Chapter 405: Accompany
Mystery Moon ran to Roland’s office the next morning with larger dark circles than the day before.
“Why would the glass ball light up?” she said, before she had properly entered the room. “It didn’t work afterward no matter how hard I tried—”
“That fast?” The prince set down his quill. He took the small device from her hands and turned it over. “I thought it would take two or three more days.”
Mystery Moon propped her chin on the edge of his desk and blinked up at him. “What was glowing?”
“Electric light,” he said. “You released lightning from the sky.”
“Lightning?” She turned the word over, quietly, then shook her head. “It didn’t look like lightning at all. This was red-orange, and it kept glowing — lightning is just a flash.”
“The lightning lit the filament. The filament glowed continuously.” He twisted the glass ball free, reseated the two copper wire ends closer together, and set it back. “You’ll see real electric light eventually. For now — keep practicing.”
She took the wire frame back, thoroughly disappointed.
“And don’t forget to draw the curtains.”
Lily was sitting at the foot of the bed reading Natural Science Theoretical Foundation when Mystery Moon returned to the room.
“You’re up early,” Lily said, without looking up. “Since you’re moving around, bring me breakfast. An omelet and bread. No porridge.”
“I’m not bringing breakfast to a traitor,” Mystery Moon said darkly. She crossed to the window and drew the curtains. The room went black.
“What are you doing?” Lily frowned.
“Practicing my ability. His Highness’s requirement — curtains drawn, Stone of Light put away.”
“Fine.” Lily marked her page. “Then I’ll read in the hall.”
“No, you can’t!” Mystery Moon spun around.
“Why not? I can’t read in the dark, and I’m not going to sit here and starve—”
“I’ll bring breakfast,” Mystery Moon said quickly. “Can you stay?”
A pause. “Are you afraid of the dark?”
“Absolutely not!”
Another pause, longer. “You just need company.”
Mystery Moon puffed her cheeks and said nothing.
She wanted someone to witness her progress. Even if she failed, she wanted someone nearby to see it — and to say something ordinary and unhelpful afterward, the way only Lily could. But she would take those words to her grave before she said them aloud.
“All right.” Lily sighed with theatrical suffering. “I’ll stay. Breakfast. Quick.”
Mystery Moon brought the food over with a resentment she was also, quietly, grateful for.
Lily ate her egg with evident satisfaction. “What’s the practice? Magnetize the things in your hand?”
“No. Rapidly release and withdraw the magnetic forces. His Highness says that produces thunder and lightning.”
Lily went still. “Thunder and lightning?”
“Yes. I’m going to start—”
“Hold on.” Lily slid her chair back until it was flush with the door. “Good. Proceed.”
Mystery Moon exhaled slowly and drew her magic power up. If this had been the Witch Cooperation Association’s camps, Supervisor Cara would have punished her for even attempting it in the barracks. But His Highness had replaced every iron fixture in the room with copper — nails, brackets, everything — so that she could practice without disrupting anyone or anything.
She had been generously treated here. She was not going to waste it by sitting idle.
The memories arrived without invitation as the power built: the kindness she had been shown, the ways this place had gone out of its way for her. Image after image, vivid and fast, like a carousel. She found her rhythm more quickly than any previous session. The magic moved between her hands with rising intensity.
And then she saw it.
A blue ghost, peeling itself out of layered dark. Transient, gone in an instant — but she had seen it clearly. A tiny arc, bridging one copper wire end to the other, accompanied by a soft, precise snap. Not the warm glow of the glass ball. This was different. Alive.
It was far from finished.
A second arc. A third. Each time the magnetic forces transformed, dazzling light broke from the gap and moved with the field’s motion. She increased the rhythm. The direction switch, the thing she had struggled with most, came more naturally now — her body learning what her mind could not yet articulate. A bridge of blue and white took gradual shape between the copper wire ends: not stable, but real, continuous in its interruption, persisting in its own stuttered way.
“What is that?” Lily asked from across the room, her voice entirely different.
This was insignificant beside yesterday’s orange glow. But this made Mystery Moon’s hands tremble with a different kind of excitement — because this she understood. The invisible lines of magnetic force had never felt like hers before. But the arc’s rhythm and direction were utterly under her control. She had made lightning. Not nature’s lightning. Hers.
Electricity generates magnetism, and vice versa.
She got to her feet and set the frame on the desk, releasing the power slowly, letting it die down — but the copper wire ends kept glimmering faintly, like far stars in the receding dark.
She stared at them.
In other words: electricity is magnetism. Magnetism is electricity.
She understood this now not as a sentence from a book but as a thing she had touched.
Roland kneaded his neck with the quill clamped between his teeth.
“Do you need a hand?” Nightingale’s voice came from somewhere nearby.
“Please.” He nodded, and felt her hands settle on his shoulders — the right pressure, the right warmth. He let his eyes half-close.
Three days working before the guards woke had left him stiff through the neck and back. But the draft was finished: the first code of Border Town, the foundation from which the Basic Laws would expand. Ten articles in plain language, no longer than two pages. It contained nothing that would impress a legal scholar from his previous life, and everything that mattered — ideas and ideology that had no precedent in this world’s feudal architecture. Whatever kingdom he built on top of this would be distinguishable from the others by its bones.
The office door flew open.
“I finally got it!”
Mystery Moon burst in with the copper wire frame in her outstretched hand. She didn’t touch it. She didn’t have to. Between the cut wire ends, an arc of pale light persisted — no source, no battery, no hand pressed to the frame.
The quill slid from the corner of Roland’s mouth and fell to the floor.
He stared.
The arc held.
Chapter 405: Accompany
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
The next morning, Mystery Moon ran to the office in a hurry with bigger dark circles under her eyes.
“Why would the glass ball light up? It didn’t work afterwards, no matter how hard I tried to apply my power… ” she could not wait to spit it all out after pushing open the door.
“That… fast?” The prince was a little surprised. He put down the quill, took the small object from Mystery Moon and said, “I thought it would take you two or three days.”
Mystery Moon bent over, propped up her chin on the edge of the desk, and asked with a blink, “What on earth was glowing?”
“That was electric light.” The prince smiled and said, “You released lightning from the sky.”
“Lightning?” She could not help repeating the word in a quiet voice, and then shook her head. “But it didn’t look like it at all. This light was a red-orange color, and kept glowing—lightning is always just a flash. ”
“The lightning lit the filament, making it glow continuously.” The prince twisted the glass ball and took it off, then said, “It’s fine that you don’t understand it. I’ll let you see the real electric light later.”
Mystery Moon’s eyes were wide open. She gazed at Roland’s every single movement, afraid of missing something. The prince drew the two copper wires closer and put the glass ball back again. “There you go. Now continue to practice.”
“That’s it?” She took the wire frame, utterly disappointed.
“That’s right,” the prince covered his mouth and said, “and don’t forget to draw the curtains when practicing.”
…
Lily was sitting at the end of the bed reading Natural Science Theoretical Foundation when Mystery Moon returned to the bedroom.
“Why are you up so early today?” she asked in surprise. “Since you’re up, bring me breakfast. An omelet and bread, please. No porridge.”
“No, I won’t bring breakfast for a traitor,” Mystery Moon said with a grunt. She drew the curtains, and the room turned completely dark in an instant.
“Hey, what’re you doing?” Lily frowned and asked.
“Practicing my ability.” She threw herself on the floor and said, “Draw the curtains and hide the Stone of Light—that’s His Highness’ requirement.”
“Fine, fine,” the little girl rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll do my reading in the hall.”
“No, you can’t!” Mystery Moon hollered.
“Why?” Lily darted her a look, “I can’t read when I’m starving, and I have to stay with you here?”
“Um… ” Mystery Moon paused a moment, “I’ll bring you breakfast. Can you stay here?”
“What?” Lily asked with great interest, “Are you afraid of the dark?”
“Not at all!” She puffed out her cheeks and muttered after a while, “I just need company.”
She wanted somebody to witness her progress and be amazed at her ability. Even if she failed, she hoped someone would still comfort her, but she would
rather carry these words to her grave than confide in Lily.
“Okay then. I’ll stay with you this time, since you sound so pathetic,” Lily said with a yawn. “Breakfast, quick!”
Mystery Moon finally got ready to practice after reluctantly bringing the breakfast over.
Lily swallowed the egg in content and asked, “What’re you going to do? Magnetize the stuff in your hand?”
“No, I’m going to let the magnetic forces in my hand change quickly. His Highness says that’ll produce thunder and lightning.”
Lily was stunned—”Thunder and lightning?”
“Yeah, I’m going to start… ”
“Hold on,” the little girl shouted, drawing closer to the door. “It’s good now. Go ahead.”
Mystery Moon exhaled a long breath and mobilized her magic power as she had earlier. If this happened at the camps of the Witch Cooperation Association, Supervisor Cara would definitely scold her for such behavior. However, His Highness had intentionally replaced all the wares in the bedroom that contained iron, including iron nails with copper-made items, making it easy for her to practice.
She was generously treated in Border Town and would not allow herself to sit idle.
Reminiscences of her experience in the town swarmed back upon her, image by image, as vivid as a merry-go-round. This time Mystery Moon found herself quickly in a ready state. The magic power danced between her hands with increased movement and growing intensity.
Then she saw the electric light. Like a blue ghost revealing itself from layers of clouds, the light was transient, and disappeared instantly. Nevertheless,
she clearly saw a trace of electric light. It was like a tiny arc, spanning from one end of the copper wire to the other, bursting out gentle popping sounds.
It was far from the end.
Then came a second arc, and then a third… She noticed in dismay that every time the magnetic forces transformed, there was dazzling electric light springing up, the traces of which also changed correspondingly with its movements. With the direction of magnetic forces quickly switching back and forth, a bridge of blue and white gradually took shape between the two copper wires.
“What’s that?” Lily who stood far away asked, her eyes wide open.
The electric light was insignificant compared with the red-orange blaze of yesterday, but it made Mystery Moon quiver in excitement—this was her first time witnessing her own ability! In comparison to the invisible lines of magnetic forces she could not understand in the slightest, the rythm at which the electric arc danced and the direction of its movement were completely under her control. This was truly “lightning” created by her.
Electricity generates magnetism, and vice versa. That’s what it is. She sensed the power in her body had become more visible and clear.
Mystery Moon got up on her feet and put the metal frame on the desk. She slowly released her hands to let the magic power die down, but the ends of the copper wires were still glittering, like flickering stars in the darkness from a far distance.
She now had a better understanding of these words.
In other words, electricity is magnetism, and vice versa.
Roland kneaded his sore neck with a quill between his teeth.
“Do you need a hand?” Nightingale’s voice popped up by his ears.
“Ah, thank you,” he nodded slightly and said. Nightingale thus laid her two fair hands on Roland’s shoulders and started to massage his neck with just the right amount of strength.
Roland half closed his eyes, enjoying this moment of serenity. In order to draft the first code of the town, which would later serve as the Basic Laws of all the primary laws, he had been up earlier than even the guards for the past three days. It wasn’t until today that he finally finished the draft. As Roland had no knowledge of the laws, he could only jot down some ten articles in plain language based on his understanding of the system, which was no longer than two pages altogether.
Nonetheless, these articles contained ideas and ideology from the new world. He believed this code would enable him to carry out a brand new system which was entirely different from the ancient feudal system across the whole continent while expanding his territory. With this code as its base, his new kingdom would indubitably distinguish itself from the others.
“Your Highness!” The office door was suddenly flung open. Mystery Moon rushed in with the copper wire frame in her hand, shouting, “I finally got it!”
Roland opened his eyes, and saw the girl withdraw her hands and put the “little toy” on the desk.
“Look!” She did not touch the wire frame, but there was still an arc of light where the copper wires were cut open.
Looking at this incredible scene, Roland could not help dropping his jaw. The quill slid off the corner of his mouth and fell on the floor.