Chapter 9
Sophia stood before the spirit, Gabrielle, who had been accompanying her, and spoke.
“Stand straight, Gabrielle. Why didn’t you tell me you were leading me to a territory plagued by a plague?”
[……? ……!]
“Hmm. Your excuse is pitiful. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘A knight’s hammer for demons, a doctor’s bag for the sick’? No matter how I think about it, this isn’t my area of expertise. Could it be that the plague is some kind of curse cast by a demon?”
[…….]
“It’s true that I possess knowledge and skills that surpass professionals. My genius is unparalleled. But that’s a separate issue from whether I have specialized authority in a specific field, don’t you understand? Besides, if I step in recklessly, all the doctors will starve to death.”
And if the doctors starve to death, who will cure the people suffering from ordinary diseases not caused by demons or curses? Sophia was trying to persuade her spirit, Gabrielle, with this logic. But from the start, it was impossible for a human to out-argue a spirit with logic.
[……!]
“What……? There are no doctors, no administrators, and no lord in the territory!?”
Sophia was so shocked that her mouth hung wide open.
+++++
So, to summarize the situation, it went like this. Guided by the spirit Gabrielle, Sophia had been traveling to a place where her power was needed. She arrived at a village four days after leaving Strasbourg.
Her horse, Jean Valjean, had refused to eat grass or drink water that day, so Sophia urgently sought out a village. But when she arrived, no one came to greet her, and the people outside their homes looked pale and sickly.
Instinctively sensing something was wrong, Sophia inquired around and observed the situation. It seemed the entire village was suffering from a plague. When she asked Gabrielle for confirmation, it turned out to be true.
But the villagers, believing the plague was some kind of curse, were clinging to strange superstitions.
Sophia, being a rational thinker of her time, believed in everyone sticking to their roles. She planned to find the appropriate person to handle the situation and leave. But Gabrielle delivered shocking news that shattered Sophia’s plans.
“What do you mean there are no doctors, no administrators, and no lord!? Then who’s going to take care of the villagers?”
[……?]
“What? You’re saying I should take care of them?”
At the spirit’s naive response, Sophia clutched her head in frustration. So, now she was being asked to act as both a doctor and a temporary lord? To take on responsibilities beyond her role? After some thought, Sophia reluctantly accepted the reality.
“…Hmm, well. If the situation demands it, I have no choice.”
Sophia’s strong mentality didn’t take long to accept the situation. She wasn’t one to dwell on worries, and once she decided on something, she didn’t hesitate.
……The sight of the villagers suffering from the plague reminded her of her own childhood, when she had survived a plague alone.
“Alright. If I have to act, I’ll do it thoroughly.”
Sophia clenched her fist, determined.
+++++
The first thing Sophia did was diagnose the type of disease the villagers were suffering from and investigate the cause of the outbreak. Of course, she couldn’t use advanced 21st-century technology for the investigation, so it was limited to simple tests and gathering information from the villagers.
Still, she thought it was better than doing nothing, so she pushed forward with the tasks.
There was some resistance. The villagers, who believed they were cursed, weren’t keen on following the instructions of an outsider, especially a woman. They had no idea what a Paladin was or what authority Sophia held.
But those who opposed soon faced Sophia’s equal-opportunity iron-fisted discipline and her healing Light Power.
Even the uneducated villagers knew that clergy were holy figures. Naturally, their attitudes changed. They couldn’t defy a priest’s orders, especially since they believed the village was cursed.
……It definitely wasn’t because they were afraid of Sophia’s equal-opportunity iron-fisted discipline.
After reviewing the investigation results, Sophia nodded.
“Indeed, this is a waterborne disease.”
From the start, Sophia had suspected the villagers were suffering from some kind of bacterial dysentery-like illness.
Of course, she couldn’t know if this world had Shigella bacteria or tropical amoebas causing dysentery, but drinking contaminated water would naturally lead to illness. If it didn’t, then food poisoning wouldn’t exist in this world.
Either way, there was no specific cure for this kind of stomach illness. The only treatment was to prevent dehydration by providing clean water, sugar, and salt. Of course, the source of contamination had to be purified, the infected isolated, and their waste properly managed.
The problem was,
“Ugh, forget clean water, where am I supposed to get sugar and salt for the water?”
This was the real challenge. In this situation, Sophia had only one place to turn for help: the guidance of the spirit Gabrielle.
[……?]
“Search the lord’s abandoned keep, you say? Hmm.”
Genius! Sophia gave Gabrielle a thumbs-up. After assigning the villagers to isolation and waste management, she decided to simultaneously purify the contamination and raid the lord’s keep.
After questioning the villagers, she found the well they used for drinking water. As a temporary measure, she purified the well water with her Light Power and then used a water vein detection technique to trace the underground water veins connected to the well.
Since the village had no livestock producing waste, if the drinking water was contaminated, the problem had to be at the source connected to the underground water veins.
The underground water veins were quite long. There were branching points along the way, so Sophia checked those as well. If contaminants were flowing from upstream, the branches would also be affected.
Following the water veins, she eventually discovered something that made her smirk.
“Well, well, who would’ve thought…”
What she found at the end of the water veins was none other than the lord’s keep, where the lord ruling the area should have been residing.
For some reason, the keep was completely abandoned. There was no one guarding the gates, and no staff managing the keep.
“What on earth happened here?”
Inside the keep, it seemed it hadn’t been abandoned for long. Despite the lack of people, there were still plenty of supplies. Sophia ransacked the kitchen, gathering honey, sugar, syrup, rock salt, sea salt, and anything else useful. Finding a stash of charcoal and lime was an unexpected bonus.
She also collected dishes, wood, and other necessary items, piling them up until she had enough to fill several carts. Sophia decided to bring carts from the village to transport the supplies. As for pulling the carts, well, she reluctantly assigned the task to her horse, Jean Valjean, who had carried her to the village.
Jean Valjean shook his head vigorously, clearly displeased, but there was no other choice. Sophia was the only one who could provide clean food and water for the intelligent horse.
Realizing that refusing would mean starving, Jean Valjean eventually stopped resisting and reluctantly allowed himself to be harnessed to the cart.
After finishing the transport, Sophia took one last look around the keep and suddenly noticed something she couldn’t ignore.
