Dietrich, who was sitting at his desk in his office, closed his eyes with an uncharacteristically anxious expression.

The plague had spread.

And at a critical time when it was unknown when the demons would start invading again.

Until recently, there were numerous deaths in the north where he was.

Statistically, a quarter of those who contracted the disease had already died.

The imperial palace immediately sent doctors to prevent their condition from worsening.

However, no matter what the doctors tried, the patients showed no signs of improvement.

Rather, even the doctors who went north contracted the disease in vain. This was despite thorough quarantine measures to prevent transmission.

What about the situation in the capital?

Since the disease started in the north, travel was restricted to prevent it from spreading to the capital, but there was little effect.

The epidemic began devouring the people of the capital as if it had legs.

There have been no deaths in the capital yet, but their future was foreseen.

They would meet the same fate as the northerners.

However, the biggest problem was separate.

Dietrich sighed as he double-checked the secret letter Nils had urgently delivered.

The contents were that the emperor had begun to show symptoms of coughing.

‘I hope it’s just a common cold… but the chances of that are slim.’

The progression of the disease was similar to those infected with the epidemic. The doctor had already diagnosed it as the epidemic.

It was a truly strange thing.

As soon as the plague spread, the emperor lived only in a thoroughly safe place.

The palace people also attended to him while being isolated from the outside, and even the food was thoroughly cooked to leave no bacteria.

But how on earth did he get sick?

Whatever the reason, what was certain was that the empire had fallen into an unprecedented crisis.

They might lose their leader in a time of war.

The emperor’s health condition is still a secret known only to high-ranking nobles.

It was not difficult to predict how loud the people’s voices would become once this started to spread.

The plague was thoroughly eating away at the empire as if it were on the side of the demons.

‘In this situation, I have no idea what the right thing to do is.’

If they focused all their energy on stopping the epidemic like this, the demons waiting for an opportunity would take advantage, and if they concentrated on the demons’ invasion, the people would all die from the epidemic.

It was truly a situation of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Meanwhile, people were starting to fall ill in the duke’s residence as well, and the once quiet mansion was in turmoil.

Many of the family’s knights who had gone north with Dietrich were infected with the disease.

At that moment, Nils opened the door and entered.

“Young Duke. I have something to report.”

Dietrich nodded, signaling him to continue.

“Three of the servants in the main building are suspected of being infected.”

Upon hearing those words, Dietrich frowned deeply.

The servants of the main building.

Currently, those remaining in the main building… had not gone outside since before the epidemic spread to the capital, and had not had contact with the knights who had gone north.

Those with even the slightest possibility of infection had all been sent to the annex.

“Are there none among those sent to the annex?”

“Yes. We’ve already monitored them for over 2 weeks, but in fact, there seems to be no one infected among them.”

Something didn’t add up.

Judging by the speed at which the disease was currently spreading, the epidemic had an extremely high transmission rate.

But those who had contact with the patients were fine, while those who had nothing to do with them were getting sick instead?

Suddenly, the contents of the secret letter he had checked earlier came to mind. The very fact that the emperor had contracted the epidemic despite thorough precautions.

Dietrich, who had been quietly listening to Nils, abruptly stood up from his seat.

The desk shook with his rough movement.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I need to check for myself. I think we’re missing something.”

Dietrich headed straight for the annex where the patients were.

Nils followed him and tried hard to dissuade him, but Dietrich did not reverse his decision.

“You mean you’re going to check the patients directly? It’s dangerous.”

“It’s more dangerous to just sit still like this.”

The way to the annex was somewhat chaotic. Occasionally, bugs could be seen sticking to the walls that were always spotlessly clean.

A very small beetle that was not noticeable.

The insect from the north that he had seen on the day he returned with Vivian had already spread to his own residence.

‘It’s been bothersome since last time.’

It seemed that after coming up with countermeasures for the epidemic, the problem with those bugs would also have to be solved.

Dietrich immediately rushed to where the patients were.

Their condition was more serious than he had heard. The patients were coughing to the point of coughing up blood.

However, this was the better side. One patient locked in a single room was tied to the bed. It was an inhumane sight.

The doctor taking care of him must have been startled, as he rolled his eyes in embarrassment.

Although his face was covered with a thick cloth except for his eyes, his expression was easily read.

“It may seem strange to you… Young Duke, this was the best we could do. He kept having seizures due to hallucinations. No matter what medicine we gave him, there was no improvement, so there was nothing we could do.”

As soon as the doctor finished speaking, the patient began to struggle as if to prove that it was all true.

Suddenly, the gag covering his mouth came loose, unable to withstand the rough resistance.

Immediately, a thunderous scream was heard.

“…Die! I said die! No!”

There was clearly nothing in front of him, but he was genuinely terrified.

Was he seeing monsters in the air? He tried to escape somehow.

Dietrich, who was watching this, was at a loss for words due to the misery.

The one suffering now was one of the knights who had headed north with Dietrich just a few weeks ago.

Suddenly, a past event came to mind. On the day they went to the forest of black trees, the memory of that day when his comrades were consumed by demonic energy and attacked and killed each other.

Dietrich tightly closed his eyes and shook his head.

It was probably just a coincidence that the knight and his past comrades overlapped.

Rather than being caught up in the past, he had to do what he could now. He coldly examined the knight’s condition.

But then, he noticed very subtle but bright red marks on his body.

Small traces that one would think were just two dots and overlook if not paying close attention.

It was a familiar shape. It looked the same as the wound left by being bitten by that suspicious beetle.

At first, Dietrich paid no attention to it.

He himself had been bitten by that insect several times, and he knew best that no particular symptoms occurred from being bitten by the bug.

However, as he examined the patients, he changed his mind.

Because the very small wound from the bug bite was commonly seen in the patients.

Regular meetings were usually hosted by Veronica, but today, unusually, Dietrich had called everyone.

‘What could be the matter?’

Vivian briefly scanned the faces of those gathered in the conference room.

Everyone’s faces didn’t look good, but among them, the princess’s complexion was particularly bad.

It was because she was busy with no time to spare due to the epidemic.

‘It’s understandable… There are no signs of it being resolved at all.’

Recently, with the demons being quiet, everyone here had focused on investigating the epidemic, but no meaningful results had been obtained.

The pharmacists tried to find a medicine that would somehow alleviate the symptoms, but nothing was effective.

Those who had always found effective medicines whenever a plague occurred had all thrown up their hands this time.

It meant that a disease with such strong transmission power was an incurable one that was impossible to treat.

As such tedious days continued, the epidemic began to spread throughout the empire beyond the capital.

The people, who saw their families collapsing, fell into melancholy and sorrow.

‘At least the south is okay.’

Although it is approaching winter now, the south is quite warm.

Perhaps because of that, strangely, the disease did not spread at all in the south.

So everyone is speculating that the disease is related to the weather, but no definite conclusions have been reached yet.

Vivian, who was thinking about the epidemic, clenched her fists tightly. Her hands trembled from her own powerlessness.

She knew the contents of the original work, and recently, she had even received some of the memories of God.

Nevertheless, she had no way of knowing anything about the epidemic, so it was frustrating.

At that moment, at Dietrich’s voice demanding concentration, Vivian raised her head and looked straight at him.

“…The reason I called the meeting today is because there is something urgent to convey regarding the disease.”

At the appearance of an unexpected topic, Veronica’s expression immediately brightened.

“This disease may not be something like an epidemic that spreads between people.”

“Young Duke Belvedere, what do you mean by that?”

“When I investigated the patients who occurred in the residence, they all had bite marks from a specific insect in common. So I expanded the scope of the investigation, and as a result, all the patients had the same wound somewhere on their body. It was not found in those who were fine despite having contact with the patients.”

At the word insect, everyone made a puzzled expression.

“Wait, so are you arguing that it’s not a disease but poisoning caused by an insect’s venom?”

“It could be poisoning, but I’ve heard that there are also cases where insects become vectors of disease. Whichever it is, it seems certain that this insect is the cause.”

Dietrich presented a drawing of the insect that looked enlarged, along with a glass bottle containing a few bug carcasses.

“I don’t know the name of the insect either. Upon investigation, even entomologists say it’s a species they’ve never seen before. When bitten, it leaves marks like this.”

Then he took off his glove and held out the back of his hand to show them. Two very small red dots caught everyone’s eye.

“It’s a trace of being bitten by the bug. If you can’t believe it, investigate it. At least the patients I checked all had this trace.”

Then Ren, who had been quiet the whole time, suddenly opened his mouth.

“I also happen to have materials I’ve prepared related to that insect.”

Ren distributed a sheet of documents to everyone.

“I investigated through the information guild, and the time when suspicious bugs appeared in the north and the time when the disease first occurred overlap. The capital is the same.”

“Do you also think that insect is the cause?”

To Veronica’s question, Ren calmly replied.

“I just prepared the data thinking there might be a connection. However, hearing the story that came out now, the probability of it being true seems high.”

But an objection was heard from an unexpected person.

“If that insect is really the cause, it doesn’t explain why the young duke and I are fine. I have similar marks too.”

Trian, who was always quiet at meetings, spoke up for the first time.

He had a quite confident expression.

At this, Veronica also seemed to remember something and examined her forearm.

“Same here. I’ve had wounds like that since 2 weeks ago. If the bug is the cause, it doesn’t explain why I’m fine either.”

Silence lingered in the conference room for a moment.

Dietrich’s argument certainly seemed plausible. However, there were already three counterexamples.

There were two possibilities.

Either Dietrich’s reasoning was wrong, or there was a separate reason why those three who were bitten by the bug were fine.

Everyone closed their mouths and fell into thought, but no likely possibility came to mind.

Vivian was the same, so she just visually scanned the focused faces of the others.

Then something caught her eye.

It was the silver thread around Dietrich’s neck. It stood out due to his pale white skin.

At that moment, Vivian realized one fact.

The necklace. Those three were wearing the same artifact.

She was certain because she had personally distributed them to the three.

“This necklace I gave you, I said it prevents demonic brainwashing, but actually it has another function. If the amount is small, it can also detoxify the demonic energy accumulated in the body.”

The gazes of those participating in the meeting all turned to Vivian at once.

She took a breath for a moment and brought up the main point.

“If that bug is related to demonic energy, it all makes sense.”

“That story is…”

“This epidemic may be the work of demons.”

As soon as Vivian finished speaking, the air froze cold in an instant.