It was already several days since he had last seen Anna, and there was also nobody who stole any of the dried fish out of the drawer, all in all, this made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
At this moment, Carter opened the door to the office.
“Your Royal Highness, two fleets have arrived at the pier.”
“Has Margaret’s Chamber of commerce finally arrived? Taking into account the time she had spent on the road, she must have missed a good show… hold on,” Roland stopped for a moment, feeling slightly surprised, “You said there were two fleets?”
“Yes,” Carter said laughingly, “You remember the messenger group you had sent to the Southern Territory to recruit staff? A batch of troops has already come back. The number of refugees that they brought along with them is already enough to crowd the pier to its bursting point. Currently, the City Hall is carrying out your plan and Miss Lily is executing the…”
“Quarantine operation.”
“Ah right, you’re talking about the program to eliminate the existence of plagues or similar threats…” The Chief Knight coughed twice, “This group of people number about four or five hundred people in size.”
“Do they?” Roland couldn’t prevent the corner of his mouth from rising.
*
Kyle Sichi put down the extremely thin remaining section of the “Intermediate Chemistry” while repeatedly muttering, “So that is what it is.”
“Mentor?” Chavez asked anxiously.
Since the time he had received the “Intermediate Chemistry”, Kyle had been unable to find any sleep within the last two days, almost reading through the whole ancient book overnight. Chavez himself had also taken a few glances at it, but the book’s content was too abstruse and much too difficult to understand.
“I’m fine,” the Chief Alchemist’s voice didn’t contain any trace of weariness, instead it appeared as if his spirit was trembling with excitement. Even though the corner of his eyes may have contained some dirt, his two eyes were still bright and full of fire, and looked nothing like a person who had just gone through a sleepless night.
The times when the mentor delved into alchemy they mustn’t be easily disturbed, this was a rule which each disciple need to abide by. So, having waited until now, Chavez finally dared to open his mouth and speak, “This book… this disciple doesn’t understand what is an atom, and what is an electron?”
“You are already a qualified alchemist, so you mustn’t call yourself a disciple. According to His Highness, we are colleagues now.” Kyle paused, “As for your question, I do not know how to answer it… In fact, when His Royal Highness Roland gave me the “Intermediate Chemistry”, this book was also attached to it.
Chavez looked at another book on the table, on the cover was written: “Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science”.
“Sichi… Mentor” he wasn’t accustomed to using such a familiar form of address yet, “It looks as if it closely follows alchemy… No, it completely lacks any relation with chemistry.”
“I also thought the same,” Kyle said while stroking his beard. He sighed then continued to speak, “However, after reading through a few pages, I discovered that I have actually been totally ignorant of this world.”
“What?” Chaves was stunned.
“I mean the concept behind it,” the Chief Alchemist’s voice was full of excitement… and also satisfaction, “We think that alchemy is just alchemy; that it is the research of scholarly knowledge. We say to ourselves that the sun rising and falling, and the flowers blooming and fading are things which have no relation to us.”
“Isn’t that right?… Those who are good at observing the sun and the stars become astrologers, as for the plants,” Chavez was slightly disgusted, “Only farmers and herbalist would study them.”
