Hmm... What was it I’d promised to give Raleigh?
First, the vitamins, the watch, and the nautical charts.
These were items for navigation.
The vitamins were essential. Sailors of this era died in droves from a mysterious illness, and it wouldn’t be discovered until centuries later that its true identity was scurvy caused by a lack of vitamin C.
The watch and nautical charts were the same.
John Harrison wouldn’t develop a clock that could keep accurate time at sea until the eighteenth century. And until then, there was no clock that worked well enough to be used at sea without error.
But with just this wristwatch, everything changed. If you knew the time aboard a ship, you could determine longitude, and if you knew longitude, you could determine your own position at sea.
It was a privilege no seafarer of this age could enjoy. That was why Sir Raleigh’s eyes had practically rolled back in his head.
And maps made with twenty-first-century technology? That went without saying.
But the protective suits, masks, streptomycin sulfate, and bleach were a little different in purpose.
These were things I’d been stockpiling since before.
That is... since I first discovered Eleanor and the thirty-some colonists of Roanoke.
Because that was when I’d started reading the game catalog seriously.
I hadn’t had any particular thought in mind. Just, well, if I stocked them up, I’d probably find a use for them?
Protective suits and masks were things you had to wear if you entered a dangerous area, so there was no need to explain why I’d hoarded them.
Streptomycin sulfate, if injected into a plague patient within forty-eight hours of onset, could save their life.
Originally, Mr. Jeong from the direct market had foisted it on me as a medical-use product to mix with gibberellin. (I still don’t know if that was legal.) So it could be used on people well enough. Usually, you used Buramycin on grapes, so I still don’t know why he gave it to me.
Bleach was... for cleaning. And, while I was at it, it could also kill the rodents that carried the plague.
—“In 1592, a large-scale outbreak of the plague in and around London kills some 15,000 people, more than 10% of the city’s population. The damage occurs mainly in the slums, where unsanitary conditions...”
Since I’d seen such a historical event, I’d thought it was right to stockpile them, and now that had proven correct.
It was a relief. I’d already been reluctant to recommend Walter Raleigh go to London when it was practically sending him off to die, but since he was saying he’d go on his own like that...
“Sir Raleigh? You are going to London, correct?”
“...Er, go, go I shall. If I refuse to go because I fear the plague, how much longer must I delay? Two years? Three? I cannot remain away from England for that long.”
When he put it like that, it became easier to entrust him with the task.
“Then... first, do you know how to use a mask?”
“Pardon? Is it not worn over the face? Such a trifling thing, of course I—”
Flap.
“...That is a mask?”
“Wear it once, then wash it or throw it away. You must distinguish the front and back when you put it on. Tell the sailors that.”
“Er... yes. Then...”
“Next is the protective suit. It may look rather ridiculous, so it would be best to use it when you have to come into contact with plague patients.”
“Pardon? Would there be any reason to come that close to plague patients?”
“Yes.”
“...”
“...”
Raleigh looked slightly startled, then relaxed.
In front of him, I put on and took off the protective suit, explaining various precautions. And after that... uh...
“The use of a syringe is not something you can learn in an instant.”
“Syr...inge? You mean that thing Miss Lawrence uses?”
“Yes.”
“...”
“The very thing used on patients.”
“...”
“...”
The faint amusement on Raleigh’s face stiffened slightly.
He seemed to have realized.
And I realized that he had realized.
Yes. Since you’re going anyway, while you’re at it, try resolving the plague in London.
You’ll help the dying, and while you’re at it, gain the queen’s favor. Isn’t that a good bargain?
Uh... maybe not, since he’d have to pass through the jaws of death?
In any case, now that there would be nearly 10,000 witnesses, hiding my identity was already a lost cause, and I figured there was nothing to hesitate over when it came to exercising influence in England... Of course, I wouldn’t force him.
“N-no, that... surely...”
While Walter Raleigh was stammering, I turned my head and spoke.
“For now, I should go meet Miss Lawrence as well. I’ll have to check whether Miss Lawrence will be going along with you.”
“Ah... yes. Of course.”
Walter Raleigh’s expression gradually grew strange, but I didn’t pay it much mind. After all, he’d said he would go himself.
Praising his courage in volunteering to walk into London, where disease-ridden rats would be swarming, I moved on.
Soon, when I led Raleigh to the “hospital,” they were in the middle of treating patients together with Eleanor, who had come to volunteer. In truth, it was closer to an elementary school infirmary than a hospital, but even so, by the standards of this era, it was among the very best hospitals.
“Here... raise your arm straight up. Tell me if it hurts.”
“Aaaah... aaaagh! It hurts! It hurts!”
“Ah, dear. That must hurt a lot.”
...What? I’d never taught her that way of speaking. Did people’s speech patterns undergo convergent evolution once they took up the profession of doctor?
I waited until they sent out the last patient, then opened the door as soon as the hospital was empty.
Bang.
At that, the two people who had been organizing medicine and bandages turned their heads and greeted me. I had them sit back down, seated Sir Raleigh beside me, and said,
“Sir Raleigh has decided to go to London.”
“...Pardon?”
“The plague will break out in London. The people there will need Miss Lawrence.”
“...”
“...”
Uh... was she hesitating?
That wouldn’t do. I needed Margaret.
I asked again, in a more earnest tone.
“In this plan, if Sir Raleigh is the bedrock, then Miss Lawrence can be said to be the stone monument. Miss Lawrence’s devotion is needed.”
At those words, Raleigh flinched, and Margaret...
Margaret hesitated for a moment... then nodded with a slightly dazed expression.
“...I’ll go.”
“Good. Then...”
As I was about to rise from my seat, someone grabbed my sleeve. When I turned my gaze... Eleanor was looking up at me and cried out urgently.
“W-wait a moment!”
“What is it, Eleanor?”
“Could I go too?”
“Mm? Eleanor, you... will you be all right?”
“I’m not as good as Margaret, but, um, I know how to give injections too, and I’ve memorized most of the medicines here. I think it’ll be all right if I go.”
“...”
“...”
I turned my head to look at Raleigh.
Raleigh’s expression was somehow a little different from earlier.
A little more... sharp-eyed, perhaps.
“Sir Raleigh? Will that be all right?”
“...Hmm.”
Raleigh pondered for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Eleanor? You heard Master Nemo’s words together with us, did you not?”
“...Yes.”
Raleigh exchanged some sort of look with Eleanor, then glanced at me and said,
“She says she will go. How could I stop her?”
“...”
There was something... strange about the atmosphere.
Hrrm... My plan had been to send Raleigh out and save the citizens of London while I was at it. It wouldn’t do if Raleigh was reluctant.
Come to think of it, the catalog’s description of Raleigh was... uh...
—“The most obnoxious man in the Elizabethan court.”
...That was genuinely the text. I spoke to that most obnoxious man.
I asked cautiously,
“...Sir Raleigh?”
“Yes.”
“Is something the matter?”
At that, Sir Raleigh asked back in a trembling voice,
“S-something... the matter, you ask?”
***
Sir Walter Raleigh was a devout Protestant.
One might ask what was so devout about a man who lived as the queen’s favorite, but everyone had a two-faced side.
In his youth, he had participated in the civil war in France to help the French Protestants fighting the Catholics. Even as he grew older, he attended church gatherings with passion and graced them with his presence.
He was such an utterly insufferable, arrogant, debauched, and greedy man that it was difficult to find a commandment among the Ten Commandments he had not broken, but even so, he still considered himself a servant of the Lord.
And.
—“...Pardon?”
—“Since it’s early May now, by the time you arrive in London, it should be around August, just when the plague begins to spread. Take care of yourself.”
When he first heard this, he wondered what it meant.
And also.
—“Ah, right. There are some things I should give you. Take these vitamins. If you feed these to the sailors once every few days, you should be able to prevent scurvy.”
—“...Scurvy? With a single pill?”
—“This is a watch fixed to the time here in Croatoan. On board, use this to check the time and determine longitude. If I give you maps as well, you likely won’t have any trouble determining your position.”
The stories came crashing over him like a storm.
Within that astonishing heavenly authority, Walter Raleigh barely managed to collect himself and looked over the objects before him.
Vitamins...? Was this not the mysterious medicine Master Nemo fed to the residents of Croatoan Island once every few days? And with this, scurvy could be prevented?
And this too was astonishing. That such a small watch could tick so accurately. Was this not the Lord’s miracle placed upon the wrist?
And on top of that, maps? When Master Nemo had briefly unfolded one before... there had been no blank spaces on that map.
It meant it was a map containing the entire world.
And he received a great medicine that cured the plague, along with clothes and masks that prevented the plague.
He had been chosen.
Chosen for the prosperity and glory of this colony, to establish the Lord’s kingdom in America.
Filled with emotion, he nodded and followed Master Nemo.
And.
That person told me to draw near to the patients.
He had the physician Margaret and Eleanor, who could work as her assistant, accompany me.
What all of that meant was...
Uh...
—“In this plan, if Sir Raleigh is the bedrock, then Miss Lawrence can be said to be the stone monument. Miss Lawrence’s devotion is needed.”
It was clear.
After all was said and done.
Sir Raleigh looked up at Nemo for a moment. As always, that person was looking down at him with an ordinary expression.
He spoke as though he were giving me a task that was only natural.
And so... I had no choice but to answer. That I would do it.
But now, everything had become clear.
“...I am not going merely to assemble a ship called the Clipper, am I?”
“That is also correct. And it is also correct that you are going to save new settlers.”
“But that is not all. No, that is... uh... not even a secondary objective, is it?”
“...”
Master Nemo nodded without answering. When Raleigh sought a clearer answer with his eyes, only then did he open his mouth.
“Yes. That is correct.”
“...Then, may I ask just one thing?”
“Yes.”
“What is your reason for doing this?”
“...”
“I-I am terribly curious. O Lord.
Did you not just tell us to go save plague patients? Did you not ask us whether we could go to our deaths?”
“...”
“Are you telling us to go to the jaws of death, treat plague patients, and, uh, purify the most dangerous slums?”
When Raleigh asked, Nemo quietly shook his head and said. There was not the slightest trace of disappointment on his face. Rather, he seemed apologetic that he himself could not go.
“If you do not wish it, I am fine with that.”
“...Pardon?”
“If Sir Raleigh does not wish to go, I will not force you. I do not wish to send anyone unwillingly to their dea—”
And so Raleigh answered before he could finish speaking.
“I wish it.”
“...Pardon?”
“I wish it. I wish it. I d-desperately wish it.”
Some people called him a selfish son of a bitch.
And that was exactly right.
Some people called him a debauched toy who frolicked in the queen’s bed.
Those words, too, described him precisely.
It would be correct to say he had sold his soul for power and wealth, and above all, it would be correct to say he was a man whose soul had been sold to lust.
However.
“I w-will go, I will go...”
As stated before, Raleigh was a devout Protestant.
An angel commanded him.
Go.
Go and save the people.
For that is the Father’s will.
And so Raleigh answered,
I shall do so.
Even if I must die a thousand deaths, I shall do so.
He was an apostle. Though he could not become like the great and holy figures in the Bible, though he would remain debauched and luxurious, he was an apostle. Even so, he was an apostle.
And his teacher and master told him to head toward the mire of death.
That person had said he would use him greatly.
He would now obtain eternal glory and authority.
“...I shall go to London.”
I shall go and seek your will.
Raleigh obeyed.
Eleanor Dare would tell this to her father John White, and John White would tell this in turn to Thomas Hewett, and so it would be written in the Gospel.
In the 1592nd year after the Lord was born upon this earth.
It was the third day of May.