Penicillin

Luo Li gave both Astrid and Lina a harsh scolding.

When she was around, Astrid didn't show off her house-wrecking skills.

After all... whenever Astrid looked like she was about to tear something apart, Luo Li would stop her with a loud shout.

After a few times, Astrid understood what she could tear and what she couldn't.

Ligeia, who was following behind, had her own insights into the matter.

After leaving the Temple and sitting in the familiar Saint's Carriage, she headed toward her destination: Refugee City.

A plague had broken out there, with thirty thousand people infected and over ten thousand dead.

The mortality rate had nearly reached one-third, which was simply unbelievable.

It was comparable to the Black Death of the Middle Ages.

Furthermore, according to Augus's reports, the progression of this disease was exceptionally rapid.

Most cases became severe within a few days, and those with weaker constitutions would die within three.

"Princess, Astrid is roughly two or three years old now. A dragon's teeth grow continuously and need to be ground down frequently. I believe her gnawing on objects is her way of sharpening and grinding them."

Ligeia explained from the side, and Luo Li nodded inwardly as she listened.

It was much like being a dog owner; once they reached a certain age, you had to buy them chew sticks.

"How do dragons usually handle this?"

Luo Li asked out of curiosity, but Ligeia's response left her speechless.

"At this stage, an adult dragon would typically use their own claws or scales to help the young dragon grind its teeth."

Well, dragon scales were technically a combination of keratin and bone, right?

Given their hardness, simple keratin probably wouldn't cut it.

Eating claws or scales... was that like a chewable calcium supplement?

It made sense. After all, even as a holy white dragon, she was still an animal.

As long as it was an animal, it couldn't survive purely on energy.

Nutrients were necessary. Although the growth of a young dragon was slow, their massive size meant they required a significant amount of nutrition.

"Ligeia, help me get some bull bones later."

She figured the little one was teething and needed extra calcium.

While she was away, Lina had been staying with Astrid.

Therefore, Astrid hadn't suffered from a long-term lack of holy energy just because she had left.

"But Princess, bull bones... I'm afraid they will be too soft to grind her teeth."

Ligeia's words made Luo Li's brow furrow.

Thinking about it, she was right. Given the bite force of a dragon, ordinary animals really couldn't provide anything hard enough to grind those teeth.

To Astrid, a hard bull bone was probably no different from a soft piece of beef jerky.

"Then... contact the Dragon King later and see if they have any scales shed by female dragons or something. We can pay for them if we have to."

Aside from the sense of accomplishment in raising a holy white dragon herself.

There was also the matter of personal connections.

A holy white dragon that could rival a golden dragon was being raised by her.

In the future, the relationship between the dragon race and the Kingdom of the Moon would inevitably become even closer.

Even if she truly retired one day, the dragons would look after the Kingdom of the Moon for Astrid's sake.

As for the present, Luo Li didn't expect the Dragon King to help her with anything.

She would be grateful if he just didn't cause her any trouble.

The Dragon King's intentions were similar to those of the Beast Sovereign; those two weren't just coveting her person.

They were coveting her abilities.

The Beast Sovereign wasn't very well-informed and didn't know much about the document tablets.

He was mainly interested in Luo Li's command capabilities on the battlefield.

The Dragon King, however, placed even more importance on the original document tablet.

Luo Li had no doubt that if the opportunity arose, those two would kick her while she was down.

If other human nations went to war with the Kingdom of the Moon.

The Dragon King and the Beast Sovereign wouldn't just refuse to help; they might even secretly switch sides.

Their goal would be to make her lose her place of belonging.

That way, they could take her away as a matter of course.

She had to guard against those two opportunists, but she didn't need to stress over them too much.

As long as the Kingdom of the Moon remained stable and she wasn't pushed to a dead end, those two wouldn't act lightly.

As they spoke, the carriage came to a halt in Refugee City.

Before stepping out, Luo Li peered through the window to observe the outside.

The city had already begun to take shape.

While the surrounding walls didn't even have foundations yet, the planning was complete.

As for the interior, most of the residential houses had already been built.

The size of this city was at least seventy percent that of Brilliant City.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to accommodate over a million people.

A city of this scale required a massive amount of labor and materials.

Most of the funds had come from the seized assets of the Garnet family.

Every noble family had their own estates in major cities.

The Garnet family had essentially been wiped out entirely.

The assets seized from their estates in other regions were liquidated on the spot.

The proceeds were then transported to Brilliant City and deposited into the national treasury.

Nobles would inevitably try to get their hands on some of it, as corruption had long since become the norm.

As long as it wasn't excessive, Luo Li told Lola to turn a blind eye and ignore it for now.

The Kingdom of the Moon didn't yet have a strong enough anti-corruption capability.

Touching one part would affect the whole, so she couldn't easily take action in that area.

The people on the streets all looked panicked, walking with a hint of terror.

They deliberately kept their distance from one another, and most of their clothes were tattered.

Seeing this, Luo Li's brow furrowed involuntarily.

Based on the supplies being distributed at this stage, the people shouldn't be this impoverished.

The Garnet family was one of the four top noble families in the Kingdom of the Moon.

They had occupied the nation for nearly a thousand years, and the wealth they had accumulated was no exaggeration to call a fortune that could rival a kingdom.

And now, all that wealth in the national treasury was under the management of Brilliant City.

They were supposed to be providing full support to Refugee City.

How could it still be like this?

Corruption?

That was the first thought that popped into Luo Li's mind.

And once that thought appeared, it was hard to take back.

These corrupt officials, I will wipe them all out sooner or later!!

But for now, she still needed these officials to manage Refugee City.

A small portion of the officials here had been transferred directly from Brilliant City.

Another portion had been selected directly from the refugees themselves, consisting of people with high reputations.

"Ligeia, notify Augus. Tell him to find a few typical cases and kill them to nip this trend in the bud."

As an Archmage, Ligeia possessed the ability for short-range communication.

With the sky clear and bright, communication was naturally not a problem.

"Princess, kill what?"

Although Ligeia had some understanding of the big picture and was familiar with farming, she was still somewhat unfamiliar with political matters.

After all, this wasn't her area of expertise or specialization.

"Just tell him and he'll understand. It's better not to alert our targets at this stage."

Augus was currently the one primarily responsible for Refugee City.

He was far more familiar with the matters here than Luo Li was.

If Luo Li intervened rashly, some details might go wrong.

So even though she was the Saintess, she wouldn't act impulsively based on emotion.

Augus surely knew who should be killed and who shouldn't.

Delegating power to a certain extent was also a quality a ruler should have.

"Welcome, Your Highness!"

While Luo Li was observing the outside, Yuna's voice reached her ears.

Luo Li instinctively looked toward the source of the sound. Yuna was dressed in bright knight armor, kneeling on one knee.

A happy smile was on her face.

Luo Li quickly got out of the carriage and raised her hand to gesture for her to rise.

"Get up. Let's go inside and talk."

Luo Li was currently at the central square of Refugee City.

Since this was being treated as a secondary capital, a corresponding Temple would be built. Although not as large as the one in Brilliant City, it was still being built to Temple specifications.

It naturally wouldn't be small.

However, only a small portion had been completed so far, roughly the size of an ordinary church.

She stepped off the carriage and entered the building.

Knights were lined up on both sides to welcome her, the same familiar pomp and ceremony.

Luo Li didn't care about any of that.

"Yuna, give me an update on the current situation. Are there still people falling ill in the city?"

She didn't waste any time, asking the most important question immediately.

Yuna's brow furrowed as she lowered her head.

"In response to Your Highness, newly discovered patients are being continuously sent to the camp outside the city."

"Continuously? You mean... it hasn't stopped?"

Luo Li stared intently at Yuna.

Yuna kept her head down and responded with a grim expression.

"It hasn't stopped."

If this continued, something terrible was going to happen.

A one-third mortality rate and such a terrifying transmission speed could only be treated like the Black Death.

"Is there any effective medicine?"

Luo Li watched Yuna closely, but Yuna's expression remained very poor.

"In response to Your Highness, there is no good medicine yet. I fear over a hundred thousand people might die in this plague."

A hundred thousand?

That was probably an optimistic expectation.

The reality was likely much worse.

"Are there any patients who have recovered?"

"None for now. Or if there are, we haven't found them yet."

None for now!?

Didn't that mean the people sent to the camp outside were just waiting to die?

Currently, there was no way to diagnose the illness, let alone know what kind of thing was causing it.

"Ligeia, I have a favor to ask. Help me find some orange peels or fruits with green mold on them."

At a time like this, she couldn't worry about whether ancient methods could produce something proper.

She had to try if there was even a glimmer of hope.

Otherwise, they could only fill the gap with human lives!

"Princess, what... what do you want those for?"

"I have a use for them. I'll explain later."

As she spoke, Luo Li began to calculate in her mind.

Penicillin. Anyone who had read historical web novels would have an impression of this.

Most of those traversers would use this to save people and then be regarded as divine doctors.

But this thing was still too dangerous.

As someone who liked miscellaneous knowledge but didn't like to specialize, Luo Li understood that there was a certain probability of producing highly toxic patulin.

But there was no time to worry about that now.

"Yuna, go get several pots of rice porridge immediately. Mash it all up into a paste and bring it to me."

"Yes!"

Although Yuna didn't know why the Princess would issue such a nonsensical order, as a knight who firmly believed the Princess was the Chosen One, she didn't hesitate at all.

Furthermore, these things were very easy to find.

Refugee City might not have much, but it had plenty of grain.

"Also, find a few large vats and some vegetable oil!"

The knights executed Luo Li's orders with meticulous care.

In just a short while, all the required items had been gathered.

Several large vats filled with rice paste stood before her.

On the other side, Ligeia had also brought the fruits with green mold.

It wasn't hard to find such fruits, as it was currently the rainy season and the humidity was high.

Similar things could be found everywhere.

Luo Li continued to issue orders without hesitation.

"Scrape off all the green mold and keep the different types of fruit separate."

After all the green mold was scraped off, it was divided into batches and placed into several different vats.

The next step was simple.

Luo Li placed her hand on the rim of one of the vats and silently whispered 'healing' in her mind.

The power of holy light flowed from Luo Li's palm and was rapidly infused into the vat.

Holy light energy could stimulate the development of life force. Using this method for cultivation could greatly shorten the time needed.

As for using 'healing' to repair the human body?

That hadn't been an option from the very beginning.

Healing was an area-of-effect treatment skill; it couldn't distinguish between viruses, bacteria, and human cells.

Any living organism inside the body would be simultaneously treated and have its life force strengthened.

If you strengthened the person but also strengthened the virus, wouldn't that be useless?

If she wasn't careful, she would end up creating a superbug.

Otherwise, the profession of physician wouldn't even exist in this era.

Inside the vat, the cooled rice paste served as a culture medium.

After two or three casts of 'healing', layers of green mold became visible to the naked eye in the vat.

They formed large patches, clump by clump.

Whether it was penicillin or patulin, everything strengthened by the holy light energy was growing and expanding rapidly.

The surrounding knights couldn't help but twitch their lips at the sight.

Ancient-method penicillin was the best solution she could think of at this stage.

There was no other choice.

Either the penicillin experiment would succeed and provide effective treatment to greatly slow the epidemic, or they would have to use human lives to fill the void, letting anyone who fell ill wait for death in isolation.

Luo Li's stamina and mana were visibly exhausted.

These large vats were now filled with clumps of green mold.

It was a revolting sight.

Ignoring her physical fatigue, she mixed and stirred the contents with vegetable oil under the astonished gazes of the crowd.

"Ligeia, in an hour, separate the oil and water. I only want the cleanest part of the liquid."

Magic was quite convenient in certain ways.

Although Ligeia didn't know what Luo Li was doing, she cooperated throughout the process and kept constant records.

As a biologist, she found Luo Li's actions very interesting.

It seemed she was making something, but she wasn't sure what exactly it was for.

But at least one thing was certain: it was created to combat the epidemic.

Luo Li went to her room to rest.

Ligeia looked at the vat of green mold and remembered the serious expression the young girl had shown earlier.

What was little Luo Li doing just now?

I, Ligeia, am extremely curious.