Seveleen's figure blurred, shining in a blue light. It was a body-enhancing magic for acceleration.
'I should've kept some stamina potions with myself....' She regretted her past carelessness.
A mage doesn't usually run out of their 'will' even after casting magic for hours. And nor did she ever think a situation like this would have occurred.
All the mages who don't go to the battlefield or know the harshness of the world have such a mindset of not keeping a stamina potion with them, downgrading its value.
The experienced mage would without a doubt always have a stamina potion with them. The mages from the battlefield especially had to carry many of them as the battle could prolong depending on the situation.
Passing by some boulders and trees, Seveleen arrived at the tracks leading to the city.
The front of the fortress was extremely noisy with people exiting through the gate hurriedly. All of them had restless and dark looks on their faces. The crying of children from sadness, calling out to their mother, and the sad face of their father pulling the child.
All this entered Seveleen's vision.
'What exactly is happening here....?'
She had already considered many possibilities as to what might be the cause of the black smoke.
It could be a raid done by some bandits or foreign enemies but the fortress was too fine for something like that to happen. And if the bandits caused the fire, they wouldn't just let the smoke pour out. They would be waving fire around. There's a strong possibility that the city could have been burned down to ashes, but the view of the city that she saw from the top of the boulder on the valley looked normal.
Her eyes slowly went to the guards who wore white cloth on their faces like a mask and gloves in hand. They were checking the bodies of the people who walked out of the gate carefully and letting them go.
Just this much was enough to tell Seveleen what was happening.
Blocked roadways, a barricaded city, and the smoke coming out of the village. In addition, soldiers acting with such cautiousness, it was a Pandemic without a doubt.
The situation in front of the fortress changed suddenly, Seveleen looked at it closely trying to discern the situation better. She could not hear them as she was quite far from them but she could still enhance her eyes.
The soldier suddenly ordered the troops around him. Many soldiers surrounded a couple with a small 8-year-old boy. One of the troops walked forwards and forcefully separated the father and daughter from the wife/mother.
Seeing this, Seveleen felt that something terrible was going to happen.
The mother tried extending her hand but was promptly stopped by something that the leader of the troops told her. Tears fell down her cheeks as she kneeled.
The daughter and father pair started resisting more strongly, but they couldn't do anything to the hands of the knight that held them.
The people exiting the fortress also looked on with pity visible in their eyes.
The commander took out a scroll and activated it facing toward the mother. A fireball rapidly flew towards her engulfing her with yellow flames.
The mother flailed around screaming in agony. The troops around all had hardened expressions trying not to show what they felt.
Seventeen turned around not being able to look at the sight anymore. She wasn't stupid enough to try saving that woman, she knew what the higher up of the city thought. They wanted to not let the pandemic spread any more than it already has.
The soldier moved the father and daughter pair to see if they were infected by the disease too.
Seventeen looked at the smoke rising from the city, she felt nauseated.
That smoke was not produced by burning houses or any monumental thing, instead, it was produced by burning thousands of infected human bodies!
The whole city was suffering from an incurable disease...no, currently, the whole Hevertec kingdom was going through this pandemic situation and it was spreading to other places too.
As she fought off nausea a caravan neared her or specifically it was just going through the tracks.
Seventeen was lost in her thoughts, thinking about whether to head to the city or not. Hearing the sound of the caravan, She lifted her head.
The caravan was driven by a woman in her twenties who looked rather young. She had light violet hair and alluring blue eyes.
Seeing Seveleen standing rooted in her spot, she stopped the carriage slowly. The clothes worn by Seveleen were so luxurious that she never considered the chances of her being a commoner.
Just the ornament on that dress could let a commoner live for years without any worry. She was a merchant with sharp eyes, these small details didn't escape her eyes.
She got down from the carriage and spoke with a friendly smile: "I recommend not going to the city, the pandemic has already spread throughout the city. Turning back now is for the best." The merchant girl spoke in a respectful tone, trying to get on the good side of Seveleen.
But all she got in reply was silence, glimpsing at Seveleen she could see an immensely confused look on her face.
"What...?" Seventeen spoke out loud not being able to understand a thing. She had never heard such a language in her life.
It was almost like the merchant girl was speaking nonsense!
Blinking her eyes the merchant girl whose name was Seria, was also confused. Tilting her head, she had her mouth agape from bewilderment, the word spoken by Seveleen was also not understood by her.
"Cough!" Seria covered her mouth with her hand. Looking at the hand, it was stained with black blood.
This did not escape Seveleen's eyes, she could feel lethal substances around her which she took care of by using the mana in the atmosphere.
With all this thing laid in front of her, Seveleen couldn't help but think of the worst-case scenario.
'Is this place on the continent who is in a war against us?' With her intelligence, wits, and astuteness she had guessed the perfect answer. She needed to think about it for a while as this prediction she just made was ridiculous and hard to make sense of.
Next, Seria offered to let her ride the caravan with hand signs. This was accepted by Seveleen with a nod after thinking it through.
There was a limit to how much she can travel alone and most of all she was immensely hungry.
Like this, their journey began, and they were able to grow close to each other fast. Seria taught Seveleen how to read and talk along the way, still suspicious as to where she came from. But communication was hard making her try to teach Seveleen which was unexpectedly very effective.
Seveleen learned to write and read so fast that Seria was almost frightened by it.
'This is nonsense! How can she finish learning all this in one day when it takes almost half a year for the other people!'
Seveleen started appearing abnormal in Seria's eyes.
This was to be expected of a future Archmage after all. Seventeen did her best to read and write, though learning to speak would take a while.
The disease wasn't able to affect Seveleen as she would always have the mana around her protecting her body.
As they traveled, Seria's health started deteriorating rapidly.
There were severe rashes and pus all over her body. Amputated black regions indicated that those regions had become rotten. The pungent odour coming off her had also made Seveleen throw up a few times before getting used to it.
"Haha...I am sorry about it...I guess this is the end of my life...though I wanted to do more I guess it can't be helped. You don't have to try so hard for me...this disease can't be treated, even with thousands of alchemists working on it continuously, they couldn't find a cure in the end...."
Serial who was covered in many bandages and looking like a zombie spoke sadly and gratefully to Seveleen.
She was currently laying in the caravan and Seveleen was the one who drove it.
"No...no, I am sure there is a way..." Seveleen had grown a lot closer to Seria making it hard for her to part. She wanted to do everything she can to save Seria.
She wasn't the type to show her emotions to others but currently, her face was filled with anger and frustration.
No city would accept Seria no matter what. This made it impossible to get proper treatment for Seria, further accelerating her deterioration. Merchants were people who usually don't have a place to belong too, they roam around making connections and profits not staying at the same place for long. That was the case with Seria too.
Seventeen could speak in the eastern continent language now so she was able to buy necessities and bandages for other ailments.
Her last hope was to meet Doctor Hemsnel, who lived on the other side of the Lectic mountain region. This doctor was known for his kind heartedness and superior skills compared to other medical practitioners.
Though he could not cure her, she was sure he would accept her, prolonging Seria's life.
Seventeen wasn't a suicidal person, she just thought this wasn't an impossible task for her.
She was confident in her skills to cross the Lectic mountain region and reach the other side. If she thought it to be impossible, she would have long given up and look for another way.
The mountain region entered Seveleen's sight at the end of the horizon. The temperature started dropping rapidly as she neared it.
"Sigh...."
Ignoring Seria's sighing behind her, Seveleen looked at the majestic mountain in front of her.
"So this is the Lectic mountain region...."
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on fre(e)webnov(l).com