The Witch and the Doll Swear

Thick smoke rose from the horizon.

Ascending from the ground to the sky, the thick column of smoke was reflected on the surface of the blue lake, blackening the passing clouds, and it seemed that there was also a stench floating on the water waves, distorting the rolling black smoke into a face of resentment.

The grand recitation sounded in the temple, sad and solemn. The priests offered cattle, sheep and sacrifices to the gods, comforted the unfortunate dead with the teachings of the gods, and prayed that even if they could not be buried properly, their souls could still float to the sky of the reed plain and be with the gods.

The grand requiem ceremony has lasted for more than a dozen days and nights. Batch after batch of sacrifices were sent to the temple, corpses were thrown into the oak fire, carts of spices were brought in, and the wine thrown into the flames had been emptied several times. A winery's cellar.

But even if the whole year's worth is used, the smell of melting blood and flesh, the stench of burnt fat and bones cannot be covered up.

The smell of people being burned can be smelled anywhere in the city.

The sound of people crying can be heard no matter where under the sky.

If you want to ask, "Can this really help the unwilling souls of the dead and calm the grief of the living?" Tarajeka thinks that the thick smoke that will last for an unknown amount of time is the answer given to them by the gods.

"Even if the quarantine area is continuously built, new patients will emerge in an endless stream. If this continues, even if the plague survives, the loss of population will be too heavy."

"More than 2,000 people have died, and the number of sick people may be even more. Many small villages have disappeared. They finally survived the famine with the food funded by Mr. Suencrates, but they ran into this inexplicable plague again."

"There must be some villages that didn't purify the corpses of the starving people. None of those dead villages could be left behind, and the temple guards were sent to burn them all. If I remember correctly, the first people infected with the plague came from those who died in the sandstorm. The worst-hit villages."

"People from the surrounding villages have all gathered in the city, we still need more isolation areas!"

"The reference room seems to have been broken into by someone, it's about time..."

The young man sighed, stroked the amulets of the eagle and the sun on his chest, and prayed silently.

Other than that, he couldn't do anything.

Fifteenth day of the plague.

It's as if the gods set the law of seasonal change for this land. After a good harvest, there will be death.

"Tarajeka."

"I am here, Father."

The young man opened his eyes.

His father, the high priest of the temple of Amon Ra in the city, was calling for him not far away, and the wise and strong old man had not been able to sleep well since the outbreak of the plague.

He was the first to realize the plague, and he was the one who tried his best to burn the dead bodies with flames to curb the spread of the plague. After people in the government affairs hall were infected with the plague one after another, he also took on the work that should have been handled by those government officials. Although he always said optimistically that it reminded him of his father's work, in just ten In a few days, he seemed to have aged for more than ten years.

"A new batch of medicinal materials brought by Alexandria has arrived, send a group of healthy temple guards to receive them, and also notify the alchemists in the city, and ask them how their research is going..."

"I will arrange it, father... High Priest. You should also rest. With such a busy schedule every day, you really don't have to insist on leading the priests to carry out the requiem ceremony every day."

"...you're talking about that again."

The high priest touched his bald head, smiled at his son and shook his head.

Then, his expression became serious.

"We are not just praying that the souls of the dead can go to the fertile field where the reed flowers are flying. This is atonement. We who cannot stop the plague must use our sins to atone for the blasphemy of burning the dead."

"But……"

"Don't worry, I can hold on. Let's get through this difficulty together. This will be my last and greatest achievement before I retire from the position of high priest, and it will also be the most powerful contribution for you to inherit my position."

Patting his son on the shoulder, the old man patted his chest and coughed twice.

"...After praying, I will go back to rest."

The old man waved his hand with a wry smile. Regardless of everyone's dissuasion, he walked towards the fire that had been burning for several days and nights, and perhaps would continue to burn.

Looking at the back that was bent under the heavy pressure of the day, the young man clenched his fists tightly and walked out of the temple.

One day, he will take over his father's mantle, although whether he can do as well as his father is still unknown, but——

"Great Amon Ra, I swear to you."

No matter what, that back figure will not be ashamed.

………………………………………………………………………………………

After arranging the soldiers who received the medicinal materials, Tarajeka walked on the streets of Bimonav. Sandstorms, famine, plague, and disasters came one after another like endless nightmares. Let this building be built in a desert oasis and rely on canals. The prosperous city has become strange to him.

Looking through all the memories, he has never seen such a deserted street in his hometown, every house is closed, and people walking outside are wearing masks and incense burners. Covered, the sunlight through the black smoke is extraordinarily gloomy.

But compared to the isolation area for the plague-infected, these streets are like paradise. At this time, Tarajeka couldn't help but thank the month with the least precipitation and the desert surrounding the city. Even in the worst of today, the plague is still controlled around Bimonav.

If the city is built around Nerocle, in this month when the river water rises, the plague may flow downstream along the water that brings fertile soil, bringing disasters to more people.

"...Oh, why am I pretending to be noble..."

The young man stopped and smiled wryly in front of the building painted with compass grass.

He's just an ordinary guy.

If he had a choice, he would rather have the lower reaches of the river, or another city in the desert suffer from the plague, rather than his own city, his hometown being shrouded in doom.

Now we can only hope for the mercy of the gods, or the research of alchemists and doctors.

With a long sigh, the young man pushed open the door.

"...The direction of your research was wrong from the beginning."

The dull air, the dull room, the oppression and tension almost made the air freeze—the largest hospital in the city has maintained such an atmosphere since the outbreak of the plague. In an instant, Talayeka couldn't help being taken aback when she heard the sharp and cold words from behind the door.

It has been a long time since he heard someone speak loudly here, and this voice is so calm and firm, like a sharp knife that splits the dull air, making Tarajeka a little sluggish under the sun and the uncertain future. All of a sudden excited up.

But when he saw the person confronting the familiar doctor, the young man was stunned.

In the pharmacy on the first floor of the hospital, a girl was at the desk, staring at the impatient doctor with sharp eyes. She was only a head taller than the desk, and her brilliant blond hair transitioned to platinum at the ends. Draping down to her tiny sandaled feet, a doll was placed on her shoulders, making her look very...cute.

—A girl so young?

Tarajeka rubbed her eyes.

That's right, it was a young girl, he read it right.

Seeing the young man walk in, the doctor in front of the girl breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, these children seem to be unaware that there is a plague in Bimonav, and they came in by mistake. They just found us and said that our research direction is wrong..."

"...Your research is of course wrong. Preconceived ideas and symptoms that are completely different from common plagues make you feel anxious and uneasy. You plunged into the sea of ​​medicines and completely lost your way."

When the girl spoke again, Tarajeka was sure that the words he heard came from her. The calmness that was inconsistent with holding a doll that a girl liked, and the wisdom that had passed through time shone in those deep eyes.

But the doctor was already too tired and impatient, he didn't even meet the girl's eyes, he just waved his hands and said perfunctorily:

"Yes, little sister, you know a lot. Uncles are now looking for the carrier of the plague and the plague..."

"...You can't find it. More than a hundred years have passed, and the doctors and alchemists in Sinai still rarely have the opportunity to dissect the corpse. Burning the corpse in such a hurry, they don't even have the opportunity to observe their bodies after they die. In addition, you don't seem to have counted the common features of the dead, and you haven't recorded the patients' conditions in detail. You just kept mixing the potions and magic plants over and over again in this incense-filled hospital, and then fed them to patient……."

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly. After she finished speaking, she didn't know whether she felt disappointed from the bottom of her heart or whether it had nothing to do with her. After dropping the last sentence, she walked straight to the door.

"It's just that as researchers, you are too shameless... But, this really has nothing to do with me."

Behind her, the black-haired girl and the tall slender girl followed her and left the hospital. Seeing them leave, the doctor who was writing down the ratio of the medicine on the paper was finally relieved.

"I know that many people hope that we will come up with a potion that can cure the plague and save Bimonav, but such a child is really a headache...Master Talayeka?"

The young priest had long since stopped listening to what he had to say.

Pushing open the door that the girl had just closed and returning to the street, the three girls hadn't gone far. On the street with few pedestrians, they were really eye-catching with their snow-white skin and conspicuous hair color.

"Please wait!"

Ignoring the etiquette that his father taught him when he was a child, Tarajeka yelled at them. He was sure that everyone on the street could hear his words. After a few seconds, the tall girl turned back first. They shook their heads, and then they seemed to say something, the girl with the deep pupils like the night sky stopped, and she turned around in the two-piece Churnik, looking at him expressionlessly.

"……Is there a problem?"

"Is what you said just now in the hospital true?"

"... What do they have that I can deceive?"

Tarajeka was taken aback for a moment, which was really a convincing reason.

"Ah, I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm Tarajeka, son of Tarajena, priest of Amon Ra, the Invisible Sun...can we talk?"

"..."

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly, her silence seemed to be asking what to talk about.

"Talk about this plague, talk about what you said, maybe we can reach some kind of consensus, maybe..."

grunt.

He swallowed subconsciously, his voice trembling.

A kind of impulse, a kind of intuition suddenly rose in his heart, just like a divine metaphor suddenly appeared in his heart, a kind of premonition was violently agitating in his chest.

"Maybe, we can save this city that is plagued by disaster."

This time the silence was a bit long, the young girl was still expressionless, but the young man felt the gaze of scrutiny, beside her, the tall girl and the black-haired girl were also looking at him, wondering what they were thinking.

When Tarajeka started to feel uneasy, the girl holding the doll nodded slightly.

"...Liliana."

After being stunned for a moment, the young priest couldn't help but smile amidst the surprise.

That is, her name.

……………………………………………………………………………………

"Let's get straight to the point and talk."

In the only restaurant still in business on Bimonav Street, after greeting the owner who came to pour tea for them in person, Tarajeka put his hand on the table and asked eagerly.

I have already introduced myself. There is a girl with silky black hair who is an aristocrat from the city of a thousand towers. The tall blonde girl looks like an elegant person, but she is actually from the far southeast of the mainland.

Although it looks like a mother is traveling with two children, they are indeed the witch's apprentice and secretary. That is to say, the girl who looks too young sitting between the two and holding the doll is actually an Isi Adams' daughter.

Although there is only the temple of Amon Ra in the city of Bimonaf, according to the regulations of the temple, Tarajeka should bring her back to the temple now and report to his father. The priests will host a banquet for the witch and entrust her to help Solve some problems.

For the time being, the commission is clearly about the plague.

The young priest could not wait to hear her explain what she said in the hospital in detail, and this expectation even exceeded the surprise of knowing that there were witches who did not belong to the Temple of Isis.

"Ms. Liliana said that the doctors' research is in the wrong direction, so what's going on?"

"...Obviously, in the face of an unknown plague, what they did was neither dissect the corpse of the deceased, nor search for similarities among the patients, nor even conduct statistics and analysis on various data of the deceased to find the way of the spread of the plague , but just bury your head in matching magic plants and medicines in an almost exhaustive way, trying to find a good medicine for all symptoms..."

scorn.

If there is any word that can describe the whole meaning of the Witch's answer, it is this.

Even a young man who was prepared for harsh words, when he heard the witch casually say the profane word "dissection", the corners of his mouth reflected on the teacup still twitched a bit.

This passage was so ugly that Tarajeka couldn't help but defend the doctors and pharmacists he knew well.

"They have been working hard since the plague..."

"It's a pity that what you do is useless. You regard dissecting corpses as the greatest disrespect to the dead, but the ridiculous thing is that your method of making mummies is a kind of dissecting. In addition, you are eager to sprinkle the corpses of the dead with wine and wine. Burn the spices, lock the sick out of your sight, and if anyone does find a cure, it can only be explained that your gods can't stand it."

From the first minute of sitting down to talk with them, Tarajeka realized that the witch and her apprentice were extremely dissatisfied with Bimonav's doctor, and wanted to use all the status quo as an argument to devalue them.

This can be said to be a bad attitude, like a basin of cold water poured on the head. For a moment, the future high priest of Amon Ra wondered whether the idea that this lady might bring hope he had at that time would only be in her heart. The illusion produced by the beauty.

"Since you say that, you must know something, right?"

But he was the one who sent the invitation, and now, he could only continue to ask patiently.

"...Didn't I say that? Doctors and alchemists didn't have the opportunity to dissect the corpse. They just assumed that it was a plague that they had never seen before because the symptoms of the plague were completely different from those of common tropical plagues. It's like a sailor sailing into an ocean without a lighthouse with a broken compass. As long as you calm down and think about it, you can find out after dissecting the corpse that this is not a plague at all. Compared with all the plagues that happened in the history of Sinai, They are all too far apart, no, even if they really failed to dissect the corpse, as long as they have a correct understanding of the plague, they should be aware of it."

Liliana looked at the man opposite, and when she said this conclusion, Tarajeka couldn't help but frowned deeply.

"You say it's not a plague? It's impossible!"

"...Your unbelievable expression seems unbelievable to me, but forget it, let's show you the evidence directly."

"evidence?"

"...Although I only came to this city for the first time at dawn, I have already visited the temple and the quarantine area in the city. The whole area of ​​Sinai is a tropical area. Tropical plagues usually erupt in point-like outbreaks. If you trace the source, you will be able to find the first sick person or the area where the disease first broke out. If you look through the records of your temple about the plague, you will definitely see this. But what about the plague of Bimonav?"

The witch shook her head.

"Within one or two days, a large area appeared in the city and nearby villages, and the first batch of confirmed cases exceeded one hundred. First of all, this is very strange. After the sandstorm last month, there was a famine in this area, and people died of starvation. It is also strange that the plague did not occur during the famine that killed people, but waited some time after the end."

visited the shrine—

Before leaving the temple today, some priests seemed to say that the data room of the temple was broken into——

"...Then, there is the disease group. Do you know what is patient statistics?"

"In terms of statistics, we do it every day..."

"Then you should have discovered one thing a long time ago. All the plague patients are all the middle and lower classes of society."

When Ai said this, he suddenly changed the subject.

"Based on the existing situation, a simple inference can be made: shortly after the end of the famine, the plague—if it was really a plague—suddenly broke out in large numbers. In order to infer what happened after the end of the famine caused the plague, Then another fact is that the sick people are the middle and lower classes of society, workers, farmers who lost their fields, artisans and small businessmen who are not rich, all of these people did the same thing before the plague broke out—— "

Then, when she was about to say a conclusion, the black-haired girl deliberately prolonged her tone and stared into Tarajeka's eyes.

The young priest became a little impatient, when the witch almost hinted with assertiveness that this was not a plague.

Hearing that Ai was teasing him, he immediately wanted to ask what he meant by saying so much, but just when he was about to blurt out this sentence, he froze.

The impatience that was showing on that young and somewhat tired face gradually disappeared, and the brown pupils suddenly shrank. Tarajeka stared at Liliana and Ai with disbelief. He shook his head and shook his hand. The veins on the palm of the arm resting on the seat bulged.

The outbreak of the plague was fifteen days ago, and before the outbreak of the plague, these people had done the same thing...

"You guys, what do you want to say?!"

No! This is impossible!

"...not what we want to say."

But the witch didn't change her expression in the slightest because he stood up and slapped his hands on the table.

"...but what did you think of."

Those eyes seemed to engulf the soul of a person.

"It's just nonsense!"

With a wave of his hand, Tarajeka's expression became cold and hard. He is now 100% sure that he was blinded by the witch's beauty.

There was nothing worth talking about. Under the panicked eyes of the boss, the young priest stood up and glared at the girl in front of him.

"Since Mr. Priest thinks so, then, there is actually a very simple verification method, isn't it? It is easier than asking doctors to find a cure for the plague, or asking the gods to send mercy, and it can be done immediately."

At this time, the blond girl who had not spoken all this time spoke.

The girl named Tina's voice was not as indifferent as a witch, nor as arrogant as Ai. Tarajeka turned around, and her mind, which was dazzled by the momentary anger and resistance, slowly calmed down.

He realized that if he wanted to sternly refute this witch and her apprentice, and erase that terrible possibility from his mind, there was actually a simple...very simple method, yes, just like the girl said. as said.

"Just take us to see the food."

——As long as you take them to see the food.

………………………………………………………………………………………

The sealed door opened. These buildings with a semicircular appearance are like vertically cut columns, lying quietly among the walls of the temple. Each sack lights up.

The grain of the entire Bimonav is stored here.

Even though just over half a month ago, when the surrounding farmland and unharvested grain disappeared in the terrible desert storm, the wooden shelves piled up in the granary were only a pitiful small part.

If it weren't for the generosity of an elegant businessman, there is no doubt that today's city would be starving to the ground.

But which is more terrible, dying of starvation or dying of plague?

Every time he thought of this, the young priest would feel extremely heavy.

"We have checked these grains with magic and divine spells, and there is no problem."

To be honest, Talayeka regretted it when she brought the three ladies to the warehouse and opened the door.

Although the grains sent by the merchants are all old grains, the safety and quality of the grains have been checked by sampling, and the possibility of any problems is completely zero.

Fortunately, he was still around noon, so he sneakily brought them here when there was no one around.

Thinking about it carefully, I have completely fallen into the radical method, and was dazzled by the ridiculous conclusions. Now that I have calmed down, Tarajeka's eyes on this group of apprentices and secretaries who claim to be witches and witches have also become cold .

But Liliana ignored him standing in front of the door, the little witch bent slightly, and hugged Alice into the warehouse from under the young man's arm.

"Speaking of which, Priest Talayeka seems to have spent a lot of time looking for the key. Is this the first time you have opened the door here?"

"That's right, this is the first time since Desert Storm, although I have always had the key. As the priests of the temple, we must pay attention to our behavior, approaching the warehouse rashly may make the citizens think that we are stealing more food , in the current situation, it might turn into a riot, so in the previous large-scale food relief, we distributed food that could last for 5 or 6 weeks to every citizen, and then closed the In the granary, even to set an example, we took the little wheat left over from last year or even the year before, and gave the relatively fresh grain donated by merchants to the citizens."

After the warehouse door opened, Tarajeka answered Tina's question impatiently. He didn't even glance into the interior of the granary, but leaned outside the door and made an exaggerated "please" gesture.

The light illuminated the flying dust, but the three ladies did not move in front of the granary door.

"What's the matter? It's all here, shouldn't it be said that you suddenly don't want to watch it?"

Tarajeka sneered, shaking her head.

"...If you see such a scene and think that there is nothing wrong with your food...I think you need to learn not to eat indiscriminately before you succeed as the high priest."

The man's expression froze, and he cast his eyes on the witch between Ai and Tina angrily, but Liliana walked into the granary without waiting for him to end the game between good tutoring and the urge to completely tear his face , and at this time, the young man saw the ashen faces of Ai and Tingna.

An ominous premonition rose for no reason, and he didn't care to look into the granary so much, just this one glance.

With just one glance, the coldness spread from the top of his head to his toes, and his heart stopped beating for a moment. The nightmarish scene in front of him made the man cover his mouth and retreat again and again.

"What happened... Great Amon Ra, what happened to our granary?!"

"...It is now easy to see that not only the hungry citizens are flocking to the generous merchant's gift, but the entire temple...maybe even the rats of the entire Bimonave are also coveting this big meal, but it's a pity..."

Ai, Tina, and Tarajeka didn't dare to step into the granary, but the witch who had already walked inside used the aurora-colored "Mage Hand" indifferently, picked up a mouse from the ground, and used another to pick it up. A mage's hand held a sharp ice knife and cut open the soft abdomen.

Amid Tina's screams, not much blood spurted from the poor mouse's body. The witch expertly found the stomach of this little thing, cut it open, and fixed the slightly rancid organ in it with magic. After being in the air, he picked up another one from the ground.

The witch had no choice at all, and she didn't need it at all. On the floor of the granary, in the shadows of the sacks and wooden shelves, hundreds of gray mice were piled up, and each one lost its life like the first one the witch picked up. , This reminded Tina of the elephant cemetery she had seen in a storybook. The mouse cemetery was not as huge, but it was even more creepy.

"...looks like they came in over there, and...well, that's right, it's the same breed."

The witch quickly discovered the route of the mice's intrusion, a gap in the corner, and then she took out a small paper bag, and compared the contents with the mice's stomachs with magic - to be precise, the contents of the stomach Finally, he pointed to the dead rats all over the place, the stench that permeated the air, the sacks that had been bitten apart and the grains of wheat scattered all over the ground, and asked the young priest in a flat tone.

"...I believe you will not be too negligent in the protection of rats in the granary, but I don't think your mousetraps and rat poison can kill so many rats."

Using magic to get rid of the smell on the clothes and body, the witch withdrew the magic. The mouse's stomach and the undigested wheat grains in the stomach fell together in mid-air, and the witch left from the dead mice and stood in front of Tarajeka.

"...Now, let's talk about the plague again."

she says.

"It has been established that these grains are the culprit of death, whether it is plague or poison attached to it. Now, I think we should go and meet the generous merchant, don't we? Go and ask him why this way……"

Dead silence.

It was not until a few minutes later that the young man who seemed to have recovered from the shocking facts nodded mechanically.

"That merchant, Suencrates, lives not far from the temple—"

So, ten minutes later.

"Ah, Priest Tarajeka, what's the matter at this time—"

Outside the walls of the temple, surrounded by streets, in a detached elegant villa, a man in a red and white elegant robe, the second half of his greeting, burned by the blazing flame in the palm of the young priest, turned into an echoing sound. The scream between the elegant column and the idol.

If it weren't for the sound-proof barrier that the witch had set up in advance, this howling of pain would have attracted everyone around.

But even so, Tarajeka's roar echoed throughout the house.

The dead rats all over the place made the young priest completely lose control of his emotions. Seeing the face of the businessman, he did not hesitate to use a magic spell, fanning the greatest violence and anger on the city that was considered the savior of the city before today. man face.

"Why do you do this kind of thing!! Those grains, how do you hate us, the people who hate living on this land will do such vicious things!!"

But at least, he still knows how to restrain his strength, so as not to directly kill this plump businessman or make him speechless.

But in Su Encrates' eyes, under the fear and pain, there is only confusion without a clue.

He was strangled and pressed against the table, all the ceramic utensils and fruits in the basket fell to the ground. It took several minutes for him to react, enduring the scorching pain on his cheeks, just like a cock being strangled cried out.

"What, what, what are you talking about?!"

"Don't play dumb! I have seen that in the granary, the rats attracted by your grain died after eating the wheat!"

"Mouse...what the hell are you talking about...cough!!"

Another punch.

The man's eyes were bursting with anger, almost burning the brown-black pupils into a deeper color.

"What is your purpose!!!"

Poor businessman, he still hasn't figured out why this kind and polite young man suddenly became violent like a lion, and being stared at by such a pair of eyes, even if he wanted to say something, he couldn't say it at all.

"In fact, his purpose can probably be guessed."

Instead of the businessman who could only shout helplessly in fear and panic, Ai leaned against the wall beside him and said quietly:

"The terrible plague will definitely cause severe death, and even the disappearance of an entire village, so that he can easily buy a large piece of land. Although people die, the fields must not be abandoned, and the temple and the royal family may even provide preferential policies and subsidies..."

The businessman cried out at the top of his voice.

"No, it's not! I never thought of doing this!!"

The girl's words directly turned him into a greedy and extremely evil conspirator, and if he didn't open his mouth to explain, the young man who no longer saw the slightest light of reason in his eyes would undoubtedly smash the fist that can only penetrate rocks. to his chest.

"I didn't buy those grains! I only provided gold coins!"

"Who do you want to blame? My father trusts you so much, and our citizens are so grateful to you, but are you going to repay us with plague and death?!"

"Well, so, so, I only paid out gold coins to buy grain... I am a businessman who just came to Sinai, where can I... Guh... Where is there a way to buy so much grain at this time ..."

But this explanation infuriated the young man instead. He kept tightening his palms gripping the throat, still crushing the hard Adam's apple with the force of anger, and snuffing out the gossamer-like breath in his palm——

"...he didn't lie."

——If the witch's opening was delayed by half a second.

Tarajeka turned her head and glared at the witch.

"What did you say?!"

"...He didn't buy the food. He didn't lie. This man is not someone who can keep a secret when he is threatened with death. He said that there is no way to buy so much food in this period. It shouldn’t be a lie. Because of the sandstorm, famines broke out in all parts of Sinai. If he can still raise so much food under such circumstances, there is no need to use such despicable means with his ability.”

When the witch spoke, in the eyes of the priest who turned his head, the doll he thought was just an ordinary doll flew towards him, and a force erupted between him and the businessman, forcing them to separate.

The merchant who managed to escape collapsed on the stone table, hissing like a dying fish, his dilated pupils looked at the blue sky above the yard, and then coughed violently.

Death had never been so close to him, and even now he didn't feel safe.

Although I haven't figured out what happened until now, it is obvious that there is a problem with the food.

"Then who the hell! So evil, so despicable..."

Tarajeka hardly thought about the conclusion drawn by the witch. Anger had already filled his body, and his mind was burning like a scorching sun.

The dead rats in that place are the best proof of the witch's correctness. Tarajeka got up from the ground, clenched his fists, his bloodshot eyes stared, and he didn't even have the strength to struggle, just panting feebly businessman, word, meal.

He just wanted to find the culprit that caused all this, and send him to Upton's mouth, and let him fall into eternal hell.

"Yes... ha, ha, ha..."

However, when the businessman gasped for breath with his bellows-like voice, and said a name, Tarajeka suddenly raised his head, and the magic light on his body disappeared.

It was like a flame that disappeared in an instant from his eyes.

"Who did you say...?"

the second time.

In front of the granary, the feeling that countless cold and thin steel needles pierced the skin and penetrated deep into the bone marrow permeated the blood flow for the second time.

"What nonsense are you talking about!!"

The businessman didn't answer him. After squeezing out the title, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength, lying on the stone table, unable to say anything except panting. But behind him, the witches began to whisper.

"So, the first person who said it was a plague was—"

The person who first discovered that this was the plague was...

"...the person who asked for the body to be burned to prevent the spread of the plague was—"

Against all odds, the person who burned the body was...

"Such a large amount of food, it's hard to imagine that it wasn't prepared in advance..."

"But who prepared it? No, this is not a problem. The person who prepared the food must be the supplier of the food. The question is...does he know about it?"

...Ah, speaking of it this way, even this sentence is the second time.

For a moment, the thought of "maybe it's all just a coincidence" flashed through Tarajeka's mind, and then he raised his hand tremblingly, pointing at the witches, who seemed to be the only ones who could explain everything. The truth was stuck in his throat, but he couldn't spit it out no matter what.

Although he was said to be a person with a bad brain since he was a child, but only this time, the young man hated himself so much for laughing at such an evaluation.

"I'm going to ask...I'm going to ask him."

"..."

Liliana just looked at him calmly without saying anything.

When she came back to her senses, Tarajeka was already sitting in a room she was familiar with.

As his consciousness came to his senses, there were dull pains everywhere in his body, Tarajeka frowned, but these pains did not allow him to find out how he got back here from his muddy mind.

Did the three ladies follow? Did I meet anyone I knew on the way back... Forget it, it doesn't matter.

Tarajeka stood up and rummaged on the desk.

He had to get an answer. Immediately, immediately, he rummaged through the pile of documents. If he remembered correctly, the receipt of this batch of grain was signed by the high priest—that is, his father. If he could find that piece of paper, at least To be able to know who provided the food, although he still had to get the answer from his father in the end, but now, if he didn't know something, Tarajeka felt that he would go crazy.

Opening the drawer, looking for the cabinet with the bookshelf... Tarajeka accidentally touched a bruise on his knee, and Amon pulled on it. He didn't know how many times he stumbled when he staggered back to the temple. The momentary pain made the young man "hiss—" he took a deep breath, and something that he had forgotten after today's series of events came back to his mind, and he couldn't find the solemnly ornately decorated scroll. After the scroll, there was a long silence before turning to the door.

Just before his hand was on the handle, the door opened.

Tarajeka looked up sharply.

However, the one who appeared in front of the anxious young man was not the old priest with unprecedented reputation for solving the famine. Tarajeka looked at the blond girl who had separated a long time ago, and her eyes widened in astonishment.

"Miss Tina, why are you here?"

"I came here to send a message on behalf of Miss Liliana. After Mr. Tarajeka left, Miss Liliana and we went to your house, confronted the high priest, and found the enshrinement in the secret room of his room. this..."

Tina hugged Alice with one hand, and on her outstretched other hand was a statue of a god that was lifelike everywhere except for the sculpted blurred face.

A statue belonging to a belief different from the Nine Pillars God that has gradually become popular in recent years, was defined as heresy and heresy by the priests of the temple.

Daughter of the Dawn.

Tarajeka's pupils shrank, and he almost questioned loudly for the third time, but he held back, there were enough things that challenged his cognitive bottom line today, if the father he admired was the culprit of this tragedy , then it seems that there is nothing unacceptable that he is actually a goddamn heretic.

But the young man still gritted his teeth and asked Tina:

"What about the evidence?"

"The high priest's diary. He hides it in a very secret place. Maybe you never know it. The plan for this plague is written in detail. I believe that Mr. Tarajeka can recognize his father's handwriting, right?"

"……certainly."

After receiving the diary from the girl, the young priest took a deep breath and opened the carefully maintained leather cover.

What catches my eyes is the familiar handwriting of my father. The first entry in the diary is far before my own birth. In a short length, life, work, belief, troubles, happy things, sad and painful things... Some things Tarajeka heard from his father, but some things he knew for the first time from these familiar handwriting.

"..."

But soon, he shook his head again, quickly turned the pages of the book, and stopped at about the second half of the diary, with a gloomy face, reading the lines of text.

——The young pharaoh is more radical than his father, and his intention to drive the temple out of the real power class of the kingdom is also more obvious. If it is not that burning the temple with the army will shake the foundation of his rule, I have no doubt that he will do so.

——The reform of Memphis by His Majesty the Pharaoh failed. Since ancient times, the major temples have been the largest land holders in Sinai. Although all these lands belong to him in name, he cannot replace the farmers on every piece of land with his people . Alexandria can support himself through grain trade, but most of Sinai still has to rely on its own land and farmers. Land is our greatest reliance. As long as we can hold as much land as possible, even Pharaoh can’t help what to do to us.

——Damn the elegant immigration policy, more and more elegant people are buying land in Sinai, but we can’t stop it, it’s really unimaginable, our enemies are not only the elegant pharaoh, but also those short-sighted farmers! No, it is absolutely impossible to continue like this, the land must be held in the hands of the temple, and no one can be trusted except the priests!

——Everything happened as predicted. The desert storm destroyed most of the farmland, and the wealthy Sinai suffered famine. Those guys came to me again, and they proposed a terrible plan, yes, a terrible plan, but this plan can save Bimonave, and if it succeeds, it will deal a fatal blow to the royal family's reputation! And the price to pay... was the lives of the farmers and the townspeople, and even a businessman who just happened to tell me that he had no access to it, but was willing to donate large sums of money in exchange for a reputation for generosity... oh, that's horrible.

——The bastards of the government affairs department actually tried to separate the management of the granary from the temple, using ridiculous excuses that were unnecessary! Don't they know how to repay God with awe! Perhaps they are right, times are changing, and in order to usher in the radiant dawn, we must give up something in the night... for the dawn that must come...

"……Father……"

"In the high priest's plan, this plague will continue for a while, and then he will 'accidentally' find the source of the 'plague' in the homes of important officials in the government affairs hall, and work with alchemists and doctors to find special medicines ...In fact, it is an antidote, this is not a plague, but a new type of toxin added to the food..."

Tina paused for a moment, waiting for the man in front of her to digest the sad truth.

The young man was silent for a long time. Holding the diary, he shook his head wearily and looked at the girl who was taller than him.

"So, have you found the antidote?"

Tina nodded.

"This so-called plague is no longer a problem, Miss Liliana said so, but the problem is, how do you deal with the high priest... your father."

"... What else can I do? Expose my father's crimes in front of everyone, let him get the justice he deserves, and then, as the son of a sinner, atone for all of this?"

"Miss Liliana offered two solutions. First, the High Priest has been investigating the plague. Today he finally found the culprit who caused the plague. Attacked, unconscious, but luckily snatched the potion to cure the plague from them. Liliana has the ability to make the high priest unconscious for several months or even a whole year, and throw the responsibility directly on the Dawn God Cult. Second, If you feel that your father's sin must be paid for by death, then Miss Liliana said that she can also do it for you. Third, if you think there is a better way to deal with it, then we can also leave everything to you, Then leave."

Tina recounted exactly what the witch asked her to convey, and then added another sentence.

"What the Bimonav urgently needs now is not trial and conviction, but stability and self-cultivation."

Tarajeka stared blankly at the eloquent girl, he suddenly covered his face and smiled wryly.

"If you didn't come up with a third plan, I can now suspect that you actually planned a terrible conspiracy to kill my father, but now... ha, ha ha..."

The young man gritted his teeth, gnashing his teeth.

"In any case, he is my father...he is my father."

"...I see, then Miss Liliana will make some noise later, and Mr. Talayeka will take the guards of the temple to rush to find the comatose high priest and some small things related to the Dawn God Cult, as well as detoxification The potion, and then, I will give it to you."

Tina nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

"And we said goodbye."

The girl turned around, but just before she was about to leave the room, she turned her head again and looked at the young man leaning against the wall who had no momentum.

"Can I ask a question?"

"……Um?"

"What will happen to those lands...after the plague is over?"

"If the original owner of the land is still alive, or if the family members or relatives are still alive, then of course it will be returned to them, as long as someone is still alive... Well, otherwise, it will be taken back by the temple."

"……I see."

"May I also ask a question? When I was in the granary, the witch lady took out a paper bag for comparison... What's in it?"

"...Inemikala."

"Eh?"

Tarajeka did not expect that the girl would suddenly say a name. She stared into her eyes and said word by word.

"Father's name is Siwala, and mother's name is Paya. If the city's household registration management has not lost its function, you should be able to find their names. Five days ago, they escaped from the city and planned to cross the desert. Other cities asked for help. We ran into them in the desert. At that time, she was dying. Because of an unknown disease, we failed to save the child. After she died, Miss Liliana found it from her stomach. Those grains of wheat that haven't been fully digested..."

After a moment of silence, the girl hugged the doll tightly in her arms somewhat sadly.

"We failed to save the child... but at least we were able to save those who were still alive. Finally, give Mr. Talayeka a piece of advice, be careful of people from Alexandria... those food is from the Alexandra shipped here."

"...May Amon Ra bless you."

In the end, the young priest could say nothing but this.

The girl nodded, turned and left the room.

After staying for a long time, Talayeka staggered back to the chair in the room. This chair belonged to his father, but now, he was not sure if it still belonged to some evil and terrifying spirit.

The requiem ceremony is still going on, and the smell of burning people and spices in the air has never been so disgusting.

After a long, long time, he randomly grabbed a piece of papyrus and wrote some words.

"Azure Moon, the 22nd day. A witch came to Bimonave, and they brought bad news, but also a terrible truth. There is nothing I can do but accept the fact, but At least one name I will remember, Inemenkala, the unfortunate girl, because they..."

A few minutes later, the roar of the explosion sounded from a corner of the city.

And the young priest just put down his pen.

"Today will be the last day of the Bimonaf plague."