The War God’s Favorite
Chapter 27
The Medicine
Cassandra was perfectly calm and composed.
She didn’t act arrogant or conceited, despite the Head Accountant’s expectations. Just like Evin before him, the man was starting to understand she didn’t belong to any of the usual types of Concubine. He had already been quite surprised that the Commander-in-Chief actually brought a woman here, but now, she was going around the camp trying to take care of the men? What was wrong with this woman?
He had noted that she was a slave from her collar, but that only made him think she was uneducated and stupid. So why was he now caught in some negotiation with her?
“What kind of slave knows about medicine?” he asked, frowning.
Medicine was a very precious and rare teaching in the Dragon Empire. There were no medical schools, and very few documents to pass the ancient techniques along Most of the time, doctors would take a handful of apprentices and select the best, to learn from them. Even so, the techniques of each doctor were kept a secret most of the time, as they were afraid it would spread to commoners and make the prices of common medicine drop. Hence, being a doctor in the Empire was seen as one of the top and highest paid professions certainly not something within a slave’s reach.
“I know enough. But the Dragon Empire’s medical techniques are rudimentary, barbaric, and old. Your healing techniques don’t travel enough to be improved on, even in a few years time, and those are not the ones I know of.”
Evin was, once again, surprised and impressed. Cassandra had a point. Because the doctors of this Empire were so set on keeping their techniques to themselves, it was rather known that the same methods were used for centuries, and any kind of innovation was seen as a break-through.
The head accountant frowned. He was a very educated and wise man, despite his lack of natural empathy. From hearing Cassandra, he had to admit she wasn’t talking like an ignorant slave or a willful concubine.
“Where did you…supposedly, learn medicine? he asked.
“The Rain Tribe.”
The Head Accountant stayed silent for a while, but he was thinking. The name itself was unheard of, but he clearly remembered having studied about some south barbarians, people living in tribes beyond the border of the Dragon Empire. The scholars didn’t have much knowledge of those people, considered like any barbaric populations who didn’t have material wealth: uninteresting. However, their information clearly mentioned those people’s strangely high life expectancies, despite them actually living in swamps, and in dire conditions. Could this woman’s words be of some truth?
The Head Accountant thought long and hard, but no matter what, he couldn’t really refuse nor give into her request. Those injured soldiers were still a problem among his reports, and if something could be done about them… If anything arose, he could always blame it on this woman. The Commander-in-Chief probably wouldn’t scold his own woman, and even if he did, it wouldn’t be the accountant’s problem.
“Fine. A hundred men. Once you send a hundred men back on the field, I will…”
“Fifty.”
“Excuse me?”
“I can send back fifty men within ten days, with my current stock of herbs. But a hundred would be too much, I don’t have enough medicine or volunteers yet.”
The Head Accountant nodded, pretending to think. He had actually intended to give her a full month’s time.
Could she really do what she said within ten days? He was still doubtful, but it was worth letting her try. Those men would die anyway. If she made things worse, she would at least save them a few days’ worth of food for his reports.
The man nodded.
“You have my word. As long as you keep your end of the deal, I’ll allow a budget for those medical herbs. But I want proof of those men being actually injured or sick, and sent back to their units…”
“You will,” said Cassandra.
Once again, her self confidence impressed him a bit, though he wouldn’t let it show on his face. He actually had the means to get the reports on the injured coming in and out of the Red Room, but he wanted to make sure she wouldn’t try to cheat her way out of this.
“All right, then, I guess this deal is done. Do you need anything else? If not, I will resume my activities and ask you to leave; I’m quite busy.”
Cassandra indeed left promptly, followed by Evin. Once outside, she couldn’t help but to let out a big sigh. She didn’t think it would be so nerve-wrecking.
“Why didn’t you use the Third Prince’s authority?” suddenly asked Evin.
Cassandra turned to him surprised.
“What do you mean? I am not His Highness.”
“You are his concubine. A few words and you would have been able to use His Highness, the Third Prince’s authority to make him comply with your demand. Making that bet was unnecessary, and added to your plate.”
She shook her head. They were already headed back to the mountain, as Cassandra wanted to check on a few things and leave some notes before she went back.
“I didn’t add anything, I would have been able to send back fifty men anyway. I only delayed the Head Accountant’s help by ten days. I don’t want to use His Highness’ authority. If I did, that man would respect me even less and think I cannot do anything without the Third Prince, and would probably try to give me less than I need. If I can prove what I’m saying, he will trust me and help us more. Or so I hope.”
“There are only one hundred and seventy men there at the moment. Do you really think you can send fifty of them back? You sent thirty of them to a separate room, saying those could not be cured…”
They entered the mountain again, passing several of the rooms where the men had been sorted.
“Actually, I’m hoping we will get more men in the meantime. A lot of soldiers like Orwan didn’t dare to come here in the first place, remember? But what if I can show them I can heal them properly?”
“More men will come…”
Cassandra nodded, and entered one of the rooms to talk with the men still sorting her medicinal herbs. Behind her, Evin was once again speechless. She had thought that far ahead during her conversation with the Head Accountant? That her changes to the Red Room would convince more and more men to come get healed, and naturally help her win her bet?
“Alright, can you split them as we said?” asked Cassandra. “We will need to count how much we have and then dry or boil it. I’ll see later.”
“Yes, Madam,” answered the men.
Then, she went to the next room, talking to the men who were busy there.
“Please, remember to wash your hands often and keep your masks on. We need to wash the sick men’s clothes and sheets often too, and ventilate the room as much as we can. I’ll see the people who came in today now.”
For the next hour, Cassandra checked each of the men that had come in, inspecting their overall state or injury, and sorting them into separate rooms.
She had spread the men into a total of eight rooms: one for those who hadn’t been diagnosed yet, one for small wounds and cuts, one for the bigger injuries, one for the people with light symptoms like a cold, another one for dangerous or infectious diseases, one for the patients with special needs, and the last one she called for “short stay”, for soldiers who were suffering from stomach pains or headaches. The eighth room was called the “silent room”, where people who wouldn’t survive were put to rest.
However, despite that sorting, it was clear there was still way too much work for one woman to do alone. Evin said it out loud as they were leaving the mountain for the day, and Cassandra nodded.
“I know… That’s my main problem. I can teach some men, but they are supposed to come and go, and eventually, I will need people to do the exact same thing as I do, like apprentices. But where to find apprentices in a military camp? Do the doctors here have some? You mentioned there were doctors, right?”
“There are currently seven doctors working here, and each military doctor is allowed three apprentices in the Camp.”
“That’s twenty-eight people. It’s not enough for a camp of thousands of soldiers!”
Evin was about to say something about her knowing how to calculate, but didn’t. This woman was really too much.
“Actually, most of them only have one or two. I can ask if you want.”
“Please do. What are they thinking, with so few apprentices to help…”
Cassandra was still astonished. How could such a large Empire still be so uneducated about medicine and common hygiene? All day, the soldiers had watched each of her moves as if they were learning something, questioning why she did this and that non-stop.
It wasn’t like they were unwilling to learn. The main problem was that from the crib until they reached adulthood, every man and woman in this Empire was focused on one career. First sons would take over their father’s job, shop, or farm. Second sons trained to be scholars. From the third one on, they would be raised as warriors. Women very rarely had careers, but those who did would become shopkeepers, embroiderers, cooks, mostly positions that were related to the household, and not too tiring.