Herald of Steel

Alexander was one thousand percent sure that if did do what he promised Mikaya he would do, all the girls will catch STDs.

And if Mikaya did and then somehow died...

The image of Farzah snapping his neck like a twig surfaced in this mind as he shivered.

Alexander could deal with Pasha Farzah finding out about Mikaya's misadventures by claiming he had no idea and saying he only thought it was someone else who looked like her.

He could even deal with accidental pregnancy with no problem using the legumum.

But contagious diseases like STDs were a whole different beast.

They would be not only a hazard to the girls but also to the men who slept with them.

And if Alexander let it spread, the whole city might become infected.

He did not want that nightmare of a scenario in his head.

But looking at the three women's genitalia, he found them to be like a virgin's, which was surprising given how likely they had been roughly used by possibly hundreds if not thousands of men.

He would have expected them to be at least partially blackened.

Mikaya was a bit caught off guard by Alexander's questions, but answered nevertheless, "Sure I have. Does my lord need help treating someone suffering from that?"

Mikaya had a confused but concerned tone.

'Treat? You guys can treat STDs?' Alexander thought incredulously.

He knew that STDs were so feared because they were either very hard or almost impossible to cure.

The bacterial ones like syphilis could be cured through advanced antibiotics, but the viral infections, which were spread by viruses as opposed to bacteria, were basically death sentences, as evidenced by the most famous virus HIV, which caused the incurable AIDS.

The reason why HIV or AIDS cannot be treated. even by our modern antibiotics, is because our medicines can only attack and destroy bacteria but are useless against viruses.

This is evidenced by the fact that we have yet been unable to eradicate the common cold because it's caused by a virus.

What our antibiotics can do at best is destroy the bacteria which are used as incubation pods for viruses to reproduce, as viruses, being entities considered to be between the living and dead, are not able to reproduce without a host.

Thus once their medium of reproduction is destroyed and they can no longer replenish their numbers, the body's immune system can swarm and with overwhelming numbers destroy them.

And that is the only real way to kill a virus on earth, by using the body's natural immune system, and no other way exists.

Many scientists even think that it might be the only way to kill a virus in the universe short of throwing it into a black hole, as they have such a strong protein coat surrounding them that some posit that they might be even able to survive inside the core of a sun.

So imagine Alexander's surprise that Mikaya was claiming they had the method to do just that!

Alexander must have made a very scary face as looking at it Mikaya turned around and in a high-pitched, concerned voice asked, "Alexander, hey, are you okay!"

This voice broke Alexander out of his thought as he quickly flashed a smile "Ah..yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," He brushed it off.

And then quickly asked, "So how do you treat it?"

"Umm, just simply rub a legumum salve on the affected area or drink it with boiled water," Mikaya felt it hard to keep up with Alexander's line of question.

One moment they were about to bang, the next moment they were talking about warts.

'Strange minds work in strange ways I guess,' Mikaya said to herself.

"And does it work on other things like rashes, blisters, and boils?" Alexander wanted to be thorough.

"Yes, anything related to the private parts," Mikaya affirmed with a nod.

"And have you personally experienced it?" Alexander then asked.

This time Mikaya answered shaking her head, "No, though I have seen it but I never had any. It's because I have always rubbed the salve every time after sex. It's what we are taught to do."

The shape and color of her genitalia finally made sense to Alexander and he could not marvel at the miraculous nature of the herb.

'If this drug can really destroy viruses then it is worthy to be called a magical herb.' Alexander praised the white plant in his heart.

And then added, "Hmmm, the shiva drug is also quite miraculous. This world's metals and physics seem the same as my previous world, but the flora and fauna, some of them have pseudo-magical features.'

And following this train of thought, Alexander's mind started to drift toward the realms of fantasy and some words associated with it.

But soon he restrained and retracted such daydreaming words as he had no evidence of such existence and so it was pointless to conjecture.

'If it exists, I will deal with it then,' Alexander said to himself.

He also then remembered to remind himself that STDs of this world might not be viral in this world.

Because many diseases are created when a pathogen usually jumped species.

For example, the pathogens which cause measles, smallpox, and tuberculosis all live inside cows but these animals barely feel anything, similar to our common cold.

But when these germs jump into us, what they do to make a cow a little sick, makes us very sick.

And this jumping species is a monument leap in a pathogen's evolution.

It is similar to humans diving into an ocean and then automatically developing a set of lungs that would enable them to live on both land and sea.

Such an evolution would take us hundreds of millions of years, but because pathogens reproduce so quickly, they can complete this evolution within centuries or even decades.

Thus it could be that there are no viral STDs or even any STDs in this world because the gems have not evolved yet.

'I need to do more research on this,' Alexander made the decision to make this project a top priority but then lampooned over the fact that he only had the basic A-level biology knowledge, and thus sorely lacking in expertise.

Even his entire lifetime might not be enough to unravel all the secrets of the Legumum.

Finished with these thoughts Alexander returned to the world of the living, and found the three women looking worriedly at Alexander.

Seeing the focus return to Alexander, Mikaya quickly asked in a bit of a panic, "My lord are you feeling alright? Should I get the guards?"

Alexander's glassy eyes staring into the horizon had really scared her.

If anything happened to Alexander, not only her ticket to freedom would go with him, but also the people that follow Alexander might not let her off easily.

Especially that wife of his Cambyses.

That girl had always struck her as being dangerous.

And so when Alexander returned to normal, blood seemed to have finally re-entered her heart.

"No, I'm fine. I just recalled something," Alexander felt a bit embarrassed as he answered.

Such had also happened In his previous life, where he would lose himself in thinking about a problem, even sometimes during conversations, and then be bought back to earth by the urging shouts of the people around.

"That's good." It was unknown whether Mikaya had accepted that answer or just thought Alexander was playing tough.

But nevertheless, she urged with a gesture, "Maybe the sun is too hot for the lord. Let's go inside,"

Alexander too had no reason to stay on the balcony and so followed.

And as he entered the room, his eyes suddenly caught hold of the leather pouch he had bought with him and reminded him of the original reason he came here.

And so he addressed Mikaya, "Miss Mikaya, I believe you still owe me a reward."

A large, happy grin flashed across Mikaya's face as she laughed, "Yes, yes, let's get started now," and attempted to take Alexander's clothes off.

"No, no, you misunderstand," Alexander shook his head to correct the misunderstanding and then slowly walked up to grab the leather bag.

"This," He said shaking the bag in his hand.

"Oh? Was it cards you said?" Mikaya tried to recall.

"Yes. And I want them all painted a combination of black and red, preferably before supper. I want to play some games after," Alexander succinctly replied.

"Hmm, well, let me see if I will be able to finish them all by then," Mikaya's curiosity was drawn.

And so Alexander opened the bag and let Mikaya praise the diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades shapes and marvel at the king, queen, and joker.

"My, my, aunt Seelima was right. My great pasha, your talents are endless," Mikaya praised using familiar terms as her eyes sparkled at the beautiful shapes and figures.

Alexander then spent a little time showing what part to color what and finished with this, seeing Mikaya get busy, Alexander performed a courtesy bow and then excused himself with the words, "Well, then, please have a lovely day, my lady."