I was awoken up by the sound of cawing birds that always interrupted my beauty sleep. Everytime I had a good dream, these birds were causing noise pollution through my ears, it was horrendous. But it is still better than my alarm clock through Earth.
"Nothing like a good dream, are you?" Plasma said callously
"H-hey! I was just awoken up, Plasma."
Even then Plasma interrupts me from nowhere, I still think that my AI assistant is a human or not. I saw Plasma's temporal form when I was inside of my inner domain, and yet, I can't stop thinking about Plasma's body shines through my eyes.
"Roxy, still daydreaming?"
"Shut up, Plasma."
I stared at the windows as usual, beyond the curtains, there was a shining light arose from the horizon. I think that it was an image, but no, it was a sunrise, and sunrises could only mean one thing,
"My brother's departure."
Elias and his party will leave by sunrise, but I didn't plan on going to Caria, I will resume and continue managing my guild as a vice-leader. The news gave me that White is still in Caria City, where she is still busy at her work as a Capital Knight.
So I stormed out of the bed, dressed up with a commoner's attire and began heading to the kitchen. There, Mya was sitting at the dining room, where she prepared me some of her homemade breakfast.
"Good morning, Roxy! I heard your brother left before dawn."
"Yeah, I knew that well. I'll be heading to the Flower Manor."
"Wait, care to take some of tea first before you leave?"
"Hmm… sure."
Mya insisted cathing the moment of tea break before leaving this household for good. She had comely prepared from my arrival, she brewed a simple tea and placed it into the silverware tray. Much like from the Flower Manor.
I saw Mya drinking a cupfuls of tea in one go, even through it is hot, she drank it without hesitation. The tea is warm, like lukewarm hot and not boiling hot. And yet, I think that May prefers a style of tea that is drinkable, so I questioned her.
"Hey Mya, do cat girls like you drink yhsi kind of tea? I knew that animals never drink tea like that?"
Even though she was raised in the slums, she still have her mannerisms high, she can hold a cup of tea like a noblewoman, even better than mines. I learned a proper way of mannerisms on one of the maids in Flower Manor, and it's name is Miera, she taught me simple manners about the table etiquettes. And even now, I still didn't perfect her way of drinking simple tea. Until now.
I galloped every single pastries that Mya had prepared, it was delicious, fresh from the bakery. It was buttery smooth, and full of flavor, even then, the sentient aroma filled my stomach completely.
"Oh, this bread. It's soft and warm."
"Oh, I made that bread."
My jaws dropped when Mya said that word. Not only she can cook delicious meals such as her beer stew, but she can also bake. On Earth how many talents does Mya have? I've been mistaken for a bakery at some moment.
While Mya and I were busy chatting, there was a knock on the door, and it was loud. I decided to check it out and opened the door completely.
As I opened the door, I saw the face I've recognized. He was a young man with gentle feminine features with a long slender build. He had a shoulder length hair with a ponytail and blue eyes. A fancy suit of a tax collector and shouted his name high.
"Greeting, Harold Ford."
Harold Ford was one of the tax collector in Town Allure, despite it's rude attitude. He'd became nice to me upon paying my sister's taxes, as well as knowing that I was a gold-ranked adventurer plus rescuing a famous noble from Town Allure. Instead of lend his greed toward me, he showed him kindness towards me.
The reason was simple, Lord Phillip has full control over my whereabouts, including my full identity about my name Eirene Rynd, he holds most of the expenses of Town Allure, as well as controlling Harold's job, since he was protecting about my identity from the public.
"Eirene, I'm finally glad to meet you."
As I greeted Harold kindly, I saw a black eye and a broken nose on Harold's face, an rare sighting for him. As I was about to ask questions. Harold responded.
"Hey, your brother made this mess. My eyes were no joke."
The truth is that, Elias and his party beat Harold in a pulp, he knew that he was the one who led me to motives me from adventuring. He is the reason why I covered my sister's taxes, all because of Harold, but since my brother gone too far, I apologized from my brother's deeds.
"Harold, I'm terribly sorry about my brother's wrongdoings. He'll promise he never do it again."
"No, I should be the one apologizing, I've led you from being at adventurer, I'm should be ashamed of myself."
Harold shruggs of like it was nothing, I knew Elias stats were higher than his, I can already tell that he was once beated like a sack from Elias attacks.
Since I don't have healing magic to heal Harold's wounds, I have a few tricks onto my sleeve. I recently acquired a new skill known as "Pain Manipulation" it can manipulation any pain from the body. Making the nerves increasing, decreasing pain, and simply, make them suffer.
And I slowly placed my hand into Harold's head and began controlling his nerves. My skill can only be activated via touch, so I instead, numb his wounds until it felt no pain.
"The pain, I-Its gone, Thanks Eirene!"
Even though I didn't use any healing abilities on Harold, I still use my pain manipulation to numb his wounds easily. Making him didn't felt any pain from his wounds whatsoever. But the bruises are present and cuts and wounds weren't covered up. Like I said, it was a built-in anesthesia.
"Thanks Eirene! I'll promise I'll repay you back."
"Oh, no worries."
Then, I left the Rynd household and leaving both Harold and Mya at the streets. It was going well, despite the fact I've saved an noble who is destined to become an adventurer, and that adventurer was no other than Cassius himself, son of Count Roman Calico and one of the seven royal families. It was lucky to be a live of an normal person.
I ran towards the merchant district and headed off to a local tavern to drown my sorrows. The sun was high in the sky by the time I arrived. Morning periods were busy times for taverns. All manner of people, from merchants and travelers to harlots and the like, sat drinking until their faces went red.
This tavern was indeed special to me, this is the same tavern where the guild members celebrated after completing the raid in Castle Libra, it was gruesome, but it still worth my time in here. And by suprise, the walls had been fully repaired and renovated. The last time I've been there was destroyed by my guildmembers, all because they were drunk.
I took my usual spot at the counter, where the barkeep poured my usual wine without saying a word. Unlike Earth, any desired age, you can drink alcohol, even when your a teenager, you can still drink alcohol willingly. All because their beverages didn't contain any alcohol contents, I breath a sigh of relief to know the good news.
I ordered the cheapest wine available and horribly acidic. It's sole purpose was getting one drunk enough to forget one's sorry lot.
As the barkeep filled my cup with wine, a voice called out to me.
"Hey, you can't sit here. That spot belonged to one of our regulars, before he passed away."
It was a barkeep, who walked over and asks me in a polite tone.
"That friend of mine sat on this usual spot. Mind sitting on any available chairs here?"
"Umm… sure."
On the counter from my view in front of the seat, I found a single flower and candles in a cup, the barkeep explained that one of his partners were passed away there's a disease spreads at the town. His partner passed away because he was affected by this disease.
"Well, that explained the flower then. Care to tell me the disease?"
Then the barkeep carefully explains the disease that spreads the town.
"The disease was occurred very recently. A week or so, in fact, there was still no cure to this disease. Only high-level healing magic can stop this disease. It is highly contagious."
As from what I heard it looks like it is a plague virus, the same virus that was experimented inside of Castle Libra as well as the possession of Edrie Collon himself. I think Edrie must have spread the virus inside Town Allure, and as the barkeep suggests, it has no cure.
"So, can you tell me the symptoms?"
"Well, as far as I could tell. Several were affected by the disease in Town Allure. They've been experiencing sudden fever, vomiting, diarrhea and especially bleeding."
So the disease wasn't the plague virus, it was something else. As the barkeep said the symptoms clearly. It was the same as the ebola virus from Earth, with the same symptoms occurring. Coincidence? I think not.
"So, did you report it to the bureau?"
"Normally, we can't report it. The higher-ups were aware of this situation, so…"
As the barkeep cuts off the sentence. I left the tavern and went straight to the Adventurers Bureau at Central Plaza in order to report it.