"Obedient?"
That word was used for real dogs.
But was Hekatonkheires a dog?
Of course not.
Until now, it had swallowed more than twenty people alive.
Half of them were death-row prisoners from the Empire.
The other half were people the Empire believed had great futures.
They all had strong potential. They could have become valuable fighters for the Empire.
But that was exactly why they understood how much power a Teigu could give a person.
A Teigu user and an ordinary person could not be compared. Once someone was accepted by a Teigu, their status would change completely.
With that thought, everyone who had tried to use Hekatonkheires had died.
They were all eaten by that monster.
Gozuki had once personally seen a coworker get torn apart by this monster after it went berserk.
The man had been smashed to pieces, then swallowed.
If this monster went wild here, Gozuki himself might be able to survive. But the "children" he had carefully trained for years would definitely suffer heavy losses.
If Hekatonkheires went berserk, even Gozuki might not escape unharmed.
And fighting it to the death would not be worth it. There would be no benefit for either side.
It would be a pointless risk.
Unfortunately, whether a Teigu understood the idea of "benefit" was completely unknown.
Most likely, it did not.
Even if it was a biological-type Teigu, it was still a Teigu in the end.
It was still a tool.
A few drops of cold sweat appeared on Gozuki's forehead.
He wanted to say something, but stopped. Maybe he was afraid of provoking the "monster."
Seeing that Gozuki could not calm down, Noah simply reached out, grabbed Hekatonkheires by the back of the neck, and lifted it up.
Like this, it looked just like a fluffy, silly, and cute stuffed puppy.
Noah casually threw it into the dog bed and let it stay off to the side.
Gozuki was still not fully relaxed, but on the surface, he let out a breath.
"Poney, you first—"
Gozuki was about to tell Poney to call the others outside. But before he could finish, the energetic Poney suddenly collapsed weakly.
He reacted quickly.
In a flash, he moved behind Poney and caught her. With the skill of an assassin, he quickly checked why she had fallen.
Then he noticed that her symptoms were the same as the virus Noah had described.
'So this was what it looked like when it acted up.'
Gozuki secretly glanced at Cornelia beside him.
'And this is what she looks like after the first treatment.'
'Just like Noah said, it really is under control.'
'Still, this is impressive. He can control the state of the human body so freely. As expected of that old man's student.'
Gozuki thought this ability came from Bill's teaching. But he did not know that Bill himself thought of Noah as even more of a monster.
Gozuki carried Poney and placed her sideways on another sickbed.
"Poney!"
Seeing the girl collapse, Cornelia looked worried.
Almost at the same time, surprised voices came from outside.
"Akame! What's wrong?"
"Hey, Tsukushi, what is going on? Is it poison?"
There was no need to look. Gozuki and Noah both knew what had happened.
It had begun.
The virus's hidden period changed depending on the person's body.
Cornelia had helped the villagers too much and lowered her immunity, so she collapsed first.
Poney had used a lot of stamina running back to call people, so the virus also overtook her.
Around this time, the virus had entered its outbreak stage.
Gozuki walked outside.
At a glance, he saw Tsukushi and Akame had also collapsed. With this, all the girls had fallen.
When he appeared, the leader of the seven, the white-haired boy Nahashu, immediately reported.
"Father, this is—"
"Carry those two inside too and leave them to the doctor."
"Yes."
Green and Guy each carried one girl and brought them to the sickbeds inside.
Then Gozuki said to the three boys, "You three should each find a bed and lie down too."
"Eh?"
The three froze.
"We have to as well?"
Gozuki said, "This is an infectious disease. All the girls have collapsed and we are probably next."
"An infectious disease!"
Green was shocked.
Among the seven, there was a reason why only he wore glasses.
He had read many books and had a lot of knowledge. His body was not as strong as Nahashu, the captain, or Guy, the muscle idiot.
But his intelligence was one of the best in the group.
He was the brainy type.
An infectious disease. Depending on the situation, it could become a terrifying force that destroyed a whole nation.
And they had met one here?
Gozuki noticed that Green was shaken too badly, so he quickly comforted him.
"Don't worry. We have an excellent doctor here. It won't become what you're worried about."
"Father..."
Green stared at Gozuki. The fear in his heart slowly calmed down.
If it was Gozuki, the seven would believe him without question.
Even if Gozuki told them not to trust him, they would still believe him.
...
Noah quickly prepared enough nutritional fluid for everyone.
Everything went smoothly. By midnight, everyone's condition had stabilized as they had all fallen into deep sleep.
After finishing everything, Noah walked outside. He held a cup of hot tea and looked up at the large moon hanging in the sky.
"This place is actually pretty nice."
Seeing him come out, Gozuki smiled. "Good work."
Then he saw the tea in Noah's hand and raised the bottle of alcohol in his own hand.
"You're still drinking that stuff? A mature man should drink this."
Noah sighed and shook his head. "The alcohol here tastes too bad and I don't have any sadness that I need to drown with alcohol."
"Fine. So, what about the important part?"
"If nothing goes wrong, tomorrow. After the first dose, they need a physical check once every three days. Then one more dose every month. It should be complete after one year."
A god's Falna worked immediately once a god gave it.
But this fake version of falna was not that convenient.
The first injection was only like planting a seed. After that, it needed constant care to succeed.
The original plan was supposed to take two years.
But after Noah saw the seven in person, he realized it would not need that long.
"One year? That's twice as fast as planned. Why?"
"Probably because of their talent. If the host is good enough, that's how it works."
The Grace Elixir was grown using the poison-type Teigu.
In the end, it was still a kind of bacteria. It was just harmless to the human body.
Gozuki showed a little excitement. "Great! That means the plan can be completed even faster. This special unit can finally be used."
Noah glanced at Gozuki, whose expression could probably scare a child into crying.
Then he looked away with slight disgust.
....
For the next year, because of frequent contact, Noah and the seven became more familiar with each other.
Noah also discovered that they were truly excellent workers.
Today was the same.
Tsukushi, Akame, and Guy brought back the materials from a Large Danger Beast.
After Noah appraised it, he was a little surprised.
"It's actually an Earth Dragon."
The Earth Dragon was a first-class Danger Beast.
It was a large monster that could dig underground. It often went onto main roads and attacked traveling merchant groups, creating great danger for trade.
Danger Beasts were strange creatures. When people tried to hunt them on purpose, they were often hard to find.
This was especially true for Earth Dragons, which could dig underground.
Their hiding ability was very troublesome.
Guy rubbed his shoulder and complained, "Carrying this thing back exhausted me, Doctor!"
Akame and Tsukushi also said together, "We really have to thank Guy. Without him, with our strength alone, we could never have brought this big thing back."
The two girls looked at each other and secretly thought:
'Dr. Noah was right after all.'
'Guy may be a pervert, but because he has never been in love before, he is actually very pure.'
'He has no resistance at all when girls act cute. Just ask him sweetly and praise him a few times, and he gets so happy that he loses all sense of direction.'
'So easy to control!'
"Well, my strength exists for moments like this, right? Hahaha." Guy started acting proud.
He even kept throwing looks at Noah that seemed to say, "See? I'm popular, right?"
Noah blinked and only smiled at him.
'Damn it.'
Guy cursed inwardly.
Noah's reaction made him feel like he was acting like a little kid!
Cornelia had also told him before that he should learn from Dr. Noah and become more mature.
Actually, Guy also thought Noah was mature.
But for some reason, he just could not bring himself to like this doctor.
"Tch. I'm going back first." Guy quickly turned and left.
He did not even wait for Akame and Tsukushi to react.
Tsukushi looked in the direction he left and asked in confusion, "What happened to Guy? Does he have a stomachache?"
Akame nodded seriously. "Probably."
'No, that's definitely not it.'
Noah was speechless.
Among the seven, Poney was a simple-minded idiot.
But these two could also be called the insensitive duo. They were completely bad at reading the mood.
They were also very slow when it came to relationships between people.
Everyone knew Guy liked Cornelia. After all, he talked about it every day.
But they had no idea that Green liked Akame.
That glasses boy often stared at Akame without looking away and whenever Akame was present, he tried much harder to show off.
Even Noah, who only saw them once every three days, had noticed Green's feelings for Akame long ago.
But Akame herself had not noticed at all.
Not only that. Other than Cornelia, the older-sister figure, the other girls had also not noticed Green's behavior.
They even thought Green was just a strange person who sometimes acted weird.
Normally, girls should mature earlier than boys.
For some reason, with these girls, it was the opposite.
Guy and Green had each found someone they secretly liked.
As for Nahashu, he was simply careful and observant.
That white-haired handsome boy looked cold, but in truth, he cared about his companions the most.
As the leader, he properly carried out all his duties.
He was the classic type who spoke harshly but had a soft heart.