Joren, one of two head researchers of Corco's cultivation research project, looked, in many regards, quite similar to Eclestius. Both n were carefully grood, both looked like scholars, and both had default stoic expressions plastered on their faces. To Corco, it was a mystery how two people could look so similar yet get along so poorly. As expected, Joren's first words after entering the room were already enough to make Eclestius frown.
"Hello, boss! It's been too long!"
His intimacy stemd in part from the fact that he had known Corco for years — ever since their days at the Fastgrade rchant Company — and he simply had kept using Corco's old title from back then. The other part of the unreasonable greeting, of course, stemd from the fact that Joren was simply bad with people.
Since he was a socially awkward weirdo, Corco thought he was perfect for so long-duration research on an isolated island. Not to ntion, Joren had always been particularly keen on the thodology lessons other researchers routinely avoided, ever since his old days as the archivist of the Fastgrade rchants.
While ignoring the confused and angry looks from his wife and his uncle respectively, Corco motioned towards a seat at the table, which Joren gladly took. In the process, he shoved aside refreshnts and cups, to occupy the entire space with a number of well-organized files instead.
He's even color-coded them, a bemused Corco noticed. A true archivist indeed.
"I'm sure you discovered sothing interesting," Corco repeated, more hopeful than before in the face of so much data. "So how about we skip introductions and you just tell us what I've spent so much tax revenue on?"
"If by 'interesting', the king assus basic and unhelpful, then surely we have discovered much," Eclestius comnted.
"I'd like to refute such a claim." Joren replied in a dry, matter-of-factly voice, before he turned towards Corco with an enthusiastic smile. "We have made great strides in foundational research on the topic of cultivation. There have been so fascinating results recently."
"Then please, go ahead and present your findings." Corco motioned the archivist to continue, yet his opening was already all wrong.
"Of course. In our first base study, the results-" he began as he picked up a rust-red folder, but he didn't get very far.
"Stop," Corco interrupted the researcher, before he prompted: "Start by introducing the experintal setup first. So of the people here haven't heard about it yet."
Although Corco motioned towards his wife, he himself was in dire need of a refresher as well. It had been years since he had helped design the early tests for the cultivation research. Since then, he had been busy with one crisis after another. As a result, he had barely found the ti to read the reports, much less carefully interpret them. As a result, he would be hopelessly lost without a short rerun, though he wasn't willing to admit it.
Since Corco's little lie wasn't exposed, the researcher offered a sour look to Sumaci, as if she was wasting his ti. Although Corco felt guilty for pushing all the bla onto her, his best student and favorite human just grinned back at the researcher, without trying to explain herself at all.
After all, she wasn't so uneducated girl, as this reclusive researcher seed to assu. Most likely, she thought that showing him up with tricky question would be funnier than exposing her own background right away, so she stayed quiet for the mont.
Thus, after a short but intense stare-down, an awkward Joren looked away and picked up a folder in light yellow, before he began to explain.
"First of all, the overall goal of this series of research projects has been to understand cultivation, that is, the chanisms which guide and underlie the process we understand as cultivation. First, since there are amateurs present, we should begin with a definition of cultivation to establish a baseline of knowledge."
Again, Joren stared at Sumaci out of the corner of his eye, and again, Corco had to interrupt him.
"No, stop," the frustrated king said. "No need to go that far back. Just start with the setup."
By now at the latest, Sumaci could have told him off, but she seed to enjoy wasting the man's ti much more than clearing up the misunderstanding. Though in the process, she was also wasting everyone else's ti. Not to ntion that the archivist's deadpan face showed no signs of annoyance at all. In the end, only the king's nerves were being worn down.
"Of course," he just said, and skipped about a third of the yellow folder's contents. "First off, we received a total of 1057 test subjects for these experints, and split them into 17 total groups of different sizes. Their exact distribution can be referenced in the reports. These groups were then sent to different islands in the Narrow Sea and along dala's coast line to participate in individual experintal setups. The basic hypotheses to be tested-"
"Wait, test subjects? Humans?" Finally, Sumaci interrupted the speech, though now at an inopportune ti, when Joren was just getting started.
"Of course," the archivist replied with the sa dry derision as before. "We have yet to teach a pig how to cultivate."
"And where did you get those human subjects from?" the Queen probed further. While the two researchers at the table looked confused at Sumaci's strange concerns, Corco knew exactly what she was worried about. After all, he was the one who had told her horror stories about human experintation because he thought it would be funny.
"Most have been volunteers," he explained, but his wife only returned a silent, critical stare.
"It's true," he insisted. "At first, most of the test subjects were criminals, who participated to have their sentences reduced. But so commoner groups in Saniya complained, or so I've heard. I wasn't all that involved in the process, though apparently they made quite the fuss."
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"Why would they complain?" Sumaci asked, now as visibly confused as the researchers. "Were so of the criminals their relatives?"
"They complained because the greatest honor they could know would be a bestowal of cultivation techniques, thus elevating them into a higher class of human," Eclestius explained before Corco could, with harsher words and a more arrogant tone than the king would have ever chosen.
"Basically, the act of cultivation is attached with lots of prestige," Corco added in a less virulent tone. "So, many people were happy to participate in potentially long and dangerous experints, so long as there was a chance that they might beco cultivators — and thus warriors — by the end of it. They didn't want to leave a chance like that to criminals, thus the complaints."
"All those commoners from the south say they disdain those 'rotten nobles' of higher class, yet they jump at the first chance to be one themselves." As he spoke, Eclestius looked over to Joren, who was looking on in growing impatience.
"Society," Corco simply comnted, as if anyone would understand the reference. While there was clearly a story of class struggle hidden behind the relationship of the two head researchers, the archivist seed entirely uninterested in the topic, and just wanted too continue his presentation.
Thus, he snorted and asked his king in a rude tone: "Should I simply co back later?"
"No, please continue," Corco said, happy to avoid complicated topics. He had co here to learn exciting new facts about cultivation, not as a marriage counselor.
"Of those 17 groups, four were used to test the basic requirents for cultivation first," Joren picked up the previous topic, as if none of the previous discussion had existed. "On this island itself — titled Experintal Environnt One — we handled the control group — Group One — a total of 25 cultivators. The total number of people per square kiloter is roughly equivalent to the number of cultivators per square kiloter present in dala proper. All of them were taught standard cultivation thods and instructed to cultivate them normally. On another island — Experintal Environnt Two — we only allowed a single person to cultivate, to see if their cultivation speed would improve in a sparser environnt, or if it would slow down in the absence of other humans. Finally, Experintal Environnt Three housed twice the number of people per square kiloter as Experintal Environnt One. As our tests in Experintal Environnt Three progressed, we slowly increased the amount of cultivators on the island, and noted any changes. Finally, there was a fourth Experintal Environnt, a ship at high seas which first anchored in the deep sea while the subjects cultivated, and then moved about as they did so."
"So what are the results?" Corco asked, before anyone else could derail the conversation again.
"Group One has shown no abnormality. Everyone in the group was able to cultivate, which confirms my hypothesis that the presence of non-cultivators is not necessary for cultivation."
"Or maybe it only works for a while, but eventually cultivation still becos impossible without non-cultivators around. It might just take so ti for the final results to show," Sumaci interrupted at the first sign of weakness from the archivist.
"I an, that's true," Corco agreed. Confirmation was a strong word in this context.
"I tell him all the ti: Don't jump to conclusions," Eclestius added, clearly eager to add so slander towards his fellow researcher.
"The conclusions are, of course, temporary, and under further review," Joren admitted. Clearly, he had gotten too excited when faced with numbers and graphs. "At the very least, my hypothesis that the presence of non-cultivators is not a requirent for cultivation has so far withstood our attempts at falsification."
"So there is a good chance that all-cultivator societies are possible," Sumaci concluded, this ti out of genuine interest, rather than sheer spite. After all, this was a question she herself had brought up on their way here.
"In principle, yes." Joren nodded as he pointed towards a piece of paper. "Here, I have written a short treatise on the subject. Based on our current knowledge, all-cultivator societies should be possible, at least in low-density populations. In addition, Group One contained people of different social classes, genders and races."
"So what did you find?" Now that the important answers to many of his questions were right before him, Corco was getting more and more tense. What if there was a difference in performance between classes? Wouldn't his entire concept for an equal dalan society need an overhaul? Luckily, Joren responded in the way Corco had hoped.
"Every test subject in Group One has managed to cultivate without any significant difference in performance," he said. "It can be assud that race, gender, and social class have no impact on cultivation ability."
Just as Corco was happy that his plans for a society of equals remained possible, Eclestius spoke up and ruined all his plans.
"The lower classes were slower," he bluntly stated. In response, Joren finally turned towards Eclestius, for the first ti since he had entered the room.
"However, when taking into account their unfamiliarity with the act of cultivation, their lower levels of fitness and lower levels of education-"
"They were slower," Eclestius interrupted his fellow researcher again. While Joren was still searching for words, the exiled prince turned towards his nephew to complain about his colleague. "I thought this commoner was here to make sure we follow these scientific thods. He only seems interested in his own opinions."
Once again dragged into the internal conflicts between his subordinates, Corco had to sigh and hold his face in his hand.
"Please stay objective, Joren," he bluntly cautioned. "We're here for facts, not opinions."
For a second, the archivist looked like he wanted to argue so more, but the king's stare finally let him understand reality.
"Of course," he said, though with a voice tinged in unhappiness. "Either way, it could be proven that all classes are able to cultivate, though at different speeds. It remains to be seen whether or not this difference is hereditary in nature, or caused by other factors."
"What other factors could there possibly be? The class system exists for a reason," Eclestius argued. This ti however, Joren had his argunts ready as well.
"The warrior test subjects are simply more familiar with the concept of cultivation than their commoner counterparts," he insisted. "They also have better language ability due to their higher level of education, and they are generally healthier and stronger, due to their rich upbringing. Of course the warriors would be faster cultivators."
"Excuses, nothing more," Eclestius shouted back. "If the commoners are that great, then why-"
"Uncle, please. Decorum," an exhausted Corco reminded. This ti, it was Eclestius' turn to huff and keep quiet. anwhile, Joren had pulled out another piece of paper from his endless supply of folders.
"Here, I have made so rough calculations, although so of the numbers had to be estimated. If I exclude the influence of education and experience, I could detect no statistical difference between commoners and nobles when it cos to cultivation. Here are the numbers."
As he spoke, Joren handed a piece of paper to Corco. While the king looked at the ss of numbers and graphs — which were most likely filled with assumptions and questionable statistical trickery — Sumaci was already thinking further ahead.
"If that's true, it would be our first revolution, right?" the queen said excitedly, in reference to the king's previous claims that cultivation could bring them a great revolution.
"That's right," Corco confird, though he was unwilling to go any deeper into the topic.
All they had for now were so unconfird results and so doctored numbers from a researcher who clearly had an agenda. Thus, he preferred to move on, instead of idly imagining a future which might not correspond to reality. Finally, they were about to get to the interesting part.
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