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I suddenly remembered. That treasure we once took from the Baire Pirates… the unique and extravagant goblet Nereus gave me, it had belonged to the Kingdom of Laos.
It had been found right alongside the Laos princess’s necklace, so there was no doubt.
But never in my life had I imagined I’d actually set foot in the kingdom itself.
Why on earth did the people smuggling goods in the Tenus territory have the Eternal Compass from here?
While everyone was murmuring in confusion, Nereus’s booming voice rang out.
"Form into groups! We’ll split into four, three teams will search different areas, and one team will remain on the ship!"
Of course, I was assigned to the group that stayed behind.
‘I want to look around, though…’
But Nancy and Ethan, who were also staying, seemed determined not to let me go anywhere.
Well, considering how many incidents I’d caused so far, it wasn’t surprising they weren’t eager to let me wander off.
Still, didn’t I always manage to clean up my own messes in the end?
That rebellious little thought crept into my mind, but I knew perfectly well they weren’t the type to be swayed by such words.
The injuries from back then hadn’t even left scars anymore, yet these adults still insisted on being ridiculously overprotective.
"Hm…"
Ethan, standing beside me, let out a thoughtful hum, as if something was troubling him.
"Teacher Ethan, what’s wrong?"
"Oh, it’s about the next lesson I said we’d cover."
"It was ancient diseases, right?"
"Yes, that’s right."
Conveniently, the Kingdom of Laos had been destroyed by a mysterious disease.
And to this day, the cause had never been clearly identified.
Well, there hadn’t really been a need, there wasn’t a single infected person left alive.
And so, Laos had been forgotten.
It had been located in an already hard-to-reach sea, so erasing it from memory hadn’t taken long.
Who would have thought the Eternal Compass would end up out in the world like this?
What had their goal been?
When exactly had the Eternal Compass come into their possession?
No point in dwelling on it now, it’s not like I’ll find the answer by thinking about it.
The only curiosity I needed to resolve right now was: Why did they, of all people, have the Eternal Compass of the Laos Kingdom?
I’ll know when the search teams return.
"Well then, why don’t we start preparing a meal with the people we have left?"
Nancy spoke cheerfully.
When she said "the people we have left," that was really just the three of us, and since I was a child, I wasn’t much help in the cooking department.
Still, Gilbert had already prepared most of the work, so the task wasn’t hard.
A huge pot of cream stew was already bubbling away, and all we had to do was bake the fermented bread dough and prepare some simple side dishes.
Once the bread was stacked high and a salad of salted meat and fresh green vegetables was complete, the search teams finally returned from their exploration.
Since this was our first exploration, I thought we might at least have something noteworthy to discuss…
"There’s nothing."
"Huh?"
"Same for you, First Mate? Nothing where we went either, sir."
"What?"
"Just a few traces that people had passed through. But no signs of anyone staying long. We combed through the place thoroughly too."
At the dinner table, as everyone gathered to share their findings, the verdict was the same, nothing.
"Anyone find treasure?"
"Not really. Other than the gold at the entrance, I didn’t see anything. Honestly, it might be better to just scrape all that off when we leave."
Even that alone would be a huge haul.
I almost nodded in agreement, but instead, I popped a large chunk of carrot into my mouth and swallowed it whole.
"Well, there are a lot of empty houses, so instead of sleeping on the ship or camping out, it might be better to use them."
When Nereus suggested that, everyone seemed to agree.
It’s true. If we’re going to strip all that gold, it’s going to take quite a while anyway.
I didn’t have any reason to disagree. And now that we were sure there were no real dangers here, I’d be free to move around as I liked.
***
The gold harvesting went on for several days. Since I didn’t have any particular job assigned to me, I split my time between lessons with Ethan, exchanging letters with Hyperion, and exploring the empty island.
In truth, my lessons with Ethan were getting shorter and shorter lately, he’d been feeling tired more often these days.
The quiet forest felt strangely… alien. It wasn’t like the Black Forest; this was a different kind of wrongness.
[The execution date for the Baire Pirates has been set, so they’re being moved to another naval base… (omitted) …and this time, I’m going on my first official deployment as a navy sailor. I’ll do my best.]
I was reading Hyperion’s letter right there in the middle of the forest. Not a single animal stirred in the dense undergrowth.
His first mission already, huh? He’s grown so much.
He wasn’t an admiral yet, so he’d probably be doing support work, but still, his growth was remarkable.
He’s always been so soft-hearted, so I thought adapting to naval training would be hard for him. I’m proud of him.
I should make some nutritional supplements to send him soon.
There was also a letter from Steve, telling me his younger sibling’s illness was finally improving.
And since I’d already registered the formula for the Maddie disease cure, that meant a steady stream of money would be coming in as well.
More money was always welcome, but right now, what really bothered me was how nothing, absolutely nothing, was happening here.
It was too quiet.
Suspiciously quiet.
Wait a second.
The forest was silent.
Normally, on an uninhabited island, other living creatures would take over in the absence of humans. At first, you might think it’s convenient, no predators, but this… this was truly strange.
A forest where you could barely even hear the sound of insects… there was no way this was normal.
A wave of unease swept over me, and I immediately crouched down on the dirt, digging into the soil near the base of a tree.
When a small pebble got caught under my fingernail, I grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it down hard to break the clump apart.
The buried roots came into view.
I tore off a small piece and popped it into my mouth. Chewing slowly, a faint sharpness and sweetness spread across my tongue.
It was the signature taste of Devoir mint.
Despite the name "mint," Devoir mint wasn’t a leafy herb, it was a tree.
In fact, Devoir mint could be considered an ancestor species to several kinds of trees. The reason lay in its unique properties.
Plants crossbred with Devoir mint were highly resistant to contamination.
While it couldn’t be crossed with every plant, the smaller the island nation, the more likely its trees had been hybridized with Devoir mint.
And another characteristic of these hybrid trees was that their roots carried that sharp, mint-like flavor.
Sweetness, however, was not normal.
It only appeared if contamination was present.
This island is contaminated.
The contamination was coming directly from the tree roots, meaning either the soil or the water source was polluted.
And for the past several days, we had been using the Laos Kingdom’s water supply.
But if there had been something wrong with the water, my body would’ve reacted first.
I scooped some soil into a small vial to take with me.
When I returned, Ethan greeted me with a weary face.
"Polaris, I’m sorry, but I’m feeling tired today. Could we skip the lesson?"
"Of course. Teacher Ethan, you don’t look well at all, get some rest."
It was just as well, since I had something to investigate anyway.
I portioned out small amounts of the soil I’d collected and added them to various reagents.
But even after a long wait, there was no visible reaction.
"…Why?"
Was it just my imagination?
Maybe one of the other subspecies of trees crossbred with Devoir mint could have a naturally sweet taste.
I tilted my head, considering the thought, when a commotion broke out outside.
"Ethan!"
"Hey, Doctor Ethan! Wake up! Hey!"
"…!"
I hurried outside to find Ethan, his face pale, collapsed on the ground.
"Everyone, back away!"
I shouted at the crowd rushing toward him. But no one seemed to hear me; no one moved.
"Hey! Our ship’s assistant medic is telling you to step back! Move!"
Nereus’s bellow finally got through, scattering the onlookers. I rushed straight to Ethan’s side to check his condition.
"What if it’s contagious? Should you really be getting that close?"
"It can’t be an infectious disease."
I muttered as I carefully examined him.
"For the past several days since arriving on Laos Island, I’ve been the one who’s spent the most time with Ethan. He’s shown no signs of illness on the ship, so whatever this is, it started after we got here. If it were contagious, I’d be showing symptoms too."
His lips had lost their color, and the hue of his irises had dulled.
He was still faintly conscious but unable to move.
There were many possible illnesses that could cause this.
The only notable feature is that the base of his fingernails has turned black.
"For now, I’ll have to prescribe nutritional supplements. Until I know exactly what this is, I can’t just start treatment blindly."
Given his age, giving him random medications could cause dangerous side effects, possibly even kill him.
For now, the best I could do was administer supplements and wait, hoping his condition would stabilize.
Maybe he felt something was wrong earlier but chose not to say anything…
Now that I thought about it, Ethan had just said he was tired earlier.
Normally, he wouldn’t even mention it unless he was exhausted to the extreme.
That fatigue itself was proof.
"…Dad, have you been feeling tired lately?"
"Hm? Well, maybe a little? I figured it was just from wandering around while the others were mining gold."
But I knew full well that Nereus wasn’t the kind of man to be worn out from a simple stroll around the island.
"We need to have everyone on the Caelum drink water brewed with Devoir mint and Kacho leaf. It might not act as an antidote, but it’ll at least serve as a tonic."
"Gather everyone who’s feeling tired right now."
***
It turned out to be almost everyone.
No one else’s eyes were as clouded as Ethan’s, but many said they’d been feeling increasingly fatigued and sluggish over the past few days.
Some even had a faint darkening at the base of their fingernails.
The only ones unaffected were Nancy, Dahlia, and me.
Dahlia was a female pirate who spent most of her time with Nancy, unlike Nancy’s boisterous nature, she was quiet and reserved.
Under different circumstances, she would have been one of those claimed by White Rot.*
Hmm…
Was there something in common between the three of us? I tilted my head, but no obvious answer came to mind.
What was certain, though, was that the source of this illness affecting the crew of the Caelum was here on this island.
And the three of us would have to find it.
Wait…
I remembered the note Hyperion had sent me.
The Baire Pirates!
The first thing to check was whether they had shown the same symptoms.
🍓; *Here, 'claimed by' is a figurative way of saying taken away by or killed by the disease. It’s often used in literary writing when talking about an illness, disaster, or fate taking lives.
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