Chapter 1115: Chapter 1052: The Key to Starting the Clock
Holy Seat Mansion.
The late winter’s slanting sun shone on Horn’s ink bottle, casting a faint purple hue.
A pile of unfinished documents lay on the table, including the list of the Gospel Book Collation Committee, the food export quotas of the Holy Alliance’s counties, and the School of Engineering’s application for the lightning furnace...
Recent political affairs were like a rising river, coming in wave after wave.
After the sixth Great Duke meeting, not only was he not idle, but he became even busier with a series of new projects such as the embassy.
Yet, Horn was absorbed in reading the book in his hand.
This was the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll" and the "Dragon Language Magic Lexicon," translated and annotated by researchers and wizard scholars over the past six months.
To be precise, the original "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll" consisted of two parts.
The first half was primitive alchemy, and the second half was the prototype of dragon language magic.
However, the latter half, the "Dragon Language Magic Lexicon," contained a large number of dragon language magics that could not be converted into alchemy.
But that couldn’t be helped; at that time, it seemed that the El people were leading the ether with something called the "Holy Tree Branch."
However, Horn had never been able to find a corresponding real object for this Holy Tree Branch.
At that time, it seemed that the El people had not yet discovered the functions of dragon bone fragments and mana.
If dragon bone fragments are used, might it be possible to reproduce these so-called dragon language magics?
Horn wasn’t sure, after all, seeing Cynthia’s ghostly appearance, it seemed most dragon language magics were unusable.
He originally thought that with the dragon bone fragments and the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll," he could quickly resolve the remote transmission of the ether clock.
But in reality, it had been nearly a year with not much progress made.
Closing the book and rubbing his temples, Horn was introspective, asking himself if he was being too eager for success.
"Knock knock knock..."
"Come in." Horn, who was leaning back against the chair, sat up straight.
Edwin poked his head in halfway: "Your Grace, Leonardo requests an audience. He is not on the schedule."
Horn raised an eyebrow, pushing the documents aside: "Let him in."
Speaking of the ether clock, Leonardo arrives.
He was the chief engineer of the project, and he generally stayed out of political affairs, so it was probably something related to the ether clock project.
Leonardo walked in briskly from the door, clutching a stack of papers, his knuckles white.
Unlike his usual casual demeanor, he appeared somewhat restrained and stood before the desk for a long time without speaking.
"Have a seat." Horn pointed to the chair opposite, "What can I do for you?"
Leonardo sat down, pushing the document over, his voice somewhat hoarse: "This is a paper related to the ether clock. I think you need to see it."
Horn immediately gave Leonardo a strange look.
Although, in terms of authority, Horn, as the Pope, had limitless power and could "guide" all projects.
However, as he himself had stated earlier, politics should not invade academia.
He avoided getting involved in these professional academic issues unless it was critical.
"Is it very important?"
"Very important, otherwise I wouldn’t have come to you." Leonardo’s act of bypassing the review committee and using his meeting rights to submit the paper to Horn was extremely taboo.
But he decided to do so, not only for the sake of Loughton’s future but also for a breakthrough in the ether clock project.
Horn carefully opened the document, and the title on the first page made his pupils contract slightly.
"On the Biphasic Nature of Ether and the Underlying Logic of Ether Field Resonance."
The former was Loughton’s foundational theory of ether, and Leonardo added the concept of an ether field to Loughton’s theory.
His fingertips traced over the text, as Loughton’s deductions started from a counterargument to the singularity of ether, step by step rigorously reasoning that ether had a biphasic nature.
And explained why all substances had alchemical and natural attributes.
Leonardo even pointed out that ether itself had a biphasic nature based on this finding.
Materially manifesting as an ether field (magic power) and spiritually as instantaneously transmitted energy (mana).
Horn could see this was Leonardo’s handiwork, but he did not sign it, likely out of fear of being discredited.
Sunlight emerged from behind the clouds, illuminating the reasoning process on the document.
Horn read faster and faster, his breathing gradually deepened, and only after finishing did he let out a long sigh.
The biphasic nature of ether...how much it sounds like the wave-particle duality of light.
If one were a native, even with a rationalist foundation, they would find such counterintuitive conclusions absurd.
But Horn, with the background of light’s wave-particle duality, did not reject such a statement.
If one looked past prejudices, the paper before him seemed rather airtight; the only problem was the inability to prove it directly.
In fact, this was also one of the reasons Horn found this world peculiar.
On the surface, this was Leia and the northern Norn Kingdom in the Late Middle Ages, and the southern Norn Kingdom in the Renaissance.
The civilization level of the Falan Kingdom lingered around the Reformation period.
Horn himself believed that the Holy Alliance had already broken away from the Reformation, gradually moving towards the Enlightenment.
But was that really the case?
The imperial civilization and technological levels were extremely mismatched.
A Great Knight of the late Middle Ages Leia had the impact equivalent to a large cargo truck.
The Norn Church could swiftly heal fractures and other external injuries in three to five days during the Renaissance.
As for the Falan Kingdom during the Reformation, they kept pharmacists capable of concocting potions with horrifying effects.
Some precious potions even genuinely extended lifespans or slowed aging.
Not to mention the Holy Alliance’s witches whose individual productivity rivaled industrial machines.
In Horn’s homeland, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the electrical era began, yet Jeanne could easily manipulate lightning in the Late Middle Ages.
Not to mention Jia Li’s mind reading abilities, Hilov’s naked-eye microscope, etc.
Underneath the facade of a Renaissance, the lower classes still lived like serfs.
While in certain fields, other regions and other strata even surpassed the technological level of Horn’s homeland.
For example, the divine art that heals comminuted fractures in five days, or individuals with physical strength comparable to a small car.
This led to some technological fields being extremely backward, while others were extremely advanced.
Phenomena that the current technological level couldn’t observe, like bacteria, were seen with Hilov’s naked eye.
If Horn’s homeland was like a technology tree, then this world was like a technology gacha pool.
In the absence of mathematical formulas or measurement methods, Loughton had proposed an outrageous biphasic nature.
If not for Horn, Mr. Loughton Wood might have led a life of obscurity.
Perhaps only after his death, someday, a witch able to observe ether with her naked eye would appear, or someone would eventually develop an alchemy tool with a similar function after a century, recognizing his findings.
"Why didn’t you give this paper to Hilov?"
Leonardo chuckled bitterly: "His Highness Hilov read it last year. Her comment was ’nonsense, fool’s opinion.’"
Horn paused and then gave a similarly helpless smile.
Even though Hilov presented a soft demeanor before Horn, in her own field, she always appeared as a tyrant.
When Jeanne barged into her laboratory back then, it almost led to a fallout, let alone the fact that this paper essentially refuted Hilov’s "singularity of ether."
Especially regarding her own academic achievements, without absolute evidence, she would not relent.
In this respect, Loughton and Hilov were quite alike.
Right is right, wrong is wrong, the truth must emerge, with no compromises.
"Do you have a way to verify this model?" Horn flipped to the end of the paper, "Can it be quantitatively analyzed?"
"There really isn’t."
"Then how about qualitative analysis? As the lead of the ether clock project, surely you can design a qualitative experiment?"
"I can, but it’s expensive."
"Money is meant to be spent." With a grand gesture, Horn waved his substantial hand, "Give me a number."
Seeing Leonardo still hesitating, Horn offered reassurance: "If you’re concerned, just say it was my request, not yours.
It’s my own decision, my individual decision, how about that?"
Only then did Leonardo heave a sigh of relief: "I’ll submit the written experimental design and budget plan by the evening after tomorrow at the latest."
