Holy Seat Mansion.
The late winter’s slanting sun shone on Horn’s ink bottle, casting a faint purple hue.
A pile of unfinished docunts 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 eting, not only was he not idle, but he beca 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 ti, it seed that the El people were leading the ether with sothing called the "Holy Tree Branch."
However, Horn had never been able to find a corresponding real object for this Holy Tree Branch.
At that ti, it seed that the El people had not yet discovered the functions of dragon bone fragnts and mana.
If dragon bone fragnts 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 seed most dragon language magics were unusable.
He originally thought that with the dragon bone fragnts 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..."
"Co 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 docunts 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 sothing 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 deanor, he appeared sowhat restrained and stood before the desk for a long ti without speaking.
"Have a seat." Horn pointed to the chair opposite, "What can I do for you?"
Leonardo sat down, pushing the docunt over, his voice sowhat hoarse: "This is a paper related to the ether clock. I think you need to see it."
Horn imdiately 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 co to you." Leonardo’s act of bypassing the review committee and using his eting rights to submit the paper to Horn was extrely 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 docunt, 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 forr 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 counterargunt 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 erged from behind the clouds, illuminating the reasoning process on the docunt.
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 statent.
If one looked past prejudices, the paper before him seed 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 Enlightennt.
But was that really the case?
The imperial civilization and technological levels were extrely 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.
So precious potions even genuinely extended lifespans or slowed aging.
Not to ntion the Holy Alliance’s witches whose individual productivity rivaled industrial machines.
In Horn’s holand, 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 ntion 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 holand.
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 so technological fields being extrely backward, while others were extrely advanced.
Phenona that the current technological level couldn’t observe, like bacteria, were seen with Hilov’s naked eye.
If Horn’s holand was like a technology tree, then this world was like a technology gacha pool.
In the absence of mathematical formulas or asurent thods, 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, soday, a witch able to observe ether with her naked eye would appear, or soone 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 comnt was ’nonsense, fool’s opinion.’"
Horn paused and then gave a similarly helpless smile.
Even though Hilov presented a soft deanor 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 achievents, 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 erge, 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 experint?"
"I can, but it’s expensive."
"Money is ant to be spent." With a grand gesture, Horn waved his substantial hand, "Give 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 experintal design and budget plan by the evening after tomorrow at the latest."
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