Chương 89: Chapter 2.26: Reasons and Rodents

The Majordomo's expression hardened and he straightened.

"You're right, Lord Ovinius Loran." He kept his head low and began murdering.

"I must do something. Must do…" He looked at Favius and Favius flinched back, his eyes. Fuck. I always thought that burning with zeal was just an expression.

"I..." The Majordomo's voice grew faster.

"I will send those messages. Riders. Every estate we own. Yes, yes. If we send pigeons, they might all be informed in time for tomorrow's lunch. There will be no more lead sugar on our lands." The man's tone acquired a manic edge.

"We'll pour it all into the river. Remove it all and—" He stared at the wall, ran over to the table, and grabbed a wax tablet.

"I will write to all those who may trust my word. This... This ends now."

"Majordomo Serran Vale," thundered Brutus and slammed the flat of his hand against the table. Favius could feel the shock rattling his bones. The tip of Serran's quill splintered and ink spilled over his papyrus.

"Ovinius Kestrelo," he said, his voice confused.

"You forget yourself in the presence of nobility. Your zeal is admirable." He looked at Favius, who was still gaping at the man, alongside his sisters, the scribes, and Antonius.

"It even aligns with the agenda of the Young Dominus. Yet it is your role to serve. You have yet to wait for his orders." The man's expression darkened briefly.

"I... I will not suffer this sinful stain." Antonius stepped up to him and clasped his shoulder hard.

"Serran, by the Warrior, listening to the Young Aristocrat will not do damage. This has gone on for years." Serran paused. His eyes widened as he looked at Favius, then at the wall.

"For centuries even," he whispered. Favius nodded grimly. Yeah, that's probably a question we really need to answer. Is the damage lead does to people heritable? I have no clue. Serran pressed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

"You're right." He exhaled.

"Thank you, Antonius." He straightened and inclined his head.

"Please excuse my shameful display, Lords and Ladies." He nodded to the table, to the large ink blot on the papyrus.

"I await your instructions." Favius nodded and let a breath of pneuma run through his mind. This... Well, it makes sense. He thinks of himself as a caring person, and a caring person wouldn't willingly poison their charges. Favius narrowed his eyes.

"Serran, I understand that this is about who you are as a caretaker. About your faith. But there are two things that matter a lot that you need to hear now." Serran lowered his head.

"Of course, Young Dominus. Whatever you say, I shall not question your words. Never again" Favius pressed his eyes shut and took in a long breath.

"That's the first problem," he began. He raised a finger for emphasis.

"Serran, you are more experienced and understand the practicalities of my goals far better than I or..." He gestured around the room.

"... anyone. I in fact regard your doubts, your critique, your criticism, and questions as one of the most valuable things you have given to me ever since we met." Favius swallowed and briefly looked at Brutus. The cultivator nodded.

"Swear to me that you will not bereave me of that valuable asset. Do not follow my orders unquestioningly or blindly. I am not perfect. I will make ignorant and stupid mistakes." Serran stared at Favius and murmured,"Mistakes… Like me handing out lead sugar." He pressed his eyes shut and a bitter chuckle escaped the man's throat. It was a ragged, ugly thing.

"I understand. Your reasoning is clear, Young Lord, but still. If your inspiration is of a divine nature, is it really my place to question it?" Urania sniffed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. Would we have been doing this if the gods will was clear?" She rotated her hand over her head, gesturing at the walls before finally pointing at the stacks of papers and wax tablets.

"This entire thing today. What use would it have been if my brother's divine inspirations were anything but vague guidelines?" Serran blinked and looked around the room before smiling.

"No, no, Young Lady. This entire affair would be rather pointless in that case."

"See? So there isn't a problem." Serran hummed and nodded.

"Now, Young Lord, what was your second point before I swear the oath?"

"Well, that can actually wait." He looked between Brutus and the Majordomo.

"The oath. Is it really needed?" he ventured. Brutus nodded with slow deliberation.

"In matters concerning the Divine, an oath holds more weight than a man's mere word. After all, even the gods respect what man has sworn." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Favius let out a long breath and Serran raised his hand.

"I, Serran Vale, Majordomo of the Ovinius Loran branch, hereby swear to always advise the Young Master Favius Ovinius Loran, Cultor Bellator, to the best of my ability, to critique and question him when I have doubts and see any potential flaw with his plans. May the Warrior burn me to ashes should I fail in this sacred duty." The zealous gleam was again in the man's eyes, yet this time it faded quickly. Caliga cleared her throat.

"Well, so Serran, you mentioned you can remove the lead sugar quickly with letters, but..." She gestured at a tablet.

"There's also a lot of lead used as solder in cookware to fix pots. And..." She looked around him with a tight-lipped smile.

"I don't think taking pots away in an instant is easy." The man's expression grew tight.

"Indeed, indeed. Copper will be more costly, and earthenware... well, the failures will be annoying. But if we push it..." The man began murmuring under his breath.

"For all our estates and dependents, I estimate maybe one or even two..."

"May the gods forgive me," he murmured again.

"... cycles of seasons, unless..." He looked to Antonius.

"We had to throw more money at that, but..." Favius raised a hand.

"No, don't do anything that's unreasonable. Replace them. But let's do so carefully." Serran nodded and smiled.

"Then we are in agreement." Urania narrowed her eyes, looking between Serran and Antonius.

"So Serran, isn't this a pretty big decision? I ran the numbers and..." She trailed off before swallowing. Favius did the same and winced. That Marcus is not going to be happy about this, but... Serran made a dismissive gesture.

"The Dominus trusts my virtuous character. The very reason your father laid the responsibility of managing his estates onto me is because he trusts that I will take the virtuous path, even if it is harder." He smiled at Antonius and Caliga before looking at Favius.

"Always remember that your father is a good man whose guiding light in life is and has from his youngest days been pure virtue." They all nodded and Favius put a hand on his stomach. Feels sort of nice hearing that about Marcus. But also weird after all that happened.

"Now I do not seek to rush you, but..." Favius clicked his tongue.

"My second request. Well, it is rather simple, but also somewhat costly."

"As long as it helps with this lead-sordid affair." Favius smiled.

"Well, it will indeed." Urania bounced, raising her voice, bouncing from foot to foot.

"Oh, oh. Are we going to gather more data? Write new questionnaires?" Favius smiled.

"No, sister. This—" He raised his voice and looked over his audience.

"—is another lesson on how to conduct science. Each methodology is a perspective on the problem." He gestured towards the walls.

"We've asked questions, observed what was easy to observe, and our first hypothesis has been confirmed. More surveys—" He gestured to the paper piles.

"—might make us increasingly confident, but..." His hand traced the lines of correlation painting the walls.

"We are all convinced beyond reasonable doubt. So we need to do something different," ventured Caliga. Brutus snapped his fingers.

"It's like cultivation. A single way of training your understanding of an insight will only take you so far. At some point you need to pursue something qualitatively different."

"Exactly," nodded Favius.

"We know there is an effect, but we don't understand it precisely." He looked at Antonius.

"While my father might go along with me and Serran..." His eyes flicked to the side at Urania.

"... there are many others in the Republic exposed to lead and—" He gestured to the walls.

"—madness, violence, stupidity, and early deaths." He paused, but Urania only glared at him before averting her eyes. Interesting, Favius noted.

"Very well, Young Master," offered Serran.

"But what is your request?" A grin spread over Favius's face.

"Well, Majordomo, I need you to get me a few dozen—" Favius pressed his eyes shut and ran his visualization insight. Opening his eyes, he grinned broadly.

"Forgive me. A few hundred rats." Silence settled over the room.

"Rats, Young Master?" repeated Serran. Urania sniffed.

"Why do you want yucky vermin? What's that got to do with lead?" Caliga took a step closer to her, wiggling her fingers.

"But rats are so cute. They're little. They are fluffy, furry. And their tails..."

"Their tails are like dead worms," hissed Urania. Brutus cleared his throat and both his sisters froze and grew silent. Favius smiled.

"Lead is used in many ways. We have lead sugar, water stored in leaden vessels, lead coins touching the hands of people, and even lead used as solder in roofs or to connect the glass panes of windows. We need to know what needs to go how urgently." Antonius narrowed his eyes.

"So despite everything, you are saying that there might be safe applications of lead?" Favius shrugged.

"I'm not sure. But it matters a great deal if you are merely in the same room as a poisonous flower or if you've eaten it." Brutus hummed.

"Not that there aren't poisonous plants where you shouldn't even get near." Favius raised an eyebrow and Brutus grinned.

"Though most of them are of a spiritual nature." Caliga began murmuring.

"So you want different cages. In some cases you lace their food with lead sugar, and in others you contaminate their water."

"Yes," Favius continued.

"Some of them need to be lead-lined so the rats run on the lead. And for others..." He shrugged.

"We just put a plate of lead on top of the cage and see what happens."

"That does not sound like a situation involving a few hundred rats," murmured Serran before swallowing.

"Assuming the Young Dominus is not testing my willingness to question him with this idea." Favius rolled his eyes.

"No, I am serious. We also need control groups, various combinations, and—" He gestured.

"We need to see what happens if you only expose old rats or only around the time of birth. We need to compare rats whose mothers have been poisoned to ones whose mothers were healthy. And so on." He gestured at all of them.

"The rats' bodies can serve as proxies for understanding how the lead will affect people. The more data we have..." He looked at Antonius.

"... the sharper Marcus's sword will be if he tries to take this cause to other senators." Antonius inclined his head.

"I believe the Dominus would appreciate that." Serran sighed and looked around.

"This sounds like another messy project. All the cages, the rats. We need handlers and feeding…" He trailed off. Antonius chuckled.

"Doesn't the old barn on the north side currently have no use?" Serran snapped his fingers.

"That's a good idea. Well, Young Dominus." He looked at Favius.

"I believe I have letters to write and—" The side of the man's mouth twitched.

"—rats to wrangle." Favius nodded and Serran left the room at a hurried pace. Antonius followed shortly after. Favius, Brutus, and his sisters left as well, leaving the scribes to clean up the entire affair. Favius briefly instructed them to copy the final graphs onto four large pieces of parchment he had had Serran buy for him. After all, painted walls are not a very portable data set. They soon found themselves in the baths, the heated water steaming around them.

Brutus, he, and his sisters all washed with soap before soaking, sitting on the banks in the steaming water.

"Well," Brutus grinned.

"I hope this doesn't become a pattern."

"A pattern?" asked Favius, raising an eyebrow. Caliga giggled.

"Well, so far you have been unable to have a meeting in any of your projects without someone having a mental breakdown." Favius rolled his eyes and groaned.

"That's not on purpose."

"Oh sure, that's not on purpose," parroted Urania, and the others laughed. Favius sighed and slid down into the water, letting the silence of the pool drown out the vicious mockery of his family. Well, it was a productive day and with everything that happened... He resurfaced and shook his head like a dog. Water splash into the pool and onto rocks and he straightened. Brutus met his expression with a grin.

"Rest well on this success, little cousin. Tomorrow..." His grin grew wolfish as he raised a hand like a cleaver. He chopped sharply into the water, and Favius's sisters screeched as they were splashed with droplets.

"Someone's time will have finally run out." A shiver went down Favius's spine at the cultivator's expression.

"And you are going to play a critical role in making sure that she gets what she deserves."