Misha thought back to the dinners she’d had here in the castle, plates of translucent raw meat arranged with cut vegetables. They called it “live arrangement,” but having never eaten raw meat or fish before, Misha had balked at trying it for herself.
“I’ve eaten plenty of it raw myself, though. It’s a very ordinary way of preparing it,” Ryan spoke up, still plainly confused.
Karas was a common dish served to the royalty. As a symbolically seasonal food, it was something they had access to quite early in the season. Naturally, it made its way to the dinner table quite regularly. On top of that, being so close to the water, raw fish was something the people of the capital ate fairly often. Karas was no special outlier.
“Judging by how other parasites act, there probably aren’t many of them or their eggs in the meat itself. And when you eat it, it passes immediately to your digestive system. An ordinarily healthy person can probably digest a small amount of the parasite’s eggs safely before they have a chance to hatch. However, eggs are often found in the organs or blood.”
Faces around the room began to pale as Ryne continued.
“Lady Lalaya always drank the raw blood because it was so nutritious. She also ate the hearts and livers whole...” Misha murmured.
Ryan picked up where she left off. “We’ve always eaten them that way for the high nutritional value. We were taught that cooking karas diminishes its benefits. It’s prized for being highly nutritious, to the point that among the poor, it is often prescribed before medicine.”
Ryne nodded slowly, as if he were a patient teacher in front of a class of slow students. “That’s likely the problem. Your ancestors probably recognized that cooking the karas reduced its nutritional value. It became a custom to feed karas to people who grew sick over the change of the seasons. And now, those with weaker digestion aren’t able to digest the eggs before they hatch. The parasite grows, causing their condition to worsen...and the loop continues.”
“No way...” Misha hung her head. She couldn’t help but remember Yuu and Anna, covered in mud after hunting karas to help their sick grandmother get better. How badly would it break their hearts to learn that they had unwittingly been making her situation worse? It would probably be similar to what everyone else in the room was feeling, judging by the dark looks on the faces of everyone but Ryne himself.
“Okay, so you all know where it comes from, right?” Ryne continued, ignoring the change in atmosphere. His bright tone brought everyone’s attention back to him, gazes that Ryne ignored as he turned to Misha. “So the next question is, do you know how to get parasites out of a body?”
Misha’s response was practically by reflex. “Give them anthelmintic herbs. They need dewormers. I don’t know which will be effective yet...but if the arkles are bringing the parasite down here, we should check what medicine they use up north.”
“Correct.” Ryne gave a satisfied smile.
“There’s medicine that can help?!” Ryan interjected.
There was a way to treat the vile plague that had nearly destroyed Redford once before; that thought alone was a glimmer of shining hope. Ryan made no efforts to preserve the dignity of his office, the intensity of his question leading Misha’s uncle to lean back a bit as he nodded.
“After surviving in people for so long, the parasite has likely changed somewhat, but it should still be pretty effective. No way to know but to try it.”
A surge of excitement rippled through the room. It was the first good news they’d heard since the plague began. They finally had a way to fight back against the plague that had left them wringing their hands helplessly for so long.
“But there’s a problem,” Ryne said, quick to dash their hopes. “The herbs used to make such medicine only grow in the far north. They’re not that rare up there, but they’re also not really exported. There’s no way to get ahold of them here. I’ve already sent someone to retrieve some, but I can’t give even an estimate for when they’ll arrive.” Ryne shrugged, and the room fell back into silence.
That brief taste of hope had only set them up for a deeper despair. Seeing everyone’s faces fall, Ryne gave a heavy sigh and clapped his hands together loudly.
“So for starters, why not ban the eating of karas? That’ll at least reduce the number of people getting sick. After that, start gathering the people who were consuming the blood and organs of the karas raw, even if they don’t have any symptoms. Maybe it’ll be pointless, but there’s a chance if we catch it early enough, the dewormers we already have will be effective.”
At Ryne’s words, those in the room finally started to realize there was still something to be done. The doctors around Conan moved off to begin discussing more detailed countermeasures. Tris gathered with the nobles to discuss how to effectively communicate and enforce a ban on eating karas.
As they headed off, Ryan turned back to Ryne, who was still relaxing in his seat. “Thank you. This is invaluable information. Could I impose on you to help us in dealing with this crisis?”
The only ones left in the room were Ryan, Ryne, and Misha. There were also maids and servants waiting by the walls, but they were all loyal to Ryan, so he didn’t need to worry about them spreading rumors about him. Though the room hadn’t been perfectly cleared, since they were so close to being alone, Ryan didn’t hesitate to bow before this guest, even if he didn’t stand to do so.
Ryne grinned, intrigued. That was behavior unfit for a king. Misha seemed on the edge of interceding, so Ryne cut her off with a look before crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.
“You understand what it means to ask me for help, right?” Ryne murmured after a lengthy silence, scrutinizing the king in front of him.
Resolute, Ryan returned his gaze, nodding quietly. A stifling atmosphere settled over the room.
Finally, Ryne gave a quiet sigh. “Fine. It’ll be my way of thanking you for taking care of Misha.”
“Uncle Ryne!” Misha immediately jumped out of her seat, wrapping Ryne in a big hug.
Ryne stared for a while at Misha’s face, so different from the one in his memory. And though the two of them looked quite similar, she definitely resembled his sister more than she did him. The big eyes that always seemed to inspire a desire in others to help, the way the corners of her mouth lifted, the smaller lips...
Ryne returned her hug tighter, forcing down the emotions that started welling up in his chest.
At the same time, his strong embrace was such a relief, it had Misha on the verge of tears. It was nothing like the gentle grace with which her mother had hugged her, but there was still something so similar in it, something she could only attribute to them being related. In a childlike display, Misha pressed her face into her uncle’s chest, still in disbelief that he was there at all. Ryne responded with a laugh and a pat of her head.
Silently, Ryan watched the two interact. He could understand their feelings as family members who’d finally been reunited, but considering the crisis facing Redford at the moment, he found it difficult to share in their joy.
However, that didn’t mean he wished to break up their moment. Feeling he couldn’t just leave, Ryan quietly returned his attention to his tea. It had cooled to the perfect temperature, gliding down his throat with ease.
Seeing Ryan’s awkwardness, Ryne smiled sheepishly and eventually let Misha go. He then leaned down to rustle through a bag at his feet before he placed a small, wrapped package on the table.
“This is the medicine to combat the plague I was talking about.”
Ryan’s eyes opened wide. “You already have it?”
“It’s just a sample—enough for only five people.”
It was a cruel declaration. The lifesaving medicine they needed was right there, but there was so little, it would barely hold a candle to the crisis they were facing. It wouldn’t even make a dent in the families of the nobility that had contracted the plague.
“This is for you. You can use it however you like. Use it to save someone, or save it for research so you can try and find something you have on hand that works similar. I’ll just warn you, it probably won’t do anything for people in the final stages of the disease,” he ended solemnly.
Ryan had started to bite his lip without realizing it. He couldn’t get the picture of his own sister suffering out of his head. But so many of his people were suffering like her. Neither of them were something he was willing to sacrifice.
The king of Redford stood up, picking up the package of medicine, feeling a tremendous weight in it. And then he turned away.
“Thank you,” he said softly as he stepped into the hallway, no small measure of pain in his voice.