22 CHAPTER 22 - Germ theory.

1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.

Two and half months after the battle of Dharanikota.

In a training field inside the fort, few people were exercising. The equipment was peculiar for anyone witnessing it. Some were traditional Indian exercise equipment, like wooden clubs, and others were made of cast iron. 

The iron ones were the ones that stood out. Various equipment, although somewhat crude, was set up in the courtyard. Weights, dumbells, pullup bars, and other simple tools were set up.

"RUDRA!" "RUDRA!" "RUDRA!"

"BASHIR!" "BASHIR!" "BASHIR!" 

"RUDRA!" "RUDRA!" "RUDRA!"

The small crowd of gathered men cheered, as both Rudra and Bashir participated in a friendly wager over who could do more pull-ups. While Rudra was enhanced after his rebirth, Bashir was a statistical outlier with his abnormal strength and a competition between the two was only fair.

"Forty-six!" "Forty-seven!" "Forty-eight!" "Forty-nine!" "Fifty!"

After the set of Fifty, Bashir dropped out. He was stronger than Rudra, owing to his height and weight advantage, but while doing the pull-ups, it became a disadvantage, as he also had to pull up the additional mass.

Rudra meanwhile, continued the pull-ups as the crowd counted his progress. His enhanced body strength and endurance began showing in the last two months, as he had grown a few inches in height and gained a lot of muscle mass. Still, this only added to his lean and athletic frame.

"Sixty-six!" "Sixty-seven!" "Sixty-eight!" "Sixty-nine!"

Rudra finally gave up, nearly completing the seventieth pull-up. This was a number that was a lot higher than the 20 pull-ups he was able to do only two months ago, before his rebirth. Still, that is seventy more than what an average person can do.

"'You win again.'" signed Bashir, now fluent in sign language, after nearly two months of continuous practice. 

"' You have a heavy-set build, so you are competing with a disadvantage.'" Rudra signed and spoke aloud, now used to doing both when speaking to Bashir. He was referring to the huge frame of his bodyguard, who was nearly seven feet in height.

As the people, mostly royal guards and some soldiers dispersed to do their workout, Rudra sat at a bench, taking a small break. He looked around his new gym, converted from a portion of the training field of the Royal guards.

All the equipment was made with the help of the blacksmiths he employed. Though they didn't understand the need to make it out of metal, as it was more precious, they chalked it up to another one of his strange ideas.

"Your majesty." a mature voice called, and Rudra turned to see that it was Vasekar, the man in charge of managing the palace and other Royal assets.

"I know, I know," Rudra said as he got up and turned to leave. As he left the gym, he was followed by Vasekar and his other guard, Bhairava. The man impressed him with his skills during the battle for Dharanikota, and Rudra appointed him the man in charge of his security, along with the control of Royal guards, after Kadhumalla was transferred to another more important post.

"What are you planning to do today, your majesty?" Vasekar asked him, as they entered the palace main. Rudra was still sweaty from the exercise and needed a bath right now.

"The Kingdom is still in turmoil, Vasekar. I need a new court and advisors, the last ones are, after all, dead." Rudra said as he drank water from the bottle, he carried with him for the exercise.

"Who do I have to summon, Your Majesty?" the man asked, as they finally reached his room. It was not that far from his new gym, and not in the main Royal quarters. After the deaths which occurred there because of his uncle, he ordered them to be demolished and reconstructed. He was currently staying in a large room, located on the ground floor of the palace, in a convenient location.

"I have some people in mind. I wrote them down on a piece of paper, which is currently on my table. For now, please tell me where my Doctor is?" he requested, as the trio entered the room. Bhairava stayed at the door, while Rudra and Vasekar entered in.

"He is currently in the city treating patients, Your Majesty. Shall I summon him here?" the man asked, ready to do whatever was required. It was this unquestioning nature, that he employed Vasekar for that role.

"No, No. Arrange for my horse, We will go. I want to visit the city." Rudra said as he selected a pair of clothes to wear next. As Bhairava began to protest, he raised his arm to stop him. " I'm the king here, Bhairava. How to maintain the security is your job."

"It shall be done, Your Majesty. What should I do about the Portuguese dignitary?" Vasekar asked him as Rudra readied himself for a hot water bath.

"Same reply as always. Tell them that all diplomatic decisions are postponed until a new court is formed. Also, I will be visiting the Kadhumalla in the evening. I want to offer him a seat at the table." Rudra replied and then turned to look at the two, waiting for them to give him some privacy. 

"As I have been asking every day, should I arrange for someone to bathe and dress you? It is common and expected of a king to dress accordingly. Why waste your time by doing this yourself your majesty?" Vasekar asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.

"I can dress myself, Vasekar. Or are you suggesting my dressing style is bad? It doesn't matter anyway. I had already seen people start to wear similar types of clothes. I am a King, thus a trendsetter, you see." Rudra answered back as he looked at the custom-made clothes. 

It was an inner shirt, and an overcoat, with buttons down to the waist, left open from below. The pant was made of cotton, accompanied by leather shoes. A golden threaded design was knitted into the overcoat, a carryover design, from the kurtas he used to wear.

It was a handsome outfit, with elements taken from both European and Indian fashion, albeit a bit too different from what the people usually wear in the kingdom. Still, Rudra believed that people would adopt the new designs, and a new type of style, specific to his kingdom would be born.

He had nothing against the original and more traditional outfits of these lands, but he still missed the various choices available to him in his previous life. If it was required, he would readily wear a traditional outfit, but the choice is his own now.

As he entered the bath, he allowed himself to relax. All the tensions, worries, and errant new ideas were slowly released, as he entered into a slow meditative state.

All the families who were against him were dealt with. The disloyal officers were either executed or exiled. He had all the power of the kingdom, concentrated in his hands, and the last time a king had this much authority was during the early years of the Dharanikota kingdom, in the hands of his father.

An hour later, Rudra completed his leisurely bath and dressed himself. While leaving the room he picked up a notebook, from the several others placed on a shelf, written by him. He started writing all the things that were there in his older memories into various books.

Although he had all these memories, regarding various subjects, in his brain, he couldn't just access them all, or even transfer them to others. He first had to understand them himself and translate them into the local language, so that others could understand.

The first books he translated were the ones depicting various fashion trends through the centuries. It was mostly an artistic book, so he drew them easily while practicing and showed them to a tailor in the city, thus resulting in his current clothes.

He was thankful again for his improved senses, as he was able to pick up the skills more easily. He vastly improved his skills in things such as drawing and writing, and he was in the process of learning more difficult skills such as metalworking.

Another hour later, Rudra was followed by more than a dozen Royal guards and servants, as he reached the hospital the man he was looking for was in.

Inside the hospital, the patients, who were visiting the hospital, were shocked to see the king walk into the building. They started to kneel, but Rudra stopped them. They were patients, and Rudra was not as cruel as to make them suffer.

He finally found the man he was looking for, treating an injured person with a bloody arm. He waited until the treatment was over, and coughed to make his presence known.

"Dear god, who is t…that? Your majesty? What are yo..you doing here? I would have visited you if summoned. Are you sick? Am I in tr..trouble?" the man spoke, making it obvious that he was suffering from a stuttering speech disorder. 

"Relax Hemadri. You are doing fine. Think of it as a friendly visit." Rudra reassured the tense man. Even though the man was brilliant, he had low confidence, from being treated as an outcast, because of his speech disorder.

Hemadri Sastry was the student of the previous Royal physician who was killed by Rudra, after the battle for Dharanikota. The previous one was a subordinate of his uncle and corroborated the lie that, his father died of heartache.

Hemadri was the one who spoke out against the doctor, for violating the patient's trust and was thrown in jail for it by Karana Deva. After Rudra found out what happened, he dealt with the previous doctor and appointed Hemadri Sastry in charge of his health.

Because of his enhanced body, he rarely suffers from any illness, so most of the time, the doctor spends his time in the city, treating the patients in the city hospital. Hemadri was only timid when it came to speaking, however, and didn't have any problems when talking about his job.

"It's good that you visited, your majesty. The method of cleaning the wounds and tools with c..concentrated vinegar and hot water, had worked wonders here. Wound and surgery infection cases had visibly reduced. You are simply a godsend." the short man expressed his admiration, very enthusiastically.

A month ago, Rudra gave the man a lecture on basic hospital hygiene, disinfection, sterilization, and other basic things, when he noticed that, it was lacking both here and in the hospital he visited in Macherla. It was a simple thing that could save the lives of many people.

Although he ordered them to follow those procedures, he didn't expect positive results to show up that quickly. 

"It is good that it was useful. I wrote my theories as to why it works, and my hypothesis for what causes diseases, in this book. It is up to you and your colleagues to prove them." Rudra said as he gave the book he brought along to the enthusiastic man. The book was titled "A Theory of Germs and Their Influence on Health - by Rudra Deva.'"

The book contained information about the germ theory and its effects on health and diseases, written in a theory-like manner. He could not yet prove that microbes exist, without a microscope, but it was stupid to not introduce it, just because there was no proof. It was a very important discovery in Medicine, and Rudra hoped that he could save some lives by introducing it.

He had no regrets about stealing the credit for the theory. Even if one life is saved, it would be worth it to have it published. Adding his name to it would only make more people take it seriously.

"Ah. T..Thank you, Your Majesty. I wondered why those methods worked. Now I will k..know." Hemadri said, already opening the notebook to read it.

"So, do you accept the council position you rejected the last time?" Rudra asked the distracted man. He needed a doctor in his Royal council and was politely rejected by Hemadri when he asked the last time.

"S...Sure, whatever you need," Hemadri replied absentmindedly, his concentration now occupied by Rudra's notebook.

"I'll take that as a yes. I will be expecting you when the meeting is called." the King of Dharanikota instructed the man while taking his leave.