“Mom, it’s raining.”

“Oh, you’re right. We have to take the laundry in… Eh!?”

As she spoke, the young mother turned to her child and stiffened.

She looked up at the sky because the raindrops that fell on her son’s face were reddish-black.

“… Mom, I don’t… feel so good…”

“Zenos, hang in… there… aghh…”

The mother propped up her collapsed son as she lost strength and laid on the cobblestones as well. Beyond her darkening vision, the people walking down the street until a while ago also started dropping like flies.

… The day after one of the Seven Plagues, Alvesta of the Black Rain, caused an outbreak in the Royal Capital of Selkram, rains of black blood fell sporadically all over the city, which caused over a thousand people to fall victim to the bloody disease.

Because of this, all of the Holy Cathedrals in each section of the city seemed like a bloody battlefield. 

“Listen closely, don’t let the patients’ blood get on you or you’re going to catch it as well!!”

“B-but Father!! Holy Attribute Magic doesn’t work!”

“I know that. It’s the same even in the records from the past!!”

“I-it hurts… h-help me…”

“Then what should we do about them?”

“… The only way we have is to pray for them. It takes a month or so until the patients reach the end stage and die… so we can only hope that the Lord would somehow make a miracle…

“…”

At the words of the priest, the nuns realize that there is nothing more they can do.

It was something that was beyond their feeble powers.

In the two hundred years since Alvesta appeared in this continent, very few people had survived the bleeding disease. However, their survival was random, and not because they underwent a treatment process.

The clergymen looked nothing short of ridiculous as they prayed in the middle of the groaning and suffering people in bed inside the treatment center of the Holy Church.

The deputy court mage who visited to inspect the area watched the scene coldly.

“Shouldn’t they try to do something before succumbing to prayer first…”

Fundamentally, all the medical treatments used in the continent mainly used Holy Attribute Magic in combination with medicinal herbs and holy water. However, that alone was not enough to cure all diseases.

Then, what happens if healing magic does not work?

The answer was right in front of her.

In other words, the clergymen could only pray while being surrounded by the suffering people.

However, most of them would die in vain.

Among the families that have attended to their loved ones until the end, it was understandable that they were unable to accept this situation, and poured their hearts and souls into pursuing something called medicine, which was another method of treatment besides pharmacology and magic.

The Court Mage Ernesta was one of those who aspired to practice medicine.

But for some reason, she was only able to use Wind Attribute Magic. Her foster father advised her to enroll in the Magic Academy in the Royal Capital where she tried her hardest to learn all the magic attributes but all the methods she took to learn them failed.

She became a court mage not just because she benefited from the influence of her foster father who is the head magician, but because no one in the castle thought that she would become something else because her Wind Attribute Magic was in a league of its own.

However, such power was not enough for her.

If the time came when she was powerless to save a “life that could be saved”, then she would surely regret it. And, thinking that if it were someone dear to her… Ernesta turned her attention to learning medicine.

However, due to the convenience of Healing Magic, priests are treated more highly as medical professionals than doctors, while doctors are treated as shady people, but…

“Healing magic is ineffective against it.”

“….Everyone, let’s pray!!”

Unlike the clergy, they do not have the virtue of giving up.

Ernesta believed that doctors struggle until a cure can be found.

“I guess that’s all the information we’re getting from here. Let’s go back to the castle.”

“Yes, Miss Ernesta.”

Her subordinates were inwardly relieved that their boss did not say something unreasonable like, “take the patient’s blood and bring it back with us.”

They had been instructed by the Head Mage to stop her at all costs if she had said something reckless.

“…I’m just one person and I’m also considering the risk of being infected. If someone I care about falls ill, I’ll do what I have to do, but I’m not willing to risk my life for them under the circumstances. Are you willing to risk your life for someone you don’t know?

“… no, I would not.”

“Good… If you had agreed, then I would’ve advised my foster father to dismiss you.”

She beamed cheerfully.

Based on appearance alone, she was a silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty, but…

“May I ask why?”

“I believe that the more there are people who don’t value themselves, the more people they’ll bring to the mix when they self-destruct, you see.”

She said it in a light-hearted tone, but the mage let out a heavy sigh as he thought he would lose his job the next day if he had answered incorrectly.

“Don’t just sigh there, get a grip! If what the records say about the effects of his disease-bringing magic is true, then we would become busy from having to attend to at least a thousand patients every day.”

“… It just makes me feel unnecessarily depressed.”

According to previous records, Alvesta always appears suddenly in large cities with populations numbering in the tens of thousands or more, sporadically causing a rain of reddish-black blood to fall, and spreading the bloodborne disease.

It begins with the clergy living in the Holy Cathedrals, affecting about a hundred people in one day, and a thousand from the next day onwards, and finally affecting about 20,000 people before it disappears. However, more than 90% of the affected people succumb to the disease a month or so after Alvesta leaves…

“For the early measures, have the materials from the Great Library regarding Alvesta been gathered in my office already?”

“Yes, it should be fine, but other materials such as the appearance of a High Kobold that could comprehend human language is still being processed by the Adventurer’s Guild, so it may take a bit longer.”

“That one’s the real deal, so it would be nice if they could hurry up with that.”

After saying that, Ernesta turned on her heel and left the cathedral.