Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 863 Fire

This condition, characterized by a blank expression, strange laughter, and constant dancing until exhaustion and death, was later named St. Wester's chorea.

Their "revelry" on the eastern coast of Arden village ended tragically with the deaths of 70% of the members, while the remaining 30% were all admitted to mental hospitals.

People have various speculations about the truth behind the incident. One of the more traditional theological conspiracy theories is that the people of Yaden Village blasphemed a supreme god and were punished. There are countless versions of this theory alone, after all, there are countless kinds of folk beliefs in gods, both real and purely fabricated.

Some have even linked the St. West Dance to the Colón Church, which was recently wiped out by law enforcement.

But no matter which explanation you give, it won't convince all the open-minded people of Nanwei.

The general consensus is that those guys in Arden Village really deserve to die.

Ultimately, the most severely affected were the noble class, for Arden Village was their money-making machine.

Therefore, the law enforcement team did not have the enthusiasm to investigate the truth of the case in depth.

This applies to everyone from the top to the bottom.

Indeed, the law enforcement system is not entirely a team that enforces the law impartially and investigates thoroughly. The purpose of this team was to use the attributes of the scythe of judgment to check the privileges of the nobility, and it has a strong subjective nature.

Even when the country was gone and only a lonely city remained, the characteristics of the law enforcement team were still preserved.

They have no reason to serve the aristocracy, it's that simple.

Thus, the death dance incident that occurred in Arden village came to an abrupt end.

...

But Rebecca didn't think so.

Those in positions of power have their own perspective. This is a city created by Enid in her dream; does she intend to kill these people? Of course not.

Could this deadly, strange dance be the result of some dark inhabitants' seduction?
As far as she knew, the will of the other higher beings within the Dream Realm couldn't yet reach Nanwei City. Even the Three Goddesses hadn't been able to find the city, let alone the other temples…

There must be some terrifying, unspeakable truth behind such a large-scale anomaly.

Moreover, the manner of those deaths was so similar to the symptoms of having one's sanity level depleted.

……

So, on the night before the village of Arden was to be ordered to be burned down, Rebecca entered the village, which was now just a desolate, empty shell.

She firmly believed that if any dark evil truly existed, she would be able to find it.

But the truth is, she found nothing in the village of Arden.

...

The most unsettling truths are often the ones that contradict your inner assumptions.

If it really was some dark inhabitants who thrive on chaos who misled the villagers of Arden, then it would be easy for Rebecca to deal with.

However, there was no trace of anything related to superiority or evil will here.

It's as if the hundreds of villagers in Yaden really went mad for no reason and then put on that deadly collective dance.

...

However, before Rebecca could delve deeper into the investigation, new incidents began to unfold.

Not only did the unfortunate villagers of Arden die in a frenzied manner, but strange illnesses also appeared in several towns near the city.

This time it wasn't the St. West Dance, and there were no scenes of people dancing with blank expressions and shrill laughter.

The bizarre events began when an elderly woman in her sixties from the town of Merlin, convinced that her house was on fire, resolutely jumped from the third floor of the monastery.

From the moment that scream echoed through the streets of Merlin, a terrible symptom known as a curse began to spread throughout the town.

One patient screamed in agony, claiming that his head was on fire and that his stomach was full of snakes.

Some people also say they were being chased by a group of demons with rabbit ears.

These people were all consumed by pain and acted madly, as if they were being subjected to terrible torture at all times.

The vast majority of these people mentioned flames in their accounts, saying they were being burned by fire. Some couldn't bear the pain and took their own lives prematurely, while others jumped into the river and never appeared again.

The terrifying thing is that even those patients who were controlled and protected did not die from self-harm, but they still could not escape the tragedy.

Although the "fire" that burns the body as they describe does not exist in reality, the burning pain of that fire seems to be real, constantly tormenting the patient's spirit until their nerves die, which is death.

And the patient's body will indeed develop symptoms of ulceration and necrosis. In just a few hours, this condition will rapidly deteriorate, turning the body into something like charred coal, as if it had actually been burned by flames.

The first person to die in this disaster was someone who jumped to their death from the "St. Anthony" monastery.

Thus, this "fire" acquired a highly religious name—"The Fire of St. Anthony".

In less than three days, the number of people killed by the fire of St. Anthony had already exceeded the number of Arden villagers who died on the coast, and its influence continued to spread.

.........

The fire burned continuously for a week.

What is most puzzling is that almost all the patients who suffered from burning injuries were from poor commoners, and so far there has been no record of any nobles suffering from the disease.

The Great Fire of St. Anthony, it seems to burn only the poor?
...

Conspiracy theories then swept in like a tidal wave once again.

Some say this is revenge by the aristocracy, while others say it is Saint Anthony's will punishing the indifferent and corrupt masses.

The newspapers turned it into a variety of sensational headlines, adding a touch of class antagonism to it, and all sorts of absurd claims spread like wildfire throughout Nanwei City.

Sometimes Rebecca really agrees with the statement that "the laws, interests, and emotions of ordinary humans are completely meaningless in the vast universe."

Even though the original world order has collapsed and disintegrated, as long as the human group and society still exist, they will continue to engage in class confrontation with great enthusiasm.

St. Westerly Dance, which persecutes only the nobles' property, and St. Anthony's Fire, which burns only the poor.

The more absurd such claims are, the more enthusiastic people become about them.

...

But the truth was eventually uncovered by Rebecca.

However, the so-called "truth" is nothing more than another set of excuses that cannot be made public, and even if it were, it would be hard to convince people.

...

……

The Dreamland, the Lost Southern Territory.

Rick told his student Adamir this story.

He says--

A great playwright and poet once wrote a story on the edge of a white cliff. In the story, King Lear, whose power had been waned, was exiled to a village called Dover. This once illustrious king had become a mad king. He walked in the fields, but his will was still not at peace, so he picked many wildflowers along the way and wove them into a crown.

Among the wildflowers he picked were nettles, wild celery, azaleas, and poison ivy…

...

Rick clutched a stalk of wheat with slight black marks in his hand.

"The author wrote in King Lear that the Mad King wove a crown from various poisonous plants, and the implication is quite obvious."

Adamir, like a student in class, held his notebook and pondered for a while before finally asking:
"Are you sure this wheat can really help Milo plunder faith in the south? I mean, it doesn't seem to have anything special about it..."

"What do you know?" Rick glared at Adamir, holding up the stalk of wheat in his hand.

"This is not wheat, it's poisonous wheat. It just looks like wheat. This thing also has another name: the devil's twin of wheat. Not only does it look similar, but its living environment and life cycle are also very similar to wheat. This form of coexistence and symbiosis is called Vavilov mimicry. Write it down."

"Oh, oh." Adamir quickly started taking notes.

"The alkaloids it contains can cause mild symptoms like vomiting, convulsions, hallucinations, and dizziness, making it impossible to see or speak. In severe cases, it can lead to serious hallucinations, mental derangement, and even sudden death," Rick continued.

"Is this why we've been scattering poisoned wheat seeds in so many wheat fields in the southern settlements? To unleash a plague-like disaster in the south in this way?" Adamir blinked.

As a native of the Southern Reach, he wasn't intimidated by Rick's cold-blooded plan at all; instead, a strange excitement flickered in his eyes, which was rather puzzling...

According to Milo, since it is a matter of faith plunder, why not simply replicate the rise of the Golden Law Church and save the country and its people during the Great Plague? Although it is an old trick, it is also a classic and effective script.

So Rick used his "real skills" to come up with this method.

Let the wicked poison wheat spread and wreak havoc across the southern lands.

The extremely strong Vavilovian mimicry symbiotic life form led to the emergence of the terrifying phenomenon in the Southern Territory where patients began to dance day and night.

Furthermore, to make the disaster even more terrifying, he also spread "ergot fungus," taking the terrifying hallucinogenic effect to an even higher level.

And so, the people of the South, under the light of the "Fire of Saint Anthony," began to perform the "Dance of Saint West" with great fervor.

……

...

"Do you think those crazy women in Nanwei City, who are in power, will kill us if they find out we're doing this kind of thing here?" Adamir finally asked a reasonable question.

"What's there to be afraid of? What happens in the Southern Territory won't affect Nanwei City." Rick said dismissively.

Then an officer's boot stepped on his head and kicked him away.

"You won't, my foot!"

(End of this chapter)