Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 306 - 104: Collecting Plague

"The medicine was there," the innkeeper said with a bitter smile, "it just arrived too late."

"Before the medicine could even arrive, the epidemic was already out of control. The officials had no choice but to clear an area near the city walls, designating it as a strictly isolated quarantine zone, and arrested anyone found in public areas who was infected."

"Very soon, the order in the quarantine zone collapsed completely. It was said that the zone was filled with desperate rioters and hopeless infected people; everyone spoke of it with horror. Even after the medicine arrived, no one dared to enter the quarantine zone to distribute it. The city guards could only climb up to the walls and regularly throw down medicine and food supplies, letting those inside the zone fight over them."

"How could the epidemic be controlled like that? It’s like having a bunch of time bombs inside the quarantine area, living a life neither alive nor dead. Moreover, every day there are people sneaking out..."

"Sneaking out?" Thira asked, "How do they sneak out?"

"There are many ways," said the innkeeper. "Mostly by digging tunnels, which are hard to guard against. Sometimes at night, the infected slip out, find weak spots in the quarantine line patrols, and slit the guards’ throats from behind."

"After these people come out, they usually rob houses, stealing food and medicine and killing the homeowners to take over the houses. However, most of them are heavily infected themselves, thus they bring the plague out and when they die in the houses eventually, if discovered slowly, the neighbors suffer the consequences. Many who realize they are infected dare not speak up for fear of being sent to the quarantine zone, resulting in further spread of the disease to nearby people..."

"Alas, Count is too indecisive and ineffectual in handling matters. If it were up to me, I would say either kill all the infected in the quarantine zone or organize a suicide squad to deliver the medicine and control the epidemic. There’s no sense in this half-hearted approach, don’t you think?"

Eleanor’s face turned somewhat pale. Although she had not seen it herself, just hearing the innkeeper’s description was enough to imagine the horrific state of human hell inside the quarantine zone.

"Indeed," Medea deliberately showed a deeply sympathetic expression. "But it must be tough for Count too, right? After all, he has to deal with invasions from neighboring dukedoms during such times..."

"Pah!" As soon as someone defended the Count, the innkeeper was quick to retort dismissively, "Why do you think the epidemic hasn’t been controlled yet? It’s because a large number of people were called up to defend the border! This has caused a severe shortage of personnel in the city, leading to this superficial solution of a quarantine zone!"

"Not to mention, dragging people out of their homes in the dead of night to conscript them into the army..." He suddenly realized he had misspoken and quickly, impatiently, urged while covering up, "Are you folks planning to stay or just eat?"

Having gathered enough information from the innkeeper, Medea was about to smile and say no need when she heard Aske say from behind:

"Let’s stay, book a room first."

"A room?" The innkeeper looked at the group of ladies behind him, his face inadvertently showing a look of admiration as if he were looking at a hero, and said with a forced laugh:

"Alright, one large bed room. Do you need any mood-enhancing props? We have miraculous oils from the East..."

"No need," Aske interrupted him.

The innkeeper, truly impressed by such a formidable man, couldn’t help but worry about the man’s vitality.

After receiving the room rent, the innkeeper led the group to the largest room upstairs, courteously saying:

"There’s water in the room, boiled and then cooled, absolutely safe. Our inn serves lunch and dinner in the basement. If you go out, you can take masks from the rooms. Also, the walls have great soundproofing so don’t worry about that."

With that, the innkeeper left and even closed the door behind him. The girls seemed a bit embarrassed.

Usually, everyone would book one room when going out because with Fire Island, there was no worry about not having enough beds, and booking more rooms seemed like a waste of money.

Thus, being misunderstood was commonplace; they usually took it as a joke, and after people left, they would humorously discuss who was the legitimate wife, whether Hood was Aske’s son with someone, and whether Mia and Miel were daughters or lovers, and so on.

It’s just that at some point, such jokes became less and less frequent, and now everyone was tight-lipped as if the boss hadn’t said anything just now.

"Ahem, that," Nora coughed, speaking unnaturally, "I’m going back first, the flowers and plants haven’t been watered yet."

"I’m going to analyze those three traits," Medea said with a smile.

"I need to practice Martial Arts with Eleanor, right Eleanor?" Even Sigrdrifa, normally dim-witted, showed a rare look of guilt.

"Ah? Yes, that’s right," Eleanor was a bit slow to respond.

In an instant, more than half of them had left, leaving only four underage girls looking at each other.

Hmph, they’re all guilty as hell, better they leave. Peggy thought somewhat smugly, then turned her wary gaze toward Thira.

Miel and Mia are both too young, the Squad Leader surely wouldn’t take notice. My only rival is you, Theodora!

"Aske, are you thinking of entering the Quarantine Zone?" Thira asked, but her gaze kept drifting toward Peggy.

This girl is still so sharp... Aske coughed and said,

"Yes."

"As is well-known, the Extraordinary Sequence is ever-changing, and the various Abilities all have corresponding effects, limitations, and prerequisites."

"Among them, Plague, Toxin, and Alchemy Sequences draw their power from the creativity they enable. They don’t bring about immediate drastic changes in strength for the Transcendent, but they possess the potential for creative enhancement."

Was that a description of my Extraordinary Ability? Peggy had begun to doubt.

Currently, her combat style was mainly focused on Body Technique and swordsmanship, dashing behind the enemy at high speed and finishing the job with one strike. If the enemy was tough and couldn’t be dealt with in one strike, then she’d use the Undead Illusion Sword to create five illusions that would rapidly attack, landing multiple strikes.

Life Stealing, toxins, Plague Ability, these weren’t often used anymore because the enemies wouldn’t last long enough. Why spend more time when enemies could be instantly killed?

But as long as Aske thought it was the right approach, that was fine. So Peggy, putting on an obedient expression, continued to listen to Aske’s analysis:

"In the future, we might encounter much stronger enemies. Take, for example, the last Lord of Filth, Lv.19—pretty strong, right? We still surrounded and killed him. Peggy, if you were in that position, what would you do?" freёnovelkiss.com

"The Squad Leader would absolutely not let me be trapped in such a situation," Peggy confidently responded.

"That’s true, but I’m not omnipotent," Aske reluctantly said, "Well, at least consider the possibility."

"What the Squad Leader means is, there’s one in ten thousand chance we’ll face danger, and in the other nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine cases, he’ll have our backs!" Mia and Miel started to chatter.

"Off you go." Aske sent the two mischievous beings off to Fire Island and then continued, "Peggy, the greatest lethality of the Plague Sequence lies in collecting more powerful plagues. The strength of your Plague makes a world of difference on the battlefield. The Plague Bacteria left by that Lord of Filth is the first disease you should master."

"Plague is caused by Plague Bacteria and is subject to mutation. Even the same bacteria can differ from one host to another, with varying degrees of toxicity and infectiousness."

"Currently, you only possess Plague I, and cannot autonomously improve the genetic material of pathogens in your body, so this time, we aim to collect the strongest Plague Bacteria from the environment."

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