Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

After Wayne finished connecting and parasitizing a thousand fleas, using them as "coordinates" to parasitize the rats in the city.

By the time all these things were done, a whole night had passed.

Next, when Wayne led Isabel and the others back to the Lord's Hall...

Unexpectedly, I ran into my senior, Holman, right at the entrance.

It looks like he just came back from the city.

His face still bore the marks of fatigue and the hardships of living outdoors.

Behind him followed several men dressed in coarse linen clothes and carrying hammers and mousetraps.

The bamboo basket behind him was filled with many dead rats.

It was the city's rat extermination team.

They were both sweating profusely, indicating they had exerted themselves quite a bit last night.

"Senior Holman, you just got back from the 'front lines'... Did you personally go into battle?"

Seeing Holman's tired and disheveled face.

Wayne's expression shifted, he smiled, and greeted him.

"Yeah, I'm exhausted, Junior Brother Wayne, all because of those damn rats!"

Holman said angrily.

He took a towel from a guard next to him, wiped his face, which was covered in dust and blood, and complained.

"Hmph~~ Last night, I personally led a team out and killed quite a few of those damned rats."

"Ugh, I really wish there was a way to wipe out all these rats at once. We can never get rid of them all, it's so annoying!"

Holman said in a somewhat troubled voice.

However, upon hearing Holman's reply, Wayne's eyes revealed a look of sympathy.

If this poor senior brother knew that all his efforts and attempts were in vain.

How frustrated and annoyed they must be inside, they might even faint from anger!

However, compared to the potential frustration that Holman might cause, the plague outbreak in Greyhawk Keep is still ongoing.

The most urgent task is to find out the truth about the outbreak of the plague as soon as possible.

So, after thinking about it, Wayne took the initiative to speak.

"Senior Holman, do you have some time now? Um... I'd like to discuss some things with you, some thoughts on the 'dryness disease' plague."

"Oh? You mean, Junior Brother Wayne... By the way, I heard from the servants that you also came out of the castle last night and were busy outside all night?"

Holman said.

"Yes, senior brother, last night I thought I'd take a walk around the city to see if I could find any clues, so I took some people for a stroll on the streets."

"Then... while I was wandering around the city, I discovered something."

Next, Wayne pulled Holman to a spot to the side.

He lowered his voice and said.

"Senior Holman, I think the cause of the plague's spread might... have nothing to do with those rats."

"What?" Holman was taken aback by Wayne's answer and instinctively asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Because last night, when I was leading my men around the city under the cover of darkness, we saw the rats being hunted and killed in a 'high-pressure' manner by the rat extermination teams. They have been terrified by humans."

Wayne replied.

"So at the slightest disturbance, they would be so frightened that they would hide in a corner or a cave, too afraid to come out, and even afraid to go out on the street."

"Later, I went into some houses and saw some rats in the rooms. Unable to bear the hunger, they began to gnaw on some corpses in the rooms, leaving black bite marks and claw marks on the corpses, exactly the same as the wound marks we had seen before."

"So, at the time, I was thinking, maybe those who contracted the plague didn't get it from being bitten by rats, but rather, after dying from the plague, before they had a chance to become zombies, they were eaten by those starving rats, leaving behind the wounds. This misled us into believing that the rats were the real culprits behind the plague's spread, when in fact, those rats were innocent, and the cause of the plague's spread was something else entirely..."

"this......"

Holman frowned slightly upon hearing Wayne's answer.

"Hmm... Junior Brother Wayne, are you sure about your theory? Could it be a misjudgment, and the rats' behavior of gnawing on the corpses is just an isolated case?"

Holman hesitated for a moment.

After all, for the past six months, he had been using "rats" as the culprit for the spread of the plague and had been carrying out a large-scale extermination campaign against them.

They believed that eliminating the rats would stop the spread of the plague.

However, now Wayne's junior brother is telling him that his initial investigation was wrong, and that the plague was not spread by rats biting each other.

This is just... too devastating and frustrating, isn't it?

So it was hard to accept this result for a while.

"It's very simple, Senior Holman. We can actually do a very simple experiment to test whether it was those rats that caused the spread of the 'dryness disease' plague."

Wayne said.

Although he had previously confirmed, through the rats' perspective, that it was hunger that caused the rats to gnaw on the corpses, leaving bite marks and wounds in the locations of the corpses.

Those citizens were already corpses before they were bitten.

However, to convince Holman of this result, it was still necessary to prove it to him through experiments.

"How do we conduct the experiment?"

Holman asked.

"We can capture rats from the areas most severely affected by the plague outbreak, conduct an experiment, use them to bite living people, and then observe the results."

"If the plague really did spread because of rats tearing at people, those people would definitely have also contracted 'drought disease,' otherwise..."

Wayne didn't say anything more, but the implication was clear.

If none of the subjects were infected, it would prove that rats were indeed not the culprit behind the spread of the plague.

"What do you think, Senior Holman?"

Wayne asked.

"..."

Holman's expression showed a moment of contemplation and hesitation.

Although some are reluctant to believe this claim.

However, the plague in Greyhawk Keep is the most pressing issue at present.

As for one's own face and such... of course, that's secondary.

Holman nodded and said, "Okay!"

Next, Holman instructed a guard to summon the butler, Alfred.

"Young Master, you wanted to see me?"

After the old butler Alfred came over, he asked.

"Find me a few death row inmates from inside the castle. Remember... they should be physically weak. Then, take them to the stables outside the castle, tie them up with ropes, and gag them."

"Yes, young master."

Although it is unknown what young master Holman wants to do with some death row inmates at this time.

However, as a noble class in the Kingdom of Tutien, they were counts in a feudal society.

Finding a few death row inmates from the castle prison was an extremely simple matter.

So Alfred simply nodded and went back to do as he was told.

Holman and Wayne turned and headed to the nearest district where the plague had broken out, where they caught a few emaciated rats and brought them back to the Lord's Hall.

......

Twenty minutes later.

Inside the stables outside the city, all the windows were boarded up tightly.

When Wayne and Holman walked in, there were several death row inmates who were bound hand and foot, their eyes and mouths sealed, their faces filled with terror.

He was hanging from the ceiling, unable to move.

Next, Holman stepped forward, dipped a brush in some sweet cream, and applied it to the calves of the condemned prisoners.

Then, open the bag, pick up the mouse inside, and place it on your calf.

These rats were already emaciated and starving.

So now, if you smell the sweet aroma of cream, just open your mouth and take a bite, and bright red blood will immediately flow out.

The condemned prisoners immediately screamed and began to struggle.

However, because they were bound hand and foot, they had no chance to resist.

Next, Holman used rats to bite a wound on the lower leg of each condemned prisoner, from which bright red blood flowed.

Next, they were locked in the stable and left to wait patiently.

Two days passed quickly.

Of the seven death row inmates who had been bitten and scratched by rats, none of them were infected.

No symptoms of "dryness disease" were observed.

In fact, her complexion even improved a bit because she was treated to good food and drinks these past two days.

Even Holman, unwilling to believe it, was shocked by the result.

However, the stark reality is now before him, leaving him no choice but to believe it.

Furthermore, the death row inmates they initially selected were all physically weak.

Every condemned prisoner's lower leg was marked with bite marks from all the rats to prevent any deviations.

But the result is... not a single death row inmate was infected!

This proves that Wayne's junior brother was right.

These rats were indeed not the cause of the plague.

So I was wrong back then, and all my actions over the past six months have been in vain.

Holman's face turned ashen at the sight.

Finally, only one word escaped my lips: "Fuck you...!"