by Dojyomaru
“A third eye... Do you mean the three-eyed race?” Liscia asked, and I nodded.
The three-eyed race. They were a race that, as you would expect from their name, had three eyes.
They lived in the warm lands in the north of the kingdom. Their defining trait was that, in addition to the standard left and right eyes, they also had a third eye in a slightly higher position in the middle of their forehead. It would be fine to imagine them looking like Tien Shin*** or ***suke Sharaku, but it wasn’t really an eyeball like that. That eye was small and red. At a glance, it looked like a jewel was embedded there.
Liscia let out a sigh. “I’m amazed they agreed to help. I’ve heard their race hates having contact with outsiders.”
“The reason for their xenophobia actually stems from that third eye, it seems.”
The three-eyed could see things other races couldn’t. It seemed that had been the reason they’d grown to reject outsiders. The three-eyed could tell if someone had good hygiene or not at a glance. That made them natural neat freaks, and they had started to avoid contact with other races as much as possible.
On top of that, with that third eye, the three-eyed had learned of the existence of bacteria. They knew them to be the cause of illnesses that couldn’t be treated with light magic. However, no matter how much the three-eyed insisted on this, the other races who couldn’t see the bacteria wouldn’t believe them. In a world filled with superstitions, even if they spoke the truth, it might seem like they were trying to throw the world into chaos with some dubious new theory.
Because of that, the three-eyed had come to hate contact with other races, and they’d developed their own independent system of medical knowledge and practice only for their own race. When it came to the study of infectious diseases in particular, their medical science was centuries ahead of this world. In this world where humans and beastmen were thought to have lived long lives if they made it to sixty, the three-eyed who originally had the same life expectancy now lived to eighty on average.
“That’s how I, as someone who knew what they were saying is the truth, was able to arrange talks and request their assistance,” I said. “With that done, in order to demonstrate their abilities, I created a system that would let other races see bacteria and microorganisms.”
In other words, an optical microscope. This world already had lenses. (They had glasses, after all.) For the rest, I’d drawn out a diagram of how I vaguely remembered a microscope working, and the academics and craftsmen had created one for me. That optical microscope had proved that the three-eyed were telling the truth.
“But, man, the three-eyed really are incredible,” I said. “I’d never have imagined they’d already developed antibiotics.”
“Auntie-buy-ought-ex?”
“Substances that prevent bacteria from multiplying like I was telling you about.”
The famous example would be penicillin, I suppose. I mean, even a humanities student like me had heard of it. (Though it was knowledge I’d picked up from manga.) It was extracted from a blue-green colored mold, I think?
In the case of the three-eyed, they were extracting theirs from a special sort of slime creature that could live in unsanitary conditions. They were a subspecies of gelin, and they had the same sort of shape as Liquid Metal *limes. They had no name, but I’d taken this chance to christen them “gelmedics.” From what I had heard of its effects, there was no questioning it was an antibiotic, but while it was similar to penicillin, it might also be very different.
Incidentally, the three-eyed just called this drug “the drug.”
That felt like it was just going to get confusing in the future, so I’d used my authority as king to give it the name “three-eyedine.” It was the three-eyed race’s medicine, so I’d shortened that to three-eyedine. I mean, it would have been fine calling it “the drug,” or “the pill”... but, as a former Japanese person, I’d always have been thinking of completely different drugs.
“This... three-eyedine, was it?” Liscia asked. “It prevents the bacteria from multiplying, but what good does that do?”
“It’s a cure for infectious diseases,” I said. “Basically, you can think of it as a wonder drug that treats epidemic diseases and will prevent wounds from festering, I guess.”
“Treat epidemic diseases?! It can do that?!”
I couldn’t blame Liscia for being surprised. While this country’s medical treatments (in particular, regenerative treatments) could be, in some limited ways, ahead of modern science, on the whole, they were at the same level as Japan in the Edo Period. When it came to infectious diseases, they would drink medicinal teas, trying to ease the symptoms. However, with antibiotics, it was possible to treat the underlying cause of illnesses to some degree.
Liscia looked taken aback. “That’s terrible... We’ve been overlooking an incredible drug like that all this time...”
“Well, the other races didn’t recognize the existence of bacteria and microorganisms, so even if the three-eyed had told you that antibiotics could fight them, you probably weren’t going to believe them. If you turn it around, the three-eyed were only able to find this way of fighting bacteria because they could see them.”
“So, can we mass produce this three-eyedine?!” Liscia asked, looking desperate to hear more.
Yeah, I could understand how she felt. I’d had a similar response myself during talks with the three-eyed elder. However, Carla and Owen, who were watching us, were wide-eyed with surprise at the way Liscia was acting.
I nodded to Liscia. “We don’t have the capacity for it yet, but we’re slowly increasing production. I had already distributed it to the military when the war with Amidonia broke out, actually. Didn’t you notice?”
“Fortunately, I never needed to take any... Ah! Now that you mention it, I did think the number of fatalities was low given the number of wounded in that battle. Was that thanks to three-eyedine?”
“Could be,” I said. “Bacteria getting into a wound and making it worse is one of the things it can help to prevent, after all.”
“Incredible...” she whispered.
“Anyway, the three-eyed are giving their full cooperation, and the country has no intention of being stingy when it comes to medical care. The biggest bottleneck will be the number of gelmedics that they can extract three-eyedine from, but thanks to Tomoe, we easily solved that problem.”
Slime creatures like gelins were actually categorized as plants, and she couldn’t communicate with them as well as animals; but from their thoughts, she had still been able to learn their preferred environment and the conditions needed for them to multiply. Now we had the gelmedics actively multiplying in their breeding grounds.
“Our little sister is way too convenient, isn’t she?” I added.
“She sure is,” said Liscia.
The public had started calling Tomoe the Wise Wolf Princess. Given the rhinosauruses, the orangutan army of Van, and now the gelmedics... there was no doubt she was living up to that name.
“And, well, on that note, our country is in the middle of a medical and hygienic revolution, and one part of that was fixing up these slums,” I said. “We tore down the old houses to improve the sunlight and air flow. While we were at it, we stamped out the criminals and illegal drugs, which was cleaning up the area in a different way. We had all the residents move to new, prefabricated huts. The huts are small and cramped, but they’re free. On top of that, by having them work at cleaning up the city, we’re able to both support them financially and manage the city’s hygiene.”
“You’re doing all sorts of stuff, huh. ...You’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?” Liscia asked, looking concerned.
I put a hand on her head. “It’s a struggle, yes... but it’s rewarding. I get to see the city, and the country, rebuilt the way I want them to be. If the result is more people smiling in the end, all the better.”
“Well... Okay, then,” she said. “But if there’s anything I can do for you, just
say the word.”
“Of course. I’ll be counting on you.”
Liscia and I smiled broadly at one another.
But just as we had a good mood going...
Pshhhh.
...suddenly, we heard a sound like air leaking out of something.
When I looked up ahead, wondering what it could be, I saw someone with a large barrel on their back using a metal cylinder on the end of a hose extending from that barrel to spray some sort of mist on the ground.
That person was an exotic-looking woman with skin not quite as dark as a dark elf, but still brown, and blond hair. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was probably beautiful, and she had a shapely figure, but with the triangular mask she wore over her face and the barrel slung over her back, it all went to waste. That woman’s forehead had the third eye unique to the three-eyed race shining on it.
“Hehehe... Hohoho... Ahahahahahaha! Filth will be sterilized!” After that three-stage laugh, the woman enthusiastically sprayed the ground and huts with some sort of mist.
That all-too-incredible scene left Liscia, Carla, and Owen all speechless. As for me, I felt my head starting to hurt again.
“What are you doing, Hilde?” I asked wearily.
Her name was Hilde Norg. In a show of appreciation for our support and the redemption of their honor, the three-eyed had lent her to us to help reform our system of medicine. She was their one and only “doctor.”
In this world, there were very few doctors in the sense that a modern Japanese person would think of the term. The ones who carried out the vast majority of medical treatments were light mages, and the ones who administered herbal remedies to help ease the symptoms of illness were medicine men and women.
Many of those light mages were affiliated with the church, and therefore most of the hospitals were also attached to church buildings. That was why it was normal for people in this world to go to the church when they were sick, but for the three-eyed, it was a little different.
Because their medical technology was far more advanced, they could treat most illnesses and injuries in the homes. When they came down with an illness so serious that it couldn’t be treated in the home, that was when they would first seek medicine mixed by the doctor. Naturally, that doctor was the foremost expert of her race, and so she could only prepare medicine for so many of them.
The one over there spraying a disinfectant (limewater, probably), Hilde, was the one and only doctor of her race, considered to have a high degree of medical knowledge, even by the standards of the three-eyed. However, with the way she was dressed now, she just looked like a farmer spraying agricultural chemicals.
Hilde had been letting out a loud, enthusiastic laugh until a moment ago, but now she wore a dark smile and had a heavy atmosphere around her. “Honestly... haven’t I told you people to pick up your cats’ droppings?! Because you people keep leaving them lying out in the open, there’s bacteria all over this place! Oh, for goodness sake! Unclean, unclean!”
This time, as he sprayed disinfectant, she stamped her feet indignantly. She might have seemed emotionally unstable, but this was business as usual for Hilde.
She, with her knowledge of pharmacology and an eye for bacteria that was considered excellent even by the standards of the three-eyed, also demonstrated an obsession with cleanliness that was strong even by the standards of her race. To the point that it was normal for her to walk around with disinfectant like that.
It wasn’t always good to be able to see too much.
“I see you’re the same as ever, Hilde,” I said.
“Hm? You’re... Who’re you?”
I took off my conical hat and showed my face.
Without much surprise, she said, “Oh, just the king, huh,” and returned to the work of spraying disinfectant.
“Calling me ‘just’ the king is a little mean,” I said. “It’s technically an important position, you know?”
“Then try to dress the part, why don’t you?” she asked. “I thought you were some hobo.”
She was as harsh as ever. I’d had an image of doctors being harsh even back in my old world, and it seemed things were the same here. Hilde in particular wasn’t the sort to care much about the position of the person she was talking to.
Hilde’s philosophy was: “Illness strikes us all, good and evil, rich and poor, male and female, irrespective of race. Then, before a doctor such as myself, all patients are equal.”
That was her argument, apparently.
“Anyway... Hilde, let me introduce you,” I began. “The two ladies are—”
“I know who they are,” Hilde said with a sigh, as if it was a given that she’d know who they were. “They’re famous, aren’t they? The princess and the daughter of the former General of the Air Force, right?”
“Huh? What about Sir Owen?” I asked.
“I don’t want to know anything about that filthy old man.”
“What?!” Owen protested. “Who are you calling filthy?! I take care to groom myself properly!”
“Stay away, you musclebound moron! I hope you’ve washed yourself properly?!” she shouted.
Pshhhh.
“Hey now, little girl, don’t spray that weird mist on me! I am clean, you know? Every day, I pour water over my naked body, then rub myself down with a dry towel!” Owen shouted.
I was suddenly forced to imagine a macho man bathing naked in the dawning light of morning. Yeah... It felt dirty just imagining it. Perhaps having imagined a similar scene themselves, Liscia and Carla both looked ready to puke.
I-It felt like dwelling on this any longer was just going to make everyone’s mental state worse, so it was time to change the topic.
“B-By the way, Hilde, what are you doing here today?”
My forced attempt to change the topic got a snort from Hilde.
“If I leave the people here to their own devices, they become unhygienic in no time. I’m making regular visits to instruct them on hygiene and to disinfect the area.”
“Makes sense...” I said. “By the way, is your partner with you today?”
“Don’t call him my partner.” Hilde spat the words out, seemingly annoyed. “If you’re looking for Brad, he’s ‘outside.’ He said, ‘If I have to examine fattened pigs, I’d much rather treat the untainted wild dogs’... or some such nonsense.”
“...I see he never changes, either.”
“Maybe you could you tell him off, too, sire,” she said. “That guy always pushes lecturing the junior physicians off on me.”
“I-I see...”
The Brad who had come up in our conversation was the other doctor acting as a pair with Hilde to push forward the reform of this country’s medical system. His full name was Brad Joker. He was a human male, and his skills as a medical practitioner were good, but... his personality was a bit of a problem.
I can’t see Brad ever being able to explain things to others. Showing off practical skills in the field will offer guidance to his juniors, but Hilde’s going to have to be the one to hold lectures...
“Hey, are you listening to me, s-i-r-e?” Hilde snapped.
“I-I get it,” I said. “I’ll try talking to him, at least.” If she was going to press me on it with that angry smile, I just had to nod and agree with her.
“So? What is the king and his entourage doing here?” Hilde demanded.
“Oh... I was planning to visit the chief of the mystic wolves,” I said. “While I’m at it, I thought I might poke my head in at the job training facility I have Ginger running, too.”
“Oh, so that’s the sort of business you had.” Liscia clapped her hands as if she finally understood something.
Oh, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t told her what we were doing, had I?
“Then, once I’ve had the mystic wolf elder make a connection for me, I plan to go ‘outside,’” I added.
“Ohh, you’re going ‘outside,’ are you, sire?” Hilde asked. “In that case, maybe I’ll tag along.�
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“Huh? Why is that?”
“That should be obvious. To knock some sense into that examination-obsessed idiot, that’s why.”
Hilde had a smile on her face, but her eyes weren’t smiling.
“W-Well... Just try to not to go overboard, okay?” I asked nervously.
“Um, you keep talking about going ‘outside,’ but what exactly does that mean?” Carla hesitantly raised her hand and asked.
“If we’re talking outside from the perspective of being inside the city, it can only mean outside the walls,” Hilde said coolly.
“By outside the walls... could you mean...?” Liscia seemed to have figured something out and had a pensive look on her face.
Yeah... It was probably exactly what she was imagining.
Regardless, thus was our group of a foreign traveler, a female student, a dragon maid, and a macho man joined by a female doctor.
...Yeah. This group was making less and less sense.
Our first stop was the job training facility Ginger was in charge of.
The mystic wolves’ Kikkoro Distillery, which produced miso, soy sauce, and sake, among other products, was in the former slums. So was Ginger’s job training facility. Both had required considerable room, and this had been the only suitable place.
While it went without saying for the training facility, the Kikkoro Distillery also had an easy time securing workers here, so it wasn’t a bad location. That alone made it worth having fixed the place up.
The job training facility was surrounded by brick walls, and there were a number of buildings inside the compound. The place had just opened and so they were only teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the applicants, but the intention was to experiment with all sorts of different ideas in the future, so the number of buildings had increased.
When we went to enter through the front gate, a number of children ran out from it.
“Goodbye, Ms. San!”
“Goodbye!”