Chapter 11 (1/2)

The distance between the village at Meissen’s outskirts where Ernst had parted with the hunters and the manor of the feudal lord took about half a day’s worth of travel via carriage. When he compared it to the smallness of the royal capital’s territory, Ernst understood just how vast Meissen was.

Ernst stopped the butler who wanted to hurry and bring him to the mansion, saying that he wanted to take his time to look around. Though it would be impossible to check out everything, Ernst wanted to at least view the villages scattered along the way to the mansion.

To begin with, Ernst asked who was the head of this village. The person the villagers all glanced at came forward; he was an old man whose legs were so unsteady, it wasn’t certain whether he could walk on his own. Was this kind of person really fit for the job? Ernst furrowed his eyebrows.

When he looked it over carefully, he couldn’t find any men who looked like strong workers or breadwinners in this village. There were old men, women, and strangely enough, many children.

Where did the fathers of these children go? In response to Ernst’s question, the village head pointed to several of the villagers and said, “All of them have Kleber’s disease, sir.”

This was the first time Ernst had ever seen someone else who had Kleber’s disease.

There were very few people who developed it in the royal capital. They lived in the lower city surrounding the capital.

But more frequently, in poverty-stricken lands far from the capital, such as Meissen, one would find many people with Kleber’s disease.

There hadn’t been enough time before Ernst’s departure, so while riding his carriage out of Rintz, he had read some information that he had hastily sent for. In Rintz Kingdom, the average rate of occurrence of Kleber’s disease was 1 in 100. Yet in Meissen, that rate became 1 in 20.

Though they had Kleber’s disease, not everyone was like Ernst, who was unable to sire children. Rather, it was considered unusual to be like Ernst, who was entirely a child.

Ernst once again looked over the villagers. These were people who were said to have Kleber’s disease. In this village, the rate of occurrence of Kleber’s disease was 1 in 10, no, 1 in 5, wasn’t it.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and Ernst asked the village head for his age. This year he had turned 147, he answered. These words stunned Ernst.