Chapter 38 The Plague "Why did you enter the Devil's Forest?..."
Catherine was so startled that she took several steps back. In that instant, she had already reached out to press the pendant around her neck.
A hoarse, unpleasant laugh rang out, and the owner of the hand comforted Catherine, saying, "Hehehe... Don't be afraid, little girl, I haven't caught the plague yet—at least not today."
“Plague?” Catherine caught the key point in her words.
Catherine glanced around the bakery behind her—still as empty and deserted as before, except for this thing in front of her, which she didn't know if it was human or not.
"She must be the shop owner," Catherine guessed.
Before she could ask anything more, the person in front of her suddenly gripped her arm tightly and then slowly raised his head.
Seeing her actions, Catherine was already mentally prepared, but even so, she was still frightened by the shopkeeper's appearance. It was a face so thin that only bones remained, looking extremely strange and terrifying.
Feeling the warm touch on her arm, Catherine repeatedly told herself that this was a normal human being, a normal human being... before she managed to control her hand and not press the pendant.
“What is a plague?” Catherine asked again.
"Hehe, young lady, you must be from out of town. It's been quite a while, probably several weeks now..." The shopkeeper said, squinting his eyes as if trying to recall the source of the epidemic.
A few weeks ago, in the town of Gwen
It was a fairly bright afternoon. The continuous rain of the past few days had left everything in town with a faint musty smell. Taking advantage of this hard-won sunny day, everyone rushed home to air out their clothes, sheets, and all sorts of damp items, hoping to at least dry them off in preparation for the long, dreary rainy season to come.
Just then, a black wind suddenly blew in from the south.
It was dark and heavy, at first glance resembling a massive, thick dark cloud. Only when this "cloud" gently but irresistibly descended upon the town did everyone realize something was wrong. In an instant, the entire town erupted in chaos, with screaming people fleeing everywhere.
But how can a person outrun the wind?
“At first, nothing happened. Everyone was terrified, but after realizing that nothing was different from before, they gradually calmed down.”
"But something still happened in the end, didn't it?" Catherine had already guessed the outcome. Otherwise, this town wouldn't be in its current state.
"Hehe, that's right. Nobody was hurt on the first day. On the second day, only one or two people felt a little itchy. But on the third day..." The shopkeeper closed her eyes, as if unwilling to look at the scene in her memory, "In this city, only a small fraction of the people who caught that disease are still suffering half-dead, not knowing when they will suddenly contract that terrible plague."
"What about the Vatican? Do they know what's happening here?"
"Hehe...maybe they know, maybe they don't, who knows?"
Catherine understood the shopkeeper's unspoken words. The city had already become what it was; whether the Vatican had received the news or not was no longer important.
The shopkeeper took a few loaves of bread from the shelf and stuffed them into Catherine's hands: "Here, eat them, little girl. Maybe soon, nobody in this city will eat bread anymore, hehe."
Catherine walked back to the hotel with the bread in her hand. If you looked closely, you would notice that her eyes were vacant and she wasn't focused. She was thinking about her last conversation with the bakery owner.
"Back then, not everyone in the city was outside, right? There must have been some who weren't caught in the Black Wind. The city shouldn't be this empty, should it?"
The shop owner raised his eyelids slightly and smiled strangely: "Hehe, little girl, guess why I said 'epidemic'? It's because this thing is contagious."
"Hey! Not bad at all."
A sudden sound pulled her back to reality. Catherine realized that she had unknowingly entered the hotel.
She looked up and saw Lucas leaning on the second-floor railing, waving at her with a bright smile.
Because she had spent a considerable amount of time at the bakery, by the time she returned to the inn, the town was completely shrouded in night. The meat she had eaten in the Devil's Forest had long since been consumed. No wonder Lucas's gaze was so intense as he looked at the bread in her hand.
Catherine smiled and was about to go upstairs when a commotion outside grew louder and louder, eventually reaching her door. Before she could realize what was happening, Lucas exclaimed from the second floor of the inn, "The plague has spread here!"
From Lucas's vantage point, he had a perfect view of the scenery outside the window. He only glanced at it, but he knew what had happened.
"You know?" The words had barely left her mouth when a sudden thought flashed through Catherine's mind. She instantly thought of the people in the Devil's Forest camp. "No! You experienced it."
The Devil's Forest was so dangerous, yet a large group of non-sacrificial humans insisted on entering; this was already highly unusual. And now, Lucas's cry made her suddenly understand something…
What if their original place of residence is no longer suitable for survival?
What if there were something even more dangerous than hordes of demonic beasts?!
"Why did you enter the Devil's Forest?"
Lucas's eyes widened considerably at the question, and he hesitated for a while, seemingly struggling with how to respond.
However, Catherine did not hear his reply in the end, because before he could make up his mind to speak, the wooden door of the inn was smashed open.
Those "people" outside the door, some with their heads drooping and others with their heads tilted back, stumbled and rushed inside the moment the door collapsed. Their movements weren't exactly synchronized, but what they had in common was their festering skin and their extremely bizarre postures.
Looking at their bent and unnatural limbs, Catherine suspected that these "people" were no longer alive.
Just then, the door to the room behind the counter was pushed open, and an impatient voice came out first.
"Who's banging on our shop door in the middle of the night?! Oh my god!! What are these people with the plague doing here?!" The impatient voice quickly turned into a terrified scream.
He frantically tried to run back, but halfway there he suddenly turned around. His excessive speed caused him to stumble, but he managed to regain his balance. He quickly glanced at the first floor, then sprinted towards Catherine and hid behind her.
Catherine: ?
"Shouldn't you be more used to them than I am? I've never even seen anyone with the plague."
The boy, his fingers clutching Catherine's blouse, rolled his eyes rather rudely, taking advantage of Catherine's angle where she couldn't see his gaze: "Getting used to something doesn't mean you're not afraid! That stuff is contagious, it's contagious!"
Catherine looked towards the entrance; the wooden door was narrow, and not many "people" had squeezed in yet. But looking beyond their heads and further back, she could see a dense, surging mass of figures. It was as if the entire city had gathered at the inn that night.
It's clearly not feasible to leave through the main entrance now. Catherine turned to the boy and asked, "Are there any other exits?"
"Other exits... Oh! Yes, yes! Follow me."
In the short time that followed, Lucas had already run downstairs with his things. He and Catherine followed the boy who was walking on tiptoe with his bottom sticking out, heading in another direction.
Fortunately, those who had contracted the plague did not have very keen senses; in fact, they were rather dull. They were careful and tried to keep their voices down, and they were not discovered at all, successfully making their way to the backyard of the inn.
It's called a courtyard, but it's actually quite small, maybe only a little bigger than the room they stayed in last night. You can see the whole thing at a glance.
Catherine was puzzled. The courtyard didn't seem to have any other exit; the three walls were intact, and none of them had a wooden door embedded in them. Then the boy led her and Lucas to the gray wall directly opposite them and pointed down.
"Hey! Here."
"This is... a dog hole?" Lucas's voice was filled with disbelief.
He seemed to doubt his own eyes, so much so that he couldn't see the direction the boy was pointing in the dark.
"Yes! It's the dog hole! I was going to say there wasn't one, but then I suddenly remembered this place..." The boy closed his eyes, put his hands together in a prayer-like gesture, "Oh~ thank you for the cute little dog that the shopkeeper used to have."
Lucas looked at Catherine, hoping for some emotional support, but saw that she had already crouched down, as if she was about to crawl out of there at any moment.
"...?"
Catherine seemed to sense his gaze, looked up at him, and said, "What are you looking at me for? Get up."
At that moment, life was far more important than crawling through a dog hole. They had no other choice.
The rain had just stopped, and the soil on the ground still felt damp. Even through my clothes, it still made me feel inexplicably nauseous.
Of the three, the boy had the worst expression, clearly uncomfortable with the feel of the damp earth. Catherine, on the other hand, was the most accustomed to it; her expression was calm, and if you ignored the mud stains on her clothes, you would think she had crawled across a clean surface.
After all, she had lived in the slums for a very long time before going to the Vatican, so she naturally didn't think that crawling through dog holes or climbing muddy floors was a big deal.
The dog hole wasn't very big; it was already a bit of a struggle for someone of Catherine's size to fit through. So the two people behind her could only try to widen the hole while their two companions pulled and pushed.
With great difficulty, all three of them managed to crawl out.
The boy looked around to make sure nothing was following him. He then breathed a sigh of relief: "Phew! We're finally out."
Catherine looked at him: "Isn't this disease contagious?"
The boy waved his hand: "Oh, it's nothing. As long as you don't get scratched or bitten by those things, you'll be fine. They're like the legendary vampires; their transmission methods are limited."
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