Chapter 155: Moonlight Lake

On the outskirts of the kingdom, there was a famous scenic spot known as Moonlight Lake.

It was the favorite summer resort of the kingdom’s nobility, its waters as clear as a mirror, reflecting the myriad stars in the sky.

The night breeze was cool, rustling the reeds on the shore.

A carriage, bearing no family crest, was parked in the shade of the trees by the lake.

Lia sat on a bench by the lake, holding a box of hot meatballs—something a certain Archmage had casually bought when they passed a night market earlier.

She speared one with a bamboo skewer. It was a bit hot, and she puffed at it to cool it down.

Klein sat beside her, holding a glass of iced lemonade.

For a rare change, he was wearing a loose white shirt, the top two buttons undone, and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his well-defined forearms.

“How much longer do you want to sit here?”

Klein swirled the glass in his hand, the ice cubes clinking crisply.

“Waiting for it to cool down a bit,” Lia mumbled, finally popping the meatball into her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out, like a hamster hoarding food.

Klein watched her, his gaze shifting from her cheeks, which moved as she chewed, to the corner of her mouth, which was dotted with a bit of sauce.

“Adèle must have been going crazy these past three days.”

Lia swallowed the meatball, her eyes narrowing in satisfaction. “Is it really okay for us to just disappear like this?”

“As I said, I’m responsible for the physical and mental health of a Seventh Circle Mage. After a promotion, one needs to stabilize their realm, and the best way to do that is to relax.”

“So you dragged me around the streets for three days, treated me to five big meals, and now we’re here at Moonlight Lake, a place only couples come to, feeding mosquitoes?” Lia shot him a sideways glance.

“The mosquitoes can’t get in here.”

Klein raised a hand, his fingertips twitching slightly.

Only then did Lia realize they were enveloped in a very faint, transparent barrier.

It not only blocked the insects but also kept out the chill of the night wind, leaving only a refreshing coolness.

“Is this the magic control of an Eighth Circle Mage? Using it as a mosquito repellent is truly a luxury.”

“As long as it’s useful, it’s not a luxury.”

Klein turned to the side to look at Lia. “Besides, you didn’t object.”

Lia paused.

It was true.

For the past three days, from shopping for clothes, to going to the theater to watch a mind-numbingly boring opera, to now sitting by the lake in a daze, she could have refused. She could have said,

“I want to go back,” or “I need to write my paper.”

But she hadn’t.

She even kind of enjoyed this feeling of being just an ordinary girl, being taken care of, having everything arranged for her.

Especially since the person arranging all this was Klein.

“I was just giving my mentor face,” Lia said stubbornly.

“Is that so?” Klein put down his glass.

He suddenly leaned closer to Lia, reached out a hand, and gently wiped the corner of her mouth with his fingertip.

He suddenly leaned a little closer.

The distance between them shrank to a dangerous range.

Lia instinctively tried to shrink back, but the bench was only so wide. There was nowhere to retreat.

She was still holding the skewer, the meatball on it wobbling precariously.

“Don’t move,” Klein raised his hand.

Lia thought he was about to do something outrageous again, like in the clothing store. Her heart leaped to her throat, her eyelashes fluttered, and she closed her eyes.

The expected touch did not land on her lips.

The pad of his thumb gently brushed the corner of her mouth.

“You got some sauce on you.”

Klein’s voice held a hint of a smile.

Lia’s eyes snapped open.

Klein was looking at her, a bit of dark brown sauce on his fingertip, his eyes teasing. “What were you expecting? Colleague?”

Lia felt her cheeks instantly burn, even her ears were hot.

She’d been tricked! This man was definitely doing it on purpose!

“I was expecting you to stay away from me!”

Lia, angry and embarrassed, put the box aside and stood up to leave.

Her wrist was caught.

A force pulled her, she lost her balance, and fell back onto the seat.

This time, not beside him, but directly into Klein’s arms.

“Alright, I’ll stop teasing you.” Klein tightened his arms around her waist, not letting her struggle free.

His chin rested on the top of Lia’s head, his voice deepening.

“Lia.”

“Mmm?” Lia’s body was stiff, her nose filled with the crisp scent of cedar mixed with a hint of lemon.

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask.”

Klein’s palm rested on her back, the warmth seeping through the thin fabric. “That day on the bridge, were you really just tired?”

Lia fell silent.

That was the first time they had truly crossed the line.

“What if I said…”

Lia took a deep breath, as if having made a decision. “…it wasn’t because I was tired, but because I wanted you to hold me?”

The arm around her tightened a fraction.

Klein didn’t speak.

But the vibration in his chest had clearly quickened.

After a long time, just as Lia thought he wouldn’t answer, he spoke.

“You don’t need to find excuses in the future.”

Klein released his embrace, instead taking her hand.

Fingers intertwined, a perfect fit.

“Whenever you want.”

He looked into Lia’s eyes. The star-filled sky was reflected in his azure pupils, along with Lia’s flustered yet somewhat joyful face.

“Anytime.”

The evening wind blew across the lake, creating ripples.

***

The next morning, the door to the mage tower was pushed open.

“Finally decided to come back?”

A faint voice came from the top of the stairs.

Adèle sat on the steps, hugging her knees, exuding a thick aura of anger, looking like a resentful spirit who had been abandoned for a hundred years.

A pile of discarded parchment lay at her feet, the tragic result of her three days of slaving over alchemy homework.

“Mentor, Lia.”

Adèle looked up, two huge dark circles under her eyes.

“Do you know how I’ve spent the last three days? I burned a lock of my hair trying to control the temperature of that damned chamomile!”

Klein, looking straight ahead, placed a bag containing a new mage robe on the table—it was for Adèle, but he said nothing and went straight upstairs.

Lia couldn’t help but laugh at Adèle’s miserable state.

She walked over to Adèle and took an exquisite gift box from her spatial ring.

“Here.”

“What is this?”

Adèle looked at the box warily. “If it’s a new set of exercises, I’ll die right here in front of you.”

“Open it and see.”

Adèle suspiciously untied the ribbon.

Inside the box lay a pale purple staff.

The staff was made of fine yew wood, with a high-quality magic-conducting crystal embedded at the top, and fine anti-vibration runes carved around it—specifically designed for alchemical apprentices like Adèle who tended to be a bit clumsy during experiments.

“Wow!”

Adèle’s resentment vanished instantly, her eyes wide as saucers.

“This… this is for me?”

“Mmm, we passed by a workshop and I thought it would suit you.”

Lia patted Adèle’s head while she was distracted. “And, it’s been enchanted with an automatic temperature control array, so you won’t have to worry about burning your hair anymore.”

“Lia, you’re an angel!”

Adèle hugged the staff, moved to tears. “A million times better than that black-hearted mentor who only knows how to assign homework!”

Klein’s cold voice came from the stairs: “Adèle, double the homework for today.”

Adèle: “…”

Lia suppressed a laugh, patted her shoulder, and went to the study.

In the study, several letters delivered by owl were already piled on the desk.

The most conspicuous was a joint letter from Horace and Eleonora.

Lia opened the letter.

It was more of an experiment report than a letter.

Eleonora’s handwriting was a bit messy, clearly written in a hurry.

She first briefly described how they had discovered the first model was wrong through the experiment Lia had envisioned, and the new model they had subsequently deduced.

“Ever since we deduced the internal structure of the atom from the experiment, Horace has gone completely mad with calculations.

We found that if electrons orbit the nucleus like planets, Maxwell’s equations would cause our damned atom to be instantly destroyed by continuous radiation of energy.

Therefore, we believe the electrons are stationary, bound around the nucleus by some kind of force field, which would explain the stability of the atom.”

Lia frowned at this.

‘Electrons are stationary? That’s a bit unconventional, but it does explain the atom’s stability.’

“Of course, the concept of stationary electrons needs more experiments to verify.

Horace is already eager to use this theory to study nuclear fission and fusion, but I’m still trying to persuade him to figure out the theory of electron motion first.”

“Hopefully they’ll make new discoveries in the lab, but they said this is just the first version, and it will be continuously revised in the future.”

At the end of the letter, Eleonora wished Lia good luck on her final exams. Horace had only scrawled a “Good.”

Lia shook her head, folded the letter, and put it in the envelope. She opened the study window, and a gust of wind blew in, scattering the letters on the desk all over the floor.

Lia picked up Horace’s letter. He had been studying the new theory for days, even…

A charged electron, as soon as it moves, will radiate energy, and then, like a kite with a broken string, it will plunge into the nucleus. The nucleus will collapse, and the world will be destroyed.

“But the world is still here.”

“So, we made a decision.”

Lia’s fingers tightened at this point.

“We’ve decided to temporarily kick your Maxwell’s equations out of the game.”

“Although this sounds crazy, even heretical. After all, it’s the bible of electromagnetism. But the facts are before us: the nucleus is small, and the world is stable. If theory conflicts with reality, it must be that the theory is incomplete.”

“We are trying to find a new explanation. Since existing physics doesn’t work, is it possible that in that microscopic world, there is a whole new set of rules we haven’t discovered yet?”

“We are considering and cautiously using quantum theory for an explanation.”

Lia let out a long sigh of relief.

As expected of the top minds in this world.

They didn’t cling stubbornly to classical theory, nor did they completely reject the model because of its imperfections.

Instead, they keenly sensed the core of the problem—the microscopic world might have another, new set of rules.

The style of the latter half of the letter changed abruptly.

It was Horace’s frantic handwriting.

“Also! That old fossil from the elemental school, that old fool Griffin! He published an article in the ‘Alchemy Weekly’ a few days ago! He actually proposed something called a ‘chemical bond’!”

“He said there might be some kind of ‘hook’ or ‘bridge’ between atoms.

When atoms of different elements get close, their outer electrons interact in some way, either by giving electrons to each other or by sharing them. It is this interaction that binds atoms together to form new substances.”

“That old fool doesn’t understand mathematics, but this idea… damn it, it seems to make some sense!”

Lia’s lips curled into a smile at the words “chemical bond.”

The wheels of history were accelerating.

The proposal of the chemical bond theory meant that mages were beginning to understand the composition of matter at the atomic level.

They were no longer satisfied with the alchemical experience of “mixing A and B to get C,” but were beginning to explore “why A can combine with B.”

It was as if someone had lit a torch in a dark labyrinth. Although the light was faint and the area it illuminated was limited, it was enough for people to see the path at their feet.

Inside the atom, the arrangement of electrons, the levels of energy.

This was a huge treasure trove.

Now, everyone was standing at the entrance of the treasure trove.

They knew there was treasure inside, and they knew the key might be on those randomly flying electrons, but no one knew how to insert the key into the lock.

Because on that door was written a line of words:

“Use of classical physics is prohibited.”

Lia folded the letter and placed it on the corner of the desk.

She walked to the window and looked out at the bustling square of the mage tower below.

The fountain in the square refracted the sunlight into a rainbow.