Chapter 162 - 162 Finding the real culprit (part 1)

162 Finding the real culprit (part 1)

“What do you mean there was no new variant in the first place?” Asked Justice to Anne, while the others looked at her with the same curiosity.

“I have talked with Nathan. After he came and told me about my result, I found something peculiar about the case in the village and the capital.” Said Anne to all of them.

“What of it?” Asked Justice again.

“Here, this is one of the culprits.” Anne handed them a glass vial filled with black soot. “The overuse of Gaaram wood ashes.”

“But we use this to block the infection to enter our system, right?” Xavier said, while curiously staring at the glass vial.

“Yes, and that was the wrong conclusion about all of this new variant debacle.” Said, Anne. She enthusiastically goes to the backboard that is filled with a strategic formation for the new guards and wipes it clean. Justice wanted to stop her, but it was already too late. He just cringed on his desk and went silent. Anne then draw a tree, which came beautifully drawn. “So, this the gaaram tree, for many years, people use the ashes as a living agent for anti-bacterial in every household. We use it to clean the floor, and even dishes.”

“Yes, that’s why the healer uses it as the prevention of the new variant.” Vale nodded his head, remembering the first time he saw the healers use all the soaked protection suits.”

“Exactly, but actually, that was the wrong way to do it.” Anne pointed her finger at Vale. She was full of energy, determined to explain everything to every one of them in the tent. She draws multiple arrows and draws a healer with a mask in one of the arrows, “This is the nurse that treated the infected patient with a moskeet fever, Nathan told me that the first patient zero is the one who came to the main hospital because of the moskeet fever.”

“And the healer and helper who treated him using these masks?” Said Vale, while pointing at the new mask on the dresser.

.....

“Yes! They use the prototype mask!” Said Anne to Vale. The four gentleman loves to see her this excited. Admiring her love for the work that she had been doing is one of the main reasons Anne still stands out in their heart. She draw another line of the arrow, she was drawing of the farmer of gaaram plants “I could finally know the reason was because of the gaaram wood ashes being used mainly throughout the huts on the last village that I had my journey on, they also a gaaram plants farmer, which obviously they use the ashes mainly as their household cleaning product.”

Henry stands up from his seat, after connecting her story, “Wait, don’t tell me that these anti-bacterial actually…”

Anne nodded her head, confirming Henry’s suspicion. “Yes, the gaaram wood ashes are making every infected moskeet patient worse than before, hence the misinformation that came from all around about the new variant.”

Everyone couldn’t even say any words, they look at each other in disbelief, still trying to wrap their mind around this news.

“Unbelievable! So, this outbreak just came from a misunderstanding?!” Shouted Justice, he slam his hand, there was some obvious anger in his eyes. “Those people! Even Bernard, we can prevent all of this from happening. If only we knew about this!”

Regretful, this emotion came into Anne, she doesn’t have enough research when she treated the patients in the village, and the only way she could get a good result was because she never used gaaram wood ashes to disinfect her house, there’s another alternative that Anne feels more reliant than gaaram wood ashes.

“We failed you.” With a sad voice, Anne looks at Justice, even bowing in front of him, “As one of the healers, please forgive all of us, if only we knew about this sooner.”

Justice took a deep breath. He then walked to the girl with purple hair with a look of despair and regret. His hand brushed into the fallen hair on her face, and he warmly smiled at the girl. “No, this is not your fault, Anne. You worked hard with your team, and clearly gets a good result, we lose so many people, but thankfully now, we could also save so many lives.”

thankful for how caring Justice was, Anne nodded her head and smile back at him, “Yes, thank you, your majesty. As part of Nathan’s team, I will work twice as hard to cure the people.”

Looking at Justice and Anne, Brom yawned and leaned into his chair, “As much as I love the heart-warming and romantic scene that you both displayed, Anne, I think Nathan here wanted to meet with you.”

All of them turned their attention to a man that was awkwardly standing at the entrance of the tent. It was Nathan, smiling, and gave a bow to Justice. “Ah, Your Majesty, I’m sorry, but I need to borrow Anne for a moment. We need to make the cure that she makes on her journey.”

Clearing his throat, Justice immediately separated himself from Anne, who pretended to wipe invisible dirt on her dress. “Alright, miss Anne, Nathan, good luck.” He said to both of them.

Before Anne and Nathan leave the tent, Brom tells them to stop. “Hold on, what about wearing a mask? We don’t need it anymore?”

Smiling, Nathan told Brom to throw the mask or give it to the helpers that came to collect all the soaked ashes mask.

“We are going to collect some samples and burn the rest. It turns out the content of the gaaram wood ashes was toxic for us.” Said Nathan to Brom and the rest of them.

“Wait, we need to inform the main hospital, then?!” Vale said to Nathan, worry about the others in the capital.

Nathan gave him some reassurance. “Don’t worry, the rest of my team is getting ready to go back to the capital, along with some evidence.”

“That’s good to hear, so what about the other guards?” Asked Justice again.

“That was also being handled right now. We are separating the healthy people and they could go back to the capital with my team, as for the ones who sadly got infected with the moskeet fever, they need to get some rest first.” Before everyone got wary, Nathan raised one of his hands. “We can assure you, they will be fine, even the critical patient.”

Hearing that even Bernard will regain his health, Justice feels relieved. His eyes met with Anne who gave him a smile. She knew how sorry he was for his beloved chief guard.

Almost half a day before Hector and two other healers on Nathan’s team finished their preparation to go back to the capital. Thankfully, there were ten guards that have full health after the thorough check-up. Nathan, Leo, and Anne will stay behind to treat everyone who was infected. They saw the carriage go along the winding road. Henry saw the scene from the tower, his work still not over there, the new dark and mischievous road that appear, and also, helping the rest of the guards who got ill.

“Captain Henry, This is the leave report from every gate.” Said a knight to Henry.

Henry took the documents, and a frown appear on his face, “Wait, I thought only two healers went out from the encampment. One of them is the alchemist, Hector, right?”

“No, captain, there was also one alchemist that went out, six hours ago, a healer named Rosy.”