Chapter 50
When I stared blankly at the somehow intimidating cheers, the mercenary squad members laughed and headed toward their training spots.
Soon after, a man approached Henny and me.
“Alright, rookies.”
I turned my head at the gruff voice and saw a man coming out of the annex.
‘That man…’
He was the one who had sparred with Henny with bare hands yesterday.
The man, so large that the annex door looked small in comparison, strode toward us.
“Shall we try some fun training today?”
His eyes sparkled as he chuckled.
At that moment, I began to understand what the mercenary squad had been talking about earlier.
“Alright, let’s start with a light run—say, twenty laps around the training field?”
“Twenty laps?”
Hearing the words slip so casually from Hurk’s mouth, my eyes widened.
Henny, however, seemed used to it and began running right away.
“Yeah. What, isn’t that enough? Should we make it forty?”
“N-no.”
Seeing Hurk’s smirk rising, I realized this was no joke.
I immediately started running after Henny.
“Ugh… I’m going to die.”
After completing twenty laps and returning to Hurk, I gasped for breath, clutching my trembling legs.
“Now, for those holding a sword, balance is essential. Place this on your head and stand on one leg. Ten minutes per leg! Go!”
Hurks pointed at a plate in front of him without giving us a moment to catch our breath.
Once again, Henny followed instructions, placing the plate on her head and lifting one leg from the ground.
“J-just a… moment.”
I, still too weak to stand properly, called out pitifully, but Hurk didn’t even hear me.
“If you dawdle, you’ll have to do double the time you lost. Riche, do you want twelve minutes per leg?”
“N-no.”
I hurriedly grabbed the plate and placed it on my head.
And so, my mercenary training officially began.
“Miss, are you alright?”
Susan looked worried as I struggled to climb into the carriage, almost crawling.
“Let’s… go quickly…”
At my exhausted words, Susan tapped the side of the carriage twice. The driver, seeing the signal, started moving.
“Miss…”
Susan watched me sit limply, still looking concerned.
“I feel like I’m really going to die. My whole body has no strength.”
“Here, I have some cookies. Would you like some?”
Susan took cookies from her bag and cut them into small pieces for me to eat easily.
“Thanks.”
I chewed the cookie she gave me, and my hazy vision felt clearer.
“Wow, I feel a bit better now.”
After a few more bites, I finally felt alive enough to take in the scenery outside the window.
The carriage passed through the back alleys of the shopping district, crowded with people, forcing it to move slowly.
“Hey, aren’t those robes… priest robes?”
I noticed people in priest robes carrying something into a rundown building.
The townspeople seemed to be thanking the priests.
“Oh, they’re priests from the temple.”
“Why are the priests here?”
“Lately, priests have been helping improve the dilapidated facilities in the shopping district.”
“Helping?”
“Yes. They bring needed supplies, assist when extra hands are required, and sometimes even provide healing with holy power.”
“Hmm…”
“They’re completely different from the temple that used to extort donations. So nowadays, some commoners are gradually returning to the temple. Though some still don’t trust it.”
As Susan said, in the streets, there were eyes of distrust and eyes of faith coexisting regarding the priests.
“Come to think of it, soon…”
At that moment, a memory from the game hit me, like someone had tapped the back of my head.
“Susan, do you have a newspaper?”
“Huh? A newspaper? Not right now… but there should be someone selling them on the street.”
Just then, through the carriage window stopped in the busy street, I saw a child carrying a newspaper.
“One copy, please.”
Susan leaned out the window, bought a newspaper, and handed it to me.
In this peaceful world, newspapers mostly reported on nobles.
Like the headline on today’s front page:
〈Young Lady Karen Accused of Royal Assassination Leaves the Capital!〉
At the last tea party, Young Lady Karen had been given laxatives and faced trial for attempted royal assassination. She was sentenced to death, but Count Horson, her father, paid a huge bail to the Empress and finally got her released, leaving the capital.
The article included the reporter’s opinion that Karen would likely disappear from noble society, making it a sensational piece.
“Good for her. But shouldn’t I get compensation too? I took the medicine as well.”
Pouting at the lack of compensation, I flipped to the next page.
The paper was filled with engagement announcements, broken engagements, and love rumors—trivial news.
In the corner of the last page, however, was the article I had been looking for:
〈The Number of People Falling Ill from an Unknown Disease in the Kirsa Region is Increasing.〉
Though brief and lacking details, having cleared the game several times, I recognized this as the start of a long epidemic.
“Kirsa Disease…”
A mysterious illness starting in the northern capital’s Kirsa region, named after the area.
It spread through contact, causing high fevers, rashes, vomiting, fatigue, and sometimes death. Symptoms varied, but one common trait was blue lips.
Doctors, pharmacists, and everyone tried to find a cure, but failed.
Fortunately, the priests’ holy power could treat it…
‘Fliche also received holy healing in the game.’
Even Fliche wasn’t completely safe from the disease.
Later, I learned how to avoid it, but the first time I played, I wasted time repeatedly catching it.
“Miss, what are you thinking so deeply about? Is there news in the paper?”
“Ah? No… But Susan, how does our mansion handle drinking water?”
Drinking water.
That was revealed at the end of the game as the cause of the epidemic.
In noble districts, magically purified water flowed, like a modern plumbing system.
Nobles could afford this, but commoners couldn’t.
Most residents of the capital used water from the Chir River, and the strange bacteria in that water caused the epidemic.
The epidemic, starting in the uppermost Chir River region—the Kirsa area—would gradually move downstream.
“Our mansion, of course, uses the city water system.”
“Good. That’s a relief.”
‘As expected, the Luceronia family uses underground water. But why did Fliche get sick?’
Back then, no one near Fliche was infected…
Though this question hadn’t occurred to me during gameplay, knowing how to avoid the disease now made it less important.
‘The real problem is the inn…’
The inn where the Abel Mercenary Squad stays.
The inn where I now work daily also used Chir River water.
If the mercenaries got sick…
If by bad luck Abel caught it…
I couldn’t afford to waste time again.
Leaning against the carriage window and thinking deeply, I eventually dozed off.
“Ugh. I feel like I’m going to die.”
The real challenge of exercise comes the day after doing something your body isn’t used to.
I climbed out of bed on my trembling legs.
As my feet touched the floor, the rising pain in my muscles made it hard to even stand up.
‘Should I just skip it…?’
