The bonfire crackled, its light illuminating three faces. Qiba Nana continuously poked at the fire with a charred stick to make the flames larger and brighter. Evelyn was still staring at the blueprint, studying the angles of light refraction, her eyes filled with obsession.
Arthur looked at Evelyn's obsession and thought, 'Promising.' He liked capable people.
"Barna," Arthur turned to Barna, breaking the silence.
"Here, Lord Arthur," Barna, who had been huddled by the fire, immediately put down the stick and straightened his back.
Arthur asked, "How often are the ropes on the construction site's zipline replaced?"
Barna paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "Lord, those are good hemp ropes, very strong. They can last for a year or so without issue."
"Starting tomorrow, replace them every few days for repair," Arthur's tone left no room for discussion. "Ropes that cannot be repaired should be used for bundling materials. New ones must be used. I don't want to hear about anyone falling from the sky."
"If possible, don't have people on it. Only use it to transport building materials and stones."
Arthur knew that merchants' nature was to achieve great things with small costs, so he had to specifically instruct them. Even steel cable ziplines were prone to accidents, let alone simple ones. A bad fall could result in shattered bones. Replacing a rope with an adult liege was definitely not worth it.
"Yes, yes, I've noted it, Lord Arthur," Barna responded repeatedly, a hint of cold sweat appearing on his forehead. He hadn't expected Arthur to value the lives of his lieges so much.
Arthur no longer paid him any mind, turning his gaze to Evelyn, who had looked up at him, and smiled. She seemed curious about the zipline as well. "What are you thinking?"
Evelyn looked directly at Arthur, the firelight flickering in her beautiful blue eyes. "Actually, I understand the principle of the zipline, but I'm wondering why something hanging on a rope can slide so fast."
"It has neither horses dragging it nor human power pushing it."
Arthur adjusted his glasses. 'This woman has potential,' he thought. 'When will she find an apple tree to sit under and get hit by an apple?'
He picked up a small stone, weighed it in his hand, and raised his hand to shoulder height. "Look, I've raised it here."
"It inherently contains a downward force. The higher I stand, the greater this force."
"Have you ever wondered why, if I drop a stone from a high place, its destructive power is different from dropping it from a low place?"
Arthur released his hand, and the stone fell to the ground.
"The zipline utilizes this force. The starting point is set high, and the ending point is set low, like a slope. The stone, when hung on the rope, will slide down by itself. As for how fast it slides, that depends on the rope."
Arthur then pointed to the existing hemp ropes, winches, and wheels. By straightening and raising the rope with the winch and wheels, such an environment was created.
"The rougher the rope, the slower it runs. If it were replaced with a polished iron cable, the speed would be faster than you can imagine."
Evelyn's breathing hitched. She murmured, "Yes, why is there a difference in destructive power when a stone is dropped from a high place versus a low place?"
"Why does it go faster the smoother it is, and slower the rougher it is?"
"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Arthur watched her gradually fall into a state of obsessive madness, coughing three times. 'Don't go mad,' he thought. 'You're still very useful.'
Arthur saw that he had interrupted Evelyn's thoughts. He pointed to the sky above, filled with stars. "Light also follows a similar principle."
"Light likes to travel in a straight line, but when it encounters certain things, it will also change direction."
"Look!"
Arthur took Qiba Nana's water bottle, then snatched the wooden stick and rice bowl from Barna's hand. Ignoring Barna's resentful gaze, he poured water into the bowl and inserted the charred wooden stick into it.
Evelyn leaned in, face to face with Arthur, eyes wide. The wooden stick in the water seemed to break at the water's surface, appearing at a strange angle.
"It's bent…" Evelyn whispered, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Arthur, smelling her body fragrance, remained unperturbed. He pulled out a crystal from the Terry Family's treasury from his In arms: "It's not the wooden stick that's bent; it's your line of sight to it that's bent by the water."
"Water can bend light, and pure crystal can too, Evelyn. When you've been drawing for a long time, using your eyes in the night and by candlelight, do things look blurry?"
Evelyn subconsciously rubbed her eyes, a gesture she had been making more and more frequently recently.
Drawing those millimeter-precise blueprints for extended periods in dim candlelight was a huge strain on her eyesight.
"Yes, when I was little, I could see distant trees clearly, but now distant trees appear as blurry shadows in my eyes," she answered honestly, her body pressed close to Arthur.
Arthur held the crystal up to Evelyn's face, gazing into her eyes through the clearest part of it. "What if we could grind the crystal into a specific curvature, like an invisible slope, causing the light entering the eyes to bend beforehand…?"
"Is it possible that those who can't see things clearly might be able to see the world clearly again…?"
Evelyn froze. If such a thing truly existed, its value would be immeasurable. Countless scholars, nobles, and kings would clamor for it.
To allow human eyes to perceive things again… she dared not imagine how insane the scholars of the academy city would become.
"Can this really be done?" Evelyn's voice was dry.
"Why not?" Arthur took her hand, gently placing the crystal into it. The cold touch of the stone made her shiver. She lowered her head, looking at the crystal.
Arthur held her hand, looking at the lowered head of Evelyn. "I only have this one decent crystal in my hand. It is the most valuable thing in the territory, apart from myself."
"I'm giving it to you."
"Because I trust you."
Barna, seeing the unfavorable situation, fled without a word. He hadn't expected Lord Arthur to like this kind of thing. He had to quickly relay the news to Lucien and Hakon. The two of them were currently recruiting beautiful village women, but they needed to switch to ugly ones, so they didn't accidentally flatter the wrong person.
Evelyn held the not-so-large crystal, feeling as if she were holding the weight of a mountain. Her body trembled continuously. She looked up at Arthur, her blue eyes shimmering.
Arthur coughed softly twice, averting his gaze.
In the deepest part of the "Lion's Den" fortress, in a newly excavated, isolated cave cut off from all other passages, Evelyn began her work.
There was no day or night, only eternal candlelight.
The sound of sand grinding against crystal echoed in the cave. The woman, for some unknown reason, was so stubbornly desperate, using the finest sandstone, leather, and even the corner of her own clothes, grinding and polishing again and again.
Everyone was shocked. She ignored any pleas to rest. Only when Arthur ordered her to rest would she take a brief break, then continue grinding.
She failed countless times. The crystal shards were covered in scratches, or the curvature was wrong, making the seen image twisted like a madman's painting.
Finally, at a moment when she was in the cave, unsure if it was dawn or deep night, when she held two thin crystal pieces, set in a crude wooden frame, to her eyes.
The world became clearer than ever before. Every subtle texture of the rocks on the cave wall, every flickering flame of the distant candlelight, was so clear that it brought tears to her eyes.
When she handed the simple glasses to Arthur, she suddenly collapsed towards him and was caught steadily, falling into a deep sleep.
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