When Victoria returned to her room on the upper floor of Silver Castle, snowflakes were falling from the window.
The snow this winter... one after another, especially after entering the second half of the cold month, the snow has hardly stopped.
Proper snowfall can bring good harvests for the coming year, but it will also make the cold moon more difficult. After this snowfall, many people will die in the villages and towns outside the capital...
The cold wind from the north hovered over the ancient capital, stirring the snowflakes falling from the sky into a hazy curtain. Maggie, the black-haired maid, closed the wooden shutters on the inside of the window, blurring the bleak and bleak scene outside the window. Isolated from the outside, a fireplace blazing in one corner of the room keeps this gorgeous house warm and cozy. The ice and snow outside the castle seems to be another world.
"Your complexion is not very good," Maggie looked at Victoria who entered the room, and asked softly as she stepped forward to help the Duchess take off her cloak, "Today's meeting is still not going well?"
"There's too many mediocre people sitting in those chairs and everyone's as short-sighted as a squirrel," Victoria shook her head. "What's worse is that I can't get them out yet."
Maggie hung the cloak on the rack next to her, and said softly, "After all, this country still depends on them."
Victoria took a look at this maid who was also a servant and a friend. She knew that although Maggie was her maid in name, she had good insight and the power of an extraordinary person. This "Northern Butler" was her most trusted When two people are alone, most of the topics can be talked about.
"The country does not necessarily have to rely on those old-fashioned nobles to function," the Duchess said calmly, "You have seen it with your own eyes."
Maggie raised her eyelids and glanced at Victoria: "Yes, but the price of doing this is very high. Another very important point is that you are also one of them, and you are also an inseparable one."
Victoria was silent for a while.
Yeah, she can't go that way.
"Don't think about that anymore, there is one more important thing," Maggie's words woke Victoria from her short thoughts. The black-haired maid picked up a sealed letter box with sealing wax from a nearby table and handed it to the Duchess. "A letter for you, from the Grand Duke of the Southern Territory, the White Feather Griffin."
Victoria's eyes widened in astonishment, and she took the letterbox and said, "Duke Cecil?"
She instinctively smelled the disturbing smell from this letter. Not long after she returned to the capital, the Duke of the South hastily wrote a letter to herself, and it was still in the coldest place. The letter sent by Yue's griffin messenger, what is it that is so urgent
She quickly opened the letter box, took out the handwritten letter inside, and unfolded it. After seeing the content on it, her brows frowned.
Maggie stood quietly by the side without inquiring about the content of the letter: Although she and Victoria were close, it was not beyond that.
"Maggie," Victoria asked immediately after quickly reading the contents of the letter, "When did the astrologers from the Mage Association report that the red stripes at the bottom of the sun shifted?"
The black-haired maid recalled: "It should be the 10th of the cold moon."
"The 10th of the cold moon... the same day..." Victoria looked down at the contents of the letter, "it can't be a coincidence..."
Then she noticed Maggie's slightly curious eyes, took a breath, and took the initiative to mention the content of the letter: "Duke Cecil sent a warning that the Great Wall has changed on the 10th of the cold moon. The overload lasted for three full days. By the day the letter was sent, although the grand wall had returned to calm, Duke Cecil believed that the barrier had been permanently damaged during the overload... "
The eyes of the black-haired maid slowly widened, showing no reservation of astonishment.
"It seems that I need to summon the royal mages and royal scholars," the Duchess said in a deep voice, "In addition... there is a new round of noble meetings."
When the word "noble meeting" was mentioned, Victoria couldn't help showing a trace of fatigue in her tone.
However, who is familiar with Ansu's system, she knows very well that no matter what she wants to do, even if she is Ansu's queen, she cannot avoid the nobles.
"What a quagmire."
…
The light blue rune brilliance flickered between the overlapping rune substrates, and the surging arcane energy hit crackling arcs, bursting out from between the energy contacts and the gears, in a specially designed for On the experimental platform built for testing large-scale equipment, the heavy and complicated power mechanism is slowly starting to run under the impetus of magic power. The sound of steel meshing and rotating is like a roar from weak to strong, making the entire experimental platform tremble slightly.
On the monitoring platform, which is more than 20 meters away from the experimental platform and separated by two layers of magic shields, Rebecca and Kamel are standing among the technicians, paying close attention to the machine and the machine in the distance. The operation of various magical devices around them, and beside the two of them, each magician is also paying attention to the monitoring unit he is responsible for.
A dazzling spark suddenly appeared at the top of a tower-like device in a corner of the test bench.
"Amplifier No. 1 is overloaded!!"
"The unbalance protection tiles of the No. 2 and No. 3 amplifiers may have melted!"
"The core is heating up, and the amplifier groups are interfering with each other"
"Stop immediately!" Rebecca's eyes widened, and she hurriedly shouted, "Stop immediately, stop!!"
A magician quickly got up to pull a certain lever located on the side of the console, but due to the excessive action, the lever got stuck between the gears of running and emergency stop, and a strange humming sound came from under the console. It was heard that on the experimental platform more than 20 meters away, electric light condensed by arcane energy began to burst out from the surface of each rune device.
"Let me go!!" Rebecca yelled at this critical moment, then casually picked up the iron staff that she never left her body, swung it round and smashed it on the console. She, who designed the entire console herself, It is very clear what should be smashed at this time, although according to the normal process, there should be no "smashing" operation at all. Accompanied by a loud bang, a part of the console is completely sunken, and the magic connection below is immediately interrupted.
The arcane sparks shooting around on the test platform quickly weakened and disappeared, and the entire unit gradually stopped after a continuous low humming sound. However, in a corner of the test platform, a two-meter-high tower-like device emerged from the top. Most of the whole set of billowing smoke was preserved, and the rest were obviously seriously damaged.
As soon as the device shut down, the staff who had been waiting by the side rushed up. They rushed to the side of the tower device, and raised their arms to point to the alloy tower that was still emitting a billowing heat wave. The magic terminal for engineering was released immediately. A large area of weakened ice cones, accompanied by the impact of magical ice and snow, the temperature of the entire tower began to drop rapidly.
Rebecca stretched her neck to watch the situation near the test bench, and Kamel's voice came from behind her: "How is the situation?"
"Don't think about it, just build a new one..." Rebecca said with a sad face, "Aunt Hetty will kill me... Her eyes were red when I reported the budget for the restoration laboratory to her last time..."
"...I'll report it," Kamel said after a short silence, "Accidents and failures are inevitable when doing research."
"But burning eight amplifiers and two large mana engines in six days is not the same..." Rebecca still had a sad face, she raised her head, and looked at the improvised structure made of steel brackets and prefabricated panels. In the large "laboratory", I feel a dull pain in the skull.
This is a newly built laboratory according to the instructions of the ancestors. It is located on the outskirts of the city, far away from residential areas, and implements a safety isolation system and new operating procedures. Facts have proved that such arrangements have greatly improved the safety factor of the experiment, but the success rate of the experiment... seems to be not at all. no change.
"Why on earth," Rebecca said to herself, "why is it always stuck on overload and interference..."
A senior magician looked at the data recorded recently, and said: "According to the test, the dense arrangement and multi-layer overlapping of magic mesh units can indeed greatly improve the output, and the volume can also be stuffed into the front of the car, but any What it brings is that the amplifier group and the repulsion mechanism are frequently overloaded and interfere with each other, and the magic power output by the multi-layered and overlapping magic net is very problematic in terms of stability and purity."
"It seems that if we want to make the multi-layer magic net practical, we must first find a way to solve the interference between each layer of magic net," Kamel continued, "In addition, the pressure of the power mechanism at the beginning is also a problem. We have to find a way to redesign the transmission and speed change mechanism, reduce the starting speed, and at the same time reduce the instantaneous pressure of the magic energy engine. The previous two magic energy engines were caused by too much instantaneous pressure and caused mechanical damage."
"It seems that mechanical transmission is not suitable for a monster like the 'Magic Energy Train', and the transmission device can't bear such a big impact at all." Rebecca shook her head, "It's really not possible... we can try what the ancestors mentioned. One-time 'hydraulic transmission'."
As she spoke, she frowned, because she thought of another question: "But it's not enough to reduce the instantaneous pressure of the magic engine... The mechanical pressure can be reduced, but the magic pressure on the amplifier and the magic net is still the same." There's no way around it."
"The magic power of the rune array is rigid...it's really hard to handle," Kamel said buzzingly, "Even if the load on the magic engine is reduced, it is still a big challenge for the booster to keep it running. challenge."
This is a common problem faced by most magic machines: no matter how sophisticated the magic machines are and how complicated their functions are, their core essence is still "magic circles".
Since it is a "magic circle", the magic power consumed by each magic circle activation is fixed. The "efficacy" of this spell may be affected by the casting materials and the environment, but the mana it consumes is a fixed value .
Even if the starting pressure of the magic engine is reduced to the minimum, the magic power required for its operation will be 100% reflected in the amplifier and magic net unit that power it. How many repulsion runes will be consumed? Mana, without the slightest discount.
As a result, the mechanical structure of the magic engine may be able to withstand it, but the runes of the energy supply part will still burn out, just like today.
One problem after another, before each problem is solved, a series of new problems will appear, mechanical structure, material strength, magic power interference, load of each device... All obstacles are piled up together, and it is almost impossible to reason clue.
It was a quagmire.
Rebecca looked at the arcane master in front of her, and suddenly couldn't help asking: "Master Kamel, what was the means of transportation in the Gondor Empire back then? It stands to reason... such a huge empire must also need something similar A large vehicle that can train, right?"
Hearing Rebecca's question, Kamel couldn't help revealing the color of memories: "Back then...we didn't use mechanical magic vehicles, but borrowed the power of large elemental summons to transport goods, such as summoning hurricanes Messengers and Wavebringers, they are so powerful that they can move mountains and seas... ”
Rebecca was stunned when she heard this: "This...such high-level elemental creatures can also be summoned and controlled? How do you let them help?"
"It's very simple, sign a summoning contract to give half a ton of dark blue magic crystal..."
"Okay, you don't need to say anything."
Dark blue magic crystal! Half a ton! ! Not to mention the Hurricane Messenger, even a wind elemental lord could kneel down and deliver goods to you Gondorians, right
Rebecca marveled at the behavior of local tyrants in the Gondor Empire in the past, but soon, various problems encountered in the magic train project still filled her mind.
Miss Marquis covered her forehead: "My head hurts..."
Kamel looked at this talented but somewhat childish girl, and couldn't help but want to comfort her, but before he could speak, Rebecca suddenly raised her head: "Actually, I think... the girl in front of us Is there something wrong with the way of thinking? Or...can you change to another direction?"
"you mean… "
"Concentrating the power on the front of the car seems simple and crude, but it is too difficult to realize. These huge power things are forced to be pushed together, which is inherently unstable," Rebecca said while thinking, her wonderful brain is so fast It started to work, "Master Kamel, do you still remember that we had a plan at that time, that is, if the high-power locomotive could not be built, we would distribute several smaller power magic engines to several carriages of the entire train?" Go up, make a power car... "
"I remember that this plan encountered the problem of synchronization and coordination of each power carriage," Kamel said while thinking, "Do you think... synchronization and coordination will be simpler than the problem we are currently encountering on the front of the car?"
"What if?" Rebecca said, "Anyway, we have made plans for both sets of plans, and now the key components of the front set of the device have also been burned and must be rebuilt, so why not simply build an additional experimental platform and put the power Should we also try the decentralized solution? Of course, we will not give up on the power concentration solution at the front of the car, we can continue to work hard, maybe the two solutions can complement each other, and we will find a breakthrough!"
As she spoke, the girl began to think again: "Also... I've been wondering recently whether it is possible to use a continuously running weight-reducing magic circle to reduce the load on the entire train... But the weight-reducing technique is a spell that takes effect within a certain range. How to control it? Its effective area and preventing the train from becoming unbalanced when turning have to be carefully considered... But I think these may be the direction of breakthrough."
That's really optimistic thinking.
However, looking at Rebecca's passionate eyes, Kamel found that he was also infected. Maybe there is some reason
"Okay," the ancient arcane master nodded, "finish the plan tonight, and we'll go to Ms. Hetty to apply for funding tomorrow."
"... Eh? Didn't you go?"
"Let's go together," Kamel said buzzingly, "You are the supervisor of the entire magic technology department, and any major changes in the project require you to go in person."
What the great magister said was well-founded and righteous.
Rebecca had to believe it or not.