Goddess Kaleidoscope

End of this chapter

The day after the lord agreed to adopt Lud's plan, his guards posted many notices throughout the streets and alleys, and also arranged for people to stand by and loudly read the contents of the notices.

Residents in the city then saw teams of workers wearing yellow vests and masks taking to the streets to clean up garbage in each block, while spraying a blue, floral-scented liquid everywhere.

But compared to these incomprehensible and strange behaviors, residents soon discovered to their astonishment that among these laborers were many relatives and friends who had been captured by the lord's guards and taken to the quarantine zone, and whom everyone thought were doomed. One by one, they were identified on the street.

They then discovered that these relatives and friends who had been infected with the plague looked much better than when they were first taken away; some even seemed to have grown stronger and were in better health than before they contracted the disease.

What struck everyone as odd was that these infected individuals, reunited with their family and friends, did not show any joy at the long separation. Instead, they waved their hands repeatedly at their relatives and friends who were about to rush up and hug them, nervously asking everyone to keep their distance.

"What's going on? Am I being rejected?"

Fortunately, the confusion and bewilderment of the crowd were quickly addressed by the official explanation from the announcer who read the proclamation. The lord declared that an effective means of preventing and controlling the plague had been found, and those infected in the quarantine zone were gradually recovering under the full care of the health department.

However, the threat of the plague was not eliminated. Therefore, in order to reduce the infection of the people, the Health Bureau, in the name of the Lord, issued a new decree called the "Twelve Articles of Public Health", requiring all residents of the Viscount's territory to strictly abide by it.

It's worth mentioning that the former infected individuals currently working on the streets are all employed by the previously mentioned health bureau, and they have all signed a five-year labor contract to repay their treatment costs. Their first job was to maintain the city's sanitation.

The suggestion made by Lud to the lord was to have the first batch of 400 recovered patients serve as the first sanitation workers in the history of Oyster Harbor. Firstly, these people had already developed antibodies against the plague and would not be reinfected in the short term. Secondly, having them appear in public would reassure the people.

Before this, it's important to understand that over 90% of the city's residents lived in fear. They weren't wealthy nobles who could easily pull out five gold coins to have a priest use magic to cure their illnesses. Therefore, everyone was afraid of contracting the plague and being captured by the lord's guards and thrown into quarantine.

Two or three thousand people have been sent to that godforsaken place in the past two months, and not a single one of them has ever come out alive.

But now the situation is different. The first batch of recovered patients, under Lud's instructions, walked out of the quarantine zone. Their appearance gave the previously fearful people hope. It turned out that a cure had been found! Not only were people at ease, but they also regained some confidence in the lord.

Many residents in the city were curious about what exactly this so-called "Health Bureau" that appeared repeatedly in the announcements was. Before this, the official system of the territory, like other noble fiefdoms in the kingdom, mainly used an "assistant system." The lord held absolute power, but would appoint a special assistant to help with the lord's daily management of certain matters.

The "departmental system" was used by the southern empires. The two sides are different in size and national conditions, so there is really nothing to compare.

The first thing this department did after its establishment was to integrate all medical resources in the entire Oyster Harbour, including all the human and material resources needed for the fight against the epidemic, and to have them managed and allocated by the Health Bureau.

Therefore, at least nominally, all doctors and priests currently located within the Viscount's territory must obey the Health Bureau, and major chambers of commerce must also contribute money and supplies to help Oyster Harbor overcome its difficulties.

However, feudal society was not modern. While lords held supreme power within their fiefdoms, this power was limited to the common people, not to privileged classes such as religious figures or local tycoons. Therefore, the establishment of the Health Bureau served this purpose: to bring all relevant individuals into a "group" for joint consultation.

To put it bluntly, the viscount gains the help of religious forces and capitalist groups by delegating certain powers. Foreign religious sects can use the way of joining the health bureau to reintegrate their influence into Oyster Harbor and obtain official recognition from the lord.

Of course! Rights and obligations go hand in hand. Each sect must maintain public health in its contracted area according to the unified standards of the Health Bureau and assist the lord in supervising the people in the territory. Those who do not do a good job will be held accountable!

As a result, Evanlus and his cult of the Four Seasons undoubtedly became the biggest losers in this crisis, caught in a dilemma.

Not joining the Health Bureau means not supporting Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, putting oneself at a moral disadvantage and making one easily swayed by others.

Joining the Health Bureau is tantamount to acknowledging the institution and being subject to the lord's constraints and jurisdiction in the future. The Church of the Four Seasons, which was originally the dominant one in Oyster Harbor, became one of the seven affiliated churches, because all these conditions were clearly written in the membership agreement.

To facilitate the establishment of the health bureau, Lu De worked tirelessly behind the scenes, visiting a large group of people. With his silver tongue and some small gifts that no one would refuse, he successfully persuaded everyone to help him swindle the Four Seasons Goddess Cult.

The thought that Evan Ruth would be unhappy made everyone extra happy!

Having settled all that, Lude's next task was to focus entirely on fighting the epidemic. After joining the Health Bureau, the Medicine God Cult took over a large area of ​​the city, including East Street, covering about one-seventh of the district, and promised to accept all infected people. The Lord's Guard and other cults that were also taking action were sending people to his location from afar. The number of patients doubled in just three days, exceeding six thousand.

To accommodate such a large number of patients, Ludwig mobilized a large workforce to renovate and refurbish the existing buildings on East Street. The former slum was being transformed into a large hospital at an astonishing pace.

But the ensuing problem is a shortage of manpower.

Fortunately, at this time, the second batch of reinforcements led by Winnipeg arrived at Oyster Harbor by ship. The dwarven priest brought a force of 1,500 men, which greatly relieved the pressure on Lud's side.

"Fellow believer Ludd, I'm here to help!"

The dwarven high priest Winnig converted to the Three Goddesses of Crafts last year, and because they belong to the Pantheon, their relationship is closer and more secure than that of other sects that have temporarily formed alliances of interest.

After the two sides met, Winnig excitedly introduced the manpower and supplies he had brought, but the old dwarf soon noticed that Lud looked unwell, his voice sounded a little hoarse, and he kept coughing, so he couldn't help but ask with some concern.

"Brother, what's wrong with you?"

"Cough cough... It's nothing. I've been busy with work these past few days and haven't had enough rest. Don't worry, I'll take care of my health. Come with me! I'll show you the hospital we've built."

End of this chapter

In this era of widespread ignorance, religious belief is like a double-edged sword that can influence people's hearts; whether it incites or appeases depends entirely on the user's thoughts and purposes.

The newly established health bureau gained immense prestige among the general public as soon as it was established, thanks to the joint support of six religious sects. It even seemed to surpass the prestige of the lords.

Lu De, due to his "high moral character and prestige" and his rich experience in fighting the epidemic, was elected by the representatives of various religions as the first director of the health bureau.

Interestingly, when it came to the position of bureau chief, most of the representatives initially focused on vying for it. But then Viscount Maup suddenly stepped forward and demanded that the bureau chief sign a "military order" to end the epidemic within sixty days. The previously fiercely contested religious representatives suddenly fell silent, looking at each other and no longer vying for the position.

Only Ludwig stepped forward under these circumstances, so everyone simply went along with it and made him the "first to stick his neck out".

Upon officially assuming office, Lude immediately issued a series of orders, swiftly uniting all the priests in Oyster Harbor, except for those of the Four Seasons Goddess Cult, to form a joint medical team to treat patients and set uniform prices for treatment.

Mild cases cost three gold coins, severe cases cost five gold coins.

In reality, this price is quite high. Although Oyster Harbor is a wealthy place and the common people are much richer than in other regions, they can at most eat and dress warmly. Families that can afford to spend three or five gold coins probably don't even reach one-tenth of the total.

However, this price was only the nominal base price. Ludwig then came up with many other clever ways to offer discounts to the lower classes.

The Health Bureau first advanced one gold coin for the treatment of each infected patient in the name of Lord Viscount Maup. Secondly, it allocated funds from the donations of several wealthy merchants in the city to a medical fund, advancing another gold coin for each patient's consultation fee. Finally, the various religious sects affiliated with the Health Bureau pooled their resources to reduce the cost of treatment by half a gold coin for each patient.

Of these three sums of money, the money contributed by the lord and the various churches is fictitious, merely a set of numbers existing only in the accounts, intended to save face for all parties.

Ludwig knew the nature of religious figures very well; expecting them to treat patients for free was utterly impossible. If he were to force them to lower prices or waive fees for the poor, the alliance, which was originally bound by interests, would crumble in an instant due to conflicting interests.

But Lude also knew that the reason these charlatans priced their magic so high was essentially to raise their own status, just like some so-called famous wines, which aim to create a luxury brand image so that the rich can enjoy the feeling that "the poor can't afford it".

So Lude followed these guys' line of thinking and imitated the tactics of some Earth e-commerce platforms.

In this way, the actual treatment cost was reduced to fifty silver coins per person for mild cases and two and a half gold coins per person for severe cases.

Even so, there were still people in the city who couldn't afford medical treatment, so Ludwig came up with two more ideas.

First, there's a "believer discount": believers who join the six sects can receive an additional 10% discount on their consultation fees after the initial waiver. Furthermore, it doesn't matter if you weren't originally a believer; during your treatment, you can simply have any priest from the joint medical team perform a baptism ceremony, and you'll be considered a believer.

Secondly, there is the "work-for-pay" system, where patients who cannot afford to pay can sign a volunteer contract to receive treatment first. According to the contract, after the patient recovers, the affiliated sect has the right to recruit them as volunteers to work for them. Depending on the intensity of the work, the labor fee ranges from one to three silver coins per day until the outstanding medical fees are paid off.

To prevent individuals from defaulting on their obligations or sects from arbitrarily recruiting volunteers and disrupting people's normal lives, the contract also clearly stipulates that volunteers must work no less than 30 days and no more than 100 days per year, and that a single recruitment period cannot exceed seven days. The contract also states that the church to which the volunteer belongs will be responsible for any work-related injuries, etc.

In short, Lude's series of measures satisfied all parties.

The Viscount's reputation was salvaged, finally rebounding from rock bottom, and order in the territory quickly returned to stability; the gloom was dissipating.

The common people also benefited. People no longer feared the quarantine zone. As long as they felt something was wrong with their body, they would come to the quarantine zone on their own, without the lord's guards having to come to their door to arrest them.

I didn't come before because I was afraid of dying, but now I'm taking the initiative because I want to live!

The various sects that joined also benefited. If the previous nomination of Lu De as the head of the health bureau was merely a matter of following the trend and wanting him to take responsibility, then with Lu De's series of actions, everyone was left with nothing but heartfelt admiration and a comfortable feeling of being led by a big shot.

In particular, the "believer discount" policy proposed by Ludd was something that no one had ever thought of before. It turns out that recruiting believers can be done in this way!

Because the policy clearly states that it can be stacked based on the number of people, meaning that as long as you can get nine people to join the church with you, the treatment costs will be completely waived, and you won't even have to be a volunteer.

As a result, a frenzy of conversion swept through the city. Many patients' families rushed to join the church, and in just three days, the six affiliated sects gained tens of thousands of new local believers. These people may not have been particularly devout, but the effect of attracting new members was exceptionally significant.

All the sects collectively leaned back in tactical retreat in admiration of Master Lud's brilliant move, while only the Four Seasons Goddess sect, which had been marginalized, was gritting its teeth and suffering losses.

Because Evanrus had previously used the excuse of "needing to consult the main temple" to temporarily not join the health bureau, they could only watch longingly from the sidelines while others enjoyed the food and drink the soup.

Before this, the Church of the Four Seasons was the largest local sect in Oyster Harbor, with approximately 30,000 baptized followers. This number was quite considerable, even considering that baptism in the Church of the Four Seasons required payment, and it was the result of Evanrus's efforts over the past three years.

Evanrus had thought that by taking advantage of the pandemic crisis, he could successfully carry out the sacrificial ceremony and increase the number of baptized believers to more than 50,000, which would be his capital to return to the main palace in the capital. However, the appearance of Ludwig seriously ruined his opportunity and directly stole the meat that was about to be in his mouth.

That's 10,000 people in three days! Even if they're all casual believers, the faith they can generate can accumulate into a tower. Most importantly, this gives the six sects a foothold in the local area, and I simply can't drive them out of Oyster Harbor in a short time.

Whenever he thought of this, Evanlus's hatred for Ludd would intensify. As he ate, he viciously bit into his steak, as if he were tearing Ludd apart.

End of this chapter

"That old man... the steak was so tough..."

After finishing his dinner with a fierce expression, Evanrus wiped his mouth with an expensive silk handkerchief. The nuns who were clearing away the dishes nearby were all silent, afraid that they might accidentally anger the bishop and be summoned to his room for a "sermon" that night.

At that moment, Iria came in from outside the door, indicating that she had something to report. Evanlus immediately waved his hand, and the nuns present, as if granted a pardon, all withdrew.

"What happened?"

"Mentor, you asked me to arrange for spies to keep a close eye on their every move. They just reported two things."

Which two items?

"Firstly, the Health Bureau erected many new notice boards on the streets of the city this afternoon. These boards display a lot of data. They copied a copy for me, which shows the number of infections, recoveries, and deaths, in both cumulative and daily figures, a total of six sets of numbers. They said it will be updated daily."

Why did they release this?

“I’m not entirely sure either, but I’ve heard that the residents are very interested.”

"And what about the other thing?"

"Another matter concerns the priest Rudd, who suddenly collapsed this afternoon while making rounds in the isolation ward. That's the public part. The undisclosed part is that a pharmacist found a slow-acting poison in Rudd's food."

What?!

Upon hearing that Lud had fallen, Evanrus slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly. A hint of joy flashed across his face, but it quickly vanished.

"Iria, did you arrange this?"

"It wasn't me. You instructed me before that we shouldn't rush to take action against Lud himself at this stage, so I only arranged for people to spread rumors."

"Do you know who poisoned it?"

"There is no relevant information yet, but I have already arranged for someone to investigate."

"Yes, you did a great job. Notify me immediately as soon as you have any news."

After listening to Iria's report, Evanrus fell into deep thought, mentally checking who might have poisoned him. At first glance, this seemed like "good news" in his favor, but upon closer examination, he realized that something subtly amiss.

After all, these are extraordinary times, and Lu De, as the first director of the Health Bureau, is currently in the spotlight and under intense public scrutiny. If something were to happen to him at this time, as long as the identity of the murderer remains unclear, everyone would almost certainly suspect him immediately.

The key issue is that Evan Ruth has no way of proving his innocence.

"Damn it! Which bastard did this?"

While Evanrus was racking his brains trying to figure out who the murderer might be, back in the quarantine area, Lud was lying on a soft, comfortable hospital bed, with his female disciple Romian feeding him by his side, her face full of concern.

"Master, are you feeling any better now?"