Chapter 471: Let’s Trap the Radiant Church with Another Paper!

When two legends agree on something, the process naturally progresses very rapidly. Mage Edgar brought the paper to the review committee, and an emergency meeting was promptly convened to discuss it. Then…

A team dressed in standard equipment, with the sound of horse hooves, approached the hospital where Garrett Nordmark was.

“Is Mage Garrett Nordmark here?”

The team consisted of seven people. Two mages rode side by side; one shouted the question while the other held the reins, looking up at the flag on the rooftop—

Hmm, a white background with a red cross, they hadn’t gotten the wrong place.

By the way, what does this flag mean?

Is it the Nordmark family crest?

Inside the kingdom, on this continent, which family uses this as their crest?

He frowned in thought. Meanwhile, four barbarian guards gathered inside, blocking the way. The head of security, Bernard, hurried out:

“Who are you? What do you want?”

Seeing the barbarians move forward, the five knights immediately acted: they spurred their horses, advanced, and formed a semicircle, effectively protecting the mages inside.

Bernard stood firm on the steps, took a relieved breath upon seeing familiar faces:

The knights all wore neatly uniformed light steel armor, draped in dark blue cloaks. The hilts of their swords each sparkled with three gems;

The two mages wore identical high-collared riding attire, wrapped in black cloaks with hoods;

Both had badges on their chests, flashing the emblem of a fifth-level mage.

This group was from the Magic Council’s Emergency Management Department. They had visited their boss before, and he had seen them!

Even so, Bernard didn’t relax his vigilance. He remembered the team’s first visit; his boss had been so worried that he was pulling his hair out.

He vigilantly watched them and didn’t instruct the barbarian guards to clear the way. The leading mage looked around, then dismounted, and after fumbling in his coat, he produced a document:

“We’re the Council’s law enforcement team. By order of the review committee, we’re here to escort Nordmark Mage to the committee for consultation.”

“...Wait here!”

Bernard took the document and went inside. He returned shortly, his demeanor much politer but still firm:

“The boss is in surgery. Gentlemen, please come in and wait!”

Thus, unbeknownst to Garrett, he was already enjoying the “protection of the law enforcement team” and the privilege of “the review committee waiting until after my surgery”…

This was a stark contrast to when the virus laboratory had leaked, and he was summoned by the review committee back then.

Of course, even if he knew, Garrett wouldn’t mind: surgery was of utmost importance, even if it was just for appendicitis, it deserved his full attention:

From opening the abdomen, mobilizing, removing the appendix, to washing and closing up. He meticulously completed the surgery and came out in his scrubs:

“What? The review committee wants me now? Hold on, let me change my clothes…”

Damn, scrubs plus 【Cold and Heat Resistant】, basically a personal air conditioner. Plus, it’s his own hospital, no medical department watching and checking uniforms, completely forgotten…

And, just a notification would have sufficed, now that I have the 【Endless Ink Pen】, I could just teleport to Igor’s enchanted door…

Never mind, you have to give face to the law enforcement team. Garrett mounted Apa and under their protection, sped through the wilderness. Before long, they switched to a train, up the mountain, into the Tower of Heaven.

Upon entering the conference room, within ten minutes, all the review committee members had arrived. It felt like everyone was there just waiting for him.

Mage Edgar was still accompanying the necromancer from the review committee. As he entered, he clapped lightly and smiled:

“Well, our ‘Lord of the Plague’ has arrived!”

Garrett rolled his eyes and puffed his cheeks. What’s meant by Lord of the Plague? Don’t ruin my reputation! I’m a doctor, not a plague god!

“Relax, your nickname isn’t ‘Lord of the Plague’ on the Radiant Church’s purification list.” Old Sam, from the Plasticity Department, joked:

“To earn that nickname, you’d still need to push a bit harder—expanding smallpox vaccination might just do it. Little Garrett, tell us, how much would it cost to implement this nationwide?”

“Nationwide?” Garrett jumped up:

“I’m not ready yet!”

The committee members looked at each other. Garrett said “not ready” instead of “impossible,” meaning he believed it was feasible to expand smallpox vaccination nationwide?

Even, upon further thought, it should be expanded nationwide?

“What preparations do you need?”

The great mage from the Curse Department

asked with a smile. Although he wasn’t from the medical branch, the Curse Department includes medical issues, and the review committee defaulted to him for related matters. Garrett scratched his ear:

“A lot... budget, manpower, time…”

“One at a time!”

Garrett was surprised by their response. While it was ideal to expand vaccination to all citizens, their readiness seemed a bit too enthusiastic! Just based on this paper?

I wouldn’t dare make such a decision!

I planned to start with a few hundred to a thousand cases, then find an opportunity, like a small-scale smallpox outbreak, to propose it to the council!

“You don’t need to worry.” Seeing Garrett’s suspicious face, possibly ready to flee—or summon the Thunder Lord’s grand invocation, Old Sam reassuringly smiled:

“Your paper has been reviewed by several legends, and they’re very optimistic. We’ve also consulted a master from the medical branch and one from the divination school to verify its effectiveness.”

What? Consult the divination school?!

You guys can!

I didn’t think of that!

Garrett looked at the review committee with newfound respect. Since he had the backing of legends, he didn’t hold back:

The manpower for searching diseased cattle, the budget for buying or leasing cattle, the costs of training vaccinators, the wages for vaccinators…

He verbally unfolded a spreadsheet, waiting for the great mages of the various departments to fill it in.

“And, I also need a few months— I haven’t verified the vaccine storage method yet…”

Garrett wanted to say that he needed about a thousand volunteers and a sufficiently large quarantine observation area—or, if an infectious disease hospital was available, to borrow it for a while longer. Before he could mention it, Old Sam was already frowning:

“That long? Can it be faster? We need to spread the cowpox vaccination method across the nation before it leaks to the Radiant Church!”

“This... well, if the vaccine preservation experiments aren’t completed, ineffective vaccines could cause more trouble!”

Garrett firmly shook his head. Science, if you defy it, will show its colors. It didn’t matter if the review committee members were discussing with him, even if it was legendary mages in person, speeding up was not an option!

“This is troublesome!” Old Sam rubbed his temples and lamented:

“Garrett, you don’t know the trouble you’ve caused at the Radiant Church! This cowpox thing, without publishing a paper, you can’t convince the public; once you publish, it’s definitely going to be copied! Ah, why were you in such a hurry to send out those papers on infrared and ultraviolet rays before!”

???

It’s my fault again?

Garrett was stunned. He took the intelligence from Old Sam and skimmed through it, not knowing how to respond. Is this my doing?

Clearly, you made a mess, and I’m taking the blame!

Despite the complaints, Garrett knew the situation was serious. The cowpox vaccine’s technical barrier was practically paper-thin. Once broken through, the application was straightforward, and it wouldn’t be difficult for the Radiant Church to learn—

Garrett, as compassionate as he was, wouldn’t want them learning it now. What a joke, the Radiant Church is currently strong, and the council is weak. Promoting it now would be aiding the enemy—

No, wait, there’s still a barrier to cowpox vaccination!

Garrett slapped his forehead. Then, leaning forward, he lowered his voice:

“Masters, how about we trap the Radiant Church a bit?”

“How do we trap them?”

“First, in the paper, don’t disclose the technical details of cowpox…”

Not disclosing the details was really trapping them. You see, not all the pustules on a cow are cowpox. If they choose the wrong pustules, thinking they’re vaccinated, then face smallpox unprepared…

Heh.

The committee members exchanged glances and smiled simultaneously. The idea was good; after all, they weren’t actively harming anyone, just preventing them from learning!

“And then what?”

“Then… another paper, no, two…”

One paper would be a discussion on human variolation. Using human variolation to prevent smallpox also existed in this world. However, with divine magic at play, it had developed much more slowly than in Garrett’s previous life:

“Review the development process of human variolation, such as how to cultivate it generation by generation, selecting strains with weaker toxicity, selected strains, lower mortality rate for vaccinations, and so on. Then, compare it with cowpox.”

Obviously, no matter how carefully selected, the mortality rate from human variolation was still much higher than from cowpox.

And, this would be a very normal paper, completely viewed as paving the way for cowpox.

“What about the second paper?”

“The second paper…” Garrett smiled slightly. He tilted his face up, his eyes sparkling as if he saw a

future thousands of miles away:

“The second paper’s title will be ‘On the Preparation Method of Attenuated Vaccines.’—This one, I’d like to use mad dogs as the research subjects, so I’ll need the review committee’s help in gathering them.”

The principle of making attenuated vaccines wasn’t difficult. Simply put, it involved treating infectious substances that could infect humans and animals in various ways, iterating on animals, then selecting strains with weaker toxicity—

“It sounds reasonable.” Grom, from the Necromancer Department, frowned and muttered. Old Sam was concerned about something else:

“Isn’t that guiding them in making a smallpox vaccine? If they use human smallpox to infect cattle—”

Garrett’s eyes twinkled with a mischievous smile.

“That’s the catch. This kind of plague, smallpox, won’t infect cattle for ten thousand years!”

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