The magical energy research laboratory designated for Charlotte was located within the imperial palace, essentially a semi-public space. For the two won attempting magical research here, perfectly replicating the joint spellcasting from that night was nearly impossible. Just by feeling the slightly glaring magical energy chandeliers above, neither the location nor the ti allows them to relax as freely as they had lying on a bed, drifting toward sleep.
Considering the stringent requirents necessary for revisiting joint spellcasting, Astrid had only one viable choice: strengthen their soul connection and draw closer together in reality.
Sensing warm, soft lips pressing against her neck, Charlotte’s mind wavered slightly. She struggled to numb her emotions, focusing all her attention on their shared spellcasting.
They were rely trying to get into the right state, so their research on the phonograph device could proceed smoothly.
For the future of magical energy devices, these actions were necessary.
Nothing strange about it...
One must say, Charlotte truly lived up to her title as a mid-tier Arcanist mage. Her mastery over ntal energy and her fundantal soul had reached its peak. Even with Astrid’s sudden move, she quickly stabilized their connection, deepening their bond through synchronized physical movents.
Soon, Astrid’s actions received effective feedback. The soul connection on the ntal level was gradually stabilizing, the earlier turbulent and chaotic waves now subsiding.
The current state of connection, compared to that night, was like a lake surface constantly disturbed by raindrops creating faint ripples, now transford into a tranquil, serene, and cold pool.
Seeing that it was indeed effective, Astrid, detecting a hint of shyness from the depths of Charlotte’s soul, gently parted her cherry lips. Between the smooth, soft petals, a delicate touch brushed lightly, nearly imperceptible, like a dragonfly skimming the water.
In magical theory, aside from natural human activities pursued voluntarily for pleasure, this was the closest thod to physical unity.
Skin nearly touching without distance, with a certain degree of bodily fluid contact required.
Noticing Astrid’s movent, the dark-haired beauty with breath as soft as orchid fragrance could only slightly tilt her neck upward. The skin previously touched by lips, as Astrid shifted position, now felt slightly cool under the breeze.
Thus, their joint spellcasting state beca even harder to disrupt.
It could... be a little more...
Catching Charlotte’s thoughts through their overlapping consciousness, Astrid narrowed her eyes slightly. She tightened her black-stockinged legs wrapped around her aunt’s knees, her delicate black heels inadvertently lifting, gently brushing against the smooth, tender silk-covered calf. As she moved, the shoe slipped down to the ankle, hooking the thin fabric of the stockings.
Beyond that initial touch, more dragonfly-light caresses spread across Charlotte’s neck.
Through the nearly flawless skin, Astrid seed to feel the artery beneath the woman’s pale, smooth neck pulsing with flowing blood. Even the larynx, invisible from the outside, beca distinctly perceptible beneath the grazing lips.
The rich woody fragrance drifted past her nose, gradually blurring Astrid’s ability to distinguish whether this was the underlying hue of Charlotte’s soul on the ntal level, or rely a sensory impression from her physical senses.
The sole sensation was comfort, one that allowed them to stabilize their joint spellcasting even further.
Then there was no problem... right?
Her silver-white hair brushed against Charlotte’s chin, offering a cool, smooth touch. The warmth at her neck accelerated blood flow, and combined with the girl’s inevitably warm, fragrant breath, even the temperature of her earlobes ignited.
As for other sensations, the soft, firm weight sitting on her lap, the delicate physical contact transmitted through tightly pressed thighs, under this higher level of intimacy, they beca almost insignificant.
At least... Charlotte had no attention to spare for them now...
Their joint spellcasting continued. Arcane particles, under Astrid’s movents, slowly reorganized and stabilized, arranging into the specific shapes she desired.
Inside the research laboratory, the silver-haired, red-eyed Imperial Regent embraced the equally beautiful dark-haired woman. Brilliant light shone upon them, resembling a magnificent painting.
Magic continued to ripple gently. Everything remained completely silent.
...............
How long had passed, neither could say. Astrid and Charlotte finally withdraw from their state of ntal resonance, pausing their joint spellcasting.
Within the magical detection field, arcane particles, normally invisible to the naked eye, had been artificially arranged into dots and lines, floating beside the research table.
"Astrid... why arrange the arcane particles like this?" Charlotte asked, maintaining her original posture, perceiving the results solely through her mind.
Astrid paused briefly upon hearing the question, then replied softly after a few seconds.
"Because directly writing in Common Tongue would indeed be easy for Lady Charlotte’s ntal strength. But for mages with slightly weaker ntal quality, it might not be so simple."
"Not to ntion our research direction is magical energy devices. We must start from the basics."
"These dots and lines are a very simple thod of signal transmission."
Understanding it wasn’t complicated. Astrid mainly drew inspiration from the Morse code of her previous life, using different arrangents to express various letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.
Combining it with the Common Tongue of the Valeria Empire and explaining the principle to her aunt, Charlotte, accustod to new concepts and quickly-witted, imdiately grasped Astrid’s aning.
"So you an this is like a new language requiring specific translation? We send simple ssages first, then the recipient uses a fixed codebook to translate them into modern Common Tongue?"
Doing so greatly reduced research difficulty and offered a degree of secrecy, ideal for transmitting military intelligence.
Astrid nodded gently, speaking softly.
"Exactly. With a codebook, translation speed might be slow at first, but still much faster than sending soone by carriage between the frontlines and the capital."
And for simple ssages, like "yes," "no," "lacking," or "sufficient", an experienced translator could decode them in seconds.
Hearing Astrid’s words, Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. After a mont, she spoke with mild praise.
"Astrid always cos up with these strange new ideas, yet they’re all brilliant thods impossible to fault."
Had her thinking beco too rigid? Did she lack the creative mind of the younger generation?
No, that couldn’t be right. The youth capable of inventing the Imperial Weekly and communicating ciphers across the entire empire was likely only the Regent before her, Astrid Avesia.
What was truly special was her.
Hearing this, Astrid didn’t beco complacent. These borrowed achievents hardly reflected her personal intelligence. At most, she had rely converted the original alphabet into syllables of the modern Common Tongue, performing so localization and translation.
"Lady Charlotte picked it up quickly too. If it were Lyra, she’d probably need half a minute to understand what I was ant to be."
Not that the dim-witted maid was actually stupid, just that she sotis got stuck on certain things, unable to quickly untangle her thoughts.
Hearing the gentle warmth in Astrid’s tone, Charlotte softly replied. It was only because she had encountered similar principles during her pursuit of magic that her reaction was faster. Then, closing her eyes, she focused seriously on the arcane particles.
Under the reinforcent of a fixed array extracted from the [Mitic Particles] spell, the aimlessly floating arcane particles in the world gathered together, refused to dissolve and blend back into the surrounding sea of arcane energy.
"Thus, we’ve taken the first step in researching magical devices for voice transmission."
Charlotte spoke softly with closed eyes, her abundant ntal energy enveloping the dots and lines, her expression serious.
"This array should last at least twelve hours. aning these codes must be transmitted within that tifra."
"I’ll try strengthening them further..."
Hearing her aunt wanted to experint, Astrid didn’t stop her, rely softly humming in agreent, also closing her eyes to ease her soul, which had been slightly stirred by the joint spellcasting.
dieval mages unfamiliar with modern information technology naturally wouldn’t readily believe in the exaggerated transmission speeds of Astrid’s past life. Astrid understood Charlotte’s current mindset.
But in her opinion, considering the extrely high elental particle output rate provided by the special engravings on the magical energy cannon, even if converted to the more primitive arcane particles and transported slower than fiber-optic signals, twelve hours should still be more than sufficient.
Half a minute later, Charlotte opened her eyes after extending the array’s duration to forty-eight hours. Her ntal energy returned to her mind, and her attention finally shifted to the person before her.
A cascade of snow-like silver hair fell into her arms. From between the strands, her deep black skirt and the round, smooth shoulders were faintly visible. The contrast of silver, white, and black makes the beauty in her embrace appear even more noble and radiant.
Realizing she was still holding Astrid, the sensation from her legs truthfully relayed to her mind. Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat, instantly recalling what had just transpired.
Astrid... to ensure stability during joint spellcasting...had done such things to her...
In another setting, say, between lovers in the heat of passion, this act of embracing and tenderly kissing from the neck onward...
No matter how one looked at it, it resembled foreplay before an intense encounter.
Especially since Astrid was still a virgin. If such actions were viewed from a heteronormative perspective, the impression would be even stronger.
Earlier, Charlotte had focused solely on extending the duration of ntal resonance, deliberately ignoring everything else, forcing herself to concentrate on research without unnecessary thoughts. Now, as she relaxed, a faintly ambiguous atmosphere began to spread.
Her neck felt slightly cold. She didn’t need to guess why. Behind her was Astrid’s hand, unbeknownst to when, had slipped beneath the thin fabric, supporting her back and drawing her closer.
anwhile, her own arms encircled her niece’s slender waist, and even her hands had inappropriately settled in places they shouldn’t have touched.
If soone saw them in this posture, who knew what kind of misunderstanding would arise? Rumors of the Regent’s romantic scandal would likely be the probable outco.
This was indeed overly intimate, exceeding the boundaries of their proper relationship.
"..."
Her palm quietly releases its grip. Astrid’s heel, previously pressing against Charlotte’s smooth calf, ceased its contact with the silk. The delayed sensation of prickling warmth reached the dark-haired beauty, hurriedly her heartbeat.
Even for the sake of research... wasn’t this a bit inappropriate...?
While pondering, Astrid on the other side also felt the pressure on her chest weakening. The previously tightly pressed fabric of their dresses wrinkled slightly from the movent, revealing a glimpse of relaxed, milky-white skin, like spilled milk.
Fortunately, this detail escaped Charlotte’s notice in her thoughtful state. She only feels the warmth at her neck fading, the rose fragrance from the swaying silver hair filling her nose, intensifying the heat at her ears.
Should she say sothing?
From the sensation of their ntal connection, Astrid indeed harbored few distracting thoughts, almost entirely focused on maintaining their state, which was why she acted that way.
As for that faint hint of intimacy she perceives... likely just a normal reaction from a girl in teenagers...
Putting herself in Astrid’s position, it wasn’t hard to understand.
Her previously clenched hand relaxed, ten pale, jade-like fingers straightening. Charlotte gently brushed her hair aside, thinking that as an adult and Astrid’s elder, she should take the initiative to end this awkward atmosphere. She moistened her lips and spoke softly.
"When Little Astr leaned in just now... you startled ..."
This tone didn’t seem unbecoming at all and matched her usual manner with Astrid.
Both elder and younger, as well as like-minded companions.
Astrid slightly lowered her head in response, replying softly.
"Indeed. I could feel it too, Lady Charlotte’s soul trembled for a mont..."
"...I almost thought the soul connection would break the next second."
Trying to stabilize the situation through physical closeness, yet failing due to emotional turmoil, that would truly be counterproductive.
"Ah... Little Astr still underestimated an adult’s emotional control."
Charlotte faintly, instinctively wanted to cross her legs, but had to give up due to Astrid sitting atop her.
"...Now you know?"
Facing her aunt’s retort, Astrid fluttered her eyelashes, speaking softly.
"Mm... I know now~"
"Even with your spine straight, muscles tensed, and breathing adjusted to self-control mode, Lady Charlotte still didn’t end the ntal resonance."
"Truly impressive emotional control."
Although ant as praised, combined with all those descriptors, it sohow made it sound as if she really had panicked.
Knowing her niece’s sharp tongue was formidable, Charlotte’s hand moved to her side, about to pinch her, when suddenly Astrid spoke.
"Still, judging by today’s situation... my bond with Lady Charlotte isn’t quite intimate enough...."
"...This research lab really should have another bed added."
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