying the delicious food, a violent shock made it stop eating. When it turned its head to see what was going on, it saw a group of cavalry rushing towards it at a rapid speed a hundred meters behind it.
Feeling the increasingly violent shock, the rat quickly picked up the piece of meat and ran towards the pile of corpses beside the road. Just as it had just gotten into the gap between the corpses, the cavalry rushed past the pile of corpses, and the dust that followed flew directly into its face.
At this moment, some liquid flowed into the body through the cracks above. Seeing this, the mouse came up and sniffed around the liquid. Before it could smell the smell, a flame flowed into the body along with the liquid. The mouse only felt the heat wave before it was engulfed by the flame, along with the other mice in the pile of corpses. In an instant, the sound of the burning fire and the screams of the mice were heard continuously.
Outside the pile of corpses, a knight watched the pile of corpses being engulfed by flames and then drove his horse forward. After a gallop, the knight caught up with the cavalry in front.
"Captain, it's been cleaned up." The knight rode up and said to the knight in front.
"Got it, let's go back to the team." A flat voice came from the barrel. Captain Paying in the helmet had a blank expression on his face, and his sharp eyes were staring straight ahead.
Since the plague spread widely, Payen and his knights have been searching for the source of the plague, because this plague is different from the previous ones. It broke out suddenly in various parts of Midland like a time bomb. During the investigation, they encountered incredible creatures, such as rats with rotten lower bodies but still alive and kicking.
After determining that the original plague carriers were rats, the Crusader Knights gradually narrowed the search area based on the clues. However, only two hundred knights and a few hundred soldiers were too few for the vast territory of Midland. After several months of searching, Payen and others finally focused their search on the southern part of Midland.
Along the way, Pa Ying saw abandoned villages and towns and various corpses. As the team went further south, there were more corpses and rats. In order to prevent a bigger plague, Pa Ying ordered everyone to burn the corpses and rats they saw with kerosene and flames. Although this was not very respectful to the dead, it was better than watching their remains being eaten by rats.
A few days ago, Captain Payen received intelligence from his scouts that the number of rats near Saint Remy had suddenly increased. This abnormal phenomenon immediately caught his attention, and he sent a request for reinforcements to Captain Charles in Milo Territory, while he led the knights to set off first, while the rest of the personnel were responsible for dealing with the corpses and rats along the way.
"Shut up!"
Looking at the outline of the city wall in the distance, Captain Paying stopped his horse. A city of this size, which was also a severely affected area of the plague, must have been filled with corpses carrying the plague. Entering the city rashly might cause the knights to be infected with the plague.
Thinking of this, Payen ordered the knights behind him:
"Everyone, split up into teams of ten and clear all the bodies around Saint-Remy."
The knights who received the order quickly dispersed and headed towards their respective locations.
After everyone left, a mouse head popped out from the hole of a dead tree nearby. After looking around to make sure there was no one around, it ran towards Saint-Remy.
After a while, the rat came to the foot of Saint-Remy. It bent down and sniffed, then walked along the city wall to a drainage outlet and then quickly slipped in.
Although the roads in the sewer are complicated, the mouse moves freely in the sewer as if it were going home. As it goes deeper, some species similar to itself appear in its sight. However, the mouse seems to have no interest in paying attention to them at this time and continues to move towards its destination.
After walking in the dark and narrow sewer for an unknown amount of time, a faint light came from the corner ahead, and then an extremely spacious basement appeared before it.
Unlike the neat stone brick interior of the sewer, the walls showed signs of being rough and artificially dug. But even so, building such a large basement could not be accomplished by just one or two people.
At the end of the basement, a man in a black robe was fiddling with something. When the mouse saw the man, it rushed over at an extremely fast speed and bit the black robe at the man's feet with its teeth.
"Ok?"
The rat's bite interrupted the black-robed man's next move. When he saw it was a rat, he held up the rat's body with his bandaged hands, raised it up and muttered to himself:
"Come, let me see what good news my lovely little one has brought."
After holding the mouse for a few seconds, the man in black robe put it down. A face also wrapped in bandages appeared from the black robe, and a pair of gloomy eyes were looking at the mouse that was wagging its tail at him.
"Hmph, they came pretty quickly. But with only two hundred of them, you're a bit overestimating your capabilities." The man in black robe put the mouse down, a hint of disdain in his eyes. He didn't expect that someone would actually investigate the source of the plague, but a mere two hundred cavalrymen did seem a bit contemptuous to him.
After touching the mouse, the man in black robe continued his unfinished work. He walked to the table in front of him with scissors in one hand and needle and thread in the other. On the table that looked like an operating table, a bloody rat-like creature was lying on it, and around it were the broken limbs of various creatures.
Looking at the creature in front of him, the man in black robe was not afraid at all. Instead, he took some limbs of the creature from the side and sewed them onto the mouse with needle and thread as if he were a broken doll.
After a while, looking at the work in front of him, the man in black robe revealed a look of satisfaction in his eyes, and then he quickly walked to a wall, where a pull rod was inserted into the wall. He held the pull rod with both hands and pulled it down. For a moment, the sound of chains rang throughout the room, as if something was starting.
"Since you are here, let me see what kind of people the mortal army is like..."
At the same time, the iron fence not far from the basement slowly opened as the pull rod was lowered. The sound quickly alarmed the creatures inside. After a while, dozens of scarlet eyes suddenly looked outside the fence in the darkness. After a while, countless black shadows crossed the upper fence and ran silently towards the sewer exit.