317 - The Cause of the Lost Transmission and the Completion of the Preventive Medicine
The report was also finished for now. Unlike the personal report for Alfred, this one would be seen by many people including Christoph and the Sedovara Church, so before sending it out, I had it go through the Silver-White Knight's censorship. I thought it would be safer in terms of preventing information leaks to have a knight who was not a specialist look at it rather than a pharmacist with compounding knowledge, but this brought about an unexpected effect.
"Little miss, your prescription and the pharmacist's prescription seem to have different contents...?"
What does he mean, I wondered, looking down at the report and prescription that Siegwald had returned to me. Since they were both prescriptions for the same Mustine medicine, there should not be any difference, but when I actually compared them, there was indeed a discrepancy between the two prescriptions. If read separately, the meaning was the same so I would not have noticed, but when comparing whether every single word matched, there were differences in the words used. I and the pharmacist each wrote prescriptions separately, thinking it was fine as long as the intent was understood, but Siegwald, as a Silver-White Knight, was strict about every single character matching precisely because it was outside his specialty. This allowed me to realize something. In Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials, a material was recorded as 'pulverize', but I wrote it as 'crush to about the size of powder', and the pharmacist wrote only 'crush'. In terms of making the material finer, both mean the same thing, but with just 'crush', it would not be clear to what size one should crush it. That was what I thought, but one thing came into view.
"...Is this why Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts were lost?"
"Did the pharmacist write it wrong? To do the actual work here and then write an erroneous prescription..."
"No, Sieg-sama. Neither I nor the pharmacist made a mistake."
The very fact that neither of us had made a mistake was the problem. I thought about how to explain this in an easy-to-understand way, and decided to borrow the writing board. Since we used the writing board for prior explanations when everyone worked together in the annex, there was a writing board there that could not compare in size to the one I had used at Menhishumi Church.
"First, the words found in Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials are written like this."
I wrote the kanji '粉砕' on the writing board. Siegwald could not read Japanese, so he furrowed his brows and tilted his head.
"These two characters are read as 'pulverize (fun-sai)'. It is a word composed of the character for 'powder (ko)' and the character for 'crush (kuda)ku'."
The problem came after this.
"In Japanese, writing '粉砕' alone carries the meaning of 'crush finely like powder', but in the Erath language used on this continent, there seems to be no word like 'crush finely like powder' as in Japanese, and it just becomes a simple 'crush'."
Even without the word pulverize, I added an explanation saying 'crush to about the size of powder', but the pharmacist simply wrote 'crush' intending the meaning of pulverize. If rendered back into Japanese, one might feel the 'words were insufficient', but in the Erath language, it was not incorrect. Rather than saying the Erath language has fewer words compared to Japanese, it is that Japanese has too many words.
"I have heard that Saint Yuuta Hiraga did not understand the Erath language, so perhaps there may have been 'omissions' in the prescription from the very first stage of translation."
That was perhaps why the secret arts of the transcribed prescriptions were lost, while methods of transmission through oral tradition remained. When put into writing, 'omissions' occurred in the information, but oral tradition could be passed down through words and by showing the actual work from teacher to student. Even if written records were left and 'omissions' occurred there, the information through the actual work that the teacher demonstrated could be transmitted correctly. Even something recorded in writing as only 'crush' could be shown in actual practice as 'crush finely like powder'.
Having gained a certain understanding that neither the pharmacist nor I had made a mistake, I got back the report that had been censored. Since I knew the contents were different, I could not submit it as is.
"...For now, it seems we need to align our terminology before submitting the prescription."
If there was no word for 'pulverize' in the Erath language, perhaps I should just coin a term.
Or I needed to devise something like adding a detailed explanation.
...It did not end just with being able to read Japanese. I still had to properly convert this into the Erath language.
First, I summarized the newly discovered issues and created a report. Normally I would consult with Alfred, but he was currently out somewhere with the Greenwich pox preventive medicine, so I could not do that either. When I was at a loss for who to consult and brought the matter to Felicia, my report was carried directly to Christoph.
"So, the prescription creation will be handled by me, and pharmacists who want to learn Mustine compounding should first come to the capital to learn the actual work."
Now that the flow of how Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts had been lost was understood, this was the method of transmitting compounding techniques that Christoph and the Sedovara Church decided upon. In written form, they would increase the explanatory descriptions, and have the pharmacists who had actually mastered the compounding learn by observing the real work. It was a reasonable method, if anything. If the number of people who could make Mustine medicine increased with this, then it would no longer be the case that Mustine medicine was only used in the Kingdom of Ivizia like this winter.
...Maybe I should try the same method with the prescription as with the bobbin lace guidebook?
Since it was a guidebook for beginners, it would be meaningless if a beginner could not read and understand it. That was why the bobbin lace guidebook, which I was making with the cooperation of Kalisa and Rebecca, was going to be tested for effectiveness by having Elke read it. I planned to do the same with the Mustine medicine prescription. I would show the prescription with my supplementary notes added to Saint Yuuta Hiraga's prescription, and have them actually do the work. I would have pharmacists who could already make Mustine medicine cooperate as supervisors. If they were watching, even if the work procedure was done incorrectly, they should notice right away. If there were problems there, I could revise the prescription as needed.
...Since we need supervising pharmacists, if we are going to increase the number of pharmacists who can make Mustine medicine, now is the time while they are free.
After all, the Greenwich pox preventive medicine was undergoing trial administration, and for the Pant medicine, since the ingredients were not available, work was postponed until next year. In a sense, I had about a year of free time. It would be better to steadily advance what I could do, while I could.
I called one pharmacist from the Sedovara Church who wanted to learn Mustine medicine, and taught them the compounding method and prescription. Using that one person as teaching material, the pharmacists learned how to teach, and once I finished teaching, I next called two pharmacists from the Sedovara Church. Gradually increasing the number of people I taught, around the time the system of one pharmacist instructing one other was established, Alfred returned.
"Efficacy has been confirmed. The Greenwich pox preventive medicine is hereby declared complete."
At Alfred's report, delivered by him coming directly to Siegwald's annex, Barbara and the pharmacists raised a cheer. The pharmacists who had come to learn Mustine medicine were stirred up at the prospect of also learning the preventive medicine prescription. Since the Greenwich pox preventive medicine was something needed in other countries, once the prescription was completed, the pharmacists who had mastered it would likely be transferred to other countries. Perhaps half of the pharmacists here might be poached to spread the preventive medicine prescription in other countries.
...I understand it is necessary, though.
The turnover of pharmacists I had already grown accustomed to was not very welcome for me. However, I was no longer at an age where I could hide behind a guardian's back claiming shyness, so I swallowed my internal dissatisfaction.
"By the way, Alfred-sama. Where did you find a patient with Words disease?"
"...It is a secret."
When I pointed out that a trial could not be conducted without patients, Alfred closed one eye and pressed his index finger to his lips. He was supposed to be a grown adult older than Leonardo, but because his face was so good-looking, any pose looked good on him. It was unfair.
"As long as Alfred-sama has not done anything dangerous, I suppose it is fine."
"You gave up quite easily."
"In my previous life, there was a method too. A method of intentionally infecting rats and such with a disease to preserve the pathogen, because it was needed for research even though it was a dangerous illness."
"...If Christina can accept that, then it is fine."
"It is not that?"
His words carried a slight hint of something that caught my attention, and I looked up at Alfred. Alfred, receiving my gaze, did not give me the details, but said I was not far off. It seemed Alfred had been preserving the Words disease pathogen somewhere after all.
It is short, but the season will change next, so we will end here.