Chương 126: 42. Impossible to Measure

Thankfully most of the other patients aren't as complicated as the first. Whatever this so-called "plague" is, the symptoms are fairly mild and easily treated. My job is mostly to diagnose and heal fevers thanks to my skills, but Lady Talla also assigns me the responsibility of determining whether someone's case is severe enough to warrant her healing spells.

"It's generally better to give people the chance to fight off the illness on their own," she explains.

"I could just cast Restoration on everybody, but that would be exhausting, and might leave them vulnerable to reinfection."

"Alright, how can I tell?"

"I'll point out the first few, but they'll probably have more persistent fevers. It will take more effort to manage their fever." True to her word, some patients have fevers that are more difficult to fix. Interestingly enough, it doesn't always match up with the more visibly ill patients. There are some who seem mostly fine, but have extremely severe fever, and others that barely have a fever at all once Talla treats their other symptoms.

I also find it interesting that Talla mostly uses her skills and spells for diagnosis, and only sparingly performs direct acts of thaumaturgical healing.

"Thaumaturgy is good at dealing with injuries, but sickness tends to be more complicated," she tells me between patients.

"People get caught up on what they can see, but you've already observed that some of our sickest patients are the ones that look totally normal."

"Speaking of which," Violet interjects,"do we actually know that this disease is as mild as everyone is saying?"

"We've seen plenty of examples already, haven't we?" I point out.

"A lot of runny noses and hoarse throats, but the only problem seems to be the speed it's spreading."

"We only see the ones that feel well enough to bring themselves to visit a doctor," Vi argues.

"And that can afford to."

"My clinic is pretty inexpensive, compared to our competitors," Talla notes.

"I charge enough to pay the staff, but it doesn't turn much of a profit. My mother is always on my case about it."

"Even so, how can we be sure there aren't more severe cases that we just aren't seeing?"

"There are other clinics that do house calls," Talla replies.

"But it's good to keep in mind. We'll start asking about family members and neighbors." We fall into a rhythm of interviewing, treating, and prescribing as patient after patient comes through the door. It's impressive just how efficiently Lady Talla works, especially when considering that none of this helps her level. Eventually, instead of another patient, it's Katia herself that comes in.

"Thank's for all the help, professor," she says.

"It's slowing down now, and I think you can take a break."

"I appreciate the offer, but I think we can keep going," Talla replies. To my shock, Katia shakes her head.

"Take a break, professor!" she insists.

"You can go out and stretch your legs, maybe get something to eat, or you can just sit in here while I send all the patients elsewhere, but we could use the extra office." Talla chuckles.

"All right, all right, I get it. You tyrant." Katia bows politely and ducks out of the room, leaving us alone as Talla packs up her belongings.

"Why do you let your subordinates talk to you that way?" I ask curiously.

"It hardly seems appropriate."

"On the contrary, I'm glad that Katia is comfortable speaking her mind," Talla sighs.

"It wasn't always like that. I don't think most of my cousins realize how unhelpful it is that people hold back for fear of contradicting a noble."

"Who is she to say that she knows better than you, though?" I argue.

"Not only are you a noble of Clan Baanu, but you are the owner of the clinic, an accomplished scholar, and an actual doctor rather than some mere receptionist!"

"Wow..." Vi mutters, without elaborating.

"Let me ask you something, Evelyn," Talla sighs.

"Do you think I know how to run this clinic better than Katia?"

"Obviously," I huff.

"It's your clinic."

"Then what is her purpose?"

"Well she... tells people which doctor to see... and when they're ready?"

"That's right, but also completely wrong," Lady Talla says, shaking her head.

"It's Katia's job to know which patients should see which doctors, and in what order. She manages scheduling, appointments, triage, and even has to determine whether extra staff needs to be called in. Now, does that sound more or less important than what we were doing today?" It feels like a trick question. The sort of thing Allison might ask me when she thinks that I've misunderstood one of the subjects she's trying to teach me.

"Neither can function without the other," I admit.

"That's how society works. We each have our classes, and operate within them. But that's only one part of it. Some work is more important or more difficult, to say nothing of levels, which-""Katia is higher level than I am," Talla interrupts.

"By quite a bit, actually. She's higher level than Draga, too. Obviously she couldn't take either of us in a fight, but that's not the point, is it? Katia is a better administrator than I am a doctor, and thanks to her work here, she's further specialized in the management of medical facilities." That gives me pause. Obviously, as a polymath, Lady Talla's expertise is more widespread, but that does mean that she can be outdone in certain areas by more specialized classes.

Maybe without someone like Katia, this clinic couldn't operate as it does. She did mention that it's largely self-sufficient. I imagine that most in her position would have simply closed the clinic and moved on.

"That's still no excuse to be rude," I grumble.

"She may be more important to the clinic's day to day function, but you are still the owner, and her social better." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"And sometimes I need to be reminded that being someone's social better doesn't mean I know better than they do in everything else," Talla retorts.

"This clinic is more Katia's than mine at this point, and we're supposed to be here to help, not get in the way. Besides, I'm sure you could use some lunch." As if in response, my stomach growls.

"I suppose I am a bit hungry..."

"Oh!" Allie chimes in for the first time today.

"Could we do some shopping? I want to see if I can find some of those clippers Iro was talking about." Normally I wouldn't want to divert Lady Talla for such frivolous reasons, but fingernails have risen to my top three nemeses in this world alongside long division and Maggie.

"I think that would be a good idea," I agree.

"Though I'm a little nervous about dealing with serpentfolk."

"Oh, they're fine!" Talla waves off my concerns.

"Nice people once you get to know them, if a little bit insular."

"They can't be that insular if there's a community of them living in a Fa'aun city," Allison points out.

"Ah, good point," Lady Talla chuckles.

"I guess it might be more accurate to say that we, uh, haven't given them a lot of good reasons to be comfortable around us." I'm not sure what any of that's supposed to mean. I'm just nervous around their claws and fangs. On the way out, we say our farewells to Katia, and I'm pleased to see that the lobby is significantly less full than it was when we arrived. I'm not sure how much progress we made today, but for the first time since waking up in this strange new body I feel like I've done some good work.

"Well, if we're going to check out the serpentfolk quarter, it's this way," Talla says, gesturing to a nearby footpath. The temple district is a busy enough place that it has traffic split between roads for carriages and footpaths for pedestrians. That's new to me, along with the entire concept of a serpentfolk quarter.

"They have an entire district?" I ask incredulously. Almost at the same time, Vi asks a very different question.

"They're restricted to a single district?"

"No on both counts," Talla sighs.

"The serpentfolk quarter isn't an official designation, and there are no laws restricting them to that part of the city. It's just... where they live. Like I said, they can be a bit insular."

"You're sure that they haven't just been pushed there by the upper class refusing to let minorities live near them?" Vi insists.

"I'm not sure of anything," Talla admits.

"It's not something I've given a lot of thought to. What you're saying is definitely possible, though."

"Our world has a bit of a history with segregation," Allison comments.

"It's a sensitive subject. Vi's just worried about some of the parallels."

"I thought you couldn't remember much about your world," I muse.

"It's more like our memories are incomplete," she huffs.

"And muddled sometimes. There was one case where the ruling class manufactured a famine that specifically targeted a certain subclass, causing widespread starvation among those people."

"Blood and acid, that's terrible."

"Several cases, actually," Violet adds.

"Right, but I can't remember which is which, or who was involved," Allie sighs.

"It feels like I should remember, but I just come up blank whenever I try. Earth, third planet, home. Saturn, sixth planet, rings." Ah yes, her little mantra. I don't blame her, really. I've always had a good memory, but I can't imagine what it would be like to almost remember my own home. It would be so much worse to see the place I grew up change so dramatically if I didn't even know what exactly I was comparing it to.

"I've been meaning to ask about that, actually," Talla chimes in.

"What do you mean by third and sixth planets? If it's your home, shouldn't Earth be the first?"

"The number is based on distance from the sun," Allison explains.

"There's two planets closer and... six further away?" She says it with that odd inflection she uses to indicate a question, but it didn't sound like one.

"Five," Violet corrects her.

"The last one was reclassified."

"Justice for Pluto!" Maggie chimes in.

"Ah! Pluto!" Allie exclaims happily.

"That was it! The ninth... not-a-planet, I guess."

"Really?" Vi sighs.

"That's how we trigger that memory?"

"Hey, I'll take it!" Allison giggles.

"Huh... how do you know the order?" Lady Talla asks.

"That sounds impossible to measure."

"Uh... hundreds of years of astronomers measuring their movements across the sky every night?" Allie hedges. Talla stops dead in front of us.

"Ah... I suppose that would do it, huh?" I blink, surprised by her sudden despondence.

"What's wrong?"

"Your—sorry, their world doesn't have the Great Wheel. They can see the stars every night."

"The equinox lights?" I ask.

"Yeah, exactly," Talla sighs.

"They're always there, but we can only see them a few nights a year, when the sky is darkest."

"I can see how that might make it difficult to study their movements," Violet says.

"But there are those of us who do anyway!" Talla declares proudly.

"Not very many, though. I fear it's not as popular a subject as it was in your world."

"It wasn't always popular in our world either," Vi remarks.

"Some people had very strong feelings about whether the sun or the Earth was at the center, and they tended to argue with swords instead of science."

"How barbaric," I mutter.

"Besides, clearly the Goddess' light stands at the center of reality. It is the source of all other things." For some reason all three of my hosts laugh at that, and I feel what is rapidly becoming a familiar tingle in my cheeks.

"What? What did I say that's so funny?"

"Those arguments are very similar to the ones that people used in our world to say that the Earth had to be at the center," Allison explains.

"In other words, you're right for the wrong reason," Maggie adds.

"I don't need your approval!" I huff.

"Who are you to determine whether my reasoning is valid?"

"Your teacher?" Allie hedges. Damn it!

"Other than that!"

"Let's not fight over something like that," Talla sighs.

"I was never really satisfied with the religious argument anyway. It's good to hear confirmation, but I'm not satisfied with taking your word for it either."

"Wait, really?" Allie asks.

"Why would we lie about that?"

"Oh, I believe you," she clarifies.

"But this is a different world. Who's to say that it works the same here as it did in yours?"

"... oh, that's a good point, actually."

"Now come on, let's go find something to eat, already."