Chapter 565 - Zero Cases
Yvonne sat in the library with a book on her lap but her attention wasn't on the contents of the book she was supposed to be reading.
Instead, her interest laid in the young boy standing before her.
Wearing a butler uniform, Jax was busy narrating something important to his Boss and she too was paying utmost attention to his report.
The seasons had once again changed and now the cold winds of winter had taken over their fief.
Yvonne had never spent more than two weeks in their fief but due to the plague, she had been in this place for more than nine months now.
Unlike winters in Amarthea, St. Claire experienced extreme temperatures due to its close proximity to the snow-capped Timara Mountains.
'At least it doesn't snow here.' The little girl rubbed her arms as that would only make things worse.
The Timara Mountains brought snowfall to the areas right next to it however, the Summer estate where Yvonne resided was around two whole days' journey away from it.
This safeguarded them from experiencing snowy blizzards and frigid temperatures which she was grateful for.
Coming out of her thoughts, she looked up at Jax and nodded for him to continue speaking.
"The entire Mikren fief has zero cases of the plague right now." He revealed the news which he had gained from his sources.
Just as she had expected, Jax had a knack for gathering information, and hence, she had assigned him the duty of being her ears and bringing her back information from outside.
The Mikren fief that he was mentioning shared a small part of their borders with the St. Claire fief.
This place was to their south and was right next to the Valente fief as well.
In the Mikren fief, the newer Royal Hospital had been constructed and this was also where the plague victims had been shifted due to the overwhelming number of patients in the other two southern hospitals of Wescott and Vamos.
The least number of patients were moved to Mikren as this fief had not been infected by the plague.
Mikren's hospital was used to treat the patients and nothing else.
Therefore, according to the information that Jax had received, the limited number of patients being treated in the Royal Hospital at Mikren had already been healed.
The news of the cure being created had brought joy to the entire Kingdom and this had taken place over two months ago.
After the initial news that arrived about its creation, there was total silence as nothing else was heard about it or its distribution among the patients.
However, that changed when Rutherford heard about the large number of carriages moving towards the infected fiefs the next week.
These carriages then were said to have separated along the way and headed to numerous different locations.
Once again, no news was heard after these carriages reached their destinations.
Finally, two and a half weeks later, Rutherford had heard word from Duke Tanner who had contacts in the southern regions where these carriages had halted.
The first two weeks that they heard no news was the time that the cure was tested on a small group of people from the Wescott fief.
After making sure through their observations that nothing had gone wrong with those few upon consumption of the cure, the Royal Medical Association reported its findings to the King.
Through the permission received by the King, they began preparing the cure on a large scale using the ingredients that they had brought along with them during their journey to the south.
Yvonne had heard more information about this, both from her father who had his sources, and from uncle Marcus Valente who was in contact with the Lord of the Mikren fief, their neighbor.
The physicians who had come from the Royal Medical Association in Amarthea had brought with them the raw materials needed to create the cure.
They prepared the cure in batches based on how many patients needed the dosage and finished the lavender-colored liquid almost immediately.
'They tried their best to not store it.' Yvonne had concluded after hearing about this strange behavior.
The men from the Royal Medical Association never tried to store the cure and she discovered that it might be due to its short shelf life.
If the cure lost its potency then they would be wasting the ingredients and many lives could be lost due to it.
Therefore, she was glad that the men from this large institution had come up with this brilliant idea to make use of the resources they had and not waste anything due to negligence.
The cure had started circulating for more than a month now and today, she was hearing about the Mikren fief being completely freed from the clutches of the plague.
Mikren was quick to achieve this goal as the only patients in it were those in the Hospital who had been transported from other infected fiefs.
They had none of their own and this had caused the rapid rate of recovery as only a few needed the cure.
However, the same could not be said for most others.
Especially the three fiefs of Wescott, Lumex, and Jorbin had the worst death tolls to this day.
These would be tough to manage and Yvonne hoped that the cure would reach every single one of the patients who needed it to survive.
"Boss, did you hear about the other news from Mikren?" Jax inquired, dragging her out of her thoughts.
Yvonne shook her head as her father had not spoken about the Mikren fief much in recent days.
This prompted the competent butler to fill his master in regarding the information he had received from the other shadow guards.
From what he had heard, while the cure was being circulated to the patients, there was someone who was also working hard in this regard but from a different direction.
A few weeks after the cure had started circulating among the various infected fiefs, a group of researchers from the Royal Medical Association had arrived in the Mikren fief.
They had come over to volunteer and lend their support in treating the patients.
'Why would they go to the place where the least patients were present?' Yvonne frowned as in her opinion, heading down south where their help was needed would have been a better option.
Jax noticed her displeasure and chuckled before revealing the cause of this odd decision being made.
"They were testing out another medicine under the guise of volunteering." He narrated what he had heard with great excitement.
The group of four physicians and researchers who had arrived at Mikren opted to work with the plague victims first.
These plague victims were the ones who had yet to consume the cure.
"They even went as far as being in close contact with the plague victims without fear." He added with a hint of appreciation for their bravery.
However, Yvonne's frown only deepened as this was an act of foolishness in her eyes.
Close contact with the victims would only lead them to contract the same disease.
Those people were here to help so getting too close to the patients would make them a patient as well.
Once again, Jax understood her expressions as he too had felt the same way when he had heard of this for the first time.
"Boss, do you know where those four are right now?" He quizzed his Master who shook her head.
'Either already received the cure or are laying in bed, waiting for their chance to gain it.' She remained silent about her pessimistic thoughts of them getting infected.
"They are now heading to the Southern fiefs. Each to a different one." The Butler's answer was not something that she had expected.
Raising her brows, she looked at him with interest which encouraged him to continue speaking.
These four people had apparently taken a certain medication created by a fifth member of their group who had not accompanied them.
Their objective for coming to Mikren and working with the plague victims was to prove a theory that they had come up with.
After working in close contact with the people infected by the plague and not contracting the disease themselves even then, they had successfully accomplished the task that they had gone there for.
"A medicine which made them immune to the plague, Boss." Jax disclosed the truth behind the medicine they had consumed.
With widened eyes, Yvonne was astonished by his statement and urged him to keep going.
Jax did not disappoint her as he went on to reveal everything that he had heard from his sources.
A supposed mysterious medicine that could protect anyone who consumed it from the deadly plague that tormented their Kingdom was the main reason for the four men to appear in Mikren.
Their motive which was to test the efficacy of this miracle medicine brought them to Mikren and they even managed to achieve their goal.
Even after working in close contact with the victims, they exhibited no signs of the disease affecting them.
To make sure that they hadn't been mistaken, they waited for a whole month at Mikren and observed each other to look for the plague symptoms.
However, when they found none, they shared the same medicine with the rest of the workers and physicians who treated and worked with the victims.
Skeptical as the others were, they accepted the medicine and were surprised to see it working so quickly.
Thus, without fear of getting the plague, these physicians began caring for the victims.
Having completed their trial in Mikren, those four men then headed in different directions to share their medicine with the physicians and everyone else who worked with those affected by the plague in order to protect them from contracting it.