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Join the ServerThe palace banquet hall was ablaze with brilliant lights. Above, on the dome, magically driven stars slowly rotated, casting a soft glow.
The air was filled with the aroma of roasted squab and the fragrance of elven fruit wine.
Nobles in magnificent attire gathered in small groups, conversing in low voices, their gazes occasionally drifting towards the few out-of-place figures in the center of the hall.
They were the envoys from the Iron Eagle Empire.
Unlike the exquisite velvet and feather-adorned formal wear of the Kingdom of Heinrich, they wore dark, sharply tailored uniforms with hard lines, their shoulders and cuffs adorned with metal gear-shaped insignias.
They stood ramrod straight, their expressions serious, like a group of soldiers who had stumbled into a garden.
Lia followed behind Klein, her gaze falling upon the young man at the head of the group.
He was the leader of this envoy, Konrad von Richter.
He looked to be no more than twenty-five or twenty-six, with a head of meticulously combed flaxen short hair. His facial features were as sharp as if carved by a knife, and his gray eyes shone with a calm, calculating light.
It was like a craftsman examining a piece of material, contemplating how to shape it into the tool he desired.
When Lia and Klein appeared, Konrad’s gaze locked onto them immediately.
He did not perform the chest-touching salute like the other nobles, but simply nodded slightly and walked straight over.
“Master Klein, Professor Lia,” his voice was clear and powerful, with a texture like metal rubbing against metal. “I’ve heard much about you.”
“Mr. Richter,” Klein returned the equally concise greeting.
King Augustus walked over in a timely manner, a diplomatic smile on his face.
“Envoy Richter has come from afar, and our Kingdom of Heinrich is deeply honored. Tonight’s banquet is to welcome all of you.”
“Thank you for your Majesty’s hospitality,” Konrad said, neither servile nor overbearing. “However, compared to fine wine and delicacies, I am personally more interested in the exchange of knowledge.”
He turned his gaze to Lia, his eyes filled with an undisguised fervor.
“Professor Lia, your papers on electromagnetic theory are nothing short of masterpieces. Especially the part about electromagnetic induction, it has simply opened a new world for us.”
He made no mention of the spacetime theory or the mass-energy equivalence formula that had thrown the Royal Capital into chaos, as if those things didn’t exist at all.
“You flatter me,” Lia replied politely.
“No, I never flatter,” a slight curve appeared on Konrad’s lips. “I only believe in things that can be built.”
With that, he made a move that surprised everyone present.
From the spatial ring he wore, he took out a device that looked quite crude.
It consisted of a wooden base, coils of wound copper wire, and a magnet, with a clumsy hand crank attached to the side.
The entire device was filled with traces of being handmade, clashing sharply with the luxurious atmosphere of the banquet hall.
“What is that?” a noble asked curiously.
Konrad didn’t answer, but instead took a small gadget with an enchanted light bulb embedded in its base from his assistant.
He connected the two copper wire ends from his device to the metal contacts on the bulb’s base.
Then, under the astonished gazes of everyone, he began to vigorously turn the hand crank.
Squeak, squeak—
A harsh scraping sound arose as the coil began to clumsily rotate between the magnets.
Just as everyone thought this was just a boring prank, the enchanted light bulb suddenly flickered, emitting a faint, unstable glimmer of light.
Although the light vanished in an instant, it struck the nerves of every mage present like a bolt of lightning.
What had they just seen?
No incantation, no magic array, just by cranking a shabby piece of machinery, he had lit up an enchanted light bulb that required an infusion of magic to glow!
“I have tentatively named it ‘Magic Converter One’,” Konrad stopped, a hint of pride on his face. “It is capable of converting mechanical motion into electricity.”
He looked at Lia, his eyes burning.
“All of this stems from the formula in your paper. You are its mother, and I am merely a humble midwife.”
Lia’s gaze was completely captivated by the simple device.
This was the first time in this world that she had seen with her own eyes a theory from her mind transformed into a tangible, operational entity in the real world.
This feeling was completely different from the shock of deriving E = mc².
“Your design is clever, but it has flaws,” Lia said, almost subconsciously.
Konrad’s eyes grew brighter. “I’m all ears.”
“First, the arrangement of your magnet and coil causes severe magnetic flux leakage. The energy conversion efficiency will not exceed three percent.”
“Second, the commutator you use to change the direction of the current is too crudely structured. It will produce a large number of electric sparks, which not only wastes energy but will also wear out and fail quickly.”
“Third, your mechanical transmission structure is too rough. Overcoming friction alone wastes at least half of the input energy.”
Lia’s series of critiques left the surrounding nobles utterly bewildered.
Konrad, however, listened as if to the most beautiful symphony. He even took out a charcoal pencil and a small notebook, scribbling down notes rapidly.
Augustus watched Konrad quietly from the side.
His intuition told him that when Konrad was demonstrating that “Magic Converter,” the glint that flashed in the depths of his eyes was a thirst for war.
He saw not a lit bulb, but the driving force for steel golems, the endless power supply for frontline fortresses.
“Professor Lia, your wisdom is astounding,” Konrad said sincerely after he finished writing, looking up.
“I propose that our two nations cooperate to jointly develop this great technology.
The Empire can provide the highest quality mineral resources, the most skilled craftsmen, and unlimited funding. And you, you only need to provide your knowledge.”
“Together, we can turn this small ‘Unit One’ into a behemoth capable of powering an entire city, or even an entire nation.”
His words were full of incitement.
In the banquet hall, Augustus’s eyes flickered, as if weighing something.
Klein took half a step forward, inconspicuously positioning himself between Lia and Konrad.
“Mr. Richter’s proposal is very interesting,” Klein’s voice was flat, yet it carried an indisputable tone. “We will consider it seriously.”
“For now, let’s allow our guests to sample the delicacies of the Royal Capital first.”
The banquet continued in a strange atmosphere.
Konrad von Richter, the engineer from the land of steel, had dropped a blockbuster bomb in the center of power of the Kingdom of Heinrich with a crude hand-cranked generator.
What it had blown open was a new era, an era named “Application.”
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