Kupo hummed to herself as she wrapped the man's leg with the splint. "There we go, all set," she said, clapping him on the shoulder, "you're very brave, to not need wine with that. "
The wagon driver huffed himself onto the crutches with a grunt, "you'll have to be tough in this business. "
"Well, you're certainly tougher than I am," Kupo said.
"I wouldn't say that, madam," the man drew out a small money pouch and counted out some coins, "you're pretty tough yourself. All that blood and you don't even flinch. "
Kupo glanced down at the bloody floor with the flakes of tissue she had cut away in the earlier operation. "I've seen worse," she shrugged.
"Good for me," the man said with a thin smile then left.
"Disagreeable person, isn't he?" said the old grandmother as she tottered into Kupo's little shop.
Kupo grinned, "Heh, I think it's cute he thinks pretending to be all rough and tough will get girls to like him. "
"Ha, that's not something you should be looking for in a man," the old woman said.
She shared a laugh with the woman. "Same again?" Kupo asked and got a nod. She dug into the cupboards behind her and withdraw the prepared pouch of medicines. "You're doing fine," she said, after a cursory inspection of the lady's condition, "once in the morning like usual. "
The medicine was nothing more than a calming tea. The lady didn't need medicine of course, she was just old and her joints were creaky. Nothing Kupo could do about that.
"Next!" she said and looked out when no one came in for a few moments.
Ever since Kupo had put up her affiliate teardrop sign, a sign for Pastora training but not membership, she had been flooded with patients constantly. The first few patients weren't sure if she was another quack or medicine peddler but they were desperate and her skills had proven true. The news spread and now she was flooded with patients of all stripes.
So when there was a sudden lull, she was curious as to why.
A thin lanky man walked into the shop accompanied with a young woman. Tsarians both of them, although something was off about the man. Now that she looked, the rest of her patients outside were being kept from entering by two guards wearing the Minmay crest. Were they favoured clients of the chancellor? But his clothing was a little too casual for that too, nobles being what they were.
"How can I help you?" Kupo asked.
"I'm Cato Lois," the man introduced himself, "this is Landar Iris. I heard you studied with the Pastora?"
Kupo smiled and nodded, "I used to be one of them. So, what's wrong with you today?"
"I have interesting condition and would like your opinion as a person with knowledge of medicine," Cato said, holding out his hand, "there is a problem with my lifeforce, I can't use magic. "
"You look perfectly fine to me," Kupo said, inspecting the man's hand, "any particular observations?"
"A knight told me that my lifeforce is not solid, unlike a normal person's," Cato said, "also I don't feel anything if I'm hit with magical disruption. "
Kupo raised an eyebrow and channeled a tiny needle of magic. The man didn't react at all. "Also poor magic sense," she smiled, "interesting. "
"She used magic disruption on your hand just now," Landar explained. Cato merely raised an eyebrow.
Kupo grinned, "alright, take a seat and let me work. "
"..."
Kupo frowned and ran a hand through her hair.
"This is like nothing I've ever seen," she concluded finally, "I don't think you even need lifeforce to survive! See, your skin is still alive!" She had isolated a shallow patch of skin from his lifeforce, but Cato still hadn't felt anything and could still feel from that patch on his arm.
She released the disruption barrier and his lifeforce oozed back. They watched it curiously but Kupo shook her head.
"It's not supposed to do that either. It's like your lifeforce isn't even attached to you, just contained. Maybe," she shook her head, "I can't be sure. "
Cato winced, "so no clues here either?"
"We simply don't know enough to say," Kupo shrugged, "maybe the old Tsarians might be able to help you, they had knowledge of life and magic that we have long lost. "
It went without saying that finding one of them was nigh impossible.
Cato sighed. "Then let's talk about a different topic," he said, taking out a small vial from his pouch and putting it on the table.
The clear liquid inside looked like water but when he explained what it did...
"What did you say?!" Kupo leapt out of her chair. Another first! "This curse breaker can really cure the death heat?! You're not trying to cheat me are you?"
"I've given to Minmay's daughter," Cato explained, "although that was a preventive dose when she fell and scraped her leg badly. "
Minmay's daughter hm? If even the Chancellor was believing in its reliability, there was a good chance this was real.
"It only works for some infections," Cato explained, "it depends on what the cause of the fever is. Tulore's curse breaker is probably an antibiotic, and what I call a sulfa drug. It'll only work on bacterial infections, and not something viral like a cold. "
"Antibiotic... infection..." Kupo muttered. These new words meant something important, that much she could tell, but the underlying meaning could not be grasped. "I am not familiar with those concepts," Kupo asked.
Cato smacked his forehead, "right, I've been around the university too much. Allow me to explain what I have discovered. "
He then proceeded to blow her mind. A parade of experiments down to the most minute detail had been conducted on this potion. Drunk by a patient, it greatly reduced the chance of infection and could cure them outright nearly half of them. With such a miracle in front of her, Kupo had no idea where to even start investigating how it did what it did.
This man, not only had he done that with piyos, he had even created a theory to explain all of it! And it made sense. Far too much sense to be a theory created in just the few months he had been here in Minmay, when the Pastora existing for before Inath didn't have any clear idea on how humans worked. And Kupo had the weird sense that there was more he wasn't explaining.
"It's a fascinating theory but I'm curious as to how you're going to explain magic with this," Kupo said, "the idea that all of us are made up of tiny living cells doesn't sound anything at all like lifeforce. But we do know that we have lifeforce and your sterilization procedure seems to be well established. Individually, they make sense, but not together. "
Cato grinned, "that's what I'm proposing. Would you like to work with the university? You can start a biological science department. I'd very much like to know the answers to those questions too. "
Kupo looked at the miracle curse breaker still lying on her table. Cato followed her look and added a clinking bag and a book. More of the potions were inside. "I'd ask you to work on this, of course you'd get some for your own use. I'd like you to work together with a Fuka wise woman and me to improve the production rate, purity and assess its side effects. You don't mind working with Fukas, right?"
Kupo shook her head, still in a daze. Then what she heard finally got through her head, "the Fukas made this... this wonder potion?"
"Indeed," Cato nodded, "Do the Pastora have issues with them? I'm sorry to keep asking but too many people outright refuse to work with Fukas. "
"I don't see why not," Kupo sighed, "Pastora's mission to heal the sick and injured. The demihumans are people and we treat them that way. Or at least we're supposed to. Still, to think that such a gem was hiding among the Fukas. "
"Then we have an understanding? Minmay says that his officials have to negotiate any agreements with me but I hope that formality won't pose too much trouble," Cato nodded then stuck out his hand.
Kupo stared at it, feeling like she was missing something.
"Right, forgetting the culture gap again," Cato sighed and bowed. Kupo, still feeling bewildered, bowed back in informal agreement.
Then, leaving ten potions behind her counter, Cato and Landar left her shop together with the two guards accompanying them.
She looked at the clear glass vials again. To think that there was such a miracle potion and she could get the chance to work on it? Such a thing deserved more attention than it was getting, why she had heard hardly anything medicine related from this university! Perhaps Kupo could change that.
She flipped her sign to closed and pulled a large stack of cheap letter paper. Despite the political issues, the Pastora might not want to overlook such a discovery and it would go a long way towards recovering her reputation for unreliability that got her expelled in the first place. Kupo looked again at the vials, only just now noticing the clarity of the glass, its seal and the markings proclaiming its sterility. Hm, perhaps she could write about more than just a miracle potion. The idea of having sterile containers free from infection presented the possibility of studying how infections themselves worked.
It was only after she was done that she realized just how her world had suddenly been overturned. For the first time, she was thinking about the idea of studying living things from the basic theory. Even if they agreed to cooperate, the Pastora might be the minor partners in this relationship.
Cato's proposal was starting to sound like hard work.
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The investigation of ideas, explanations and observations is science. The practice of designing and conducting a test for your ideas of how the world works is an experiment. It is important to conduct experiments in order to be sure that your explanation is correct.
An experiment is only as powerful as what it can falsify. The best way to confirm your explanation is to design an experiment that will create a scenario that your theory can predict. If your theory predicts the results successfully, it is additional evidence that your explanation is correct. Your explanations do not gain weight if no result of the experiment will falsify your theory. The power of an experiment is therefore related to how well it can differentiate between a world where your explanation is true and a world where it is not.
Attached in this book is a number of simple theories as explained in prior books and simple experiments meant to test them, as well as the logic behind the design of the experiments. Which theories are correct and which are not will be revealed if you perform the experiment.
Foreword of book six - The Scientific Method - Cato
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"How's it looking?"
"Signal is clear. "
The small glow from the pulsing light lit up the room dimly, seeming to pulse in time with their baited breath.
"Testing now. "
A tiny spark of magic appeared in front of the light and the light flared brighter, matching the intensity of the magic.
"Works. Response is good. "
Cato nodded sagely. "A very good first step," he said, "I'm completely regretting not being able to use magic. "
Landar grinned and waved the board stuck full of threads at him, "a magical sensor just like you asked. So mind telling me why we're building one? We can already sense magic naturally and this thing isn't even as good. "
"It can be made better, right?" Cato asked.
Landar shrugged, "already have ideas how. The magical signal can be amplified or captured. Your hunch that magical signals are just another form of magic was very helpful. I still can't think of any other uses aside from traps. "
"I'm just building a general set of magical tools," Cato said, "if we can make the sensor more sensitive than humans, then it'll be much more useful. Think you can do that?"
"Oh yes, of course. "
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The three knights laughed noisily as they trotted into the village on their Rekis. Armour glinted under the morning sunlight and swords clinked threateningly in their scabbards. A whiff of laughter rose again as one of them cracked another joke.
"Alright, listen up!" the leader of the trio said as they entered the central square, to the curiousity of the villagers, "by the order of Chancellor Duport and King Ektal, the Chancellor Minmay is stripped of his titles and rights as a noble. So as the messengers of Duport, we are here to claim this village for the Duport region. If there are any objectors, step forward now!"
There was a murmur among the villagers then the person in charge, the mayor of the tiny village, stepped forward timidly. "What is the arrangement under Duport? Who will be our baron to pay taxes to?" he asked.
"Duport will arrange that, not us," the knight shrugged.
The mayor looked unsatisfied but he backed down anyway. There was nothing he could do to three battlemages after all. The entire village together couldn't possibly resist them.
"An lax assignment indeed," said one of the knights, "no fighting, easy money. "
"Although not much money," complained the other. She flicked her braid over her shoulder and gestured towards one of the houses, "come on, we can at least get them to give us a house. "
The leader nodded. "Mayor!" the leader shouted, bringing the man scurrying back, "we will be staying here for a time until our commission is up. You will provide a house and food to us. "
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The mayor bowed down, still looking dissatisfied, "we do not have much. Please take your pick. "
"Now aren't you being disrespectful-" the mayor trembled fearfully as the hot-headed knight beside the leader raised a mailed fist.
The leader of the knights cut him off, "stop it, Oren. We're not to harm anyone who doesn't resist. "
The knight grumbled but didn't pursue the matter. The mayor scurried away towards the houses.
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"Mmm!" Oren sighed in satisfaction as he chugged down the last of the alcohol in the mugs, "I never thought they'd have such nice drink! Hey, woman!" he shouted towards the woman cowering behind them, "get me another one!"
"Aren't you drinking a bit too much?" the leader warned him, "don't blame me if you fall and break your neck if we need to ride. "
"I don't see why you keep him around, Adam," the woman knight asked with a disapproving frown.
"Silvia, he may be crass and rough but he is my friend," the leader replied, "also he's better at fighting than you or I. "
"Still..." she trailed off, looking at Oren gulp down more of the strong alcohol without a care in the world. The drink in this village a pleasant surprise, with a strength and flavour that could compete with the best in Duport's twin port cities. Perhaps it was their specialty.
"Oren, that's enough," Adam snapped as he called for yet another refill, "we are on a commission. You may go, madam. " The woman serving them scurried off without a word.
"Hey, why are you so stuck up?" Oren scowled, red faced, "there's nothing to be worried about here! Let's just all have a drink and relax on this cozy mission. "
"Are you drunk already? This alcohol must be really strong," Adam swilled his own mug thoughtfully, "Oren, get this through your booze head, we're here to work, not to play. Don't get too drunk, okay?"
The man grumbled and looked away but didn't protest strongly.
Adam eyed him doubtfully but shrugged, "well, I'm going to go rest now. "
"I'll go clean myself," Silvia said.
They looked at Oren together, who hunched his shoulders. "I'll behave," he mumbled.
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"Attack!" Silvia's shout had Adam out of his bed and sword in hand before it had even finished echoing off the walls.
Acting almost completely on instinct, Adam dived aside as a trio of disruption bolts hurtled through the room from outside. Someone had fired on him, guessing that he was still sleeping in the bed!
He shot a disruption bolt back along the same direction while running out of the room, tracking its motion with magic sense as it disappeared through the walls. Then a flare of magic outside the house drew his attention and he ran out to find Oren channelling a wide shield around them.
"Silvia! Isn't he up yet?" Oren shouted. The other side of his disruption shield burst into clouds of flaming gas from self-destructing firebolts. Firebolts!
"Who's attacking us?" Adam shouted back.
Silvia glanced back and pointed at the houses across the square, "the villagers are! They have wands!"
"You're up!" Oren heaved a sigh of relief and pulled back his shield cover only himself. Silvia and Adam raised their own to the back of Oren, letting the stronger fighter take point. It required no communication by now.
"What?! The villagers have magic?!" Adam shouted as another salvo of fire blossomed over their shields, "it must just be a few wands! Shoot back! Burn them!"
Oren stepped back, letting Silvia and Adam take the pressure. He channeled a single large firebolt and sent it over their heads at their attackers cowering inside the village buildings.
The house went up in a ball of flame, screams filling the air with desperate cries. The shooting didn't stop however and Silvia's shield wavered dangerously for a moment as six invisible disruption bolts hit it at the same time.
"Kill them!" Adam shouted over the din, "they're only using wands! We can't just sit here waiting for them to take shots!"
Silvia nodded and they split up, three knights with risen magic on their blades.
The village continued to burn long after midday.
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"It's terrible," Minmay said, leaning back with a wet cloth over his tired eyes, "villages are burning all across the southern border. Peasants are fighting the knights with homemade wands and even the occasional badly trained mage. The Greenspring towns have tried to defect to Duport but their peasants declared for me and took over the towns by force. "
"That was certainly faster than I expected," Cato said, still moving markers across the map, "Duport must be attacking with almost no preparation. "
"What preparation does he need?" Minmay frowned, "he just posts bounties with that declaration from Ektal and the knights will act. "
"What of food and supplies?" Cato asked, "weapons and armour? Magic? Surely the knights can't be fighting on empty stomachs. "
"You saw the report on Yui village, three knights burned it to the ground after the peasants tried to attack them," Minmay waved a hand at the reports adding to the mess in the dining room, "they can just take it from the villages. Three knights don't need much food. "
"That won't go on for long. Of all the attacks, more than half failed with the knights retreating or killed. The peasants are still learning magic but they're already striking back for you. "
"They're also dying," Minmay sighed, "I don't understand why they would fight so hard to remain a part of Minmay. I'm their noble, they're not supposed to like me. That's how its always been. "
"You underestimate how much the peasants love you," Aesin smiled, "the food security has been doing wonders. There has been no starvation despite higher taxes. Food prices in Duport's land is already rising because of the knights moving in, and crime is rising with it. Of course they don't want to be with Duport. "
There was a round of nodding, she continued, "the new Minmay newspaper Cato helped me set up together with towncriers to read it have made the peasants aware of the affairs of Minmay. It's done wonders for the loyalty of the peasants, they know full well where the inventions are coming from. And who will suffer if Duport takes over this land. "
"Newspaper?" Minmay rocked forwards to look at Cato, "you said it wasn't ready to launch two months ago! The peasants can't possibly learn to read that quickly. "
"But some people have already done so, your wife told me that those people could be paid to read a weekly newspaper," Cato shrugged, "I just assumed she told you about it. You did give her partial control after all. "
"You've been mostly using it to run advertisements for the latest tools and trinkets," Aesin shook her disapprovingly, "tomorrow's issue is going to be quite spicy though. "
"I've already instructed them to print a special early run, considering the war," Cato said, "we're publishing one broadsheet every day until the war is over. "
"How did the peasants learn magic so quickly anyway?" Minmay asked again.
"Most of them still can't," Landar explained, "but Kupo is saying she meets a new mage almost every day. They're learning, some just learn faster than others. "
Cato nodded, "and all it takes is one person who can make firebolt wands to start a village stockpile. "
"Which only encourages them to try attacking the knights, those who aren't escaping towards here," Aesin said.
There was a collective sigh around the table.
"So, if there's nothing else to add, I think we have a fair understanding of what is happening," Minmay said, "the question is what our responses will be. "
"I say we go all in," Cato said, "screw this Rule of Armies, we build one. Draft the peasants, use the stockpile to build magical weapons, make it compulsory for everyone to learn magic. Show Ektal that you don't need knights to fight a war. "
Everyone else at the table looked at him. Only Landar had a knowing look.
"Polankal, how was the progress on extracting magic from the crystals?" Cato asked her.
The sometime-prisoner who had continued to be his secretary stepped forward from her place at the door, "Mari says she has a new isolation technique to let the magic boil off from the crystals. She says with confidence that she can convert nearly a third of the stored power inside into an alchemical enchantment. "
"And how much magic are we talking about?" Cato asked.
"At last estimate of the university warehouse, not including the recent find under the Selabia mines," Polankal lifted up her clipboard, "a little over a hundred thousand magical power units. "
One power unit had been finally standardized as the amount of magic a skilled mage would use to lift a single kilogram weight upwards one meter. Testing had concluded that mages varied very little in the actual amount of magic used, more powerful mages really had more magic. The weights and lengths themselves were probably slightly different from Earth units but the names Cato had dropped were already beginning to circulate, as were weights standardized against the university's master set.
Of course, being magic, the various functions had different efficiencies. Cato had estimated that heating spells created roughly eighty to a hundred times more physical energy than the movement magic. By some trial and error, the minimum limit for using a Sword summon was around nine or ten units, putting the minimum for Tempest Bolt somewhere in the region of two thousand. Which meant that the stockpile of magical crystal could be converted into alchemical enchantments enough to burn Minmay city into a smoking crater ten times over. Enough for a hundred ritual summons and change.
Minmay shook his head, "that would just make the situation spiral out of control. I don't want to be known as the person who started a revolution. "
"In case, you haven't noticed," Cato said, "the revolution has already started. "
There was a long long pause where they stared at each other.
Minmay sighed, "you know, back when I agreed to the Mana Tax plan, I did not think it would come to this. I was excited, can you believe that, at a chance to change the world for the better. I did not plan to use the magic for war and killing. " He waved a hand to cut off Cato from saying something, "but now that is in the past. I have an axe waiting for my neck on Ektal's wall and a greedy neighbour wishing for my riches. "
Cato gulped as the chancellor looked at him with pained eyes.
"So indeed, you will get your war, Cato. Just remember that it is not us who will pay the price. "
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Cato,
The material is not Paka fur or any fur that we are aware of. It might be from a furry relative of a Reki, ancient records of the First do indicate such creatures existed in the past but Inath is clearly too hot for them. Where did you obtain such a sample and why was it in such bad condition?
Also, we are facing problems with the flying shuttle loom. The shuttle itself does not stay on track unless allowed to be thrown at high speed. Doing that causes the warp threads to bend inwards, creating a deformed piece of cloth. We expect a speedy resolution, given how much this arrangement is costing us.
Tailor's Guild Branch Leader
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The men and women gathered around the table were a who's who of Minmay city. The guild leader and vice leader of the Recordkeepers, as well as a small army of scribes taking notes for each participant, were prominent players but the rest of the representatives, from the Ironworkers' guild to the three representatives of the associated food merchants to the head of the local knight's guild. Plus the non-speaking crowd of minor nobles and wealthy shop owners. The mayors Selabia and Corbin hadn't been invited.
At the head of the table was Minmay and Cato.
"And so, we are finally in agreement?" Cato asked, waiting for a round of nods.
A hand went up at the end of the table. He groaned inwardly but put on a smile anyway. They had been meeting for the last three days! Even considering that this issue was more political than the usual university business, this was taking far too long.
"Yes, Kalny? What concerns you about this?" Cato asked.
The food merchant looked around the table, full of tired faces that only wanted this discussion to end. He grinned, "so, when do you open?"
Cato gritted his teeth and tried to avoid leaping out of his chair to strangle the fat man, business partner or no. "We'll can be operating out of a warehouse opposite the University starting in three days," Cato said.
"Give us a bit more time will you?" the Recordkeeper guild leader asked wryly, "I know you're eager but the scribes still have to get used this double entry counting system. "
"Fine, four days then," Cato said. The man grumbled but no further complaints came.
"Can I get a special arrangement to start earlier?" Kalny spoke up again.
That provoked a number of the other guild leaders to start talking too but Minmay slammed the table, "enough! Any more of this and we'll still be here on opening day!" The business leaders laughed nervously. "No more special arrangements," the chancellor kneaded his temples, "in four days time, the Bank of Minmay will open for business and that will be that. "