Herald of Steel

Alexander had in the past eight to ten hours put himself repeatedly in danger, sometimes even under situations where he was all alone in the front leading a cavalry charge where just a stray arrow or a lucky spear strike could have ended him.

But he still did it, one- because it needed to be done and two- because the adrenaline was flowing right through him and he let his body make many decisions, not the brain.

But now his head was colling down and exhaustion taking over and he wanted the warmth of his lover to comfort him who was likely near.

This filled Alexander's heart with warmth.

Alexander then looked around and soon gave Grahtos instructions where to house the thousands of servants, "Tell the servants to occupy the servant quarters. If there is not enough space, then move them to the many empty rooms in the palace. Nobody is using them and leaving them empty is a waste. And even if that's not enough, relocate some of them to the barracks."

"As you command."

Grahtos then seemed to have remembered a piece of information, "Oh, commander, that boy- Laykash. We have brought him. He is over there," he then pointed to a side of the grand hall.

"Um, I will call you when I treat him," Alexander smiled a reply.

Then as if a light bulb had gone off inside Alexander's head, he made a strange request, "Grahtos, remember the blonde man that disguised himself as the king. Bring his body to me. I have use for it."

'Does the commander practice necromancy?' Grahtos made an absurd assumption but chose to follow it anyway as he ordered a few men to bring back the corpse.

With this done, Alexander then ordered Menes who was beside Grahtos, "The eight hundred that were sent to escort the camp. Call them back right now. Feed them lunch and then send them to the barracks to sleep. They have the night watch and they need to sleep as soon as possible."

The war had started at around five o'clock and because clocks hadn't been invented yet, Alexander estimated that it was around two o'clock now, meaning even if the soldiers were to be fed as soon as possible, these men would have at best around four-six hours of sleep in their fate.

"I'm on it," Menes then quickly ran out of the palace to gather the men.

"So, you are alive!" As Menes was leaving a sharp, soft voice addressed Alexander, and the silhouette of two girls, one short and rectangular, the other with a ponytail perched high above her head presented themselves against the white backdrop of the outside palace.

"Cam!" Alexander immediately produced a huge grin as he bolted to meet her.

"Hmmp, so have all your limbs attached. And here I was looking forward to getting a new husband," Cambyses was unusually acidic to Alexander in their first meeting, which caught him a bit off guard.

Fortunately, Mean was there to provide some commentary, "Alex, mistress was overjoyed when she heard of your accomplishment, She was so happy she had lost her voice for a few hours."

"But when she got to know the danger you put yourself in, she almost wanted to grab a sword and follow after you. Please don't worry us like that!" Mean pleaded pitifully.

"I..." Alexander was about to defend himself when suddenly he was hugged by Cambyses who sobbed and sniffed, "I was so worried, so worried. *sniff*."

Alexander could only soothe the girl by rubbing her back.

But Alexander's eyes suddenly caught sight of the man that had made it all possible- Laykash and knew the boy needed treatment right away.

He thus let go of Cambyses and asked her. "Cam, get me a few pieces of bamboo, rags, ropes, and a few sticks. They should be among the things we keep at the back of the medical clinic. I am gonna make something to help a soldier. He's injured."

This something was a 'Thomas Splint.'

Alexander in his previous had been forced to wear one, when due to a crane malfunction, a few rods fell down and a stray piece of rod bounced off against his left thigh, snapping the femur cleanly in half, and making his thigh have two white horns poking out of them, one at the front and one at the back.

The pain had been excruciation and he had to live with that splint and the abominable cast for months.

But he had lived, whereas just a hundred years ago, without this simple contraception, he would have died eighty percent of the time.

Cambyses soon got him these and Alexander gave her instructions to help him.

"Cam take these and make them into a ring of 'eh' size," Alexander made the size with his hand and Cambyses took the thin pieces of bamboo, and used ropes to tie the ends together, all while not bothering to ask questions.

Alexander too started making a ring, much larger than the size he had shown Cambyses, and the couple was soon done, having obtained a large ring bigger than Alexander's head and a smaller ring about the size of Alexander's legs.

Alexander then took two strong pieces of wood, about an inch thick and a meter long, and attached the two rings to each other via the two sticks, tying one at the top of the wooden stick and the other at the bottom, holding them in place using sturdy ropes.

Thus a rudimentary 'Thomas Splint' was formed.

Alexander then heavily padded the upper ring with soft fabric to make the splint feel soft and comfortable as it rested against the thigh, and then marveled at his 'own' thirty-minute invention with sparkles in his eyes and grinning at Cambyses.

Cambyses only looked at Alexander curiously, trying hard to think of a way this could be used to save anyone.

Alexander could almost hear Cambyses think but knowing it was unlikely that the girl could be able to figure it out on her own and noticing a curious crowd which even included Grahtos gathering around him to see this new contraception, Alexander gestured, "Come, I will explain it in front of the patient."

Alexander found Laykash asleep on the floor, a thin blanket separating him and the cold marble floor, with his thigh tightly bandaged, panting and huffing as the boy clung on to dear life.

Alexander then turned to face the crowd and held up the wooden contraption, "This is called the 'Splint' and is used to treat femur injuries.

Then he started his explanation, "The reason why femur injuries are so deadly is because when the bones snap, the strong muscles of the thighs contract and pull the broken pieces towards them. So the upper thigh muscles pull the broken lower bone up and the lower thigh muscles pull the broken upper bone down, crisscrossing the bones," Alexander formed a cross with his hands to show the alignment of the broken two parts.

"This pulling force is sometimes so strong that the bones can even sometimes pierce the thick flesh and come out the other side, sticking out into the air, like this," Alexander pointed to the protrusion on Laykashe's thigh that was sticking out even through the bandage.

"Now to fix that, what you do is this," Alexander held up the splint to show it to everyone.

"You put your broken leg through it like this," Alexander then put his leg through the larger top ring "You fully stretch your leg, which will hurt like hell but it's better than dying, and then you tie your leg to the bottom ring so that the thigh muscles can't pull themselves back."

The people there noticed that the lower ring extended much further down his feet and they had been confused by that.

"So, the bones are now set in place like this," Alexander then showed the bone's new position by connecting his knuckled fist while keeping his arms perfectly horizontal, and said, "and the bone can then heal by itself."

"Amazing, commander, amazing!" Grahtos was the first to praise Alexander and then many others followed.

"Only a blessed of Gaia can be so erudite of the human body," Many cheered while Alexander only lightly smiled.

But one person that was strangely absent from making much noise was Cambyses.

But not because she was unimpressed but because this was Alexander after all, and making impressive things was his thing.

Cambyses had long stopped being surprised by his creations and even felt that if Alexander one day made a carriage and said it could take them to the moon, she would most likely calmly get inside it and spend the entire journey listening to Alexander explain how the craft actually works.

'There's no need to squeal like a little girl at every one of his creations. He might think I am easy to please,' Cambyses smirked a little in her mind.

Alexander finished with his lecture, then proceeded to carry out the treatment.

First, he tightly bandaged Laykash's thighs and then added thick padding to the sides.

Then the boy was then fed strong spirits to dull the pain and a small alcohol-soaked cloth was placed inside his mouth to stop himself from biting out his tongue.

After that came the screaming part, as several people kept him pinned down and his leg was slowly stretched and straightened by Alexander, while the splint was quickly put over the leg by Cambyses and then hurriedly tied to the bottom with stings.

Laykash had been delirious the entire time and the pain just now had tipped over his consciousness and his groans and pained grunts quickly died down, to be replaced by a low snoring, as he temporarily left this painful world to the world of dreams.