Episode 74: Red Death (3)

A fierce storm howls through the jungle.

The tent walls flutter noisily.

Inside the tent, a fire was lit.

Dimly, it casts a reddish glow on the bed.

Ahul, a girl who had just turned fourteen, lay there, whimpering.

Faint spots on her skin, the Red Death! It was slowly consuming her body.

Ahul’s older brother, Ahun, pleaded with Vikir, his face filled with concern.

“Please, Vikir! Please save my sister!”

“……”

Vikir approached without saying a word, looking at Ahul.

Red spots on the skin, uncontrollable bowel and bladder movements, soaring body temperature, joint pain, swelling in the throat, armpits, and groin. All these were signs of the Red Death.

“Why did this happen?”

“She went to the swamp to help in bringing wood for construction… then…”

Ahun answered in Ahul’s place.

Ahul must have gone deep into the marsh for wood and got infected.

“What should we do, Vikir?”

Aiyen asked with a worried expression.

But once someone was already infected, there was little Vikir could do, even if he were a healer. Prevention was something anyone could do, but treatment was the realm of specialists.

Just then, the tent’s flap flapped open.

In came the shaman, Ahueman.

As soon as he entered, he glared at Ahul and Ahun.

“You brats are quite something! Not even listening to the old man’s words and wandering around!”

Ahueman shouted, spitting as he spoke.

“You are tempted by this damn Imperial, so it’s no wonder you ended up like this! It’s only natural that things turned out the way they did!”

“Grandfather! Your words are too harsh!”

Ahun stood up abruptly but received nothing but a slap in return.

With a red mark on his cheek, Ahun slumped back down and couldn’t get up again.

Ahueman looked down at the fallen Ahun with a disdainful gaze.

“No different from your worthless parents.”

“……”

Eventually, tears welled up in Ahun’s eyes.

While Aiyen sighed, thinking, “Here we go again.”

“If you have a cure, then say it.”

Vikir spoke up.

At his words, Ahuheman snorted, and Ahun widened his eyes.Ahuheman forcefully pushed Vikir’s chest and left the tent.

“Do you want to be fooled by this damn outsider again? This is a divine curse, and the only solution is to offer a sacrifice to appease the spirits. Now that it’s come to this, the chief will surely approve.”

He said, emphasizing the shaman’s authority.

Whoosh-

Ahueman swung the tent flap wide open, letting the wind and rain in, drenching everyone inside.

Left behind in the tent were Aiyen, Vikir, Ahun, and the suffering Ahul.

Vikir said to Ahun, “First, you should collect Ahul’s urine and feces yourself. Be careful not to touch her body. Also, sterilize the utensils you’ve used with boiling water. And burn mugwort in the fire to drive away mosquitoes, fleas, and bats from around the tent.”

“Ah, I got it. So, will that be enough?”

“It’s not enough just to do that.”

Vikir turned his head to look at Aiyen.

And he brought up what he had originally intended to ask.

“I have to go outside.”

Upon hearing Vikir’s words, Aiyen’s expression stiffened.

Normally, there was no discrimination against those who came from outside and became part of Ballak, the jungle tribe. They could freely go anywhere in the jungle, except for the chief’s tent and the shaman’s shrine, just like the native Ballaks.

But there was one exception.

Leaving the jungle was strictly prohibited.

An outsider, like Vikir, could only leave the jungle if they met two conditions at once.

First, they had to have lived in the village for more than two years.

Second, they had to have a relationship with a native Ballak and give birth to at least three children.

Vikir didn’t meet either of these conditions.

However, despite that, Vikir was asking to be allowed to go outside.

“If you let me go, I’ll bring back a cure for the epidemic.”

Aiyen bit her lip upon hearing Vikir’s words.

Would her mother, Aquilla, who was both the tribe’s leader and her mother, allow this exception? Probably not. Aquilla was a staunch traditionalist.

‘Ahul will probably be abandoned.’

A sacrifice for the tribe.

But Aiyen didn’t want that.

She didn’t want to see Ahul, who used to sing cute songs and take care of laundry and cleaning, dying in agony from vomiting and diarrhea.

…But there was a more fundamental issue that was troubling Aiyen.

…Would Vikir really come back?

Strictly speaking, he was a foreigner enslaved by the tribe.

If they allowed Vikir to go outside and gave him his freedom, would he really return?

Until now, Vikir had been able to move freely on his own within Ballak’s territory. But that was all within the boundaries of the Ballak tribe. If Vikir had tried to escape, the search parties and wolves that confirmed his absence that evening would have tracked him down and punished him. Vikir wasn’t foolish enough not to know that.

However, obtaining permission to go outside to the flood was an entirely different story. If he were to board the escape route for good, once he realized he would never come back, it would be too late to catch him.

“……”

Aiyen paused. Hesitation was uncharacteristic of her. In that brief moment, Aiyen deeply considered the psychological factors that had caused her to hesitate, eventually discovering the reasons within herself.

She raised her head. Her eyes were already tinted with the color of the fire, with the difference being that they were moist with tears instead of flames.“……Go.”

The order had come.

Aiyen didn’t report to Aquila. It was a given that she wouldn’t allow it. All responsibility rested on Aiyen’s shoulders. With the Pomeranian on his back, Vikir ventured into the flood.

“Anyway, flood control alone won’t completely stop this epidemic,” Vikir thought. What about the other tribes that hadn’t done flood control? To prevent the spread of the Red Death and stop the Empire’s revival, even thwarting the threat of Baskerville required a more fundamental solution.

Clunk! Stepping on floating logs, Vikir crossed the river in one swift motion. Due to the abundance of floodwaters, he could run across the river, making the journey shorter.

Right at that moment, Vikir abruptly stopped on the riverbank. Rain poured down on this night, and a shadow extended in the water’s reflection, following him.

When Vikir turned to look, he found Aiyen, soaked to the bone, standing there, breathing heavily.

“Why are you following me?” Vikir asked. Aiyen was about to reply but closed her mouth.

“What’s the point of following me?” Vikir told her not to follow.

“I don’t want to.”

“I told you not to follow.”

“But I’m your master!”

Aiyen shouted with her still-childish voice. But Vikir, with a cold gaze, drew the line once more.

“Repeating myself three times is unusual, you know?”

“…”

“If I say not to follow, then don’t follow.”

Seeing Vikir’s gaze, Aiyen froze in place as if shocked.

“How can you look at me like that?”

A muffled question emerged. Vikir didn’t answer. In response, Aiyen struggled to say something.

And among many things, she brought out only selected words.

“Where are you going?”

“… Even if you’re going somewhere, at least tell me.”

“No.”

“Why are you taking Pomeranian?”

“…”

“Why don’t you leave her with me?”

A situation where it was unclear who was the master and who was the slave. Well, Aiyen knew it from the beginning. It was something she had felt since she first saw his face behind the iron bars of the slave traders, the first time she saw him on stage.

That she would live the rest of her life under him.

In the pouring rain, Aiyen suddenly realized this fact. She trembled, her voice soaked with emotion.

“Then at least answer me this.”

“…What?”

When Vikir asked, Aiyen finally managed to speak after taking a deep breath.

“You’ll come back, right?”

“… Naturally.”

Hesitation in her voice, an air of anxiety, restlessness, and heaviness hung in her tone. This time, even Vikir responded with a solemn answer.

“Of course.”

With that response, Aiyen’s expression finally relaxed. She exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Keep your promise.”

“… Sure.”

Vikir nodded his head.

Before long, the hunting dog once again pierced through the dawn. The darkness swallowed up even the distant silhouette. And Aiyen watching him, with tears in her eyes.