Joachim gladly accepted Zich’s offer. In their current situation,they needed as much help as they could get. On the other hand, Hans and Snocwerefrightened about the epidemic, but Zichhitthe back of their heads and lessened some of their fears.

“Hans, you won’t have any problems withyouramount of mana! Do you think I made your training that easy? It’s the same for you, Snoc! Do you think someone who made a contract with a magicalbeast will die from a disease? I have never heard a contractor dyingforsuch a stupid reason. So throw your worries away and focus on working!”

Besides everything else, Hans and Snoc had great faith in Zich’sskills and training. Thus, theycastedtheir worries aside and began to help with the work around the camp. However, the fear of contracting a disease wasn’t the only struggle workers hadto deal within an epidemic.

“Ugh…!”Snoc groaned, seeing the corpses comingout of the village. Hans had a bit more experience than him, buthealso responded similarly.

“Hm, they didn’t die peacefully.”

Zich looked down at the corpses below him. There were severe rashes and pus all over their bodies. Their eyes, which were incapable of closing, were yellow, and all the hair on their head was gone. Amputated black regionsindicatedthat thoseregionshad become rotten andfallenoff. The pungent odor coming off the corpses seemed to numb his senses.

“Blaargh!”

“Ugh!”

Eventually,Hans and Snoc began togag, and the soldiers who brought in the corpses glanced at them. However, the soldiers didn’t say much since they had gone through a similar stagelikeHans and Snoc.

“Please put this in the pit over there.”

Following the soldier’s words, Zich lifted the corpse and left Hans and Snoc alone for a while. Hewas givingthem some time to get used to the situation.

‘Of course, if theystay like this, I will kick their butts.’

For now, Zich thought it was fine to let themenjoy hisgenerosity. Then he went to the pit while holding all the belongings and felt a faint trace of heat comingoutfrom the hole. Inside the pit, there were ashes of scorched tree branches mixed with burnt corpses.

They were at an incineration plant. As if it was recentlybuilt,there were some fresh corpses piled on top, and Zich threw the corpse he was holding in it. A new corpse was added to the pit, and after staring at the corpses, Zich shook his head.

‘This is quite serious.’

An epidemic was already a very serious matter, but looking at the state of the corpses, the epidemic looked worse than usual. Zich headed back to the village. As soon as he stepped inside, he heard all kinds of groans and screams across the area. Doctors and priests were shouting while soldiers were running. It almost felt as if he wason the front lines of a battlefield.

“Are you a bit better now?”

After throwing up for a while, Hans and Snoc seemed better and walked towards Zich like zombies.

“S-Sorry, sir. We couldn’t hold it in no matter what…”

“This is too awful.”

“Among the villages impacted by epidemics, this one isdefinitely the worstone I’ve seen.”Before his regression, Zich had seen places hit byepidemics a coupleof times before, but this place seemed to exceed even Zich’s experience. It was a merciless environment for Hans, who had only killed monsters, and Snoc, who had just begun his journey. But unfortunately for them, Zich had no intention of letting them rest.

Both of you haverested well enough. Why don’t you help around the village now? I mean, you guys aren’t thinking such a cute thoughtlikeplaying whileIwork, right?”

If they had even an inkling of such a thought, Zich intended to change their cute thoughts into a terrifying nightmare. Hans and Snoc shudderedand instantly got up. Although the fear ofdiseases and nasty corpses still clouded their minds, theywere more afraid of facingZich’s wrath head-on. Hansand SnocknewZich’s personalityfromtraining, and they quickly moved.

After watching themhelp theclosestpeople around them,Zich began to also helpthe people around him.

* * *

Oncenight fell,they were finally able to rest. Some might have argued that there was no daytime or nighttime during an epidemic, but Joachim was accommodating for the three who had just started work.And as he was also very satisfied with their efforts, Joachim invited the three of them to dinner. Zich accepted the offer and took Hans and Snoc to Joachim’s barrack at the designated time.

Inside the barrack, dinner was already prepared for them. As the frontlineof a ragingepidemic, the meal wasn’t fancy, but no one complained. Nobody in the group was so out of their senses to complain about their meals in a situation like this.

“We didn’t prepare much, but please eat a lot. Ifthis isnot enough, we will get you more.”Joachim said while smiling. The meal was plain but quite satisfying.

“Although I toldthe three of youbefore, I am thankful for your help. To tell you the truth, weneeded moreworkers.”Joachim smiled. As a smileappeared onhis off-color, fatigue-stricken face, he looked more like a patient. Joachim looked so sickly that Hans and Snoc suspected that hemight have also beeninfected.

“I don’t think we did much. I’m relieved that we were able tooffersome help.”

“No, you really helped us a lot. How many people do you think are willing to come to a place like this? We are struggling to get the most important people such as doctors to come here, so it’s even rarer to find volunteers who are willing to come on their own accord.”

Priests couldheal cuts or external body injurieswith their holy powers, but for matters like an epidemic, they needed doctors. Holy power didn’t work on diseases, and the priestscurrently helping out the epidemic herepossessed medical knowledge.

“It’s because most people value their lives. By the way, the state of the corpseslookedterrible. What kind of disease is it?”

Hans and Snoc stopped eating; they remembered the corpsesgruesome appearancesand losttheir appetite.They immediatelylet go of their eating utensils. However, Zich stopped them.

“Eat. To work, you need stamina. Even if the food doesn’t go in, forceitdownyour throatand digest it.”

The two grabbed their eating utensils while looking teary. Then they began to unwillingly stuff food into their mouths. Joachimsmiled bitterlywhile watching the two and responded,“I don’t know. Even the doctors say that they’venever seen a disease like this. And seeing the multiple, different symptoms among the patients, they say that they think more than one disease is spreading.”

In a situation where he had to juggle multiple difficultissuesat once, Joachim’s head hurt.

“This is asignificantand dangerousproblem.However,in comparison toour situation, I feelthatourmilitary aid and general support are lacking.”

AlthoughZich and his companions had appeared out of the blue, Joachim’s soldiers welcomed them openly now becausethey were skilled helpers.This meant theplacelackedhuman resources to such a high degree that theyeven welcomedmysterious strangers.One might think that the situation became so direbecausefewpeoplevolunteeredto help, but this was an epidemic.Withthe slightest mishap,anepidemic could spread across the entire region and cause astronomical harm. Families in the regionhadlittle or no choice but to dispatch people by forcelikethistroop that must have alsobeen forced to move here.

Joachimsmiled weakly. By that expression, Zich realized that there must be a deeper story.

“Sir!”Somebody came ina hurry.

“What is it?”

“We found a patient with new symptoms!”

Joachim’s face stiffened. He got up abruptly and walked out of the barrack. Zich, Hans, and Snoc followed him.

A couple of torches burned outsidethetent and illuminated the area. Inside, they saw a couple of doctors and priests huddled aroundan infectedperson with serious expressions on their faces. Theinfectedperson’s condition was severe and unsightly; they didn’t have a rash or pus on their body or a rotting body part like the other patients. Theywere bleeding a tremendous amount of blood. It almost seemed like they were releasing blood instead of sweat fromtheglandsall over their body, and the clothes they were wearing were soaked with blood and stuck to the patient’s body.

Drip! Drip!

Blood slid down the patient’s hair and dropped from the ends of their hair strands. It was difficult toestimatewhenthepatient was brought to this place, but the floor was already wet with blood.

“This…is…”

Joachim bit his lipsfrom shockat the patient’s state.

“…What happened?”

“The patient was one of the villagersquarantinedin another area after receiving an assessment that they weren’t infected.”

“What about the progress of the disease?”

“Symptoms began to appear around sunset. And after that, the patient’s condition took a turn for the worst at an alarming rate and progressed until this state.”

“Um…”

Joachim became lost in thought for a short moment. Then, he immediately began to give orders.

“For now, record all of the patient’s symptoms. Then quarantine everyone who lived in the same place as the patient and burn the building they stayed in. Investigate everything—what the patient did after quarantine, who they contacted, and what they ate. Ah, and burn this place too.”

“Yes, sir!”

After receiving the command, everyonemoved in unison.

Zich stared proudly at Joachim who handled the situation smoothly inashort amount of time. Joachim was much weaker thanthe timehehad created chaos around the world with Zich.Some of his actions showed his inexperience, but Zichwas able to catchglimpses of Joachim’s future self. Thus, Zich began to feel a bit sentimental as he felt like hewas meeting hisold friendagain.

‘Yep, that’s right.As expectedofa guy who used to be mysubordinatebeforeI regressed.’

After resolving the situation, Joachim approached Zich.

“Although I invited you to a meal, I couldn’t properly serve you one.”

“I’m not such adunce tocomplain while knowing the situation. But is this all right?”

“Sorry?”

Zich stared at Joachim’s face. Joachim’s sickly face still looked like he was suffering from at least four to five chronic diseases, but it looked considerably worse than before. He was extremely pale. If there had been a light source around them, Joachim’s face would have reflected the light and made him look like a bodiless ghost with only a floating head.

“Your complexion looks very pale.”

“Ah, that is…”Joachim wiped his face one time, then he looked up at the sky and let out a sigh.This issomething you willfind out soonif you keepworkingwith us, so I will just tell you in advance. This isn’t a matter related to the disease. This is something I am personally weak against.”

“What is it?”

“It’s blood.”

“Sorry?”

“Blood. I have hemophobia, and I am terrified of even a paper cut. The last patient’s condition just triggered my phobia again, and if the darknesshadn’tproperly covered the patient, I would have probably fainted.”

Looking a bit ashamed and humiliated, Joachim spoke while avoiding Zich’s gaze.

‘…What?’

Zich looked at Joachim like he couldn’t believehim. It wasn’t because he was looking down on Joachim. He had no intention of mocking someone for having hemophobia, but he was shockedthat Joachim of all people would have hemophobia.

‘Joachim Dracul has hemophobia?’

Beforehisregression, Joachim Draculworked as one of Zich’s four subordinates by the nicknameVampire, and his skill was ‘Blood Domination.’

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