The Queen’s edict had been issued.
As Sir Walter Raleigh had proposed, gatherings of five or more people were forbidden within London.
However, it applied only “within London.”
Fortunately, the upper classes, who had places to flee to on the outskirts of London, were able to enjoy banquets and tea in nearby cities and converse at their leisure.
And even there, the topic of conversation was none other than “that.”
“Sir John Hawkins is dead, they say.”
“What? How did that happen?”
“There is hardly any other reason for people dying these days. They say it was the Black Death.”
“...Wasn’t it the Earl of Pembroke last time?”
“Indeed. Obituaries are arriving every other day.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Didn’t everyone... flee to the outskirts of London at a suitable time?”
“They did. But how it came to that, I cannot begin to know.”
“This gathering may not be safe either.”
“What do you mean, not safe?”
“Did none of you see Her Majesty’s edict? It said that even after the foul vapors seep into the body, one may appear perfectly fine for several days, did it not?
Among those here who look perfectly well, there may be some who already carry the miasma of the Black Death.”
At those ominous words, the various earls and barons gathered there each edged away from one another and cleared their throats. In an instant, silence settled over the gathering.
“No, I think differently.”
“You think differently? What are you trying to say?”
“Do you still not understand? There is something the dead had in common.”
“In... common?”
“I cannot say I do.”
“The news is already everywhere in London. They say it is the will of the Lord.”
“Well, whether a man dies or lives is all the will of the Lord. We must not be too swayed by the foolish talk of the ignorant...”
“Were they not all people who coveted ‘that medicine’?”
“...Pardon?”
“They demanded the medicine, and about a week later they began to languish, and many of them died. Only a few ran to the treatment center in time and barely survived.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...Yes. Perhaps it truly is the will of the Lord.”
When an elderly noblewoman crossed herself, the others, after glancing at one another, quickly did the same.
A question began to sprout in everyone’s hearts.
Was it truly... the will of the Lord?
Had they died by the will of the Lord?
At any rate, the rumor that had spread from London reached Richmond, Kingston, Oxford, Reading, and beyond.
“...Nobles who died while seeking to obtain ‘the Lord’s medicine,’ is it?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It is quite an irreverent rumor, but it seems to be very popular among the citizens of London.”
“I suppose it would be. Is it not a splendidly beautiful tale?”
“...Even though Sir John Hawkins, the Treasurer of the Navy, and the Earl of Pembroke, who served as President of the Council of Wales, have died. The two of them were not particularly unpopular... Perhaps we ought to suppress the rumor.”
“No. Suppress it? Nonsense.”
And it reached Queen Elizabeth as well, who was staying at Windsor Castle to avoid the chaos in London.
“Spread it actively.”
“...Pardon?”
“I have a thought, Sir Walsingham.”
Thus, the reputation of the “treatment center where the Lord dwells” soared day by day.
The eyes of all London’s citizens turned toward the slums of Southwark.
***
Before long, October had arrived.
In London, all public facilities were closed, and even every assembly including church gatherings was forbidden.
When even the Queen’s accession day celebrations scheduled for the following month were canceled, the streets grew utterly deserted, and the city quietly awaited the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.
And then.
“...It is certainly decreasing.”
Harriet, who had by now become something resembling Sir Raleigh’s aide, said as he held out the documents to Eleanor and Margaret.
“What is?”
“The deaths. Apart from that sudden, absurd period when several nobles and gentlemen died one after another, the Black Death in London is subsiding. That trend has continued for several days now.”
Death was coming to a halt.
In the areas where the wealthy lived, death had, of course, all but stopped.
And outside the walls of London, in Aldgate and Houndsditch, and along the Thames in Southwark and other neighborhoods, the march of death was slowly coming to an end.
As the weather grew colder, the season when rats swarmed was gradually passing.
Since they had already greatly reduced the number of rats with traps and poison, once winter came and the creatures froze to death on their own, the force of the Black Death would diminish even further.
Eleanor lifted her head and looked beyond the tent. Then she saw that the entrances to the sick wards, where only last month people had been lined up in long queues, were now quite open.
The days when volunteers collapsed from heatstroke after working all day in protective clothing that covered their entire bodies were over. Now, at last, they could rotate the manpower in shifts.
Not everything was over yet... but at least the end was beginning to come into sight.
“It’s... it’s thanks to everyone’s hard work.”
Margaret Lawrence said tearfully.
“My goodness, to think we truly did it... We... at last...!”
“We mustn’t rejoice already. Patients with the Black Death are still being found here and there.”
“It’ll disappear soon! At this rate, won’t we have it under control in a month or two?”
It was an optimistic remark, but it could not be denied.
Winter would soon arrive, after all.
Margaret bounced about, saying she would finally be able to sleep more than six hours a day, and Harriet, too, let out a sigh of relief, saying that the end of the quarantine work was finally in sight.
And... Eleanor...
She was bewildered.
After rumors began to spread that this place was under the Lord’s protection and the like, those who had already found Eleanor and Margaret difficult to approach began acting even stranger toward the two of them.
Whenever Eleanor passed by, they would murmur things like, “It’s the saintess...” or cross themselves in greeting instead of speaking to her.
Patients strangely tried to touch the hem of Eleanor’s clothes, and anyone whose eyes met Eleanor’s would hurriedly offer up a prayer.
It was truly... uncomfortable and unsettling somehow.
‘Could Lord Nemo have felt like this too?’
...Impossible. He was a real angel, and I’m just an ordinary person.
Eleanor cast aside the stray thought and focused once more on the conversation between Margaret and Harriet. They were discussing how it would be all right to shorten the sterilization intervals for the syringes and other equipment, but...
Bang.
Suddenly, the flap of the tent opened. When they turned to see what it was, a familiar face appeared.
“Sir Raleigh!”
It was Sir Raleigh, who had, before they knew it, overcome the Black Death.
He was still continuing quarantine work in various places with the guardsmen and his own servants. It had been inevitable that he was difficult to see over the past few weeks.
“...Ah! Both of you happen to be here. It has truly been a long time. So long that it is hard to believe we are in the same city.”
However, Sir Raleigh’s face showed something stronger than delight at seeing his colleagues after so long.
For some reason, he looked anxious and urgent. His eyes darting about, he gestured at Harriet as if to ask him to step out for a moment.
When Harriet and the others left the tent, Eleanor and Margaret grew puzzled. Just what important matter was he going to discuss that he had even sent out Harriet, his own friend?
“Do you have time right now?”
“...Pardon?”
“There is somewhere we must stop by, and I am asking whether you have time. We may have to leave London.”
“Outside London? What is happening...?”
“Do not be too tense. Just tell me whether you have time or not. Will some patient die if you are not here?”
“...”
“...”
The two shook their heads. If it had been a few weeks ago, when they had been so busy, they would not have had a moment to leave, but now, a few days or so would be all right.
“Then let us go. The carriage is ready.”
“Where?”
“Right outside!”
“F-first, we should tell the others that we’ll be away for a while...”
“Hurry!”
And so, after frantically handing over their duties without even knowing what was going on, the two climbed into the carriage, and soon the carriage raced swiftly through the streets of London.
As the two looked around in confusion, all manner of scenery flashed past outside the window. For some reason, the carriage was splendid as well, with gilded decorations here and there.
“...This is my first time riding something like this.”
When Margaret murmured that, Eleanor replied, “Mine too...” Seeing this, Sir Raleigh pressed his fingers to his brow as if they had a very long way to go, and said,
“Both of you, when we arrive, do not walk ahead of me. Understood?”
“Y-yes?”
“And do not speak before someone addresses you, and do not forget to add ‘Your Majesty’ when you begin speaking.”
“...Pardon?”
“Ah, did I not tell you because I was in a hurry? Ah... no. I deliberately did not tell you, lest it burden you.”
Walter Raleigh spoke as naturally and matter-of-factly as if he were saying they were going out to lunch.
“We are going to see Her Majesty the Queen. Her Majesty said she wished to see you urgently.”
“...Pardooon?”
“C-could we get out?”
“Is that so surprising? You have even received a revelation from an angel.”
“Uh... uhh?”
For the next hour, Walter Raleigh explained all manner of protocol and etiquette, until he finally realized that neither of the two understood any of it at all and shut his mouth.
Then the carriage stopped.
The carriage door opened.
As the two, utterly frozen stiff, scurried after Sir Raleigh, a huge door opened.
After that, they passed through splendid corridors, splendid doors, and people dressed in splendid attire, and the two succeeded in turning completely into stone statues.
And when Sir Raleigh stood before the final door.
Creeeak.
“...Walt, have you come?”
“Your Majesty.”
“...”
“...”
They faced the monarch of England.
While Raleigh naturally bowed to the Queen, the other two were so horribly frozen that they creaked like machines.
“Ah, they are... the rumored...”
“That is correct.”
Both of them had memories, at least, of cheering and waving when the Queen’s carriage passed by in the distance. They seemed to remember briefly meeting her eyes then as well.
But this was different.
“You two... from whom did you learn medicine?”
When the Queen approached them and asked the question.
Eleanor felt as if she might faint.
“We have never le, learned it.”
“...Your Majesty.”
“Your Majesty.”
When Sir Raleigh pointed it out, Eleanor quickly added the honorific at the end. When Elizabeth laughed at the sight, Eleanor and Margaret awkwardly laughed along with the Queen.
Only Raleigh struck his forehead as if he had known this would happen, and Elizabeth quietly whispered to him.
“...How adorable. Two young maidens.”
“One of them is a widow. She has a daughter across the Atlantic.”
“Ah, is that so?”
The Queen bobbed her head and said,
“Now then, I hear that you developed a cure for the Black Death?”
At those words, Eleanor nearly replied, “Pardon?” Then she remembered that this was the story they had agreed upon before coming to England.
“Y-yes. The two of us were gathering medicinal herbs near the colony, and there was a sick person, so we brewed medicine for them, and while doing so, we thought injecting it into the blood vessels would be better, so with the help of the natives...”
“Can it be made in England as well?”
“Pardon?”
“If I grant you a patent, can you manufacture and sell it in England as well?”
Startled, Eleanor looked at the Queen, and for an instant, the Queen’s eyes turned like those of a viper...
“It, it seems impossible... Your Majesty. The ingredient grows naturally only in America...”
Then they relaxed again in an instant.
“Is that so?”
“...Yes. Moreover, obtaining that ingredient is extremely difficult, so we had to receive help from the natives.”
“...”
“...”
In silence, the Queen glared at Eleanor, Margaret, and Raleigh before continuing.
“...Two unlearned women, with the help of natives, happened to make a medicine that was suited to the Black Death? And just as you brought that medicine here, the Black Death happened to be circulating in England?”
“Your Majesty?”
“Do you know what people of the world call such a thing?
They call it a ‘miracle.’”
“...”
“...”
“...”
In an instant, the air around them grew cold. The Queen jerked her chin toward Eleanor and said,
“Show me the instrument you use to inject that mysterious medicine into the blood vessels.”
Trembling, Eleanor looked back and forth at Margaret and Sir Raleigh before holding out the syringe. Elizabeth examined it carefully, then set it down and said,
“To think they could make such a slender needle… no, such a slender tube.”
“That is so, Your Majesty. The people of the land of America may not know the Lord, but they cannot be called savages. Now that they know the Lord, they are our equals—or perhaps even our betters.”
“Hmm.”
“Now that you have secured such allies, Your Majesty, driving Spain’s supremacy from the Atlantic should be a simple matter…”
“Walt.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I do not wish to discuss an alliance with people I have not even met. Is that not too distant a matter?
I wish to focus on the miracle before my eyes.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Had the queen noticed something strange? Surely the queen couldn’t have…
“An angel.”
“…!”
Eleanor could no longer even breathe.
“An angel brought this, did it not? And bade you save London.”
Eleanor nearly burst into tears.
Her Majesty knew everything.
Now Lord Nemo would convert Her Majesty, or if he could not…!
“…How would it be to make it known as such?”
“…Pardon?”
“Hmm. It seems that was too difficult for you to follow. Sir Raleigh?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Er… I believe it is a most excellent stratagem.”
“You look unwell. There is much cold sweat on your face. I heard you had only just recovered from the plague. Has your health still not returned?”
“N-no, Your Majesty.”
“Hm. Then very well.”
Eleanor nearly lost strength in her legs and collapsed. Margaret’s hands were still trembling.
“I have already spoken to Sir Walsingham in advance. His agents will soon spread rumors throughout London. Then all you need do is act accordingly. Do you understand?”
Though the queen seemed to have sensed that something was amiss, perhaps she could not bring herself to imagine a “real angel,” and so she laughed it off.
Eleanor answered with an expression of bewilderment at the queen’s words. (This was not acting.)
“Th-that, um… Would that not be a lie?”
“It is not a lie. It is merely a little spice sprinkled atop a plain truth.”
In truth, the truth was not plain in the slightest.
“If you do not wish it, then there is nothing to be done. But if you are loyal to the authority the Lord has bestowed upon me, then you ought to comply.”
The queen’s face grew solemn.
“We are now in a state of war with Spain. Your existence shall gather the hearts of England’s faithful subjects as one, and prove that the Lord’s holy will rests upon England’s victory.”
“…”
“Therefore, you must have received a revelation from an angel concerning the plague in London.
What say you?”
-“And soon, Catherine de’ Medici, the queen mother of France, will die in 1589. From 1592 to 1593, a plague will spread in London… Ah, Descartes was born in 1596?”
She still remembered those words she had heard when she met the angel for the second time.
She still had no idea who Descartes was. Ah, he had not been born yet.
Eleanor glanced toward Sir Raleigh. Sir Raleigh, too, signaled to her with his eyes.
Do it.
“I will do it. For my country and for the Lord!”
“Good. A most excellent decision!”
Elizabeth smiled in satisfaction at the two of them.
“I have always disliked that French self-proclaimed saint, that witch Joanna (Joan of Arc)! Now we have something similar as well! Two of them, no less!”
“…”
“…”
“Ah, I do not mean that you are witches. I mean that you shall become saints. Walt, what say you?”
“The French witch, too, was captured by our army and burned at the stake under a proper trial, so she must have been false. But unlike that witch, these two received a revelation to save people instead of killing them, so they are many times greater.”
“As expected… you are of the exact same opinion as I.”
Clap!
Elizabeth clapped her hands and declared,
“Margaret Lawrence, Eleanor Dare.”
“Yes?”
“…Yes.”
“From this day forth, you are Saint Margaret and Saint Eleanor of London.”
And so… that was how it happened.
***
“W-we were gathering medicinal herbs near Croatoan Island on the eastern coast of the New World. That day, there were especially many herbs, so we were offering prayers to God.”
1 When the saints went to gather herbs in a deep valley of Croatoan Island, and were satisfied with that day’s yield, they offered prayers unto the Lord.
“Then Margaret suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of prayer and said she heard a strange sound coming from over there.”
2 And Margaret opened her eyes in the midst of prayer and said, “Eleanor, do you not hear a wondrous voice from that deep place?”
“So we went that way.”
3 The two daughters of man were sore afraid and greatly marveled, and went forth unto the place whence the voice had come.
“And then, all of a sudden, with a flash, the angel…!”
4 And the two did see and hear, and behold, the angel had six wings apiece, and whenever the wings moved, they stirred up all manner of wind and weather; and in the midst thereof, the body floated in the air and flew, and its radiance was purer than the sun.
5 And he ceased not, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
6 And in one hand he grasped radiance wound about it, and in the other he lifted up a sword that could cleave even a well-tempered mass of iron.
“…Anyway, it was amazing.”
7 And the two knelt in awe and worshiped.
“So the angel pointed east with his sword and said, ‘Go! Go and save England!’ Then he disappeared. And after that, suddenly the method for making the medicine appeared in our minds…”
8 And they asked the angel, saying, “Wherefore dost thou manifest thy form before us?”
9 And the angel lifted up his great sword and pointed to the east, saying, “Thou, Eleanor; thou, Margaret; go ye forth and save your homeland, and seek the will of the Lord as the thirsty seek spring water.”
10 And when the form of the angel vanished without a trace, the two spoke together and said, “This is not the craft of man, but a miracle of the Lord. Thou shalt grind the herbs into powder, and I shall press out their juice; let us make haste to the land of London and drive away the pestilence.”
…
…
…
“Um… are you writing it down exactly as I told you?”
“Of course, Saint Eleanor. Please, continue.”
“…Truly, you are writing it exactly as I told you, yes?”
He was not.