Lockdown And Quarantine

As September began, the epidemic that had been named “Vera” broke through the quarantine zones and started to spread uncontrollably. In response, Ian immediately played the card of a capital lockdown. Thus, the capital Pullea began to go under lockdown measures.

Locking down a nation’s capital meant willingly accepting enormous economic damage. In particular, once the flow of goods from all over the provinces was cut off, the blow would inevitably fall squarely on the small merchants based out in the provinces.

With no consumption, much of what they had would simply spoil with time. So there was considerable backlash, but Ian pushed everything through under the name of a royal decree. At the same time, he prepared a plan to compensate for a portion of the losses.

Fortunately, in terms of timing, the Polia Kingdom was earning more money than ever before in its history. It was not a 100% compensation plan, but he announced that 60–70% would be reimbursed later, and thanks to that, no overwhelming, violent resistance broke out.

In the midst of all this, the epidemic Vera gradually began to spread to foreign countries as well. In practice, their approach to this epidemic was little more than neglect. To them, such an epidemic was just a disease that, if left alone, would kill a few hundred or a few thousand people and then vanish on its own.

They thought that way because there had been epidemics in the past as well. Perhaps as the price of such complacency, the contagiousness of Vera became far greater. As a month passed, it spread to all sorts of places and infected many people.

Deaths began to appear everywhere. There were more and more people showing all kinds of symptoms—coughing, vomiting, fever, chills—and so many were infected that the hospitals were completely packed and no longer able to take in patients.

In this situation, even doctors failed to properly understand the disease and ended up getting infected themselves. Spreading at a terrifying speed, the epidemic Vera soon reached the battlefields along the flow of logistics.

Soldiers began to be infected starting from the rear. In response, clever operations officers quickly took action, isolating the infected and implementing other rapid measures. In places where they did not, the epidemic spread quickly and entire units became unable to fight.

As infected people appeared everywhere, the number of soldiers who could actually enter battle dwindled, and as a result, combat on the front lines sharply declined. In truth, if there was any place that was most vulnerable to infection, it was the army.

Many people were crowded into single large tents, and in such conditions, if even one infected person appeared, you could safely assume that everyone in that tent’s platoon had been infected. Naturally, large numbers of people were dying.

This situation struck both sides of the war equally. Before anyone realized it, November had arrived, and land battles had been forced into a temporary halt. The same was not true at sea. Warships were still roaming the oceans, fighting naval battles in various places.

Meanwhile, in the Polia Kingdom’s capital Pullea, now entering the second month of lockdown, the infection rate of the rapidly rising epidemic suddenly began to plummet. Only a small number of people were still out on the capital’s streets, and those who were all had to wear what was now called a mask.

At least cars were still moving along the roads. Even under lockdown, a certain degree of logistics flow was being maintained. In reality, many of those people were essentially delivery workers.

They were delivering boxes of food, whose packaging had already been disinfected, and wooden crates of fuel to each and every household. Without such measures, people would long since have taken to the streets en masse, claiming they could not survive for lack of food, and occupied the roads in protest.

Moreover, their only real form of entertainment, the radio, was bluntly broadcasting the facts of the epidemic. It reported that Vera had spread all over the world and that tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people were dying from the infection.

In truth, no country in this world, in any era, had ever taken such a bold course. Who would willingly accept losses and still choose to act like this? Unless nations with political and economic systems more advanced than those of the present day appeared, such a course of action was unlikely ever to be seen.

In such circumstances there are always people who try to hide goods away for themselves, and Ian anticipated this and mobilized the police in advance to crack down thoroughly. Since he even brought in the secret police, the Mauter, and harshly punished the first offenders as an example, no more such cases arose.

Before they knew it, another month had passed, and the moment when the third month of lockdown was drawing to an end arrived. The December sky was brilliantly clear, and just when everyone was exhausted from a life that was little different from confinement, sirens began to blare throughout the city.

Eeeeeeeeeeeng-!

Many people, hearing the sirens, could not help wondering, What’s going on now? At that moment, a loudspeaker announcement began broadcasting the news that the quarantine was being lifted. The same announcement went out repeatedly over the radio as well.

[The quarantine has been lifted. The epidemic Vera has disappeared from our city, and all citizens are to return to their daily lives. Once again: the quarantine has been lifted.]

At first, people wondered if they had misheard. After three straight months of this, they assumed it was just an auditory hallucination. But as the loudspeaker announcements continued to ring out across the city and the radio kept broadcasting the same message, they finally realized this was not a dream but something that had actually happened.

Doors to homes opened, and people shuffled out awkwardly. Seeing their neighbors in person for the first time in a long while, they raised their hands, a bit shyly, and exchanged greetings.

Perhaps because of all the education they had received over the radio, people stepped outside wearing masks almost without thinking about it.

“Ah, Mr. Sandler, have you been well? It’s really been a long time.”

“Tony, have you been all right? It really has been a while. You look like you’ve lost some weight, haven’t you?”

“Haha, even with rations, I wanted to feed the kids more, so I cut back a bit on what I ate.”

“Oh dear, if I’d known, I would have shared some of our food. It’s just my wife and me, so we ended up with some ingredients left over.”

“Just you saying that is enough. Haha.”

As conversations like these began to unfold, the city once again filled with the murmur of voices, the familiar noise of people for the first time in a while. People finally started to come alive again after their long quarantine. Some immediately set out to return to work, while others went to open up the shops they owned.

Of course, after being closed for so long, the shops were covered in dust, so they had to start by cleaning. Across the city, the sounds of people cleaning resounded everywhere. With daily life starting anew, the mood among the people was very bright.

In this atmosphere, the palace was also continuing its meetings in a relatively cheerful mood.

“How many deaths have been counted so far?”

“As of now, the total number of people who have died after being infected with the epidemic Vera is 3,723.”

At the words of Marquis Norwen, the chancellor, Ian understood just how much those numbers implied. Under normal circumstances, far more people would have died. Had they not properly implemented lockdown and isolation between people, it was quite possible that, by now, not thousands but hundreds of thousands might have been infected and killed.

“Were most of them vulnerable elderly and children?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It seems that among the young, only about a hundred people died.”

“A truly tragic matter.”

Many elderly and many children who would not have died without this epidemic had lost their lives. He could not help but feel sorrow at that fact. Still, he had to look outward and take some comfort from the results he saw there.

“Without Your Majesty’s nationwide, decisive action, we would not have arrived at these results.”

“Indeed. Had it not been for Your Majesty’s decision, we would now be facing an enormous epidemic disaster like other countries.”

“In some nations, it is said that already more than hundreds of thousands have died. Seeing these results, if Your Majesty had not made that initial decision, it would not be thousands but hundreds of thousands dead in our case as well.”

“That is correct. And even now, the situation is ongoing, and still more may die.”

Hearing the ministers’ words, Ian did his best to ease his heavy heart and spoke.

“Thank you for saying so. In any case, what we must do going forward is restore the capital and the other cities that were locked down to normal operation.”

At that, they all nodded. For three months, the kingdom had been functioning at almost a standstill. Everything needed to be brought back to normal. Thankfully, some factories had continued to operate, and those factories had produced goods strictly under state control.

Incidentally, the munitions factories had continued to produce weapons all along. They had tried not to export them if possible, but the empires engaged in the war were constantly asking them to sell more, so the weapons and ammunition produced had been steadily shipped out to the empires.

“As you all know, the epidemic is still spreading across the world. Which means that at any time, it could spread into our kingdom again. Therefore, to prevent this disease, from now on we must unconditionally quarantine every incoming person for one week.”

At Ian’s words, everyone nodded in agreement. If among those entering their kingdom there were people infected with Vera, the disease could begin spreading again. Then they would be forced once more to resort to lockdowns and quarantines.

Fortunately, this epidemic had an incubation period of about a week, and externally it manifested with an obvious combination of cough and high fever, making it very easy to distinguish. As long as they strictly followed this, there would be no major problem even if foreigners continued to come in.

“With all this talk of an epidemic and whatnot, the year is already almost over. In less than a month, the new year will be upon us.”

Hearing Ian say this, everyone felt a sense of, Already? Has it really been that long? Turning to his ministers, Ian spoke of the situation next year.

“Once next year comes, the Magnia Empire’s army will fully throw itself into this war. I hear they have already sent over five hundred thousand troops to the front lines.”

“With the epidemic spreading so widely, will they really be able to conduct a war?”

“Even so, the killing will continue, on one side and the other.”

Though the disease was spreading fast, those who survived would still survive. People with some level of immunity would inevitably appear, and as a result, the sharply rising infectivity would naturally subside with time. There was also a strong possibility that a treatment would be developed.

‘The empires must already have begun developing cures using antibodies.’

Their medical science was far more advanced than that of the Polia Kingdom, and they were sure to mobilize enormous resources to develop treatments. Hundreds, thousands of highly capable medical researchers would gather, and funds would pour in. Naturally, expectations for whatever treatments emerged from that process were high.

‘We still have a very long way to go.’

They had been quicker than anyone to begin developing treatments and vaccines, but due to their relatively backward medical technologies, progress had not been great. However, they planned to use this opportunity to lay the groundwork to train more medical professionals and to further build the foundation needed to advance medical science.

“According to the news we’ve received, the Noma Empire, the Moria Empire, and even the Magnia Empire are all close to completing their own tanks. Some of them have probably already finished theirs.”

Since tanks had first appeared in the world the previous January, it had taken barely a year for the other empires to develop and start fielding theirs. In one sense, this meant that the period during which the Polia Kingdom had enjoyed a seller’s advantage was coming to an end. Even so, their tanks would still sell.

‘In any case, it will take quite some time before they can achieve fully satisfactory production volumes.’

The market would likely shrink further after next year, but by then they would already have sold many tanks and could shift to supplying them domestically. Of course, they would also need to plan to reduce their tank production facilities. Without an ongoing war, too much production capacity was just wasteful.

‘Once the war ends, surplus goods will inevitably cause prices to collapse. We’ll have to prepare for that as well.’

The end of the war would not be the end of everything. How well they handled the follow-up afterward would determine whether they could escape an economic crisis.

“And you said there was something you wished to report?”

At Ian’s words, the conference room door opened and someone entered. He looked every bit the scholar, appearing to be in his mid-fifties, with hair streaked in purple and white. He wore glasses as well, and after briefly adjusting them, he bowed politely.

“Greetings. My name is Dr. Plank, and I specialize in the study and handling of viruses. It is an honor to stand before Your Majesty.”

“Welcome, Dr. Plank. Now then, what is it you wished to tell us?”

“Yes, first I must state with certainty that the epidemic Vera that has spread is clearly an artificially created pathogen.”

Murmurs spread through the room, and in an instant, shock was written across the faces of the ministers. Ian’s expression also hardened noticeably as he spoke.

“When you say ‘artificially created,’ do you mean, quite literally, that it is a biological weapon?”

“That is how I see it. We have clearly found signs that someone has tampered with it.”

“Then you are saying that someone deliberately spread this in our kingdom?”

“The evidence is so clear that I can hardly think otherwise.”

“Can we trust your word on this?”

“Even if I were to stake everything I have, I would still be confident that I am telling the truth.”

At the earnest, near-certain words of the man called Dr. Plank, Ian could not help but sink into deep thought. To hear that this was an artificially engineered pathogen meant that someone had deliberately targeted their kingdom and released it.

‘Who could it be?’

When he thought it through, his suspicions could not help but converge on a single group. It was highly likely that it was that secret organization whose very name he still did not know. If it was not them, there would be no reason to unleash a biological weapon upon the Polia Kingdom.

‘Once they could no longer infiltrate the palace, did they decide to just unleash an epidemic? They must have been trying to worsen our situation and weaken us.’

The thought made Ian’s anger toward them surge anew. Even after he had issued a warning, they resorted to this kind of atrocity—it made his blood boil.

‘So they’re willing to go this far. In that case, I can’t just sit back and do nothing.’

As he thought this, Ian’s eyes shone with a fierce light.