Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part2 (1/2)

Translator Corner

Minasan oideyasu. This is Yukkuri demasu!

Second chapter.

Keywords for this chapter: GERMS and ANTIBIOTIC.

DISCLAIMER: There is no

guarantee that my translation is 100% correct. Please correct me if I was

wrong.

Author:

Dozeumaru(どぜう丸)

Translator:

Yukkuri Oniisan

Editor:

So-Chintzy

Enlightenment Arc

Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Cities B

「Huh?」(Liscia)

「What?」(Owen)

When we arrived at the former slums,

Liscia and Owen tilted their heads in confusion at the same time. Seeing the

both of them acting like this, even Carla tilted her head too.

「Is

something wrong, Liscia?」(Carla)

Even after she had fallen into

slavery, Liscia and Carla were still talking normally like they always did. It’s

a problem in a public setting, but there probably aren’t many people who would

interfere it was in private.

「Eh……

Hmm. I never visited the slums before, but this is completely different from

the image that I had and surprised me greatly……」 (Liscia)

「The

image?」(Carla)

「Dark,

gloomy, damp, musty, bad public order…… are all things that this one had heard

before.」(Owen)

Owen also replied. Certainly the

former slum had that kind of impression. However,

「Hmm?

……It might be a bit bland, but this place looks like it’s quite in order.」(Carla)

Just like what Carla had said,

what we could currently see in front of us was only a scenery made up of rows

of square white tofu-like houses. To make it easier for modern a j.a.panese to

understand, I want you to remember groups of temporary housings lined in rows at

the disaster area after an earthquake disaster.[1]

It might be a bit bland, but since it was bright, as it received enough sunlight

and had good ventilation, it was not damp or gloomy. We could see young

children playing or drawing on the ground, so it didn’t look like a place with

bad public order.

「Is

this place really the slums?」(Liscia)

「Yup.

Hasn’t it had become much better?」(Souma)

When Liscia asked me, I answered

with my chest puffed up.

「When

we were dealing with the city’s sanitation issues, I did my best to improve

this place.」(Souma)

「By

sanitation issues, do you mean when you were talking about putting the prohibition

of horse wagons outside the main road and establis.h.i.+ng the sewer systems? Was this

slum’s improvement also a part of those measures?」(Liscia)

「You

remembered that well. Yes, that’s right. A place that is dark, humid, and badly

ventilated is a place where germs could easily propagate. In addition, the

people who lived in the former slums had poor nutrition, so they were easily

able to be infected by the germs. If, for example, an epidemic broke out unexpectedly,

then the slums will be a place where it could spread rapidly.」(Souma)

「Je-jeerm?」[2](Liscia)

「Are!? Haven’t I explained this before?」(Souma)

…… Ah, that’s right, although I was

talking about the cause of disease, it looks like I hadn’t explained about the

disease itself and how could it happen from the beginning.

「Umm……

In this world, there are very small living things that couldn’t be seen by the naked

eye. They exist in countless numbers in the air, soil, inside the body, and in

all kinds of places. The very small living things will decompose stuff and

cause diseases. On the other hand, there are also very small living things that

stimulate food fermentation or have other beneficial effects.」(Souma)

While mustering my meager

scientific knowledge (after all, I studied in humanities)[3],

I explained about bacteria and microbes to Liscia and the others. I felt that

it wasn’t conveyed nicely, but even s,o my knowledge of this was partial and the

three just nodded, 「If Souma says so, then it surely exists.」,

since they noticed that this had surpa.s.s this world’s level of knowledge.

The medical science and hygienics[4]

of this world were not that developed. This might be mostly because of the

existence of Light Attribute Magic. Light Attribute Magic could increase the body’s

healing ability and even a heavy injury could be healed (if it was immediately

treated, then even an amputated arm could be reattached). Because of this, medical

science and hygienics didn’t develop. Hence why, in this world, the knowledge

of the existence of bacteria or microbes were only known by a very “small

number” of people.

Since Light Attribute Magic

stimulated the body’s natural healing ability, it had a weakness ––– it  couldn’t treat infectious diseases nor wounds

on people with weakened regenerative capabilities like the elderly. Therefore, to

cure infectious diseases, it was a rampant practice to use truly unknown medicines

or questionable remedies until recently. When I was dealing with the sanitation

issues, I thought that I needed to do something about this situation as soon as

possible. But for the first step, I needed to make them aware of the existence

of bacteria and microbes that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.

「But

how you will make people aware of something that couldn’t be seen by the naked

eye?」(Liscia)

「Even

in this world, there are people…… or rather, a race that knows about the

existence of bacteria and microbes. That race possesses the 『Third

Eye』 and it seems that they could see the germs that normally

couldn’t be seen. I have obtained their cooperation.」(Souma)

「Third

Eye? …… Is it perhaps the Three-Eyed Tribe?」[5](Liscia)

I nodded at Liscia’s question. The

Three-Eyed Tribe. Just like their name suggests, they are a race of people that

possess three eyes. They lived in the temperate northern region of the Kingdom

and, in addition to pair of normal eyes, they possessed a third eye in the

middle of their forehead as their racial feature. You may picture them to be like

the Tens.h.i.+nhan or Sharaku Housuke,[6]

but it was not actually a plain eyeball. Their Third Eye is red, small, and

looks exactly like a small gem embedded on the forehead. Liscia then sighed.

「So

you even got their cooperation. Even though I heard that they are a race that dislikes

interacting[7]

with the other races.」(Liscia)

「……

It seems that the reason for them being that reclusive is because of their

Third Eye.」(Souma)

The Three-Eyed Tribe could see

what the other races couldn’t see. This was the cause for their reclusiveness. Due

to their Third Eye, they quickly learned about medical science and hygienics. Hence,

this was why they were naturally obsessed with cleanliness and tried to do

their best to avoid contact with other races.

Furthermore, with their Third

Eye, the Three-Eyed tribe were even aware of the existence of germs. Even the fact

that germs were the cause of diseases that couldn’t be healed with Light

Attribute Magic. However, no matter how many times the Three-Eyed Tribe brought

this up, the other races, who couldn’t see it, didn’t believe them. In a world

where superst.i.tion ran rampant, even saying the scientifically correct thing

would only end up being considered as a dubious remark that could disturb society.

Because of this, the Three-Eyed

Tribe disliked interacting with other races and only developed their original

medical science and hygienics amongst themselves. Their research about

infectious disease was several hundred years more advanced than this world’s

medical science. In this world, for a human or a beastfolk to live up to 60

years, this was already considered as to having a long life, but for the

Three-Eyed Tribe, who should have had the same lifespan, they could easily pa.s.s

80 years.