Thus, i return from the dream. So this is what happened on that "fateful" night. Who was the assassin? Was it Genichiro Ashina, given that he held the Divine Heir captive the first time and has captured him again after my defeat at his hands? Could the grandson of Isshin really be this much of a coward?
Either way, it seems i own my life to the Divine Heir, but now i see the cost. The Sculptor appears to be worse and is now coughing blood. Upon my return from the dream, i see Emma standing by his side, no doubt, attempting to determine a way to cure this sickness:
The blood, apparently, is now stagnant, but more is required by her if a cure is to be found:
She then bids me to find more blood samples of this sickness. How much devastation has my failure wrought already? As i retrace my last steps, this time in the real world of the present, not that of a memory, i see just how far the disease has spread:
I obtain a blood sample from him, hoping it may be enough, for i do not wish to consider the possibility this desease may have spread further.
And indeed it may have. Did i do this too? Has the Dragonrot already claimed both?
To the end indeed Inosuke. But fear not, the Divine Heir will be found!
I then visit the would be merchant, whom i now recognize as the polite looter from my memory. It appears my earlier contribution has borne fruits already:
Despite everything, i am glad that he at least has been spared from the rot. Apparently, he now wants me to discover what kind of goods exactly he may want to procure to further expand his business:
As hairbrained this request may appear to be, i suppose whatever good he may procure could be useful to me as well.
I now return to Emma, hoping this blood is enough. She appears to believe it might:
As i await for her research to finish, i ask the Sculptor to create more prosthetic tools for me. Work appears to be taking his mind off his condition, and after completing my third tool, he grants me another esoteric text:
Again? What does he mean by this? From the text of the book he just offered to me, i surmise the Sculptur must have been a shinobi once.
Before checking on Emma and her progress, i decide to visit my undead friend, who unsurprisingly appears to be unaffected by the sickness (and likely cannot be). After staying with him for a while, it is now time to see if Emma made any progress. It appears that she did. She begins by explaining the means by which my own death is inflicting this sickness on to others:
And so it is thus. For every resurrection i make, power must be drawn from someone's blood, and if my own is incapable of providing that power, it will be drawn from the blood of others!
To my relief, it appears this sickness can indeed be cured! She gives me the means to redress my failures, but it appears this will not stop the disease from spreading again, which means more of the cure will have to be acquired. How many times will i be able to cure the rot? Will there be a point where the disease will spread unabated, eventually killing all unfortunate enough to bear the brunt of my shame on them?
It appears this sickness once appeared before, to a time where no cure was yet available, and it killed many at then:
I now wonder who may have been using resurrection then. Was it Hanbei? Or perhaps another? Perhaps it was the Sculptor. If he was indeed a shinobi once, him causing the Dragonrot would be reason enough to spend a lifetime trying to make up for an heavy karmic debt!
