I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Graduate Student Diary (3)

I thought Mint visiting my lab was an event, but it seems the princess considers it part of her routine. She was here again today.

“Your Highness. There are times when I don’t come to the lab. What do you do then?”

“I wait. Or study.”

“Ah…”

I felt a bit sorry for her.

Even so, she never asked me for my schedule or complained about why I was late.

Was she afraid of bothering me, or did she really just need a place to be alone? Either way.

“I’ll put up a schedule.”

“Really? Thanks.”

The princess, who had been looking around, turned her gaze to the travel bag in the corner of the lab.

“Where are you going?”

“Tomorrow morning. I’m going to the royal palace for a lecture.”

“Oh, really?”

I nodded.

The princess looked puzzled. She seemed to have something to say.

“Would you like to come too, Princess?”

“Yes!”

I wondered if Mint had any academic schedules to attend to, but who would stop the princess from going to the palace?

“What’s the lecture about?”

“Public health. We’ll also discuss the control of the dysentery epidemic we saw last time.”

“Wasn’t that the topic you were talking about on the way here?”

“Maybe it was.”

The princess fiddled with her tie.

The carriage heading to the royal palace.

Last time, I rode the same carriage with Mint from the palace to the academy. Today, we’re heading from the academy to the palace together.

“Hmm…”

The princess was looking out of the carriage.

“Did you put on the motion sickness patch?”

“Yes.”

“The weather is nice today.”

“Be quiet. My head hurts.”

I closed my mouth. The princess was still staring at something outside the carriage.

I don’t get it. She seemed excited when we decided to go to the palace, but now she’s grumpy again.

“There was a garden at the palace, right?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go for a picnic. When does the lecture end?”

“I think it ends in the afternoon. Let’s go then. Should I ask the idlers too…?”

“Who are the idlers?”

“My colleagues. The palace healers.”

“Let’s just go by ourselves.”

“Okay.”

Mint was silent again for a long time.

The carriage rattled. At least the palace was only half a day’s journey away.

“Aren’t you in the middle of exams?”

“You’re talkative today.”

“No. You had Estina ride in the carriage behind us and rode with me.”

“I don’t remember that.”

It was just a pretense.

I let out a small sigh.

“Alright. I’ll be quiet.”

“Hey, teacher. I aced the midterm for General Magic Theory? I was the only one in that class.”

“You must have worked hard.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Mint stopped looking out the window and turned to me with a triumphant expression. She seemed to be waiting for praise. What should I say?

“You’re smart, Princess. If you keep working hard, you’ll get good results.”

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mint smile so brightly.

Arrival at the palace.

I got off the carriage first and, following etiquette, extended my hand to the princess. Mint took my hand and carefully stepped down from the carriage.

“See you later, teacher.”

“Yes.”

Mint put her hands in her pockets and disappeared into the palace. I watched the back of her head for a moment before turning away.

Where did Istina go?

Fifteen minutes on the palace steps.

After waiting for that long, Istina came trudging along. For some reason, she was using a cane, and her clothes were covered in dirt.

I handed Istina a handkerchief.

“Ugh, damn it. Thank you.”

Istina didn’t look too good. To be honest, she never really did, but this time she looked like she’d been hit somewhere.

“What happened?”

“The carriage wheel broke.”

“Oh no. Are you okay?”

“I rolled over once, but I’m fine.”

I don’t know. She doesn’t look fine. Istina wiped the sweat and dust off her face with a handkerchief. I waited a bit.

“Can you make the presentation?”

“Ah, yes!”

Sorry to say, but wasn’t it lucky that Istina was the one in that carriage?

If the princess’s carriage had broken, someone might have been fired or killed. More importantly, I was also in the carriage with the princess.

“You’re not bleeding anywhere, are you?”

“No. I’m not.”

Istina limped towards me. Should I help her?

No, she can walk fine on her own.

The presentation room was smaller than I expected. I thought it would be like an auditorium, but except for the fact that there was a blackboard, it was just a conference room.

Istina stood in front of the podium, and I sat in a chair behind her, in a spot where I wouldn’t be seen.

I’ll just take questions later.

Istina was still uncomfortable with her leg that she had fallen on earlier, leaning on one leg and holding the podium with one arm. Is she really okay?

Istina cleared her throat a bit.

“Hello. I am researcher Istina, here to present on the topic of epidemic dysentery. Thank you for the opportunity and time today.”

A smattering of applause.

I scanned the people gathered in the room.

The prince who had called the people, a couple of palace healers, officials in suits, and a few nobles who seemed to have nothing better to do.

The healer I saw last time in the Lapis territory, Hedwig, was sitting while fighting off sleep.

From one side of the conference room, the lord of Lapis waved at me with a welcoming look. I gave a rough nod, and the first prince, who thought I was greeting him, slightly nodded his head.

Anyway.

“To get to the point.”

The rustling sound and voice of Istina came through. Although Istina was trembling, her tone was generally stable.

“Some diseases spread through pathogenic particles, and today’s conclusion is that we need to think about ways to control this.”

“The first case. Recently, we heard that epidemic dysentery was spreading in the Lapis territory and went to support the treatment.”

“Following the professor’s opinion, we traced the water sources and confirmed that patients were emerging around certain wells.”

“This is the map we drew at the time. You can see that the geographical distribution of patients forms concentric circles around specific wells.”

Istina handed over the unfolded map to the conference room. The ten or so people in the room passed the problematic map around.

The map eventually reached the prince.

“Uh, yes. What we can learn from this case is this. Cholera is transmitted through water. In fact, in this case, the epidemic subsided when we closed or disinfected the problematic wells.”

“How long did it take?”

Istina flinched at the prince’s words, then quickly flipped through her notes and cleared her throat.

“The incubation period of epidemic dysentery is thought to be about a day. It took about a day for the effects of the aforementioned quarantine measures to appear.”

“What is the incubation period?”

“Ah. The incubation period is the time from when the disease is contracted to when the symptoms appear. It’s a term defined in our paper.”

“How am I supposed to understand if you use terms you made up?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Keep talking.”

Istina nodded.

“Yes. Epidemic dysentery had a relatively simple solution, but the important thing is this. Most diseases are transmitted through particles, and if you know the method, you can effectively prevent and control them.”

The presentation continued for a long time.

Shift change. You really did a great job.

After finishing the presentation, Istina sat in the chair I had been sitting in. I stood at the podium.

As soon as I stood at the podium, the eyes of the people gathered in the conference room changed. Ah, this guy looks like he can be beaten. Well, it would be a bit much to fight with Istina, who got hurt on the way.

“I heard that with this new thing called a microscope, you can observe bacteria. Couldn’t you observe the particles causing epidemic dysentery?”

“We observed them. They are rod-shaped particles 200 times smaller than a hair. However, observing such small targets is not an easy task.”

“You answer. What can be done to help people? What policy should be pursued?”

“I’m sorry to say-“

“I’m looking forward to hearing what shameless words will follow from Mr. Asterix’s mouth.”

The sound of sending senior Virho into exile.

“Diseases do not come from bad air or smells. They occur when a person susceptible to the disease is exposed to the pathogen.”

“Yes. That was your opinion, wasn’t it?”

“The susceptibility to diseases can be reduced through methods such as improving living environments and nutritional status, and pathogen exposure can be reduced through measures such as expanding water and sewage facilities.”

“Right.”

“Most importantly, if we identify the cause of the plague and find out the transmission routes, we can devise countermeasures to fight against it.”

“Think of it as a war against disease?”

“Exactly.”

“That makes sense.”

I looked around the conference room again. I wonder if I’ve convinced them a bit. A few people are dozing off, and some seem uninterested.

Still, I hope today’s idea has been planted. After all, just being called here is a start.

‘When will the lecture end?’

Meanwhile, Mint was lying in her room. It had been a while since she had been there. There was some dust on the floor, but it was just as she remembered.