In the roiling black fire, a group of silhouettes slowly walked out from inside, as if they were walKing through a long twisted passage, even the silhouettes were all stretched long.

The figures walKing out of the door of hell had pointed beaks that were slightly curved downwards, pale exoskeletons that attached on their faces like masks, glass-like eyes, dark wide-brimmed hats, and covered from head to toe in a black robe that looked like it was made of oil-proof cloth. Only bone-like fingers were exposed from the cuffs.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e ir on tr ee bl oo ms. c o m )

The omen birds flew out from the door of hell and landed on the shoulders of these “people”.

“Good evening, gentlemen.”

The Devil was holding a black umbrella with a smile on his face.

He snapped his fingers, and the door of hell closed silently.

“Let’s go, gentlemen, the night banquet will soon be held.”

The Devil continued to hold the black umbrella as he took a step forward, and suddenly appeared in a place far away from the plague ship. Those figures who walked out of the door of hell followed closely behind. After they left, the plague ship was burned to ashes by the black fire.

This group of creatures from the dark world quietly walked into the first village infected by the Black Death.

The Devil stood on a boulder at the entrance of the village, watching the fellows he led from hell disperse into the city with the omen birds.

Just a Lord of “greed and ill-gotten wealth” was still not enough. The door of hell could only open a small gap without causing the punishment descended down from the Law. He couldn’t directly bring an entire army of hell out…..and could only go to such trouble.

The Devil spun the black umbrella, thinking of something that caused his face to show a faint, playful smile. Hell…..what was hell? That was where evil bred, where all the most corrupt and depraved things accumulated. The plague of doom and disaster on earth now was bred everywhere in hell.

In fact, once many kinds of hell creatures came to the human world, they themselves were a large source of plague infection.

There were such fellows in hell, these “people” that had been drawn out of hell by the Devil tonight. They fed on the “plague” and especially preferred plagues that had just broken out——feeling that the plagues that were prevalent in the human world tasted the best. Therefore, at some point, when a plague erupts in the human world, they would come to the human world quietly and take a few fresh bites of plague.

They would appear in some places where the plague was prevalent, and if they eat a lot of the plague, the local epidemic would actually get better.

Occasionally there were a few lucky guys who saw these hell creatures walking through plague infected areas completely unaffected, and remember their classic bird beak mask-like exoskeleton, and black robe with a wide-brimmed hat, so they imitated these characteristics when creating a doctor’s outfit, hoping this attire would have the same effect. [1]

Oh, if according to human terms, then these guys should be called——

Plague doctors.

“Plague doctors.”

The Devil spoke the term aloud, spinning the black umbrella in his hand, a smile on his face as usual.

Interesting.

Humans try to save themselves by studying the creatures of hell, but yet they attribute it to the Holy Lord.

Interesting.

The omen birds flew by, and the “plague doctors” quickly returned to the Devil. The epidemic in such a small village that hadn’t completely broken out seemed to not even be enough to satisfy their appetite.

“Okay, next one.”

The Devil led this group of doctors from hell into the night.

Behind them, the quiet small village didn’t know what kind of disaster they had just been saved from.

………………

Koszoya Port.

As the largest port on the southeast coast and the most prosperous commercial city, the situation at the Koszoya Port was almost a microcosm of the entire southeast coastal cities.

“Over there, over there! Stop! Is it aligned?”

Every strand of hair was neatly combed, buttons were buttoned up to the last one, and the sleeves were carefully folded up to the same height. Mr. Architect was holding the drawings in his hand, frowning as he directed the sailors who were newly organized as “City Cleaners Team No. 1” in washing the streets and then laying the dredging pipes made of pottery.

Mr. Architect, whose life criterion included “obsessive-compulsive disorder” and “obsession with cleanliness”, had not loosened his brows since he was banished by the King to Koszoya Port.

He practically wanted nothing more than to use all the water from the sea to wash the entire city inside and out.

This messy and dirty city, this unscientific canal, this sewage that had already flowed onto the streets and pavements…..Mr. Architect wantd to commit suicide.

There was nothing more terrifying than the commander of the construction team being a mental patient with an obsessive-compulsive disorder in addition to a sanitation disorder.

“Okay, over there! Wash it again! There is still rubbish there! Clean it up!”

Mr. Architect shouted loudly.

The members of the “City Cleaning Team” in Koszoya City came from sailors and crew members who had lost their jobs due to the blockade order.

Once the blockade order was issued, even the merchants themselves could not guarantee that he would not go completely bankrupt, let alone keep these useless sailors and crew members on payroll. So many people lost their jobs overnight and no longer had a source of income.

This situation was not uncommon in this era.

When a protracted war ended and a period of peace arrived, the sailors of the maritime countries participating in the war would lose their jobs in large numbers. Under normal circumstances, many sailors would become pirates, but now they didn’t even have the chance to become pirates.

So the King set up working groups for these unemployed sailors in various cities.

The unemployed sailors would be audited by the heads of the royal navy in various ports, and those outstanding sailors with rich experience and good psychological qualities would be absorbed into the King’s naval fleet. The rest of the sailors were then organized as best as they could to form a city cleanup team.

Right now, the Port of Koszoya.

Thanks to the efforts of these reemployed sailors, the sewage discharge system of Koszoya was spreading out like a spider web little by little. In addition to the sailors, the citizens were also required by city officials to clean up the environment near their homes——but to be honest, this part had limited effects.

The customs blockade order had made many people feel uneasy. These days, there had been constant attempts to violate the blockade order.

In this kind of situation, one could not expect citizens to actively participate in environmental cleanup.

The Iron Rose Army led by General Sheehan had a new name these days——Bloody Rose. The name referred to the Bloody Tyrant of the Rose family.

It was useless to plead, and it was useless to resist violently. The King and his soldiers had hearts of stone.

General Sheehan immersed his hands in the icy water.

His hands were now clean, but he always felt that there was a lingering smell of blood on his hands.

Baron Sheehan couldn’t forget that day when he stood on the pier, facing a sailor who was struggling to climb up from the icy waters. There was a sailor who was in ragged clothes and was so skinny he looked like a handful of bones. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, and the sword was as heavy as a thousand bars of gold.

A blade of light flashed by on his side.

General Sheehan turned his head suddenly and saw Captain Hawkins with a black slanted hat standing behind him, a piece of grass chewed in between his teeth. His hand holding the sword was surprisingly steady, and the poor sailor fell slowly into the waters, the blood spreading quickly.

“Even if only one of these people manage to survive. More people will die tomorrow. Your sympathy will only kill more people.”

Captain Hawkins was rarely sober.

General Sheehan was greatly shocked. After his sword was silently nabbed and used by Captain Hawkins that day, he once again felt the unfathomable depth of this crazy pirate captain. The sea breeze blew at the messy hair of the pirate captain as he looked out at the sea with eyes that seemed to also conceal a piece of the sea.

After all, he was a figure who had become a legend on the sea. This pirate captain who was always drunk was also a character with a lot of past.

“Aiyayaya, but an aristocratic lord after all.”

Just as General Sheehan’s respect for the pirate captain rose, the other turned around and grinned, his tone as offensive as always.

“Even at this time, you can’t even pull out your sword, aiyayaya~”

General Sheehan drew out his sword expressionlessly and slashed diagonally past the side of the pirate Captain Hawkins. The corpse of another sailor who climbed up fell back to the sea.

The splashing sound of water.

Splashing.

General Sheehaeln took his hand out of the basin, and the cold water dripped downwards.

He thought of what the Duke of Buckingham said before he set off.

Even if he released only one person, it would stimulate more people and make them feel that the blockade order had a degree of flexibility. At that time, the lighter result would be that he would have to kill more unarmed offenders, but the more serious one would be the people taking the blockade order lightly, which would lead to the total collapse of the sea blockade.

Only at the beginning when the order was carried out with no sympathy and no forgiveness, could they establish authority and save the entire Southeast.

This was a truth that anyone could understand.

But every time he swung the sword, General Sheehan felt that the layer of blood covering his hands became even thicker.

General Sheehan grabbed the cloth and wiped his hands.

Gradually, he slowed down and eventually stopped in his movements.

He just killed a few innocent people, and he already felt that his hands were bloody and his soul was getting heavier and heavier. Then what about the King? What about the King who signed his name on all the writs?

The blood of so many innocent people…..At the moment when his name was signed, how did the King himself feel?

Did the King also feel that his robe was dripping with blood at all times?

If a person lived under a bloody and heavy burden all the time, what condition would their heart be in?

General Sheehan recalled the several meetings he had with the King.

The silver-haired and blue-eyed monarch sat on his throne, his whole person exuding all the glory and majesty, with the gorgeous but cold and heavy crown tightly binding his temples.

General Sheehan threw away the hand cloth, grabbed the sword placed aside, and strode out of the room.

Several chambers of commerce organized a petition group to sit in front of the municipal government in protest.

The Black Death had not yet appeared on the east bank of the Abyss Strait. They could not see its terrible shadow, but they could see their goods piled up in warehouses——especially merchants in the export trade of agricultural products. And on the other hand, although the city officials had tried their best to organize the unemployed sailors in accordance with the King’s order, after all, the city government’s economic income was limited and the number that could be recruited was limited.

The negative impact of the blockade of the sea was unavoidable.

The clamor was noisy.

“I am the Iron Rose Cavalry’s first general.”

Before stepping out of the room, General Sheehan said to himself.

The Iron Rose Cavalry, the King’s first iron cavalry.

Only loyal to the will of the King.

………

Same year and same month.

The other side of the Abyss Strait.

A situation that was completely different from Legrand’s sea blockade and rigorous vigilance. Merchant ships were still traveling on the sea and between ports. They did not notice that the Black Death originating in the Hopeless Inland Sea was quietly approaching.

The Kingdom of Bressi, southwest coast, Port Aville.

This was considered to be a large port on the southwest coast of the Kingdom of Bressi, and a port very close to the Hopeless Inland Sea going out of the Claud Strait. Merchant ships from the Kingdom of Ayr had just finished trading gold along the coastline, and part of the ships took the route that passed by here.

On this day, the port of Aville had been as usual, with ships coming and going.

While business was as usual, a ship that drifted with the waves eventually became stranded on the beach. There was also another ship that arrived at the dock. A sailor jumped from the ship in panic.

“Help me!”

He grabbed at his clothes, running towards the people on the dock and stretching out his hand to call for help.

He just ran a few steps when he staggered and fell to the ground.

The sailors nearby gathered over in astonishment. A daring one reached out and turned the man over. As soon as he was turned over, the people cried out in exclamation and suddenly cleared a large empty space——the outstretched hand of the sailor who had jumped out of the ship was covered in pustules.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e ir on tr ee bl oo ms. c o m )

The cold wind blew the sails of the two merchant ships fiercely.

The Black Death that Legrand had been waiting for had begun to spread and explode in these countries on the other side of the coast.

The second disaster had come.

AN: [1] The plague doctor is very famous. In the Middle Ages, people invented bird beak masks, large brimmed hats, and waxed robes, a protective device against the Black Death.

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