When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 673 - 631: Hand-Cranked Calculator and Ether Formula

Under the moonlight, the fountain Angel was sprinkling water like a shower; the once dilapidated Mechanical Palace looked much more flourishing after more than a year of restoration.

The autumn wind blew the moonlight over everyone's shoulders, and several thrushes hid among the branches, emitting sharp and prolonged calls.

Surrounded by gendarmes and maids, a few acquainted people slowly walked along the stone-paved road.

To be honest, it was Moliat's first time entering this Mechanical Palace.

She curiously glanced around, marveling at the aqueducts and small water-driven devices, particularly captivated by a small water-driven clock.

Intricate gears meshed with each other, the iron lines under the impact of water continuously pulling, colliding with steel pins on the cedar scrolls, making the clock produce crisp clanging sounds like playing a piano.

After witnessing the novelty, Moliat turned her attention back to Horn, Jeanne, and Hilov who were leading the way.

At this moment, Catherine intentionally lagged a few steps behind, starting to secretly talk to Moliat about Hilov.

"I thought it was an Old Elf, but it turned out to be a Beastman. It's the first time I've seen a Beastman as a scholar."

"Hmph."

"It seems Jeanne and this Hilov have a good relationship."

"Ah."

"Do you feel that Lady Hilov's relationship with Horn is a bit too intimate?"

"Is it?"

"...Are you even listening to me?"

Moliat glanced up at her, suddenly slowing her pace, lowering her head and voice: "Something's not right, she has no heart-voice."

"Isn't it normal that you can't hear the Witch's heart-voice? Isn't it hard for you to hear those old Witches' heart-voices?" Catherine asked in confusion.

Moliat shook her head with narrowed eyes: "You don't understand, it's not that I can't hear the heart-voice, but that she has no heart-voice."

Catherine was taken aback, even stopping in her tracks, standing dazed for four or five seconds before hurriedly catching up: "No heart-voice? Are you sure? Did she wear some Alchemy item?"

Catherine and Moliat were both studying under Juanuo, both being Witches, so they were quite familiar with each other.

She was equally familiar with Moliat's Witch spells; a heart-voice was something every intelligent creature would have.

Heart-voice is not people's inner thoughts but a kind of voice similar to speaking in your mind with a closed mouth.

But no matter what, a person's heart-voice may be empty, but it can't be nonexistent.

"Unless it's a consecrated level of Divine Art, I can't think of any Alchemy item that can block my mind-reading," Moliat furrowed her brow, "But regarding the Alchemy at the Ethereal Tower, I'm not sure."

"Should we tell Horn?"

"No need, it could incite suspicion in relationships, let's wait a bit."

With doubts lingering, the group emerged from the neatly maintained hedges, from where the newly built tree-lined path gave a clear view of the tall tower in the center of the Mechanical Palace square.

"Ah, you arrived just in time; it's about to begin." Looking at the clock placed at the door, Hilov was the first to stop in her wheelchair.

Evidently, Hilov didn't feel at ease with Moliat and wasn't about to let her enter her Ethereal Tower.

With enough manpower, many procedures didn't need to be operated by Hilov; besides, Horn was here, she didn't want to expose that his head might be sucked away by the Star Realm.

Moliat didn't mind, after all, it was the first meeting. If it were her, she wouldn't allow others into such a crucial place either.

Stepping onto the yellowed grass blades, Moliat slowly walked to the Ethereal Tower, gently touching its black and peculiar material.

Equally knowledgeable, Catherine was also scrutinizing this towering spire.

Based on her scholarship and mixed-race Elf identity, this tower was mostly likely an early structure from the Ancient Aier Empire era and an important one at that.

Conversely, this outer palace seemed more like a cover for this tower rather than a residence for people.

"Actually, I've always wondered, since star-forged gears are so useful, why not build more Ethereal Towers or hold more Ether ceremonies?" Catherine walked to Hilov's side and asked, "Is that something you can talk about?"

Holding a small bone comb, Hilov scratched the tip of her tail: "Of course, this question should be divided into two parts because calculating Ether ceremonies and the weak points in the Star Realm are two separate methods, but both require complex astrological calculations.

Building a new Ethereal Tower isn't hard, whereas finding weak points between the Star Realm and the real world, and the time and location where ether currents pass the weak points, is the challenge.

This requires a series of complicated astrological calculations. From what I understand, it took decades to find this tower and the pattern of the ceremonies."

"But this Ethereal Tower and palace, at the latest, are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Did the El people back then already know about ether?"

"This tower was inherited from my mother. When I was born, it was already there. Perhaps it was transformed from Ancient Aiel Architecture," Hilov reached out to touch the tower she was so familiar with.

"And the ether? Isn't it a new Alchemy from the last few decades?" Catherine continued to question. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I don't know, but I have a vague guess. The weak points in the Star Realm have distinct mathematical characteristics in astrology.

With the 'black box' instruments from the Ancient Aier Era, they could occasionally calculate these places with prominent features, deemed as the closest to the stars, and thus would build a tower here.

In many Ancient Aier texts, such places are referred to as 'the place of star alignment.'

Jeanne furrowed her brow, looking at Horn beside her, who seemed utterly bored. She thought she had heard this phrase somewhere before.

"Since the Ancient Aier people could easily calculate the location, why can't we now?"

"Because the Ancient Aier people only calculated in two dimensions, not three," Hilov looked up at the clouds and the bright moon above her, "Some places of star alignment are hundreds of meters high, completely out of reach."

Listening to Hilov and Catherine's conversation, Horn also sighed.

He knew far more than Catherine; according to the notes in 'Jade Records,' without a general formula, they only summarized the black box instruments, computing each one in hope of hitting the mark.

Even this Ethereal Tower was found through decades of luck.

And the influencing factors are not only its location; ether currents also have different properties, like the ether currents around Autumn Dusk Island, which are relatively mild.

Although 'Jade Records' didn't document ether currents elsewhere, the fact that they comment on those around Autumn Dusk Island suggests there must be more than one place.

Regarding these tedious calculations, Horn did have a new idea, which was a hand-cranked calculator.

Simply put, it's a drum fitted with gears, where a carry in one digit triggers the next gear, allowing for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with the up and down movements of the handle.

This type of hand-cranked calculator was once all the rage in the 19th-century scientific community, and the verification of Laplace's 'Celestial Mechanics' relied on numerous astronomers cranking these calculators.

In theory, given the current precision of star-forged gears and lathes, there shouldn't be any major casting issues, the problem is that Horn only knows the shape and principle, not the construction and design.

With these thoughts in mind, Horn looked up and gazed at the white light emanating from the top of the tower, unable to resist letting out a sigh.

There were too many affairs for Hilov; she even roughly figured out the approach but just had no time to complete it.

The clockmakers on Autumn Dusk Island couldn't keep up with Hilov's thoughts, making it difficult to independently accomplish the design of the overly advanced hand-cranked calculator.

Alas, where could he find such a mechanical genius?