North eastern region of Dioral Kingdom.
After entering fall, the first rain finally falls. The rain has already lasted for two days without stopping.
Odbart Adalgiso leans over his desk and looks out of the window. The rain is blown upwards by the wind, hitting against the glass again and again, creating bursts of ripples. Under the refraction of the ripples, the image of the town becomes distorted. The houses and the streets are bent in deformation, without any regular form. Due to the lack of any effective drainage measures, the stone roads are interlocked with streams of flowing water, from afar, it resembles many brooks of clear and crystalline water.
The distant rocky hills at the west and Orlais forests at the south are obscured by mist, and are faintly discernible, just like the border to the human world.
Because of the rain, the town wall construction also has to stop. This let his feeling of success, which he got on the day before yesterday when he "discouraged" the stronghold messenger, fade away.
Odbart Adalgiso turns around, "they are now my student." During the rain, he has called for smart villagers to attend their own class - yes, he has decided to start a lesson on the nature which he has spent years of researching.
A young man asks, "My lord, I don't understand when you said there are different types of air."
Odbart Adalgiso smiles, "I can even prove it to you."
He knows that even with these easy to understand words, most of the people would be confused by the advanced lesson.
He decides to use a simple demonstration to arouse everyone’s interest.
A candle, a glass, a basin, a bowl of limewater - these are the things he had prepared in advance. Although at this time they have only pale brown glass, it is still transparent enough to be used. After all, this simple test doesn’t need someone to observe the changing process.
He had done this test countless of time before, the test results showed that although there was magic in this world, there still consistent rules of nature. He asks the young man to light the candles, and then Odbart Adalgiso put it in the basin.
"When something is burning, it needs to consume gas. This gas is also closely linked with every living organism, if we stop breathing, we will be like this candle. Watch." Odbart Adalgiso put the glass on the candle, and after the flame shakes two times, it soon goes out.
"It exhausts the air, sir, this is not surprising." the chief knight in his forties speaks in a disapproving way, "Of course we will die without air. For example, if we fall into water."
Another young man also nods.
"So, do you think that there in the glass is nothing at all?" Odbart Adalgiso asks, then he pours the limewater into the basin, the limewater soon floods into the glass, but it finally stops when only half is filled.
He gently lifts a corner of the glass, and after a few moments bubbles of air could be seen rising out of the limewater.
Then, the clear limewater appears to be a little bit cloudy, and a little white cloud slowly spread within the glass.
"If there is nothing in the glass, we wouldn’t have seen the changes in the limewater and the air bubbles. This shows that the air contains at least two different kinds of air. In fact, burning a candle consumes only a part of the air, while the other part is unable to burn. Though it is colourless and odourless, like the former air, its nature is the complete opposite."
"Well... That seems to be the case," the chief knight ponders for a long time to figure out the relationship between the two, "but to know this, what is the use of it?"
"If you can get the former air, you can let the flame burn longer, and when you obtain the other gas, you can quickly extinguish the flames!" the most curious young man suddenly says.
This young man is intelligent, Odbart Adalgiso praises him in his heart. Even though there is a small fallacy, when hearing of the different properties of the air, the young man could immediately think of several uses. This idea is definitely intelligent-level. Odbart Adalgiso knows that the young villager did not receive any education like the aristocrats, but even without it, he could quickly think of this point, showing his extraordinary logic ability - at least he is far better than this chief knight.
"Right, it is possible to say that since humans learned to use fire, they were separated from the animals, even though obtaining fire was just a coincidence. Perhaps the lightning hit the trees and lit them, perhaps a rock hit another rock and released a spark. But if no one had noticed it, no one could have tried using it. We would still be the same as the animals." Odbart Adalgiso guides them patiently and systematically in the direction he wants, "The goal of this action is to show you that curiosity and thinking are the driving forces of human progress. There are many of similar potential forces in nature, only waiting for us to discover and use them. "
After his lord's speech, chief knight still has a doubtful look.
The three young men bow their heads as if thinking about something.
Well, Odbart Adalgiso sighs, indeed, teaching too far ahead of the ideas that they understand will not bring enlightenment; it will only make people feel perplexed. The height of their knowledge determines that they couldn’t understand the powerful force of nature unless it is physically in front of them. Then they would understand how amazing the nature of the hidden forces in the world are.
At this moment, the kettle hanging from the mantel gives off a clanging sound, it is the sound of a steam pinging against the lid.
"Ah, the water is boiling." Chief knight walks over to remove the kettle with a fork, and soon the sound stops. He takes a piece of cloth and wraps it around the handle, then fills everyone’s cups with water.
For example, when Odbart Adalgiso reaches out with his hand to hold the cup, he could feel the temperature of the cup wall. From the first day of using fire, the principle of boiling water was known. "Boiling water", hundreds of thousands of people had witnessed this and used it but no one thought that the gently curling and rising water vapor could also contain such a tremendous amount of energy.
Although the principle is simple, the problem is not the limited technology. No, the problem is that the first choice for most people is to farm. But Count Odbart Adalgiso is different from them, he thought, this world also had sorcery. Using magic to fight in a battle? That is only the way of barbarians... with magic someone could create, it could replace some of the key technologies to hasten the process of human development. This is the correct way to use magic.
They talk until the sun goes down, and after they have eaten dinner together, Odbart Adalgiso goes to his bedroom.
Just as he has lit the candle in his room, he could hear behind himself the sound of applause, then someone speaks to Odbart, "It was a spectacular lecture, I did not expect that a noble lord is actually a learned man."
It is the voice of an unknown woman, or to be more precise, a girl. Instantly Odbart Adalgiso could feel cold sweat, only god knew how a stranger could get into his chamber without his knowledge, if not an assassin what could she be?! He immediately runs towards the door, even before he has the time to put his hand on the doorknob, he could feel a cold wind blow near his ear. He discovers that a silver dagger is firmly inserted into the door, the distance from the dagger to his cheek is only one finger wide.
