Chapter 24 - Kassia's Disease

At night while Max, Kassia and Helmi slept.

Max woke up to the feeling that Kassia was breathing with a bit of difficulty; when he raised his head from Kassia's chest, he could see she was sweating.

Max began to tally up the days that had passed with a relatively calm demeanor since Kassia had been infected with Cowpox.

Realizing that 13 days had already passed, Max approached Kassia's face and gave her a kiss on her forehead, which he could feel something hot.

Max carefully used his hand to caress the face of Kassia, who ended up waking up when she felt Max's hand.

"Kassia, you have some temperature; I am going to get up to prepare some water to reduce your fever."

Kassia, who was somewhat weak, just nodded before feeling a kiss and seeing how Max got out of bed to prepare the water.

Max, who was preparing the water, looked fondly at Kassia on the bed. "You are suffering from the symptoms of cowpox, so we can only wait for the little red pimples to appear."

When Max arrived in front of Kassia, he put a damp cloth on her forehead while stroking her cheek "Cowpox will not endanger your life, and the pimples you have will help the whole village to develop an immunity to smallpox.

So now, just sleep peacefully; I'll be watching over you all night to prevent the fever from getting out of control. "

Kassia just gave Max a smile and decided to sleep; when she closed her eyes, she fell asleep in only a few minutes.

While she was sleeping, she was able to vividly recall a small memory from his childhood where she was reading a book about the Greek gods.

In the book, she could see some names like Zeus, Rhea, Apollo, Flavio, Poseidon ...

Kassia looked at the book doubtfully as she realized there was a name she had never seen before; when she prepared to reread the book, she could hear her mother.

So she put down the book and ran to where she had heard her mother.

Max, who was sitting in front of Kassia, noticed that her face looked a bit pale; when he got closer to her face, he could see how her eyes through her eyelids seemed to move a lot.

After seeing these signs, Max got up quickly and went to look for a small wooden cube; once he had the cube, he ran to the bed, and using his hand, he turned Kassia.

Kassia woke up abruptly and began to vomit as she felt everything move around her; Max stroked her back and cared for her to prevent her from choking on her vomit.

When she finished vomiting, Kassia could feel how Max wiped her face with a damp cloth.

"Don't worry, Kassia, you have a vertigo attack; just follow my instructions, and I will help you recover."

Max then carried Kassia and sat her on a chair. "Keep your back straight and stare at anything in front of you.

Hold my hand and avoid moving your gaze, don't worry if you want to vomit, just do it; I'll take care of the cleaning. "

Helmi, who was sleeping, could hear that something was happening, so she opened her eyes and saw how Max was holding the hand of Kassia, who was sitting on a chair.

With a rather curt Latin, Helmi asked Max, "Quod factum est?"

Max smiled at Helmi and replied in a reasonably simple Nordic, "Kassia is sick; I'm taking care of her."

Kassia wanted to laugh when she heard how the two of them talked, but as she did so, she could feel uncontrollable dizziness, so she only vomited in the bucket that Max put in front of her.

When he finished, he said with a very muffled voice, "Helmi, I want you to go to the village and bring Felipa because she must learn how to treat this dizziness.

Not to mention that it can help us… "

Kassia didn't finish speaking as she started to vomit, but Helmi, who had listened to her, nodded and started putting on clothes.

Once she was done, she took the two silk robes from the table and handed them to Max as she walked as quickly as possible to the door.

When Helmi came out, she could feel the cold air on her skin, so she covered herself with her bearskin and began her walk to town.

While this was happening in a relatively bright room, Gerd found himself hammering a small piece of iron.

"Ibssen, this is the last missing part of the crossbow, as you carry the assembly of the mechanism."

Ibssen, who was placing some metal pieces on a wooden frame, wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"It is somewhat challenging to put these pieces in place just using Einar's drawings.

But if your drawings are correct and if my experience serves me well, this weapon can be more lethal than a bow in many respects.

But perhaps the most crucial aspect is that even children will be able to use it. "

Ibssen placed the crossbow on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. "It's as simple as what I did.

I don't know if the design for this weapon was given by Tyr or by the goddess Skade. "

Ibssen swallowed a little saliva. "But I'm sure this weapon will allow us to conquer any enemy.

Although I think Miklagard's phrase Come, Vidi, Vici is perfect for this weapon. "

Gerd just shook his head as he used pliers to put the piece of iron he had just hammered into the water.

The water bubbled for a few seconds until the surface returned to calm; then, Gerd took out the piece of metal and took it in his hand before handing it to Ibssen.

Ibssen reviewed it for a moment and placed it inside the wooden frame, after which he used a rope that had some knots to measure the size of the animal tendon that will be used as the crossbow rope.

Gerd, who was sitting in a chair, looked curiously at the rope in Ibsen's hand. "I see that Einar's new measurement system is quite functional for you, right."

Ibssen, who was cutting the tendon with scissors, began to place it on the crossbow's wooden frame, where he very carefully began to tighten it.

"The measurements of millimeters, centimeters, and meters are quite useful; even my wife started using them to measure children.

Although I'm curious to see how Einar defines weight measurements, you should prioritize building Seren's scale. "

Gerd just chuckled. "It's not complicated to do, but that will be work for tomorrow now. I'm more interested in seeing how the crossbow works.

How about we try it out in the yard. "

Ibssen placed the crossbow on his shoulder and took from the table 3 iron-tipped wooden bolts. "I think you must have some old or broken armor on which we can test this beauty."

When the two went out into the street, Gerd walked to a part of his house where he put on an old chainmail armor; for his part, Ibssen placed himself in a position to fire the crossbow.

Ibssen, seeing that Gerd was already at his side, put the crossbow on his shoulder and fired the first bolt.

To Gerd and Ibsen's surprise, the bolt completely penetrated the chain mail and was buried in the house's wood.

Gerd, quite surprised, took the crossbow from Ibsen's hands and placed a new bolt, unlike Ibssen, who only fired without aiming.

He aimed at the sturdiest part of the armor, but the crossbow on his shoulder and took a deep breath, and then pulled the trigger.

The bolt flew out of the crossbow, which broke the armor like butter, only stopping at the house's wooden wall.

Gerd looked appreciatively at the crossbow in his hand. "Ibssen, I think we will go straight to Valhalla for this weapon."

Ibssen quite happily patted Gerd's shoulder. "I think that before we sleep, we could drink some Alcohol that Einar specially prepared for us to drink."

Gerd began to laugh and readied the crossbow to fire the last bolt, but it was at that moment that he could see how Helmi was walking in the street.

So he decided to give the crossbow to Ibssen and walk to where Helmi was to ask if he needed any kind of help.