“Not even slightly curious?” Bob insisted in wanting to tell his story.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Juliet replied.

“And what about healing people? At this rate, a person dies every five minutes or so. Shouldn’t we do something about that?” Bob smiled.

“You talk as if that was our fault,” Juliet snarled. “And how would you start healing people? And why would you do that?”

“As for the why, I’ll have to anyway, sadly—woah, there, steady,” Bob cut his own words when he saw Juliet ready to punch him again. “I mean, it’s just that it takes work to do what I did. It’s frustrating to dismantle it just like that. But I got the message. So, please, put down that fist.”

“Plus,” Bob continued, “it’s typical serial killer behavior to want someone to recognize your deeds. It was never in my intentions to reveal my identity or to let people know that I even existed. I’m very devout to my craft and I’m not an egomaniac like The Necromancer, the Grim Reaper or even The Vermillion Tyrant.”

Once someone examined the current scene with an impartial eye, they would notice how chatty the Plague Doctor was. And it wasn’t a ploy. He was just starved for a bit of history.

“Is The Necromancer worse than him?” Juliet asked toward Jacob.

She felt the answer even before he opened his mouth.

“Oh, The Necromancer is cruel. I’m just… heartless? I don’t know. I’m very self-conscious, as you may have noticed. Bottling my identity for so long did things to me.”

Juliet and Jacob just stared at him.

“So, what do you say I start releasing the cure for this current plague – which name by the way is Pants on Fire, my name at least – and we chat a bit about my history?”

Juliet didn’t look thrilled, but she had to admit that curing people was more important than her feelings.

“How can you spread the cure from here?” Jacob frowned.

“What do you mean?” Bob seemed genuinely surprised.

“I thought you needed to be close to your targets.”

“That’s interesting, Blade Tyrant. No, I don’t need proximity. It makes things a bit easier, but my diseases are enhanced microorganisms that are air-borne. Do you think I infected whole empires by just strolling around?”

“Information on you is rare and almost always fictional,” Jacob said.

“Well, isn’t that the reason you should learn more about me? And what about not spending the next three or more hours just sitting like dust on a nightstand?”

“You could lie, trick us and try to escape,” Juliet growled.

“I’ve never been compromised like this. And I don’t oppose this development as much as you would think. Sure, killing you all would be the cherry on top. But I’m pretty sure there is going to be a lot of purging even if I stand on your side. For once, I developed a necrotic-flesh-eating disease. It’s bug-based, but it works like a charm against any Undead threat. It consumes bones too and Necromantic Mana will only make my little bugs stronger. Do you know I can story any bug I developed in my body? The nitty-gritty of it it’s a dimensional shenanigan of huge proportions. But, long story short, I can give you a Pharaoh-ending-locust-scourge in a jiff. Not now, of course. I’ve yet to reclaim bugs and let them multiply. But all in due time.”

“You can do what?” Jacob widened his eyes against his will. He didn’t want to give Bob more to rant about, but this was precious.

“Undeads do not react as strongly as humans to plagues. I developed a little thing in case I ever had to face an Undead horde while being locked in a city or something.”

“Jacob, we are playing with a living bio-weapon.”

Our guy ignored Juliet and simply pondered Bob’s words.

“Living bio-weapon? I like that. But I want to stress the Doctor part. While we talk, I’m converting some of the properties of the microorganisms in my body to cancel out the effects of this plague. Once they are out, they will spread fast. In a couple of days, everyone infected should be ok. Oh, and by the way, how can you two communicate like that? Look, you did it again!”

Juliet had just stared at Jacob and shot him a burst of anger through the Ancestral Bond when Bob shouted.

“It’s an Ancestral Bond,” Juliet was sick of him asking them questions as if he was on their same level.

“Wow,” Bob looked toward Jacob with both eyebrow raised. “You forced an Ancestral Bond on a kid, Blade Tyrant? You are not as innocent as you want to—”

A sick crunch was heard while Juliet smashed her fist on Bob’s face once again.

“Well, that was warranted, I guess.”

The Plague Doctor started repairing the damage done almost immediately. In a few seconds, the blood and the twice-broken nose disappeared from his face.

“I wouldn’t want you to think of me as a punching bag, Juliet. Please, I’m open to collaboration. But I can also make my body explode and spread a hundred almost uncurable diseases through this entire city. Almost everyone would die. So, can you please, please, put those fists down before I need to reconsider our alliance? I’m not signing off a Soul Contract if it implies wanton torture, Blade Tyrant. Just so you know.”

For the first time since being outed as the Plague Doctor, Bob used the girl’s name. And Juliet didn’t like that one bit.

“Just spread the cure. You can tell the story once we have Hektor and Epagogia on hand. I’m sure they will be happy to listen.”

Bob smiled happily and got back to work.