A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight - Chapter 10

As Sophia surveyed the surroundings of the keep-castle, she soon discovered a peculiar feature of this castle.

While generally classified as castles, keeps were more akin to lords’ manors than true castles. Naturally, their walls were not very high, and they often lacked moats around them.

“But this one has a moat?”

Unusually for a keep, this one was equipped with a moat. What was it meant to defend against that required a moat? Though Sophia expressed her puzzlement, she soon recalled something and understood.

Wasn’t there an area nearby embroiled in conflict?

The succession dispute between the Duchy of Aargau, a Frangian territory, and the Margraviate of Baden-Baden, under the Holy Griffon Empire, was escalating in intensity. She had even witnessed bandit gangs formed from deserters attacking a caravan on her way to Strasbourg, so the situation was easily imaginable.

“These fellows must have added a moat to the keep in preparation for that…”

And there, a problem arose. Catching a whiff of the foul, putrid water stagnating in the moat, Sophia pinched her nose.

To be clear, stagnant moat water rotting around castles was quite common, not really a major issue.

After all, a moat’s primary purpose as a defensive structure was to prevent enemies from easily scaling the walls. Whether the water stagnated or became contaminated didn’t matter. In fact, having an appropriately rotten, opaque moat with a foul stench to dampen invaders’ morale would be appreciated.

“But if that moat is located near an aquifer, the story changes.”

Surface water and groundwater are not as strictly separated as one might think. Of course, for an underground stream to form, water must first be supplied from the surface – it’s only natural.

Therefore, if contaminated soil or water existed on the surface above an aquifer, the groundwater would naturally become contaminated too. If the aquifer flowed deep enough underground, it would be relatively safe from surface contamination, but…

‘There’s no way the technology of a medieval civilization could detect and access water flowing that deep underground.’

More or less. And if the moat water had instead been drawn from a nearby river, that would have been better. But from what Sophia saw, this keep’s moat seemed to be solely supplied by groundwater.

In other words, a direct path had been opened between the putrid moat water and the groundwater.

“Heheh, this is pretty much a disaster.”

Sophia felt her head spinning in complexity.
What should she do? Tell the villagers that the local groundwater had become unusable due to the lord’s castle moat, so they should immediately abandon the village?

[……]
“I know. They probably won’t just listen to me, right? I know, ah jeez.”

Faced with this vexing situation, Sophia looked truly troubled about what to do. Even if she managed to contain this plague outbreak, it would undoubtedly resurface soon. Moreover, it was obvious this plague-exposed village wouldn’t be the only one affected – that was another problem.

After urgently sealing off what appeared to be the groundwater duct supplying the moat, Sophia returned to the village and, concealing her inner worries, began directing the people to care for the plague patients.

Leading efforts to boil water, prepare oral rehydration solutions, strictly isolate excretions and treat them with lime, Sophia felt her concerns deepening.

Of course, the immediate treatment of the villagers wasn’t a major issue itself. In any case, the correct approach for diarrhea was to simply maintain their strength until it naturally subsided. In fact, the villagers continuously replenishing fluids, salts, and sugars through oral rehydration were gradually showing signs of recovery over time.

Even if some were on the verge of expiring, Sophia had luminous power and internal cultivation techniques. Her “Churning the Bloodstream” technique spanned Ayurvedic practices derived from the chakra system, traditional Chinese medicine based on meridians and acupuncture points, as well as chiropractic and bone-setting therapies.

By infusing luminous power into her treatments, as long as they hadn’t expired yet, she could revive them with minimal effort. Even if they had expired, she was confident she could revive them through means like cardiac massage or artificial respiration – luminous power enabled such abilities.

Just earlier, she had brazenly revived a village child on the verge of expiring. Though the child’s limp, panting form looked somewhat pitiful with its vitality depleted, it was alive regardless. As Sophia gently massaged the child’s stiffened brow with her finger and supported its back to sit up, she had it drink an oral rehydration solution.

“Gulp. Th-Thank you.”

Stopping the child from thanking her with its feeble, slurred speech lacking baby teeth, Sophia laid the child back down to rest. Though the pervasive stench of feces made this seem an unlivable environment, well, it was all proof these people were still alive, so it was fine.

The important part was what came next.

‘That’s right, what comes next. Ah, just what am I to do?’

No matter how Sophia racked her brain, she could do nothing about the already contaminated aquifer. Would it be better to at least teach them how to build a water purification facility? As she agonized over this dilemma, the Holy Spirit Jibrail, who had guided her here, addressed her:

[……?]
“Is it true? That there is a druid and an alchemist nearby?”

Sophia thought to herself:
‘Hmm. It seems Jibrail is carrying me again this time?’

+++++

After confirming there were no urgent cases among the villagers, Sophia entrusted the remaining tasks to the able-bodied, then urgently rode her mare Janghwalljang in the direction guided by the Holy Spirit Jibrail.

Along the way, Sophia briefly checked the situation in a few other villages connected to the territory’s aquifer, but fortunately, they had proper physicians attending to the plague outbreak.

She did have to rather severely lecture some quack practitioners who caught her eye, but compared to the village subscribing to curses with no doctors whatsoever, the situation was far better.

The time Sophia spent riding through these villages amounted to over half a day’s journey. Having set out a bit late in the morning, by the time she reached the entrance of the forest she was headed to, the sun had already begun slanting westward.

While the plains she had ridden across were still somewhat bright, the forest was already darkening with the extended tree shadows adding to the hillside shadows. Stopping her horse at the forest entrance, Sophia tied it to a nearby oak tree and unhesitatingly entered the woods.

The trees cast elongated black shadows in the encroaching darkness. With the dense forest canopy, it was so dark that one could hardly believe the sun had not yet set.

However, Sophia did not falter or lose her way in the darkness. The Celtic geass engraved on her body prevented her from losing her way in the forest, and the “Clear Sight” technique from her internal cultivation allowed her to discern objects as clearly as in broad daylight.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit Jibrail was currently leading the way ahead of her. How could she possibly lose her way when not alone?

Even as the sun began to set, Sophia continued unerringly finding her way through the forest, only stopping at a certain point after proceeding quite deep into the woods.

Suddenly, a pale cluster of lights blocked her path.

“Is this a will-o’-wisp? It seems the rumor of a druid being here was true.”
[……!]
“No, I didn’t mean to doubt you, Jibrail. Don’t react so sensitively. It just makes you look suspicious for no reason.”
[……!?]

Despite the will-o’-wisp barring her way, Sophia did not lose her composure. Rather, she calmly observed the will-o’-wisp while nonchalantly exchanging banter with her Holy Spirit Jibrail. This was because she knew that fundamentally, will-o’-wisps as summoned beings did not possess any aggression to initiate attacks against others.