Extraordinary Voyage-Chapter 675 - 583: Witchcraft Garden Prototype

The night was slowly deepening.

Brunswick, the capital of Georgia, the Governor's Mansion.

In the Chief Governor's elegantly and grandly decorated study, the Hanging Wind Chime lamp was still softly glowing.

Shh, shh, shh...

Olivia, who had hastily eaten dinner, had changed into a loose light purple nightdress, yet returned here holding her golden feather pen to continue working. The desk was piled high with documents, most of which were from various plantations already planned last year within the territory.

The days of spring farming were almost upon them, and the large-scale cotton farming, a supporting pillar in the territory's industry plan alongside the cotton textile industry, needed to truly begin.

Cotton seeds, tools, pack horses, fertilizers... etc. required for the estate, reported in detail by officials at all levels, had been submitted to her, the Chief Governor, requiring her to provide matching solutions for each item.

This was the most important task that needed to be completed this spring in the territory, and time waits for no one, absolutely no delays allowed.

Fortunately, the plans had begun preparation since last year, so she wasn't caught off guard.

Knock! Knock!...

At this time, Night Spirit maidservant Sarah, holding a silver tray, knocked on the door and entered, speaking softly as she looked at the busy Olivia:

"Mistress, the latest tea set from Ceramic Town has been delivered. They said you and Viscount should try it. I've brewed a pot of tea with it. Would you like to try it?"

Olivia lifted her head from the piles of papers and saw the floral-patterned tea set on the silver tray.

The three basic categories of porcelain are celadon, white porcelain, and black porcelain, distinguished by iron content. Celadon with iron content between 1%-5%, white porcelain below 1%, and black porcelain above 5%.

Aiven had set a three-step strategy for Ceramic Town: first, to stabilize the production of celadon with the simplest craftsmanship; mid-term goal was to produce the white porcelain revered among the nobles of the Old Continent; and finally to pursue the vibrant colors, elegance, and diversity of porcelain to compete in the high-end market against the quality products of the Peacock Islands.

With the largest explored kaolin mine in the world at their disposal, they had enough capital to keep trying different approaches.

Originally, since Ceramic Town opened the kiln last year, to solve the problem of temperature control when using wood and coal as fuel, Aiven required Kenneth, the Wizard Apprentice stationed there, to design a temperature control device using alchemy.

However,

After nearly half a year's intensive research, modifying the plans over a dozen times, they hadn't come up with a high-efficiency, widely applicable temperature control device. However, Kenneth, who had been diligently researching, found an alternative, more controllable fuel.

That was "coal gas", a by-product in the process of smelting pig iron, from Steel City's blast furnace!

To fulfill a large batch of military orders, the blast furnace located in the Cumberland Mountains had undergone several rounds of large-scale expansions. The workers had originally burned off this by-product, and now coal gas had become a powerful tool for firing porcelain.

Inventing storage, purification, and gas supply equipment, controlling the quality of coal gas to thus control kiln temperature, was much easier compared to inventing a temperature control device for wood and coal using alchemy.

Product quality and finished product rate immediately surged upward!

It could be said that the application of this new fuel had suddenly leaped the technological level ahead of the Peacock Islands, where wood firing was still commonly used, by a thousand years.

Though there remained a large gap in high-end firing that was difficult to bridge in a short time, they had already excelled in the large-scale production of ordinary porcelain. After several experiments, the quality product yield rate had exceeded 90%.

Although this tea set still faintly carried a trace of light green, its graceful and elegant design with a smooth, jade-like surface made it exceedingly superior, suitable for market release.

And,

It's believed it won't be long before Ceramic Town can produce truly white porcelain, creating a sensation across the entire Old Continent.

This should have been a tremendously good thing, but missing the person who could share the good news, the girl at the moment had no mood for celebration and casually responded:

"Put it on the desk, thanks, Sarah. I'm fine here; you go rest."

The beautiful Night Spirit maid in her maid dress didn't think much before bowing and gently closed the room door behind her.

The girl raised her hand to tuck a strand of dangling hair behind her ear, sighed softly with a longing gaze, gently patted her slightly thinner cheeks, and regained her spirits.

The less present Aiven was, the more she couldn't allow the territory to be in disorder; even throughout the week, Olivia had buried herself entirely in her work, using the busy affairs of the estate to leave no time for wandering thoughts.

In fact, besides herself, nobody in the territory had yet realized Aiven was actually missing, not merely engaged in his usual Witchcraft research, including the Marquis couple.

She picked up the golden feather pen made from Aiven's feather and resumed working at her desk; the sapphire tip left beautiful lines on the paper.

Shh, shh, shh...

Time always passed quickly in fulfilling and busy work.

After finishing all the important tasks at hand, it was already late, and Olivia had to enter the Spirit Realm before ten o'clock, to continue waiting in the Lost City Poseidya.

If Aiven freed himself from that Spirit Realm isolation status, the tightly linked beacon anchor ground would undoubtedly be the first place to receive feedback; the girl wanted to receive his news at the earliest possible moment.