The Spirit King’s Curse

Some time had passed since Fuuga brought the Spirit Kingdom's Father

Island under his control.

I received a report from Hakuya as I was working on my administrative

duties in the capital.

"The Spirit King's Curse?"

"Yes. We received a report on it from members of the Black Cats

staying in the port that Sir Fuuga gave us."

As payment for delivering support to his forces, Fuuga had given us a

port. However, we only deployed the bare minimum needed to use it as a

supply base. We couldn't fully build it up, as the port was a long way from

the Kingdom. Our fleet couldn't get there immediately if anything were to

happen; for example, if Fuuga went back on his word and sent in troops to

take it back.

While repairs to the port stopped out of caution for a potential attack,

we did, however, station a unit from the Black Cats as contacts there.

Reading from the report as he spoke, Hakuya said, "It seems there are

rumors of a Spirit King's Curse running rampant through the Father Island

and the Great Tiger Kingdom's lands near it. The people in the area

collapsed for unknown reasons, and there have been many deaths too."

"A disease... Is it some kind of epidemic?"

"We are currently gathering information. However, given that the

disease first appeared on the continent around the same time as Fuuga

occupied the Father Island, they say that the Spirit King was enraged, and

spread his curse in retribution."

"I don't care about this talk of curses. The important thing is that the

disease really exists."

It's a disease terrible enough that people speak of it as a curse. I rested

my elbows on the desk and held my head in my hands.

The damage wrought by epidemics back in my previous world flashed

through my mind. Diseases like the Black Death and the Spanish flu had

left their horrifying mark on history. Even in my own time, there'd been a

variety of epidemic diseases. I knew the harm they could do, and the

difficulty of keeping that harm from expanding.

"That curse hasn't reached our port yet, right?"

"Right. There are some optimistic people who suggest that if it truly is

the Spirit King's curse, it will only affect Fuuga's forces because they were

the ones who took the Father Island."

"If it were a curse, sure. But a disease won't pick its victims based on

nationality or race."

Whatever the reason, I needed to act at once.

"Leave only the bare minimum of agents at the port and have everyone

else return home immediately. Also, forbid them from carrying back any

materials gathered in the area. They can give whatever excess they have to

Fuuga."

"That...would be the same as abandoning the base."

"It's an awkward one to use anyway. We haven't gotten the return on

our investment, but I want to shut down any vectors for the disease to come

to our country."

"We still don't know what kind of disease it is. Are you sure you don't

mind doing this?" Hakuya asked, as if seeking confirmation.

He likely felt the same way I did, but wanted to be certain of my

intentions.

I gave him a firm nod. "Ideally, this ends up being a lot of overblown

worry on my part. I don't mind if people laugh at me for scaring easily. The

biggest problem would be being too optimistic and leaving the situation

unaddressed until it got out of hand. It would be too late for regrets then."

"Understood. I will arrange it." Hakuya bowed. "Anything else?"

In response, I fired off orders in rapid succession.

"First, I want you to call in the doctors, Hilde and Brad. I have a ton of

questions for them about possible diseases and the ways to deal with them.

Hilde was such a hypochondriac that she used disinfectant everywhere, so I

think her knowledge will be especially useful in fighting disease. I'd like

them to stay in the castle for a while as advisors."

"By your will."

"I will hold a broadcast conference with Madam Maria of the Empire,

Kuu of the Republic, and Shabon of the Archipelago Union. Since Princess

Sill of the Dragon Knight Kingdom is unable to join the broadcast, have her

come here. Set all of that up for me. I'll listen to Hilde and Brad's opinions,

and make a direct appeal to the others about the danger. Depending on the

circumstances, we may need to place certain limitations on the freedom of

movement for goods and people."

"I see. And what of the other countries?"

"The countries in the Empire's sphere of influence can be handled by

Madam Maria, and the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria can be handled by

Fuuga now that they're his ally. Madam Tiamat is in the Star Dragon

Mountain Range, so they'll be fine... That only leaves Mercenary State

Zem, correct? We can't be sure they'll listen to us, but we'll at least send

them a letter warning them about it."

"Yes, sire. I believe that would be advisable."

"Oh, and call Yuriga. I want to contact Fuuga to find out the details."

"By your will."

With this, the whole castle moved into furious action, trying to gather

information on the Spirit King's Curse. However, in order to avoid needless

confusion among the people, I decided to keep this information under wraps

until things were more certain. If I wasn't careful in my handling of it, this

could cause interracial strife.

I'd better not count on it turning out I was too worried... I let out a sigh,

sensing the murderous workload that was coming my way yet again.

◇ ◇ ◇

A little later, on a day sometime in the 7th month, Yuriga came to the

governmental affairs office.

"Sir Souma, a simple receiver has arrived from my brother."

"Ah...! It came, huh?"

I wrapped up working on my paperwork.

A little earlier, I had sent Fuuga a simple receiver that could be used for

broadcast meetings. I had heard from Yuriga that Fuuga had gained hold of

several jewels in the course of his expansion, so I proposed setting things

up so we could have broadcast meetings.

In Fuuga's case, he might do something big while I was still spending

my time trying to make sure we were on the same page. I wanted a

communication channel with him more than anything. I had already sent

him our simple receiver, so it was just a matter of waiting for him to send us

his. With it arriving, it was finally possible to use them for contacting now.

I rose from my seat and began giving orders.

"Hakuya, contact Hilde and Brad at once."

"Understood."

"This is our first broadcast meeting with Fuuga, so I'll want Liscia in

attendance...and you too, Yuriga."

"Got it."

We were able to hold the meeting right away. There were five with me:

Liscia, Hakuya, Hilde, Brad, and Yuriga.

When Fuuga appeared on the simple receiver, his advisor Hashim and

his queen Mutsumi were behind him.

"This is Fuuga Haan..." Liscia mumbled to herself.

Come to think of it, she's never seen him before, huh? I was going to

want to hear her opinion on him later.

We did some quick introductions and then got right down to business. I

was the first to speak.

"First of all, I guess I should say...congratulations on liberating the

Father Island."

"Ha ha ha... I don't know if I should reply by saying thanks or not,"

Fuuga said with a wry laugh. I could sense a little exhaustion in his voice.

"I thought I'd use those arrogant high elves to expand my forces, but...if

you just look at the results, it looks like my luck ran bad."

"The Spirit King's Curse...was it?"

"It's no curse. It's a disease. An unknown one," Fuuga said with

obvious distaste. "There are rumors saying I 'angered the Spirit King by

touching the Father Island,' but from what the high elves under my

protection tell me, the disease has existed on the Mother Island since before

my troops invaded. It's pretty serious there too."

So it really was an epidemic disease then?

Fuuga's shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh. "If I'd known the

situation on the island, I'd never have touched it. That high elf...Gerula

Garlan, was it? He went to you and the Empire with the same offer, right?

Did you turn him down because you had information on this?"

"Hardly. I just didn't want to save a country full of those who think

they're the chosen people."

"Ha ha ha, that's a weird way of putting it, but it fits."

"I'm sure it was the same for the Empire."

"They got us. I think, more than liberating the Father Island, what

Gerula Garlan may really have wanted was to make us do something about

this disease."

"And where's Gerula now? Is he still at your place?"

"Nah, once we took control of the Father Island, he got angry and left. I

assumed he'd gone back to the Mother Island, so I let him be but...that

bastard." Fuuga ground his teeth in frustration.

He was good at making others dance to his tune, but this time, he was

the one being made to dance. Even for a guy blessed by the era we lived in,

he couldn't have things go his way all of the time.

"Are you okay, Fuuga? Didn't you go to the island yourself?"

"Nah, I didn't... My partner doesn't like the sea. We'd expanded our

power, and it didn't seem like it needed my personal attention, so I put my

trusted friend Shuukin in charge of the expedition."

Shuukin's one of Fuuga's commanders as well as his childhood friend,

right? He put his friend and right hand in charge of the expedition. And

now he's looking exhausted despite not going himself.

I put the pieces together.

"Don't tell me... Shuukin's..."

"Yeah... He's got the curse."

"No...!"

Behind me, Yuriga was covering her mouth. She looked incredibly

disheartened.

Liscia placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. On the other side of

the broadcast, Fuuga shook his head weakly.

"He was like a brother to me. A second brother to Yuriga."

A brother... They were like family, then.

"Is his condition...bad?"

"No, he's still all right. But...that's only for now."

"It's gradually getting worse then?"

"That's apparently the kind of disease it is, and exactly why I want to

borrow your country's know-how," Fuuga said, a serious expression on his

face. "Yuriga's told me that the state of medicine in your country is far more

advanced than anywhere else. I want you to tell me how to deal with this

curse—how to treat it—if possible."

"It's not exactly a problem we can ignore... We have no way of

knowing when it might enter our country, so we won't hold back anything

in cooperating with you. But we have no information. Please tell us

everything you currently know about the Spirit King's Curse so that we can

search for countermeasures and treatments."

"Of course."

Fuuga relayed to us about the disease they called the "Spirit King's

Curse."

"From the reports Shuukin sent...sometime after going to the Father

Island, a few men we'd sent started to complain of fatigue. At first, they

thought it was just them not taking well to an unfamiliar climate, but...the

symptoms worsened by the day," he explained, seeming dispirited. "When

the numbers got out of hand, Shuukin decided something was strange, and

talked to the high elves who were collaborating with him about it.

And...that's how he found out about the disease."

"I see..."

"It starts with fatigue, and gradually more and more symptoms appear,

ultimately leading to death. By the time he learned this, Shuukin realized he

was already infected. He doesn't know how, but... Well, whatever the case,

he said not to send any more reinforcements. And that I absolutely must not

go there to join him."

It looked like it pained Fuuga to talk about it. Given the state his friend

and right-hand man was in, it was only natural.

"For a start, tell us how contagious the disease is." I'd asked that

because it was the first thing we ought to check, and the thing I most

wanted to know. "If it's spreading, it must be infecting other people, right?

How fast does that happen? Do people living in the containment area and

those treating the patient develop it quickly?"

I was imagining the seasonal flu from my old world. Once one person

in a household contracted the flu, it quickly infected the rest. I was told to

be careful of it when I was living with my grandparents.

Fuuga looked at Mutsumi and Hashim. They both shook their heads,

and his shoulders slumped.

"We don't know..."

"What?"

"We don't know how contagious it is. We don't even know how people

get infected by the disease."

"What do you mean...?"

Wasn't the disease spreading? I was getting confused.

"There's a whole lot of guys who've caught this 'Spirit King's Curse'

disease, right?"

"Yeah."

"And yet you don't know how they caught it?"

"Exactly."

"Seriously, what...?"

"Ahh, may I interject, sire?" Hilde said, stepping forward to stand

beside me. "Considering the situation, would you mind if I spoke to the

gentleman there directly? It seems like the two of you have different levels

of understanding when it comes to disease, so it's probably faster for me to

ask the questions."

"Oh, uh, sure. I'll allow it."

"Very well. Now then, Your Foreign Majesty, I'm Dr. Hilde. Would you

answer some questions for me?"

Fuuga nodded. "Yeah, of course. Ask away."

"I'll do just that, then. First, there's a number of transmission routes.

The most common in epidemics is person to person. If you're in the same

room as them, breathing the same air, or talking to them and their spit flies

in your direction, that's how it happens. Does this disease spread person to

person?"

"I don't know..."

"Hrm... What about those treating the infected? I know you probably

don't have a lot of doctors like me, but there must be light mages and those

providing first aid to the patients. Have they gotten infected?"

"No... We haven't received any reports like that."

So there was no infection of medical practitioners...uh, if you could call

them that, then?

"How about the patient's family?"

"We have no confirmation on that."

"Eh? Hrm..." Hilde seemed to be thinking deeply. "Now, just so I'm

clear on this... The disease really is spreading, right?"

"Yeah. It seems that twenty to thirty percent of the soldiers we sent to

the Father Island have come down with symptoms."

"Soldiers? Have any of the common folk been infected?"

"That's part of why they call it a curse..." Fuuga said, scratching his

head in total confusion. "More than ninety percent of the people affected

are in the military. And almost none of them were in the rear support group.

It was all people involved in the fighting. That's what got people jabbering

about how it's a curse, divine punishment, or whatever other nonsense

they're spreading."

A disease that only affected soldiers? That interested me a little.

"Fuuga," I began, "you guys built a semi-autonomous domain for the

liberal high elves on the Father Island, right? If ninety percent of the people

infected are in the military, then is that true in the high elves' territory too?

No differences based on race or gender?"

"Yeah. It seems like it. I could go a bit further and say that the disease

on the Mother Island is the same way, because they know it as a disease that

mostly affects warriors too."

"Even in the Spirit Kingdom, huh...?"

"Sire," Hilde said, turning to face me. "Based on what we know at this

point, we can speculate that it's not contagious through airborne or droplet

transmission either. The spread compared to the number of patients is just

too low."

"Yeah... It looks like being in the same place doesn't cause infection,"

Brad, who had been listening, agreed.

I cocked my head to the side.

"So there's no person-to-person transmission?"

"We can't rule out transmission from close contact or bodily fluids,

but...there's been a large number of cases in a short time frame. Not having

examined the patients myself, I can't say anything for certain, but personto-person transmission seems unlikely. And with the number of cases...the

cause has to be elsewhere, I think. Some foreign element."

"Could it be in the water? Perhaps something they ate?" Brad asked,

and Hilde groaned as she thought about it.

"What gets me is that they're all warriors. I can't imagine they keep

separate reserves of food and water for the front line fighters and their

supporters back in camp. If the supporters have been largely uninfected,

food seems like an unlikely cause."

As I was listening to them, something came to mind.

"Hey, Fuuga. Did the expeditionary force use the monsters as food?"

"Huh? Nah. They were sent with plenty to eat. They'd have to have

been pretty desperate to do that. That 'Monster Encyclopedia' you gave us

said to be really careful when using monsters for food too."

"Then it's not food poisoning from eating monsters..."

Remembering Jeanne's story about eating monsters, I thought that

might be a possibility. I figured the kind of tough soldiers who went to fight

on the front lines might want to give that sort of thing a go, while the guys

in the rear wouldn't go to the trouble. But if they hadn't eaten monsters, as

Fuuga says, it probably wasn't that.

That left me even more lost though.

"Monsters..." Hilde started mumbling to herself. "What if the

monsters..."

What could that be about?

Suddenly, she looked up, and realized something.

"Your Foreign Majesty! The expeditionary force only fought monsters,

right? Not soldiers from the Spirit Kingdom?"

"Yeah." Fuuga nodded. "We just drove the monsters out of the Father

Island."

"I heard monsters had pushed the Spirit Kingdom to the brink. That

means they were fighting them back there too. In other words, the people

who fought monsters are the ones who caught the disease."

"""Ah!"""

Everyone gulped at what Hilde had said.

"So...it's monster-to-human transmission then?"

"That's right. And if the supporters in the rear have barely gotten

infected at all, whatever the cause of the infection is, it must have happened

during direct combat. Either those who were wounded in battle or covered

in their enemies' blood... It should be something like that."

That makes sense. I could see how that would mean only warriors got

infected.

"Hey, Doctor. What should we do about it?" Fuuga asked Hilde with a

serious expression on his face. "Monsters are going to attack us even if we

don't attack them. You can't expect us not to deal with them. Is there any

way to heal the warriors, or keep the disease from spreading any further?"

"Not knowing the kind of disease it is, I have no idea how to treat it.

It's purely speculation at this point that monsters cause it, but...if you don't

want any more victims, you'll keep to long-range attacks, and not get too

close to the monsters."

"Got it. I'll make sure my men do that."

"Also, I want to hear exactly what kind of symptoms it causes. I

understand that it's ultimately terminal, but what problems do the patients

experience before then?"

"Right... The most typical symptom of the Spirit King's Curse..." Fuuga

looked directly at us as he said this. "Is losing the ability to use magic."

Losing the ability to use magic?

"Can I understand that as losing the ability to use your own magic?" I

asked, but Fuuga cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"What else could it mean?"

"There's stuff like recovery light magic that has a magical effect from

outside the body, after all."

"Oh, that's what you mean. It seems like you gradually lose the ability

to use your own magic. As for light magic... How was it again?" Fuuga

looked behind him.

Looking through a report, Hashim replied, "It seems to work at first,

then gradually weakens, and ultimately fails...is what our reports say."

"Is the magic itself being neutralized? What about magic attacks from

enemies?"

"We have no reports of experiments like that, but...there are reports that

one of the patients who had injuries from a fire attack was slow to heal, so I

suspect attack magic works."

Their own magic becomes unusable, and so does external light magic...

What's the difference that decides what magic works and what doesn't?

"Hey, Souma," Fuuga called out to me as I was thinking.

"What is it?"

"How about your country and my country fight this disease together?"

"Fight...together? You mean do a joint investigation?"

"If we stay ignorant, there's no telling when it might spread across the

whole continent. That's something you're worried about, right? So I'm

saying we ought to team up."

"I get that, but..."

His reasoning made sense. But when it came to working with Fuuga's

forces, I was always going to be hesitant. Fuuga was a man who hid nothing

and had no ulterior motives when he was on his own, but now he had a

shifty guy like Hashim at his side. I felt like we'd just be taken advantage

of.

If we acted like we were close to Fuuga's faction, that might provoke

the people of the Empire. In point of fact, after Fuuga turned over that port

to us, Maria's vassals had put some serious pressure on her.

As I hesitated to respond, Fuuga went on. "We'd like to do what we can

not to create any more cases, and if possible, find a treatment. You wouldn't

want this disease in your country either, right? The only way to prevent that

is studying it together and coming up with countermeasures."

I remained silent, unable to give a response.

"That's an awfully self-serving thing for you to say," Hakuya

interjected. "For one thing, if you had never intervened in the Spirit

Kingdom's troubles, you wouldn't be suffering from this disease right now.

This is the result of actions that you took, so it's not right for you to seek

other countries' help in solving it."

"I believe we have a difference of understanding here," Hashim swiftly

countered. "Our liberation of the Father Island was done at Sir Gerula's

request. It troubles me that you would suggest it was done for personal

gain."

"You quibble, but the fact of the matter is that the Father Island is now

a part of your sphere of influence, is it not?"

"You must not know the circumstances there either. When we actually

made contact with the high elves, we found they were divided into a group

obsessed with notions of their status as the chosen people, and those who

sought reform or liberation from those who held such views. As the

liberators of the Demon Lord's Domain, we merely decided that the latter

group were correct, and sided with them."

"All you did was create a puppet state. It is disgusting to think you call

yourself liberators."

Neither Hakuya nor Hashim would cede an inch of ground in this

exchange. They both needed to stay in control of the argument—Hakuya to

keep the Kingdom from being pulled into the Great Tiger Kingdom's

situation, and Hashim to prevent any excuses for refusing to help them.

You could have called their war of words a power game between us and

the Great Tiger Kingdom...

"Shut up, both of you." Fuuga tired of it and shut them both down. "In

this matter, my will as an individual comes before my will as a king. I want

to save my friend Shuukin, as well as the other men who serve under me

that are suffering from this disease. If I have to lower my head and beg, I'll

do it. So please."

With that, Fuuga took off his helmet and bowed his head deeply.

One of us was asking a favor of the other. That should have made our

positions clear, but somehow, when he was able to so confidently bow his

head to me, it made him feel like the more impressive one here. We had

made him bow his head, and yet it felt like he was the one in control. This

has to be the difference in our caliber as individuals...

Unlike me, who was able to manage because he was supported by

others, Fuuga had incredible capacity all on his own. In one-on-one

situations like this, the difference between us was readily apparent.

"Fine... We'll help you."

It was the only answer I could give.

"If it's transmissible through contact with monsters, not air or droplets,

the doctors aren't at much risk of infection. It's easy to send people."

"Ohh! Thanks."

"However, our medical technology is several levels above yours.

You're to follow our doctors' instructions to the letter. I don't want you

moving around patients and spreading the disease. If you can't abide by

that, we'll have to decline."

Fuuga gave a large nod in response to my demands.

"Yeah, you've got it. I'll be strict with my people about that."

"I'm counting on you... That goes for Hashim too, all right?"

For better and for worse, when Fuuga said he was going to do

something, he did it. Now that he had accepted my demands, I could expect

he wouldn't go back on his word. But that didn't hold for everyone on his

side.

"He seems like the kind of guy who'd send the dead bodies of people

who died from the disease to an enemy country."

"I'm not that ruthless..." Hashim said, looking away like my words

wounded him. I wasn't convinced.

"It's human nature to want to use the tools we have at hand. Even when

they're too much for us."

In my previous world, there were things like bioweapons and anthrax,

after all. Bacteria and viruses were alive. Living things rarely moved the

way people wanted them to. For an example that didn't directly harm

humans, I'd heard a story where people had released mongooses to fight

vipers, but they instead started attacking some endangered local wildlife.

"If you get arrogant and think you can control this thing, I guarantee it

will come back to bite you in the ass."

Fuuga looked pensive for a moment before saying, "Yeah, I get it. I'll

keep an eye on Hashim so he doesn't do anything weird."

He took it on himself because he didn't want to see the negotiations

descend into squabbling again.

Well... I figure that's probably good enough for now. We had agreed our

two countries would cooperate where the disease was concerned.

With that decided, I had to look into what the Kingdom could do, so we

decided to end the broadcast meeting there. Once the video cut out...

"This has all turned into...kind of a big deal, huh?" Liscia said, and I

nodded in agreement.

"But this time, we really do need to cooperate. Disease knows no

borders."

"Yeah..."

"Um, I'm sorry about my brother," Yuriga said apologetically.

"You don't have to be," I reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"In this situation, it's not entirely Fuuga's fault."

"Right..."

Next Hilde and Brad came up to me.

"Sire, once I hear about a disease, I can't leave it alone. Let me go

there."

"No, they'll need someone to perform autopsies. I should be the one to

go."

They both volunteered out of a sense of duty as doctors. But...

"Not happening!" I immediately refused. "You're the Kingdom's top

authorities in medicine. I'd even call you the king and queen of the medical

world. You two are so famous that people know your names even when

they don't know the name of their nearest doctor. If I sent the two of you

out and you got sick, what would I do? The country would fall into chaos if

it was a disease even the two of you couldn't overcome. When they found

out, there might even be rioting."

""......""

"As doctors, you wouldn't want a riot that broke out because of you to

result in casualties, would you? Well, as king, I feel the same way. I can't

send you there."

"Urgh..." Brad groaned.

"Fame has its price, huh?" Hilde complained.

They looked frustrated, but they were going to have to deal with it. I

don't want to say some lives were more important than others, but the fact

is that some deaths have a lot more of an effect. As king, I had to do

everything I could to keep losses to a minimum.

"You need to be patient. Ludia's still little too."

When I brought up the name of their child, they both had a moment of

realization. They couldn't make an orphan of her. Still, they had a job to do

as doctors. I could see the conflicted expression on their faces.

I bowed my head to the two of them.

"I want you here as my advisors. I'll give you all the information we

have. And once specimens are available, I'll have them brought to you. So

please, stay in the capital for now."

"Fine, I get it..." Brad said.

"I guess we've got no choice," Hilde agreed.

They didn't like it, but they accepted it. That's a relief.