Whispering Verse

"Good morning, Princess Margaret."

At nine o'clock on Friday morning, at the entrance of the auditorium of the Third National Mechanical College of Delarion in the Tobesk University District, Shade greeted the princess wearing a rabbit fur wind-proof cloak.

Today Princess Margaret will visit the college and attend several lectures.

Shade was not originally invited, but Director Anlos gave him a pass here on Monday. After a few days of "learning foreign languages", the princess became more familiar with Shade. She probably misunderstood the reason why Shade came here and thought he was here to protect her, so she saw Shade from a distance. After that, he called him forward, said a few words, and then arranged a team for him to accompany him to visit.

The College of Higher Education in the Steam Age is also a very new place for outsiders. The towering castle-like buildings and the garden-like college environment make the inside and outside of the college not resemble the same era at all.

The ancient academy system followed the scenery of the old era, except that in this era, civilians who passed the examination were allowed to enroll.

Princess Margaret was dressed up today. She had inquired in advance that her itinerary today had nothing to do with history, folklore and other majors, so Shade was very relieved about the safety issue today. The princess mainly came to visit the basic physics, mathematics, mechanical majors and architecture majors of the college, and the reports she listened to were also related to this.

In addition to members of the delegation, they were accompanied by officials from the city hall, journalists and those from the academy itself.

Everything seemed normal. Shade, who was wearing a warm winter formal suit sent by Miss Carina from the maids, followed the group and visited the building of the Third National Mechanical College of Delrayon and discovered that this era The accommodation conditions for the students are surprisingly good. Although there is no summer cooling device, the size of the dormitory and the available space are much better than those in the school for foreigners in their hometown;

When I visited the laboratory of the School of Physics, the bald professor who looked very good at first sight demonstrated a simple small hole imaging experiment, and used a large steam engine to drive pulleys and levers in a dark room to demonstrate a rather complex set of gas lamp projections. device. The filters used to maintain stable light source output are the most expensive part, and the odor mixed with engine oil and lubricating oil in the darkroom is the most unbearable smell;

In the laboratory of the School of Mechanical Engineering, local professors demonstrated a "vacuum cleaner" that had just been patented. The brass-colored vacuum cleaner body is unusually large, but it works very well. After using filter cloth and steam boosting that foreigners don't understand, the vacuum cleaner can effectively absorb most of the stains. Princess Margaret was even invited to try it out herself and posed for a few photos for tomorrow's issue. photo. Although it is still limited by its size, this new type of machine cannot be promoted on a large scale, but if this problem is solved, it will be a very economically effective invention.

But we also encountered some unpleasant things during the visit. When visiting the new milling machine in the college's factory, the loud noise caused by the operation of the machinery caused a 51-year-old gentleman, Viscount Braunming, who was accompanying Princess Margaret, to faint. .

This little episode did not cause much commotion, but it was recorded by reporters, much to the displeasure of the gentlemen of the town hall.

"The development of technology always comes at a cost."

Shade, who was at the back of the crowd, was watching the Viscount of Nanguo being carried away on a stretcher when a familiar voice came to his ears. Turning around, I saw a lady wearing a red dress and a black dress, holding a silver notebook in her hand.

Shade was stunned for a moment and then said softly:

"It's been a long time, Miss Witte, since the card game at Lakeview Manor."

In fact, it was Miss Pavo, the vice-president of the Truth Society. Shade did not expect that she would dare to appear in such a place.

"Long time no see, Mr. Hamilton."

The sorceress greeted with a smile, and then looked at the old gentleman who was being carried away like Shade:

"Don't worry, this is probably a heart attack caused by the noise. I think the servant just mixed the rum with the medicine and gave it to him. It won't be life-threatening."

If he hadn't known her true identity, Shade would have thought she was a learned noble lady.

Although the Viscount's coma had nothing to do with the factory, the visiting team left here temporarily and prepared to visit the next destination, which was the model of the new locomotive being manufactured in the academy.

Shade didn't want to report this dangerous sorceress now. She would be confident enough to leave if she dared to show up, but Shade didn't want to be with her either. However, Miss Pavo seemed to have made up her mind to follow Shade, so she joined him at the end of the crowd and continued walking southward with the gentlemen and ladies in front.

"Science is so fascinating, and the miniaturized steam engine is probably the most important invention in the past thousand years."

Miss Pavo praised, and Shade quite agreed with this, but just nodded, hoping that the lady could see his indifference.

But the sorceress didn't actually care about Shade's attitude. She was just looking for someone to chat with:

"The Witte family has invested in some fresh inventions. If you want to change your class in this era, reasonable investment is essential."

"So what did the Witt family invest in?"

Shade asked casually, pretending to be curious. It would be strange if he really said nothing.

“For example, we will visit the new locomotive next, a unique steel-making method, an interesting one-person two-wheeled vehicle that relies on human power to move, and, oh, there is also a four-wheeled locomotive driven by a small steam engine. I’m very optimistic about the fourth one, but unfortunately it’s still in the drawing theory stage.”

Miss Pavo said regretfully, and Shade tried his best to control his expression and the urge to express his opinion on the above invention.

"Mr. Hamilton, I know your main job is detective, but have you ever considered investing your savings in new inventions?"

She asked Shade again. A group of people were currently crossing the Tower Bridge between tall buildings. This is the landmark building of this school and has a history of at least 300 years.

“Investment in inventions?”

In line with the idea of ​​saying less and making fewer mistakes, Shade made random nonsense. Somehow he thought of what he saw in Fifth Epoch 5177, so he said:

"I have considered investing in the chemical industry. The clothes we wear in modern times are all biological products made of biological fibers, such as silk, cotton and linen, animal fur, and so on. Although the improvement of textile machines has allowed the textile industry to develop greatly based on biological products, but I was thinking that maybe we could try to use the chemical industry to synthetically manufacture artificial fibers.”

"Chemically synthesized artificial fibers?"

Miss Pavo raised her eyebrows, and together with Shade, they turned left with the people and stepped onto the stone road to the back of the academy. The two Kasenlik gentlemen in front were commenting on the scenery of the college. Kasenlik with a local accent was criticizing the loss of the glory of the nobility here.

"I had never heard of artificially synthesized textile fibers, and the idea had never even occurred to me."

Miss Paavo became interested and said with a smile:

"Knight, you have a great idea. Although it sounds incredible, once you succeed, you can use artificial fibers to challenge the monopoly of biological fibers. If you can reduce the cost of chemically synthesized fibers to

"No no no."

Shade immediately shook his head. He raised this topic not to make Miss Pavo praise his wisdom, but to make the other party think that he was an incorrigible person. Not long ago, the last adventure of Time Key in Fifth Epoch 5177 gave him inspired him:

"I didn't think so much, it's like this. The elasticity of today's clothing materials is too poor."

He tugged on his black coat and pulled on his scarf:

"For example, the original stockings were only worn by men. At that time, the stockings were woven by hand, which required special materials and high labor costs. Later, ladies discovered the charm of stockings, and we have been around for decades. An efficient knitting machine was invented a few years ago, allowing most of the beautiful girls in the city to wear a pair of beautiful stockings.”

Shade nodded, and Miss Pavo looked at him suspiciously with her lips pursed.

"But it's still not enough. Even if efficient knitting machines reduce the cost of stockings, the elasticity and transparency of the stockings themselves are still not enough."

"Um transparency?"

Miss Paavo is not a foreigner, and has never really experienced the extravagance of the Fifth Age Witch Emperor, so she cannot understand Shade's words for the time being. Her women's boots stepped on the stone pavement beneath her feet, and she subconsciously recalled what she was wearing under her thick skirt.

"Yes, in addition to transparency, there is also elasticity. Because the elasticity is not enough, girls' stockings now still need to be fixed with garters to prevent them from sliding down during walking. But if the elasticity is enough, not only will there be no need for additional garters, but even For the surface of the stocking, just give it a little tug.”

Shade paused and added:

"Of course, I admit that the garters themselves are very good, but I think, since we can't find an elastic and thin material in terms of biological materials, can we chemically synthesize a man-made fiber that meets the requirements? material to show the beauty of girls’ legs.”

After saying this, he seemed to have just noticed what he was talking about, smiled and shook his head:

"I'm sorry, these words are a bit disgraceful. Miss Witte, just pretend that I didn't say anything."

Shade wanted to end the topic just like that, but the sorceress did not continue talking. Although the values ​​​​of ring wizards are somewhat different from ordinary people, no one would talk to a strange man about women's legs in such a public place.

"Chemistry is really amazing."

Miss Pavo said, looking less enthusiastic about talking to Shade:

"Synthesizing never-before-seen substances is something that no one could have imagined before."

"Maybe it's not that it's never happened before, it's just that it hasn't been discovered yet."

Shade said in a relaxed tone, and Miss Pavo nodded:

"I once thought, if chemistry can synthesize everything from basic materials, can it synthesize the components of the human body?"

She has a knack for steering conversations into dangerous directions.

"This belongs to the legendary alchemy."

Shade smiled and said:

"This is not a problem in the field of chemistry. Alchemists who studied ancient alchemy also claimed that they could refine coal into gold."

"Yes, the legendary Philosopher's Stone."

Miss Paavo also laughed. The "Philosopher's Stone" has a great reputation even among ordinary people. True and false occult books always like to add words like "Philosopher's Stone".

After all, turning stones into gold and immortality represent the most fundamental desires of human beings.