CHAPTER 7: TAKING ON A TASK

Dinner was sumptuous. But Mavi and Allerick couldn't really enjoy them since the driver, whose name turned out to be Lamore, wouldn't stop glancing over to them. Even though he was a good distance away from the dining table in the big dining room, his anxious energy still permeated into the air, making Mavi and Allerick helpless.

They ended dinner earlier for the sake of Lamore's sanity and headed straight to their room where someone had brought documents and recordings regarding the small village incident and laid them over the big oak table. There weren't many, to both Mavi and Allerick's surprise.

"Is this all?" Allerick asked, turning to Lamore with a frown.

"Apologies, My Lords, these are all we could gather so far. We have not yet been able to contact the village ever since the last report," Lamore said with despair.

Allerick sighed and joined Mavi at the table, rummaging through it. Mavi, who was shuffling through the pages of the documents, also frowned. He rummaged through them and took out a document containing information on the village. "I think it'll do for now," he said absentmindedly as he started reading it. Allerick, huffing, said nothing else and also took a document for him to read over as slumped down on one of the chairs.

The information read by Mavi was particularly short. It only stated the general information of the village, such as the location, population, and the likes. It was a small village called Valle dei Fichi. With only 18,2 kilometer square, the village was neither too small nor too big. However, being located in a relatively remote area in the Province of Orisanto, as well as the fact that the younger population have been declining for the past few decades, the population was alarmingly small. As well as old.

The Temple of Salvation in the village was built a few decades after the establishment of the Grand Temple of Salvation of Italy. The people of the village weren't necessarily devotees, since there were also other houses of worship of other religions. But the people were warm and kind people and the temple had been there even before some of their ancestors, so of course, they were already an integral part of the village's culture.

That was all.

Well, it was a small village afterall, without significant achievement, so it was quite understandable to be lacking in information. There were many villages such as this one all across the globe. Some even more underdeveloped with practically no information whatsoever. It was already good to have this much.

Allerick, on the other hand, was reading about the history of the Temple of Salvation of Valle dei Fichi. It was pretty much the same as the village information. Not many were stated. Only the list of priestesses who had been serving there since the establishment, as well as the organization and hierarchy structure. As well as some information about the priestesses and the staff. Nothing particularly caught his eyes.

"There really isn't much information," Mavi frowned as he moved to the recorded event leading up to the last incident. He took out the smaller version of the overseeing globe. This one wasn't used to communicate directly, but used to store the recorded ones. Much like a tape.

The first one was dated almost two months ago. The head priestess of the Temple of Salvation of Valle dei Fichi, named Ada, was reporting to Julia regarding the matter of sickness that had befallen some of the villagers.

The first case was a week before the first report. An elderly man from the village suddenly collapsed on the vegetable field of the community. The residents immediately called the village doctor and had him examined. However, the doctor found nothing serious. Aside from the man not waking up, his overall physical condition was excellent for a man in his sixties. He only told the man's family to take good care of the man and to contact him if there were any changes.

But days went by and he wouldn't wake up. Not only that, more people also started to fall one by one, sending the whole village into chaos. People from the health agency of the province were called to take a look only to not be able to do anything at all since they also had no idea what was happening. So they left after assuring the villager that they would report to the health ministry.

The elders of the village, however, were not convinced. After several days of trying to do whatever they could to cure the fallen villagers, including traditional and religious ways, more people fell instead. The temple then decided to just evacuate the healthy villagers, especially the younger ones in case the whole village succumbed to this mysterious illness. The priestess and the villagers debated this for a while, fearing that the illness was contagious. But the fallen villagers were all random. Even families from the same households did not all fall.

The evacuation was a week ago.

A few days ago, however, things turned for the worst. The villagers could no longer contact the people outside from the village. They also could no longer go out of the boundaries of the village. Whenever they tried, they would just wander around on the road for many hours before ending up at the entrance of the village.

What made matters worse was the people getting sick, not only did they not wake up, but instead, they died in their sleep after some time. Their corpses turned black overnight. Not the black charred corpse of someone died in a fire, but just black in color. Their skin turned black. There were no visible wounds on the body. They could not check inside the body for there were no medical examiner in the village, and the priestesses also had no knowledge of surgical procedures.

Mavi took out his phone and opened the library online portal of the World Beyond. The officials have recorded everything ever written since the dawn of time and digitized them for the usage of the people staying on earth. The physical library itself was so big that it occupied almost half a small village like Valle dei Fichi. Everything ever recorded in human and non-human history was stored there.

Mavi searched for similar cases where people died and their corpses turned black. There were many such cases, it turned out. But most were related to fire and not what he was looking for. His eyes were tired after spending two hours on the phone.

"Should we delegate some research?" Allerick, noticing his lover's fatigue, asked, as he approached Mavi and gently massaging his temples.

"We really should," Mavi sighed, leaning against the chair as he let Allerik massaging him. His eyes fluttered closed. "Do you find anything?" he asked in turn.

"Nothing worthwhile," Allerick also sighed before a frown appeared. He had a feeling that something was really wrong. His instinct told him this was not a mere disease. Nor was it a simple curse. Neither of them had encountered such a phenomenon before and it was unsettling even to him.

"Okay," Mavi sat up straight, opening his eyes and looking at Allerick, "let's get some staff to search for articles with similar cases and have them compiled in two days. Meanwhile, we'll check the portal and see how big it is and how fast we can close it, how about that?" he inquired.

Allerick gave it some thought. Research would indeed take some time. And they couldn't just go to the village blind. That would be suicide. So it was indeed better to have people researching while they stick to their original plan to close the portal first. Allerick hummed his agreement, patting Mavi's head before going back to his chair to try and find some information he missed.

Mavi, on the other hand, waved his hand carelessly and the bell to summon the castle staff rang. Not two seconds later Lamore walked into the room, clearly have been waiting to be called upon. He was still as nervous as when he left the room two hours ago.

"Gather some people to look for articles in the Library of Salvation for similar cases," Mavi said, handing the information about the corpses to Lamore, "have them compiled in two days. Tomorrow Allerick and I will be departing for the Castor and look for the portal. Arrange appropriate guide and transportation," Mavi instructed slowly as Lamore nodded his head with every word Mavi said like a bird pecking the air.

"Pack us some rations. There will be no need for breakfast," Allerick added without looking up from his phone. "We'll depart at dawn," he told Lamore who was still nodding.

"Yes, My Lords," he said with strained voice before excusing himself.

"Let's wash up and go to sleep," Allerick said to Mavi who also got up.

"Yeah…" Mavi said, stretching his body, "there's nothing we can do with so little information."

Allerick hummed and dragged Mavi into the bathroom to get cleaned up before changing their clothes to sleepwear.

"I wonder how the others are doing," Mavi said sleepily as he tuck himself into bed, praying that his beloved encountered none of the troubles they encountered after arriving in Italy.

"I'm sure they're fine," Allerick said, bending over to peck Mavi's rosy lips. "Good night love," he dragged Mavi into his embrace and settled himself.

"Good night my king," Mavi said between his smile and he closed his eyes, asleep and safe in his lover's embrace.