Ashu, who was called out at a late hour, appeared neat and tidy.
With his cheeks reddened from the chilly night air, Ashu looked tense, continuously conscious of his surroundings.
After receiving the note that Sharti handed him, he immediately put on a dumbfounded expression.
“Uh, so, um, uh……”
After checking the note several times while alternately looking at Sharti, Ashu eventually blinked with a confused expression.
“Excuse me…?”
<I’m planning to steal quite a lot, from many places.>
Is she declaring that she’s going to commit theft on a large scale? And in our village?
Ashu’s expression became even more bewildered.
He wasn’t sure if he had read the note correctly, let alone understood it.
<That’s why I need your help.>
“…Excuse me?”
Receiving another note in succession, Ashu could only respond with a dumbfounded expression.
When Sharti specifically pointed at him, Ashu’s heart pounded for a different reason.
“So, what you’re saying is, um……”
Do you want me to become your accomplice in theft?
Ashu whispered with a very secretive and serious expression.
Sharti tilted her head at Ashu, who was swallowing dryly and struggling with discomfort.
‘…Ah!’
Belatedly realizing that the notes were in the wrong order, Sharti let out a small sigh.
Cutting out the preamble and jumping straight to the conclusion, there was no way it could have been properly conveyed.
Sharti awkwardly took back the notes and rearranged them in the correct order.
<I’ve figured out the name of the disease.>
“……!”
<I’ve also found the cause, and the treatment isn’t difficult.>
Ashu couldn’t speak, clutching the note with trembling eyes.
“…So, really, Doc-Doctor…!”
It had been a vague hope. Even knowing it was impossible, Ashu had sought out Sharti despite fierce opposition.
It was his last hope. Ashu had been doing his best to hide his despairing expression and had persevered steadfastly until now.
<You don’t have to worry.>
But in front of this kind savior, all the anxiety and fear that had bound him crumbled away.
Ashu removed his glasses and wiped away the tears he couldn’t hold back.
“Doctor, then now……”
<But there are many mountains to climb to start treatment right away. I need to persuade the villagers who are suspicious of me, and I also need to get verification from those who distrust unverified treatments.>
Ashu paused with his eyes and nose reddened.
Hadn’t he already been warned about how the villagers would react?
Ashu quickly composed his messy face and nodded.
<We don’t have time. It’s not good to drag things out.>
<Then there’s only one way, isn’t there?>
Sharti recalled the expression Ren had when she shared her plan with him.
[……Out of your mind, hmm…….]
An indescribable astonishment had transformed through deep contemplation and long patience into a strangely disgruntled expression. It was an unexpected method enough to momentarily disrupt Ren’s carefully practiced perfect acting.
Rather than unnecessary persuasion, even if moderate, it was better to secretly take action first and deliver a shock.
‘There’s no better plan than this.’
There were actually more aggressive methods, but they were simply too much for Sharti.
<To cure the disease, we need help from the outside.>
More precisely, exchanges with the outside world needed to take place.
That was the only way to prevent it in the future.
<But since they will obviously oppose large-scale and long-term help, it seems we need to create a somewhat extreme situation.>
At that moment, the wind blew. It was just the right strength.
With a solemn mindset, Sharti declared again.
<I’m thinking of becoming a thief.>
“Yes.”
Ashu carefully folded all her notes.
His unwavering, straight gaze was directed at Sharti.
“Tell me what to do.”
He skipped asking what the disease was, what she planned to steal, or what she would do afterward.
Instead, Sharti was slightly taken aback when Ashu placed his hand on his chest and smiled brightly.
“I’ll gladly listen.”
He simply wanted to hear what help was needed, what instructions to follow.
A feeling close to reverence beyond trust was clearly conveyed.
Sharti, grateful for Ashu’s willingness to cooperate actively, handed him the final note.
<Please draw some attention.>
****
Around dawn, the village was turned upside down. The commotion began with the smell of burning and thick black smoke rising from various places.
The villagers, who had awakened from sleep, hurriedly extinguished the fires in confusion. The fires were merely trash heaps set ablaze throughout the village, so there were no casualties.
While questions arose about what the trash heaps were and why they had caught fire, the real problem lay elsewhere.
The village gardens and vegetable patches had all been ransacked and were in disarray overnight. Moreover, the warehouses that had stored food for the winter were completely empty.
“A, a thief?”
As a natural progression following the sudden incident, the village officials summoned Sharti.
Naturally, the first step was to check the activities of the outsider.
But they couldn’t help but be taken aback.
“…Are you alright?”
Sharti, who was carried in by Ren, had a deathly pale complexion.
Looking closely, she seemed to be curled up and gasping for breath intermittently.
“She will calm down soon.”
Ren responded calmly as her assistant, but his agitation was evident in his grimly set expression.
The village officials exchanged glances and decided to wait until Sharti’s condition improved.
Fortunately, her condition began to improve shortly.
‘I didn’t expect the fire-setting.’
Sharti pressed her hand firmly against her pounding chest, trying to regulate her breathing.
She hadn’t imagined that while Ren was out becoming a thief on her behalf, Ashu would choose to set fires as a method to draw attention.
At least she hadn’t seen the fire directly but only became aware of the fact that there had been a fire, so her panic attack wasn’t severe.
“Doc-Doctor…!”
As soon as they entered the hall, Ashu was standing diagonally across, his face pale blue with concern.
‘He must have heard about my panic attack.’
Ashu also knew about the burn scars on her arms and legs, but he had probably naively thought she would be fine as long as she didn’t see the flames up close.
‘Anyway, it’s gone well according to plan.’
It was an aggressive method that even Sharti would have chosen if not for her trauma.
Above all, with Ren by her side, she could endure the aftereffects of the short panic attack.
Sharti waved her hand slightly to reassure Ashu.
“You may lean back.”
Ren, turning his body to block Ashu’s line of sight, still couldn’t help fidgeting even as he set Sharti down.
Sharti turned her gaze to survey her surroundings.
The village officials were seated in a semicircle, making the scene resemble a small tribunal about to condemn a criminal.
‘Even though I deliberately spent the night with patients, they’ve already decided I’m the culprit.’
Sharti took a calm breath as she faced the officials seated alongside the village chief.
Ren, standing beside her, frowned and muttered.
“They’re really going all out.”
Sharti nudged his side, giving him a look.
At the same time, she subtly took Ren’s hand and positioned him behind her as if to hide him.
‘We should too.’
Sharti clenched and unclenched her slightly trembling hands.
And the interrogation began.
First, the village chief stood up abruptly, widened his eyes, and raised his voice.
“An incident occurred the very next day after outsiders entered the village. Ashu! There are allegations that you were involved!”
Ashu, startled by his father’s loud voice, took a deep breath.
“Unexplained fires broke out in the village, and the livestock disappeared!”
The missing food included livestock.
After discovering broken locks and empty pens, they rushed to the village gate only to find it wide open.
The testimonies of the sleeping gatekeepers were consistent. Ashu had offered them a drink saying they were working hard, and afterward, their memories went blank.
“Ashu, did you really drug the gatekeepers with sleeping medicine after joining forces with the outsiders?!”
“My, my defense is not the priority.”
“You, you brat…!”
His son, who had been gentle and obedient, was now talking back and confronting him with strength in his eyes.
Finally, the village chief, with rising blood pressure, grabbed the back of his neck.
Ashu glanced at Sharti once, then stepped forward to face the anger of the village officials.
“The Doctor has found both the disease spreading in the village and its cure!”
At that moment, all eyes turned toward Sharti.
Sharti inadvertently took a sharp breath amidst the authoritative gazes focused on her.
‘Thankfully I’m wearing a hood.’
It would have been unbearable to face them directly.
Among the officials, a white-haired old man sitting in the center slowly stroked his long white beard.
“You’ve identified the disease?”
As the piercing gaze targeted only Sharti, Ren stepped forward.
“It’s mana poisoning.”
Ren protected Sharti from the invisible blades like a loyal guard dog.
“The blue fluorescent spots that appeared on the patients’ bodies were one of the symptoms of mana poisoning, and the cause of the poisoning has been removed as of today.”
“Then perhaps the disappearance of the food…?”
“All the flowers, grass, fruits, vegetables, and everything else in the village showed mana reactions.”
Ren had memorized the explanation from the notes Sharti had given him.
As Sharti’s assistant, he recited the diagnostic findings without omitting a single detail, devoid of emotion.
“The patients have been consuming mana-contaminated items for an extended period, causing strong mana to accumulate in their bodies until they reached the body’s mana tolerance limit, resulting in illness.”
The mana detector that Sharti had brought reacted to the excessive mana levels accumulated in the patients’ bodies.
‘The mana detector doesn’t react to ordinary people who aren’t mages.’
In other words, ordinary people who weren’t mages had excessive mana stored in their bodies, and the patients had fallen ill because they couldn’t withstand the excessive mana.
If this much mana had been filled in a person’s body, it was highly likely that the patients had been consuming mana like nutrients all along.
[It reacted. Even to pebbles.]
Sure enough, according to Ren’s investigation, the entire village of Ashu was covered in strong mana.
The fact that symptoms were not yet visible in everyone was likely due to differences in individual mana capacity, early stages of poisoning, or incubation periods.
[I couldn’t approach it, but I suspect the village’s water supply is similar.]
The treatment for mana poisoning wasn’t complicated.
By discharging the mana from the body, rapid recovery was possible through nursing and consistent rehabilitation.
However, with the entire village poisoned by mana, large-scale management and support from the magic tower would be necessary.
‘They won’t even accept help from the village at the foot of the mountain, let alone the magic tower?’
Ashu, who was as skeptical as Sharti about the village’s response, participated in the plan to take action first.
There was also hope that they would change when they realized it wasn’t just about the patients but the survival of the entire village.
“I know this should have been discussed first and proceeded through proper channels. I understand the confusion! But we can solve everything at once, both the solution and the treatment. The Doctor advised me! We need to ask for help from outside. Not to receive help one-sidedly, but to exchange under equal conditions…!”
“Ashu! Have you really sided with the outsiders, falling for that doctor’s absurd claims?”
However, not a single person was listening to Ashu’s words.
“What are we going to do now! How dare you touch our food!”
“You dared to commit such an act after being whispered to by outsiders!”
All the village officials shouted in anger, trying to outdo each other.
Their pointing fingers, glaring at Sharti as if they wanted to kill her, were like blades.
As harsh curses continued, Sharti unconsciously pulled at Ren’s clothes.
“…Hah.”
Ren’s eyebrows, which had been furrowed as if he had a headache, twitched.
He firmly held Sharti’s hand.
He was ready to carry her out and kick down the door if necessary.
“Quiet-.”
When Ashu’s grandfather, who had been sitting quietly among the officials, opened his mouth, the commotion in the hall instantly subsided.
At a single gesture from the white-haired old man, everyone sat down again.
“Now I see that ‘witch’ suits you better than ‘doctor’.”
“Grandfather!”
“You came to our village, and instead of treating diseases, you cunningly deceived my grandson and harmed our village.”
The monotone voice was directed at Sharti, who was hiding behind Ren.
Ren clenched his fist.
“Witch?”
Unable to contain himself any longer, Ren tilted his head askew.
A cold sneer naturally flowed out.
His teal eyes, flickering as if about to ignite, swept across the audience.
“Is that something to be said by fools who don’t even know what the problem is?”
“It is you who are forcing choices while ignoring this village’s policies and intentions.”
“Policies? Is it not coercion to insist on keeping one crazy policy and embracing death for all?”
“This is our village’s affair. It’s not for outsiders to meddle in.”
Despite Ren’s cold mockery and sarcasm, the white-haired old man leaned back against his chair without changing his expression.
“If there’s a problem in this village, it’s a problem that one must bear from the moment they chose this village.”
“Grandfather!”
“That is the natural order of things.”
Ren’s face twisted hideously.
What nonsense was this all of a sudden?
Meeting such a deranged group for the first time in his life, heat rose to his head.
“Rather, isn’t it the witch behind you who is threatening and holding people’s lives hostage?”
“…Don’t call my master that way.”
Ren growled, gritting his teeth.
He clenched his fists, emanating an aura as if he might pounce at any moment.
“This is absurd!!”
Ashu pushed aside those blocking his way, ran forward, and shouted.
“More and more people might collapse, and you call that the natural order? Is it the natural order to neglect a treatable disease and let everyone in this village be poisoned and die in agony?! Why? Why should we follow such an unfair natural order regardless of our own will!”
Ashu, who had been indignant and shouting, finally shed tears.
The grandfather before him was not the grandfather he had respected. The officials who once wisely led the village were no longer there.
As Ashu gritted his teeth in shock and betrayal beyond disappointment, a terribly cracked voice resonated throughout the hall, making everyone flinch.
“That’s…”
“Quite a cowardly natural order.”
