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The trek to the village had been a mix of riding his bicycle, pushing it as he walked, and outright carrying it on his back through the more precarious parts of the trail. It was a pain, as all physical activities were, but nowhere near the headache that was awaiting the class in the village itself.

It… wasn’t the first time Misaiya had ever heard of such symptoms. There had been sketches of a man, not too unlike the one before Camellia now, in some magazine. It had been a particularly disfiguring condition of the skin, characterised by the striking size and appearance of the warts found on sufferers, and fortunately one that was not known to be transmittable. But Misaiya was no physician. A proper, expert diagnosis would be needed to confirm anything. For now, he thought it best to play safe.

[color=GRAY]“I agree with Alberta on that count. Ankaa, please wait. Disease or curse, if it is a contagion, it will do no-one any good to have more infected. We can speak to him from right here.”[/color]

Misaiya kept his distance, gripping his pole as if ready to use it. Since it was a rural area, the local dialect would probably be more conservative, right? So a more old-fashioned way of speaking…

[color=GRAy]“Hail fellow, well met! We come from the city. What manner of ill fortune has befallen you and your village?”[/color]

Was Misaiya expecting a response? Perhaps. Would it be a [i]verbal[/i] response? There was cause for doubt. If magic was involved, for all he knew the whole class could already have fallen into a trap. Call it solipsistic, but perhaps this was all an illusion and he was actually already dying, living out his last moments in total psychosis. It certainly didn’t seem impossible. Oh well.

His classmates were bringing up all sort of suggestions. Yvaine could heal wounds, yes, he knew that first-hand. But disease was a different manner, and healing one as unknown as this would be risky at best, even if she were able. As for investigating the village… he had a couple reservations.

[color=GRay]“Just my two cents: this is beyond our scope and ability. We came to arrest two fugitives, but are now faced with a major unknown. A possible epidemic. There are only fourteen of us, and none familiar with this place or its people. Heading in blind will expose ourselves to any potential pathogens, and leave us open to ambush in unfavourable terrain, be it from Sice and Pictor or some third party.”[/color]

It didn’t sound very courageous. ‘Cowardly’ may not have been an entirely wrong way of describing Misaiya right now, although he would rather go with ‘cautious’.

[color=Gray]“I think it would be best to hunker down in a defensible position, and contact the guard and the academy, call for back-up. The situation has escalated. So too should the response.”[/color]