"You what?!" Duke Lorelei gasped in shock, thinking, 'When I was still the acting head, if I'm not wrong, to provide enough water from the territory, I would spend about 200 gold coins a month. A single Advanced Level Demon Crystal cost me about five gold coins each.
'So, needing only 250 gold coins a month to maintain an unlimited supply of water is simply ridiculous. It's not about providing 'enough supply' but 'unlimited supply.' And by doing so, the people don't need to fetch water from a certain facility anymore.
'The initial investment is big, but I also need to create a facility to do that. So, the difference might not be as I expected. More importantly, the people would definitely be satisfied, which would cause the city to bloom with people. The taxes you can get from the city alone will surpass the operation cost.'
Duke Lorelei wasn't the only person who was shocked. Even Anna was dumbfounded, but for a different reason.
The duke she knew would always be calm and collected. He was a cool guy who could cut down on his enemies easily. Yet, the same dignified duke was falling on his butt out of shock.
She might never get a chance to witness something like this again for the rest of her life.
Duke Lorelei realized that his appearance was a mess, so he hurriedly regained his composure and coughed a few times. "I apologize for showing you such behaviors."
"What are you talking about? The duke just lost his balance because of this unusual plate and recovered quickly." Anna smiled while gesturing to him to stand on the plate again.
Duke Lorelei embarrassedly stepped on the plate and said, "Are you… really telling the truth?"
"Of course." Anna pointed at the well. The well actually had a black rod sticking out and it was covered with a wooden pipe that flowed through the storage facility. "If you see that pipe over there, that's the pipe that holds the power of the runes.
"Normally, the pump would require people to operate it, right? The rune can be activated as long as there is a Demon Crystal. So, the Rune is the one shooting up the water before it was flowing down the storage.
"We simply redesigned the storage facility so that the entire city can receive that unlimited supply of water. It's as simple as that." Anna explained.
"That's…" The Sword Arbiter nodded. He obviously understood that the pump could be operated 24 hours a day, but it would still take too much manpower. And if the entire city used it, there was no way a few people's strengths were enough.
But it would be different if it were run automatically by the rune.
"Do you know where I can purchase it? No, how do I ask for one to be constructed in my place?" Duke Lorelei asked. He wanted to purchase the rod only so he could construct the rest of the facility himself. But there was no way they would accept it, so he corrected himself and tried to hire them.
Anna chuckled. "I don't have the authority to take care of the problem."
"It's your father, right? I have been your father's good friend since you were young. And—"
Anna stopped him by saying, "I can't help you with that, Duke Lorelei. Even if you bring my dad, the only thing I can do is propose it to Noel. So, I think it's better if you talk with Noel personally. We're heading to him after all."
"Ah!" Duke Lorelei felt his age had been catching up to him causingpassed on him to be unable to maintain his composure. He sighed, "I'm stupefied. No, you have truly shocked me. Still… I don't think this city is that clean, right? Aren't you worried that they are just going to steal it from you?"
"The method is still not passed to anyone other than me. Perhaps, his students will learn it too. But that's all for the time being. Even if they bring it, unless they can implant that rune, it will be impossible." She shook her head as her eyes turned cold. "And if they are blatantly using our creations, it just gives us the reason to attack them. I think you and several other nobles will be jealous."
"…" Duke Lorelei couldn't help feeling overwhelmed. It seemed that these two youngsters had seen through him. "In that case, I will talk to him personally. Since you don't seem to be able to tell me about all the important stuff, how about explaining to me about the other creations?"
"Certainly. What do you want to know?"
"That automatic carriage!"
"Ah!" Anna thought for a moment. "It has a similar principle to a carriage, but we just use a rune to drive it forward instead of a horse. And we make the front wheels steerable. Still, the current design is not extremely cost-effective. The more luggage it takes, the more it will burn energy."
"Well… How much does it cost?"
"If you operate it for... what? A hundred kilometers or something, you will need 10 Low Level Demon Crystals. That's without luggage. If you have a full amount, then the speed will decrease and the consumption will be about 30 to 40 Low Level Demon Crystals. But it should still be a bit faster than a horse."
"!!!" Duke Lorelei widened his eyes in shock. He couldn't believe it. "10 Low Level Crystals only cost us about twenty silver coins. The cost is indeed quite high, but horses are extremely precious. It costs us sixty to seventy gold coins just to raise a good horse.
"If we use them to pull the carriage, there is a chance that they might suffer injury and other things, increasing the cost. They also need to eat, rest, and do other things.
"Meanwhile, your 'not' efficient design can cut that cost and even continue the journey tirelessly. If we just calculate the speed of the horse alone, you could travel at least twice as much without a break, let alone at a speed higher than that. And I don't know how much luggage you're talking about, but we need two or three horses to pull something heavy. Do you understand the concept?"
"There, there…." Anna waved her hand, asking Duke Lorelei to calm down.
Duke Lorelei took a deep breath and asked, "Still, it's dangerous to use that thing inside the town, right?"
"Yes, but not really."
"What do you mean? If they are traveling at such speed, won't it be troublesome if they crash into people?"
"I know you're worried, but please take a look at this." Anna formed a Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune with her right hand and poured her Spiritual Energy from another hand. Surprisingly, the Spiritual Energy couldn't pass through the rune.
"This is…" Duke Lorelei thought for a moment. "Are you saying that you use this thing to cut the power supply? Then, it will be like the horses are stopping."
"Of course, we modify it a bit to be safer, but you get the general idea." Anna nodded. "This way, it's still quite dangerous, but it is more controllable than you originally thought."
"This is amazing." Duke Lorelei sucked a cold breath. He then pointed at the plate they were driving. "How about this?"
"Sorry, but I can't tell you anything about this. It's rather special, you see."
"I see…" Duke Lorelei seemed to have understood the general idea of what Noel planned to do in this city. He asked, "Do you still need some funds to build your territory?"
"Please talk to Noel about it."
"Tsk." Duke Lorelei wanted to insert such a thing so that Anna would slip up, but it didn't work. He ended up changing his question to, "How about that one on the wall?"
"It's as simple as carrying people or things up and down, which would make construction far easier. It only costs you about one or two Low Level Demon Crystals every day. I guess it depends on how much you rely on it."
The duke never thought that Noel would be able to achieve all this in just a few weeks after his arrival here. But it showed how much potential Noel carried. Losing these two youngsters would cause a huge setback. At the same time, the Greenwood Kingdom would have known about this through their second princess.
With the financial power and influence of the Greenwood Kingdom, there was no doubt that Noel would get everything he wanted from them.
Hence, it was clear why Noel actually invited him to this place. There was something that he could get from him—something that the Greenwood Kingdom couldn't give him.
Duke Lorelei's face turned serious. Talking to Noel would definitely change his life, so he had to be prepared. That was why before meeting Noel, he asked, "Do you have any other inventions that I haven't seen yet?"
Anna looked like she was considering it. It seemed that this next invention was something important, so it would be hard to show it to an outsider.
"If you can show me, I can promise you something." Duke Lorelei raised his offer, wondering how important it was.
However, Anna actually smiled after he promised such a thing. The duke instantly realized that he had been had.
Anna pointed at a few light poles on the street and said, "I was just thinking about how I could show you since it can only be seen during the night."
The duke's eyebrows twitched, but he didn't say anything because he was curious about the invention.
Anna then brought him to a small pillar in the middle of the plaza as if it were a mark of something.
She took out a Low Level Crystal and placed it on top of the pillar. The rune underneath the pillar was activated, and it turned out to be the same rune Anna formed earlier, the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune.
This rune dispersed the energy of the Demon Crystal and spread it into the air. And the light poles caught the energy with the help of the Energy Gathering Rune to activate a low level Light Rune.
Noel hadn't mastered this rune, so it was actually Anna's invention. The Light Rune helped her so much in her previous life since it provided a small light amidst the darkness. She didn't have the Moon Blessing in her previous life after all.
And these lights were shared among all the poles, illuminating the road. But because the sun was still up, they could barely notice the light.
However, this was enough to shock Duke Lorelei.
"What? Can you illuminate the street? Normally, you need to pour oil into them and light them up. Because it's so costly, we can only do it on the main street. But with this method, you can actually light up the entire city. Do you know that the street will be much safer during the night, which will increase the activity?" Duke Lorelei sucked a cold breath. There was a curfew to reduce the crime rate in most of the territory, but if there was no need to think of such a curfew, the citizens could use that time to do something else and increase the economy again.
Anna added, "You forget about something. We can actually use this to provide light to establishments or even normal people's houses. Even if we charge them money for the service, they will gladly pay it for such a thing, don't you think?"
"A shining city during the night…" Duke Lorelei could picture such a thing.
"Though, we have to design it properly." Anna shrugged. "That's all for the time being. We want to continue working on this, but we simply don't have time. Noel has appointed me to be the head of the research team, so we just need to find the correct people."
Duke Lorelei's eyes brightened as he grabbed her shoulder and demanded, "Take me to him right now!"
