Episode 86 Illiad (2)
After a long sacrifice, Ahheman came down to the altar.
My whole body was drenched in sweat because I had been offering sacrifices non-stop for the past few days.
Eventually, Ahheman came down to the altar and smiled when he saw that the whole village was quiet.
‘……At this point, everyone must have contracted the plague.’
In fact, he knew in advance that the Red Death would be rampant in Balak.
It’s strange not knowing. This is because Ahheman himself was the one who helped Leviathan, a famous poisoner, solve the red death in the jungle.
In fact, he had been in contact with the outside world for quite some time.
It is a type of helping the Leviathan family conduct clinical trials of new medicines or divine celibacy targeting natives who know nothing about it, or encouraging and assisting the bourgeois family to take profit through unfair trade.
In exchange for secretly supplying natives for Ahheman’s experiments on human bodies, the Leviathan family would insinuate him with new poisons or new medicines, which soon led to the establishment of the authority of shamans.
For example, secretly releasing poison to poison the target, releasing the medicine he had and treating the target through work such as gaining trust.
Give me a bottle, give me medicine.
If there was someone who did not obey his words, he secretly released poison to poison him and made him lie down.
Then, not only the addicted patient but also his friends and family will be immersed in misery.
It was only natural in the atmosphere of Ballack that they were close to each other.
When it seemed that the patient’s life was at stake, Ahheman only stepped forward.
He and his family and friends all become ardent worshipers of Ahheman when he releases the medicine he has and cures the patient with a plausible sacrifice.
They would bow their heads in front of the shaman’s authority.
Lately, he felt that the shaman’s authority was gradually declining, and he was still feeling a sense of crisis.
The younger ones, including Iyen, the chief’s daughter, had never been sick or poisoned, so they did not know how to respect the shaman’s authority.
It became even worse after the arrival of the stranger, an empire that he had not liked at all a while ago.
The younger ones did not receive various blessings from the shaman and went hunting without permission, and all other rituals were treated as unnecessary old customs or superstitions.
Then, the proposal from the Leviathan family was indeed tempting.
‘I’m thinking of doing a large-scale pestilence experiment in the flood.’
Ahheman swallowed dry saliva at the words of the Leviathan lion, who covered his entire body with a black mantle.
The messenger of Leviathan gave Ahheman the pathogen of the Red Plague and its antidote.
Spread the plague at the right time and detoxify it at the right time.
Through this clinical trial, Leviathan plotted a scheme to control the population of natives in floodwaters and accumulate clinical pathological data to open up a new frontier.
By actively cooperating with this, Ahheman tried to raise the authority of the fallen shaman.
So, without anyone noticing, he poured red death into the river and drove countless people to their limbs.
By now, everyone should be suffering from the plague and wandering between death and death, so now he will make a splendid appearance, release the antidote to calm the situation, and enjoy authority comparable to that of a chieftain.
The arrogant youngsters who had looked down on him must now also look with respect and awe.
‘……I’m relieved that I’ve infected my granddaughter in case of suspicion.’
In order to avoid suspicion that he deliberately released the poison and staged a self-play, even his own granddaughter was made into a plague patient, so everything was perfect.
This was Ahhemman’s idea.
……but?
After walking all the way to the center of the village, Ahheman could only tilt his head.
The village is too quiet to pass by.
The sick and their family and friends are naturally weak-minded and will look for a place to lean on.
He must be putting all his hopes on himself as he performs the ancestral rite, but no one comes out to meet him.
‘Are these all gone already?’
Ahhemman frowned. Could it be that the plague was stronger than expected and all the Balaks died?
Then it’s difficult. You should only be sick right before you die in moderation. First of all, you have to be alive to become a follower.
Ahhemman strapped a sack containing the Leviathan-made antidote to his side and quickly ran across the town square.
However, the surrounding barracks were all empty.
Only the frog cries noisily in the drained floor puddle.
at that time.
Ahhemman stood still in place.
A cloud of smoke was rising from a corner of the village.
And all the faces he knows are seen gathered there.
Everyone in Balak was all gathered in one place.
Laughing and chatting pleasantly, while eating a generous portion of meat.
“???”
Ahhemman opened his mouth wide.
how? How are they so fine? I’m sure you saw that you were caught in the red death before entering the ritual?
Ahhemman rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, but that didn’t change anything.
Even the woman stirring the boiling soup with a ladle in the pot in front of her is her granddaughter Ahul!
Seeing that the granddaughter is getting well soon, Ahhemman’s mouth opens even more.
Ahhemman turned his back on the unbelievable reality.
He ran for a month and crossed the border of the village to the water source. It is the same riverside where he solved the red death.
“…… Heh heh!”
He ran like the wind and arrived at the water source in the blink of an eye, and he was shocked once again.
Clear water still flows in the water source, which should have been contaminated by the red death.
The carp that climbs up the white salt sandbar waterfall is also the same.
Monkeys infected with red death, who should have died, were playing in the trees, and children from other tribes who came to catch carp also seemed healthy.
There was no aura of death anywhere.
“It’s nonsense! How…!?”
Ahhemman tore his hair.
That moment.
“Why are you surprised that more people are alive than you thought?”
There was one sting that pierced Ahheman’s lungs deeply.
Ahhemman turned his head in surprise.
Then a boy appeared behind him.
Bikir. He was shining red eyes at Ahhem.
* * *
Meanwhile.
Bikir led all of Balak’s warriors, including Iyen and Ahhun, and was hiding here.
Ayen remembered clearly what Bikir had told everyone.
‘Ahheman will check the condition of the villagers as soon as the ritual is over, and he will jump right here in surprise at the fact that their illness has been completely cured.’
because? Because he is the culprit who spread the red death throughout the jungle.
Bikir had heard of Ahhemman’s atrocities before returning.
He couldn’t remember the name of Ahheman, but at least the fact that there was an informer in Balak that spread the red death, and that the informant was an old man in the position of a shaman was clear in his memory.
‘At that time half of the natives of Red and Black Mountain died.’
Ahheman waited for the moment when the plague was most prevalent in order to satisfy his greed.
He planned to appear just in time and become the savior of the entire jungle.
But Ahheman missed the time.
The plague spread out of control and out of control, and most of the patients died one after another because of it.
The catastrophe that occurred from then on was terrible enough to be recorded in the history of the empire.
Those who perished in the machinations of the vested interests were only powerless and weak civilians.
Although the proper use of poison and medicine is the means of dominion of a shaman, Ahheman crossed the line. It’s been a while too.
“……What?”
Ahheman glared at Bikir with wary eyes, but did not take any action.
Because all of Balak’s warriors were already surrounding him.
Everyone, young and old, was glaring at Ahhem. with very cruel eyes.
Ahheman, who expected everyone’s respectful eyes, was going crazy and jumping.
‘How did these cure the plague?’
Ahheman was greatly perplexed by the incomprehensible situation.
at that time.
Someone appeared in front of Ahheman.
Upon checking his face, Ahheman’s face turned white.
Balak’s chief ‘Night Fox’. Aquila was looking down at Ahheman with fierce eyes.
She was holding a piece of paper in her hand, which was an official document she had personally obtained from the Empire last night.
“The holy family, Quo Vadis, declared a holy war against Leviathan, an extremely poisonous person. In the name of artificially developing and distributing a plague called ‘Red Death’. This is a statement demanding the truth of the Red Death situation.”
“Is that so? But why did you do that to me…?”
“Shaman. Don’t you think it’s strange? Why did the plague that the Leviathan family was researching spread here in the sea?”
“It’s something I don’t know. I just came out of the altar after holding a sacrifice for the recovery of the tribe members…”
Then Aquila raised her hand and cut off Ahheman’s words.
And after exchanging glances with Bikir next to him, he opened his mouth.
“I don’t need them all. I want to see what’s in the sack at your waist.”
