A Broken World [Rewrite] - Chapter Eight - A Beginning World (Patreon)

The carriage was, to Lucas’s great relief, a bit better this time around.  That there were multiple versions of the foldable carriage was a pleasant surprise, because while the first one had been quick to set up, it had been thoroughly unpleasant to ride in.  Of course, Lucas had a eleven day journey ahead of him, apparently, so the even the extra comfort would likely wear thin before the end.

For now though, Lucas was comfortably enough seated in the carriage as it rolled down the dirt road that connected Northgate to the first waystation.  Beside him was Moru, and across from him were Terrasin and Versi.  Outside the window, past his escort, the plains extended outward into the distance ahead of them until they hit what appeared to be some kind of massively gigantic wall.  Which, apparently, was High Goldengrass Island.  

Just a quick look about the sky revealed many islands were visible, the distance more than made up for by their incredible size.  High Goldengrass, however, appeared almost like a mountain range in the distance- reminding Lucas of driving into Colorado from the East and seeing the Rocky Mountains in the distance hundreds of miles away.

The illusion was made possible by the fact High and Low Goldengrass were connected; they were touching in multiple locations.  The groups destination was, in fact, the largest of those connections- upon which sat Lyus City.  Though the city was so distant as to be invisible to the naked eye.

Without his library of music or talk shows to listen to, or even a good book to read, the journey would have been excruciatingly boring.  Or, perhaps, absolutely nerve wracking considering the possibility of being attacked.  Either way, it was fortunate that Lucas had a topic to fill the silence, one that he was very familiar with.

“A good portion of disease,” Lucas explained carefully, painfully aware of the level of scientific knowledge his audience had- a pain that was somewhat ameliorated by the fact that all three, though especially Terrasin, were quite bright.  “Is caused by organisms far too tiny for the eye to see.”

“When you get an infection in a wound, or have a sickness that has a cough, these microorganisms are colonizing and multiplying on or inside you.”

Lucas did have to admit a kind of sadistic glee that came with explaining the existence of microorganisms to this group.  The knowledge that they, and pretty much everything else, was a home to one thing or another- and often in great quantities- evoked very entertaining looks of horror on the two girls faces in particular.  Moru was, at first glance, much less affected, but given how his face seemed to be slowly changing color Lucas was willing to bet his lack of expression was because he was trying not to vomit.

“Normally, this is not really an issue.” Lucas said with amusement, “our bodies have developed to fight off most of these before they even happen.  A healthy individual will rarely find themselves sick, but when the immune system is compromised somehow the chance of infection increases dramatically.  An example of such a compromised situation would be, off the top of my head, being stabbed in the shoulder.”

Lucas patted his shoulder with his other hand, wincing slightly as he did so.  It was rather sensitive, and he had found himself patting too hard as he spoke.  Speaking about biology was, in a way, rather comforting and he found himself far more relaxed and personable right now than he had in a while.  So long as he kept himself from considering the train of thoughts he had before getting in the carriage or from reminding himself he had been essentially kidnapped, he would be able to keep up a jovial attitude as he taught.

“So it is at times like that where you need to clean wounds or fight infections with outside help, as I did with the wine a few days ago.  However, wine has sugar in it and getting a high enough alcohol content to use is- while easy for you folks considering you have to water it to make it drinkable- rather expensive.  In my world- more specifically in my home country- we have a great deal of soaps and medications for that purpose; the benefits of living in a highly developed, modern, and wealthy society.”

“However, even in my world with its far greater technology the vast majority of people are simply too poor to afford such medicine.  The gulf between countries at different levels of development is wide, and for someone looking for medical help, nigh insurmountable.”

Lucas had, as part of his Masters and Doctoral studies, taken part in a great deal of volunteer work.  He had greatly looked up to a man named Norman Borlaug, an agronomist and a geneticist, and, Lucas firmly believed, the greatest man to have ever lived.  Norman Borlaug had, for decades, traveled to many places in the developing world where hunger was endemic and used his knowledge to vastly increase crop yields and feed the ever growing human population.

He was the father of the Green Revolution and sometimes called “The Man Who Saved a Billion Lives,” and Lucas had wanted to walk in the footsteps of his idol even if his eventual goal was a private business.  In doing so, he had been exposed to some of the most terrible conditions his world had to offer by proxy.  Lucas, and the organizers and administrators, had made certain that he would be housed, clothed, and fed.  He was, after all, even before completing his Doctorate a highly educated individual from a country with a habit of looking out for its citizens in the extreme.  In short, he was too valuable to be in much risk.

The vast amount of malnourished people Lucas had interacted with had no such protection, no such value in the eyes of the world at large.  Lucas had spent years turning refugee camps into farming villages, or trying to at any rate.  The whole thing had fallen apart when the political situation had taken a sudden shift and calls to disperse the refugees were raised.  Still, it had proven to be a useful experience, both for Lucas’s character and for his later pocketbook.  Or it would have if he had been able to stay in his own world and finish starting his own business.

Lucas had learned a great deal of ethnopharmacology during his work; the study of indigenous or ethnic medicines and remedies to attempt to derive new medicine and drugs for practical use.  That experience was something Lucas had hoped to turn into a goldmine by developing plants to produce powerful medicine and drugs for incredibly inexpensive prices.  Though that experience had also taught him what he had already assumed, that most traditional remedies were either useless or downright harmful.  However, they also happened to be dirt cheap and if someone had the correct knowledge…

“Which is why herbal and traditional remedies are very popular throughout many populations, if not most populations.”  Lucas continued, “unfortunately, most people lack the knowledge to correctly use these remedies, but there are many that have stood the test of time and the rigors of scientific inquiry.  Including, as it happens, thyme.”

Not just a flavoring or incense, thyme also happened to be a fairly powerful antiseptic when distilled down to an essential oil- but that was not even necessary.  It was, occasionally, an ingredient in the condiment called za’atar which was both a culinary spice and a folk medicine to reduce internal parasites, as well as referenced in the Bible in Numbers 19:6 under the Hebrew name hyssop as part of a purity ritual.

The chemical behind this treatment was thymol, and it had many useful properties as a medicine, pesticide, and fungicide.  As an added bonus, it was not particularly toxic to humans- generally, anyway.  It was not particularly hard to get sick off of, but it was hard to kill yourself with it- and if you had problems with parasites it would kill them before it caused you too much discomfort.

Thymol was found in many plants, like the bee balms sometimes used by Native Americans as poultices for wounds, but had the highest concentration in thyme.  It was somewhere between twenty to thirty times more prevalent in thyme than in those flowers, making thyme capable of producing effects even without going through the effort of distillation.

Lucas explained as much to his audience, though without the history lesson.  There would be very little point for him to go off on that tangent when it was mostly just extra bits of information that had been stuck in his head.  He did not think what he was saying was particularly useful.  At most, it might help a few people with infections, so why not talk about it?  Was Lucas’s basic thoughts, but it seemed that the three young nobles listening to him had other ideas.

“Are there other herbs like this?” Archi leaned forward and asked with a considering face, “how much about medicine do you know?”

“Medicine?”  Lucas asked, a bit bewildered by the change from her former, rather amusing, horror.  “Practically nothing.  What I just said is hardly anything more than a historical curiosity in any part of the world with real medicine, but yeah, there are a lot of herbs with useful properties.  Another example, since you have thyme, would be lemon balm.  They both belong to the Family Lamiaceae and have similar habitats so it would stand reason that if one is around you would also have the other.  Lemon balm has been proven to have some use in helping reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, as well as improve sleep quality and combat insomnia.”

“Fascinating,” Moru replied from next to him.  “To think that these plants could have such use, I never would have imagined it to be so.”

Lucas was even more confused, “Don’t you have any kind of herbal or traditional medicine?  I mean, most of it is bullshit and worthless, but traditional remedies have been around since the dawn of recorded history in my world.  I simply cannot believe that you have no medicine at all!”

“There are,” Terrasin nodded, acknowledging Lucas’s incredulity.  “However, most nobles don’t believe that any alchemist really knows what they are doing.  The lower classes might visit one, but no one is going to get a lord to swallow a concoction made out of ox dung and cat hair.”

Lucas gagged at the thought, disgusted that people would even consider that- much less make and take it.  Between what he had just heard and the rivers, Lucas was starting to get the feeling this world existed to make him vomit.

“Just as well they don’t,” Lucas replied.  “That won’t do anything but make you more sick.  Come to think of it, you are the daughter of this territories ruler, right Versi?  You should just go ahead make any use of feces- besides, perhaps, as fertilizer- illegal.  Oh god, that probably means you guys still use bloodletting as well, doesn’t it?  Get rid of that as well, there are very few cases where removing a person’s blood is a good idea and I doubt there is anyone in this entire world who can recognize them.”

Lucas leaned back in his seat and sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.  On reflection, he realised he probably needed to shave soon.  A quick touch confirmed his suspicions and Lucas grimaced at the thought of having to use a razor.  God, it probably would not be the demons or the crappy medicine that would kill him.  No, he would put his money on losing his life in a shaving accident.  It would, Lucas noted quite amused at his own thoughts, be a fairly hilarious way for a so-called hero to go.

“Lord Jaeger,” Moru had a much more serious tone than Lucas would have expected, considering that the young lord had more or less been listening to what amounted to a tantrum about how backward his world was.  “I admit that off the cuff it is hard for me to gauge how valuable the information you just gave us is, but I believe I am starting to see how much of a difference the knowledge of a Hero makes.  The Church often says that it was not the physical might of the Heroes that made them so powerful, but the knowledge they brought; I did not expect to see it firsthand.”

Lucas, who had been musing about his ignoble death to a rusty razor and the fact that he could not grow a real beard even if he tried, was not in the right frame of mind to respond to that statement before the others chimed in with agreement.

“Indeed, bloodletting is a common treatment prescribed to help balance the bodies humours.”  Versi said, agreeing to see it outlawed.  “If it is not doing anything, there is not much of a point to letting it happen and the same for the use of feces in concoctions.”

“To be honest,” Terrasin, at least, seemed aware that Lucas had more or less been complaining under the guise of explaining.  However, she still seemed to have much the same opinion as the other two.  “I think you may have sold yourself short when you said you thought you could not help us.  Indeed, I am reminded of the First Sorceress, whose basic knowledge of magic was a complete revelation to us at the time; you may have far more to offer than you realise.”

Lucas looked at the earnest young nobles, estimating that they had to be nearly twenty years younger than him.  Their dress and manner much as one might expect from a society that seemed roughly equivalent to medieval Europe.  He took a moment to consider the difference between the fine cloth they wore and the plain linens the servants he had seen had.  Between the fine black doublet with intricate designs sewn in that Moru wore and those linens, Lucas knew which he would choose.

And choose he must.  Lucas was aware that even now the reality of his situation had not really hit him; he could not help but have in the back of his mind the thought that this was all a vivid hallucination.  However, at a glance, it was obvious he was entering a very stratified culture and that it would not be pleasant for him to be in the lower strata.  Therefore, he needed to have value- value worth keeping him happy.  The only thing he had at this point was his education, three decades of it if you counted public school.  So he could not simply dismiss it and say that he could not help them, Lucas had to find a way to make his education work for him in this new world even though without access to a lab full of specialised tools he was cut off from the most advanced techniques.

Lucas also, unfortunately, had to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to counter the sudden burst of anger he felt when he considered his kidnapping.  The sheer strength of his anger was surprising to him, he was often not very emotional as a general rule- not since he had mellowed in his late twenties and early thirties.  Anger was not productive; no matter how much he wanted to punch these brats in the face, he would not gain anything from the action.  He could not go home no matter how much he raged.  And, if he was hallucinating, he would probably be punching some nurse or someone who was taking him to a padded cell somewhere.

“Perhaps you are right,” he said without opening his eyes, not voicing the most of the thoughts he had.  “Though what I said before is true to a large extent in that your technology is too far behind my home’s to fully utilise my knowledge and that I lack the technical skill and information to build them myself, I do have a lot of knowledge about agriculture, plants, and basic medicine that you seem to lack.  If you can tell me about how your countries handle agriculture and medicine, I can probably put together a plan to improve them.”

Lucas figured that he should just treat this like any other development project.  First, learn as much about the destination as possible.  Second, identify ways to improve and implement them.  Finally, observe changes for unidentified issues and improve and redesign where necessary.  As plans go, it was the most absolutely basic level, but then Lucas had never been in administrator in those projects so it would have to do.  There was only one other issue to address…

“Which leads me to the next question, which is: why should I?”