Chapter 154
The head maid immediately reported in detail what she had observed over the past few days.
“It started with Marie. Even long after her usual waking time, she couldn’t get up. So when I went to check on her… her fever was extremely high.”
“Fever…”
“Then she began coughing and clutching her throat in pain… Around that time, several other maids began showing the same symptoms.”
“Those other maids, could they be…”
Cedric recalled the two maids he had placed under probation a few days ago. The ones who had been with Marie.
“Yes, they are the same maids you ordered to remain confined separately in the annex until the Master returned.”
“…They have the same symptoms as Marie?”
“Yes. The timing of the onset is different, but the symptoms are identical.”
“……”
Cedric felt that something was going wrong. Marie’s symptoms were familiar. They were exactly the symptoms the Madam had shown before she disappeared. Remembering how much she had suffered without any proper medicine, he could not forget it.
“…Call the physician at once and have him send fever-reducing ointment to them. And tell him to prepare a sufficient supply in advance.”
“Understood.”
“…And lastly, they must be isolated.”
“……”
At his heavy words, the assistants working in the office all stopped their pens at once. The office fell silent in an instant, and no one dared to even breathe.
They had never experienced it personally, but they had grown up hearing about epidemics. They had only read about them in history books, but they knew how much the cat tribe’s population had been reduced by past outbreaks and how dangerous such diseases could be.
What Cedric had just said was essentially the same as declaring an epidemic.
“…Yes, then face coverings will also be necessary.”
“Not only that. Gloves must be worn as well.”
“Understood.”
“I will finish only the urgent matters and come help, so do not worry.”
“…Please leave it to us.”
“Thank you.”
Cedric looked at the assistants, who had stopped their work and were staring only at him, and spoke in a firm voice.
“At times when the Master is absent, we must prove that we can support him.”
“Yes, of course.”
The assistants, who had gradually grown attached to both Nox and Sia without realizing it, all nodded and answered in unison.
Although they had once rejected Nox because of the black fur superstition, they now fully understood that the one they relied on and faced everything together with was none other than Nox.
Cedric was just as worried and uneasy, but he silently continued reviewing documents and stamping them. At that moment, pale snowflakes could be seen falling outside the window. Noticing the first snow that signaled winter, he hurried even more.
* * *
Nox observed the situation from high up in the mountains behind Marquis Kris’s residence. Even without the information from the knights he had sent ahead, he had expected that the marquis would take Sia to his own estate.
Werebeasts lived while imitating humans in many ways, but at critical moments, they could not abandon their animal instincts.
“When a snake catches its prey, it either swallows it whole, or if it cannot, it hides it in its den.”
So Sia would certainly be inside that residence. Narrowing his eyes, Nox carefully examined the appearances of those coming and going from the estate. When he spotted someone who looked like a physician entering the residence, he became certain that Sia was there.
“Is she still sick…”
Worried about her, Nox could not suppress his anger and struck the tree trunk he was perched on with his fist. Thud, crack. A tree so thick that Sia could not have wrapped her arms around it snapped easily and crashed down.
Just thinking about his ill female made his insides burn. As he exhaled heated breaths, he suddenly noticed someone rushing out. The figure appeared to be the knight commander, and he ran urgently toward the building where the knights were stationed.
Seeing this, Nox realized that the unit led by the vice commander had successfully invaded Roso Village. Starting with the knight commander, the marquis’s residence quickly became chaotic.
As he watched the faces of those leaving the estate one by one while attending to their tasks, he spotted someone who stood out among them.
“So it’s you.”
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