Herald of Steel

Alexander listened to Claude go on about the marvels of sweating as a kind of miracle cure for perhaps a bit longer than he should have.

By now the large man had gone past his duties as a mere guide and was beginning to sound more like a snake oil man, recounting all the various healthy benefits the place brought. Read the latest on empire

According to him, the fact that the people of the city rarely ever fell sick was all thanks to bathhouses and all the amenities it provided.

Now this was perhaps true to a certain extent, as staying clean and healthy did make one more resistant to illness.

But then Claude also retold how one of his sons had gotten a really high fever and did not look like he was going to make it, but 'miraculously' got better upon using the bath a couple of times, destroying much of his credibility to Alexander.

"..."

The young pasha was not a stranger to such tales.

In fact, as a man who ran a clinic and oversaw many of the medical procedures, he had heard of all kinds of bizarre remedies, among which was also this- the 'remedy' of curing a sick person by making them run and exercise.

The idea was to 'expel' the disease out of the body by sweating it out.

Of course, this rarely ever worked, and most of the time only hastened the already weakened body to death.

As said earlier, in this time period, it was often better to not get any treatment than follow the mad howlings of these witch doctors.

But people still believed in them because they had no alternative, and diseases were seen more as curses from the gods than something treatable.

Alexander could only lament at such beliefs.

As for how the doctors came up with bizarre treatment, well Alexander had his guesses.

He assumed this idea came from a wrong inference upon observing a particular phenomenon.

He figured that many saw how exercising helped keep the body fit and then equated the sweating that occurred as a result to something efficacious- like a 'salve' that retarded illnesses.

While in reality, this was the same as thinking since chocolate tastes good and beef tastes good- so beef with chocolate must taste divine.

Alexander did not bother to correct Claude regarding the misconceptions, knowing he had no authority in the field.

The fact that his son had survived the ordeal after visiting the bathhouse was enough to make the supervision stick to his thoughts even if the sky fell on top of him.

...….

So instead he asked Claude to move the tour on, and their next destination became a few more private gymnasiums located adjacent to the large common one.

These were pretty much the same, only smaller and with better quality equipment, reserved for the truly elite.

They were not free like the common gymnasium and the prices sure reflected that as renting one of these rooms for the whole day almost equaled a common man's daily salary.

No wonder Claude said they made most of their money from renting rooms.

'As expected! Owning the land was always the most profitable business,' Alexander would comment this upon learning the prices.

Following the memorable trip to the gymnasium, the group moved to the opposite side of the gymnasium, which Claude introduced as,

"My lord, this is the garden. Please come… this is where people usually like to rest after their baths… chat and relax with friends, have a bite to eat."

As Alexander entered, he became surprised by the size and greenery of the place- it was about the same size as the gymnasium, and seemed almost like an indoor botanical garden, with numerous large fern like trees reaching almost a dozen meters in height, lines of beautiful spring flowers that were beginning to bloom, and many potted plants and shrub dotted along the many stone walkways.

It made him wonder how so much greeny could be cultivated and then maintained this well indoors given the primitive technologies of the time.

He soon had the answer as he raised his head- the roof was completely open, letting the natural sun and rain nourish the place on its own.

Thus the entire place was currently flooded with light and also why the various stone benches scattered all around the place were shaded with wooden canopies- to protect its occupants from the elements.

Both men and women sat on these benches, now fully dressed, drinking, eating, and casually chatting, while children of various ages played around them.

Alexander was not expecting to see such a harmonious sight inside of a bathhouse and was slowly beginning to understand that the place indeed had a larger than utilitarian value.

It was a gym, sauna, and garden all put together.

Alexander could not resist taking a light stroll across the cool, refreshing garden that was filled with the sweet scent of spring flowers before he was finally escorted to the rooms beside it, which functioned similarly to the ones adjacent to the gymnasiums.

They were smaller, better furnished, and maintained gardens meant for the rich and famous, and filled with many more amenities such as comfortable couches drinks parlor, and some even a large bed- just in case one wanted a nap after the relaxing baths.

After this, Claude led Alexander to a series of rooms in the very back, which were large massage parlors, all attended by very big, muscular men.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

If you wanted to have muscles really stretched and tenderized after a bath, these were your guys as advertised by a flashy Claude,

"My lord, we have the best massagers on the whole island. Once you come here after your bath and let them show you their skills… hehe trust me… you will feel so relaxed and rested, that you will not be able to even feel your bones."

"Many of our patrons have trouble even walking out of here. Some even fall asleep on the benches, forcing us to gently nudge them awake by the end hahaha!"

The supervisor reported this in a very exaggerated manner, as if telling a story too absurd to believe.

And both the queens seem to also think that, not believing that anyone could fall asleep upon seeing how roughly some of the attendants were handling their patrons.

The strong clapping sounds as the large hands slapped the muscles and the way many of the limbs and flesh were twisted to the point they turned red made it very hard for them to believe that this was even enjoyable.

Lady Nanazin wondered why the men would willingly put themselves through such an ordeal while Lady Parthia who suddenly remembered of her own 'massage' at the hands of Alexander and what transpired afterward grimaced at the painful display.

Only Alexander who had experienced similar service back on Earth found it too plausible, and he was even eager to give the thing a try.

He was feeling a bit stiff around the joints.

His only complaint was that this seemed to be a only male service, offered and used by only men. It appeared that despite all their advancements, the Cairans had yet to discover the concept of 'happy time'.

And perhaps it was due to the absence of women masseur that there also no women there, as also pointed out by Claude,

"Ahhh… it's too bad my lord… if we only could get a few women attendants. Many of the men even told me that their wives are interested… *Sigh*, this would also lessen the burden on Lady Miranda."

Given these massage parlors were extra, the man felt he was also losing out on a lot of untapped revenue.

However Alexander could see this was another of Claude's ways of sucking up to him and really, he was not really interested in this.

Else he would have already found another way.

So the pasha humorously chimed, "Then you will have to dress men as women, or else they won't be strong enough!"

"Haha, right, right, my lord. It takes a lot of strength to work here. Any woman would have her twig like arms broken in a few days! I don't want to get sued for mistreating my workers."

...….

Having finally finished the tours of the corridors, Claude then at last turned to Alexander to pose,

"My lord, before we enter the main bath, why don't we go to the back? I remember Lady Miranda mentioning you were interested in knowing how the whole bathhouse worked. Well, the heart of the building is there."

Alexander naturally had no problem with this and was thus soon taken to the very end of the huge building, which opened up to a large open field.

The place a filled with numerous huge fireplaces, being attended by nearly a hundred men tirelessly feeding logs and other firewood into the fiery inferno.

"My lord, the water for the baths comes from the river and is first stored in thirty two huge reservoirs underground. They are right below us. This is the water used in all the baths, pools, and saunas.

"And beneath the entire building are a series of copper chimneys and pipes that stand on small, stone pipes, through which we move the hot air produced from these furnaces, thus heating the whole place."

"It took us 10,000 men to build the whole thing!"

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