Chapter 104
*
Germ Theory.
In the history of the Earth I had lived on, it took quite a few detours before germ theory was accepted.
Probably because the humoral theory and the miasma theory had such strong footing.
Medical scholars who advocated germ theory were easy to be treated like heretics.
Roughly speaking, it was like being treated as someone who advocated heliocentrism in an age when geocentrism was widespread.
“Humans are creatures who can’t believe something until they see it.”
The reason is simple.
Germs can’t be seen, while bodily fluids can.
From the fact that invisible microorganisms exist, to the fact that they cause disease, proving it is no easy task.
Even so, germ theory was eventually accepted only after microscopes made it visible.
So, on the day of the presentation,
I launched straight into the presentation by lining microscopes up on the stage.
“Good day, respected healers. It’ll be faster if you see for yourselves than if I explain. These are the bacteria I cultured and stained over the past few months. If anyone has questions during the explanation, come up and check them out directly.”
Creatures that are endlessly conservative about knowledge, but if they find undeniable proof that shatters it, they go blind for it.
That is a scholar.
So I prepared these microscopes.
“First, let me explain how we came to discover these microorganisms.”
I, too, only came to believe in God after seeing divine power.
When a miracle of God is right there in front of you, how could you deny it?
So I am showing it to the healers as well.
There are very few scholars who can deny what they have seen with their own eyes.
“My goodness….”
“I’ve never seen such a clear microscope before!”
“You’re saying that isn’t dust?”
There was no need to explain how to use the microscopes.
Before germs were discovered, microscopes were tools used to observe capillaries, fungi, parasites, and the like.
Any medical scholar was expected to know how to use one.
“Saint, are the colors of these germs naturally purple?”
“The germs were translucent by nature. I used dye to make them easier to see.”
For this, I had thrown overwhelming manpower and capital at the problem.
After all, finding a dye that worked was basically pure labor.
Once I paid low-ranking healers to find suitable ones, dyes that matched well started popping up all over the place.
This is why professors with lots of graduate students probably get better research results.
“These germs are moving. Their movement is different from parasites, and they don’t look like dust, so they must be living creatures.”
At the words of one old healer, I lifted the corners of my mouth inside the mask.
That reaction was exactly what I had been hoping for.
Germs don’t actually move.
To be precise, they do move, but so damn slowly that you might as well say they don’t.
So if I showed them this, they might object that because they don’t move, they’re not living things but dust.
To keep that from happening, I had deliberately cultured the most active germ.
‘I’m glad I went with Spirillum.’
Spirillum.
It is the hardest-working of all the germs.
It moves as if it’s bragging, “Look, I’m alive!”
How hard it was to culture this one separately.
Are you a Spirillum?
“Oh no! I’m a staphylococcus!”
Are you a Spirillum?
“Sorry! I’m a fungus!”
Are you?
“Yep! I’m a Spirillum, but the dawn wind is cold and I’m going to die!”
“Fuck!”
…How hard it was to culture just this one separately.
I almost made the kindly saintly persona get angry.
Anyway, after the authoritative elders had more or less verified the existence of germs with their own eyes,
I began my explanation in earnest.
“Parasites are the smallest living creatures we can see with our eyes. But I started from the idea that there might be something even smaller.”
With a short pointer in hand, I indicated the first specimen.
“Take a look at this. This was taken from rotten meat. Next specimen: this was taken from stagnant water in a swamp. And the next one was taken from a suppurating wound on a corpse.”
The existence of germs had been accepted.
But that did not directly connect to the causality that they were the cause of disease.
Could we directly observe germs causing disease inside the body?
Unfortunately, even in the 21st century, no one has directly observed that process.
Naturally, in this world too, showing that was impossible.
So I changed my approach.
“Wherever decay existed, this germ was found without exception.”
Disease cannot be seen.
But fermentation and decay can be seen.
And it is easy to intuitively understand that decay must be related to disease somehow.
So I decided to start with decay.
“And not only in decay, but also in the blood of patients who developed fevers after being healed, and in rotten wounds, these germs were found without exception.”
If it happens once in 100 cases, it’s a coincidence.
If it happens in 50 out of 100, then there is some connection.
If it happens in 100 out of 100, then the causal relationship is clear.
And in over 900 of 1,000 sepsis patients, germs were found.
Could anyone really refute that?
“Also, the bleach you’ve all recently taken to using also proves the existence of these germs. This is a comparison of the fever-patient trends before and after the various clinics started using bleach.”
Bleach.
A hygiene product we’re using for now, just blindly, wondering if it might not be a catalyst for divine power.
Clinics that used this hygiene product saw a sharp drop in patients with fevers, and divine power consumption also decreased dramatically.
“The research showed that using this bleach kills the germs. In other words, these germs may be the substance that interferes with divine power and causes disease.”
When you heal with a sword still lodged in you, pulling it out first reduces the amount of divine power needed.
In this way, the fact that removing the cause greatly reduces divine power consumption is common sense in divine magic.
But when we used bleach, the germs died and divine power consumption also went down?
Then weren’t the germs the cause of disease?
That was my logic.
“So I reached my conclusion. More than an invisible miasma, it is these germs—hard to see, but undeniably present—that cause disease.”
*
“...Based on these pieces of evidence, I suspect that germs are the cause of disease.”
I finished my presentation.
Not committing to a final conclusion was meant to lower the psychological hurdle.
Germ theory was, in the original history too, a theory that faced a great deal of resistance.
So if there were any ways to lower that psychological hurdle, however small, I needed to use them all.
“Any questions?”
And then the heart-pounding question time began.
It was the most important part too.
Because the fate of germ theory would be decided by how well I answered here.
‘Bring it on.’
Of course, I was confident.
I mean, how many times had I been knocked around by professors at conferences?
Compared to those people, the questions of this era were child’s play.
The first person to raise his hand was an elderly elf healer in the front row.
“Yes, go ahead.”
“I am Erfen Adamberta.”
He was a big shot from the very start.
Erfen Adamberta.
The elder of the Adamberta sect, famous for its secret blood-healing arts.
The divine magic of that sect is specialized in blood regeneration.
The equivalent of an isekai hematology department.
And Erfen Adamberta was the living history of bloodletting, having treated patients by drawing their blood for 300 years.
“A good statistic. But I do have a question. There is certainly no doubt that germs are related to disease. But as proof that germs are the cause of disease, your logic seems somewhat weak. Couldn’t germs just be the result of disease?”
A sharp question.
It is also a common problem in statistics.
For example, people who smoke a lot are more likely to drink a lot of coffee.
And people who smoke are more likely to get lung cancer.
In statistics, that means patients with lung cancer are shown to smoke and drink a lot of coffee.
But that does not mean coffee is the cause of lung cancer.
The two are merely statistically related; they are not cause and effect.
That elf healer had seen through that.
“I think it can actually be explained based on humoral theory. Our bodies are said to be filled with four humors. When their balance is broken, we fall ill. When that balance is disturbed, the humors become contaminated, and then the decay you mentioned earlier progresses. And perhaps the germs attach themselves there.”
“Like maggots clinging to a rotting corpse.”
“Exactly.”
In other words, to sum it up,
the idea was not that germs caused disease, but that people got sick and their bodies decayed, and the germs simply latched on afterward.
It was a pretty good question.
And it was the question I had wanted.
“We conducted experiments on that as well.”
I had deliberately held this back during the presentation because I expected a question like this.
Why?
Because it’s more dramatic that way.
If I told everything during the presentation, it wouldn’t leave as deep an impression.
When you rebut it like this during the question period, the presentation also looks better and it sticks in people’s memories longer.
I wasn’t worried that no questions would come.
The people gathered at today’s presentation are the greatest medical scholars of this era.
There was no way this would end with only low-level questions.
“Take a look at this.”
The pointer pointed at the curtain beside the podium.
Slowly, the curtain was raised.
Beyond it, two rabbits were each in separate cages.
One was perfectly fine.
And the other had a suppurating side and was gasping for breath.
“This one was intentionally made to develop a boil. And from this rabbit’s boil, I isolated a single kind of germ and cultured it for a month.”
He held up a small glass bottle.
“Inside here are only those germs. No blood, no flesh, no bone marrow, no bodily fluid from that rabbit is in here. Only the germs.”
The elders’ gazes were fixed on the glass bottle.
“And I injected those germs into another healthy rabbit.”
The pointer pointed at the second curtain.
Once the curtain was raised again, a rabbit with the exact same suppurating side appeared.
“At the same spot. The same kind of boil developed.”
For reference, this germ is anthrax bacillus.
The causative agent of anthrax, one of the most common diseases in livestock.
“I thought one rabbit might not be enough to convince you, so I repeated the experiment more than 30 times, and without exception the exact same pus appeared. However, for practical reasons, I hope you’ll understand that I can only show you one today.”
….
After hearing the explanation, Erfen slowly stroked his beard.
Soon, a sigh escaped from between his lips.
“Hah... were you waiting for that?”
….
I did not answer.
But as though that were enough, Erfen Adamberta nodded.
“A splendid answer.”
“I’m honored, senior.”
The elf healer sat down with a satisfied smile.
He was also regarded as a living legend in the healing field.
If you’ve spent 300 years walking the tightrope of bloodletting, that is certainly impressive.
Such a man backed away as though he had no choice but to accept germ theory.
At this, the healers began to stir as well.
“Mm... seeing Master Erfen react like that...”
“It’s interesting, but isn’t it still too dangerous to apply it right away?”
“Even so, overturning centuries of accepted wisdom... when we’re already doing just fine, is there really any need to change it?”
The healers each had their own thoughts on germ theory, and they debated it with people from their sects.
Then someone raised a hand from the area where the Mensia sect members were seated.
‘That person is...’
I know because Simeon told me.
Archbishop Dormun Mensia.
The third-ranking member of the Mensia sect.
The man who was at the forefront of trying to take our parents’ achievements as his own, and who worked hardest to erase them.
But that was only what I had heard from Simeon’s point of view.
I didn’t really know what kind of person that man was in reality.
‘His impression will change depending on this first question.’
“Please speak.”
“I am Dormun Mensia.”
Dormun slowly brought his hands together and took a step toward the stage.
He looked at me with a worried gaze.
“So far, I have been deeply moved by the Saint’s new insights. Truly. I cannot help but admire how God sent such an astute junior to us.”
At least just from his tone, he seemed like a very polite man.
Unlike the way Simeon had insulted him.
“However, there is one thing that confuses me. Please forgive this old man’s ignorance and grant me some teaching, if you would.”
“Of course.”
Dormun smiled gently.
“Saint, I believe you once clearly stated that the disease called malaria is transmitted by ‘contaminated blood’.”
I did.
Back then, I couldn’t explain parasites or germs.
Besides, it was a time when I had no social footing either.
At the time, I was just an unknown doctor in a crow mask who couldn’t even use divine power.
In that state, I suddenly started going on about germs and parasites smaller than cells?
I might have spent some cozy time with the heresy inquisitors.
Much like an astronomer shouting heliocentrism in an age of geocentrism.
So I explained the cause of malaria in terms of humoral theory, as a problem with contaminated blood.
I said mosquitoes were sucking contaminated blood and spreading malaria.
The academic world at the time was busy praising me as a genius for it.
And Archbishop Dormun was bringing up that old history.
“Mosquitoes suck a patient’s blood and carry that contaminated blood to someone else. That’s the principle by which malaria spreads throughout an entire village, so I hear. Thanks to that discovery, quarantine in the southern provinces was strengthened and countless people were saved. And now, Saint, are you trying to reverse that theory?”
In other words, his logic was this.
Then what about your past?
Can you really deny your own past?
‘Hmm...’
A person is, by nature, a creature that cannot easily abandon what they have learned and achieved.
You’d have to tear down everything you built over your entire life.
How many people could accept that without hesitation?
The archbishop seemed to be aiming for that.
Whether I could deny my own past.
If I were an ordinary healer, I might have been quite flustered here.
But there was one thing he didn’t know.
“Yes. I was wrong.”
I don’t regret the past at all.
After all, I already knew about germ theory when I made that malaria presentation.
I just didn’t want to bother proving it, so I put it off and figured I’d reveal it later.
And one more thing.
I’m still in my twenties.
I have more I need to accomplish in the future than I’ve accomplished so far.
For just ten years?
Whatever. I can chalk that up to a blunder.
Anyway, this is only the beginning.
“Back then I was advocating incorrect knowledge.”
Archbishop Dormun, rather, was the one taken aback by my calm admission.
“Why are you so certain?”
“Unlike you all, every time I’m wrong, I have to pay the harshest price for it.”
“...?”
Archbishop Dormun tilted his head.
I slowly closed my eyes inside the mask.
And, inwardly apologizing for having turned people’s deaths into a false story, I continued.
“When I first began treating patients at Limbus Pit, I treated them based on humoral theory. But because I started with incorrect knowledge, I had to let many people slip away.”
The reality was different.
There were many people I couldn’t save in the early days of Limbus Pit.
However, that wasn’t because I was treating them based on humoral theory.
The limits of hygiene products, the limits of antibiotics, the limits of surgical equipment and facilities.
There were many patients I couldn’t save even though I could have, because of those and other limitations.
And now.
I sold their deaths, wrapping them in the false guise of my own ignorance.
With the excuse that it was to prevent this tragedy from ever repeating in the future.
“Unlike you all, I don’t have the power to perform miracles.”
Unlike those people, I don’t have the luxury of making mistakes.
The moment a vein is stitched wrong, the patient dies.
There is no way to bleed them and then refill the blood.
The moment you misdiagnose and give the wrong medicine, there is no second chance.
They can make up for mistakes with divine magic,
but my mistakes can only lead straight to failure and tragedy.
I don’t know whether that is a privilege or a curse.
That is why I may be the only one in this world who can discover this germ theory.
Because unlike them, failure comes to me in its rawest form.
“You all—no, seniors—probably have a way to somehow bring a feverish patient back to life. But for my patients, once they had a fever, that was it.”
So all I could do up to now was obsessively manage hygiene.
A world without antibiotics.
The moment sepsis hit, it was over.
I washed my hands with carbolic acid until my skin split, and I poured alcohol on everything like a madman.
Even then, one out of every thirty patients would still end up with a fever.
Whenever that happened, I had to swallow my helplessness and rely on the healers’ help.
“For you all, fever is something that can be overcome with divine magic, but to me it felt like an unavoidable death. So in this area, I can say I am even more desperate than you are.”
I looked at Archbishop Dormun.
“You asked whether my past was wrong, didn’t you? Yes. I was wrong back then. Malaria is caused not by humors but by germs, or perhaps parasites. Whether it is a germ or a parasite will have to be researched from scratch again.”
Dormun’s eyes went wide.
Did he perhaps not expect me to deny myself this completely?
“Was that answer sufficient?”
“...I understand.”
Archbishop Dormun sat down with an expression that seemed somehow unsatisfied.
After finishing my answer, I looked back at the audience again.
The atmosphere, which had been noisy just moments ago, had grown solemn.
It was not the atmosphere I had wanted.
“I will continue taking questions.”
The gloomy bit ends here.
I prepared to go on the defensive again.
‘Come at me.’
Today I needed to push this to the end if I was going to make germ theory the accepted truth.
So I would answer every question here so there would be no unnecessary talk later.
‘We need to invent antibiotics and a divine magic that can treat bacterial infections as soon as possible.’
I have to uncover this as quickly as possible.
So that people who could have been saved won’t die unfairly anymore.
***
The presentation ended.
Pushing through the softly murmuring audience, Erfen Adamberta headed out with his group into the corridor behind the lecture hall.
The corridor was blanketed in the cold air of a late autumn night.
Unable to keep up with their master’s pace, the three disciples hurried after him with quick little steps.
“Master.”
The middle-aged disciple at the front spoke cautiously.
“...What do you plan to do?”
Erfen did not stop walking and glanced at him sidelong with blue eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean germ theory. Today Archbishop Dormun clearly pointed out the contradiction, and above all, weren’t there things you had prepared separately over the last three months, Master?”
Another disciple added in.
“If you present it at a conference even tomorrow, this hypothesis can be sufficiently put to rest...”
At the end of the corridor, the coachman was waiting for them with the carriage door open.
Before getting into the carriage, Erfen paused for a moment and looked up at the gray sky.
After a long silence, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Burn it.”
“...Yes?”
“Burn everything you prepared. The reagents too. The specimens too. The records too. Throw everything away.”
The disciples’ feet froze in place.
“M-Master?”
Erfen slowly turned back toward the disciples.
A faint self-mockery, unlike his usual expression, lingered in his blue eyes.
“It was a shameful three months. As soon as a junior’s hypothesis surfaced in academia, this old man didn’t first ask whether it was right or wrong; I first thought only about what it would mean for my 300 years. Afraid my bloodletting would turn out to be wrong, I first thought only about how to bring that hypothesis down.”
The disciples fell silent.
“Blinded by self-preservation, I shamefully spent three months preparing only experiments to forcibly refute those words. It was a disgrace beyond words.”
The disciple in front bit his lip.
“But even so, three months, Master. Just the reagent costs alone...”
“Yes. Three months.”
Erfen smiled gently.
“Because of those three months, should I spend the next several hundred years living in shame?”
The disciples fell silent.
“Don’t react so strongly.”
The old elf who had lived 300 years slowly laid a hand on the carriage step.
“Even the Saint admits his mistakes. How long can I keep dragging around that mere 300 years so disgracefully? I’m human too. I should face the fact that I can be wrong.”
A bitter smile appeared on his wrinkled face.
“Let us cover my 300 years of ignorance with a new discovery. Prepare new experiments.”
“What experiments do you mean?”
“There may be germs in the blood after all. Let’s find germs in the blood of feverish patients the way the Saint told us. It was a problem for us too that patients kept running fevers every time we performed bloodletting, wasn’t it?”
Bloodletting is the act of drawing blood.
The act of removing toxins from the blood and regenerating fresh, clean blood through divine magic.
To borrow Julian’s phrasing, Erfen’s bloodletting was akin to a kind of emergency dialysis.
However, because they didn’t pay attention to hygiene, it was common for patients to develop fevers even after the toxins had been removed.
This was a problem that even humoral theory could not explain.
But perhaps that fever could be explained by germs.
“If germs in the blood were the problem, it would be good to research with the Saint how to stop that.”
“Understood, Master!”
The disciples looked at their master with moved eyes.
In the center of those gazes, Erfen stepped onto the carriage footboard with a wry smile.
It was then.
“Archbishop Erfen.”
“...Archbishop Dormun.”
The elf healer turned around at the voice calling to him from behind.
An old white-haired man, older than Erfen, was looking at him.
Dormun opened his mouth with a grave expression.
“Archbishop Erfen, I have something important to tell you.”
“Go on.”
“Germ theory... is far too dangerous an idea. It may stain the prestige of the order.”
Hearing that, Archbishop Erfen had no choice but to slowly close his eyes.