Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks-Chapter 365 - 54: Change

Jeanne felt like she was incredibly unlucky.

She had just returned to the manor and discovered that Prajna, Furin, and Chelina had already been summoned by Losa and left for outside the city to resolve the root of this disaster.

She also wanted to hurry and join them.

But she didn’t expect the plague to break out so quickly.

The manor where the old soldiers temporarily resided was the first to encounter the rat swarm.

Even though she had already issued warnings, how could mere humans defend against a rat swarm? No matter how strong the city walls were, there would always be flaws, and if that wasn’t enough, they could dig through.

Luckily, she was in the manor and directly used the Holy Flame to purify the rats into nothing but white bones.

Being delayed like this, she lost the thought of heading outside the city.

Because she definitely couldn’t catch up, and without Anna’s emblem to communicate, she didn’t know where Losa and the others were, let alone talk about meeting up.

She was just waiting in the manor.

Jeanne could hear the commotion from not far away.

Some neighboring manors evidently also encountered the rat swarm, emitting screams and the sounds of flesh being gnawed.

In some places, fires were raging.

...

In the city of Constantinople, the plague had already begun to spread in a large area, with many pedestrians on the street coughing violently, possibly even coughing up blood after covering their mouths.

Under a pile of houses in the outer district, there was a loud bang.

The houses collapsed directly.

Countless plague rats, covered with pustules, swarmed out, attacking any human on sight, leaving nothing but clean white bones after them.

The elite soldiers, clad in helmets and armor, had no solution against these rats and, encumbered by their armor, couldn’t escape and were soon caught and devoured one by one.

This disaster struck so suddenly. Fortunately, the Varangian Guard Count Commander on the wall acted promptly, smashing fire pots on the ground, creating a wall of fire which made the frenzied rats halt.

But as the fire gradually diminished,

the halted rats became more and more restless.

Soon, maddened, they leaped through the flames, setting their fur ablaze with burning oil, still pouncing towards the fresh flesh.

The faces of the soldiers defending the city were filled with despair.

They were the elite of the Varangian Guard, unafraid to confront enemies, be they the Sassan Undead Army, the Crusader Knights, or the Saracen Mamluks.

But their enemies were a swarm of rats.

Yet in the next moment, just as the rat swarm was about to overwhelm the Varangian Guard, all the rats suddenly turned into black ash, disappearing with a bang.

As if they had never appeared.

But the soldiers, looking at the remains of their comrades that the rats had consumed, leaving only armor and metal parts of weapons, knew all too well this was no mirage.

"Heavenly Father protect us."

The Count Commander was the first to kneel, praying devoutly.

This was a miracle; the Heavenly Father used divine power to prevent a terrifying disaster that could have destroyed the entire Constantinople.

In the city,

people who were coughing violently suddenly felt a weight lifted from their chests, with the previously heavy feeling miraculously disappearing.

They looked at the black pustules on their arms, which had already begun to fade, touching the skin to find a layer of dried skin flaking off, leading them to cheer.

"Under the protection of the Heavenly Father!"

"This is the will of God!"

...

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Constantinople, in Philorn,

in a mansion,

a vampire housekeeper, with a pale face, was leisurely wiping the bloodstains from his hands.

Though most of the mighty in Philorn had fled when the Crusaders approached, some stayed behind.

Before, they behaved themselves, but upon hearing that Lord Losa had taken troops to sea and left the Holy Land, and that Governor Adil intended to advance east, their ambitions swelled.

In recent days, there has been frequent correspondence with various factions, but little did they know all their actions were right under Kurs’s nose.

When he came with intercepted letters, those local magnates, along with their families and servants, tried to kill Kurs and start a rebellion.

But they were no match for Kurs.

Andreas cautiously stepped over a corpse lying across the threshold, frowning deeply at the scene of carnage: "Master Kurs, isn’t this a bit too much?"

Kurs casually tossed a blood-stained cloth onto a corpse’s face: "Conspiracy and rebellion, isn’t it a capital crime everywhere?"

Andreas said gravely: "But such matters should be reported to the Lord for a decision."

Kurs frowned.

He looked at Andreas, seemingly disappointed for a moment before speaking: "The Lord is a kind and merciful ruler; it’s better not to dirty his ears with such matters."

Conspiring for rebellion, even under Losa, was a capital crime, wherein some family members might survive, but all their property would be confiscated.

But in Kurs’s view—rip the grass out along with its roots.

Such dirty work that tarnishes reputation should be handled by people like them, and if word got out, others would only say that he, the Guard Officer of Philorn, was brutal and merciless.

A soft sound suddenly came from behind.

As if something was moving in the cupboard.

Andreas froze for a moment, became alert, and carefully approached the cupboard. Upon opening it, he found a young boy holding an Arabian Straight Sword.

The vampire housekeeper, seeing his terrified expression, sighed: "I was originally thinking of letting you go."

"What a pity, you didn’t hide well enough."

The boy’s face was filled with even more terror as he witnessed this terrifying Crusader demon slaughter his family—he wasn’t human at all!

He muttered tremblingly, "Holy Fire Everlasting, Supreme and Great!"

And then a shadow flashed behind him.

A blood line appeared on his neck, his head tilted, and he ceased to breathe.

Andreas asked curiously: "Master Kurs, did you really intend to let him go?"

"Of course not."

Kurs looked at Andreas and snorted coldly: "I just wanted to find a suitable reason to kill him."

Andreas then showed a look of comprehension, thinking this was indeed the Kurs he knew! If ever Kurs showed mercy to the weak, Andreas would surely suspect he was impersonated by a Faceless Demon.

"Recently, that Governor of Egypt under Saladin seems intent on attacking us, should we write to the Lord to return to the domain quickly?"

Kurs shook his head: "A letter should indeed be written, but do you really think Adil would attack the Lord’s territory in Sinai at this moment?"

"Isn’t it so? The letter made it very clear."

Kurs chuckled: "These small fries could never connect with someone of Adil’s caliber; the correspondence was actually with Rauf’s people."

"He hopes we’ll pay more attention to the threat from Adil, halting the annexation of Shemir."

Andreas mused: "Doesn’t this mean Rauf is really overwhelmed right now?"

"Of course, he’s already at war with Hashim’s so-called ’Holy Lineage’ family, and if we attack from behind, they certainly can’t withstand it."

"Then should we?"

Kurs replied: "This kind of decision should be made by the Lord himself. But to be honest, with Eira Port around, Shemir’s importance to us has greatly diminished. It would be better to manage our current domain well than to expand."

The Lifetree of New Habsburg extends across the East Mediterranean Coast, and in a few years, the entire Transjordan Earl’s Domain might become a flourishing oasis unlike any other on the East Mediterranean Coast.