Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 247

Fabian nodded quickly when Logan spoke.

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Explain yourself, Fabian. Or you will be punished for insulting the King.”

Fabian’s face twisted when he heard that.

“A priest is judged by God, not by men.”

It seemed Logan was going to break a very old rule. This rule said that even kings could not punish priests. Everyone had promised to respect the temples of the Nine Gods for a very long time.

“That is exactly the problem. His Majesty has no right to force us priests to do anything.”

Logan scoffed.

“I give a lot of money to the temple and ask for help, but the priests go on strike right in front of me? Am I not allowed to do anything about it?”

“If you are not happy with what we do, you can complain to the temple. If we have done wrong, the temple will punish us. Because that is God’s will.”

Fabian smiled confidently as he spoke.

He had a good reason to be confident. There was no mistake in what he said.

No king wanted to make the temple angry. If they went against the temple, or even the gods, most of the people and nobles would turn against the king.

Of course.

“Is that right? Then I will ask the temple about it later.”

Even this powerful king would have to stop…

The sound of metal sliding out of its sheath cut through the air.

Logan moved so fast it was a blur. Golden light flashed from his sword. The tip of the blade stopped right under Fabian’s plump chin.

“After I kill you,” Logan said, his voice low and cold.

The golden light around the sword felt icy, even from a distance. It pressed down on Fabian like a heavy weight.

“Hieeek!” Fabian gasped, unable to move.

Two priests near Fabian fell to the ground, scrambling backwards on their behinds. They screamed for Fabian, their voices high and panicked. Fabian stood frozen, his eyes wide with terror, trapped by the king’s power.

“Aaaargh!”

“S-Save me…!”

The priests had never imagined such a sight.

As the watching priests panicked, the knights beside Logan stopped him.

“Your Majesty, please calm down!”

“Your Majesty, a great disaster will happen if you kill a priest, especially a high-ranking one!”

“Disaster?”

But Logan just scoffed at the knight’s urgent voice, staring at Fabian, whose face had turned white as death.

“There won’t be.”

The knights looked confused as Logan smiled coldly and tapped Fabian’s chin with the tip of his sword.

“High Priest Fabian, tell me. What problems do you think will happen if I kill you? Hmm?”

The look in Fabian’s eyes, which had been full of terror, changed at that question.

As the confusion faded, reason returned.

Fabian’s teeth clicked together in fear.

“The temple will never do nothing, Your Majesty! The McLaine Kingdom will fall apart!”

Anger filled the space where fear had been.

That anger gave Fabian the strength to shout.

But Logan just smirked.

“You think you are more important than you are, Fabian.”

“Only the temple can punish priests, and you are about to break that rule! The price will be very high!”

His angry voice grew stronger as he spoke.

However.

“Indeed. It will be expensive.”

“A high priest… maybe ten million gold?”

“What…!”

“And if I deal with those ten or so junior priests who were striking with you, that will cost about thirty million gold. Very expensive. For such worthless people.”

“That is blasphemy!”

“Let’s bet on what Archbishop Pamiel will do. Will he take money and stay quiet? Or will he try to take over my kingdom, even if it’s not good for him?”

Logan’s red eyes glared at Fabian with an icy look.

When Fabian looked into Logan’s eyes, he thought about his boss, the archbishop. Fabian knew the rumors about the archbishop being greedy were true. His face turned pale again, and he stopped talking.

“I don’t want to waste money, so do your job right, Priest. Understand?”

Golden light tapped Fabian’s cheek.

“If you don’t want to, just say so. I can always give more money and bring in other priests.”

Logan sneered coldly at the trembling Fabian and put his sword away.

“Now, everyone, go back to your jobs quickly! Remember that healing the sick and ending the epidemic is the fastest way to finish this! Especially the priests, no striking!”

His loud voice echoed through the village.

Ilia heard the whole story from the temple knights after she had finished healing the patients and praying to get her holy power back.

“Will you just watch?”

At the words of Timo, a knight of the temple, Ilia quietly shook her head.

“What do you mean?”

“He threatened the priests and told them not to strike, right?”

“Ah….”

“We are here to help people in trouble. And they were striking… I wouldn’t have stopped him even if I was there.”

You could even see anger on Ilia’s face when she spoke.

Timo watched Ilia, impressed. *She really is a true priest,* he thought.

“…I’m not entirely sure about this.”

Logan looked at Russell, who was standing beside him. They exchanged glances before Russell stepped forward.

“I’ve seen the King’s aura touch the priests’ bodies without causing a single scratch several times,” Russell said. “If I remember correctly…”

Russell paused, then exclaimed, “It’s amazing! The aura, the power of destruction, and it doesn’t hurt them! It’s proof that he has perfect control over his aura, which means…”

“…It’s a skill only possible for aura users at the intermediate level or higher.”

“What? I heard he only awakened as a superhuman last year?” someone asked.

“That’s right. That’s what makes it even more astonishing,” came the reply.

“Haa…” Logan sighed.

Ilia and the Temple Knights were even more aware of Logan McLain’s presence. Ilia’s eyes widened slightly, and some of the Temple Knights shifted their weight, looking more respectful.

Henderson, in a tent on one side of the village, watched Logan and gave him a thumbs up. “Amazing, Your Majesty,” he said.

The priests were moving so efficiently, so quick and calm, unlike before. Logan was impressed by how his lord was controlling the arrogant priests in such an unexpected way.

However, the confident way he had acted with the priests was gone now, and his lord was letting out a long sigh of relief.

“…Y-Your Majesty?” Henderson asked, surprised.

“Ten million gold? I don’t have that kind of money even if I were to die. Whew, I’m glad that guy’s a coward. Phew,” Logan said, relieved.

Logan was once again realizing that the pressure from money was far greater than the confidence he felt earlier.

“Henderson, have you ever heard any news about a windfall of money falling from the sky?” Logan asked.

Henderson firmly resolved to take what he had just heard to his grave.

It had been three days since the relief team, including Logan, arrived in Raftan.

Thanks to the priests regaining their senses, no new deaths had occurred among the infected in Raftan who had gathered in one place.

However, even though the number of deaths had not increased, there were few who were completely cured despite the active treatment with divine power. Rather, the number of patients was steadily increasing as new cases from surrounding villages were transported to their village.

“Have you not yet grasped the method of treatment?” Logan asked.

“…I apologize, Your Majesty,” Gilbert, the leader of the healers, said, lowering his head.

“We are checking the symptoms from the early stages of the disease based on what the villagers are saying, but it is still difficult to prescribe anything other than fever medicine. Even that, I’m not sure if they will listen to us…” Gilbert explained.

“You can’t be sure?” Logan asked, his face hardening.

“…Yes,” Gilbert admitted.

The priests were doing their part, even if it was by coercion rather than free will. Now, the healers had to meet expectations.

“So, you’re saying there have been no results at all? Until now?” Logan asked.

“That is not the case,” Gilbert replied.

“Explain,” Logan said simply.

“We don’t know for sure about this sickness yet. But,” Gilbert continued, “we learned about a sickness from the past called Restaboom. It had some of the same signs as this one.”

Logan frowned as Gilbert’s explanation seemed to be getting longer. “Briefly,” Logan urged.

“…It was common for Restaboom to develop more than a week after contact with an infected person. Until then, there were no symptoms,” Gilbert explained.

“No symptoms?” Logan asked.

“Yes. Sicknesses have a time before you see signs, called an incubation period. That was a week for Restaboom,” Gilbert said.

“This is different, then,” Logan observed.

“Yes. It is estimated to be about 3 days,” Gilbert confirmed.

“3 days? That means it’s even more dangerous,” Logan said.

“Ah, that’s not it,” Gilbert corrected.

“…It’s not?” Logan asked, confused.

“A short incubation period means that the number of days until symptoms appear after being infected with the disease is short. It would be an urgent situation for those infected, but from the perspective of the epidemic, it means that if you control it well, you can easily prevent it from spreading widely,” Gilbert explained.

“…Difficult,” Logan muttered.

“To explain it more easily…” Gilbert started.

“No, that’s enough. So, what’s the plan?” Logan interrupted.

“Everyone who has been in contact with patients within 3 days should be considered potential patients and should be controlled like patients. If we do that, we can stop the spread quickly,” Gilbert stated.

There was a clear logic to Gilbert’s words. However, the first reaction to those words was cold disbelief.

“As expected, they’re just fake healers…” a mocking voice was heard among the priests in the tent, who were praying and recovering their divine power.

It was a middle-aged priest with a nervous expression, the same man who had caused trouble with Logan before.

“Fabian!” Bishop Ilia stepped in to stop him.

“Are you talking about that incubation period nonsense again? Disease is a test from God!” Fabian shouted. “It’s not like a coward that hides and then attacks!”

Gilbert answered back quickly. “It is a clearly existing phenomenon. Priest, you must have caught a cold before you became a priest. Just looking at things like colds…”

“Priests don’t catch colds,” Fabian insisted.

“No…” Gilbert stared at the middle-aged priest with a look of disbelief on his face.

“Brother Fabian, they are colleagues who came to help the people. Please stop arguing,” Ilia said.

At Ilia’s words, Fabian clicked his tongue, shook his head, and stepped back.

Even with the bishop’s words, it was still a rude reaction, but Fabian was strictly a priest of Aion, the god of water and agriculture. Since Ilia, from a different sect, had not given an order of directly disobeying an order, there was nothing she could do to control his attitude after she told him to stop.

With that, Ilia sighed and said to Gilbert, “Please continue what you were saying. I apologize for the interruption. Our priests will continue the treatment, so please find another way before we can’t help anymore.”

At Ilia’s words, several priests could not hide their dissatisfied expressions, but unlike Fabian, no one outwardly expressed their inner thoughts.

Looking at them, Gilbert let out a soft sigh and continued. “About the people who have already died from the epidemic…”

“Hmm?” Logan responded.

“Instead of burying the bodies, I would like them to be burned,” Gilbert requested.

At those words, the gazes in the tent turned back to Gilbert.

“Is there a reason why?” Logan asked.

“The healers’ guild works together around the world to share information. And we have defined the cause of diseases that suddenly cause strange sickness signs as ‘tiny things called germs that cause sickness.’ And we think the sickness spreads most from dead bodies,” Gilbert explained.

‘Ah…!’ Unlike the majority who frowned at those words, Logan had a memory that came to mind the moment he heard them.