A Conjecture

"Huh? So it actually worked?" Lucius pulled out the medical record and handed it to Kraft, pointing to the "lethargy" entry that had been crossed out.

"Lecturer Liston felt it didn't reach the level of lethargy, so he crossed it out. I wasn't sure if I should include it in the notes."

Kraft didn't seem to be listening to what Lucius was saying; he took the record, flipped to the first page of basic information, and located the occupation and address.

"Baker, third building north on Elm Street? What kind of place is that?"

"Not sure, it must be a small street. I don't really know where it is; we haven't reached this patient for a follow-up yet."

Lucius was quite familiar with the local roads in Wenden Port, but if asked for the specific names of every lane, he could only name the ones he frequented.

There were too many crisscrossing streets and alleys with all sorts of names, and such unremarkable ones were forgotten as soon as they were read.

"Didn't you think about the possibility of a follow-up when you recorded this?" Kraft questioned.

"Uh, I didn't write it, Liston did. Maybe he knows where it is?" Lucius quickly distanced himself. It seemed like a problem had been discovered, and he couldn't afford to be linked to a flawed medical record; he would let Liston take the responsibility himself.

"Come on, let's go find Liston."

Picking up the record, Kraft dropped his current work without hesitation and prepared to head out.

It's over, Lucius thought, hoping it wasn't anything major. He followed quickly, rapidly recalling if there were any issues on his end; if they couldn't find the specific location later, he would be in trouble.

Fortunately, Kraft maintained his usual good composure in everyone's eyes; he simply led Lucius back to the clinic at a brisk pace, intercepting Liston, who was packing his things to leave for the day.

"I have a question that needs to be confirmed as soon as possible, so I came over myself." Kraft pressed Liston back into his chair and pulled out the medical record to show him.

"Are you sure the patient described his waking time as getting later and that he was difficult to rouse? Did he say exactly how much later?"

Liston was startled and looked at Lucius, who was hiding behind him, only to receive a "good luck" look from the latter.

"Yes, that's the patient."

"So, exactly how long?" Kraft showed an unusual persistence regarding this question.

"Let me think, let me think, he didn't say it very clearly." Sweat beaded on Liston's forehead; he had the illusion that Professor Calman was standing in front of him. "He said he used to be able to get to the bakery before the Clock Tower struck seven times, and now he wakes up right around that time."

"Hmm, about an hour late. Does his family have similar conditions?"

"He didn't say," Liston replied, feeling as guilty as if he were saying "I didn't ask."

Fortunately, Kraft didn't continue to press him on that and changed the subject. "Do you know where Elm Street is? I'm not very familiar with Wenden Port."

"Why are you asking that all of a sudden?" Liston couldn't keep up with the jump in logic.

Kraft pulled back the medical record and flipped to the first page, where a black circle had been drawn around the address column, singling it out from all the other information.

He pushed the paper back to Liston. "I don't know if I'm overthinking it until I know the specific location, so try to remember where it is."

His tone was calm, yet it always felt like there was some emotion hidden within. It wasn't the annoyance of having his work interrupted, nor was it dissatisfaction with others; it was a trace of unease that the listener couldn't comprehend.

Liston met his gaze. Kraft's face was expressionless, watching him intently, bringing an indescribable sense of pressure.

"A small street, relatively close to the Salt Tide District. I've been there before, so I have some impression of it."

"Hiss... the Salt Tide District?" This was the third time he had heard this term in the last few days, and Kraft had a very ominous hunch. "Is there a map? I want to see where this place is."

The words of the laborer from a few days ago flashed through his mind: "My wife and I," "My neighbor is the same," "Hard to wake up."

"Who would have something like that?"

"Then draw a rough sketch for me. I just want to know how close it is to the Salt Tide District." Kraft pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and handed it to Liston along with a pen.

Although he hadn't found definitive evidence yet, Kraft's suspicion was growing. He felt he might have to overturn his judgment on the earlier case; things were much more complicated than he had imagined.

For the laborer named Gary, his initial judgment was that changes in the living environment had affected the sleep schedules of him and his neighbors. In a place with such poor conditions as the Salt Tide District, this explanation was the most reasonable.

Another possibility was an infectious disease, and it wasn't that Kraft hadn't considered this factor. But because Gary and his wife had absolutely no discomfort other than prolonged sleep—no fever, cough, diarrhea, or any other symptoms—he had no leads and eventually ruled out that possibility.

The case on Elm Street made him instantly vigilant, as he realized he had made a low-level error at the time: he hadn't followed up to ask Gary if he knew of more people with similar symptoms.

Liston wrote and drew on the paper, explaining to Lucius and Kraft as he sketched.

"This black area, let's assume it's the Salt Tide District, roughly in the southeastern part of Wenden Port. A specific map of the interior is impossible to draw."

He filled the irregular shape he had drawn with black shading, labeled it "Salt Tide District" in large letters, and drew two vertical lines to the left.

The double lines were straight, and the shading was even and natural, reflecting his excellent drawing skills as an anatomy lecturer; using hands that drew tissue structures to draw this was truly a waste of talent.

"Then, these two lines are Elm Street." He marked two letters at both ends to distinguish the direction. "Just treat it as running north-south; it's not that standard, and it's quite short."

"Be specific, is there a big difference between this scale and reality?" Kraft moved behind Liston, looking at the two lines.

"Specifically, it's about one-third the north-south width of the Salt Tide District. I don't have much of a concept for such long distances."

A horizontal line cut off Elm Street at the bottom end. "I forgot the name of this street, but Elm Street ends at this point. And the house we're looking for is?"

"The third building from north to south," Lucius reminded him from the side.

Kraft added, "East side or west side? This street can't only have one side, right?"

"Sorry, I didn't think of that at the time."

He had thought it was detailed enough, but now it seemed unreliable after all.

"Forget it, it doesn't matter; asking one more house won't hurt. Just mark the place first."

Under Kraft's urging, Liston pondered for a moment and drew an 'X' at his estimated location, not far from the northwest corner of the Salt Tide District.

The entire room fell silent as Liston and Lucius looked at Kraft, waiting for him to explain why he was suddenly so concerned about this.

Kraft sat down beside Liston, took a pen and paper, and marked an 'X' on the northwestern part of the Salt Tide District.

"It's too close," he whispered. "This is just too close."

"What is this?" Lucius leaned in curiously. Judging by the distance on the sketch, the gap between the two marks was less than a third of the length of Elm Street.

Kraft drew a dashed line between the two, connecting them. "I previously treated another laborer named Gary. His description was similar, but much more severe."

"It wasn't just him; he claimed his wife and neighbors were the same—waking up later and later, and becoming very difficult to rouse. I had assumed it was just a localized issue around his home."

"Adding this one you found, I suspect there is some connection between them." Kraft used his pen to add two more marks next to the 'X' in the Salt Tide District, forming a cluster of three.

"Could it have something to do with the Clear Clarity potion?" Lucius naturally linked the increasing sleepiness to the effects of the diluted solution; it was almost like a weakened version.

"That makes no sense. The feedback from other patients has never shown this kind of situation. Kraft, did that Gary and his wife use it?" Reasonably and logically, Liston did not want to drag Clear Clarity into this.

Kraft shook his head. In truth, he had subconsciously linked it to the Black Fluid and its diluent, Clear Clarity, but the logic didn't hold up. "No, we have records of everyone who has used it. I can confirm the Gary family never did."

A cluster of illnesses, linked in time and space. The possibility of an infectious disease was once again placed before Kraft.

The famous Cockroach Law states that when you see your first cockroach, there is a high probability that a whole group of them has already been in the house for a long time. Kraft highly valued this theory and affirmed its universality across a large number of cases.

Using the dashed line as a radius, he drew a circle that encompassed a large portion of the Salt Tide District and the surrounding ordinary urban areas.

"Since we've already encountered it twice, there must be more. I suspect the area it affects is much larger than this circle, and it may even be expanding outward."

"A plague?!" Liston's eyes nearly popped out. "Don't scare me. Two of the three of us have already had direct contact with patients."

"It's just a guess. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the kind you catch through contact, and the symptoms don't match either. We need further proof."

Kraft looked at the circle, assuming that a contagious disease with such unheard-of symptoms had truly emerged, with the Salt Tide District as the initial starting point, and the scope of transmission gradually expanding.

His finger swept across the sketch, tracing the outline of the Salt Tide District. In a place with such poor sanitary conditions and high density, the spread within the district would certainly be much faster than the spread outward, yet investigating it would be far more difficult.

Regardless, he needed more cases and more detailed information to narrow down a more accurate range and prove his hypothesis.

"I'm afraid we can't just sit here." Kraft stood up, mourning for a second the unknown number of days he would be absent from work. "Whether it is or isn't, I have to go over there and take a look. Are you two coming?"

"Are you serious?" Liston did not really agree with Kraft's view; investigating such a thing offered no visible benefits. If you guess wrong, you waste time; if you guess right, you risk your life.

"Then I'll go with you. It just so happens we only have two Bird-Beak Masks." Lucius had a strong sense of self-protection, a spirit inherited from Kraft of being better safe than sorry.