Chapter 374 Research From The Beginning

Chapter 374 Research From The Beginning　　"Wait.. Wait… Young master Victory, I could explain this." said Count Hick while struggling.

"Hoo.. Then, Did you retrieve the research paper or journal inside the lab before burning them down?" asked Angus.

"Err.. N-No." replied Count Hick truthfully.

"As I expected. Alright, you can take him." said Angus.

"N-No.. I am a Count. You couldn't do this to me." said Count Hick while struggling.

Hearing this, the Royal Guard also begins to hesitate a little bit but still apprehend the Count. Count rank may not be high noble. But, that didn't mean Angus could do as he pleased with him since he was only the third son of Duke.

"Sir, I don't think we can detain Count Hick." said one of the Royal Guards.

"Detain him? No, why should I want to detain this stupid pig? Put him in the middle of the quarantine zone and make sure he could never leave that place. Also, don't give him any kind of food or drink until I find the cure." said Angus.

"Err.. T-That's.." said the royal guard as they didn't know what to do before glancing at the expressionless Jayna.

"Do it." said Jayna with a stoic face.

Hearing this, the royal guard immediately dragged the count to the center of the quarantine zone as her verdict was the final word. The Royal Guard is different from a typical bodyguard. They are trained to obey and protect the royalty.

Even if Jayna orders them to kill Count Hick on the spot, they will do it without hesitation. This is because they already contracted and trained to obey the royalty completely. It could be said that every royal guard is a human tool for royalty.

Normally, the Royal Guard will never leave the Royal Palace and stay with the King to not be misused. However, King Leon realizes the massive potential inside Jayna and Angus. 

Combining that they are currently at war, King Leon decides to give some Royal Guard to accompany them.

"Noo… You can't do this. I am a Count!! A noble!! You couldn't do this to me!!" said the Count.

"If you have protested, then say that to His Majesty himself." said Angus.

Hearing this, Count Hick immediately stops struggling as he gets a death sentence verdict. He knows that his future is already bleak. No matter what kind of excuse or ploy he used, Count Hick will still get punished by King Leon.

Even if somehow he managed to survive King Leon's punishment, his political career will also end. It is already good if he could still retain his nobility. 

He also couldn't ask for help from his noble faction since no sane upper noble dared to help him stubbornly from King Leon's punishment. Furthermore, he also couldn't run away or go to other countries.

Count Hick may be a fifth-grade combatant, but the only thing that is still a fifth-grade combatant is his mana density. Be it his body, stamina, or mana quantity, It is far below fifth-grade combatant. He is even worse than some of the third-grade combatants.

With this kind of power, it will be hard for him to escape to another kingdom, especially with the existence of an extermination squad that has eyes and ears all over the kingdom. In the end, he could only accept his mistake. Ignoring the count, Angus released a huge sigh while frustrated.

"Damn it, what stupid dumbass!! Now, I need to do the research from the start." cursed Angus while walking away.

Jayna and the others couldn't help but follow the grumbled Angus. Actually, this is one of the rare occasions where everyone sees Angus getting this emotional. Normally, he is more playful, calm, and mature than showing throwing curses and grumbling.

However, through their connection, Jayna knows why Angus is very frustrated about the Count's miss of conduct. The experts are already sent here to search for the cure when the epidemic reaches Sunset City.

It means they have already done a lot of research about the disease and plague itself. Normally, with the help of [Analyze] and Angus's vast knowledge, he may be able to find the cure in no time based on their research data. There is even a possibility he will immediately find the cure.

However, it is impossible since all the research data is already destroyed by the stupid Count's act. Therefore Angus needs to do his research from the start and take more time to find the cure.

Meanwhile, in the other part of Sunset City, two hideous people meet each other at a secluded place.

"How is it?" asked one of the hideous men.

"Everything is going as planned." said the other one.

"Good. Is there any news about the new expert from the capital?" asked the hideous man.

"Nope. But…" said the other one.

"What is it?" asked the hideous man again.

"I find that the Fourth Princess of the Heart Kingdom and the third son of the Duke Victory are entering the quarantine zone." said the other one.

"Hmm… The princess and the duke's son?? That's certainly weird. Keep monitoring them. We still need more time before moving on, " said the hideous man.

"Alright." said the other one.

Then, they begin to disappear into the darkness as if they have never been there in the first place. A few hours later, Angus and the others arrive at an enormous crater filled with corpses. 

Usually, the corpses of infected people need to be cremated or appropriately handled to not spread the disease.

However, they can't do it since they still don't know the true nature of the disease. In the past, there is a record where a plague spread through the air after they tried to cremate all the infected corpses.

The epidemic spreads faster to other places as they fly with the smoke and air from the combustion. Since then, it is important to know the nature of the airborne disease before handling the infected corpse.

Therefore, they often put all the corpses in one enormous man-made crater like in the front of Angus. Angus and the others could smell the horrible smell inside the crater from a few dozen meters away. All of them couldn't help but try to close their noses except one person.

Unexpectedly, Anna is the only person that wasn't bothered by the smell. Moreover, she even feels like breathing in the fresh air and walking happily. Seeing Anna's behavior, Angus couldn't help but think something.

'If I am not wrong, miasma tends to gather at the place where there are a lot of corpses. Maybe because of this, Anna is fine despite having a much better sense of smell than all of us.' thought Angus.

Ignoring the excited Anna, Angus cast a low circle spell to filter the air for everyone. This way, everyone could breathe normally without a gas mask. Looking at the corpse number, Angus couldn't help but sigh before closing his eyes.

Suddenly, Angus releases a massive mana wave towards the surrounding [Mana Echolocation]. Unlike his normal [Mana Echolocation], he used more mana and only covered the crater. Using this way, he will be able to get more information from the Mana Echolocation.

After a while, Angus opened his eyes and cast a spell [1st Circle - Mark of Target]. Soon, a lot of transparent blue arrows point to some corpse across the crater. Mark of Target is a basic spell to mark a thing or weak living being.

"Alright, Royal Guards, could you please retrieve all the corpses I mark and bring them towards this side." said Angus.

"Pardon me, sir?" asked one of the Royal Guard.

"Please retrieve the corpse that I mark." said Angus.

"Sir, you want us to go there and retrieve the corpse?" asked one of the Royal Guards in uncertainty.

"Yeah. Ahh.. You need to use this gas mask since my filter air spell only works in this area. Also, you need to keep covering your body with mana as long as you are inside the crater. Don't forget to use your armor resistance enchantment." said Angus.

Hearing this, the Royal Guard again looks at Jayna, waiting for her final verdict. Being stared at by the Royal Guard once again, the cold-faced Jayna was annoyed.

"If you dare to question Angus's order once again, just kill yourself." said Jayna with cold and murderous eyes.

"Hiccc.. Yes, Fourth Princess." said the Royal Guard before taking the gas mask from Angus and going inside the crater in a hurry.

After the Royal Guard entered the crater, "Hee.. You don't need to be that harsh to them." said Angus.

"I hate it. I already said to them to obey your command before we came here. Yet they keep hesitating with your order. Maybe I should start burning all of them." replied Jayna coldly.

Hearing this, Angus begins to pat Jayna's head.

"Easy, my princess. They are just doing their job. Although I don't really care if they are dying or not, they are still one of our precious men. So, bear with it." said Angus while hugging Jayna.

"Huff.. You are right. I guess this place also started to influence me. Now, I wonder how Fire Phoenix managed to ignore all those epidemics in the past." said Jayna.