Chapter 791 — Faintly Emerging
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
In the fountain garden square before the main gate, a crisp, tinkling sound rang out from time to time as Rebecca, flushed with excitement, rode her "new toy" round and round the flowerbeds in circles, while the helpless attendants could only stand at a distance or trail along as best they could, ready at any moment to pick up the princess from where she had fallen.
Compared with the beginning, though, Rebecca was plainly much more skilled now—at the very least, she no longer plunged headlong into the flowerbeds.
Behind the floor-to-ceiling window of the study, Gao Yang silently withdrew his gaze from the square.
"Two-wheeled vehicles, eh... the Typhonians really have cobbled together something interesting," Amber's voice came from behind him. "A scholar-adviser in the administration hall ran an assessment. This seemingly simple conveyance has enormous potential value—it's nimble, convenient, and cheap to produce. Any ordinary person with sound limbs can master it after a short period of learning, and so long as the roads are reasonably flat, it can be used. The threshold for popularizing it is even lower than that of arcane devices... it's a fine thing."
Gao Cen Shiche did not speak.
What was going through his mind was something no outsider could know.
Though its form did not look entirely identical to the "bicycle" in his memory, the principle and general structure of the thing differed little from what he was familiar with—only... he had not yet had the chance to spread it throughout Cecil before the Typhonians had already gone ahead of him.
Seeing that Gao Cen Shiche did not open his mouth, Amber could not help saying, "What? Feeling uneasy that the Typhonians are ahead in 'technological innovation'?"
"Of course not," Gao Yang shook his head. "Honestly, even in the Ansu era the Typhonians were always ahead in the realm of technology; we only pulled ahead for a few years on the strength of arcane technology. And judging by the actual circumstances, it was inevitable that the Typhonians would produce this nimble, convenient conveyance before us..."
"Oh? How do you figure that?"
"They began their road renovation and leveling projects earlier than we did. While Ansu was still busy with civil strife, Typhon already had broad, smooth new-style roads between its towns and villages. Even if we work at full capacity now, we can only guarantee that the roads between the major cities and principal towns meet the new standard," Gao Yang turned his head. "In the end, a new thing is not born at the clap of a hand. Without the support of circumstances, no new thing suited to those circumstances will appear.
"What concerns me more than all this is when the prototype of this 'two-wheeler' first appeared. Its current degree of completion is quite high, so it can't be something that suddenly cropped up just recently, can it..."
Amber blinked and swiftly recalled the relevant records. "...There was indeed an earlier 'prototype.' Over a decade ago, Typhonian craftsmen built a wooden pedal-powered cart, but few paid it any attention at the time—it was merely regarded as some novel toy. Later, craftsmen made several improvements to it, yet still not many took notice. It was not until half a year ago, when the number of factories in the Aldnan region surged, that everything changed: great numbers of workers needed to travel to the factories for work, and many people connected with the factories needed to move about constantly. More factories, more workers, and workers' residential districts ever farther from the city center—and then the 'two-wheeler,' which few had ever cared about, was noticed by a few sharp-eyed merchants.