After the meal, the nobility retired to their various pursuits and Lucas met with the Duke in his study. Also present was the Lord General Tyr, the Ladies Almistraus and Versi, as well as Cardinal Simon who had not attended the feat earlier. Apparently, two of the Duke’s Knight Captains were supposed to be here as well, but servants informed them that they had been carried unconscious back to their rooms after overindulging.

The Duke had laughed it off and said he would inform them of the meetings contents in the morning. He then poured himself another glass of wine from a liquor cabinet set into the wall.

“Now then, Lord Hero Lucas.” Duke Are was slurring slightly, but still was capable of walking. “Please, tell me about the powers you will unleash upon the demons! Any aid we can give will also, of course, be yours!”

Lucas let out a sigh. “First, just call me Lucas. That ‘Lord Hero’ business is a pain to deal with. Second, I have no powers whatsoever, nor anything I can give you to directly fight those things. Frankly, I tried to tell you this before but you did not seem interested in listening.”

The Duke was momentarily stunned, and his son came to his rescue. “Wait a minute, then what can you do?” Tyr was much more clear headed then his father, though still obviously showing the effects of too much to drink. “Was the whole expedition a waste? Lives thrown away for nothing?”

He was shouting towards the end of his questions, and Lucas had to step back to be out of range of the spittle that flew. Disgusted, Lucas scowled at Tyr.

“I did not say that I can do nothing, merely that the improvements won’t directly help you kill demons.” Lucas honestly considered waiting until everyone was sober, and for that matter present, before explaining, but he supposed the Ladies deserve an explanation. Even if he had been essentially kidnapped, dozens had staked their lives on the expedition, and far fewer came home than left.

“Chiefly, I will be introducing several methods to reduce and prevent disease, as well as help reduce deaths related to infection. While this won't be direct, as I said, having more soldiers to send to battle, and more return after being wounded will increase your overall forces.”

The Duke seemed confused, but the Ladies and Cardinal seemed thoughtful, Lucas decided to push forward.

“In the same vein, I can help improve the output of your farms and reduce child mortality. Again, the end result is a growth in population, and therefore a growth in your forces. While this seems modest, my own world shows just how much of a difference these changes make to population. Human growth is exponential, in two hundred years the sheer weight of numbers will shove the demons back.”

“Two hundred years?” Tyr sputtered. “The legends say that the other heros were able to push the demons back in a few months, and had nearly eliminated them altogether in a few decades!”

“That was what, two thousand years ago? I doubt those legends are even remotely accurate to begin with, and even if they were that changes nothing about the current situation.”

Lucas glared at the Duke, who hid his discomfort with another drink of wine. “What I am offering is essentially an unlimited army. No matter how many people are killed, the population will grow. A little over a hundred years ago in my world, the population was one point six billion, and at the time of my abduction the population was around six billion. Between those two points were massive wars that covered the entire globe, so many died that all we can do is estimate the casualties, but somewhere around seventy seven million to a hundred million people were killed, not even counting the epidemics and famine after the war.”

“I can see your point,” Cardinal Simon intervened to stop Lucas’s near rant. “However, you can imagine that this is very different from what we expected. If you were able to offer us something in that area, the rest would likely go through much more smoothly.”

Lucas scowled even more as he thought, “I suppose I know enough basic chemistry to teach you some things. But I am not an engineer, all I can really do is point you in the right direction and teach you certain basics. Biology and genetics should never be used for weapons.”

Lady Versi seemed to notice his peculiar phrasing, “Should not be? That implies that they can be.”

Lucas cursed himself for letting that slip, he had to keep in mind that while they lacked science these people were experts at reading others and seeing through clever words.

Still, as understanding of his teachings spread, someone would have the creativity to use it for war, so perhaps it was best to nip it in the bud.

“In my world, there are three kinds of weapons feared above all others.” He said, trying to fully impress the seriousness of his words. “These weapons are termed ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ and are so powerful that humanity as a whole has recoiled from them. Early, as they were developed, each of the three types that belong to this category were used. And even victory was not sweet enough to erase the horror of it.”

Lucas had grown up in the United States, a country which had nuked Japan twice without real understanding of the power of the weapons they used at the time. To make matters worse, the reasons for using the weapons were sound. The Japanese fought ferociously, with a level of dedication to their country that inspired terror among U.S. soldiers and officers. The brass realized that a land invasion of Japan would cost an ocean of blood, and opted to use the atomic bomb instead.

It is difficult to say which would have been worse, but the end result of those early weapons changed the face of war. Two weapons killed hundreds of thousands, and many more later on from radiation poisoning. It was a weapon that was too powerful to be used, and perhaps should never have been made. The Cold War sprung up from this decision, with decades of fear ruling many countries as the world braced for the possibility of a nuclear armageddon caused by the U.S. and Russia clashing.

“The three weapons that fall into that category are radiological, chemical, and biological weapons. And yes, I could produce a biological weapon, but I will not.”

It was Lady Almistraus who asked him why not, though she only seemed merely curious about the reason and not accusatory because he was refusing.

“Because it is uncontrollable.” Lucas explained, “Nature is powerful by itself. There are pathogens that can slaughter human communities quickly and with ease, when a person takes those pathogens and weaponises them… You end up with something that when used will not only slaughter indiscriminately, but may mutate and evolve beyond the creators expectations. In theory, you could kill every living thing in the world with such a weapon.”

The faces around him had turned deathly pale, and even the Duke and his son seemed to have been sobered by his words.

“So no, I will not build you a weapon. I will teach your people a bit about chemistry and physics, and spend my time helping people live instead of causing them to die.”