Chapter 237 – Open Again

Geola’s officials and army used all kinds of means to explain what vaccines were to the population, to convince them to get vaccinated. Despite doing their best, it still took a few weeks before everyone received a dose of the vaccine, and a couple more weeks of observation before the city was eventually judged safe enough.

Even then, people coming into the city as well as all surrounding villages were required to get a shot, for precaution, and the situation was closely monitored. Fortunately, the number of cases drastically dropped, together with the number of fatalities.

In the end, the final numbers were still horrifying. About twenty percent of the total population perished, a critical blow to the never-sleeping city. Nevertheless, life went on, as was the case in those situations. A mass funeral was held in commemoration of the dead outside the city, where a large cemetery was built to host them. I also attended it together with Geola’s officials, and the sight was quite terrible. The best way to explain it was that I had never seen so many people crying at the same time. Almost everyone had lost someone they loved or knew. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that most of the folks attending the funeral cried at one moment or another.

I wasn’t spared by those losses either. I first visited the market and, to my great regret, was told that Giya, my trader friend, was part of Roklera’s victims. The potter merchant who often gave me information also died, but the weasel who bought my selnic items survived.

The brothel wasn’t spared either. Berki, the woman who took my first time and taught me about sex, was part of the ones who passed, among many others. Oga and Linon survived, even though the former one only barely, catching the disease and fighting through it. The brothel was in a greatly saddened mood when I visited to check on them. The employees there were often quite close to one another, and the many deaths had grieved everyone without exception.

My next stop was the slums, a large bag of food in hand. I searched for a long time but finally found myself face-to-face with the young feline boy, glad that he survived.

“Here you are! I’ve been looking for you. I’m glad you survived, truly.”

He was also startled to see me, watching me with a mix of relief and suspicion.

“Mister? You’re also fine… Where were you during all that time?”

There was a hint of reproval in his tone, which I could understand.

“I was outside of the city when the outbreak happened. What about the girl?”

“She’s fine. But… Mister, you knew this would happen, right?”

He was more direct and less timid than the last time I had seen him. His height had also changed, and his emaciated face had matured a little through the terrible event. The black fur all over his body was still as unkept as always, though.

“It was only a guess at the time. I wasn’t completely certain.”

He bit his lip, glaring at me.

“Why didn’t you…”

After stopping his words, he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. I understood what he wanted to say, though.

“I couldn’t come inside once I was out. I helped as best as I could from the outside instead.”

He shook his head again.

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Yes, I know. You probably want to ask why I didn’t tell you about the potential disease outbreak straight away. Or maybe why I didn’t take you out of the city with me.”

He only stared at me without answering.

“Let me be clear. I might have done that in different circumstances, but at that time, you and the girl didn’t trust me at all. Frankly, there was no relationship between us, no affection, no anything, right? Just strangers.”

He looked down for a moment, but I could see he wasn’t accepting it so easily.

“Are you disappointed? It takes a long time to build trust. That’s just how it is. But let me tell you, I’m still glad you two are doing fine. That’s the truth.”

He looked up again, making eye contact for a long moment. I decided to give him the food at that time.

“Here, I heard the situation inside the city was very harsh. Eat this and recover some strength.”

He hesitated for a long time but finally took the bag from me. For a second, he seemed like he wanted to say something, only to turn around quietly in the end, disappearing in the dirty alleys.

I was done with my inspection of the people I knew. Slowly, the city resumed its normal activity, with markets and shops fully opening again, and people going back to work normally. There was still a void left by the people who hadn’t made it, but others soon filled it, and life went on.

The most important part was to resume the flow of goods and trading. The first ones to escape the safer city were the merchants, leaving as if running, eager to reconnect with suppliers and clients, and earn money again. The bunnies’ village was soon filled with merchants once more, and I wasn’t the only one visiting the place anymore.

Many were also outside when the quarantine started, and hurried home to see family and friends again, or to simply escape the place that had been hell for almost a year together.

Once things stabilized to a minimum, I was summoned to the city hall. There, I found myself in a similar situation to usual, except that the place was slightly different. Instead of being in a large tent, we were in the building’s main meeting room, which also served as Crali’s office for some reason. The two women, mother and daughter, were the only ones present when I entered, the mother still lying down on a sofa, reading a book lazily.

Crali watched me as neutrally as possible.

“You’re here.”

“Hello, my Lady, Crali.”

We had grown a little closer over the year, and Crali wasn’t one to care about ceremony. She even seemed to like being called by name.

“Yes, hello. I summoned you here today to talk about your contribution and rewards for helping resolve the epidemic.”

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