Vivid Memories of the Past

"Sss—" Inside the spacious room, every inch of space was filled with various instruments. Not long after the factory had been blown up, Reinhardt had rebuilt a workshop. For the past two years, thanks to the secret support of the Royal Court, his working environment and scale had significantly improved. If he did not want to leave Yakutsk, he might have spent the rest of his life in the Royal Court.

As usual, he followed his schedule, performing validation after validation and overturning theory after theory. Although the performance of the steam engines was better than he had imagined, completely abandoning the effects of magic to work independently was still something he could not achieve for now. He had tried to build some reactors and found that magic-driven lightning worked exceptionally well, but using magic to generate electricity was simply too luxurious.

He let out a sigh and rubbed his messy hair, feeling a bit hungry. At his current level, going long periods without eating was no problem at all; he could not even remember the last time he had eaten or slept.

"I'll go to my brother's place for a meal." He stretched and checked the instruments and monitoring equipment around the workshop. None of them showed any traces of anyone, yet he had a strange feeling—like a biological instinct—telling him that someone had already entered.

"This feeling is... intuition?" he murmured to himself, looking at a figure that had appeared in the room at some unknown point. That figure held no hostility and emitted no aura; she felt as ordinary as a passerby one might brush past on the street. "I thought that since I modified my entire body like this, such primal instincts would have faded away."

"Perhaps you still subconsciously consider yourself alive, which is why you have that feeling." The figure lowered her hood, revealing blood-red eyes and snow-white hair. "It might be better if you stop thinking of yourself as a biological creature and define yourself as a robot with human emotions."

"Then I would be quite far from being human. To be honest, I still want to be a human," Reinhardt shrugged. Although his words were casual, his body had already respectfully knelt on one knee.

"There is no need for such formality. I am no longer an actual manager of the Royal Court. For them, my non-interference is the best approach." Li Yue reached into her cloak composed of Death Abyss and produced a pitch-black bottled substance.

"Do you have a way to separate the life force and the power of madness within this?" Li Yue handed the pitch-black snake-shaped "bottle" to Reinhardt. He took it cautiously, momentarily losing his composure in the face of such immense life force and terrifying madness, nearly dropping it.

"Even if you haven't reached the Calamity rank, you have reached that height in another form. With such power, you should have noticed it too, right?" Li Yue pointed toward the sky. Reinhardt nodded, feeling as though he dared not speak in a loud voice, for fear of startling the Celestial Being.

"His power is extremely unique and has permeated much of the world. I tried to research it before, but I failed." Reinhardt returned the bottle of world-class life force to Li Yue. This result was within Li Yue's expectations; she had not harbored much hope when she came to visit.

"The source material within His power changes every moment. Whether it is the nature or the form of existence, it changes every second. For ten years, I have been conducting research, but unfortunately... there is no pattern." Reinhardt let out a sigh. "His power does not share the same source as magic. It is a power that cannot be explained by current means."

"However... I can find a way to weaken the madness within it, though the effect will be minimal... and since the amount is so vast, I can probably only reduce it by ten to twenty percent, and it will take several years." Reinhardt spoke slowly. He saw a flash of surprise and an emotion akin to being overjoyed in Li Yue's eyes. He took the bottle from Li Yue's hand, wondering where she had obtained world-class life force.

But that did not matter. He was happy to contribute his part to the so-called salvation plan. Just as the Calamity Warlocks of Karl Romon Academy and the Royal Court Academy had been cooperating over the years to collect the world's authorities, the Royal Court government was expanding the influence of faith and creating happiness for everyone to reduce the inherent madness and pain in human hearts.

"It is much better than I expected. In that case, the time it can be endured will be greatly extended." Li Yue smiled faintly. She looked around at the instruments in the room. There were several nearly finished steam engines that only needed refinement in a few details. However, this production efficiency was too low; the speed of technological progress was failing to keep up with the speed at which the Royal Court was transforming society.

According to her thoughts, before long, the parties within the Royal Court would have to undergo restructuring and integration, merging back into a single major party. Li Yue trusted Clo; in this era, she was perhaps the only one who would not restore the monarchy after gaining great power.

"You are using magic to generate electricity?" Li Yue looked at the magic formations on the instruments in the room; some had already stopped because the mana supply had been cut off.

"Aside from what exists in nature, I haven't thought of a way to generate electricity for the time being..."

"Simple. Magnetism generates electricity, and electricity generates magnetism. I dreamed of this theory; let me demonstrate it for you." Li Yue held out her hand, and magnets along with simple equipment she had envisioned appeared in her palm.

Grumble... Reinhardt's stomach churned. He looked at the instruments and equipment in Li Yue's hands. These were all things he had once imagined, but the ones in Li Yue's hands seemed to have already been improved and optimized.

"Let's find a place to eat and rest first. After this, it might be another long period without sleep." Li Yue smiled and placed the items on the floor. Although Reinhardt was impatient to witness the demonstration, he had no choice but to walk out of the workshop with Li Yue. He was also afraid that he might die suddenly from working without sleep again due to over-excitement.

The sky of Yakutsk was as clear as a blue wash. The sunlight shining on their bodies was much warmer than the heating stoves of the past. The facilities that had once controlled a city-state might now have become objects for display. Those who survived those years might point at them and tell their descendants about their formerly cold lives and the great deeds of the messenger of the god back then.

"Lane, Aestherin... it's been a long time." Li Yue did not put on her hood. She looked at this city-state, the past vivid before her eyes.

"Yakutsk is now filled with flowers. I didn't know the people here were actually so fond of flowers," Reinhardt laughed heartily.

"Is that so..." For some reason, Li Yue felt a bit nostalgic for the days when she and Clo sent letters to each other.

What a pity...

Winning wagers over books, the scent of tea spilled in jest... at the time, I only thought it was ordinary.