Scott couldn't afford to watch the barbarians suffer some miserable defeat before realizing their mistake.

He already knew those people - Sao, Dutton, Nutka, Bamp, Hal...... He can't be an indifferent bystander when they're in trouble.

He didn't know if the gods had done it on purpose, but for a long time the barbarian tribes had been fighting each other, swallowing and dividing each other, even though they had the same faith, the same language, the same habits, and the instinct of fighting seemed to have been added to their blood when they were created.

He withdrew his wandering thoughts and set his gaze on the wide ice field. The snow and ice have begun to melt, revealing black ground in many places, but the wind and snow can come again at any time, and it will be at least a month before the winter on the ice fields quietly ends and ushers in the short but warm spring and summer season.

When the ice dragon suddenly began to descend, Scott asked, "Did you find anything?"

The ice dragon always flew very high, and even if someone saw it on the ice field, it might have taken it for a bird, and it always flew to the now empty eastern plains to hunt for unnecessary trouble, even though there was very little prey there.

"That camp," the ice dragon replied, "doesn't look right. ”

Scott looked down and finally found the camp that wasn't too big or too small. As the ice dragon flew closer and closer, he realized that something was wrong.

It didn't look like a temporary settlement, it was much larger than the barbarians' camp, and the tents were very simple, more like camping on the march, and it was supposed to be the army that some tribe had sent to the shores of Deer Lake, but it was afternoon—there was no reason for them to camp at such a time.

When he was close enough to see the people in the camp, Scott couldn't help but lean forward. There were people in the camp, but none of them were moving around, not even standing.

It wasn't like being attacked by the undead. Necromancers always need more golems, if the undead attack here. They don't leave so many corpses behind.

The ice dragon landed smoothly, and before he could lower his head, Scott couldn't wait to jump down and rush to the camp. Before he could go in, he suddenly stopped.

"Stay there, don't come here!" he shouted at the ice dragon, his tone a little nervous.

But the ice dragon had seen what was going on in the camp - people were lying on the ground, or motionless, sitting crookedly on the edge of their tents. The whole camp was silent, not a single living creature, not just the savages, but even their horses had fallen to the ground and died.

It had never seen anything like it, as if death itself had struck the place, and there was no fight. Without a struggle, people were taken without any resistance.

The ice dragon instinctively stopped when Scott stopped it, but soon continued on, following Scott into the camp.

Scott looked up at it helplessly, crouching down to examine each corpse.

They looked like they were sick and dead. Large patches of erythema are all over their bodies. There was no pain or horror on the faces of the people, only a blank feeling as if they had lost their souls before they died.

"Some kind of plague?" the ice dragon asked, knowing only this one of the reasons for this, "but the barbarians have never been infected with any plague, and they almost never get sick. ”

"Not an ordinary plague. Scott sighed, he had seen something like that in some of the villages of Anktan. He can heal these people too, if he hadn't come too late. He didn't find anything particularly strange about the disease until he met Fili Zeri in Miaz-Weiss.

Fili tells him that neither the paladins nor the priests of the god of water can resist the disease, but the priests of Nesses are able to treat them, although those who are cured will lose some of their memories, and many people will become followers of Nessas. That had made Fihrin suspect that the plague had something to do with Nesses, the new god who had sprung up out of nowhere.

But Scott knew that wasn't. Nesses may not be a good god, but he will not increase the number of believers in this way, not to mention that the barbarians do not believe in God at all, so what is the use of letting them get sick and die?

- Necromancer. That was the only reason he could think of. But again, he didn't know how they did it. It may not be difficult to create a plague, but to create a plague where even the paladins of the god of water will be infected and lose their memories little by little? What did Lydia find and lose from the underground of Ankeland to do such a terrible thing?

"Is...... You'll have to see if there's anyone around you who have escaped, these people haven't been dead for long, and they shouldn't be able to escape far. Live or die, you have to bring them back, and they are likely to infect other people. ”

If it is discovered by other barbarians, it may cause a new misunderstanding, but it can't be so much now.

The ice dragon spreads its wings and is about to take off when Scott stops him again.

"I don't know if the dragon will be infected...... though he pressed his hand to the ice dragon's body and whispered a simple incantation. The Ice Dragon had always wondered why Scott's spells were in dragon language, but if Scott wasn't going to tell him, he wouldn't ask again. The habit that I unconsciously developed when I was a child is difficult to change even now.

It circled low in circles, only to recover two bodies that had not traveled far on the muddy ground after the snow had melted, and flew back to camp to see the golden-red flames it had seen before engulfing the entire camp.

The ice dragon threw the two corpses into the fire as well, and landed a little farther away, and Scott, who had been standing motionless and staring at the flames, still turned vigilantly, his gaze slowly softening the moment he saw it.

"Come on, Is. He walked over to it, "We need to warn the others." ”

The ice dragon hesitated.

"They won't believe you. "They may even suspect that you did it." ”

Scott looked back at the ashes that remained—he couldn't leave any evidence, it would only infect more people, and he wasn't sure if he could actually treat it. Who knows how many surprises Lydia will bring them?

"At least Dutton and the Scooters will believe it. "They have to be vigilant...... I could sneak into the camp and have Sio summon their ancestors again, as I did last time, and those spirits can always reveal something, if not by saying it explicitly. ”

"Well, even if they believe it," said the ice dragon, "it won't work, you know. ”

Scott fell silent. It really didn't work, he didn't even know how the necromancer used to infect these people, and what to make the barbarians careful? Their ancestors could only give them some kind of spiritual support, which was of little use in this case.

If the barbarians had all been gathered in the same camp, he could have stayed there and helped at any time, but now the situation is that different tribes are still living in different camps, more than three days apart at the farthest distance, and more people are still on the way...... No matter where he stays, he can't take care of everyone.

"Maybe we should stay here. Scott said, "If this is really the necromancer's doing, they should return it." The dead are ...... All used to be strong warriors, and they don't waste these corpses. ”

"Maybe it won't come back. "If they can do this...... They could have more corpses. ”

“...... What the hell are you trying to say, Iss?" asked Scott, somewhat confused, who rarely objected so explicitly to every idea he had.

The ice dragon hung its head and was silent for a moment.

"Nothing. It said, "I'll take you to Benlu's camp." ”.

"I've heard that dragons never lie, they don't disdain it. Lydia's regretful voice sounded not far away, "Is, have you been tainted by human hypocrisy?"

The ice dragon roared, showing a bit of panic. Scott's hand tightened for a moment, then let go. Turn as calmly as you can and face Lydia.

The sword was of little use to a mage like Lydia—and the one that appeared in front of him was still an apparition, as if she were floating on the snow, not stuck in the slightest.

"Did you do this?" he asked, the golden-red flames reflecting his pale blue eyes, "just to bring us here?"

"Oh, that's one of the purposes. Lydia tilted her head nonchalantly, "You're looking for me, aren't you?"

Scott gritted his teeth, unable to control the anger that had sparked him—the lives of nearly a hundred people, but had been so lightly taken away, as if their meaning were nothing more than a bunch of beacons of information.

"Don't look at me like that. The mage ruffled her hair casually, "It's not my fault. I've been waiting for Isis to bring you directly to me, but you won't come. I'm busy, Scott, but I can't just wait. Speaking of which, where has the half-elf gone?" she looked left and right, "I have prepared herbal tea for him." ”

Scott looked at the ice dragon—its wings tucked tightly at its sides, and it sat there with its head bowed and upright, nervous like a child who knew he had done something wrong.

Obviously, it had something to hide from him, but he could have settled this later.

"What the hell do you want to do, Lydia?" he asked.

"I want to ask you the same question. Scott, what the hell do you want to do?" the female mage's smile rested on her face like a mask, "Kill me?"

"No!" Scott blurted out, "I just want to ...... Stop you. ”

"Then you can only kill me. Lydia sneered, "But you can't. Even though a hundred corpses are being burned to ashes at my hands, do you still think that I will be able to go astray, weep bitterly and confess my sins and ask the gods for forgiveness?"

Scott looked pale at the flame that was about to be extinguished, unable to deny everything Lydia said.