“You mean … those alchemical formulas, were written by you?” Kyle suddenly thought of another possibility,
“Not exactly,” Roland said. “These formulas came from an ancient book which were written more than four hundred years ago and were recently discovered by me. It seems that hundreds of years ago they called alchemy ‘chemistry’.”
“What…” When Kyle heard that the formulas didn’t come from King’s City’s Alchemy Workshop, his heart suddenly felt a lot better. But the Prince’s answer still surprised him
“Yes, in the book, those scholars had formulated a hypothesis, which they called, “The Theory of the immortality of matter.” It states that matter which is the source of all things in the world will neither disappear nor will it increase. It will only transfer from one form to another. But in the end, they are all a piece of the same cake,” Roland pointed to a cake placed on a nearby table, “If you eat that, it will enter your stomach, from there some of the parts of which it’s formed will be absorbed by you, becoming a part of your body, while the rest of it will be excreted. So, if you now would take the integrated parts and the expelled parts and compare them with the former cake, the quality of the matter should still be the same.”
“Hold on… Your Royal Highness,” Kyle expressed his thoughts, “If I take a piece of wood, cut it and burn it to ashes, no matter how much it previously weighed, the weight of the ashes after the fire will be lighter than that of the former piece of wood. If the matter didn’t disappear, then where did it go?”
“These problems are also explained in the books,” Roland said laughingly. “The missing matter was turned into gas and water, and the water was heated up so much that it turned into gas as well and evaporated. So, in the end, you can only see the residue from what was left behind.”
“Gas?” Kyle got an unexplainable feeling in his heart, “Do you want to say that the air also has a weight?”
“Of course, the air also has mass.” The Prince nodded in confirmation, “It is also very easy to verify this point, just put a pile of sawdust into a bottle, then cover the bottle and place it on a scale. Afterward, you set the sawdust in the bottle on fire and weights it again. you will eventually discover, that the weight of the bottle hasn’t changed. This is because the gas had no way out and still remains inside the bottle.”
“This… was this also written in the ancient books?” Kyle eagerly asked, “Could you let me see that book?”
“You can, if you accept a few of my conditions first,” Roland gave him a piece of paper.
“You only have to name them.”
“First of, if you want to work for me, your salary will be calculated according to the regular payment of Silver City’s Alchemy Workshop. Secondly, once you accept this job, you must comply with the confidentiality regulations. That means, everything you learn has to remain a secret to other alchemists. Thirdly, if you agree to the terms, you have to sign this contract.
“The deal lasts for a period of five years and when the five years are over, you are free to go on to choose your own fate. Furthermore, your alchemy discoveries won’t be placed under the confidentiality restrictions any longer. You will be free to show your discoveries to your colleagues at the Alchemy Workshop. If you accept these three conditions, according to the contract, Border Town will provide you with free housing and a chemical laboratory. And lastly, I will lend you the book title “Elementary Chemistry” to study, and if there is something that you don’t understand, you can always come and ask me.”
