The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 231
“The Second Prince wouldn’t have done this without a plan. Do you have any idea what he’s up to?”
“I didn’t understand it at first either, but strange things have started happening in the city.”
“What kind of things?”
“A plague has begun to spread.”
“!!”
I flinched.
A plague.
The Free City is the second-largest city after the capital.
With its high population density, an outbreak could cause catastrophic damage.
“But, isn’t the Free City densely populated and prone to outbreaks? Is there a specific reason to link this to the Second Prince?”
The one who answered was the Third Prince, Mikhail.
“We can’t identify the disease.”
“Hmm?”
“Despite the efforts of the city’s healers and all the professors from Ruby Academy’s support faculty, no one has been able to determine the nature of this disease.”
“…That’s strange. A sudden, mysterious plague.”
New infectious diseases that humanity hadn’t experienced on Earth usually originate from animals.
Diseases that animals have carried for a long time somehow find their way to humans.
Here, things were different.
‘Dark mages are often the cause, especially the malevolent ones who have made pacts with demons.’
A chilling thought crossed my mind.
‘Could it be that the Dark Tower has already caused trouble?’
It was possible!
The timing was a bit early, but it wouldn’t be the first time things happened sooner than expected.
‘There’s a chance that the Dark Tower and Second Prince Renius have joined forces. Renius has often collaborated with the Three Evils.’
By spreading the plague, the Dark Tower could achieve their goals, and later, Renius could conspire with them to resolve the plague, becoming the hero who saves the Free City.
That could easily win him the mayoral election.
“I’ll see the patients first.”
“We’ve emptied hospitals to accommodate them.”
As I stood up, Mariam followed suit.
“You’re coming too? It’s dangerous.”
Knights and magicians have some immunity to plagues, but Mariam is an ordinary person.
“I’m the mayor. I can’t just sit safely while my city’s citizens are dying.”
Her eyes showed she wouldn’t be dissuaded.
Mariam had always deeply cared for her citizens.
Her ironclad support wasn’t for nothing.
‘From an earthly perspective, it’s not ideal to risk exposure to a plague like this.’
This place has its own ways of handling things.
Instead of trying to dissuade her, I took other measures.
Whoosh!
Light enveloped Mariam’s body.
“What is this?”
“It’s holy attribute mana. For now, no disease will be able to invade your body.”
“…Impressive. Truly, you are Van the Great Legend, admired by Peridot and treasured by Ruby.”
Mariam expressed her admiration.
“Please don’t call me that now.”
“So, you were embarrassed, huh?”
“No, since I must display greatness as a saint, please call me Van the Saint Legend. If it’s too long, you can shorten it to ‘Van Saint’.”
“…….”
Mariam’s face fell flat.
The lighthearted mood was brief.
Mariam’s eyes grew serious.
“The plague’s spread is severe. Many people will die.”
“…….”
“If this really is the doing of Prince Renius, I will never forgive him. I will make sure he pays the price, no matter what.”
I nodded in agreement.
Mariam was right.
Renius would face the consequences.
However, there was one thing in her statement that needed correction.
“Don’t worry. There won’t be as many casualties as you think.”
I stopped abruptly.
We had arrived in front of the hospital where the patients were being housed.
Creak, I slowly opened the door and finished my sentence.
“Because Van the Saint Legend will perform a miracle.”
* * *
When I entered the hospital, I saw familiar faces.
First, there were the professors from the Department of Healing.
I didn’t know their names, but I often saw them in the academy’s faculty building.
“Ah, Professor Van the Legend, you’re here! We’ve been waiting!”
“Please share your insights with us!”
Everyone seemed to welcome me warmly, indicating they were having a tough time.
There were other familiar faces as well.
“You’re here?”
“Professor Burnstein.”
“Hmph, I’m here too.”
“And you are…?”
“I’m Balas! Once a prodigy in the field of magic, and now confirmed to be a professor at Ruby!!”
“I, Hans, am here as well! Ugh, why was I called in? Um… Professor, could you use your connections to get me out of here? Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!”
“Where do you think you’re going? Professor Hans, please straighten up.”
“You rascal, Lindon!!”
Burnstein, Balas, Hans, and Lindon.
Many members from the Department of Magic were present.
‘Mages play a crucial role in resolving such plagues, especially scholarly mages well-versed in magical theory.’
“Have you discovered anything?”
“This isn’t a plague.”
Professor Burnstein replied.
“For a plague, there needs to be a vector that spreads it, but there’s nothing like that here. It seems like all the cases are individual occurrences.”
A plague, by definition, is a disease that spreads.
To spread, it needs a vector.
Influenza spreads through droplets and air, the Black Death through rats, AIDS through s****l activity.
The same principle applies in this world.
Even if it’s a plague born of dark magic, it can’t ignore the basic principles of transmission.
Identifying this vector is the first key to solving the plague.
“Is it possible the vector is a magical or special type? Something like ‘mana’ or ‘thoughts’?”
“The pattern doesn’t match.”
Sometimes, there are transmission methods entirely different from those on Earth.
The methods I mentioned are examples.
However, in such cases, the transmission method follows a particular pattern.
For example, airborne diseases usually cause respiratory illnesses.
“In fact, there isn’t even a pattern. The patients don’t share any common characteristics.”
“Let me take a look as well.”
After examining the patients, I understood what Professor Burnstein meant.
‘Each patient has completely different symptoms.’
Some patients showed symptoms of pneumonia, others had abdominal pain and were vomiting blood, while others exhibited neurological symptoms.
The commonality was that all the conditions were severe.
‘There’s no common ground either.’
I visited a room where the patients in the worst condition were gathered.
There, I saw a boy with a deer-like impression on the brink of death.
“……??”
I tilted my head.
The face looked familiar.
It wasn’t a mistake.
“…Professor Van?”
“Johan, why are you here?”
To my surprise, Johan was lying in the hospital bed.
“I went on a pilgrimage as a saint… When I heard about the plague in the Free City, I came to help you, Professor. But then I suddenly fell ill… Ugh.”
His face looked pained.
His condition was critical.
‘This doesn’t make sense. A saint on the brink of death from a plague?’
As evidenced by the holy mana I had infused into Mariam earlier, holy power repels disease.
Especially a saint falling ill from a plague was unheard of.
‘Something is off. What am I missing?’
Just then, Hans started causing a commotion.
“Aaaah! This must be the devil’s curse! I’m resigning!!”
“No, Professor Hans. This isn’t a curse. As a decent dark mage, I can tell this is not a curse.”
As Lindon asserted, this wasn’t a curse.
If it were a curse, it wouldn’t have had the slightest effect on Johan, a saint.
However, there was a word that caught my ear.
“Hans, what did you say?”
“I-I said I’m resigning! Or taking a leave, that works too!”
“No, not that. Before that.”
“…That the demon cursed us?”
I swallowed hard.
‘Professor Burnstein was right. This isn’t a plague.’
A disease that spreads without a vector.
Patients with completely different symptoms.
Most importantly, Johan, a saint, on the brink of death.
I realized the true nature of this illness.
‘It’s a rejection reaction.’
In modern medical terms, it’s called an ‘allergy.’
‘Allergy? Isn’t that just like hay fever?’ you might think.
But some allergic reactions can be more deadly than severe illnesses.
“Allergy? What do you mean, allergy?”
Lindon looked like he had heard something absurd.
This world wasn’t without allergic diseases.
In fact, there were even more horrific allergic diseases here than on Earth.
“Lindon, what’s the most terrible allergic disease you know?”
“Well…”
Lindon’s face slowly hardened.
He seemed to realize what I was getting at.
Hans, sensing the serious reaction, became frightened.
“What… What are you saying?! Lindon, you scoundrel! Tell it to this professor Hans right now! I’m not scared because I don’t know what this plague is, but because I want to become Professor Van’s right-hand man and solve it!”
Ignoring Hans, Lindon spoke slowly.
“…Mana rejection. It happens when foreign mana is introduced into the body.”
“Yes, the symptoms these patients are exhibiting are similar to mana rejection.”
“But, they’re not mages. And if it were a rejection, it wouldn’t make sense for Johan, a saint, to be like this.”
“That’s because what they’re rejecting isn’t mana.”
I looked at the patients in the intensive care unit.
Johan and the others had one common trait.
Having reached the level of an ascendant, I could recognize the ‘essence’ of their characteristics.
Their souls were pure.
Whether by nature or by living a virtuous life, they had pure souls.
There was something that particularly triggered rejection in souls like these.
“It’s the influence of Gehenna.”
“…What?”
A dreadful revelation that would turn the Free City upside down spilled from my lips.
“Gehenna’s erosion is beginning to affect the Free City. These patients are experiencing early rejection symptoms.”
