Chapter 1348: Coma

“Your Majesty — may I try?” Kyle Sichi stepped forward, barely waiting.

“Of course.” Roland nodded. “You can send this time.”

The Chief Alchemist thought for a moment, then took a piece of chalk and wrote out a string of characters — varying lengths, more than twenty distinct patterns in sequence. If three horizontal lines and two dots could be explained as coincidence, twenty characters eliminated the possibility entirely.

Barov showed no interest in relinquishing his position as receiver. Without waiting to be asked, he blindfolded himself.

The electric arc jumped again.

This time the old director listened longer. When he finally set down the headset and unfolded the paper, the room erupted.

Two errors in a message of more than twenty characters — and not a single mistake among the numbers, which matched Kyle’s message exactly. Coincidence could not survive this. What had happened was clear: in those few seconds, information had moved from Neverwinter to Silver City and back, and Barov knew what Kyle had written because that was the only way his paper could look the way it did.

“How far can the Iron Tower send?” Barov asked, his voice pitched higher than usual.

“Theoretically, increase the output enough and a few thousand kilometers is no obstacle.”

“You mean — the entire Four Kingdoms?”

The room erupted into whispers.

“Not just the Four Kingdoms. The entire Fertile Plains.”

“For Neverwinter to know anything that happens in Graycastle within a second — that’s inconceivable.”

“I’d never have believed it was possible if I hadn’t seen it myself—”

Barov was already thinking at a different level, one hand raised before the others finished speaking. “Your Majesty — if we assigned specific meanings to these codes, could we transmit more complex content? Instructions, government decrees…”

Roland gave him a commending look. For a man who had served his early career in a world without any of this, Barov had an impressive instinct for jumping from demonstration to application. “You’re on the right path, but my plan goes further.”

“Meaning…?”

“Rather than assigning fixed connotations to symbols, we map our existing written language to the code system. Then, even without transmitting voice, we can conduct a real-time conversation in full text.”

Barov’s eyes lit up. He turned the idea over. Understanding arrived slowly, and then all at once, the way large things do.

The world’s language did not share the phonetic structures Roland’s original world had used for telegraph codes. He could not simply copy what he’d known. But the principle was unchanged: build the code table once, and any text could become signal, any signal become text, transmitted at the speed of light across the continent. Roland already knew who should build the table. Scroll — custodian of information from two worlds — was the obvious choice.

“Your Majesty,” Sirius Daly raised his hand with barely concealed excitement, “can I try the tele… graph machine?”

“Anyone who wants to, please go ahead.” Roland looked at the gathering. “Help yourselves.”

The senior staff of Neverwinter descended on the equipment. The table disappeared behind a ring of curious, jostling officials, and Barov — still technically the official receiver — showed no signs of surrendering the headset.

Anna walked over to Roland and shook her head with a quiet smile.

He understood what she was communicating. The spark-gap transmitter and the galena detector were the entry level of wireless communication — the first rung of a very tall ladder. The spark-gap sent at a broad band of frequencies; the galena received passively, always open, requiring no power source of its own. Together they worked. But together they could only send and receive one stream of information at a time in any given region, and the spark-gap’s wide-frequency broadcast would become a source of interference once more capable equipment was in use. It was not a technology to build on. It was a demonstration.

When the vacuum tube prototypes were ready, everything would change again. Direct voice transmission. Simultaneous broadcasts. No interference, no disruption. That would be when wireless communication became what it was supposed to be.

He wondered, briefly, what expressions they would make that day.

Anna was wondering the same thing. He knew it from the way she looked — the anticipation she kept well-contained and let through only in moments like this, when the two of them were watching something happen and she didn’t need to explain herself.

He loved that about her.

They were alike, in that precise way.

He was watching Barov negotiate excitedly with Sirius Daly over the headset when the dizzy spell arrived.

Without warning. The room doubled in his vision — a clean split, the same scene in two slightly different positions at once. He closed his eyes against it and felt the floor shift beneath him. Not the floor. His own sense of vertical. Something had disconnected between his body and the information it was sending.

He coughed. Opened his mouth to say I’m fine and tasted something — pungent and sweet at once, not quite blood, not quite not. He closed his mouth and swallowed it down.

His eyelids were wrong. They had weight that wasn’t theirs. His palms were bright red where he could see them. He tried to hold his focus, tried to keep himself in the room, but consciousness was retreating the way water retreats — not all at once, but steadily, and then suddenly all at once.

Anna was saying something. The room had become noise without speech.

He lost control of his balance. He fell backward, and the last thing he saw was Nightingale’s silhouette and the Mist spreading fast.

When he opened his eyes, he was in his bedroom.

“His Majesty is awake!”

Scroll was beside the bed before he finished the thought. Footsteps in the corridor, then the door, and Anna was there — clearly she had not left the room, or had not gone far.

“How do you feel?” She leaned over and placed her hand on his forehead, careful and unhurried. “Anywhere that hurts?”

Roland took a moment to actually check. “No. I feel — light. Like I’ve slept deeply. Clearer than usual.”

Two doubtful expressions.

“I mean it.” He spread his hands. “Except…”

“Except what?” Anna and Scroll said it together.

“I’m hungry.” He rubbed his stomach. “How long was I out?”

Some of the tension left Anna’s face. “About six hours. The shortest yet. I’ll have the kitchen prepare something.” She paused. “Are you genuinely all right?”

“I couldn’t feel better.” He shrugged and looked around. “Where’s Nightingale? She can settle this immediately — you’ll know whether I’m telling the truth or trying to reassure you.”

Nightingale materialized from the shadows.

She didn’t come to the bed. She stood where she was, at the edge of the room, and didn’t speak for a long moment. Then she nodded. ”… His Majesty is speaking the truth.”

“There you are.” Roland smiled.

He noticed the pause, brief but unusual — Nightingale normally answered that kind of question without hesitation, easily, the way you’d confirm the weather. This had taken her a moment. He filed it. Didn’t push it. “As for why I fainted — maybe I’ve simply not been resting enough.”

Chapter 1348 - Coma

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations “Your Majesty, can I give it a try?” Kyle Sichi asked impatiently. “Of course,” Roland smiled and nodded, “You can be the one sending the message this time.” The Chief Alchemist pondered for a moment, then picked up a chalk and wrote down a string of characters of varying lengths which went up to more than 20 odd patterns. If the three horizontal lines and two dots were a coincidence, this long message basically eliminated the factor of luck Barov remained as the receiver. It was clear that he did not wish for the rare experience to end—without even waiting for Roland’s order, he rushed to blindfold himself. Electric arcs jumped within the circuit once again. This time, the old director took a longer time as he listened attentively. When his answer emerged on the piece of paper in front of everybody, they erupted into an enthusiastic round of applause! There were two mistakes in the long line of 20 over characters, but there were no mistake in the numbers and was identical to Kyle’s message! It was impossible for this coincidence to be attributed to luck. This meant that in those few seconds, information had been communicated between Neverwinter and Silver City—which explained why the old director knew the message Kyle sent. “Your Majesty, what is the furthest distance the Iron Tower can send?” Barov asked excitedly. “Theoretically, so long as you increase the output, even a few thousand kilometers wouldn’t be a problem. “You mean it can cover the entire territory of the Four Kingdoms?” Hearing that, everyone could not help but engage in whispers. “It isn’t limited to that, it can even cover the entire Fertile Plains.” “For Graycastle to know of anything that occurs in Neverwinter in a second, this notion is truly inconceivable!” “Indeed, if it weren’t for the opportunity to witness this miracle, I will never dare believe that this is something achievable by Man…” Barov was already pondering over questions at a deeper level. “Your Majesty, if we are able to assign specific meanings to these codes, maybe we are able to achieve more complicated content, for example giving out instructions or a government decree…” Upon witnessing the new invention, he immediately reflected on its utilization, it had to be said that Barov’s knowledge and ideas were more advanced and extensive compared to his peers. Even at his old age, he was capable of keeping up with the rapidly rising Kingdom. Roland gave him a commending smile, “You are in the right direction, but my plan is to advance further from your idea.” “Are you saying that…” “We will not be assigning symbols with specific connotations, but to effectively assign our current written language with corresponding symbols. This way, even if we can’t hear human voice, we can still engage in real-time conversations.” After considering Roland’s words, Barov’s eyes lit up. Obviously, he realized the enormous significance in the “new language”. As the world’s language adopted a completely different phonetic system, it was impossible for Roland to completely copy the telegraphic codes from his world. However, the principle stayed the same, and they simply needed to spare some effort in formulating suitable code tables. With the code tables, any textual information could be transformed into its corresponding code and broadcast at the speed of light over the continent. Roland already had plans as to the person responsible for creating the telegraph messages. As the person responsible for recording information from both worlds, no one was more suitable than Scroll. “Your Majesty…” Sirius Daly raised his hands eagerly, “Can I try this tele… graph machine?” “Of course.” Roland looked at the crowd. “If anyone else is interested, feel free to experience it yourself.” The higher-ups of Neverwinter immediately burst into a commotion. All of them lunged forward and the table with the equipment was soon surrounded. Upon taking in this scene, Anna walked over to Roland and shook her head in amusement. Roland naturally understood the meaning behind her smile. The spark-gap transmitter and galena receiver were merely the lowest tier of technology in the technological tree for wireless communications. The former was capable of sending messages over radio frequencies, while the latter could receive all sorts of information. The two appeared like a match made in heaven, but could only send and receive a set of information at any one point in time in the same region. In fact, after the spark-gap transmitter was superseded with the more advanced vacuum tube wireless equipment, its few unique features caused quite a momentary stir due to disruption in radio reception. As such, its effects could only be considered average. Furthermore, the system required a large number of counterpoise wires and transmission power; therefore the space it occupied and weight were difficult to reduce. The system was destined to only be set up in a small number of important cities. By the time the vacuum tube prototypes were ready, they would be capable of directly disseminating voice messages without disrupting broadcast and transmission-receiving. That will be when wireless communications truly reached its peak. Who knew what kind of surprised expressions they would reveal when the time came. He knew that Anna was anticipating that. It had to be said that the two of them were extremely similar based on this point. While everyone were testing and “conversing” with Silver City in zest, Roland suddenly felt an intense dizzy spell affecting his mind. It came so abruptly that everything inside the room became double in his eyes. He subconsciously closed his eyes in an attempt to suppress the spreading of the dizzy spell, but his body seemed to have lost its center of mass. Anna was the first to sense the change in him. She extended her hand out and grabbed his arm. “Roland, are you alright?” I’m fine… Roland wanted to give that reply, but a violent fit of coughing came out when he opened his mouth. He closed his mouth and swallowed the pungent yet sweet taste in his throat. Hell, what is going on? His eyelids closed quickly, as though their weighed a hundredweight. His palms were covered with bright red specks which stood out as highly disparate from his surroundings. Despite trying his best to remain clear- headed, his consciousness was quickly slipping away from him. Anna seemed to be crying out something, but aside from the hubbub of noises, he could not hear anything. He lost control over his body and fell backwards. The last scene that entered his vision was Nightingale’s silhouette and the Mist that quickly extended outwards. … When Roland opened his eyes, he realized that he was back in his bedroom. “His Majesty is awake!” Even before he got up, Scroll who was by his side had already alerted the others. A series of rushed footsteps followed and, in a blink of an eye, Anna appeared by the bed. Clearly, she had been in the room all this time and had not gone far from him. “How do you feel?” She leaned over and placed her hand over his forehead and asked gently, “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” “Hmm…” Roland focused on taking in everything for a moment. “No. I feel extremely light, as though I have just taken a long nap. My mind feels much better than usual.” Seeing the two doubtful gazes fixated on him, he spread out his hands helplessly. “It’s true, except…” “Except what?” Anna and Scroll questioned him in unison. “Except that I’m slightly hungry…” Roland rubbed his tummy. “How long have I been asleep for?” Anna’s expression finally relaxed. “About six hours. It is the shortest coma you’ve had. I’ll inform the kitchen to prepare something. But… are you truly alright?” “I couldn’t feel better.” Roland shrugged his shoulders. “Right, where’s Nightingale, she can immediately determine if I am speaking the truth or consoling you.” Just as he finished his sentence, Nightingale appeared from shadows. She did not approach the bed, nor did she reply immediately. She remained silent for a long while before nodding her head, “… His Majesty is speaking the truth.” “See?” Roland smiled. Indeed, he did not feel out of sorts, and what he said was the truth, but Nightingale’s reply was much slower compared to ordinary days. Although he felt something off about it, he did not probe further. “As to why I fainted, maybe it’s simply because I didn’t have sufficient rest?”