Only God

"Given Jon Murray's widely renowned medical skills, it is now determined that, by a stroke of fortune, he received the power of God's creation path. At the same time, there are six witnesses testifying, their statements are as follows..."

He was acknowledged as a Rebel, deemed to have the power of God's creation path, because of his superior medical skills.

Faced with a brother who colluded with priests, Jon had no defense. He truly excelled in medicine; unlike nobles who were keen on managing their domains or devoted to martial practice, Jon, as the youngest child, preferred to delve into medical studies. Thus, he had spent a great deal of money acquiring countless medical texts from Danschel and often personally treated the illnesses of his people, reaping much success.

In this remote small country, far away from the human Empire, the people here seem to be caught between civilization and barbarism. Various "physicians" heal by chanting fake spells, performing false miracles, and conducting sacrifices, which are all deceptions with no real effect. The patients are not only cheated of substantial money; they often die because of delayed treatment.

Jon detested these practices and swore that once he inherited the family estate, he would not only find a way to lift the so-called "family curse" but also write a medical book for the land that would be useful for generations to come.

But for now, staying alive was the top priority.

...............

Two years of its nomadic life had slipped by unnoticed.

Jon had become a complete vagabond, a beggar; his clothes were torn and ragged, unwashed for many days, and patched with leaves and straw to cover the holes. From a distance, he looked no different from the witch doctors he once despised.

During these two years, he continually evaded pursuit, twice barely avoiding imprisonment as he brushed past mercury priests. Fortunately, he escaped dangers both times.

To survive, Jon practiced medicine while traveling. Generally, he would assess how many patients there were in a small town during the day and then provide medical care under the cover of night.

Due to his furtive actions, many patients turned him away, fearing he was a robber or bandit. Only those who were desperate would let him in. Accordingly, the payment he received after treating illnesses was scarce, often just a few slices of bread.

The worst time was when Jon visited to treat a patient and found out the person was a robber. After prescribing medicine, not only did he not receive any payment, but he also had nearly all his money stolen.

Jon lived a monk-like existence while searching for the cause of the so-called family curse.

In his view, only by finding the cause of the family curse could he prove he had not desecrated bodies, that everything he did was to lift the family curse.

His intentions were sound, but implementing them proved to be very difficult.

Mercury priests were present in every city, and some would pass through towns and villages in search of rebels. Jon felt like a rat sneaking around the sewers of Danschel, always hiding from the light.

He lived this life for a full fifteen years.

Fifteen years later, perhaps it was fate, or maybe persistence pays off.

Jon finally found a clue to lifting the family curse.

He heard of a family a thousand miles away, also troubled by a curse, with three generations dying in middle age due to various illnesses.

After digging deeper, Jon was shocked to discover that the head of that distant family had also died of epilepsy.

Two families, separated by a thousand miles, were both afflicted by the same curse, both dying from epilepsy, nearly without any connection to each other. Their only commonality was that they were both nobility.

To uncover the truth, Jon rushed toward that family's territory, battling the elements and encountering wild boars, wolves, and a few demon beasts along the way, but he always managed to survive.

Ironically, the most dangerous moment was when he fell into a hunting trap and nearly lost his life.

After traveling a thousand miles to this family's land, he heard numerous rumors, such as hauntings, divine punishment, and vengeful spirits seeking life.

These rumors not only terrified the locals but also filled Jon with dread. What if this family truly was cursed? Could the curse spread to him?

Yet, he decided to muster the courage and knocked on that family's door.

Jon was prepared to be rejected, considering his unkempt appearance and mysterious origins. However, the afflicted family, seemingly out of options and after intense internal discussions, took the chance with Jon the beggar, allowing him to enter their home.

Having finally been granted the opportunity, Jon did not dare to waste a moment. He first located the family graveyard and found the recently buried body of the family head.

Taking advantage of a dark and windy night, he secretly brought a shovel, dug it out, and discreetly performed a dissection.

To his astonishment, the corpse before him bore an alarmingly similar pathology to his father's body, which he had dissected earlier, with a shrunken liver and a blackened stomach.

After some investigation, Jon realized that this family, like his own, all had pale complexions, looking like walking sheets of white paper.

"This is not some curse, but a disease..."

Jon concluded in his heart.

Once convinced that it was not a curse, Jon's mind eased. In that moment, he felt as if he saw a bright future waving at him, beckoning him back to his family's lands to prove his innocence.

However, Jon quickly came back to his senses. He was well aware that the most important thing now was to find the cause of the disease.

Facing what was believed to be a familial curse, many people would avoid it at all costs, and the citizens also dared not have too much contact with the nobles, for fear of being afflicted by the curse.

But Jon fearlessly sought out a solution, and before long, he discovered that not only the nobles but also several chefs in the family succumbed to a sudden and deadly illness.

His own family had experienced something similar.

Yet other servants showed no signs of being struck by the curse.

This clue offered Jon tremendous enlightenment, and he searched for a link between the chefs and the nobles but couldn't find any clues for a while.

Until one day, he tasted... the grape wine bestowed by the nobles during the festival.

The wine was very sweet, sweeter than he could have ever imagined, sweeter than any grape wine he had ever tasted.

Confused, Jon summoned the chef and asked why the grape wine was so sweet.

"Hey, today is the festival for offering to the gods, and the lords specifically instructed me to add more Sapa."

The chef said as if it were a matter of course.

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intent.

A nerve in Jon suddenly tensed, and he froze, then trembled all over, crying and laughing on his dust-covered face after an epiphany.

Sapa...

This sweetener had another name—lead sugar.

Everything made sense now, why, other than the nobles and chefs, no other servants in the family had contracted the "curse."

It turned out that the so-called curse troubling the family came from lead sugar.

And the similar curse afflicting two families thousands of miles apart wasn't due to vengeful spirits or divine punishment, but because of lead sugar!

Having found the cause, Jon promptly reported his findings to the nobles of the family, who were skeptical at first. Although they did not fully believe him, in an attempt to lift the "curse," they instructed the chef not to add Sapa to the wine anymore.

One year after discontinuing Sapa, the entire family was unharmed.

Such a turn of events finally convinced the nobles that there was no curse at all, and that all the ailments were caused by lead sugar.

To thank Jon, the family not only gave him a generous reward but also planned to hold a sacrificial ceremony to inform the gods of his good deed, but Jon quickly refused, fearing it would draw the attention of Mercury Priests. After hastily accepting the reward, he set out on the road back home.

Years of pain and hardship,

were finally coming to an end.