By the time they got dressed and went out to check on the situation, a ‘big crowd’ of a couple dozen people were gathered in front of a green brick house. It was right next to Verna’s place. The Herbalist Shop.

“Uncle Grun, what’s wrong? Is Myrtle okay?”

The tall and muscular man looked down at Oliver with a frown, “Myrl… Well, see for yourself.”

When the two kids made their way around the onlookers, they quickly saw Klein in his Plague Doctor outfit. A young brown-haired, gray-eyed and light-brown skinned woman was holding Myrtle and crying. In the middle of the previously ransacked shop, a man was dangling from the ceiling by a thick noose. His face was contorted and his head was bent to the side, there were lesions and sores all over his naked body. Especially around his swollen neck that was slightly torn open by the rope.

“Ah!” Peridot covered her face and screamed, then looked away quickly.

“Shit! Who did this?!” Oliver was just furious, “Was it the thieves from last time?!”

“Yes. And no.” Klein sighed behind the mask and explained, “In the late stage of the Greenstone Plague, it doesn’t take much to push someone off the edge… Those bastards stole his life savings. This is murder.”

“Murder?!” Someone in the crowd shouted anxiously, “It’s obviously a suicide!”

“Yeah, we all got robbed, but you don’t see us killing ourselves!”

“Who ain’t sick! That bastard Myrl’s always been weak!”

“Shut up! All of you shut the hell up!” Peridot screamed, “Get out of here! Go!”

“Yeah, don’t talk shit about a dead man! You wanna get haunted?! Hahaha~!” Someone else in the crowd shouted and then people started to disperse.

“Myrtle…”

“Peri, no, you can’t go in there!” Oliver quickly grabbed the girl’s skinny arm and pulled her back, trying not to squeeze too hard and break anything.

“Shit!”

“Peri… Peri it’s okay! *Sniffle~!* I don’t want you to get sick too!” Myrtle wiped her bloodshot brown eyes, “You should go check on Uncle Perry! I haven’t seen him in a while…”

“Myrtle… You need to stay strong. Take care of your mother. I’ll go check on that bastard and come back right away!”

“Oliver, you should go-”

“No way!” The boy crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head, “I’m gonna stay here and wait until Klein is finished. It’s not like I have anything else to do.”

“What about mining? Don’t you have to work?” The little girl sniffled a bit and came over to the window to talk. Though they were separated by a pane of glass, the front door was open so the sound still carried very easily.

“Hmph! Those bastards want me to work after trying to kill me yesterday? They can all go to hell!”

“Waaah~!” Myrtle’s mother started crying louder in the background and the little girl covered her ears. Klein wrapped the body in a thick blanket he conjured and cut down the noose with one hand, while holding the corpse with the other. The feces, urine and blood on the ground needed to be cleaned with bleach. No, the whole building had to be ‘cleansed’ as much as possible, but that was something that could be done later.

First he took the corpse out into the backyard. Oliver helped him build a pyre like before. Wearing his full mining outfit with the gas mask, which would hopefully help prevent him from catching anything. After dousing the blanket and body in rubbing alcohol as before, Klein lit a match he found in the shop.

*Voooof~!*

The flames soared quickly, along with thick black smoke and a disgustingly familiar scent. A combination of burning wood and roasting meat…

“I’ll help you clean up the mess.”

“You really shouldn’t be around this shit, Kid. Your Mining gear can’t protect you from the plague.”

“As long as the symptoms aren’t too bad, you can treat them, right?”

“Yeah… But still… My energy is limited. And there are too many patients to treat.”

“I believe you can do it.” Oliver looked up at the tall man and smiled under his mask, “Sooner or later, you’ll definitely figure it out and save everyone.”

“At least… Before you kids grow up, I’m gonna make a vaccine for the Greenstone Plague. I promise.”

The ‘murder investigation’ didn’t go anywhere. The Greenstone Province Police Department couldn’t even be bothered to send investigators and it was ruled a suicide without wasting too much time or effort. As for the burglary case…

Although nobody was caught, the Detectives managed to find the lair of the thieves, where exactly 10,000 gold coins were found in several metal barrels. There was nothing else. The Greenstone Mining Company got their money back, but the credit was already wiped out and everyone except Oliver was too poor to go on strike or protest. 

Myrtle and her mother recovered over time. Their plague symptoms were cured and they got back to work selling mushrooms, herbs and flowers in their small shop. Ironically, without Myrl gambling their money away every weekend, they were doing much better without him. Myrtle’s mother remarried a few months later to Verna’s Bodyguard, Rufus.

Every month, one of the older generation, usually in their 30’s or 40’s, would die from the Greenstone Plague. It was even worse in other villages around the mountainside. It’s not like there weren’t any other Doctors or Plague Doctors, but that they really couldn’t solve the problem at the root. Aside from the villages, even the towns near the mountain were affected.

By the end of the year, Oliver was the only Miner left.

“Oliver, please, forgive me already, okay?! You’re still Mining anyway, why are you so stubborn?! Do you have any idea what’ll happen to me if I can’t meet my quota this month?!”

“You’ll have to go back to working in the mines? What’s the big deal?”

“I’ll die! Okay?! I can’t go back! I’ll never go back to the mines! *Cough-cough~!*” The black-haired, green-eyed woman started hacking up phlegm and spat in the grass nearby. Jessie coughed a few more times and lit a cigarette, taking a few puffs to calm herself down.

“If I lose this job, I can’t even afford to smoke! Look what happened to Jonson after he stopped smoking!”

The 13 year old boy quickly conjured up another mask on his face and complained, “Didn’t he fall down a mine shaft?”

“Exactly! Unlucky bastard stopped smoking for less than a week and kicked the bucket!”

“I’ll start working with Greenstone again when they give me back the gold they stole.”

“I’ve told you a thousand times! We had nothing to do with that burglary incident!”

“Not the gold from my house. The ten thousand dollar gift card for the village.”

“You know they’ll never pay that back! You’re just trying to kill me!”