A week has passed since then, and I’m completely worn out from overworking.
I slump down on the cushion in the isolation facility.
All the people who were here at the beginning have fully recovered and been sent home.
When the current residents leave, there should be no more people with severe tuberculosis here for now.
Besides, I’ve given the Cat Touch to everyone in town, the livestock, and all the stray cats to create anti-tuberculosis antibodies.
I’ve asked the soldiers to have about 1,000 townspeople come to the town hall each morning, noon, and evening, and to distribute fake medicine to them.
Placebo, as the word suggests, is fake medicine—just glucose or something mixed in with the right proportions.
Of course, it doesn’t actually cure tuberculosis.
The soldiers hand it out personally to every single person in town.
They have to come in person.
They have to take the medicine right in front of us.
That’s when I give them a quick tap.
If they have antibodies, it at least prevents the disease from getting severe.
Anyone who’s already developed tuberculosis gets sent straight to the isolation facility.
At night, I’d sneak into the livestock pens at the edge of town to visit and give antibodies to the cats at the gathering spot.
Because of that, my sleep time dwindled, and I was dead tired.
After endlessly repeating that work, today, the tuberculosis in town finally settled down.
“Excuse me! Is the Grand Mage here?!”
While I was resting, a soldier came calling.
Work again, huh.
“Nyaa (What is it?)”
“The King requests your presence.”
I’ve already given antibodies to the King and everyone in the castle via cat touch.
Then it must be something else.
I warped to the castle via my Four-dimensional Warp.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
I’m appearing in the King’s Chamber in the castle.
“Grand Mage, appearing out of nowhere like this is bad for my heart…”
The king says, but I’m busy.
I don’t have time to waste on messengers and such.
I pull out my typewriter and type, [What’s the matter?]
“This current epidemic outbreak—it’s not confined to the capital. The death toll is rising across the entire kingdom, and even in other nations.”
[Even if you asked me to fix things, it’s impossible, you know?] I typed.
Whatever the case, curing everyone in the world would require more time, stamina, manpower—everything—than I possess.
“Couldn’t we at least do something to help people within the Franbel territory?”
I understood the king’s feelings, but it wasn’t like I was showing favoritism toward Franbel.
The only reason I helped this town was because I knew so many people here.
It wasn’t because it was Franbel.
[If you send them to the forest isolation facility, I’ll handle it.]
“Really?!”
[Yeah.]
That day’s careless remark would come to haunt me bitterly.
Who could have predicted I’d end up working nonstop at that isolation facility for nearly a year?
Or maybe it was just me being an idiot for not seeing it coming.