Yang Ming heard the young girl's words and temporarily set aside his speculation about her identity, returning his attention to the matter at hand as he spoke coldly.
"Yes! A man-made Great Plague!"
"What a grand scheme!!!"
When Oscar heard Yang Ming say the plague was man-made, he failed to react for a moment and asked in confusion.
"This plague was man-made? What makes you say that?"
Hearing Oscar's question, the young girl offered an explanation.
"Because for half a month after the plague began, not a single scrap of news reached outside the city."
Yang Ming elaborated.
"As an important economic and trade city of the Silves Kingdom, Saga City should have spread both the plague and news of its outbreak by now, judging by normal population movement and the fact that the city was not sealed during the first three days of the plague."
"But the reality is that there has not been the slightest stir outside. Yesterday, we passed through the town closest to Saga City. There was no outbreak there, and its people showed none of the panic or urgency one would expect from being near the source of a plague. Everything concerning the plague has remained within Saga City. It is calm to a terrifying degree!"
"There are two possibilities for why neither the plague nor news of it has spread elsewhere. First, what they have is not a plague at all, merely a common cold, and the people in the city did not die from a plague but from some other cause. Second..."
"Everyone who left Saga City during those three days was dealt with!"
"So someone must be pulling the strings and setting this whole thing up behind the scenes!!!"
Yang Ming did not explain exactly how they had been dealt with, but