Chapter 448 — The New Order Is Complete

Within the whole "Cecil research and production system," the one most closely tied to Nikoxi Egg's Mechanical Works was the Magical Technology Institute under Rebecca's management. The latter, as the main research department for applied technology, often commissioned the Mechanical Institute to realize blueprints whose theories had already been verified, and such orders usually exceeded the machining capabilities of an ordinary "bachelor of mechanics," so they generally fell to Nikoxi Egg himself. Under normal circumstances, Nikoxi Egg always had several orders from Rebecca on hand.

So when word came that Nikoxi Egg had arrived at the lord's mansion with a "good thing," the most excited person was not Gao Yang but Rebecca.

On the other side, after greeting Nikoxi Egg, Gao Yang looked at Betty holding the teapot, and the sight of it brought a smile to his face. "You didn't try to force our master craftsman to drink tea, did you?"

"Mr. Egg has no mouth," Betty said, shaking her head. "He can't drink."

"...You." Gao Yang shook his head helplessly and ruffled the girl's hair. "Go and rest."

Betty left the room, and Nikoxi Egg came to stand before Rebecca, setting the metal case that had been floating near him down firmly on the floor. "Those other two things are nearly done, but what I've brought today is the finished product of a different order."

The clasp on the metal case opened by itself, the lid sprang up, and out of it floated a metal drum about eighty centimeters long, rune-connectors visible at both ends, its silver-white surface faintly traced with fine patterns.

A proud voice sounded from within Nikoxi Egg: "Getting it to do what it's meant to do was no easy matter — the principle and the structural diagrams were clear enough, but mastering the right ratio of mithril alloy was no simple thing. Even I tested it for a long time before I could make it work reliably. Miss Rebecca, please accept delivery of your order."

"This..." Rebecca looked at the metal cylinder with delighted surprise. "You finally got it to work?!"

The moment Gao Yang saw the shape of the metal cylinder, he had a vague guess as to what it was, but he still turned to Rebecca for confirmation: "Is this—"

"This is the most important component of the new printing press you mentioned!" Rebecca's face was wreathed in smiles; designing the thing had cost the Magi-Tech Research Institute no small amount of effort. "I call it the 'Arcane Transfer Drum.' With this, the press you asked for — one that can make plates quickly, edit conveniently, print continuously, and be used again and again — is as good as built."

"Arcane Transfer Drum?" Gao Yang had not expected Rebecca to have picked up his habit of coining new terms. He repeated the phrase, his curiosity about the metal cylinder stirring. "Can you demonstrate it now? How does it work?"

"It needs an input unit before it can run, but if you only want to see what it looks like once it starts, you can just feed magic straight into this part..." Rebecca said as she laid her hand on one end of the metal cylinder. "Channel a little magic in, very carefully, and the test symbols will... hey, what are you doing—"

Gao Yang, who had been waiting for the girl to "channel magic," pushed her hand aside. "Let me do it — don't go blowing up the house again."

That said, he paid no more attention to Rebecca's pouting, sulking look, and instead, guided by Nicholas, placed his hand on one end of the metal device.

A thin trickle of magic was carefully channeled into the metal cylinder.

Barely a moment later, row upon row of neatly ordered lines and symbols, glowing faintly blue, rose to the silver-white surface of the cylinder.