"Ugh..." Roy slowly awoke after being in and out of consciousness for several days. The last thing he distinctly remembered was being in a cell in the basement of a stone building, and intermittently he could recall someone calling out to him. Ever since he got sick, his memory had become fuzzy, and he could only sparsely remember anything from the last week. "W-Where am I?" The young boy tried to sit up, but he found that his body had no strength.
"Woah there." Emile pushed him back down slowly. "You're alright, son. But don't try and move. Your body is completely out of stamina, so you'd best not try anything too intensive at the moment." He let out a sigh of relief at the fact that Roy had finally awoken from the coma he'd slipped into, and was beginning to worry that the boy would never wake up even though he'd gotten better over the past few days.
{I don't know who to thank for this miracle, but thank you. This boy managed to survive something that should have killed him.} (Emile)
"W-Who are you." Roy looked at him, confused.
{He looks like a kid...} (Roy)
"My name is Emile, and I'm..." Emile didn't really know how to answer at first, but settled on an easy answer. "I'm a doctor." He figured that was the best and most neutral answer he could give, since it wasn't exactly wrong.
"A d-doctor?" Roy didn't really understand what that meant, and a pounding headache meant trying to think was hard.
"I gave you some medicine, and we've been trying everything to handle your infection." Emile picked up a small piece of wood that had paper tacked to it. "You were in pretty bad shape when we found you, but it seems the Sulfa worked as intended. Now we just need to continue treatment, and everything should be fine." He smiled. “It looks like the worst is over, though you need to rest a bit more.
{I always missed this. Seeing people get better and making families happy was one of the best parts of my career, and it was always nice to see people head home happy and healthy.} (Emile)
"I... I was sick?" Roy tried to remember what happened, but the headache made that difficult. "I... I remember that I was with Dad, and we were..." His eyes shot open as memories flooded his mind. "DAD! Where's Dad?!?" He started to panic, and wanted to look for his father.
"Calm down." Denise stepped in. She'd been helping Emile keep an eye on the boy during these weeks, and was very helpful in Roy's care. "You shouldn't be moving around, and getting worked up will only make things worse." She understood why he was frantic, but knew that it wouldn't do him any good.
"Where is my Dad?!? Is he alright?!?" Roy was trying to get up, but the Elf held him firmly in place.
"We don't know where your father is." Emile shook his head. "He wasn't with you when we rescued you from those mercenaries, but Amanda and Lawerance are looking. I promise you the moment they find him, we'll tell you."
"Can you tell us anything about him? A name, his appearance, or where he frequented?" Denise asked for a description and other information about his father. She knew this would be hard for someone barely awake, but she was worried he might pass out again soon. "So far we just know that your name is Roy."
"M-My Dad's name... is Laural. We aren't Nobles, so we don't have a family name..." Roy said quietly. “He was a big man with a round belly and he had slightly tanned skin. I got my lighter skin from my mother apparently." Roy answered, though he wasn't entirely confident in his words.
{I wonder if his father was from Herldix then? They're south of the Empire, and the people there have a darker complexion.} Denise
"Do you remember anything about the attack?" Emile asked then asked about his kidnapping. "What did your father do when those men came for you? Did he run off or..." He was hoping the boy didn't witness his father's death if that was what happened.
"I... I don't know. Dad yelled something about bandits and threw me off the side of the cart." Roy shook his head. "I remember him screaming something, and there was lots of yelling. I think someone got hurt and when I tried to run away, one of the men cut me with his sword. After that, I don't remember anything else about what happened to him, and those men never said anything about my father after putting me in that cell."
{I hope Dad's ok.} (Roy)
{What are the odds he's dead?} Cher asked. She wasn't in the room, but she'd been listening in via Emile.
{High, and unless he fled, he was likely killed by those men during the scuffle. They had every reason to remove a witness, and since he was just a peddler, there wasn't really any reason to let him live.} (Emile)
{Dammit...} Cher sighed. {We shouldn't say anything just yet. Maybe Amanda can find him, and we can see them reunited...}
{For now, let's have some hope that he's still alive. But if things turn out for the worse... He needs to know...} Emile had given the talk to patients and other family members when someone died. It was never easy, and it was the least favorite part of his job, but he couldn't just let Roy continue believing his father was out there if they knew the opposite to be true.
"For now, please just rest, ok?" Emile put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Your body is exhausted from the infection, and you're still not out of the woods yet. I'll have them bring you something light to eat later, but for now, please go back to sleep." He figured the boy still needed rest, and that it was best that he continued to sleep.
"O-Ok." Roy nodded, and a few minutes later, the exhausted boy fell back asleep. Once they were sure he was fine, Denise and Emile left the room and a maid took over keeping an eye on the boy.
"I can't believe he survived that." Denise said as they walked down the hallway together. "His condition should have been unrecoverable, yet your medicine brought him back from the brink." She'd never seen people recover from that level of infection, and was truly surprised.
{What kind of wonder drug did he give him? With just those small bits of medicine he was able to bring that boy back from the brink.} (Denise)
"It was close. Far closer than I would've liked." Emile sighed as they descended the staircase. "What I gave him wasn't perfect, but luckily it worked. Now we just need to keep an eye on him over the coming days and weeks. It will take time, but he should make a full recovery."
{This world is much like Earth before the twentieth century in that it lacks important knowledge and understanding of disease. That boy would've never survived with that concoction Denise gave him, as it was far too late for such a simple remedy to do anything. It makes me wonder just how many people die from easily preventable illnesses in this world, and knowing what I know about Earth's history, that number is probably very high.} (Emile)
"What did you give him, anyway?" Denise asked as they moved into the living room where Cher was talking with Amanda.
"A type of antibiotic.” Emile explained, as it was clear that Denise didn't understand that term. “It's something that combats the bacteria that was the root cause of the infection. Sulfa is good in a pinch, but it's not my preferred weapon of choice for Sepsis." Emile shook his head. He'd much rather a proper antibiotic like Penicillin for this kind of issue.
Not understanding what he was talking about Denise sighed. "I can see now that you've got a lot to teach me, as I understood nothing of what you just said."
{Bacteria? Antibiotic? I have no clue what those mean...} (Denise)
"Don't worry. I don't really get it either." Cher laughed. She knew some medical things because Emile had a bad habit of talking to her during his more stressful moments at the house, but she wasn't anywhere near as knowledgeable as him on the subject.
{I know how to apply dressing and what kind of stuff to take for headaches. Anything more complex than that, is beyond me.} (Cher)
"Will that boy be fine?" Amanda asked as she turned to Emile and Denise. She was worried that he'd perish from his injury, as she knew how deadly an infection could be.
{Most men die of their injuries rather than outright in combat. If Emile really can cure such grievous issues, so many soldiers could be spared.} (Amanda)
"He's not completely clear, but I think he'll be fine." Emile gave an optimistic assessment. Since the boy had awoken and was seemingly getting better, he figured that it was likely he would recover. "He'll need more bed rest, and I ask you to let him rest for at least a week or two. I know that's imposing on you but-" He was cut off by Amanda.
"He is a sick four-year-old boy that went through such a horrible experience. I would never even think of kicking him out." Amanda shook her head. "He may stay until he's recovered and we find his father.”
{Though he's probably not alive. I imagine those men killed him during the kidnapping.} (Amanda)
"Thank you." Emile smiled. He was slightly worried that Amanda would send the boy off somewhere since he was just a commoner with no real importance beyond being a Spirit Host.
"But that brings us to our next point." Denise interjected as she looked down at Emile. "I want to learn from you. Your world's medical knowledge is far better than this one, and I'd like to learn it." She bowed her head. "So please teach me."
"Aw, look Emile. You made a friend." Cher chuckled.
"Please don't act like that." Emile sighed as he waved his hands to get Denise to stop bowing. "I have no problem with teaching you, but I should get Amanda's permission first." He needed to be sure that sharing medical knowledge with Denise wouldn't cause problems.
"I have no objections to you teaching her." Amanda shook her head. "Denise is a good friend, and I see no problem with live-saving medicine being shared. If you can teach her about your world's medicine, then so be it." She then turned to the Elf. "And in return, I would ask that you also teach Emile about some of this world's alchemy. It might prove useful to him in converting some of the information he has, and I imagine you've got some useful things for him as well."
"I would like that very much." Emile nodded. "Things won't be 1:1 here, so it's best that I know how this world treats sick people. That might prove useful in the future, and it can't hurt to have more knowledge."
"Then I suppose we shall be each other's master and apprentice." Denise smiled.
"I like the terms teacher and pupil, but yeah." Emile reached out his hand, and the two shook on it. "And if you don't mind, I'd like your aide in doing a bit of research into production during our time together. If we're lucky I can actually make some of the stuff I teach you about, and if we can mange that, we can really help people." He knew this would be tricky, as even if he knew the technical side of the medicine, he still needed methods of creating it.
"I have a few connections that might be able to help us." Denise giggled. "I've been around long enough that a few other apothecaries and alchemists owe me a couple of favors, so we should be able to make things happen." She also figured some of her colleagues would be as interested in this development as she was, and assumed they'd bang down her door if she kept them in the dark.
"Then I look forward to working with you, Ms. Denise." Emile smiled.
This would be the start of a beautiful friendship between the two as they worked together to create a world free from many of the most common diseases and illnesses. It wouldn't be an easy feat to reproduce modern medicine in this medieval world, but for some reason, Emile felt that together, they could pull it off.
{Perhaps this was the reason I was brought here? To save a world filled with people using the knowledge I accumulated during my life. If that's the case... Then I suppose that's not so bad, though... it doesn't stop me from missing my family...} (Emile)
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