The girl declared her identity, revealing the truth from her heart. Clutching the paper scroll, she curtsied to Jenkins in mid-air.
"Sir, thank you for your guidance."
Though her essence remained unchanged, she had undergone a remarkable transformation. This new form was her true self. If Jenkins wasn't mistaken, she was a type of exotic creature known as a "Book Fairy." These beings were born from ancient tos, tasked with protecting the books from harm and finding them worthy owners.
The [Book of All Things] was long lost, but as a fragnt of it, the [Book of the Heart] was certainly ancient enough to give birth to its own unique Book Fairy. That explained the blue aura Jenkins had seen when he first observed her.
"Hmm..."
This was not the outco Jenkins had anticipated. He had rely intended to make the book understand that since it possessed a soul and wasn't just an automaton, certain rules could be circumvented. Now that the [Book of the Heart] had truly awakened to consciousness, Jenkins found himself unsure of how to proceed.
"So, are you still willing to exchange knowledge with ?"
He asked with so hesitation. He could sweet-talk a piece of paper without batting an eye, but he couldn't bring himself to use the sa tactics on a fairy with a human form. This was a fairy, not a pixie, and it was common knowledge that fairies were kind, lawful creatures who were naturally friendly toward intelligent life.
"Yes, sir. I have seen the knowledge you possess. I am grateful that you helped understand who I am. In return, I will do everything in my power to answer your questions."
The tiny fairy descended to the level of Jenkins's hand, her delicate eyebrows fluttering as she blinked. She attempted to kiss his fingers, but her form was so minuscule that even as her lips touched his skin, he felt nothing at all.
"So, what sort of questions can you answer for ? Oh, would you like so fruit?"
Jenkins did his best to maintain a friendly deanor.
"I am no longer rely a fragnt of the [Book of All Things], yet the fragnt of the book is . Therefore, I can bypass so limitations, but not too many. You see..."
The elegant fairy spoke, then painstakingly unrolled the scroll she was holding. It wasn't blank; it was covered in a swath of ancient text Jenkins didn't recognize. The words weren't written in ink but appeared to have been branded by fire. Every letter glowed, and their deep red light brought to mind the image of churning magma.
"While I still cannot bypass certain rules, I can at least tell you what lies sealed beneath this city. This is my way of thanking you; no exchange of knowledge is required."
The fairy girl declared with great earnestness.
Though they might seem similar, the fairy folk were entirely different from pixies. Fairies were darlings of the world, born from the very spirit of nature, almost a natural phenonon themselves. They generally did not possess foul temperants. Pixies, on the other hand, were mostly mischievous, with a majority harboring malice toward humans.
"So, the thing beneath the city is..."
"It is the culmination of gears, machinery, and steam, forged by the ancient civilization of the Third Epoch. It was the supre marvel of that age, created by mortal hands—a miracle that can never be replicated..."
The fairy explained, waving her hands, as the scroll beside her flickered with an ambiguous light. With her words, illusions materialized above the page. They showed countless bizarrely shaped creatures bustling around a colossal iron furnace.
"But like most marvels, it spun out of control, a victim of its own power, and was subsequently sealed underground. Since that ti, generation after generation has discovered it, used it, and then sealed it away again. In truth, since the Third Epoch, that thing has never fully escaped its prison beneath the city. Each ti it threatened to break free, a new seal was layered on top of the old. Over tens of thousands of years, even I cannot say for certain how many layers of seals lie beneath Nolan."
This information partially matched the murals Jenkins had seen when he went underground to reinforce the seals, following the last words of Mr. Pisco (as ntioned in Chapter 826). Furthermore, the entity calling itself the [A4 Type Arithtic...] had admitted its own creation was deeply connected to a "Gizmo-making machine" that the people of that era had excavated.
"So, what exactly is it?"
"I cannot speak its na, nor can I describe its form, lest it beco aware of us. But I can tell you its original purpose when it was created back in the Third Epoch: it was ant to aid in computation."
With a wave of the fairy's hand, a dense cloud of mathematical symbols materialized above the parchnt. The little fairy's grasp of mathematics seed questionable, however, as the symbols appeared to have no logic or order whatsoever.
"Aiding computation?"
"Yes, to aid in computation. The Third Epoch was a long one, and the mortal civilizations enjoyed a lengthy period of peace. This allowed them to develop the power of steam to its absolute peak. I know that people of your ti consider it a barbaric age, but in truth, their progress far outstripped your own.
Because their steam technology had beco so advanced, the ancient peoples gradually realized their thods of calculation could no longer keep pace with their needs. Since they couldn't alter the fundantal rules of mathematics, they created a tool to assist their computations. Then, they boldly imbued it with supernatural power... and that was the beginning of the end."
Jenkins's jaw had dropped open, an unconscious reaction he wasn't even aware of. The Book Fairy's description reminded him of a peculiar machine from his forr world. He collected his thoughts and interjected before she could continue.
"That machine... is it assembled entirely from gears, levers, and springs? Does it store numbers using sets of gears, and higher-order numbers using arrays of those gear sets? Does it perform calculations through the interlocking, rotation, and shifting of those gears, using punched—"
"Please, say no more!"
The fairy hastily cut him off.
"It will beco aware of us! Its computational power is so vast it can calculate nearly every possible 'present mont.' Please, don't go on... How could you possibly know all that?"
What Jenkins was describing was not knowledge from this world, but sothing from his past life: the so-called "difference engine." It was a brilliant concept proposed during the age of steam and industry, but for a variety of reasons, a functional version had never actually been built.
"A difference engine... I should have realized it sooner. In an 18th Epoch defined by steam, what could possibly be more dangerous? This is a world where belief shapes reality, after all. A machine with such imnse computational power, once touched by the supernatural... Oh, that's absolutely terrifying."
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