Two teenagers were rushing home in the Northern region of the country Kiltar.
After work's long day at the tavern, evening was quickening it's approach.
But there's no home left.
Their belongings were outside, thrown around on the ground.
Left alone was their elder sister, Lina.
"Lina?" Dart, her younger brother asked.
But there was no response.
For her lips were frozen by the cold night that arrived in haste.
And she was frozen by the cold treatment of the land lady.
That would rather evict a tenant that pays constantly but delays once, than to give them a chance.
"It's getting dark. Let's look for an inn." Suggested the last born, Ain, Lina's younger sister.
Lina then stood up and was strengthened by their presence.
A bad day isn't a bad life.
She told herself.
Dart and Ain paced around and gathered their items into a sack.
"That woman is evil. Her husband is evil. I've been preparing, and I think there's somewhere we can stay" Dart said.
Both Lina and Ain looked at him at once.
"Where?" they both asked.
He led them to the woods.
A cave that's sealed by a door.
"A friend of mine lives here. He's a blacksmith and he's had good business so we should be fine here."
Lina and Ain looked at themselves in disbelief cause they weren't buying the idea.
But what can you do? Complain?
No food. No shelter. Only money for food worth two days.
Complaining would be pointless.
*Knock Knock*
"Hmm?"
A fat young man opened the door.
"Dart? Your sisters? Do come in! Out for too long, and the governor will think you're one of the rogues!"
"Thank you." They replied.
Rogues.
A league of estranged knights that rebelled against the current king.
Caught, they die. They catch the king, he dies.
So he had guards patrolling the area for young men by the late evening.
If caught, it would be believed he's part of the Rogues.
Meaning best case slavery. Worst case, death.
If a young woman is caught, she will be sold to rich scum that could use a maid.
Want to avoid these? Stay INSIDE.
After the fat young man told the recent news to the three siblings, gloom came over them.
"Our people are dying. And all the rulers can do is come up with—"
*BANG!*
"Anyone there?!" A man screamed from the outside.
"What's going on?" Lina asked frightened.
"Be quiet!"
The young man, named Mane, signaled them to be silent.
"Aaah! Aaah!"
All they heard were cries 5 seconds later.
And kicking around from the outside.
And then silence.
"We know you're there, Mane." A man said from outside.
No response.
Cause he was speechless. The very knights to protect the kingdom just killed a young man outside.
"We're going. See for yourself."
From a tiny crack on the door side, Mane saw them brutally kill a young man like himself.
And seeing the coast clear, he went out.
Death on the door.
They left the corpse sitting down leaning on the door.
Lina and Dart rushed forward.
But Mane was in tears.
Cause this just so happened to be one of the nicest customers he ever knew.
"Aaaahhhh!!!" Screaming at the top of his voice, he ripped off some of the hair on his beard in anger.
And there was no pain.
Cause the tragedy was beyond a few hairs lost.
Lina could only cover her mouth.
Dart walking back in horror.
And Ain sent aback, sat on the floor.
"This was planned."
That was all that went through Dart's head.
As for Lina, what she could only think of was:
This could have been you. Careless once, you die.
{12 hours later}
"Thank you so much Mane"
Lina said, holding back tears of joy, due to gratitude.
Even though she'd like to hear how Dart met Mane, that's a story for another time. She thought.
Cause now, she had to head to the Medical Camp.
Where alchemist and doctors work hand in hand.
{30 minutes later}
On foot, Lina arrived at the Medical Camp.
"How's it going?"
She asked a colleague.
"How should it be going? Huh?!" she replied.
"My brother went out yesterday, and never returned" before she finished her words, she began to cry.
"I'm so sorry. I'll talk to the boss, maybe you'll be given some time to rest."
But where's time to rest? People are dying and the government doesn't care.
"To think this epidemic was even named a few weeks ago" Lina said.
{3 weeks ago}
Ever since 'Sudden' came, Kiltar changed for the worst.
"Alright! We've got 50 deaths in the last week cause of this outbreak."
The boss of the Medical Camp, Chief Doctor, said.
"There's no cure. There's no proceeding symptoms. It's not contactable by physical transmission.
"And we humans are the only ones that get it. That's what we the Kiltar Medical Camp gather."
Tain, the Chief Doctor, said.
His assistant looked at him and said
"It's name, at this rate, might as well be "Sudden"."
"We've decided a name, now let's get 20 town criers—pay then 30 pieces of silver each—to spread the word." Tain replied.
{Present day}
While walking across the camp, he saw Lina passing on her own and said
"Hello Lina! So, what about that report?"
Eviction. Homelessness. Anxiety. All these things hard on Lina and she forgot about the report.
"I'm s-sorry sir I... I forgot"
"You WHAT?—" But Tain was more sad and shocked than angered.
"I lost my home yesterday. I had to sleep in a stranger's place. There was a murder in front of his house. All of this happened in 2 hours.
"So there was no chance for me to write the report... But I'll get to—"
"Lina, this country depends on our efforts! Why—"
"Excuse me. But Lina made the right move." A woman, named Yiss, appeared.
Yiss was a doctor—just like them—so she understood the situation.
"How's that?" Tain and Lina asked.
"It's too soon for a report. And what's there to say? That "there's nothing we can do so death might as well come?" "
"..." Tain was speechless, cause it was true.
"Right. There's a way for us to do this." She continued
"And that's to explore. We find freelance adventures, pay them 200 silver each and have them take one of us" Lina and Tain's eyes were sparkling with the idea.
Yiss continued
"Along the way, we iterate from there. Cause there isn't much we can do in Kiltar."
It's a plan.
***
At the town square in the South-eastern region of the country Misk, an adventurer sat with a gold sack in hand.
"Get these rare items at great price! Drinks that can do all sorts of things!"
Medicine, alcohol, grinded herbs—the vendor had it.
"Do you have anything for energy?" The adventurer, Tye, asked.
"Liquor? Herbs?—"
"The one for energy—just not liquor"
After some searching, the vendor brought out a glass bottle, fist sized, containing a purple liquid.
10 gold each.
"... I'll take three!"
The vendor was surprised cause no one paid attention to him until now.
"Exactly what I need. Energy liquids."
"Thank you for the money. Anything else?"
Tye was gone.
In the busiest market in the whole of Misk, Tye trudged his way through other people.
Until he was deep within the market, he found what he was looking for. On a forked path he saw a board hanging: Job requests:
"1.) Put an end to the bandits intruding my farm. Reward: Marrying my daughter.
2.) Find my missing treasure. Reward: half shall be yours. Treasure worth 5,000 gold.
3.) Be an anonymous scout for knights. Reward: Encyclopedia of medicine."
If the first gives status, the second gives money, the third gives decades worth of information.
And the third one is most precious, cause in both Kiltar and Misk, Encyclopedias are worth 10,000+ gold coins.
And for every 1 gold coin equals 100 silver coins.
So donating the Encyclopedia to the Medical Camp at Kiltar could help.
Cause they use Scrolls, and bits from the Encyclopedia.
Having the whole thing would be a game changer.
"But I'm running out of coins."
In Kiltar, he couldn't own anything more than 5,000 silver.
This changed when his relatives took over from his father's death.
But here in Misk, there are no annoying relatives.
No limits in funding.
He had to start somewhere.
"I need connection. And to get to Job number 3 soon. So I'll start with number two: Treasure worth 5,000 gold pieces.
He ripped off two and three, stuffed it in sack and set out for the location of Job number 2.
Limited resources.
Limited time.
No one else's help.
All these raining down on Tye.
First thing to stop all these, is money.
Just enough to prepare for Job number 3.
The most dangerous and most profitable one to him and Kiltar.