Chapter 246: Experiment

This was an era when knowledge was exceedingly precious; the Church was not yet generous enough to allow outsiders to freely browse its library, so the task of consulting documents was, as usual, entrusted to Father Green.

By the time the professor left, Father Green had only just opened the first few pages of a long-unseen heraldry book, reviewing basic patterns of emblem combinations to prepare for reading original documents. There was still at least several all-nighters and a finger's width of hairline recession away from practical application.

As for the task of tracing the king's eighteen generations of ancestors' family tree as requested, that was even further off. For confidentiality, this could only be done by him.

However, Green was after all an outstanding graduate from the Church school; Kraft remained optimistic about his learning ability and believed he would certainly provide satisfactory progress before Kraft's preliminary experiment was completed.

Yes, a preliminary experiment.

The absence of ideal conditions did not mean doing nothing; conducting small-scale exploratory experiments was entirely feasible.

Of course, it could not be done in the clinic. The ground floor housed the outpatient department and wards, the adjacent area was the kitchen and dining hall, and there wasn't even a reliable basement; Kraft would have to be mad to attempt dangerous operations in such a place.

A relatively safe and sturdy location was needed, one that could guarantee no interruptions.

This was truly not easy to find; the professor hesitated all the way, then suddenly remembered what the title added after his name was—immediately returning to the university to requisition a laboratory.

Given that the Inquisition occasionally wandered around, seriously disrupting the normal order of the Medical School, everyone moved objects suspected of violations away.

With this relocation, nothing much remained. The upper floors of the main building near the laboratories were desolate; even a rat would shake its head.

And someone whose situation was somewhat different discovered this blind spot.

"No, I am not involved in human experimentation at all; I am only conducting research related to changes in physical properties." He explained this to the person in charge, and in fact, that was exactly the case. "There is no need to worry about the Inquisition inspecting."

—Just treat it as coming to inspect a partner's work progress.

Kraft, accompanied by Kup, moved his pile of belongings into the newly assigned space, one of the largest areas besides the burned-out Dome Hall.

Yvon insisted on coming along, taking on the task of carrying a heavy box of vessels, and unsurprisingly, when taking them out, she applied too much force due to nervousness, accidentally crushing two items. Due to manufacturing limitations, the glassware was not yet thin enough; in her hands, it was no different from a breakfast egg.

Considering she already looked very dejected, Kraft wisely removed a zero from the original price and persuaded her not to mind such small things.

Even after successfully completing the task of relocating and repositioning the tables, it could not dispel the girl's gloom; a sense of failure, as if "I accomplished nothing," accompanied her back to read.

"Perhaps Yvon should be temporarily kept away from these things; after all, her situation is quite special," Kup advised. He knew part of Yvon's condition, at least the part of the changes that were publicly known.

Kraft watched Yvon go downstairs, board the carriage back to the clinic, then turned to carry a table back to its original position. "No, it is precisely at times like this that she should be given something to do, even if the task itself has little meaning."

"We must give her the confidence that 'I am already doing quite well,' rather than pressuring her to pursue short-term results, which would push people in a direction we do not want to see."

"Besides, Yvon is indeed already doing quite well. At her age, I was still trying every way to skip classes and go to Lin Zili to catch birds for fun, while she already had a strong sense of planning for the future."

"You skipped classes?" Something significant had been inadvertently revealed.

"I never succeeded; after all, my teacher only taught two people." Nor could anyone vanish silently on Old Wood's territory; the usual consequence of being caught was traditional disciplinary methods.

"Let us begin quickly; as the saying goes, the earlier you start, the earlier you finish, and the earlier you eat."

Kraft poked his head out the window to confirm there were no high vantage points nearby from which this side could be observed, partially closed the window shutters, and arranged vessels of various sizes on the table.

The most important experimental material was locked in an iron box; in the center of the cotton stuffing lay a small, transparent wax-sealed glass vial.

Crystalline granular substances rubbed and rolled within the vial, emitting a faint sound like a horned viper moving through the desert, like a jar of rustling, whispering black salt.

Kraft gently shook the vial to level the surface, compared it against the height line engraved on the vial, then used tweezers to pick out a relatively large grain and placed it into a large round-bottom flask.

He first attempted to slowly raise the temperature using a water bath; even when the water in the trough boiled, that crystal underwent no change, completely ruling out the possibility that temperatures at the level of animal body heat could cause melting.

Switching to heating with a candle flame, the experimental subject remained unmoved, as if it were a true grain of sand or salt, merely dyed an extremely pure black, looking as though a needle had poked a hole in space itself.

Next, various solvents, including pure water, acid solutions, alkali solutions, and oils, took turns entering the fray, none producing any effect. This was also to be expected; if it could be dissolved so easily, there would be no need to convert it into a liquid in the first place.

The physical and chemical properties of the black salt were quite stable, belonging to the stubborn faction suitable for classification under "impurities."

This was a good thing, meaning that if it leaked into nature, it would settle down steadily rather than liquefying casually and then following the water cycle to spread everywhere.

"We must go further." Seemingly due to the lubricating effect of the liquid, Kraft had to use the tweezers twice to retrieve it from the oil. "That requires simulating its contact with living organisms."

"Should we feed it to that rabbit?"

The rabbit had been requisitioned from the kitchen, one of the chef's spoils from the market that morning. Upon learning that experimental animals were needed, Kup's favor had granted it an extra stretch of life, but now that luck appeared to have run out.

"Not that quickly, and I do not want to search for a grain of black sand in its digestive tract afterward; let us take blood first."

The professor skillfully pricked the tip of the rabbit's ear to draw a drop of fresh blood, scraped it off with a glass slide, and dropped it onto the black granules to begin observation. The animal, unaware that its end was approaching, focused on enjoying the welfare vegetable leaves, only emitting a whimper when the skin was broken.

Under the close gaze of two pairs of eyes, the red droplet gradually dried and solidified at room temperature, forming a film covering the surface of the crystalline granules; nothing happened.

Kraft blinked, allowing tears to moisten his dry sclera.

The rabbit's ear was unfortunately injured again, contributing a second sample of blood to prove the ineffectiveness. The result was clear: the sample showed no obvious reaction to the blood.

The not-so-subtle gurgling of gastrointestinal peristalsis reminded him of the passage of time; it came from Kup, who embarrassedly covered his stomach to indicate not to mind this small accident, but the fact that mealtime was gradually approaching was undeniable.

"Alright, today's attempts are concluded; no change is also a result, proving that we do not need to worry too much about it."

Extending the tweezers once more, Kraft prepared to clamp the crystal into a separate test tube for storage, waiting to handle it again tomorrow.

But the granule slipped from between the tweezers' tips, rolled a few times back onto the glass slide, and nearly fell into the gap between the wooden planks of the table; fortunately, the researcher's good reflexes intercepted it.

Kraft tried again; his nimble hands finally realized the increased difficulty of gripping it.

He set up two surgical mirrors to reflect sunlight onto the crystal, observing it more meticulously; those crystal edges, distinct when they had solidified, seemed to have undergone subtle blunting imperceptibly.

"When?"