Year 768, 6th of April, at the investigation site.

"I see, you may return to your residence now, again, we really appreciate your assistance, ma'am." said the doctor after he finished his questioning.

"I see, I'm glad I helped, doctor. I'll be on my way." replied the mother, as she walked back to her house.

After she went on her way, the doctor's expression quickly turned serious.

"Sina Vilex! One of the doctors currently on site! Quickly, find her and seal her in a closed off room!" replied the doctor, worry apparent on his face.

Meanwhile, inside the investigation room, Sina was continuing her work as she waited for the body to arrive.

After a moment, one guard came in and spoke to the leader of the team of doctors and informed him of what happened with the questioning outside.

"Are you sure about this?" asked the head of the doctors.

"Yes, sir." replied the guard, "I'm absolutely sure of it." he added.

"Okay, by my orders, you may seal her!" said the head of the doctors, with a drop of sweat falling off his head, he had been working continuously for the past few days, with very little sleep in between, he was very pressured to seal one of the doctors that were very vital at this time, but he also had to account for the team's health.

"She could've already infected the whole team already... Hopefully that protection we've always had on paid off this time..." thought the head of the doctors. There was a chance that the disease already spread amongst the entire team of doctors, but he could only hope that was not the case.

"Calling for Sina Vilex! Sina Vilex! Where is Sina Vilex?!" shouted the guard very rapidly, breaking the focus of the entire room, which annoyed many of the doctors.

"Damn guard! Be quiet! We're all focused here!" said one of the doctors, who was very clearly annoyed by the guard's actions.

Sina who was also interrupted, heard her name, and filled with worry, she went to the guard, she replied "Yes, I am Sina Vilex, do you need something?".

The head of the doctors joined in on the discussion, "Sina, listen, you said you were in contact with a patient that had an unknown disease named Joseph Ixavior, correct?" which Sina nodded to, "Yeah, so the dead body that was reported was Joseph Ixavior himself, he's been found dead by his wife this morning, and we've based the assumption that the cause of death was the unknown disease you've talked about, we don't know about its ability to spread, but we can't be sure, so we'll need to have you sealed off in one of the rooms here, we'll provide you with food, water and all the necessities for you to survive, we're going to halt your duty prematurely, but you can't return home too, I apologize for this sudden progression, but this is how it went." he said.

Sina had a brief moment of shock while he was speaking, but quickly recovered, and replied with a simple "Roger." as she immediately sealed herself off in one of the empty rooms with a door that had a small openable metal window, similar to how a kidnapping room's door looked like.

The head of the doctors was surprised at the straightforwardness of Sina, but then felt that he had to uphold his duty. "If even Sina can without too much thinking be ready to put her life on the line, then I can too, let's do this, god damn it!" he hyped himself up, and got back to work instantly with even more focus on what he was doing than before.

Meanwhile, one hour later, in the room Sina had sealed herself in, Sina was now by herself, she could hear the sound of the doctors working, the sound of the metal tools being put down, and being picked up, she could hear the sounds of the guards moving outside, watching the site, some of them leaving, some of them arriving, some of the saluting a superior of theirs, it seems.

She had nothing to do at the moment but to stay sealed off, as she thought, "Huh. What now.". Her duty as a doctor had given her the conviction to seal herself off without too much thought, but now after an hour of being sealed off, things had settled in, and she came to think about the situation she was in, what she was going to do, and what might and could happen.

"I still have Leo waiting for me at home... It seems I'm going to stay for the next while... I can't even inform him... What should I do... What should I do?!" a bit of panic settled in, while she was sitting on the cold, hard floor of the room.

"Maybe I should tell one of the guards... but no... some of them might've contracted the disease and I can't afford the disease being carried over to my son! Damn it!" thought Sina.

While Sina was having her own battle inside the sealed room, the doctors were having another, while dissecting the corpse, they discovered what many of them had hoped not to discover, yet at the same time, hoped they did.

Tumors! Tumors covering many of the internal organs of the dead man, very similarly to how all the dead rats looked like!

"F**k! It spreads to humans! This confirms it! Stay away from the man and when approaching him, do so with absolute protection!" shouted the head of the doctors.

Then the head of the doctors approached a guard, but keeping a bit of distance between him and the guard, and pointed, "You! Go inform the captain of the guards that it does spread, and it has the same lethality for humans too! Tell him to also declare a kingdom-wide seal off of this entire town! No one is to enter, and no one is to leave! Immediately, go!" he said with absolute worry apparent on his face.

"Yes, sir!" the guard replied to the head of the doctors.

"Don't 'yes, sir!' me now, go! GO!" the head of the doctors said.

The guard was making a run for it, meanwhile, back at the room where Sina was.

She had heard the sound of the panic happening outside, and she also heard the shouts of the doctors and mainly the head of the doctors, who was telling the guard what to do.

"So it does spread to humans..." she said with deep fear, thinking many things, things like Leo still waiting for her back at home, her husband coming back alive and not finding her, it was a very fearful topic, a different kind of fear, a fear that meddled with one's own thoughts about their existence, the surreal feeling of possible impending death.

After a while, specifically, three hours after the confirmation of the diseases spread to humans, Sina had somewhat come to accept what might be coming, though not really, as thought to herself, "So that means I might have it and the end might be close for me... huh..." blankly. No matter how many times she tried to convince herself that it's what might happen, and this is just how it goes, it really couldn't settle in with her.

"Why me?... Why? Why? Why? Whhyyyy mee?!" she thought, panic coming back up as she thought she was done with it, she shouted the last bit out, which went unnoticed outside as there was much more noise happening outside.

Speaking of the outside, it really was much more chaotic out there, with many doctors having similar thoughts as Sina, as the head of the doctors announced two hours earlier, "No one is leaving this site, if we all have it, we all have it, and we're all going down together, this is the duty of us doctors, and we have to uphold it!" with an absolutely dignified face, he looked as if he had already accepted the situation, he was more to the older side, so it wasn't as hard to accept it, but it was definitely much harder for the younger doctors who thought they had a long life ahead of them and that they can't waste it here.

Some of the doctors tried running away, but were blocked by the guards on the entrance as they were pushed back in.

It was a pathetic sight to see, but it was humans' survival instinct kicking in, in the eyes of these doctors, it was life over dignity, not the other way around.

Looking at this, the mood dived towards the worst, as all of the doctors were reminded that death was a very possible development in this situation, they all had their families, some even were taking care of younger siblings, some were taking care of their elderly, everyone in the room had at least one major commitment in his life, and a few people depending on them, it was a very hard fact to swallow.

Looking at the situation, present time, the head of the doctor, who came to accept the situation as it is the fastest, looked at the people around him, and in an attempt to revamp the working force which was now going through many thoughts, he said "Alright, people! You know we're all in the same situation, and if we don't do anything about the disease, no one will! We still have to find out a bunch of things like how fast it kills, how quick it is to spread, and how lethal it is. Let's get to it, as soon as possible!" as he went to get to back to his work.

Some doctors, after hearing what he said, were able to swallow their thoughts, and get back to work, which progressed the research, but still, with many doctors still going through dilemmas of their own, it wasn't the most efficient progress.

While all this was happening back at the investigation site, the news had reached the head of the guards office.

The captain was thinking of what to do, as a thought struck him as he looked at the guard who had carried the news.

"You... You were there weren't you...?" asked the captain to the guard that carried him the news.

As he asked this question, back at the investigation site, the head of the doctors facepalmed himself with both hands as he had realized what he had done, a rookie mistake.

"Oh sh** I sent that guard that has been with us for the last while to the captain! Oh sh**, he might've already spread the disease to the captain of the guards! What have I done, oh Lord!" thought the head of the doctors as the other doctors who already got back to work looked at him weirdly.

Back at the captains office, the captain was in fury "You f**k**g dumbass! Why the hell are you here! Why didn't you send a call for support or something! Who's the dumbass that told you to come here! Who?!" he shouted, at the guard, who had nearly pissed his pants, facing the full blunt of the captain's fury, he was trained, but he wasn't ever faced by this much rage from a superior of his, it was a very nerve-wrecking situation.

"Get the hell out of my face!" shouted the captain of the guards, as he waved his arm violently, signaling for the guard to the leave the room instantly.

"Yes, sir!" shouted the guard with all of his might, as he dashed out of the room.

The captain calmed down quickly, and thought for a bit, then said to the guard that was at the entrance to his office, "Right, call that guy back, actually." he ordered, to the surprise of the guard outside.

"Yes, sir!" the guard replied as usual, as he went to bring back the guy that just stormed off from the captain's room.

After this the captain was pondering the situation, "Haa... What's done is done now, can't do anything to change it...", he tapped on the table he sat in front of for a bit, then shouted, "Ey! Any guard still around in this sh**h**e?!", to which the one young guard that was still there replied, "Yes, sir!".

"Good! Listen kid, go tell the mayor of what's happening, the developments of the rat case, and that we're announcing a kingdom-wide seal on the northern side of the kingdom, and that everyone is to stay in their houses for the next seven days, so as to not spread the disease! Oh, and also, cover yourself up! Don't repeat the same mistake that dumbass of a guard did!" ordered the captain.

"Yes, sir!" the guard saluted, and then went on his way.

The captain of the guards was now completely by himself, left pondering again about what's going to come over the next few days... "I just hope the deaths this wont too much" he hoped, as he realized he also might've contracted it, an odd feeling took over him, as he also had similar thoughts like the doctors and Sina, back at the investigation site.