The harmful effects of arsenic on the human body were well-known from numerous incidents in the world I was once from.
The colourless, tasteless, and odourless poison which existed universally in nature had been frequently used for assassination throughout history. Evidence suggests that Emperor Napoleon's death may have been caused by arsenic poisoning.
Arsenic was often mentioned in mystery novels, but since arsenic remains in the body and can be easily detected, it is quickly revealed. Another name for arsenic was 'the patient poison'.
An important thing to note here is that the notion of 'gradually consuming poison to build resistance against it' is a myth.
Everything has a lethal dose.
If you drink a little bit of poison every day, it will accumulate in your body little by little and when it exceeds a certain amount, the symptoms will appear and eventually lead to death. You cannot increase your tolerance against poison.
The same thing was happening to those who were brought to Kikus Village.
"So, the poison is in the water coming down from the mines."
Giedt summed up what I had explained to him as we were rushing back to the city.
"I think the arsenic from the mine is being slowly eroded by the rain and trace amounts of that have been constantly flowing into the river through the drainage canals. Or it permeated into the ground and became underground water and then is drawn up from the well. They've ingested a little bit of arsenic daily over a long period of time and now they're starting to show symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning."
That explained why the symptoms were more common in the elderly.
Chronic arsenic poisoning was characterized by inflammation of the skin while acute arsenic poisoning leads to death soon after going into shock.
Spots appear on the skin, and it becomes discoloured, it can lead to thickening of the skin causing calluses, and peripheral nerves become inflamed causing a numb sensation in the body. The legs can become necrotic in severe cases.
Arsenic is also harmful to plants.
An experiment was conducted to see the effects of watering plants with water containing arsenic and the leaves of the plants withered.
Soil that has been watered with contaminated water is also contaminated. Although plants won't die depending on the concentration, people shouldn't eat what grows on contaminated soil since the plants could have absorbed some of the arsenic.
But the villages had eaten those plants.
And the people in the city. They had been ingesting arsenic in trace amounts from their food and water for decades.
It might not have been a problem during wartime since people would have died quickly.
It was only during times of peace that this problem surfaced.
"The mountain is full of holes. There may be places where arsenic veins are exposed. That would make it easy for rain to erode it, so if we don't do something about it soon, then it will start affecting the young people too."
"So, what do we do?"
"I'll have to discuss this with the feudal lord."
"Are you going to tell him that the poison that is dripping from his own backyard is killing his people?"
"I'm not going there to pick a fight with him. Just shut up Giedt."
He needs to properly understand this issue.
It could cause a riot if word got out that the lord spoke like Giedt had spoken just now. I need to be very careful.
"Heheh, alright."
Giedt replied curtly, then he didn't really say anything. Did I offend him? Whatever, I'll talk to him later about this. I don't have time to worry about this right now.
I immediately asked to see Lord Dion when I arrived at the mansion. He was in his room doing paperwork.
"――― So, you think the cause is the mine?"
He was surprised to hear my explanation in the cleared-out drawing room but he didn't lose his composure.
"Do you have any proof that the water is poisoned?"
"No, I do not."
I couldn't be sure since I didn't have a test kit.
I could surmise that it is arsenic from the information I have heard and seen.
"If this was an epidemic then there are too many strange things about it. The outbreak didn't happen explosively within a short period of time, but rather it gradually appeared in many places. Additionally, not all members in a household got infected. It is possible that the materials in the mine dissolved in the water and caused bodily harm. This situation will not be resolved if we continue to do nothing and wait."
I even gave a concrete proposal for the feudal lord to take action.
"You should build a reservoir as an emergency measure to stop the water from the mine from flowing out, then you should quickly procure food and water to distribute to the people in the area since mild cases can be cured if those people haven't ingested anymore arsenic. Also, although we are only dealing with arsenic right now, it's highly likely that the wastewater from the smelter contains other toxic metals, so you should temporarily halt operations and build a waste management facility to address this concern. Otherwise, this whole area will become an uninhabitable wasteland."
"… I see."
The feudal lord nodded solemnly, indicating that he understood the seriousness of the situation.
"Have you told anyone else about this?"
"No, not yet. It seemed more appropriate to speak to you first."
"Thank you for your consideration."
"I will prepare a report for the royal court, so I ask you to inform the citizens in a calm and accurate manner. We do not want a riot to break out."
Dion-san was not to blame as long as the pollution problem wasn't something that was commonly known. This isn't something that can be dealt with by blaming someone in the first place.
But now that he had heard about this, he was obligated to tell the people and take action.
"I understand. This is an urgent matter."
The wise feudal lord quickly rose to his feet. I'm glad he understands.
"But first, I have a favour to ask you."
He continued just as I was feeling relieved.
"What is it?"
"If operations in the mine need to be halted for us to deal with the wastewater and other works, then we will need to provide a convincing explanation to the people who are currently working in the mine. I think it would be better for you to explain this to them directly rather than me since it's the first time I've heard of something like this. So, I would like you to go with me to the mine now."
Oh, he's quick.
That's an easy thing to do. I'll go there before I write up my report.
We went outside the mansion and the clouds which had been there in the morning were gathering in the sky.
"What's wrong?"
Giedt was walking behind me and wondered why I had stopped.
"… The weather's going to turn bad soon. Let's hurry up and finish this task."
We quickly headed to the mine.
First, I explained this to the people working at the smelter which was located at the bottom of the mine.
The men who were working there with soot covering their faces had their eyes wide open throughout my explanation, but they didn't interrupt me or seemed terribly upset. Perhaps this was because the feudal lord was standing next to me the entire time.
I was happy that I could go home before the weather took a turn for the worse, but that feeling quickly disappeared since I was asked to go into the mountains and explain it to the miners who were working in the mining areas.
"There's a rest area for the miners up there."
I was told, so we climbed up a different mountain path than the one we climbed last time we were here.
Apparently, the miners sometimes stayed here overnight to work.
I've been climbing up a lot today. Climbing was a lot tougher after riding a horse.
It would have been nice if we had gathered the miners at the smelter to begin with. It's too late to be thinking that now. I have a feeling Dion-san is going to ask me to explain this to the people as well.
"I'm sorry, but I need to take a break."
I was out of breath since we had made it quite far up the mountain.
The feudal lord asked the miner who was guiding us if there was flat land close by and he took us off to a side road and to a flat area. I could have just sat on a stone, you know.
There was a swamp in the open wooded area. It was flat, so the water must have pooled here.
I sat down by the shore since I wanted to see if the murky, opaque water was polluted. The situation would be bad if there were dead fish in the swamp.
But the water was so murky that I couldn't see through it.
"Hmm…"
I stretched my neck above the surface of the water to see if I could see the bottom when a high-pitched sound echoed behind me.
… Huh, what was that?
I fearfully turned my head driven by a sense of uncertainty and saw Giedt's back was very close to me.
And in front of him, also standing close by, was the soldier that the feudal lord had brought with him.
Two blades were crossed between the soldier and Giedt.
… What is happening?
"Get up!?"
My body followed Giedt's sharp command.
In a second, Giedt swiftly deflected the soldier's sword and kicked him away, then someone else lunged at me but I was able to dodge while protecting my back and he dropped into the swamp behind me.
The remaining soldier was holding his sword and trying to keep his distance.
"What are you doing?"
I asked the feudal lord while no one was attacking.
I don't understand this situation at all.
Why are they attacking us?
"You should have gone home after you investigated the magic stones."
The coldness in his voice took my breath away.
The feudal lord's expression was stiff, and he turned his strong gaze towards me.
I knew that gaze.
His eyes clearly showed that he wanted to kill me.