Chapter 301: The Zebra Summi
Chapter 301: The Zebra Summi: Resurrection
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“Finally! Where were you, what…”
“... what happened to you?”
The circles around Bel’s red, swollen eyes were black and deep. The dispirited prince looked like he hadn’t slept for days, he had probably been crying before he contacted him. His overgrown facial hair was unkempt and untouched. Bel had wanted to say something, but everything died in his throat the moment he saw the stripes on Cillin’s face.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. Just tell me if you need anything,” Cillin replied. The prince of the Blazing Eagle, Bel was unreliable at times, but Cillin had never seen him looking this depressed until now.
“It… it can wait. Cillin, how did you catch the Zebra Virus? And where are you? Are you being treated properly?”
“I’m at the eleventh star region.”
Bel: “...” The eleventh star region was a red zone that might be abandoned at any moment.
A short silence later, Bel asked another question. “That day at Gaga’s cousin’s wedding, you left because of the Zebra Virus, didn’t you?”
Bel clearly knew about the virus. Cillin knitted his eyebrows before asking, “Has the infection spread beyond the eleventh star region?”
“Yes.” Bel pressed a finger to his brow and rubbed. The black circles around his eyes looked darker than ever before.
Bel briefly explained his situation. On the way home from a family visit, his mom suddenly showed signs of illness and saw stripes appearing all over her body. In fact, more than eighty percent of the people on that trip were suffering from the same symptom, and those who hadn’t were isolated and observed just in case they showed symptoms later on.
The queen had left to visit her relatives because she was bored, and neither the king himself nor Bel had acpanied her on her trip. When the steward informed them that she had caught the Zebra Virus, fcomet the king, even the RAS was panicking like never before. At the same time, rumors of the Zebra Virus had begun to spread throughout the empire and warp the people’s perception of the eleventh star region. Everyone was watching their own backs, and the empire’s efforts to assuage their citizens’ fears were mostly ineffective. It was because one of the rumors claimed that the virus was currently untreatable, and those who were unlucky enough to catch it could only wait for death to claim them.
“How’s your mother doing right now?” Cillin asked.
Bel shook his head and said, “Not good. She’s staying in an isolation ward right now, and we aren’t allowed to get close to her at all. Only voice calls and video calls are allowed. But she grows visibly tired if the conversation lasts too long.”
Bel let out a sigh before continuing. “All the medicine the RAS researched could only alleviate the symptoms, not cure the virus. They said they could do it if they found the original pathogen, but no progress had been made on that front so far. My family has mobilized almost everyone we can mobilize, the Royal Guards and the Imperial Guards are searching for it as well, but… Cillin, you…”
Bel hesitated. Cillin was a patient himself, and he knew better than to behave too negatively around him.
“It’s okay, you can ask me anything,” Cillin said.
Seeing that Cillin probably was as nonchalant as he looked, Bel sucked in a deep breath before asking, “The reason I’m contacting you today is because I want to know how we’re really dealing with the virus right now. I trust you to know what you’re talking about, and no one else will give me a straight answer. Tell me, is there really no way to cure the Zebra Virus right now?”