Chapter 197: The Threat of the Plague

“Oh! Lord, do you have any ideas?” Alamil asked immediately.

George said with some difficulty, “The biggest problem right now is not knowing which aspect the enemy is planning to attack. Once we know their methods, we can plan either a proactive strike or setting a trap.”

Green Beren spoke first, “If it is the Church of the Lord of Conspiracy, their favorite tactics are assassinating high-ranking officials, inciting commoners or ambitious men to rebel, and a series of similar moves. If they cannot find a quick effective method, they will start by gradually bribing the close relatives of important members within the territory, and then slowly plot their next moves…”

Then Priest Mario analyzed the possible problems Green Beren mentioned, comparing them to the situation in Bolerum Territory: “Based on our observations of your territory over these few days, the chance of successfully inciting commoners or ambitious men to rebel is extremely small. Assassination might work well in other territories, but in the Duchy of Nohan, the feasibility of this is indeed not high!”

After saying this, Mario shrugged, indicating that it was impossible for the Church of the Lord of Conspiracy to stir up trouble in Bolerum Territory on their own. Based on what they knew from the past, it was not possible.

‘If they really have the patience to play the underground game with us, that would be a real headache. Just like a swordsman is most dangerous before he strikes. This is like a trump card; once exposed, the deterrent power becomes much smaller. I do not want to be on guard against such an enemy all the time?’ George’s face suddenly turned gloomy: “To deal with the bribery and infiltration of the Lord of Conspiracy, the Church of the Just Lord, as the leader who has fought against evil forces for many years, should have its own methods, right!”

Alamil said with a bitter smile, “In fact, even if we disrupt their plans this time, as long as the Church of the Lord of Conspiracy does not give up, Lord, you had better stay alert all the time. For ordinary infiltration and bribery, irregular inspections combined with the use of magic and Divine Arts are usually enough to handle the problem. The most troublesome part is when they send out well-hidden believers who build relationships with officials in the territory. Normally, no problems can be seen. When the critical moment comes, they use spells like Command or Charm Person, and if the plan is well-designed, it could cause huge losses to your territory!”

‘Why does this look a bit like the butterfly effect? It feels truly unpredictable. But if that’s the case, how did the Church of the Just Lord and other allies of the Righteous Camp gain such an advantage in the confrontation? Should I ask them? But what if this is a secret within their Church? Asking so directly might not be appropriate.’ For a moment, George felt torn. Although he appeared calm and relaxed while talking with the adventurers, his mind was full of doubts.

Suddenly, his thoughts seemed to catch on something: “Right, the key seems to be spells like Command or Charm Person. If the target’s will is strong enough, the spell can be made ineffective. That means for an organization like the Church, this is their biggest weakness. Because of their cultivation, the members of the Church are very strong in willpower. This is a straightforward approach of using strength to break cleverness. But our territory cannot learn this! We do not have the ability to replace all the officials with professionals!”

Knowing this path was blocked, George had to think of another way, but for now, this could be put aside. After all, according to them, this was a long-term process. Although one could not fully believe others, there was no better way at the moment!

After a round of discussion, Priest Mario said with some worry, “From what we see now, they have definitely cooperated with the Lord of Conspiracy and the Church of the Lord of Conspiracy. This gives them a much larger range of operations. More importantly, if there are more than just these two, what evil methods the enemy can come up with is truly unpredictable?”

‘This is one wave after another! We can guess the most likely participants. Besides the Lord of Conspiracy, the God of Chromatic Dragons is the other. But from what they said, it seems there are more than just these few.’ Hearing this, George frowned for the first time in front of everyone today, “In fact, we suspect that the God of Chromatic Dragons might also be involved. Because a few Dragon-slaying heroes appeared in our territory before, so this time they might cause some trouble. Of course, you are the experts in this field. Can you tell me what the worst-case scenario is?”

“Although Her Majesty the Dragon Queen looks like a potential major threat, her actual threat is not that great due to the restraint of the Platinum Dragon God.” Alamil’s view was basically the same as the Knight Val’s earlier opinion.

‘It seems we do not need to worry too much about the God of Chromatic Dragons! But it is still good to prepare just in case.’ George made a decision in his heart. This did not mean George did not trust Knight Val’s words. Although George believed that Val would never lie to him in this regard, Val had not walked on the Continent for many years, so his knowledge might be out of touch with the current situation. The adventurers in front of him, however, often had access to first-hand information. Combining the two would add a double insurance.

“The Plague of Life, the Prince of Lies, the Goat King of Evil Diseases, the Night Stealer, the Subjugator Shagonx, and the Sea of Terror; the Churches of these Deities all have some connection with the previous two. Although they are not the main force of the Evil Camp and rarely appear in past confrontations with our camp, every time they participate, they bring us great trouble. For a prosperous territory like yours, the greatest threat is the Goat King of Evil Diseases. After all, once a plague starts, even the most prosperous city becomes a dead land!” As he spoke, Mario’s wrinkled eyes twitched inexplicably. It seemed he had thought of something sad.

Hearing these words, George felt a chill run down his spine, and the temperature in the reception hall seemed to drop by a few degrees. The Plague of Life referred to the Demonic Mustard known as Zorn of the Abyss; the Prince of Lies referred to the Traitor Xidukai; the Goat King of Evil Diseases referred to the God of Disease Mojian; the Night Stealer referred to the Impious Nutari; the Subjugator Shagonx referred to the Fire Messenger Shagos; and the Sea of Terror referred to the Whirlpool Zulasaboin.

The nicknames Mario mentioned earlier were used to avoid directly calling the Deities’ names and drawing their attention.

These Deities were all on the Evil side but did not act very openly; one could say their actions were not very frequent. However, their deterrent power could not be underestimated! Although some of them could live peacefully with commoners most of the time, if the price was right, they had no bottom line when it came to violence.

Among them, the God of Plague, Decay, and Disease, Mojian, was a terrifying existence. After several months of self-study, George was no longer as clueless about the Deities of this world as he was at the beginning. He had heard of this god’s name and many of her “deeds.”

If the other five Deities mentioned above could mostly live peacefully with humans, two or three of them could even be semi-publicly worshipped. But Mojian was an enemy of any civilized society.

Almost all humanoid races feared the God of Plague, Decay, and Disease, Mojian. Those who worshipped her were cursed by others, so they could only spread their beliefs in secret. Even other evil Deities often refused to associate with her.

Mojian’s power was born from fear, so she spread fear among mortals through the trauma caused by disease. Mojian rarely deigned to speak with her clergy. Instead, she preferred to do her dirty work without them even knowing.

Mojian’s Church was composed of slaves. Mojian would wait for a person to be controlled by a disease and then offer them a choice: relief from the disease in exchange for a lifetime of slavery. Those who accepted this condition found themselves “cured” by Mojian’s power, but the price they were forced to pay usually exceeded what they could bear. Afterward, they were sent to spread diseases to bring more followers to Mojian.

Under this system, Mojian’s followers gathered in small units—usually no more than three clergy members—their mission was to spread disease and suffering to everyone they met.

From big cities to small villages, from areas where Elves lived to islands where Minotaurs roamed, followers of Mojian could be found. They had to work in secret because if they were discovered, they would be in danger. Most importantly, they feared priests of Good, Healing, and Protection, who could be said to be their natural enemies.

Disease breeds fear. Fear is power. Spreading fear brings rewards. Although such dogma might not be intentionally creating no-man’s-lands, Mojian’s followers were sometimes ordered to research and create poisons. Mojian’s followers usually had a small Alchemy room at home, which they could use to create new powerful poisons. They were especially skilled in making poisons that mimicked the effects of diseases.

Sometimes the development of events always surprised people, even the Deities themselves could not control fate. Whether it was too fast-acting poison or an epidemic that spread too quickly, this was the case. Even nobles could rely on their own strength or the Divine Arts of other Churches to get through, but the vast number of commoners could only hope for luck. This group of crazies had caused scenes of “no roosters crowing for a thousand miles” several times, just thinking about it made George feel terrified.

‘Even the first stroke has not been drawn! I should not scare myself.’ After some self-comforting, George asked half-seriously, “Not to mention the well-known conflict between the Lord of Conspiracy and the Prince of Lies; the possibility of them cooperating should not be high, right? What was the probability of these six participating before? Most importantly, even the Lord of Conspiracy or the Church of the Lord of Conspiracy would not want to get involved with the Church of the Goat King of Evil Diseases, right!”

“As far as we know now, we do not know the specific situation. But members of the Church of the Goat King of Evil Diseases did participate in an action against a certain city in the South before. Although it was discovered in time, several Churches of the Good Alignment tried hard to save it. But in the end, nearly one-third of that city’s population died. So it is better to be careful in this regard, especially the water sources and food in the city, do not give those guys a chance to poison them.” Alamil dropped a shocking piece of news for George.

George could no longer care about his image and let out a gasp, “Could that sudden plague in Winterhold three years ago be the reason?”

“If there was no second Winterhold suffering from a plague at the same time! It should be the one you mentioned. That battle was a complete failure for our Church! Although we had an absolute advantage in the fight, those damn guys achieved their goals.” When saying these words, Green Beren sounded very low.

Then this ascetic wearing old burlap held his fist, gritted his teeth, and whispered, “I will never let such a thing happen again.”

Winterhold was located in the South of the Western Continent. It was named because it seemed to have no winter. It was a very important commercial transit hub. Of course, as a member of a southern city-state, it had very close ties with other city-states and even more distant Commercial Republics. It was also said to be a very prosperous metropolis. If you added the floating population, the number of people in the city was even larger than the entire Bolerum Territory.

George had never expected that place would suffer such a disaster. In fact, most plagues had certain precursors. Like heavy rain, floods, high temperature, and humidity, etc., none of the prerequisites for a plague outbreak were present. During the driest and coolest season of the year, a plague that caused mass deaths in just a few days appeared, which was already surprising enough.

In the past, the targets of the Church of the Goat King of Evil Diseases were always relatively remote villages or poorer territories. There had never been a precedent of attacking a prosperous metropolis, and even slightly larger towns rarely saw their presence.

‘I really did not expect it to be this reason. And the Churches of the Good Alignment really buried the truth very deep!’ Thinking about it, George could understand the concerns of the Righteous Camp.

Releasing this kind of information could indeed arouse public anger and further cause neutrals to become hostile toward the Churches of the Evil Camp. But there was a very important point: this would also cause great fear. The reputation of those Churches was not good to begin with, so it did not matter much if it got worse.

But once this news spread, it would trigger widespread fear. If the enemy wanted to threaten or blackmail something, the success rate would be much higher. It was like the nuclear blackmail of a certain Northern country before George’s transmigration, which made many great powers feel extremely frustrated.

After finally calming his mind, George still had some doubts: “I heard that members of the Church of the Goat King of Evil Diseases have some mental problems. Are the members of the other Churches really willing to act with them?”

Priest Mario lowered his head and said in a heavy voice, “If they are ordinary members, others have some concerns. After all, their priests and followers generally lack direct combat power. It is difficult to succeed if they act alone. But just recently, a large number of fallen Mages joined the Church of the Goat King of Evil Diseases. Have you heard of Cancer Mages, Lord?”

Seeing George silent, Mario quickly controlled his emotions and explained to George what a Cancer Mage was. According to him, the filthy sewers, dark alleys, abandoned buildings, and these corners of civilized society that were forgotten by people could all be the hometowns of Cancer Mages.

These social outcasts who lived on corpses and garbage were dirty, sickly, and smelled of decay. They had existed for a very long time and could be said to be one of the most disgusting enemies of Adventurers.

If warriors armed themselves with shields and swords, Cancer Mages used deadly poison and disease as their weapons. They attacked from the darkness. Their fighting style tended to launch surprise attacks, infect the opponent, and then quietly retreat, letting the enemy slowly die from the torment of disease.

Cancer Mages usually carried out their plans in secret. Sometimes they served the Deities of Disease and Plague, and sometimes they spread diseases in civilized society for their own purposes.

If the Cancer Mages of the past were somewhat restrained, now that they have found an organization, their last action was quite reckless. Fortunately, so far, diseases that spread through the air have not been developed. The positive energy from the sun is one of the biggest enemies of those diseases. So as long as the problem of food and water safety is controlled, most of the hidden dangers can be solved.

Listening to this, George seemed to have new ideas: ‘It seems I need to speed up the improvement of the household registration system in the territory, and organizations like the Neighborhood Committee also need to be gradually established. Actually, those middle-aged women are quite powerful in fighting suspicious characters. Adding daily patrols and regular water quality checks should be able to prevent the enemy’s hands as much as possible! I just do not know how much effect the long-term promotion in the territory of not drinking raw water and not eating raw food will have?’