I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Episode 57. Soldiers in the Blood (2)

Episode 57. Soldiers in the Blood (2)

The academy’s eyes turned to Istina.

“Why is Ms. Istina here– no, I see Ms. Istina was already here.”

“Hello.”

Istina greeted them awkwardly.

“Come to think of it, Ms. Istina, weren’t you a co-author on all of these papers? Professor Asterix’s papers, I mean.”

“Uh, yeah… that’s right.”

“So what are your thoughts, Ms. Istina?”

That’s not an easy question. No, I mean, how can you just suddenly ask what I think without specifying *what* you’re asking about?

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like this, Ms. Istina. What do you see as the similarities and differences between the process of decay and infection?”

What the hell? Istina scratched her head. What Professor Asterix had demonstrated in front of everyone was that. The swan-necked flask experiment.

Microscopic observation of mold and experimental proof via swan-neck flasks showed that pestilential particulates caused decay.

Professor Kropfelter’s stance was that he wouldn’t believe anything beyond what was experimentally verified and published in papers.

Other hardliners in academia probably felt similarly. Istina nodded.

“Um, well, it’s definitely true that the process of decay is different from the process of an infectious disease. And diseases caused by mold are few and far between. But…”

But what.

Istina scratched her head awkwardly.

“What the professor said was this: that what causes disease is a war between bacteria and the body’s components. That’s what causes fever, itching, and such symptoms.”

“There’s some merit there. But if we don’t know which components are involved, it’s all just vague conjecture—”

Suddenly, something flashed in Istina’s mind. Something the professor had mentioned in passing, at some conference or another.

“White blood cells.”

“Pardon?”

“What fights bacteria is a type of blood cell living within the blood. They’re like the body’s soldiers, fighting against invaders.”

A moment of silence, then laughter filled the lecture hall. Academia is no joke. Istina lowered her head and sat back down.

“A young friend with quite the imagination.”

Professor Kropfelter declared heartily.

Istina shrank back.

She thought she could use the information the professor gave to, like, take charge of a conference just like him.

Guess not. There must be something more important than just knowing things. Well, of course there is.

Arrogance that doesn’t back down in front of dozens of people, charisma, a logic that doesn’t get tangled up in others’ arguments…

Istina’s defeat.

Flipping through papers in the lab, Istina trudged in, her face a mask of gloom. Wonder what’s up.

She looks like she took a beating. Seems like she got utterly demolished at that conference she went to earlier.

Academia is absolutely no joke.

You get shredded to pieces if you step wrong, that’s how it is. Forget whether your claims are right or wrong, these are professors who’ve spent decades in the field.

There’s no way Istina could’ve pulled anything off with her logic and speaking skills. I’d probably be the same. Except my claims *are* all right.

Anyway. Let’s see.

“So, what’d the professors say?”

Istina sadly shook her head.

“We were exchanging views on microscopes, and they all just laughed at me. I described white blood cells as soldiers protecting the body…”

Which is true, though. I doubt people in this world have a concept of cells as living units performing specific functions.

So to some of those professors, the soldier analogy might’ve sounded ridiculous.

So, that’s why she’s down.

Seriously, Istina.

Sorry to say, but you haven’t even properly defended a thesis yet, and you’re sulking because you got stomped at some conference? Isn’t that a bit laughable?

There’s an order to things in this world.

“Hmm….”

– I didn’t say that though.

That’d sound too much like a grumpy old man.

“Just prove it with your skills, that’s all.”

“Yeah…”

I kept putting it off, but that Estina got laughed at because of leukocytes. Shouldn’t I hurry and publish the paper to end the controversy?

“Estina. Do you know what leukocytes are?”

“No. I only barely saw them once through the microscope. There weren’t many, right? Hard to find.”

Leukocytes look white under a microscope. They’re hard to see, and their numbers are small compared to red blood cells, so it’s true they’re hard to find.

But there’s a way to find them.

“Estina. I thought a deep analysis of blood would be impossible here? But someone put a fan in the professor’s office.”

She looks like she doesn’t understand what I’m saying.

She’ll find out soon enough.

“Is that so?”

“I tried spinning the fan, and when it’s spinning at its fastest, it spins up to 20 revolutions per second.”

The fan that was in Professor Klaus’s lab. I don’t really know the principle, but it spins pretty fast. If only I could find something similar…

“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“I have no idea.”

“Estina. You know what centrifugal force is, right?”

“No.”

What *do* you know?

“I’m going to spin the blood. If I spin the blood, the components will separate into layers based on density. And there will be a layer among those that contains the leukocytes.”

“Will that really work as you expect, Professor?”

It will, of course. Why wouldn’t it?

The centrifuges they use in hospitals usually spin thousands of times a minute, but Professor Klaus’s fan hits four digits, so it should be fine, right?

“We can submit it with the scurvy paper. One easy one, one hard one.”

“Okay, I understand.”

I looked back at Istina.

“Alright then… everything’s settled. Go to Professor Klaus and get the fan.”

“What should I say to get it?”

“Figure it out. Steal it or borrow it, whatever.”

Istina muttered something and left the lab. Another day, another problem solved.

Ten minutes later.

Istina came back to the lab. Huffing and puffing, dragging the fan behind her. Looks like she pulled it off.

“Good job.”

“It was a struggle to get it here.”

“But, how are we supposed to do this?”

“First, lay the fan down nicely. So the plane of the blades is parallel to the floor.”

“I still don’t really understand what we’re doing. Just by spinning the blood, are the cells really going to line up by type?”

I nodded.

I’d done this work countless times in my past life. And I’d used the blood packs that came from it countless times too.

Though, I’ve never done it with a fan before.

Istina and I managed to lay the fan down by stacking books, blankets and the like.

Now we just need to secure the blood to the fan and centrifuge it. Then we can put the white blood cell layer that separates on top of the red blood cells onto a microscope, and look at white blood cells to our heart’s content.

Maybe we’ll even see it eat bacteria.

“But, whose blood are we going to use?”

“Hmm…”

Asking a graduate student for their blood is a bit much, isn’t it? What am I, some crazy blood mage? I just decided to use my own.

The 20 milliliter vial filled up with my blood. I put a bandaid on my arm.

Thrrrrrrr-

Situation over. It was a success, anyway. After all the twists and turns, the fan finally started spinning. The problematic blood vial was taped to it.

Now, we just need to wait about 30 minutes.

“Istina, want to go grab some coffee?”

“How long will it take?”

“It should be done in about 30 minutes.”

I carefully detached the blood vial from the fan. Another success.

The blood had clearly separated into two layers. The red below was red blood cells, the yellow above was plasma.

“See?”

“Whoa, that’s so cool.”

Istina was impressed.

The red blood cells at the very bottom were about 40%. The plasma was 60%. And then, a thin layer of white blood cells stacked in between. That’s what it looked like with the naked eye, anyway.

“Hand me the dropper.”

“Okay.”

Between the plasma and red blood cells.

A layer of white blood cells, making up about 1% of the blood, was separated with a dropper. I moved the separated white blood cells under the microscope.

White blood cells are originally transparent, but they appear white under the microscope. It’s a relief I can see them somewhat without staining.

“Oh, I see them. Come quick.”

“Yes.”

Well, of course white blood cells would be visible, since I only collected white blood cells with the centrifuge. Would staining make their movement more visible though?

Still, it’s a relief I can see them well. I moved away from the microscope. Istina quickly pressed her eyes to the eyepiece.

“I really see them. Those strangely shaped cells move and attack bacteria, right?”

“Yeah. The aftermath of that war is what causes inflammation. Pus, fever, redness, that kind of thing.”

“Wow… So infection wasn’t a superficial thing after all? It was mechanical too. A war between soldiers smaller than grains of sand.”

That’s the essence of it.

“I told you, structure and function. Macrophages have a shape that allows them to physically engulf bacteria, so their function is to kill bacteria.”

Istina nodded vigorously.

“Anyways.”

“Yes?”

“These white blood cells will die soon, so to show them at the conference or class, we’d have to draw blood on the day.”

Istina tilted her head. Well… I need to inform the academic community as soon as possible, Istina said she was ridiculed because of me.

I need to go and get my revenge.