"What in the world is happening..."
Still dazed and confused, Percher pressed a hand to her head, feeling a headache coming on.
"It's simple! Just your classic damsel-in-distress rescue scene!" Lamia chirped, leaning in close to Percher. "How does it feel? Being saved from mortal danger at the last second? Feeling safe? Has your loyalty meter gone up?"
"It was... until you put it like that. Now, not so much." Although she did feel safe, Percher couldn't help but retort.
"What a shame. I went to all the trouble of holding back my sister and Lord Su Mo, specifically choosing the moment you were in the most danger to make our move!" Lamia sighed dramatically, but her words were impossible to ignore.
"A true 'hero rescues the maiden' moment creates the biggest emotional impact when it's at the most perilous point. I was expecting you to throw yourself into my sister's arms and cry, Pest-chan. Looks like my hopes were dashed!"
"What?!" Percher's eyes widened. "You mean you were here all along and deliberately waited until the last second to save me?"
"That's right!" Lamia nodded, perfectly justified. "If we'd saved you before you woke up, Pest-chan, it wouldn't have had the same effect, would it?"
"..."
Percher was overcome with a storm of complex emotions.
On one hand, she knew Lamia was telling the truth. After experiencing such a dramatic turn of events, her trust in Su Mo and the others had deepened.
Even knowing their identities might be questionable, that trust hadn't wavered much.
On the other hand, the way they had played with her feelings was just... infuriating. So they were putting on a show for me? Playing me for a fool?
It seemed she had misjudged Enju. The three little ones had called for help quickly enough; it was the villains who had blocked their path.
Speaking of which, something suddenly occurred to her. "So, when did you guys get here?"
"About half an hour after you fell asleep, before you were tied to the cross," Lamia answered honestly.
"So you were here from the start!" Percher almost laughed out of sheer anger.
This girl had played her, yet she was confessing to everything she'd done.
She was being perfectly honest about how she'd deliberately waited for a whole hour just to mess with her. Seriously, what is wrong with you?
Facing Percher's weak yet furious glare, Lamia just smirked, took advantage of her inability to resist, and patted her head. "So, Pest-chan, what are you going to do now?"
"Do about what?" Percher blinked, confused.
"About how to deal with them, of course!" Lamia glanced around at the villagers and the lord, who were still kneeling and holding their weapons. "You can do whatever you want to them, you know!" she tempted in a suggestive tone.
"Them? Wait!" Hearing this, Percher remembered something. She struggled, and with Tina's help, stood up straight, then looked at the corpses lying near her.
They were all villagers or serfs she knew. Before her father had come for her, the other villagers had already killed these patients.
Old and young alike, the blood of seven or eight bodies mixed with the rainwater, flowing across the ground. There was clearly no hope of saving them.
Seeing this, her hands clenched into fists. She looked at the still-relaxed Lamia and said in a heavy voice, "Are you telling me you watched these people get killed and did nothing?"
"What would you have me do, Pest-chan?" Lamia asked calmly in return. "Stop them from killing? Force them to stay with the sick, and let everyone get infected?"
"But... but..." Percher, who had a thousand things to say, was suddenly at a loss for words.
She believed they shouldn't have been so easily condemned to death, but she didn't know what the right course of action was either.
What if the lord's actions were correct? What if not killing them and herself meant the rest couldn't be saved?
Ultimately, this was all her father's decision. Even if Lamia was present, she had no reason to intervene.
Seeing the girl's speechless state, Lamia smiled knowingly. "But even so, one can't just stand by and watch such an atrocity happen. Is that what you mean, Pest-chan?"
"Yes... I'm sorry, I'm not blaming you. I just... find it hard to accept," Percher nodded slowly, her gaze falling to the bodies at her feet, and then she explained herself. She realized how naive her previous thoughts had been.
Hearing their conversation, the cries of the slain patients' families grew louder, and even the perpetrators began to stir restlessly.
They could tell themselves it was a necessary sacrifice, but they knew they had committed the sin of murder.
If they didn't delude themselves with that necessity, none of them would have been able to lay a hand on people they had known their whole lives.
"Don't worry so much!" Lamia said in a gentle tone. "While it's true that killing them won't stop the infection, and might even accelerate its spread... even if they hadn't, this village couldn't have escaped. So it makes no difference!"
"Huh?"
Such cold words, spoken in such a gentle voice. The moment they were heard, everyone's thoughts froze.
After a dozen seconds of silence, someone finally understood Lamia's meaning.
"Killing them won't stop the infection, and might even accelerate its spread?!" The lord's eyes widened, filled with despair. He could accept that killing had been ineffective, but he couldn't accept that it had made things worse.
"No matter what, the village couldn't have escaped?" Percher focused on the even more terrifying piece of news.
"That's right!"
"The Black Death can be transmitted not only by rats and animals but also through blood... which means, everyone who got the patients' blood on their hands is already infected. The countdown to your deaths has begun!" She pointed at the thugs surrounding the lord.
Hearing this, the other, innocent villagers flinched and scrambled away from the lord and his henchmen.
The thugs themselves looked at each other in disbelief.
They threw away the murder weapons they had been clutching as if they were poison, then immediately backed away from each other, as if their companions were sources of the plague.
The scene was almost comical.
"H-How is that possible! The blood of these commoners... how could it infect me? No, it's a lie! It's all a lie! A devil's trick!" The lord stared at his blood-stained hands, roaring in denial, unwilling to accept the truth. "I have noble blood! How could I possibly contract such a disease!"
He seemed to have completely forgotten that his own daughter, Percher, had also contracted a similar illness. The Black Death did not discriminate between royalty and commoners.
But as he roared, he suddenly felt an inexplicable heat in his body. He staggered and then collapsed to the ground. His weakened state was no different from that of the serfs who had been executed earlier.
Seeing this, no one doubted Lamia's words any longer.
The killers really would contract the same disease! Even if they didn't understand what a virus was, thinking of it as a curse from the dead was not far from the truth.
"Blood transmission... Black Death..." Percher chewed on these words, her pupils trembling.
Of all the natives present, only she, thanks to the books left by her grandfather, had a rudimentary education and could roughly understand what Lamia meant.
So the nameless illness she had contracted wasn't a devil's curse, but the Black Death. And this disease could be transmitted...
"Wait! Enju, Tina, let go of me! And you too, Lamia! This is contagious! If you're so close to me, won't you get infected?" Finally coming to her senses, she realized that she was a patient. She immediately tried to break free and get away from them. These idiots! What if they get infected?
Her weak struggles were no different from a kitten's playful antics and naturally couldn't budge the supernaturally strong Enju and the others.
"Don't worry, we won't get sick!" Enju said with confidence.
"That's right. Idiots don't get sick," Senju Kayo deadpanned from the side.
"Who are you calling an idiot?" Enju was instantly displeased.
Before she could start a fuss, Tina spoke up drowsily. "With the Lord here, we don't have to worry."
"Right, right!" At the mention of Su Mo, the three little ones easily reached a consensus.
Hearing this, Percher was still uneasy. Just as she was about to say something, Lamia spoke with a wicked smile. "My, my, I didn't expect Pest-chan to still be worried about my safety in such a dangerous situation. I'm so touched!"
Seeing her completely unconcerned expression, and how she hadn't even gestured for her sister Leticia to move away, Percher's heart relaxed a little. She continued to be stubborn. "I wasn't worried, I was just reminding you! But since you, the sister-con, haven't told Lady Leticia to leave, it must be fine!"
After reaching this conclusion with her own sharp and peculiar logic, she asked curiously, "This terrible disease has no effect on you guys. Could it be true, what that man said? That you're not human, but messengers of the devil?"
At this point, even if they were messengers of the devil, she would have to accept her fate. With this thought, Percher boldly asked the sensitive question.
Hearing this, everyone present looked over. The villagers were also wondering what these people were.
Facing their fearful and apprehensive gazes, Lamia smiled, revealing her pearly white teeth and two small fangs. Black shadow wings materialized behind her. "Just as Pest-chan said, I'm not human!"
Appearing in the classic vampire form, the young girl shattered their worldview as they stared in terror.
Then, just as Percher was beginning to feel a flicker of fear, her legs going completely weak, Lamia reached out her right hand, pinched Percher's tender cheek, and said with a bewitching smile, "Of course, I'm not a messenger of the devil either... If I had to say, I'm executing God's will!"