Herald of Steel



As Pasha Farzah sat down and then calmed down hearing Alexander's explanation, he was suddenly embarrassed, and then angry at himself for being so easily shaken.

To think a man of his age and experience would let his minds conjure up such baseless thoughts really made him want to bury his head in the sand in shame.

While Alexander had a regretful but also funny look on his face as tried to stifle his laughter.

Though he could somewhat understand the reaction given how superstitious the general environment everyone grew up in was.

But feeling the longer he stayed quiet, the greater his chance of bursting into laughter and embarrassing the aged Pasha, he quickly spoke up,

"The people are told that our medical skills are gifts from the gods. But really, it is through the acquisition of knowledge we are able to cure them. And it is in this room we acquire that knowledge, through studying these human bodies." Alexander grandly gestured.

And then continued by pointing to the corpses,

"The dead bodies you see are chosen from the deceased who do not have anyone to collect them. So the beggars, the homeless, and the abandoned."

"We collect these poor people whose life has come to an end, and bring them here."

"Where officially, we cremate them."

"And we indeed do." Alexander heavily nodded his head to emphasize that point.

Before producing a slightly sly smile, "But not before we try to learn how they died. Which we do by cutting them open and seeing what makes…made them tick."

Alexander had very diplomatically explained to Pasha Farzah the procedure of how they acquired the bodies. Which was also similar to how modern medical colleges get their cadavers- through donations and unclaimed bodies.

Alexander's explanation did seem to pacify the old man a bit, but seemingly not quite enough to let his guard down.

There were still those strange symbols and drawings on the walls.

And so he still looked Alexander with a trace of wariness.

Thus Alexander addressed those next, pointing to them, and saying, "And from them, we learned a lot of new things. And those knowledge are all displayed here."

As he then moved to a particular drawing and said,

"For instance, this here shows the diagram of a heart. And it shows that the heart is actually connected by 4 large veins that pump blood and that it is divided into 4 parts inside."

Yes, the strange pictures that Pasha Farzah thought as demonic writings were actually just anatomical findings of the group.

After Alexander showcased their findings on the heart, he continued to introduce several other drawings, among which was perhaps the most commonly found diagram in any middle school biology book.

When Alexander came to that drawing, he said, "And this is what we call the drawing of the digestive system. It basically shows what happens to the food after we chew and swallow it."

"And as you can see here, any food we eat first goes through our gullet, then drops to our stomach, afterward move to a part of the guts we call the small intestine, and lastly passes onto another large of the gut we call the large intestine, before finally exiting the body through the anus."

Pasha Farzah was not a medical expert to appreciate the significance of this drawing, but as Alexander spoke, his smooth and natural way of talking helped to placate the man.

He was finally convinced he was not going to be sacrificed to the devil.

"Brat, you sure have balls!" And so his usual loud, sharp tone to his voice, as he called out Alexander for both having the audacity to do these things right here in his city, in broad daylight and also to so casually show them to him.

And Alexander only revealed a large smile before saying,

"I believe this will strengthen our relationship."

"Hmmph!" While Pasha Farzah let out a loud snort at this.

He could easily guess what Alexander was doing.

He presumed that this was probably Alexander's way of finding an insurer if things did go totally wrong and his secret was revealed to the world.

And it set the old man's heart a bit at rest learning Alexander was not oblivious to the risks.

Now, even if Alexander was discovered, it was unlikely he would be too much of a hot water.

Ptolomy and Farzah would still be unlikely to abandon him.

While the other nobles generally hated him anyway.

Not to mention he always had the option to sacrifice Jupitus and say it was all here doing and he had no idea of it.

But still, Alexander felt having Pasha Farzah as a backer in the worst of the worst case was prudent.

And he also hoped Farzah might contribute to the research in the future.

Because once Alexander started making strides in medical technology, rumors about being a dark magician were bound to start circulating.

Because in this time period, even apothecaries of this time were seen as druids and witches.

And those were mostly quacks.

So Alexander felt instead of his province making all the advancements, if the discoveries could be spread out, it would help mitigate that problem.

But Alexander did not raise that option with Pasha Farzah yet.

He felt that it might be too early.

Hence he played off the revelation as a kind of display of trust between allies.

As Pasha Farzah took the time to compose himself he could finally think clearly, as he then posed,

"This..blasphem…this job…who does these cutting? And how did you get them to agree?"

Pasha Farzah knew that most people of this world were like Hiperteom, and so was interested to know what kind of men would be willing to commit these 'sinful' acts.

After all, not everyone was 'not quite right in the head' like Alexander and most were still afraid of going to hell for desecrating bodies as stated in many of the religious scriptures.

And Alexander did face that problem as evidenced by his initial problem of trying to convince Hiperteom.

But his wife Jupetus proved to be far more malleable, as the lady was among the rare believers who believed in saving lives was more important than honoring some unknown gods, a belief that might have been nurtured when studying under Alexander, and her own experience of suffering multiple miscarriages in her lifetime which left her ultimately barren.

And so when Alexander tentatively proposed to her the plan, the lady jumped at it with joy.

Because nothing brought her more joy than healing a wounded person to health.

And as for her helpers, who were tasked with doing the actual cutting, extracting, drawing, and analysis.

"I got some of the gravediggers to help with that." Alexander very casually replied, while making Pasha Farzah go a bit wide-eyed, as he then gave his reason, "I do not know if my lord is aware, but these people are quite shunned by society."

"They are usually ostracised to live near the edge of cemeteries, they can mostly only marry among themselves, and other people rarely involve them in their joy and festivities."

The reason for this was because the people of Zanzan saw these people as omens, as their appearance could herald the death of someone's loved one.

Which was why people tended to avoid them.

Though if one thought about it, seeing gravediggers at a funeral was probably the most natural thing there was.

But hey, no one said logic was a strong suit for the people of this time.

As Alexander then finished by saying,

"So when I approached them with the promise of status as doctors during the day time and 500 ropals a month as wages, most jumped at the opportunity. Because for many, they were already living in hell."

"Wait! So all those doctors we saw back there were gravediggers? Do they even know anything about medicine?" Hearing this Pasha Farzah shouted out aloud with incredulity, which also made it very hard for Alexander to not shout out,

'As if you guys know about medicine anyway!'

But Alexander kept his cool and gently replied, "Surprisingly a lot more than you would think, lord Pasha."

"Because being a gravedigger, they handled a lot of bodies, many of which are diseased ones." "Which means that in the course of their work, they can gain the ability to spot many symptoms of deadly diseases which even many accomplished doctors can not."

Now it would be wrong for Alexander to hype them up too much.

Because the understanding of medicine and healthcare in this time period was significantly different from the modern times, as it was often limited and based on observations rather than scientific understanding, with the focus being primarily on symptom management and alleviating suffering rather than a comprehensive understanding and treatment of the diseases.

But that was the best Alexander could do for now.

"I see." Pasha Farzah at last forcibly nodded, as he then raised his head up subconsciously, and suddenly seeing the blue afternoon sky above him, suddenly remembered,

"Brat! Why does this shed have no roof? So that the gods can smite you without trouble?" He snarled.

"Hahaha, perhaps it is because we are not afraid to defy the gods right in front of them?" Alexander gave the joke answer with a chuckle, before giving the real answer.

"No, it is to give the observers the best lighting possible. God's natural light. So that they can see all the small details "

"And if it rains, they have shades they can pull over."