Chapter 11: Sauge, the Fairy Leader

 

 

 

Chapter 11: Sauge, the Fairy Leader

 

AFTER that, Iris started to visit the Temple of Magic on a regular basis to learn more about soilpox. And fairies, too. After all, she was still finding fairies hiding in her ringlets. Apparently, they had used her hairband to create a portal in her hair.

As a result, Iris was permitted to enter the Temple’s common areas without Cytisus’s direct supervision. After all, the fairies were guardians of the Temple in their own right.

Through her research, Iris learned that fairy blessings were quite rare, and the average mage would consider themselves lucky to receive the blessing of just one. Only veteran mages, or the Holy Maiden herself, ever received multiple blessings. But because Iris lacked any mana whatsoever, she was a glaring exception to that rule. Not only that, but the “sinful” soilpox scars on her arm marked her as a heathen. Someone like Iris was never meant to receive any blessings…but nevertheless, she had. Thus, the other mages decided to help her with her fairy research.

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PARTWAY through her studies, the mage assisting Iris was suddenly called away on other business, so Iris decided to ask the fairies something she had wondered for a while.

“Tell me, has there ever been a drug that prevented the transmission of soilpox?”

“Prevented? Not cured?”

The more she looked into the history of soilpox, the more she started to notice the similarities between the epidemic of a hundred years ago and the modern day.

“It seems outbreaks are most common during the summer after a particularly warm winter. And every warm winter thus far has been heralded by an especially cool summer. This year’s summer hasn’t been very warm at all… That leads me to believe that an outbreak might occur next summer.”

“You’re a genius, Iris!”

“You’ve studied a whole bunch!”

While Iris appreciated their praise, there was little point in predicting an upcoming epidemic if she couldn’t do anything to stop it. If only there was a vaccine, like in her past life… After all, this world’s “soilpox” strongly resembled Earth’s “smallpox.” And, since it was supposedly impossible to contract soilpox twice, surely the human body was capable of building an immunity to the virus. With a vaccine, we could prevent transmission altogether!

“Once you catch soilpox, you can’t catch it again, right? So, I’m wondering if there’s a way to safely ‘catch’ the disease. Enough so it’s inside your body, but not enough to get sick.”

“How?”

“Hurting your body on purpose?”

“That’s scary!”

The fairies all looked horrified. Iris didn’t blame them, though. In her past life, the smallpox vaccine was injected through the skin into the bloodstream; this was not something anyone would be excited to try, which would make treatment difficult. And if the vaccine was administered in less-than-sanitary conditions, the patients would be at risk of catching something else entirely. Here in Floraison, it just wasn’t realistic.

“Oh, I know. What if we grind soilpox scabs into powder to be insufflated through the nose?”

Iris remembered reading about a similar technique performed in the old days before the smallpox vaccine back in her past life. She didn’t know how effective it was, but it was certainly worth a try.

“Found it! Look here!”

A fairy flew over, carrying a book titled The Forbidden Arts.

Where in the world did you get this? It’s wrapped up in locks and chains!

“Why did you search the forbidden arts, of all things?”

“Because diseases are poison!” the purple-winged fairy cheerfully informed her.

“Poison…?”

“Are you a witch, Iris? Do you want to kill people?” another fairy asked. Its innocent smile gave Iris pause, and her face stiffened.

“No, I don’t want to kill people! The scabs may be poisonous, but if we can nullify the toxins while keeping the antigens intact, we can make a vaccine!”

“What’s a vaccine?”

“What’re antigens?”

The fairies all looked at her blankly. No surprise there, since this world knew nothing of vaccines.

“Basically, I want to erase all the bad parts of the virus, then put it inside the body so the virus can’t strike a second time. That’s what a vaccine is!”

“I don’t get it!”

They all burst out laughing, and Iris heaved a sigh. They at least seemed to understand that the scabs were unsafe; she just needed to find a way to purify them to create her vaccine. But did such a method exist in this world?

“An interesting idea,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Startled, Iris whirled around to find a tall woman standing behind her. Her long white hair was all one length, with no layers or bangs, and she wore what looked to be a cleric’s white ankle-length alb. Around her neck hung a long, thin, dark-purple stole with sage plants embroidered in gold thread at the ends. Six large translucent purple wings sprouted from her back, and she had purple eyes to match. Her facial features and tone offered some gender ambiguity, but her build and the pitch of her voice made it clear she was a woman.

Wait… She’s a fairy, too?!

As Iris stared in shock, the white-haired woman looked back at her firmly.

“You intend to turn poison into medicine? That won’t be easy.”

“Why is that?”

“Who in the world would risk their life to gather scabs from the infected? It is a forbidden art only attempted by those truly desperate to kill.”

“I’ll gather them,” Iris declared, holding up her left arm.

At first, the woman looked taken aback; then she scrutinized Iris for a long moment.

“I’m a survivor of the virus, which means I can’t contract it again. Therefore, it’s safe for me to go and gather them. My problem is, I don’t know how to sanitize them while keeping the antigens intact.”

“That part is simple—you need only use magic.”

Iris frowned. “I wish I could, but I don’t have mana.”

“In that case, I’ll lend you mine. I am Fairy Leader Sauge. Tell me your name, girl,” she commanded.

Hastily, Iris curtsied. “I am Iris du Chevalier.”

“A word of warning, little knight: courage and recklessness are two very different things. Are you aware of the risk involved?”

“Oh, there’s no risk,” Iris laughed. In a sense, soilpox’s biggest mistake was failing to kill her the first time. “Problem is, I don’t know anyone who’s currently infected. After all, anyone who contracts the disease is quarantined in secret.”

The spread had gone down lately, and Iris hadn’t heard any gossip among the nobles. Anytime someone caught the virus, they generally did everything in their power to conceal it.

In Iris’s case, she was quarantined in the basement of the house. It was furnished with all the necessities, of course, but her family wouldn’t even come to check on her. Instead, they sent maids to deliver her meals, all from a safe distance. Iris could still remember how miserable and lonely she’d felt as she endured her symptoms in solitude… Then, after two weeks, her scabs all fell off, and she was allowed back upstairs.

And if that was what she’d had to endure as an aristocrat, Iris could scarcely imagine what it was like for commoners. Whenever one of them was diagnosed with soilpox, they were exiled from the town and sent to live in a cavern with the other infected! It was completely unsafe. But everyone else refused to go anywhere near that cavern, so they couldn’t seek help from anyone, not even their families. Everyone rejected them.

Iris let out a sigh. Truth be told, she was feeling the pressure to take action, fast. For the time being, Prince Bleuet and Cytisus’s beloved were still alive—but by the start of HanaKoro, when Camille first arrived at the Academy, they had already long since died. And since the Holy Maiden’s power had plummeted right at the start of the game, perhaps something had happened that drained a great deal of holy magic. Some sort of crisis must have befallen the royal capital.

Normally, each Holy Maiden served for a period of ten years, but at the start of HanaKoro, there were still five years left in the current Maiden’s term. Nevertheless, her power had run out, forcing the government to find a replacement as fast as possible. Right now, Iris was thirteen; she wouldn’t attend the Academy until age fifteen. At some point during the next two years, something big was going to strike the city. And if that something was a soilpox epidemic…

Rrgh, I need to prevent it at all costs! But I just don’t have enough time!

Meanwhile, Sauge gazed at her probingly.

“Allow me to assist you, little Iris. I shall pay you a visit later tonight, and together, we shall acquire the soilpox scabs. Think long and hard about how you want to use them, for that will grant you power.”

And with that, she vanished into thin air.

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AND so, as prompted by Sauge, Iris contemplated how to make use of the scabs.

For someone who didn’t understand the properties of a virus, gathering soilpox scabs was a formidable task. After all, prior to sanitization, the scabs contained germs. But with a vaccine, she could prevent infection or even lessen the intensity of the disease if she managed to administer it at an early stage.

But even with the knowledge that it was sanitized, no one would want to ingest the scabs of a sick person. Besides, the transmission of soilpox was seemingly affected by the weather; people weren’t constantly sick with the disease at all times of the year. But no infected meant no scabs…and yet, at the same time, she couldn’t possibly infect someone on purpose just to acquire their scabs for a vaccine!

The last soilpox epidemic took place a hundred years ago. Even if she established a cure, it could easily be lost to time after the next hundred years passed. So, first things first, Iris needed to find a way to sanitize the scabs without damaging the antigens. She also needed to think of a way to preserve the vaccine so it would still be around in the future. And how would she cultivate it? How would she test its efficacy? She couldn’t use herself as a test subject since she was already immune. How could she convince people to get vaccinated?

In her past life, it took a tremendous amount of time, effort, and hard work to create vaccines, and Iris knew just how hard it was to get society to adopt them. After all, it took two hundred years after the advent of the smallpox vaccine for the virus to finally be eradicated. Even in a world with televisions and a high literacy rate, it simply wasn’t easy to get people to sign up for a new vaccine.

Nevertheless, Iris needed to do absolutely everything she could within the short time she had. And so, wracking her brain endlessly, she waited for night to fall.