episode_0056

Episode 56. Soldiers in the Blood (1)

****

It’s a long-awaited peace. I had the opportunity to do this a few days ago, but even if I’m on duty for a day, it feels like an eternity.

Well, not today. Istina and I were sitting in the lab, sipping coffee.

The coffee wasn’t that great. There were cookies on the side of the lab, but they weren’t within arm’s reach. I’ll have to bring them to my desk later.

“Istina. The conference will be held soon.”

“Are you participating?”

Hedwig said, this conference is being held because of me, and there will be discussions about my papers. I shook my head.

“I originally planned to attend, but they said this conference was being held because of me?”

“So you’re not going to participate?”

I’ve thought about it a bit, but no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I can go there myself. If I do go, it seems like it’ll be a very awkward place.

No matter what you do, it will look like you are going to overturn the table. Even if you go there and stay as quiet as possible. No, even if you sit quietly, you will still get questions.

The conference room will be paralyzed just by showing his face. Wouldn’t it be better not to go, both for courtesy and to avoid trouble?

You can participate in the academic society starting from the next academic society.

I can’t attend every single small conference that’s held just for me. And other professors probably wouldn’t want that.

“I don’t feel like going without an invitation. Just go and come back, Istina. I’ll be in the ward taking care of the patients.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I went to the conference.”

There’s usually not a lot to do.

It may not be a great deal, but shouldn’t we leave a paper on the diagnosis and prevention of scurvy so that future healers can use it?

So, I have to write a paper on scurvy and see the outpatients who are piling up. I have to give them an Istina for conferences that are difficult to attend in person.

“Can you do it well?”

“If you don’t know, just blame me and come out. I think everyone else is like that.”

Istina nodded at these words.

“That could be possible.”

“Think of it simply. You’ll have more opportunities to show your face in academia. If you don’t grab them by the collar and finish, it’ll be a success.”

That’s a given.

Even if Istina goes and does something wrong, wouldn’t it be perceived as just the enthusiasm of a young researcher? That’s what I would have thought.

I looked at Istina for a moment.

In front of Istina was a textbook on healing. If there had been someone like Galen in this world, the book would have been at least hundreds of years old.

“Is it a textbook?”

“Yes. It’s ‘The Foundation of Healing’.”

“Half of the content there is wrong and will be disproved within 5 years. Filter it yourself and look at it. Focus on who thought that and why.”

Istina looked at me with a look of disbelief. What else are you complaining about, Istina?

“Is this a thousand-year-old book?”

“It’s time to move on to the next generation, then.”

The expiration date is about 950 years past. Istina just scratched her head.

“So. I can just go to the conference and come back, right?”

“Yeah.”

Right. I’ll go to the hospital to see some patients and then write a paper on scurvy. Istina can go to the conference.

To be honest, there were some annoying things. There were only a few times when the discussions were interesting. Is there any need to sit in an academic conference when there are no new papers?

I need to write a new paper quickly too.

****

The Asterix Society without Asterix.

There were several reasons why the conference was conducted this way. One of them was that it would be difficult to discuss if the parties involved were present.

The prevailing opinion was that it would be better to make the announcement without the person speaking, since it was obvious that the conference hall would be paralyzed.

Well, it’s been like that up until now. It’s been like that in the academic conferences up until now.

So, that person’s conference was held without that person. Istina flipped through the table of contents of the conference schedule. The order of presenters was as follows.

Professor Klaus, ‘On Microscopes and Germs’.

Professor Kropelter, ‘The Unanswered Question of the Existence of Particulate Matters’.

Professor Kropelter was still skeptical. He would admit what he had to admit, right?

Plague Doctor Hedwig, ‘Treatment of Dysentery’.

S. Campbell, ‘Transforming Water and Wastewater Policy’.

Hedwig, that’s right. She spent a few days at the Academy because of this schedule.

Professor Fisher, ‘Structure of the Heart and Circulation of the Blood’.

Imperial Healer Violet, ‘Anatomy of the Heart, and Analysis of Related Animal Experiments’.

Violet. Professor Asterix calls her a punk, but she may actually be a respected healer in academic circles.

If you think about it, Professor Asterix himself used his position as the royal healer to good effect. Violet also has a similar position to the professor.

Come to think of it, he’s a tall person.

Istina sat anxiously and waited. Just in case, she brought three blank sheets of paper. She also brought her textbook and Professor Asterix’s thesis.

Of course, Professor Asterix hardly ever looks at his textbooks. He says that everything will be disproved in five years, and that it means nothing other than that he thought about it seriously.

I don’t know if he meant to disprove it, or if he was expressing a general antipathy toward the academic establishment, or if he was joking.

The professor said that anyway.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t read books as a student. Istina had no choice but to read healing textbooks from time to time.

No, but that doesn’t mean you can say anything you want. Professors have their own thoughts, so they don’t really need to look at the textbook.

To sum it up:

Istina had to look at her textbook.

What if someone asks questions?

****

On the stage.

Professor Klaus began to speak.

“Earlier this year, Professor Asterix came to me and suggested that I lend my name to a paper, since he had the means to make a new discovery.”

It’s probably about a microscope.

“Honestly, I was dumbfounded. But I tried to listen to what he was trying to say. He said that if you overlap two lenses, you can magnify the image by hundreds of times?”

I remember when Professor Istinado first came. It was a big impact, as he entered the academy escorting the princess.

“Yes. I had a similar reaction. I thought, what kind of crazy is that… … . It was true. A new world opened up. A microscopic world, a world of small things.”

A roaring sound.

There was a microscope sitting in Asterix’s classroom, so most of the people present had seen one before. The professor had even demonstrated it on several occasions.

“It would take decades to fully explore the possibilities of the microscope. What lenses to use, what dyes to use, what to magnify… …. Now is the beginning, all research.”

One person in the audience raised his hand.

“What’s the beginning?”

Professor Klaus thought about it for a while.

“Professor Asterix showed the microscopic structure of mold to prove that decay was caused by fine particles in the air.”

“Yes.”

“The important thing is this. Professor Asterix didn’t just show us something great.”

“Then what was it?”

“Just a magnification of some random mold that happened to pass by, or some water from a mop. It didn’t show anything special. The possibilities of the microscopic world are virtually endless.”

Professor Klaus’s conclusion is that we must also look for something special in the microcosm.

“Will there come a day when we can verify with a microscope which bacteria causes which disease? If we just find the right combination of microscope magnification and dye.”

Istina nodded.

In fact, the professor suddenly lost interest in playing with a microscope. He said that anyone can find something and that he should look at something else.

The conference continued like that for a long time.

“Ah. Professor Kropelter. But I still think there are too many questions. Even the most common infectious disease, the common cold, doesn’t have a germ that causes it, right?”

The professor explained that not all of the particles that cause the plague are bacteria, and not all bacteria are observable.

“And. Aren’t many diseases caused by imbalances within the body rather than infections? Like chronic diseases or asthma.”

Professor Kropelter continued talking. I thought he was nitpicking, but I couldn’t say he was completely wrong.

“Professor Asterix experimentally proved that airborne particles cause decay… … but isn’t it much more difficult to confirm this in a living patient or organism?”

This time, the audience roared. Some seemed to agree, others seemed to object.

The professor said that some people will oppose it to the end. It’s good to be skeptical.

Istina raised her hand after thinking about it.

“Yes. There’s a student there.”

“How do you explain it… … . Particulate matter isn’t just bacteria, right? Some of them might not be visible through a microscope.”

“That’s a possibility too.”

Professor Klaus thought about it for a while, and then surprisingly just nodded. It seemed like he thought it made sense. Why, is it because Professor Asterix is not here?

Did you just not like the professor?