I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 161 Critically ill
On April 4, after more than half a month of sailing, the fleet of King Antigonus finally arrived at the port of the capital city of Pella. Because there was no special publicity, the return of Antigonus did not receive much attention .

Oh, until he left the flagship Poseidon and showed up in port.

Seeing more and more civilians approaching and the eager gazes in their eyes, Antigonus couldn't help but wryly smiled.At first, no one noticed him, until the businessman who was supposed to get on the ship glanced at him inadvertently, instantly recognized Antigonus' identity, and couldn't help but exclaimed, attracting the attention of others .

Afterwards, Antigonus was watched by the Macedonian people like a rare animal. Fortunately, the soldiers of the city defense army quickly dispersed the crowd after hearing the news, and then brought Antigonus out of the crowd.Antigonus, who left the port, did not go back to the Virgina Palace, but directly boarded the welcoming carriage and headed for Nicolides' manor.

Sitting in the carriage, Antigonus could see the scenery of the bustling streets through the open window of the carriage. Although the front line was at war, the city of Pella seemed to be unaffected. The civilians still lived and worked in peace and contentment. Goods from all over the world were here. Selling, foreigners dressed in different styles can be seen roaming the streets everywhere, but most of them are people wearing Gillies-style clothing.

Compared with the anti-Macedonian wave in the Gillis Federation, the attitude of the Macedonian Kingdom towards the Gillis has not changed much because of the war. In other words, most Macedonian citizens just regard them as defeated, and do not reject those who bully them. interest.And most of these Gilis are rich people and nobles who fled overseas because of the war. Although they are exiles, their property is enough to win the "respect" of the surrounding Macedonians.

Antico could notice that the most discussed on the streets of Pella was not the war of the Gillis Federation facing the sea, but the new inventions made by the scholars at Pella University—after Antico’s instructions, Those scholars who were included in the scientific research class experimented all day long, and successfully skipped the woodblock printing technique and directly completed the research and invention of movable type printing books.

It was Antigonus who made the decision to bring printing to this world for his teaching work at Pella University. Although his cheap father, King Philip, had done the papermaking well, he was late in the technology of printing. If it is not lit, specialized scholars still need to transcribe teaching materials such as university textbooks, which is extremely inefficient, and sometimes there are insufficient books and several people need to share one book.

And printing came in handy at this time.After the invention of movable type printing, craftsmen immediately made Greek alphabet tablets and printed them according to the teachings of scholars. The craftsmen only took a short time to print a document that required several days of copying to complete. , and the handwriting is clear and the typesetting is neat. When the finished product is shipped, it instantly shocked the entire Pella University and even the entire Pella City.

So the scene that Antigonus saw appeared on the street. What the civilians were discussing was not the raging war on the front line, but the new invention of printing right beside them.

In fact, the invention of printing is not only beneficial to the teaching work in Pella University, but also to those Macedonian citizens or nobles. Generally, wealthy families will hire a teacher to teach their children literature knowledge. Naturally, books like this would have to be bought separately, so that the price of manually transcribed books would not be low, and after the printing technology came out, books could be printed in batches, and the price would drop a lot accordingly.

In any case, the invention of papermaking and printing helped to improve the education level of the common people.

……

When Antigonus arrived at the manor of Nicoleides, it was full of guests who came to visit the old philosopher. Nicoleides had no children in his life, and his wife died of illness more than ten years ago. He died, so there were only Nicoclides and a few servants in the big family. As his good friend, Senonides took the initiative to stay to take care of him and receive guests who came to visit.

Seeing that Antigonus arrived hurriedly, the guests in the manor saluted and greeted him one after another. Antigonus nodded and responded one by one. ward.

As they walked, Antigonus asked Senonides: "What disease did Teacher Nicolides have? Why is it still not cured yet?"

Senonides explained: "At the beginning, it was just a common wind and cold. After the doctor saw it, he only said to rest at home for a few days and keep warm. But after a few days, the condition did not improve, but became more serious."

"Has the wind-cold become more serious?" Antigono has little knowledge about diseases. He majored in law in his previous life, and he doesn't understand medical diseases at all. After all, he basically doesn't need to take medicine when he catches a cold in his later life, relying on his body's immunity I can carry it through.

"That's what the doctor meant, because his forehead is still very hot, and he has been in a coma, and he will wake up for a short period of time from time to time."

"This is tricky." Antico clenched his fist with his left hand and slapped his right palm hard. Because of the degeneration of their body's immunity, the old people are prone to a small disease to turn into a serious disease, and thus lose their lives. This is still the case in future generations with perfect medical conditions, let alone this era that lacks medicine.

Seeing Antigonus behave like this, Senonides hesitated for a while, not knowing whether to say another thing, but Antigonus didn't notice his strangeness, he was still thinking about how to save the old philosopher.Just when the two were about to walk to the ward, Senonides finally thought about it, and he said.

"Your Majesty, there is one more thing about you."

"What?" Antigono glanced at him and asked.

"Nicoclides mentioned you after waking up yesterday." Senonides replied, "He said that he didn't have much time, and he wanted to see you marry Helen before his soul returned to Hades... ..."

"..."

Antigonus was silent for a while. He wanted to ask if this was what you thought about yourself, but considering the character of Nicoclides, it is very likely that he would say it.

He paused and was about to speak, but Senonides said one step ahead of him: "Your Majesty, after two years, the kingdom is on the right track and stronger under your governance. I think you should too. It’s a wedding with Helen.”

"We'll talk about this later." Antico waved his hand, and then stepped into the ward first.

As soon as he stepped into the ward, Antigon felt a wave of heat coming. He took a closer look and saw that there were braziers in several corners of the room. Next to each brazier stood a servant with his head bowed, ready to fiddle with the braziers.

Seeing Antigon staring at the braziers, Senonides who followed in explained, "That's the imperial doctor's suggestion. Put more braziers to increase the temperature and relieve Nicoclides' wind chill."

Listening to his explanation, Antigonus nodded, sweating more can indeed make the cold heal sooner.

Then, he walked to the side of the hospital bed. At this time, Nicolides' face was pale, his eye sockets were slightly sunken, his forehead was covered with a wet towel, his body was also covered with a quilt, and his chest was slightly heaving.

Looking at the old man lying on the bed, Antigonus had mixed feelings in his heart. He was still in good health to see him off when he led the army to the Gillis Federation. How did he become like this in just one year? A ghostly look?

Sighing, Antigonus sat lightly on the edge of the bed. He stretched out his hand and removed the wet wipe that had been placed on Nikoklides' forehead, and tried to touch his forehead again, although there was a wet wipe After cooling down, the temperature that can be touched is still high, which surprised him a little, and quickly put the wet wipes on again.

"Go and call the doctor who is in charge of treating Mr. Nicolides. I have something to ask him." Antigonus turned his head to look at Xenonides and ordered.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Senonides responded and turned to leave.

A few minutes later, Senonides came in with a doctor. The doctor had to bow down to salute when he saw Antigonus. Antigonus waved his hand to signal that he didn't need to salute, and then asked, "Nicolides Is there any possibility of recovering from your condition?"

"This..." The doctor hesitated for a moment. He glanced at the dying old man, thought for a while, and said tactfully, "Your Majesty, you can go to the priest of Asclepius, the god of medicine. I can't think of any other way."

What he meant was to go to the gods and pray. If he can be cured well, it will be the blessing of the gods. If he can't be cured, he can't be blamed.

Antigon heard what he meant, he was silent for a while, bit his lip, and said, "Then how much time does he have?"

"Up to two months."

"Okay, you go down first." Antico nodded, telling the doctor to leave.

After the doctor left, Senonides said worriedly: "Your Majesty, why don't I go to the priest now?"

"Need not."

Antigonus shook his head, and said a little tiredly, he has never believed in so-called miracles, even doctors can't save him, so what's the point of going to those priests who stay in the temple all day and don't know what to do.

At this moment, Nicolides, who was lying on the bed, suddenly moved and groaned slightly. Antigonus was immediately attracted by his voice, and quickly followed the sound, just as he turned around. When he turned his head to look, Nicolides opened his eyes just in time, revealing the cloudy eyes covered under the eyelids.

"Teacher Nicolides, are you awake?" Antigonus said with some surprise.

Nicolides looked at the young king in front of him in a daze, but he subconsciously responded, and said with a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty?"

"It's me, I'm back." Antigonus replied.

"No, I didn't expect to see you again." Nicolides said with a smile, he struggled to pull out his skinny hand from the bed, trying to touch Antigonus's face, Antigonus quickly grabbed him hand, and put his face on it.

Feeling the rough touch on his cheek, Antigonus felt his nose sore, he opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he couldn't say anything when he reached his mouth.

Seeing Antigonus's expression, Nicolides laughed lightly, and said in a hoarse voice, "Your Majesty, people are inherently mortal, even the gods in the sky will perish one day."

"I can feel that Hades is walking towards me. He wants to lead me to Tartarus himself. I don't know if the underworld is really in darkness all year round..."

"No, you won't go to the underworld." Antigonus interrupted him, clutching his hand tightly, and said firmly: "You will definitely go to heaven, it is a beautiful place, a place like spring all the year round." There is no place for pain."

"Heaven?" Nikoklides' eyes were full of confusion, "Where is that? The top of Mount Olympus? No, my lord, that is the abode of the gods, and I am not qualified to go there .”

He shook his head wryly.

Antigonus opened his mouth, and then he remembered that there is no definition of heaven in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, the soul can only go to the other side of Okeanos in the western sea, which is called Tartarus. of Hades.

Nicolides continued: "Your Majesty, my last wish before I die is to see you marry Helen and give birth to a legal heir to the kingdom..."

"I know, Mr. Nicolides, I know."

"No, you don't know." Nicoleides said stubbornly, "Your Majesty, while I'm still here, in front of all the citizens in the audience, in front of God Queen Hera, with our Get married, Helen."

"This..." Antigonus was a little embarrassed. He glanced at Senonides, hoping that the latter would come out and say a few words, but Senonides seemed unmoved by the old monk, so he could only Quickly nodded in agreement, and said: "I promise you, teacher, I will send someone to prepare right away."

"good very good."

After receiving Antigonus's promise, Nicoclides smiled with satisfaction. However, the next second, he coughed violently again, which scared Antigonus and quickly got up to find a tissue. Senonides got there first. In one step, he ran to Nicoclides with a tissue and helped the latter cover his mouth.

After a burst of coughing, Senonides picked up the white tissue, but it was stained with blood. Antigonus was startled when he saw it, but Senonides explained to him Said: "Since the illness became serious, he would cough up blood from time to time, no matter what he did, he couldn't stop it."

Hearing this, Antigonus fell silent again. In his opinion, this symptom was very similar to the legendary pneumonia, but if he really suffered from pneumonia, it would be incurable in this world anyway.

Seeing that Antigonus was silent, Nicoclides lying on the bed smiled weakly and said, "Your Majesty, I'm tired and want to rest, you and Senonides should leave here first. "

His voice was like an organ leaking the wind, hoarse and unpleasant.

(End of this chapter)