Chapter 011: Traveling Through the Middle Ages

Chapter 011: Traveling Through the Middle Ages

On a cold winter morning, Louisa woke up early. She didn’t set out to wake up early; it just happened naturally. After all, there wasn’t much to do for fun back then, and even for nobles, there were only occasional evening banquets, a bit better off than the common folk who toiled from dawn till dusk. In such circumstances, it was almost impossible not to keep a healthy schedule!

As for Louisa, she could take some books from her Portable Space—a magical storage area she could access anytime—to read. She and her aunt had left some 'collections' at home.

But given how dim the lighting was back then and the inconvenience of nearsightedness, she decided against it... The Middle Ages actually had 'glasses,' but they were quite crude, and they probably weren’t very comfortable to wear.

After getting up, Louisa began her usual morning rituals, with a maid bringing hot water and other items sent by the servant. She felt fortunate to be a noble in this life; otherwise, even the simple act of morning washing would become a very troublesome, if not impossible, task!

Louisa took the 'toothbrush'—a tool for cleaning teeth, which was quite rare at the time—handed to her by the maid, which she had ordered a craftsman to make.

In ancient China, as early as the Song and Yuan dynasties, there were already artificial toothbrushes, but in the Middle Ages, such things didn’t exist—however, the development of civilization has its convergence, and even in primitive tribes, one could occasionally see 'chewing sticks' (chewing on certain branches to fray their fibers, used as toothbrushes, similar to the 'morning chew wood' in ancient China).

Therefore, in the Middle Ages, some folks who knew a thing or two about taking care of their teeth would brush their teeth, some using small sticks wrapped in cloth to clean their teeth, others using 'chewing sticks' or similar items. Of course, the most common tool was the toothpick, used to clean between teeth. The most common toothpicks were made from thorn spines, while nobles preferred toothpicks made of brass or silver.

Louisa had a craftsman make a toothbrush with an ivory handle—a luxury material, showing her high status—and horsehair bristles. Although it was 'innovative,' it wasn’t earth-shattering; at most, people would consider her particularly fastidious.

However, Louisa didn’t use the toothbrush she had made very often. Not only did she have it scalded with hot water before each use, but whenever no one was watching her brush, she would secretly use a modern toothbrush from her Portable Space supermarket. The feel and cleaning effect were much better, and more importantly, nylon bristles—synthetic fibers that were much cleaner and safer—didn’t accumulate bacteria and fungi as easily as animal hair bristles, reducing the risk of oral infections.

Louisa knew the toothbrushes of this era weren’t great, but she had them made to pave the way for her to use a modern toothbrush openly in the future. Once people got used to her using a toothbrush, bringing out a modern one would only make them think it was an especially luxurious and refined toothbrush, without raising suspicions.

Additionally, it was a way to encourage better tooth care, slowly introducing the concept of brushing to those around her.

This morning, with someone watching her wash, Louisa didn’t take out the modern toothbrush. The toothpaste she used with the toothbrush was also something she made in this era—mostly made of charcoal powder and peppermint oil (not pure peppermint oil, but a compound oil blended with olive oil).

Charcoal powder served as an abrasive, and peppermint oil freshened breath, with both having antibacterial properties. Considering that wilderness survival shows often use charcoal as an emergency toothpaste, such a simple homemade toothpaste was fine for occasional use.

As for urine, the main ingredient in toothpaste or mouthwash at the time, although Louisa rationally knew that the ammonia in urine was effective and that urine was quite clean as long as it wasn’t contaminated after leaving the body... she just couldn’t bring herself to use it.

After finishing her morning routine, Louisa's tongue touched her teeth, feeling them quite smooth, and the effect was acceptable. She was determined to keep her teeth clean and white in this life.

This wasn’t vanity but for health! Good teeth mean good health. She didn’t want to struggle to enjoy food as she got older, suffering from toothaches.

Moreover, generally, the last milk teeth—baby teeth that fall out as children grow—fall out between the ages of 12 to 14, replaced by new teeth (except for wisdom teeth). She had been keeping track, and currently, only her second molars hadn’t been replaced. That means her teeth were mostly permanent, and once severely worn or decayed, there were no replacements.

As for the crude methods for fixing or pulling teeth of the barber-surgeons of this era, Louisa didn’t want to experience them!

After finishing her morning routine, Louisa, having missed the chance to use her modern toothbrush and toothpaste, also rinsed her mouth carefully with mouthwash—a common way to keep teeth clean at the time and for the next few centuries.

Toothbrush bristles were often too hard, damaging teeth and gums, or too soft, providing little cleaning effect. Toothpicks often injured gums and widened gaps between teeth, while rinsing was easy and simple, with no side effects.

There were many mouthwash recipes at the time, but Louisa politely declined. Most of these mouthwashes used urine, and those that didn’t had ingredients that seemed suspicious to her. She naturally chose to sneak some from her Portable Space, and the sneaked mouthwash didn’t easily attract the maid’s attention, at most making her think Louisa was extravagant, even her mouthwash was fragrant.

Scented items were a luxury back then.

But then again, weren’t all nobles extravagant? So it was taken for granted.

In her previous life, Louisa's family's supermarket was in a village, and among the surrounding residents, not many had the habit of using mouthwash. But perhaps due to the pandemic—a widespread illness that made people more cautious about cleanliness—people became unusually concerned about disinfectants and cleaning products, making them common household items. Mouthwash also rode this wave of popularity, appearing on supermarket shelves...

Well, the recently opened bottle was apple-flavored, a flavor Louisa enjoyed.

"Do we have the shopping list?" Louisa asked Alan, the knight recently in charge of procuring sugar beets, while having breakfast.

After returning to Bruges, Louisa immediately arranged for Jeanne, who came with her from the nunnery, to enter the castle's main kitchen, to make it easier to prepare her own meals... She really couldn’t get used to the Middle Ages' diet.

Also, to show piety, noblewomen generally didn’t eat breakfast, so the castle kitchen didn’t prepare meals for the ladies. Louisa's breakfast was prepared by Jeanne—for example, today she had milk, fried eggs, and fried sausages for breakfast, plain but just the way she liked it.

Alan had been a page in the Bruges court since his naming day at seven, running errands for court ladies while learning to read and write, and receiving basic military training. At fourteen, he naturally became a squire, assisting a formal knight. The knight also taught him the seven knightly skills—essential skills every knight was expected to master: riding, swimming, javelin throwing, fencing, hunting, chess, and poetry.

In the court of Brudo, every knight who rose from being a page would receive the count’s attention, as these knights were destined to become the core force of his rule over Brudo. In the past, he had some memory of Alan, because Alan, like his father, demonstrated exceptional accounting talent.

This era had entered the middle to late Middle Ages, where military nobles, though violent, also began to cultivate their virtues. Governing land no longer depended solely on force but also valued the cultural literacy of officials. Besides selecting officials from the clergy, it was not uncommon for some knights to take on civil roles.

However, it had not yet reached the point several hundred years later when military preparedness was neglected, and the greatest label of the nobility was elegance and frailty.

In the courts of other great nobles, whether a knight like Alan, who was skilled in bookkeeping, could be heavily relied upon was uncertain, but in the court of Brudo, he was quite popular. Due to long-term mercantilism and the prosperity of the Brudo market, there had always been a high demand for accounting talents.

Compared to hiring "outsiders," a knight like Alan, who was considered "one of their own," was naturally more trustworthy.

If it weren’t for his father’s expertise in this field, as a knight of very ordinary origins, he wouldn’t have obtained such a coveted position as the "market scribe." It also allowed him, due to his importance, to send his second son to the count’s court as a page—although it was customary for lower nobility to send their children to higher nobility for education, the courts of great nobles still had their thresholds.

Alan presented the beet purchase bill to Louisa. At this time, most bills were easy to read, and Louisa, who had picked up some mental arithmetic in her past life, could immediately verify them as she went through them in order.

After reviewing it, she nodded: "It looks acceptable; the usable beets from the Troyes area that were easy to harvest have all been collected. Hmm... let me think, how much sugar has the sugar workshop accumulated recently..."

Though Louisa reviewed the bill swiftly, Alan didn’t think she was being careless. In their recent collaboration, he had witnessed Louisa’s computational abilities... which was indeed surprising, since nobles of this era didn’t value knowledge. Not to mention noblewomen, even men who had more access to educational resources were often unlearned.

Moreover, Louisa had grown up in a nunnery, which made Alan wonder: Do nunneries now teach things other than scripture recitation, like monasteries?

Louisa was unaware of Alan’s inner doubts and only calculated the sugar yield based on the beets purchased and the sugar produced. She arrived at a very pitiful figure, only 2%!

Although with the current sugar extraction techniques, it was impossible to fully extract the sugar from the beets, so there should still be some room for improvement in sugar-making techniques. Additionally, obtaining primitive sugar beets from Fontenoy should also help increase the sugar yield from beets. But regardless, there wouldn’t be much room for improvement in the near future.