Dual Life～in day with the Hero party, in night with the Demon king Army～

While Astarte and Rafa were squabbling with each other, Mirage accompanied by Robert, arrived at the innermost building in the Village.

「That building is the meeting hall. I heard they made this referencing from a building called Tera in the east, but nobody saw the real thing, so I don't know how true it is. It hasn’t changed much as it has continuously been repaired over the years by the carpenters from old days. 」

「ho, it does have a very solemn atmosphere. 」

A huge wooden building that overwhelmed the spectators, and asserted its presence.

Mirage recalled from the contents of the book he had read before, that Tera is building with strong religious elements in the east.

「I never dreamed that it would be used to isolate sick people. 」

Said Robert to Mirage with a bitter smile.

By the time they reached there, Mirage got a rough idea from Robert and knew the genral situation of the wolf demons.

The whole Wolf Demon Tribe is divided in to four villages inside the forest namely east, west, south and north, and each of which has about 100 inhabitants.

Approximately two months ago before the onset of black skin disease, the demons living in the eastern village complained of a sickness, and then the sickness began to appear in rapid succession in the remaining west, south, and north village.

The common trait was that, after the dark patch appeared on their skin, they successively became weak and then after that without exception all of them died, some died in as short as one week, while the other held on for a month before dying.

In about a month about 40 people had died, approximately 10% of the village population and more than 100 people had contracted the disease by that time, leaving less than 70% of the villager’s safe from the disease.

Although, the doctors tried various methods, they could not find any cure, and the representative of each village’s had discussion day and night with the Tribe Chief and Robert to think of a solution.

The two ideas that came out of that of that discussion, were asking for help from the Demon King’s Army, whom they had been enemy with for a long time, and the other one was to isolating the infected villagers and setting fire to them.

It is a common knowledge among the Wolf Demons that the Pathogens are weak towards heat and if there was no treatment found, that was the only way to prevent the damage to the whole tribe, which the representative from north, east and west village agreed upon.

Even though he was the Tribe chief, there was nothing he could do after the representative of the three-village agreed to it, and so the infected people were gathered at the meeting hall in the southern village, but in the end, plan was not carried out.

Because, then those in support i.e. representatives of the three villages, the Tribe Chief and then the next candidate for the tribe chief, Robert, began to show the symptoms of being infected, and carrying out the plan would result in losing all the key members of the Wolf Demon Tribe, which would mean the future of the tribe will be destroyed anyway.

In the end they were forced to the other option of going to Demon King’s army for help and so they sent out a messenger, which resulted in the present situation.

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Meanwhile, in order to prevent the spread of the infection, they continued to gather the infected people in the southern village, but even then, the number of new cases continued to increase every day and now at present there are about 200 people suffering from the disease.

The total death count has exceeded 160 and only a little less than fifty villagers were still safe.

The figure that 40 percent of the villagers died in just 2 months, while 90 percent of the population was infected and the mortality rate was 100 percent in the first month after it’s onset, shows how deadly the disease is.

It is no wonder that the cornered Wolf Demon where so reckless as to drag Mirage’s group in this.

And also, if they had reported about the disease honestly, there was a possibility that the whole forest would have been burnt to prevent the spread of the disease to the Demon King’s Army, but even if they let them be, they would surely have died.

And they also understood that, there was a chance that their village would be destroyed on the spot when the other party got to know about their deception just like Rafa was going to do in rage, yet they had no choice but to cling to a little possibility.

「 It is a good idea to isolate them, but if you don’t eliminate the original source of the infection, you will not be able to stop it from spreading. Even so, for Robert-San to be able to move even after being infected for three weeks. To be honest, I am really surprised. 」

「My daughter has also been infected, so I can’t die peacefully now. My Father died this morning because of his old age, even though he developed the disease later than me, but I can’t until my daughter is saved. I really want to say something cool things like I am holding on for my people as their Chief, but to be honest I feel that it’s for my daughter. Well, I suppose you can look down on me for that. 」

「...... I'm not going to look down on you. It’s also very cool to hold on for your child. At least I think it deserves respect. Although your method was certainly not praise able, but your desire to risk your life for it was properly conveyed. Don’t worry Robert-San, your daughter, and all of the Wolf Demons will definitely be cured. 」

Mirage and Robert continued their conversation as they walked through the hallway of the Meeting hall.

Hearing about Robert’s daughter, added one more to the reasons for Mirage who had lost his father at a very young age to save them.

Although the situation was different from his at that time, Mirage resolved in his mind that he will not let the child see her father die in front of her eyes.

In order to not repeat the same tragedy all over again, he still remains in the Demon King’s Army organisation, so that he can at least save those within his reach.

「At first, I thought that you were a fool and disliked you, but as it is you turned out be an outrageously terrifying guy and now you are very generous to us. I wonder what kind of face is hidden under that mask. Your smell is so rare that I have never smelled it before, really who are you? 」

「My race is very rare, so other demons often tell me regarding my smell. Even the face under this mask is nothing unusual just of an ordinary man. 」

Beside the Wolf Demon Tribe, there are other tribes with sensitive nose like the Dog demon or the Pig Demon tribe, so Mirage uses the fact that the Shadow Demon tribe has small tribe and deceives them as usual.

Fortunately, the Golden horned Evil Demons, who are frequently in conflict with humans, do not have a particularly good sense of smell, so they are not able to tell the half human smell mixed with it.

Moreover, since the Wolf Demons had migrated from the east a long time ago, and have lived in the forest in the northeast of the Demon territory till now, so he would not have to worry about his identity being exposed.

「Well, this is the room where the infected people are. I entrust them to you Masked doctor. 」

In this way they arrived at their destination, and while staggering Robert opens the sliding door of the room.

Before he knew it, he had changed from the masked brother to the masked doctor, but there was no time for him to worry about it, as Mirage was immediately assaulted by a strong putrid smell along with a gruesome scene.

The room was certainly large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, but most of it was filled with the Infected Wolf demons lying around.

All of them similarly had conspicuous black patches on their body, some with necrotic limbs, some vomiting on the spot, some breathing painfully because of high fever, and then some were those who had already stopped breathing, all in all the situation could be said to be perfect picture of hell.

About 30 or so people in this who similarly have black patches on their body, but are still able to move have taken the initiative to nurse others.

No, to be correct even if they could move, their complexion was bad, and it was easily visible that they are overexerting themselves, they are most likely the young Wolf Demons at the entrance of the forest.

「...... I will give priority to most serious ones first. 」

「If so, let’s head to the inner area. They have been put there in order to easily distinguish them. 」

After hearing Robert, Mirage began to walk towards the inner area.

The lying Wolf Demons did not seem have the energy to care about other things, but their movements were watched suspiciously by about sixty eyes.

When Mirage reached the inner area the, the first ten men he saw were already dead, and it was only after that, did he find a person who was still alive.

Beside him sat an old Wolf Demon who seemed to be a doctor and was brewing medicinal herbs.

「Oi, Kusushi- Jisan. This guy here came from the Demon King’s Army and says that he knows about this disease. He says that this disease is the Black skin disease which was prevalent during the ancient era. So, it is natural that you didn’t know about it.  」

After hearing Robert’s remark, not only the old doctor but the other Wolf Demons around them looked at Mirage with doubt and expectation.

They were certainly going to cooperate with the Demon King’s Army, but it was too much of a coincidence that the Heavenly King who came for the negotiations knew about the details of the disease.

However, no matter how suspicious they may be, they had no other option but to trust him, and so they just stood at their place quietly not intervening him.

「Re, really Robert--! It’s very hard to believe but ...... if you say so. Masked Heavenly King- San, please tell me, if there is anything this old one can do for you. I can even give you my life if you can save these people here. 」

Despite having the black patches similarly on him, the old man said so with a smile.

It is apparent that the old man is the last of the doctors of the Wolf Demons, as there no other doctor beside him here.

Being in contact with the patients as a doctor increases the risk of being infected, and if no effective cure is found there is a high chance of the Mummy- taker becoming the mummy.1

「First of all, I would like to ask you about the onset and symptoms of the disease, and how long it takes to die――」

Mirage exchanges information with the doctor and sequentially examines the patient's condition and confirms the actual symptoms.

Although he has already heard this from Robert, the information provided by a professional and the patients actual symptoms are also important and that the symptoms are not different from the black skin disease that Mirage knows.

After approximately an hour of examining the doctor's information and the patient's symptoms, Mirage came to a conclusion.

「 I am sure this is the black skin disease. I guarantee that it is possible to completely cure it, and it should not be a problem to create its specific medicine. Those who are in critical situation, I'll give them the medicine I have and although not enough to cure them, it should be sufficient to help us buy the time to prepare more medicine. 」

His words made the whole room go quiet and even the patients lying on the floor listened attentively.

「Masked-Onichan are you sure, can you really cure us? We won’t have to suffer anymore now? 」

The first to break the silence was a little girl near Mirage, with black patches on her face and tears in her eyes.

「That’s right, everything will be alright now. You have suffered enough till now. 」

Mirage approaches the girl and sits on the floor before her and responds gently, while patting her head.

「Really...... really...... will she be cured? Will my daughter really become healthy again? 」

Robert asked Mirage again in a trembling voice, with tears in his eyes.

「Yes, that’s right. Your daughter, Robert-san, and everyone here will definitely get better. 」

And then, elated by Mirage’s words, all the Wolf Demons who were supposed to be sick, began howling together.

Although just before they were without the energy to even talk, their current state is full of energy and they don’t even seem like they are sick.

Mirage felt relived inside, that with the energy they showed, they should be able to hold on until the treatment.

As a matter of fact, it may already be too late to administer the drug, and the preparation may not be in time.

Although the possibility was low but the disease may not be the Black skin disease, but still Mirage declare it to be so, to give them a hope to live.

As they say the disease is simply a state of mind, and there have been many cases where recovery was made with just sheer willpower from a very weakened state.

Five days after Mirage and the others arrived, the Wolf-Demons, who had been given the medicine, whether it was the effect of Mirage's words or the strength of the original vitality of the Wolf-Demons began to recover.

[1. TL NOTE: here the “Mummy- taker becoming the mummy” is actually a proverb which means “Setting out to try and persuade someone of something, but ending up getting turned to their side”, so here It is referring to the doctors going to cure the patients, but turning into patients themselves.]