Chapter 240: Walking Gold Coins and a New Handbook

After Lady Eleonora’s visit, life in the mage tower returned to its former tranquility.

The rumors about a distant small country and some “True God Religion” were like a pebble thrown into a lake; they failed to leave even a ripple and were quickly pushed to the back of Lia’s mind.

The afternoon sun streamed through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling onto the soft carpet.

Lia was curled up on the sofa, leafing through an old book of poetry, while Klein was nearby handling several documents from the Royal Academy of Sciences, occasionally taking a sip of red tea.

“Breaking news! Absolute breaking news!”

Adèle rushed in like a whirlwind, waving the latest issue of “Capital Style” magazine, her excitement impossible to hide.

Lia lazily shifted her gaze from the poetry book. “What is it? Did the Marquis of Philip’s wig blow away in the wind again?”

“A hundred times more explosive than that!” Adèle slammed the magazine onto the table, pointing at the cover as she announced loudly, “The ‘Pioneer I’, Master Hoffman’s automatic carriage, has officially entered mass production! The first batch of thirty vehicles has been completely sold out through pre-orders!”

“Oh?” Lia showed a bit of interest. “How is the speed?”

“It’s not just about speed!” Adèle sat down excitedly beside her.

“The magazine says that the day before yesterday, the son of the Chancellor of the Exchequer drove a ‘Pioneer’ on the Royal Highway outside the city and raced against Duke Roland’s gryphon. Guess what happened?”

“The gryphon won?”

“It lost! Utterly and completely!” Adèle spoke with vivid excitement.

“That poor gryphon was so tired its tongue was hanging out, yet it still couldn’t catch up. Duke Roland’s face turned green, and he went straight to His Majesty to request a pre-order for one himself, specifically asking for the highest configuration.”

Lia couldn’t help but laugh. “I remember Master Hoffman’s design having a top speed of only thirty kilometers per hour. A gryphon’s short-distance sprint speed is far more than that.”

“The point is, the ‘Pioneer’ doesn’t need to rest!” Adèle explained.

“It can just keep running and running! Now the young nobles in the capital are going crazy. Owning a ‘Pioneer’ brings more prestige than owning a gryphon mount. My father also ordered one; it should arrive next month!”

Klein put down his documents and added calmly, “To be precise, it was Master Hoffman’s team using Master Grey’s ‘Eight-Circle quality’ precision gears and mana inverters that achieved the current effect.”

“Details aren’t important!” Adèle waved her hand. “What matters is that our lives are being changed! Look at this!”

She flipped to another page of the magazine, which was filled with advertisements for various goods.

“Master Fiona’s ‘Eternal Light Bulb Company’ saw its profits quintuple last month! Their bulbs have a long lifespan and are cheap; now even many families in the commoner districts are using them.”

“And Master Isabelle’s ‘Frost Box’—even though she was very reluctant, she still changed the power supply from direct current to alternating current.

Now, if the noble ladies in the capital don’t have this to chill their fruit and yogurt in the summer, they can’t even hold their afternoon tea parties.”

“Oh, right, there’s also this: the Marcus Joint Workshop’s latest ‘Mana Warm Air Unit’. They say it makes a room as warm as spring even in winter. Plenty of people have already pre-ordered it.”

Adèle finished in one breath and gulped down some juice from the table, concluding, “Lia, you are simply a walking mountain of gold coins! Everything that touches your theories is creating wealth at a frantic pace!”

“How are the unemployed dockworkers doing now?” Lia suddenly remembered the previous turmoil.

“Them?” Adèle laughed.

“They are currently in high demand! A batch of students just came out of the Kingdom Vocational Skills Training Center, and every one of them obtained a junior electrician certification.

Their salaries are three times higher than what they used to earn carrying sacks at the docks! Many people are scrambling to hire them!”

“The former ‘Hoof of the Galloping Steed Guild’ has now renamed itself ‘Galloping Horse Logistics’.

They phased out most of their manual labor and purchased a batch of electric cargo platforms. They specialize in large-scale deliveries within the city, and their efficiency is far higher than before.”

The pangs of social transition were being rapidly smoothed over in the face of the massive dividends created by new technology, even transforming into a driving force for development.

Lia nodded, feeling satisfied with this outcome.

“Speaking of which,” Adèle suddenly lowered her voice and leaned in mysteriously, “do you know what the situation is like over at the particle accelerator right now?”

Lia looked at Klein. After Klein had moved the entire laboratory to the valley, they had delegated all follow-up matters to Master Horace.

“Is Master Horace doing alright? He hasn’t been drowned by those application forms, has he?”

“Almost!” Adèle looked sympathetic. “I heard Master Horace complaining that he has never seen so many whimsical mages in his life. Since that proposal system was implemented, the Institute’s review committee has been going mad.”

“What kind of proposals are there?” Lia asked curiously.

“It’s a dance of demons,” Adèle cleared her throat and began to imitate Master Horace’s tone.

“‘Respected Committee, I, the Fifth-Circle Evocation Mage Bach, request ten percent of the particle accelerator’s power for a week-long experiment aimed at finding evidence for the existence of ether.’ — This was the first one to be rejected.”

“‘Great Seekers of Truth, we, a team consisting of three Fourth-Circle alchemists, request machine time to attempt a collision between lead atoms and mithril atoms. We firmly believe this can open the door to the Philosopher’s Stone.’ — Master Horace’s annotation was: ‘Suggest reviewing elementary element theory first.’”

Lia was thoroughly amused. “These ideas are truly creative.”

“There are even more ridiculous ones,” Adèle continued. “‘A mysterious organization calling itself the “Soul School” submitted a fifty-page proposal wanting to collide the purest mana crystals to capture soul particles, thereby proving the existence of God.’”

“This proposal came with over a hundred pages of philosophical arguments, but the physical basis was only one sentence: ‘I feel that it exists.’”

A corner of Klein’s mouth twitched slightly.

“Of course, it’s not all nonsense.” Adèle pulled a document from her spatial ring and handed it to Lia. “Master Horace asked me to pass this to you. It’s the first batch of experimental reports that passed the review and have been completed.”

Lia took the report and flipped through it quickly.

Most were materials science experiments led by the military and supervised by Duke Roland. They were systematically bombarding various alloys with high-energy particles, trying to find a new material superior to “mana-steel alloy.”

Although there were no breakthrough results yet, they had accumulated a large amount of valuable data.

However, one thin report caught Lia’s attention. The proposer was an obscure Fourth-Circle female mage named Cecil. Her research topic was “Experimental Verification of the Muon Decay Path.”

“This is a pure theoretical physics topic, completely unrelated to applications or wealth.”

The report showed that Cecil’s team was granted only a brief five minutes of machine time.

But in those five minutes, they successfully captured clear tracks of a predicted “transient particle,” which existed for less than a billionth of a second.

At the end of the report was Master Laplace’s personal verification, proving that the data observed in the experiment matched Cecil’s theoretical prediction with a confidence level of ninety-seven percent.

“This Cecil has good ideas.” Lia nodded approvingly after finishing the report.

“Yes, Master Horace said that while this result won’t make our swords sharper or our bread softer, it proves the path beneath our feet is correct,” Adèle remarked emotionally.

“Now, all the young mages are looking up to Cecil. You can’t even find a single book on particle physics or advanced mathematics in the Royal Library anymore; they’ve all been borrowed.”

Lia smiled and set the report aside.

This was exactly why she had established the particle accelerator in the first place.

Not to create some indestructible armor or to turn lead into gold, but to provide a ruler for measuring the universe to everyone in this era who gazed at the stars.

It seemed that someone had already learned how to use it.

“They have so many messy proposals every day; Master Horace and the others must be working too hard,” Lia said after a thought.

“Exactly. Just rejecting those unreliable applications wastes a huge amount of time,” Adèle agreed deeply.

Lia pondered for a moment, and suddenly an idea struck her.

“Perhaps I should write an ‘Introductory Handbook’ for them.”

“Mhm, a popular science book about particle physics. At least it could help them figure out what energy conservation and momentum conservation are before they write their proposals,” Lia said. “That way, Master Horace can have it a bit easier.”

She felt that as an honorary professor of the National Magic Academy, she had an obligation to do this.

Klein looked at her with a smile in his eyes. “Sounds good. Do you need me to help you prepare paper and ink?”

“Of course.” Lia stood up and stretched. “Also, have the kitchen prepare some late-night snacks. I have a feeling tonight will be a sleepless one.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

The Cursed Prince and the Fated Mark

Adultdominant MLDrama

Read Now →
Not interested