When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#635 - Hand-cranked calculator and ether formula

The fountain cherub under the moonlight was spraying water like a shower. After more than a year of repairs, the once dilapidated Mechanical Palace looked much more lush.

The autumn wind blew the moonlight over everyone's shoulders, and several song thrushes hid in the branches, emitting sharp and drawn-out calls.

Surrounded by military police and maids, the newly acquainted group walked slowly along the stone-paved road.

To be honest, Moliati was entering the Mechanical Palace for the first time.

She curiously looked around, marveling at the aqueducts and small hydraulic devices, especially a small water-powered clock that caught her attention.

The precise gears meshed with each other, and the iron wire continuously pulled under the impact of the water, constantly colliding with the steel nails on the cedar scroll, causing the clock to make a crisp clang like playing the piano.

However, after seeing the novelty, Moliati turned her attention back to Horn, Jeanne, and Sylph, who were leading the way.

At this time, Catherine deliberately lagged behind a few steps and began to gossip about Sylph with Moliati.

"I thought she was an old Ayr, but I didn't expect her to be a beastman. It's the first time I've seen a beastman as a scholar."

"Hmph."

"It seems that Jeanne and this Sylph have a good relationship."

"Ah."

"Don't you feel that this Sylph is too close to Horn?"

"Is that so?"

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

Moliati glanced at her, suddenly slowed down her pace, lowered her head, and lowered her voice: "Something's not right, she has no heart's voice."

"Isn't it normal that you can't hear the heart's voice of a witch? Isn't it difficult for you to hear the heart's voice of those old witches?" Catherine asked in confusion.

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

Catherine was stunned, even stopped her steps, stood there for four or five seconds before quickly catching up: "No heart's voice? Are you sure? Is she wearing some alchemical item?"

Catherine and Moliati both studied under Juan Nuo, and both were witches, so they could be said to be quite familiar with each other.

She was also familiar with Moliati's witch spells. Heart's voice is something that every intelligent creature has.

Heart's voice is not a person's inner thoughts, but a voice similar to speaking in one's head with one's mouth closed.

But in any case, a person's heart's voice may be empty, but it cannot be nonexistent.

"Unless it's a consecrated divine spell, I can't think of any alchemical item that can isolate my mind reading," Moliati frowned, "But based on the alchemy of the Aether Spire, I can't be sure."

"Should we tell Horn?"

"No, it's suspected of stirring up trouble, let's hold back for now."

With doubts, the group walked out of the neatly trimmed shrubbery green walls, and through the newly built tree-lined path, they could see the tall spire in the center of the Mechanical Palace Square.

"Ah, you've come just in time, it's about to start." Looking at the clock placed at the door, Sylph took the lead in stopping the wheelchair.

Obviously, Sylph was not at ease with Moliati and did not intend to let her enter her Aether Tower.

With enough people, many processes did not have to be operated by Sylph, and Horn was still here, she did not want to expose the fact that his head would be sucked away by the astral realm.

Moliati had no objection, after all, it was the first time they had met, and if it were her, she would not allow others to enter such a crucial place.

Stepping on the yellowing tips of the grass, Moliati slowly walked to the Aether Tower, gently stroking the strange black material.

The knowledgeable Catherine also looked up and down at the towering spire.

Based on her knowledge and mixed-blood Ayr identity, the spire was likely an early building from the ancient Ayr Empire, and an important building.

On the other hand, the outer palace was not so much for people to live in as it was to cover up the spire.

"Actually, I've always wanted to know, since the Star-Forged Gear is so useful, why not build more Aether Towers or hold more Aether Rituals?" Catherine walked to Sylph's side and asked, "Is this something that can be said?"

Holding a small bone comb, Sylph scratched the tip of her tail: "Of course, this question needs to be divided into two parts, because calculating Aether Rituals and calculating weak points in the astral realm are two sets of methods, but both require complex astrological calculations.

Building a new Aether Spire is not difficult, what is difficult is discovering the weak points between the astral realm and the reality and the time and location of the aetheric currents passing through the weak points.

This requires a series of complex astrological calculations. According to what I know, it took decades to find this spire and the rules of the ritual."

"But, this Aether Spire and palace are at least hundreds or thousands of years old. Did the Ayr people at that time know about aether?"

"This spire was inherited from my mother. It was there when I was born. Perhaps it was remodeled from an ancient Ayr building," Sylph reached out and touched the spire she was so familiar with.

"What about aether? Isn't this a new alchemy of the last few decades?" Catherine continued to ask.

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"I don't know, but I have a vague guess that there are clear mathematical characteristics of weak points in the astral realm in astrology.

Relying on the ancient Ayr's 'black box' instruments, they could occasionally calculate this place with very distinct characteristics, which was regarded as the closest place to the starry sky, so they built a tower here.

In many ancient Ayr classics, they call this place 'the place where the stars return'."

Jeanne frowned and looked at Horn, who was bored next to her. Why did she seem to have heard this sentence somewhere?

"Since the ancient Ayr people could easily calculate the location, why can't we do it now?"

"Because the ancient Ayr people only calculated the two-dimensional plane, but not the three-dimensional one." Sylph looked up at the dark clouds and the bright moon above her head, "Some places where the stars return are hundreds of meters high and cannot be connected to at all."

Listening to the conversation between Sylph and Catherine, Horn also sighed.

He knew much more than Catherine and the others. According to the records in the Emerald Tablet Notes, since there was no universal formula, only the summarized black box instruments, they could only calculate one by one to exhaust their luck.

Even this Aether Tower was found after decades of luck.

And the influencing factors are not only the location, the aetheric currents also have different properties. The aetheric currents on Autumn Dusk Island are considered mild.

Although the Emerald Tablet Notes did not record the aetheric currents in other places, since they could evaluate the aetheric currents on Autumn Dusk Island, it meant that there was definitely more than one place.

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

To put it bluntly, it is a cylinder with gears. When a number in one place advances, it triggers the next gear, and then the up and down rotation of the handle is used for calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

This kind of hand-cranked calculator was once popular in the 19th-century scientific community. Laplace's Celestial Mechanics was verified by countless astronomers cranking hand-cranked calculators.

In theory, with the current precision of the Star-Forged Gear lathe, there are no major casting problems. The problem is that Horn only knows the shape and principle, but does not know the structure and design.

Thinking in his heart, Horn raised his head, looked at the white light emanating from the top of the tower, and couldn't help but sigh.

Sylph had too many things to do. She had even roughly figured out the idea, but she didn't have time to complete it.

The clockmakers on Autumn Dusk Island couldn't keep up with Sylph's ideas and couldn't independently complete the overly advanced design of the hand-cranked calculator.

Alas, where could he find such a mechanical genius?