Chapter 400 - 388: Asymmetric War

Chapter 400: Chapter 388: Asymmetric War

The air in the study felt like setting glue, so thick it was suffocating.

The cheers and sea breeze outside were sealed off by the thick glass, leaving only the sharp rustle of papyrus being flipped with rough haste.

Velin’s gaze was fixed on the words "Clover Village." It was in the heart of his territory, far from the coast and the borderlands.

How could the embers of a plague that had already been extinguished defy all logic, leapfrog a dozen miles of safe zone, and land in an almost completely isolated farming village?

’Is it Hector?’

Such a vicious, covert method was too much like his "old friend’s" style. Striking while the White Tower Territory was celebrating its victory, its guard lowered, and stabbing him right in the heart... the possibility was all too high.

Velin tried to find any clues from those few lines of scrawled report—a suspicious vagrant, a contaminated water source, or the residue of some Alchemy Potion.

But there was nothing.

The report contained only cold descriptions of symptoms and death tolls. Everything was just speculation based on intuition; he had no concrete leads, no way to start tracking the potential poisoner.

Velin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the chaotic, groundless theories. Whether the mastermind was Hector or not, whether he knew how it was done or not, the priority wasn’t an investigation. It was damage control.

When he opened his eyes again, all emotion had been reined in.

"Tristan."

Tristan already held a prepared quill and writing board. "My lord."

"Initiate Level One pandemic protocol. Designate a two-mile radius around Clover Village as a restricted zone. Block all access roads. No one leaves, no one enters." Velin didn’t look up, his gaze still locked on the scrawled text. "Immediately arrange for medical personnel to enter the village and provide treatment."

"A village of over three hundred... if their food supply is cut off, not only will the quarantine fail, it will cause a panic." Tristan’s quill paused. After brief consideration, he quickly began adding details to the document. "My lord, we can establish a non-contact supply line. I will arrange for the guards to deliver supplies to the edge of the quarantine line and send them in with pulley baskets to ensure they can last through the isolation period."

"Do as you’ve suggested." Velin nodded in approval. "Remember, we aren’t facing an enemy, but probability. Until we identify the source of transmission, physical isolation is essential."

The orders quickly moved down the chain of command from the Lord’s Mansion. However, the situation developed far faster than Velin’s predictive models had accounted for.

「Three days later.」

A new, urgent report was placed on his desk.

When Elias pushed open the study door, he carried the heavy stench of blood. The young priest’s eyes were sunken, his face etched with exhaustion, a clear sign he had just returned from an inspection of the medical camp.

"Something is wrong." Elias wasted no time, placing a glass bottle filled with a black liquid on the table. "Word from the medical team is that this isn’t an ordinary blood-cough."

Velin picked up the bottle and held it to the light. The liquid was murky, with a flaky sediment. "It mutated?"

"Far more virulent." Elias pulled out a chair and sat, forgoing all etiquette. "The incubation period has shortened dramatically. A cough in the morning becomes bloody by evening, and by the next day, their lungs fail like a broken bellows. It’s also extremely contagious. Two assistants from the medical team tore their gloves while handling a body. They collapsed three hours later."

"And the effect of the Alchemy Potions?"

"They work, but only by brute-forcing the dosage." Elias held up three fingers. "Before, one bottle could control the illness. Now, it takes at least three just to keep them alive."

"But it’s not a panacea. Not everyone can withstand such a potent medicine. We carried out over a dozen bodies last night, all elderly people who were already frail—they didn’t die from the plague. They died because their bodies couldn’t handle the continuous high-concentration doses, passing in convulsions and organ failure."

Velin slammed the glass bottle down on the desk. "Clover Village is just a remote farming village. No outsiders, no traveling merchants. A virulent virus like this couldn’t just spring up from the ground."

"My lord, it was deliberate." Barrett strode in from outside, clutching a few thin sheets of paper. His scarred face was furious. "Our patrol ran into some suspicious figures on the main road."

"Drifters?" Velin narrowed his eyes.

"Definitely not drifters." Barrett slapped the papers onto the desk. "The moment the patrol called out to check their ’Temporary Citizen Permits,’ the men vanished in a flash. That kind of reaction time and Body Technique is beyond any starving, ordinary refugee. They have to be Transcendent who’ve infiltrated the territory."

"So it’s more than just a probe." Velin’s voice grew low. "The enemy has sent a Transcendent to roam our territory. They’re looking for blind spots in our defenses, or—they’re marking targets for a larger operation."

He shot to his feet, his eyes blazing.

"Barrett, relay my orders! The entire territory is to go on Level One alert immediately! Double the patrol frequency and seal all non-essential access routes. I want you to comb through the territory like you’re carding wool and drag these gutter rats out of hiding!"

"Yes, my lord!" Barrett gave a military salute, turned, and strode away, the clang of his armor ringing through the room.

However, reality dealt Velin a crushing blow.