My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 154

Koschke's biggest concern was whether the corruption would have a terrible impact on sane people... If this problem could be solved, then the rest wouldn't be a big deal.

Thinking of this, Koschei pinched Hela's cheek. Amidst the giggles of the living doll saying, "Aunt Koschei, this tickles!", she already had an idea in mind.

"Oh! Welcome back, Lord Yang Hao... and Ms. Sonia."

And it was at this moment that Yang Hao returned. Head Maid Monica immediately ran over to greet him.

He returned exhausted with Sonia.

"Welcome back, dear."

"dad--!"

Kosiché and Hela, whom she held in her arms, greeted the exhausted Yang Hao.

When his wife and children greeted him, Yang Hao could only manage a weary smile.

“I really want to lie down in bed and get a good night’s sleep right now… By the way, Kosichev—I’ve taken care of the resettlement of the residents in the salient area. Next, that area will be temporarily converted into barricades, and the underground space will be temporarily closed off. Is that alright?” He urged Monica to hurry up and prepare dinner. He was so tired and hungry, even though Ms. Sonia beside him seemed quite normal.

"Of course, no problem... Come and sit down first. You're too tired."

"There's no other way; it's necessary to obtain this..."

He muttered something, and with Sonia's help, he walked to his throne and sat down. He then raised an eyebrow at the table in front of the throne.

"Was this moved here temporarily?"

“Yes.” Kosiché nodded, pointing to the intelligence report above, indicating that Yang Hao might need something there. “Why don’t you look at it after you’ve rested? Sigh… you look exhausted. Ms. Sonia, could you get him some drinks?”

"That's exactly what I was planning to do."

Ms. Sonia hurried away. She was in a hurry to bring back a drink for her exhausted child.

And just after Sonia's mother, who was worried about her son, left, Hela jumped from Koschie's lap to Yang Hao's lap. Yang Hao looked at his naughty and cute doll daughter, and after a slight twitch of his lips, he picked up the naughty child and gestured for her to sit on his lap, but said that Daddy was too tired and needed to be quiet.

Hela covered her mouth and nodded. Yang Hao touched her forehead with satisfaction. Then, he picked up the intelligence on the table, carefully reviewed it, and said to Koschich:

"We are prepared for war, but it seems that Her Majesty Catherine is in trouble."

"Why didn't she send me a message?" Kosich blinked, wondering if this was a notification popped up by Yang Hao himself through [Puppet Stage].

No matter how you look at it, this ability is really useful—she sighed, while patiently waiting for news from her beloved husband.

Meanwhile, sensing the expectation emanating from Kosichek, Yang Hao's lips twitched slightly:

"The town Her Majesty the Emperor attacked showed signs of corruption—her soldiers became incredibly weak the moment they stepped onto its surface, as if they had been infected with a plague. So she doesn't intend to preserve the city; she plans to destroy everything."

"Leaving aside the rest for now, [corruption]... do you mean this?"

Kosichrie paused for a moment, then pointed to a photograph on the table.

Yang Hao looked in the direction she was pointing and found that it was a photograph documenting a city corrupted by blood and flesh.

Chapter 83

8 month 8 day.

When Kal'tsit woke up the moment the morning sunlight streamed into her room, she instinctively reached for the medical kit beside her, but instead grabbed nothing and ended up grabbing her own blanket.

In that instant, she remembered that the refugees had been admitted and treated, and that she had now returned to her residence and was finally able to get a good night's sleep.

"...Phew, how long has the city been moving today? I reckon we can probably see Duke Nikolai's army formation from the defensive walls by now..."

Kal'tsit shook her head, muttering to herself as she got up and finished washing up. Before leaving the room, she glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 6:30 a.m.

It's still too early—but it doesn't matter. Work is always so demanding; if you start working at 8 a.m. like everyone else, there will never be a day when the workload will lessen.

So, after a simple, hearty, and healthy breakfast at the restaurant, Kal'tsit traveled to the Oripathy Research Institute in the infected area. She had to conduct research on Oripathy that morning, and then work at the infected clinic next door that afternoon—thanks to the generous funding and materials provided by the two dukes! Without so many resources and rare materials, and without the well-equipped research facilities here, perhaps Kal'tsit wouldn't have been able to quickly develop a drug that was even remotely effective for the infected?

Um...

She arrived at the research institute carrying a file folder. There, Großwazel was already sitting on a sofa in the lobby, working on his tasks.

Good morning, Grovazel.

"Ah—good morning, Ms. Kal'tsit."

Grovazel didn't look up, but after a brief greeting, continued working intently. Kelsey walked up behind him and glanced at the documents he was working on. Her brow furrowed when she saw the heading related to the "Infected Militia Division."

"Groivazl, what's this?"

"Hmm? Oh—you mean this—because our duchy has entered a state of general mobilization, many infected people have spontaneously formed militias to assist us in the upcoming war. However, they are untrained, and our equipment production here has to focus on supplying more experienced troops...so a large number of them can only be used as reserve soldiers. The best-equipped among them are the former veterans, who have uniforms and sabers—but many more don't even have weapons and can only come with hammers and wrenches."

“Those people are completely incapable of going to the battlefield. If we rashly send them to the front lines, it will only be sending them to their deaths.”

"But the problem is, if we can't hold out on the front lines, many people will die too."

"...That's true."

Kal'tsit had never been involved in any military-related work within the Dukedom of Kosichä. Although she knew that the Ursus Empire was engaged in a civil war between the Holy Stone Party and that the military problems facing the duchy were urgent, she really didn't know what would happen if Duke Nikolai occupied the city.

She had only heard rumors, some of which were likely highly unreliable—things like Duke Nikolai had gone mad and started building his army by killing his own people. How to put it? Kal'tsit admitted that such a possibility existed, but what if it was just the result of some people's distorted perceptions and exaggerations?

Without seeing concrete evidence or hearing highly credible statements, she remained skeptical... but whatever.

She shook her head, briefly inquired about the military situation with Grovazel, and then returned to her workplace. If all went well, she should finish work around noon for lunch, then head to the infected clinic in the afternoon. But an unexpected event occurred—around 12:10 PM, she hadn't even settled into her seat on the sofa in the lobby, hadn't even picked up her lunchbox… when Duke Yang Hao arrived with his guards.

Was he here to inspect the progress of the work? Just as Kal'tsit was puzzled by this, she saw Duke Yang Hao walk over.

“Ms. Kal'tsit, I’m sorry, but we may have to temporarily suspend your research.” He looked somewhat weak for some reason and apologized to Kal'tsit first: “We need you to research something... something that will be used on a large scale in the upcoming war—it’s extremely important. And you are the only truly capable researcher in our duchy that we can ask for your help.”

"...Leaving aside the matter of interrupting the Oripathy medication, what exactly is the purpose of your research?" Kal'tsit frowned, rising from the sofa to approach her, hoping to see what she needed to research—rather than simply offering a few words and leaving her to guess the target while she studied thin air. "Furthermore, Mr. Yang Hao, your physical condition is truly..."

“Ah, you don’t need to worry too much about my health. What I need you to research is this.” He chuckled awkwardly, took a photograph from his pocket, and handed it to Kal’tsit in front of him: “Duke Nikolai’s city has been corrupted by flesh and blood—those things are contagious. Although we have the ability to stop them from spreading to our city, we still need to research inexpensive supplies that can completely remove those corrupting substances.”

"...These things?"

"Yes, these are the things."

Kal'tsit flipped through the photos in her hand. She looked at the shadow of the city engulfed in flesh and blood, at the city control tower that had become some kind of grotesque tower of flesh and blood... her brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

"I have a question for you—Mr. Yang Hao, what happened on the Nikolai Duchy?"

"Hmm? Haven't you heard about this from anyone else?"

“I’ve heard a little about it. But I don’t know the actual situation. And what the refugees are saying is just too confusing.”

“I see… Let me put it simply: Duke Nikolai killed almost all of his subjects, and his soldiers have undergone severe biological mutations. He appears to be performing a blasphemous ritual, but because he doesn't have enough materials, he's set his sights on our city. Do you understand?”

"...I understand. I will take the job, and I will give you a preliminary plan in two days at the latest."

Kal'tsit nodded, accepting the task, and finally gained a clear understanding of the current situation in Ursus.

Chapter 84

After accepting the task from the Duke, Lady Kal'tsit quickly had lunch with Mr. Grovazel and Duke Yang Hao before heading to the clinic with her plan and pen. She intended to work on her plan while treating the infected. She needed to carefully study the true nature of the decaying flesh in the photographs before presenting her initial findings to gain the support of the two lords.

However, simply observing from photographs is far too difficult. Therefore, Lady Kal'tsit needs Duke Yang Hao's assistance—whether it's obtaining some specimens or something else, she needs more information, really.

“If you need more information, I do have some—any normal person who sets foot in those corrupted areas will become weak and powerless, as if they have contracted the plague. Although they will quickly recover after leaving the area, the problem is that those things spread faster than we thought. And they are afraid of fire and have a high concentration of alcohol.”

"Is this intelligence obtained by your soldiers?"

"No, it's bad news from His Majesty the Emperor's main force."

"Hmm... So, in general, this should be a rapidly spreading colony, like a fungus, only it appears as a fleshy, bloody creature? If it can be threatened by high concentrations of alcohol and flames, it might be easier to deal with than I thought."

"But the problem is, it has to be cheap—if every square meter of corrupted land requires pure Originium to clean up, then I might as well just let them get completely corrupted and then burn them down. I need the cheapest items possible to clear out areas that might become corrupted in the future. After all, if mobile cities can be preserved, it's better to preserve them as much as possible."

"That's true."

Ms. Kelsey wrote down her ideas on a piece of paper. For some reason, there were unexpectedly few patients visiting the clinic for the infected today.

The Duke, standing to the side, sighed and said that perhaps it was because the infected's patriotism was too strong; most of them, feeling their days were numbered, chose to join the militia or reserve militia, ready to join the war at any time. In this situation, those patients who had to receive treatment for Oripathy naturally wouldn't return—because they had already enlisted.

Upon hearing this, Kal'tsit's brows furrowed even more.

“They are patients, Mr. Yang Hao. Although I can understand why—sending patients to the battlefield might actually create chaos in the entire war effort.”

“But they can’t be considered patients, Ms. Kal’tsit. What do you think the vast majority of infected people are compared to those with tuberculosis, cancer, or the plague or the Black Death?”

Yang Hao shook his head with a wry smile, gesturing for the guards to leave. Kal'tsit, facing Yang Hao's explanation and questions, simply put down her pen and paper and gave a definite answer:

"He is a patient."

"Perhaps that's true from your perspective... but from my perspective, aside from the fact that they have an incurable terminal illness, the vast majority of infected people are just ordinary people—I mean, I can't really look at them entirely from the perspective of patients. They are still able to work, can still go to factories to work, and can even continue to do business and fight—aside from having Oripathy, which is a terminal illness, they are no different from ordinary people in most cases."

He paused for a moment, then emphasized again: "So I really can't treat them as complete patients. They have the right to volunteer for military service, even though we've raised the standards again."

"..."

Faced with Yang Hao's statement and key points, Kal'tsit fell silent. After a moment, she sighed, turned to look at Yang Hao, and gazed at him with her green eyes. "To be honest, you are the first lord I've met in Ursus who so openly regards the Infected as his [people] rather than his property. At least that's how it seems now."

Kal'tsit reached this conclusion after a long period of investigation.

The infected settlement in the Duchy of Koschche is not a flesh and blood factory or a place for biological experiments. In some ways, the infected living in the settlement even have a higher standard of living than the people in the outside city. At least the infected residents receive a free full-body check-up almost every month or two due to their special circumstances, while ordinary residents outside need to wait six months or a year for a check-up, depending on their workplace benefits or at their own expense.

In addition, the Duchy of Koschche did not deliberately differentiate between infected and normal people.

Throughout the schools already established in the Dukedom of Kosichä—though few truly qualified teachers have been recruited—it's clear from Kal'tsit's research on the teaching materials that the duchy's education system doesn't exclude the infected from the ranks of "normal people." The materials clearly explain the differences between the infected and normal people, outlining precautions for interacting with the infected, and specifying items that ordinary people cannot share with the infected...

The only thing missing is an explanation of why Duke Kosiché treats the infected so well, or rather, why it was already explained on the first page of the textbook:

"【...None of us are more noble than the infected.】This sentence, which is written in your teaching materials, if it were known to the whole world...no, just to the other nobles of Ursus, you and Ms. Koschei might be attacked by everyone."

"Hahaha, I consider myself an objective egalitarian. I believe in the differences between individuals, but I don't believe that two classes that are clearly both citizens can be more noble than each other—as for those nobles? To hell with them."

Duke Yang Hao curled his lip, seemingly not taking the other nobles seriously. Kal'tsit couldn't help but find it amusing: a duke of the Ursus Empire, plus his wife, made two dukes in total.

The two dukes actually wanted to overturn the cage that the entire Ursus, or even the entire world, had set up for the infected.

This is harder than trying to hold up a heavy, collapsing city gate with your own shoulders. This is a wilder idea than the wildest idealism.

"Objectively speaking, I think it would be very difficult for you to change Ursus, or the world." She shook her head and smiled, picking up her pen and paper again to continue working. "And although I am very happy with your ideas, the problem is that it is destined to be a difficult road."

"Those who came before us paved the way, so those who come after us can follow. We may not be able to deliver the changes we envision to the world immediately, but at least we can do it little by little."

"But your successor may not think that way."

“Haha, of course I understand that—but Ms. Kal'tsit, do you think it’s possible for someone to achieve something like this if they live for a thousand years and dedicate themselves to this great ideal?” Yang Hao simply smiled at Kal'tsit’s objective statement. After all, he knew very well that objectively speaking, it was indeed true, but Kal'tsit was unaware of his plan. “To achieve equality for the infected is a great ideal that is almost impossible for mortals… but what if I said it really is possible?”

He will live forever in this world. Not only to be with his wife and wait for Margarita to grow up, but also to realize his dream—he wants to completely unify the people of this planet, solve the psionic problems left by his predecessors, and then build a utopian ideal city while opening up a space route to the stars.

Fighting to the death on a single planet and consuming its resources just for internal strife is simply not worth it! Although humanity is essentially a species that constantly fights and wages war for resources, why can't we take a longer-term view?

In the vast ocean of stars, a single meteorite might possess mineral resources richer than a nation's, and mineral-rich meteorites are everywhere in space! So why should we limit ourselves to a single planet?

Even just for energy, isn't the energy from a star more practical than building nuclear power plants all over a planet? And less polluting than Originium? Although Yang Hao wasn't unwilling to acknowledge the power of Originium energy, to be honest...

Compared to a star, the amount of Originium produced on a single planet is truly insignificant.

So... he was a man with great ideals. He planned to spend thousands of years ruling his people alongside Kosiché, giving them education, positive changes, technology, new paths to advancement, a future and happiness, and ideals, all to free the people of this planet from this fate of infighting within the planet.

If anyone verbally objects, he will politely ask them to leave. But if anyone harbors hostility towards the empire he and Kosiché envision, then even if it's the Emperor himself, Yang Hao will have their entire family crushed.

Of course, if possible, it would be best if a few children could accompany them on this great project—after all, how should I put it? Although his children might not inherit his estate even if they died of old age, it doesn't mean Yang Hao is unwilling to give them the opportunity to go out and make a living.

I don't know if modern medical technology can help me solve the problem of low fertility.

He was overthinking things. And to be honest, he himself felt that he might have gone too far—the situation in Ursus wasn't even stable yet.

"...I don't know." Kal'tsit paused, taken aback by Yang Hao's words. She vaguely sensed his audacious idea... but she didn't delve into it. "After all, we've never actually seen such a being. And...forgive my bluntness, but the persecution of the Infected has existed since the very first law in this world. If you want the Infected to be equal to ordinary people, perhaps you need to fight against the oldest evil that has existed in this world since the beginning."

"Haha, perhaps you've already seen it? And so what if persecution appeared early? Some things are inherently evil; are we supposed to accept them as good? As a lord, I have the responsibility to eradicate these ancient evils completely. Although I may not live to see that day, although I may live to see that day, who knows?"

"...Perhaps. In short, I don't think our generation can accomplish such a great feat—at least I don't think Mr. Yang Hao, you will live to see that long ago."

Kal'tsit denied it, but inevitably she admitted that she did indeed have a degree of approval for the ideals the Duke spoke of.

But the question is, this is merely recognition—can this duke truly live up to it? Leaving aside whether he can actually live that long, can he truly fulfill his ideals within his lifetime?

Kal'tsit wasn't sure; all she knew was that it might take a long time to draw a decent conclusion. That was all.

......

At 3 p.m. on the same day, when Yang Hao returned to the Duke's mansion, he felt that he might have to go see Miss Wange as soon as possible and tell her that he would be very busy and that he would not be able to get through this important matter for several months.

"Sigh, I chatted a bit too much over there, and I've only gotten this much work done..." Yang Hao muttered to himself, somewhat annoyed. After taking off his clothes in the changing room, he went into the bathroom and sank into the bathtub, enjoying the soak while reflecting on his actions: "But the army of the Duchy of Nikolai can already be seen far away on the defensive walls. The salient area will probably need another two days to completely complete all the barricades, but before that, will the Duchy of Kosice reach a narrow canyon terrain..."

The Duchy of Koschei's westward expansion and delaying strategy was nearing its end. Their cities were approaching a narrow canyon—a place from which the Duchy of Koschei, even if it separated its four cities, would be unable to pass.

They needed to split into smaller, more scattered groups to cross the canyon, but doing so would inevitably give Duke Nikolai an opportunity.

So that's where the final battle will take place—Yang Hao pondered, using the [Puppet Stage] to observe all the information he could, and finally came to a conclusion: if they were to conduct a defensive operation there, they would definitely win.