Chapter 271: Elements
Kyle Sichi came home from the laboratory to a table already set. His wife had baked flatbread and made mushroom soup and poured him a glass of white wine, which was more than enough to make him feel that Border Town had its advantages.
The mushrooms alone cost a silver royal apiece — a price that once would have made him choke — but they were worth it. The signboard at the convenience market made all manner of promises about freshness and fragrance, and for once the signboard was right. He had bought three.
Roland is simply deep beyond measure. This was a thought Kyle returned to more often than he cared to admit. Perfumed soap. Mirrors. Mushrooms the size of a child’s palm. As long as a man had a sufficient salary, life in Border Town surpassed anything the average nobleman could assemble from his own purse.
After supper, his wife handed him a letter.
“This is?”
“A guard brought it this afternoon. He said it came from Redwater City.” She turned away to clear the table.
Kyle carried the letter to his study and cut the seal with a knife. The parchment unfolded. The first line read: Dear respected mentor.
He smiled despite himself. Chavez. He sat and read it carefully.
The situation in Redwater City had not improved. When Kyle departed, a man named Capola had taken the chief alchemist’s chair — narrow-minded in the way of men who rise by waiting for their betters to leave. Capola had claimed joint credit for Kyle’s crystal glass formula and had quietly pushed Chavez to the margins of the experiment group: not openly, but with the particular skill of small men, through scheduling and cold shoulders and the strategic assignment of meaningless tasks.
Chavez suspected it was because Capola wanted to steal the double-stone acid method but could not acknowledge the debt it would require. The other alchemists had followed the chief’s lead; several now barely spoke to Chavez. Kyle felt a sour pity reading it. He knew what those people must be thinking: that Chavez had risen by luck and by a senior’s favoritism, that he had no real gift. They were wrong. Saltpeter and green vitriol were everyday substances — so why had it been Chavez, and no one else, who discovered the double-stone acid method? That single fact ought to settle the question. Perception, memory, the willingness to form hypotheses without flinching, diligence across hundreds of experiments — all of it indispensable, and all of it present in that young man to a degree that exceeded even Kyle’s own.
At the end of the letter, Chavez had appended two alchemic formulas as a gift for his mentor. Newly discovered acids, he said, proud of them. Kyle saw at a glance what they were: salt precipitation from acid-alkali reactions, the most elementary chemistry there was. He could write fifty such recipes before breakfast.
He set the letter down and looked at Elementary Chemistry lying open on his desk.
Everything had changed the day His Highness arrived with his so-called ancient books. Without them, Kyle would still be exactly where Chavez was now — wandering in the primal dark, mistaking river clay for gold.
He turned to the final page.
The table. One hundred squares, arranged with mathematical precision, each numbered in the upper left corner — the sequence running without break to 118. The first two rows were filled. The rest were mostly blank, with only scattered symbols occupying the middle columns: twenty-six, iron; twenty-nine, copper.
Periodic Table of Elements.
Every time he looked at it, the hair rose on his arms. Reverence was not quite the right word for what the table produced in him. Neither was fear, though that was closer.
He had asked Roland about the blank squares, and Roland had answered, almost apologetically, that they had originally been filled in — he simply could not remember them.
Had the other party been anyone but His Royal Highness, Kyle would have taken the book and thrown it at his head.
Because what this table implied, if the book’s claims were correct, was that it contained every element existing in the world. Every one. If a Canon of Alchemy existed anywhere, this was its most luminous chapter. And if someone had already drawn this chart — had already known this — then what exactly had alchemists been doing all these centuries? Piling rocks in a riverbed. Children playing at treasure-gathering in silt.
A thought then surfaced, something His Highness had promised: if Kyle could recruit Chavez and also bring along the new class of apprentices, the three new laboratories would be fully staffed. Intermediate Chemistry would follow.
He took out a sheet of paper and began to write.
He had not been entirely honest with Roland at their last meeting, when Roland asked about large-scale acid production. The program existed in his mind fully formed, but the content was too complex to summarize in the middle of a meeting, and more importantly — he still did not know whether it would work. He had based the entire method on the elements and reaction principles in the book, and that was like asking a traveler to navigate by a map he had never tested against real terrain.
Compared to the alchemy tests he had run before, this hypothesis felt like the muttering of a child half-asleep. Using materials he had never touched, reactions no alchemist had ever observed, to produce something that seemed to bear no resemblance to its raw materials — justified only because they shared the same underlying elements.
And yet. The premonition would not leave him. In hundreds of permutation experiments, the book had never once been wrong. Not once.
The initial plan was made. Next step: a full set of theoretical tests in the laboratory. His Highness had said the industrial method could be scaled — that meant a laboratory version was reproducible. He would prove it before making any further claims.
Kyle finished his letter to Chavez in short order. No consolations. He had no patience for that. He simply told his student what was available and measurable and true — specific alchemic knowledge, laid out plainly. Kyle believed that any alchemist worth the name, presented with a genuine path toward understanding, would not let it pass.
He folded the letter, sealed it with wax, and set it by the door for the morning courier.
Then his eyes moved back to the periodic table.
Those blank squares. They would never be filled, not by His Highness — the memory was gone. The thought settled on Kyle like the particular weight of a grief he had not been given permission to express. His life had narrowed to a single ambition, and between him and it stood a wall of blanks.
But there had been that moment, early on, when Roland had looked at his face and said — almost as an afterthought, as though it were a trivial observation:
“Don’t put on that look. The periodic table arranges each element according to an underlying law. You can fill it in yourself.”
Kyle had stared at him. “A regular pattern? You mean those unknown elements can be deduced — the way one derives an alchemical formula?”
“That’s right. Even elements you’ve never seen, you can still describe their appearance and properties.”
“What is this law?”
Roland had smiled. “Do you want to know? It’s written in the Intermediate Chemistry.”
Chapter 271 Elements
Kyle Sichi returned home after finishing the day’s experiments, his wife had already baked flatbread, made him some mushroom soup, and poured him a glass of white wine.
The latter two were both goods that were sold at the convenience market, especially this sort of huge white mushrooms, which were just like the words on the signboard described them as: you won’t find any fresher, or more fragrant delicacy, after one taste you too will discover this to be true. If you eat even one piece, you will find it difficult to forget its full and unique flavor.
Of course, its price was also very alarming, one palm sized mushroom required one silver royal. If it weren’t for his good salary, Kyle would never be able to bear buying such an expensive food. But there were also a lot of other things similar to this, such as perfumed soap and mirrors. As long one had enough money, their life in Border Town would be much more comfortable than that of an average noble.
Roland was simply deep beyond measure, this was also the deepest of point he felt.
After he finished the evening meal. His wife handed him a letter.
“This is?”
“The letter was delivered by the guard this afternoon, at that time you still hadn’t returned from work,” she answered, as she started to clean the tableware, “He said that it had apparently come from Redwater City.”
“Is that so?” Kyle asked as he entered his study. He cut open the seal using a knife then removed the parchment before spreading it out.
To his surprise, the first sentence was actually, “Dear respected mentor.”
Seeing that Chavez was the one that had sent the letter, he couldn’t help but smile. He sat at his desk and began to read through it carefully.
Initially, when Kyle left the Redwater City Alchemic Workshop, another alchemist named Capola had become the new chief. But that person had been narrow-minded, and after obtaining the crystal glass formula left behind by Kyle, he not only claimed towards the Lord that this was his and Kyle’s work, he even excluded Chavez either intentionally or unintentionally from the alchemy experiment group.
Within the letter, Chavez complained, that this was perhaps because he wanted to borrow the idea of the double stone acid method from him, but in the end didn’t want to announce the achievement to the other side. Nowadays, several other alchemist apparently had also begun to intentionally or otherwise shun Chavez, which caused Kyle to feel quite troubled.
Kyle could roughly understand what those people must be thinking, Chavez was the youngest alchemist of the refining room, so many people still thought that it had only been by relying on luck and Kyle’s appreciation for him as a discipline that he had been able to stand out of the crowd. But the chief alchemist could only snort disdainfully at that sort of view. Saltpeter and green vitriol were both everyday things, so why had it been Chavez and no one else who had discovered the double stone acid method? This point alone should already sufficiently explain this issue. Perception, memory, making assumptions without fear, and being diligent during experimentation were all indispensable elements, in the end this young man’s innate skill was even above his own.
At the end of the letter, Chavez had attached two alchemic formulas, claiming they were two of his recently discovered acids he wished to share with his mentor. But even at the first glance, Kyle could see that the essence of these two formulas was just the creation of salt when acids and alkali react with one another, this was the kind of recipe he could write down dozens of time in a single breath.
With a sigh, Kyle Sichi put the letter down and glanced at the “Elementary Chemistry” laying on his table.
Everything had changed with His Highness and his so-called “ancient books”. If it hadn’t been for them, he was afraid, that he would still be the same as Chavez, still aimless, and bewilderedly wandering through the primal chaos, hoping to find some clay on the surface and still regard it as some kind of treasure.
Taking the book, Kyle immediately went to the last page.
It showed a table which was neatly divided into a hundred square box.
Every time he looked at the table, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps all over his body and feel a hard to describe reverence… and fear from within his heart.
Every box had a small serial number in the upper left corner which without a miss arrived at 118 at the end. Beside the first two rows, the majority of the boxes were blank, except for some symbols in the middle. For example, twenty-six: iron, twenty-nine: copper.
The name of this table was: “Periodic Table of Elements”.
While holding the book in his trembling hands, the chief alchemist had asked Roland about the contents of those blank boxes, merely to receive the answer that they had originally been filled, but he was unable to remember them.
If at that time, the other party hadn’t been His Royal Highness, he most likely would had taken the book and thrown it into the other’s face.
According to the records in the book, this table contained all existing elements on earth. If there existed a Canon of Alchemy, there was no doubt that this would be the most dazzling chapter in the whole book. What scared him the most was the question, what type of person was able to draw such a chart? And if they had already done this before, what were alchemists then supposed to be regarded as? They seemed to be merely a gang of children sitting within the silt and piling up some rocks.
Kyle suddenly thought of His Royal Highness’ promise, in case he was also able to call Chavez over, and also pull over the group of recently recruited apprentice, maybe he would be able to fill those three new laboratories. In that way, his dream of laying his hands on the “Intermediate Chemistry” would become a reality.
Thinking until here, he immediately took out a piece of white paper and began to write his response.
In fact, at the meeting when His Royal Highness had asked him whether he had any clue relating to large-scale acid production, he hadn’t told him the truth. Because the content was complex and lengthy, it would have been a waste of time doing so. The most important matter was that he still didn’t know whether his program worked or not. After all, he had based his production method entirely on the elements and reaction principles written within the book.
Compared with the previous alchemy test, this hypothesis was like a child’s nonsensical mutterings in their sleep. Wanting to use materials he had never seen before, together with an unheard of reaction method, to create something which seemed to have no similarity with the raw materials, only because they had the same type of element.
But within Kyle’s heart he still had a faint premonition, it felt like this method might actually be feasible!
After all, within the previous hundreds of permutation experiments, there had not been one time which where the book’s statement wasn’t correct.
With the initial plan concluded, the next step was for him to complete a full set of theoretical tests within the laboratory. Since His Highness had said that the industrial method could be used for large-scale production, it should also be possible to reproduce the results in the laboratory.
Kyle soon finished the letter, he didn’t waste any words on consoling Chavez, and instead straightforwardly told his previously marvelous discipline about alchemic knowledge that was both available and measurable. Kyle believed that there didn’t exist any alchemist who was
brimming with the interests of a wise man, that would let the opportunity to seek truth pass them by.
After folding the letter, placing it into an envelope and sealing it with wax, Kyle could do nothing other than wait for the next day to give the message to a traveling salesman who wanted to deliver it.
After all this, his line of sight once again moved to the periodic table.
Thinking about those blank boxes which would never be filled again, Kyle felt as if his life no longer had any joy left to offer him. But fortunately, His Royal Highness had said one short phrase which had made his heart surge, and until today those words were still pacing back and forth within his ears.
“Don’t put on that look, the periodic table arranges each element in a regular pattern according to an underlying law. You can fill it up by yourself.”
“Regular… pattern? Do you mean that those unknown elements can also be deducted, just like the derivation of an alchemical formula?”
“That’s right, even if you have never seen them before, you can still describe their appearance and characteristics.”
“That rule, what is it?”
“Do you want to know? It is written in the ‘Intermediate Chemistry’.”