“Awe-inspiring,” he said, picking up the plate with the steam dumplings, which now contained meat pieces and flour, “For example this… When kneading the flour, the gluten will form a ramified structure, letting the flour dough become strong but flexible. Once cooked, due to the high-temperature the gluten protein will denature, even when reground into powder, it is impossible to restore it to its previously smooth and exquisite appearance. This transformation is considered irreversible, but…” Roland pinched into the small cluster of powder in the palm of his hand, and felt a silky feeling, just like from freshly ground flour. “She was able to bring the meal back to its original appearance.”
“Well, I can’t say that I understand you,” Nightingale curled her lips, “But putting it that way, can her ability be seen as restoring a material back to its original state?”
“It is not really like that,” Roland pointed to the iron ingot. “In the case that it was merely restoration, the iron ingot should have been returned into iron ore, but in fact, it was broken down into iron powder and other impurities.”
“… So in the end, what is her ability?” Nightingale asked confused.
“For the time being I still haven’t fully understood it, but if I had to speculate, I would say that her ability has two effects, as for its appearance, it manifests according to her knowledge and experience.”
“Knowledge and experience?”
“Essentially, there is no significant difference between meat and iron ore, they are both composed out of a variety of particles, but Lucia can only break down iron ore with her ability, but not the meat. I believe the reason for this is because she is unable to understand organic matter… or so to say, the constitution of life in generally,” Roland explained, even though he wasn’t sure whether this was correct, he still had no doubt, that right now what Lucia needed the most was learning new knowledge.
…
Three days later, when the second convoy carrying refugees from the Eastern Region arrived at Border Town, the same disease had broken out on the ship. But this time it was much more severe, with almost half of the people being infected. After questioning some of the patients, Roland learned, that the black spots had appeared the first day after boarding. Which meant that they had been infected by the parasite earlier, and because of this the incubation period had been shortened a lot.
At the same time, Roland also received a letter sent from King’s City, which was sealed with the mark of Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce.
When reading the content of the letter, his brow wrinkled.
When the demonic disease spread through King’s City, the Church declared that it was all a witch’s conspiracy. They furthermore told the people that they had a Holy Elixir which could repel the evil spirits.
Furthermore, even outside of King’s City, many ill people had started to appear, and because of this Theo had chosen to temporarily stop the delivery of fugitives.
If he wasn’t calculating it wrong, the first fleet would return to King’s City in four days, bringing with them the news that Border Town was able to cure the demonic plague. However, with nearly one week spent traveling, it would still be too late for those people who were already infected by the disease. Moreover, the public proclamation of the Church also had the smell of a conspiracy in the works.
After thinking it over again and again, he decided to send a small team to escort Lily to King’s City. Otherwise, more than half of King’s City population and the Eastern Regions’ refugees would die, and those who survived in the end would become devoted believers of the Church.
Roland had to do his utmost to prevent the birth of that kind of situation.
Since he had decided on his course of action, the first question he faced was: Should he himself also travel to King’s City?
This would be Border Town’s first military operation away from the Western Region, and it would also be different than the two defensive wars prior to it. Certainly, they would come across unfamiliar environmental circumstances which could cause complications. Whether they could display their combat ability without a prepared battlefield, was still unknown. All this made it hard for him to feel relief in the event that he didn’t go to King’s City. On the one hand, he knew that his own military experience was extremely limited, but on the other, his understanding of war could still be regarded as the highest level for this era.
