At first, no one paid any mind to the omens.
It was just a cough in early autumn, just a slight rise in temperature, just those nearby feeling unwell.
Until the catastrophe touched them all.
"Cough, cough!"
Percher balled her hand into a fist, her pale little face flushing slightly red. Her vision blurred for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.
"What's wrong, Percher? Are you not feeling well? Did you catch a cold?" Aihara Enju asked with concern, leaning in from the shade beside the wheat field.
"N-No, I'm fine." Percher shook her head, believing she could push through it. "I probably just caught a chill this morning. I'll be fine after some water."
In this era, toughing it out when you felt unwell was the norm. Modern medicine from later eras was no different from witchcraft back then; it was better to wait for the body to heal itself.
"Are you sure you're okay? Want some wheat?" Enju caringly offered her the orange-yellow grains in her hand.
Although the wheat wasn't fully ripe, there was a local way of eating it: roasting the entire stalk over a fire and then rubbing out the kernels to eat as a snack.
Someone had done this during a famine and remarked that unripe green wheat tasted best when roasted this way.
Such a wasteful practice was naturally not encouraged. Even Percher would never do something like this with young shoots.
It was only when she mentioned it in conversation that the gluttonous Enju's curiosity was piqued.
After wheedling Leticia into agreeing to compensate with over a hundred times the amount in rice, Enju finally got to enjoy this rustic flavor.
Now, seeing her friend was unwell, she immediately offered it up. To her, these other flavors were more precious than the modern food she was used to.
"...No, thank you." Percher shook her head, speechless. Leaving aside that a cough was a minor ailment, even if it wasn't, you couldn't cure it by eating wheat, could you?
"You idiot, Enju. How can she eat this when she's sick? She needs medicine!" Senju Kayo said with a deadpan expression, sighing at her companion.
"Oh, right!" Enju suddenly realized. "...But is there any medicine here?"
Hearing their conversation, Tina, who had been drowsy and looked like she could fall asleep at any moment, suddenly half-opened her eyes and posed the critical question.
"..."
Senju Kayo blinked, exchanged a look with Enju, and then an expression of annoyance crossed her face. I've been hanging around Enju for too long; I'm becoming an idiot myself. Right, where would you find medicine in this era?
"Even if Sister Leticia doesn't have any, there's still Lord Su Mo, right?" Enju said after a moment's thought.
In her eyes, and in reality, Su Mo was practically omnipotent, capable of fulfilling all their wishes.
However, even with an all-powerful god, the humans making the wishes had their own logical flaws.
"If we're going to ask the Lord, why not just pray for him to heal Percher directly?" Senju Kayo blinked, raising an objection. With Su Mo around, it didn't seem to matter whether they used medicine or not.
"Oh, right!" Enju had a flash of insight. She readily agreed, took Percher back to her room, and then immediately went off with her friends to find Su Mo.
Lying in her old room for the first time in a while, watching the sight of the girls bustling away, Percher, who had been forcefully pushed onto the bed, blinked with a helpless expression.
"You really don't need to bother the master over something so small..."
She knew Enju and the others were going to find Su Mo. These past few days, Su Mo and Kurma had often been out with the head maid sisters, so they were rarely seen.
They said they were visiting friends, but in reality, they just left in the carriage, and no one knew what they were doing.
Judging by the time and distance, there was no way Su Mo could have traveled to another territory, let alone visited friends.
Percher didn't pay too much mind to their seemingly strange movements.
After all, great personages could do anything. It was perfectly normal to assume the two esteemed individuals were just out cultivating their relationship.
Thinking about Enju going to bother Su Mo at a time like this for her sake, Percher felt both touched and exasperated.
No matter how much Su Mo doted on them, they shouldn't be so willful.
"That idiot Enju, I'll have to give her a good talking-to later!"
As she thought this, Percher clenched her fists, but her head felt a little fuzzy. A heavy drowsiness washed over her.
Though it was still morning and she had only been awake for a short while, her eyelids felt incredibly heavy, and her head was slightly feverish.
"When... when I wake up, I'll apologize to Lord Su Mo..."
Muttering to herself, Percher couldn't fight off the sleepiness and slowly drifted into dreamland.
It was not a peaceful sleep. In a state of half-slumber, she could hear all sorts of chaotic noises.
There were the tragic wails from afar, like those who had lost their dearest kin.
There were the terrified roars from nearby, like someone venting at a world spiraling out of control.
There was the crackling of burning wood, as if for a massive barbecue or bonfire.
It's still daytime, why would there be the sound of a fire? In her haze, something occurred to Percher.
When she woke again, it was already dusk.
"Ugh..."
Her body was limp and weak from the fever, making it difficult to even open her eyes. But stimulated by various danger signals, Percher forced her eyes open.
"Where is this?"
As she raised her gaze, she saw the sun had completely set on the horizon, and not far in front of her, a large bonfire burned brightly.
Wait! Am I outdoors?
Sharply sensing that something was wrong, Percher was suddenly wide awake. She then felt her limbs bound tight.
Looking down, she saw that she had been tied to a cross for some reason. Rough hemp ropes bound her securely, making it impossible to escape.
"What's going on?" Percher looked around.
The first thing she saw, among the crowd surrounding her, was her father, holding a blood-stained club and looking incredibly fierce.
A jolt of shock went through her heart. Blood? Whose blood?
Glancing around, she recognized the figures of several serfs she knew. Unlike their usual lively selves, they were all groaning on the ground. The elderly were among them, all tossed aside without care.
And in their midst, several people had stopped moving entirely, lying in pools of blood as if asleep.
"What are you doing?!" Percher's voice was hoarse as she demanded an answer.
She was no child raised in a greenhouse; she understood what this scene meant. People were dead, and more than one.
Seeing the able-bodied men, led by her father, surrounding a dozen weakened villagers and serfs in the center of the square, Percher immediately understood this was a murder and a mob trial.
The silent crowd that had surrounded everyone, the people who showed no reaction to her question, had tacitly approved this sacrifice.
Realizing this, she understood the danger she was in.
And so—
"How dare you do this in Lord Su Mo's presence! Aren't you afraid of the master's wrath?" she yelled, trying to widen her eyes as she confronted her father.
She instinctively knew that only by suppressing her father, the leader, could she possibly stop this tragedy.
However—
"Lord Su Mo?!" Hearing the name, a flicker of awe did cross the lord's eyes, but it quickly turned into a savage snarl. "Lord Su Mo isn't even here, but even if he were, he would surely approve of what I'm doing!"
He tightened his grip on the wooden club, his eyes looking at Percher with a mixture of fear and ferocity. "If we don't eliminate you devil's spawn, everyone will be killed!"
"Everyone will be killed?" Percher was slightly confused, as if a thought was dawning on her.
"That's right! You must have been tainted by some unholy curse to make the Lord send down such a calamity!" the lord continued to declare with conviction. "I heard from others, it's people like you who spread the curse! So, as long as we kill you, the devil's curse won't spread!"
"Curse... spread..." Hearing these words, Percher belatedly realized that she seemed to have contracted the epidemic.
As for the others who had been herded into the village center with her, they had most likely contracted the same illness, which was why they had lost the strength to resist and could only be slaughtered.
Confirming this, she instinctively retorted, "We are not cursed by the devil! And even if we were, you have no right to touch me! I belong to Lord Su Mo now!"
The first thing that came to her mind were the words Su Mo had once said. With her current status, even her former father had no right to harm her.
Percher's idea was a fine one, but unfortunately, upon hearing her words, her father's expression grew even more savage.
After being reprimanded by Leticia, he had been nothing but subservient, even changing his usual attitude towards his own daughter, not daring to offend her in the slightest.
But today, he had reverted to his original feudal patriarch persona, even doubling down, a look of vengeful glee in his eyes.
"Lord Su Mo? Hah! Leaving aside whether his arrival is related to the devil's curse, even if it's not, he will only be grateful to me for helping to get rid of a cursed thing like you!" he sneered, approaching Percher.
"You witches, cursed by the devil! Only your blood can guarantee the safety of us all!"