Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 115 Fire Tornado and Galloping Horse
So, what is the truth behind the fire dragon burning the city?
This problem has been troubling Winters.

According to the citizens of Guitu, the fire dragon that burned the city was the work of a mysterious wizard.

According to religious figures, it is a punishment for morally corrupt sinners.

Regardless, people firmly believe one thing: the fire dragon burning the city was definitely not a natural phenomenon.

On the one hand, Winters didn't think the incident had anything to do with magic, believing that the spellcasters had only tried to change the wind direction out of good intentions that night; but on the other hand, he didn't believe that an ordinary fire could summon a fire tornado.

The man in front of me, wrapped in a robe and sitting on a stool, shivering, claimed to know the truth about the fire dragon burning the city.

Winters was eager to know the answer.

Axel was also very curious.

Christian opened the drawer and began rummaging through it.

Winters and Axel exchanged a glance; the mystery was about to be revealed, and they both became somewhat nervous.

Christian simply pulled out a pipe. He then carefully filled it with tobacco, lit it with magic, and took a satisfying puff.

Winters and Axel stared wide-eyed as the instructor completed the entire smoking procedure.

Christian, however, looked quite engrossed, as if he really just wanted to smoke.

“Teacher…” Winters couldn’t help but ask.

"Pfft." Christian blew a puff of smoke into Winters' face.

Winters accidentally inhaled the acrid smoke into his trachea, choking him and causing him to cough repeatedly and tear up. The small living room of Christian's house was instantly filled with smoke.

Winters felt as if he had been tricked, and asked with slight displeasure, "What are you trying to do..."

"Shh." Christian put his index finger to his lips, signaling Winters to be quiet. He pointed to the ceiling and whispered a single word: "Look."

Winters and Ike looked toward the smoke upon hearing this.

Christian gently shook his finger, one circle, two circles, three circles... and a wonderful thing happened:
Starting from a central point, the randomly drifting smoke, as if suddenly given a soul, began to swirl aimlessly in mid-air. Following the rhythm of Christian's fingers, one circle, two circles, three circles…

The smoke swirled like a whirlwind, forming a ring-shaped structure. The center, however, was devoid of smoke, resembling the calm eye of a hurricane.

The ring of smoke spun faster and larger until it finally exceeded Christian's control and collapsed abruptly.

Winters was stunned, while Axel was completely bewildered.

Ike pointed to the ceiling, looking confused, and asked, "Is this... magic?"

“That’s right, it’s magic.” Christian took a leisurely puff of his pipe.

"Oh, that's interesting." Ike chuckled and said, "So this is magic? It doesn't seem like anything special?"

"Show some respect!" Winters grabbed Ike's arm, involuntarily swallowing hard. "This is...unprecedented...this is magic I've never seen before. It's amazing, truly amazing."

The layman looks at the excitement and the insider looks at the doorway.

It was clear that Christian had used kinetic magic. Changing the kinetic energy of an object is not difficult for a spellcaster.

Almost all kinetic energy spells are simply about accelerating something, accelerating it, and accelerating it again.

While simple and efficient, it is also mindless, crude, and utterly lacking in depth. So much so that some spellcasters specializing in fire-based spells sourly refer to kinetic spells as "club spells."

It means that kinetic magic is like a stick; no matter how big the stick is, it's still just a stick, and there's not much skill involved.

The ability to precisely control the formless and shapeless smoke with effortless ease is itself an astonishing skill. Winters has only seen one other person possess such magical skill, and that person is Moritz van Nassou.

Even more incredible is—rotation?
Rotation?

There is no rotation effect among the existing kinetic energy spells; all kinetic energy spells are linear.

Making an object accelerate in one direction is already a test of magical skill, but as for rotation... it's not blind, disorderly, random movement, but controlled rotational movement. Winters simply has no idea how to achieve this effect.

A spinning...fire tornado?

"Is this the spell that summons the fire tornado?" Winters asked excitedly. "Was the fire dragon that burned the city caused by this spell?"

Axel was also taken aback, and then Winters looked at the instructor.

“No.” Christian exhaled a puff of smoke. Strangely, he no longer shivered while smoking. “This is the result of my research over the past few months. The Fire Dragon Burning the City has nothing to do with this spell.”

"So what exactly happened with the fire dragon burning the city?" Ike finally couldn't stand the instructor's rambling explanation and asked directly.

"Oh, you want to know that?" Christian said calmly. "It's very simple. The reason why the fire dragon burned the city is very simple. I'll demonstrate it for you and you'll understand."

Christian put down his pipe and rummaged through his drawers until he found a thin-walled glass cylinder and a small candlestick.

Winters noticed that Christian's body began to tremble uncontrollably after his hand left the pipe. Winters became suspicious but said nothing.

Christian placed the short-burnt candlestick on the table and covered it with a glass cylinder.

The candle had burned down to a very short stub, and with the candlestick, it was no more than ten centimeters tall. The glass cylinder, on the other hand, was a full half meter tall, running vertically through the candlestick like a lampshade.

Christian snapped his fingers to light the candle and asked Winters, "Do you know how to control the wind?"

"Yes." Winters certainly knew how to use this most basic kinetic magic.

“Follow my movements and blow air in.” Christie sniffed the air and said listlessly, “Go slowly and don’t blow out the candle.”

Just as Winters was wondering how to deliver the air, Christian reached out and "disassembled" the glass cylinder.

Winters and Ike then realized that the glass cylinder on the table was actually made up of two identical hemispheres, as if a very sharp sword had vertically cleaved the complete glass cylinder in two.

Christian staggered the two parts of the cylinder, revealing two symmetrical gaps in the originally perfectly sealed glass cylinder.

"Wind manipulation, do it with me." Christian gestured to Winters with a spellcasting gesture.

Winters, working in tandem with the instructor, simultaneously activated their Wind Manipulation spells, each sending a gust of wind towards a different opening. Winters meticulously controlled his magical output, gradually increasing the force.

As the magically generated wind gradually increased, a wondrous scene unfolded.

The candle began to burn fiercely, and the previously steady flame began to swirl and rise upwards. Winters recalled Andrei's description: "A serpent of fire rising towards the sky."

Inside the glass cylinder in front of them, a miniature serpent of fire rose into the air, with the flames at the top even leaping out of the glass cylinder, which was half a meter high.

Christian waved his hand lazily: "Okay, stop now."

However, when Winters and Christian stopped casting the spell, the fire serpent did not disappear. A thin, visible red line remained inside the glass cylinder until the candle burned out at a visible speed.

"Fire...fire dragon burning the city?" Axel exclaimed in surprise, stammering, "But this is too small!"

“That’s right, this is the ‘Fire Dragon,’ the same kind of thing that burned down the Victory Arsenal.” Instructor Christian yawned and picked up his pipe to smoke again.

"You mean... a fire dragon burning a city is a natural phenomenon?" Winters raised an eyebrow.

“Yes and no.” Christian exhaled a smoke ring. “If I had to say, it’s a man-made natural phenomenon. Well, I’ll show you a picture and you’ll understand.”

Before he finished speaking, Christian started rummaging through drawers and cabinets again, finally pulling out a roll of dusty kraft paper from the top of the bookshelf.

He spread the parchment out on the desk, and Winters and Axel leaned over to take a closer look and immediately recognized what the parchment was.

It's a map, a map of Guitu. To be precise, it's a map of the old Guitu before the great fire. The Victory Arsenal still occupied more than half of the port area, and the city was still a chaotic, unplanned onion-like structure.

"By channeling wind to the fire source at a specific angle, a fire tornado is formed. It's essentially a whirlwind combined with flames," Christian explained, pointing to the map with his pipe as he wrapped himself in a floor-length robe. His eyes were blank and lifeless, but his speech was exceptionally clear: "The buildings at the fire site that day acted as wind tunnels. The wind we used to drive with magic, along with the sea breeze blowing from the ocean, converged at the fire site, thus forming a fire tornado."

Winters recalled the events of that day, and Axel suddenly realized what had happened.

But Christian wasn't finished. He continued muttering, "A fire tornado is a positive feedback system. The fire tornado draws in air from its surroundings, and the more air it comes into contact with the fire source, the stronger the fire burns. The stronger the fire burns, the bigger the fire tornado becomes. And then it just keeps burning... burning until everything that can be burned is burned away."

"That fire dragon burning the city was just a coincidence! It was a series of unfortunate events that led to the fire tornado. But the higher-ups made you the scapegoat... Why don't you write a letter to defend yourself?" Axel slapped his thigh indignantly.

"Defend yourself? What is there to defend yourself about?" Christian's expression was very strange: "The fire dragon burned the city because the spellcaster reversed the wind direction, why should I defend myself?"

"So, does that mean the fire tornado was just a coincidence and can't be replicated?" Winters suddenly felt a little regretful.

He had always thought that if he could unravel the secret of the fire dragon burning the city, the spellcaster's spellbook might be able to add a "fire tornado spell".

However, according to Christian, the fire dragon burning the city was just a coincidence, and the fire tornado spell seems hopeless.

"Reproduce it?" Instructor Christian sniffed again and said something surprising in a calm tone: "Of course."

As he spoke, Christian found another candle and lit it.

He made a spell-casting gesture, his eyes not even looking at the candle. Yet the candle flame began to swirl and rise again, just like the miniature fire tornado that had been inside the glass cylinder.

“Here it is,” Christian said casually.

Winters was stunned.

“After figuring out how the fire dragon burned the city, I found the rotational motion quite interesting.” Christian yawned again and asked Winters, “Student Montagne, what kinds of acceleration spells do you think there are?” [Note: Christian has not yet come into contact with “Antoine Laurent’s Notebook,” so he still uses the old terminology, referring to “kinetic energy spells” as “acceleration spells.”]
"Uh, isn't it just one kind?"

“No, it used to be one, but now it’s two,” Christian replied. “One is the acceleration you’ve learned about, linear motion, which I call linear acceleration [linear kinetic energy]. The other is the rotational motion I just demonstrated for you, which I call angular acceleration [angular kinetic energy]. Do you know what that means, Montagne student?”

Christian's account shattered Winters's understanding of magic, completely overturning the Alliance's existing kinetic magic system. Yet his tone was as if he were saying, "It's so hot today."

Axel was completely dumbfounded; he couldn't understand a word the two people in front of him were saying.

Winters was still processing his instructor's words, his brain almost shut down: "Uh... I don't know."

Christian tapped his cigarette ash and continued his astonishing statement: "This means Antoine Laurent is wrong, your training methods are wrong, and the training of all Alliance spellcasters is wrong. Angular acceleration and linear acceleration are two different abilities, but you train them as one, like training your hands and feet as one limb. Montagne, what do you think is the essence of Deflection?"

"Apply acceleration perpendicular to the direction of motion to an object." Winters recited the book's contents reflexively.

“Wrong, Montagne student, wrong.” Christian patted Winters on the shoulder and said in a lecture tone, “The essence of Deflection is to use angular acceleration to make an object rotate. You’re using linear acceleration to release Deflection, which is like trying to pronounce an ancient language in Common. It’s unclear and has an accent. Or to put it another way… it’s like trying to drink soup with your foot. Montagne student, so what do you think Fire Tornado is?”

The barrage of questions brought Winters' mind to a complete standstill; he felt as if he were back in the classroom, being called upon to answer questions one after another.

Christian answered his own question: "The Fire Tornado spell is actually a combination of a deflection spell and a wind manipulation spell. Do you understand? Go back and practice, and you'll get it too."

A deathly silence fell over the living room.

After a long while, Winters finally spoke.

"Teacher, do you know what you just said?" Winters, who had just come to his senses, was even trembling a little.

"What? What?" This time it was Christian's turn to be confused.

"You've deconstructed kinetic magic! Deconstructed, truly deconstructed, completely deconstructed, finding patterns and principles in chaos. This is an achievement even Antoine Laurent couldn't accomplish! The Magic Warfare Bureau... the Alliance should award you a medal weighing a ton!" Winters was extremely excited and somewhat incoherent.

“Oh,” Christian replied casually.

……

……

On the way back to the dorm, Ike said to Winters, puzzled, "I still don't understand why you're so excited. It doesn't seem like anything special, does it? Making things spin... is that really that amazing?"

“It’s incredible, and incredibly significant.” Even after leaving Christian’s house, Winters’ excitement hadn’t subsided. “You know what? Perhaps the Imperial court mages have long known how to use fire tornadoes, but they’ll only ever ‘know’ how; they’ll never truly understand the mysteries. Our Alliance’s spellcasters, however, draw their power from reason. We yearn to understand the laws governing all things. The more we understand how this world works, the more we can do, and therefore, our potential is limitless. From Antoine Laurent to Christian, one day we will leave the old-fashioned mages far behind.”

Winters had another purpose in coming to see Christian today; everything that happened today was an unexpected bonus.

Winters originally wanted to ask something more relevant: he wanted to ask the former head of the spellcasting research department whether the simultaneous use of spells by dozens of spellcasters on the night the fire dragon burned the city caused any unexpected changes, such as... amplification or expansion.

Upon seeing Christian, Winters couldn't help but wonder if his mental state had become abnormal due to the overload of magic that night, since Christian was likely the one who actually guided the magic that night.

But Winters held back and didn't ask.

Because he realized that if Veneta wanted to establish its own military academy, perhaps... perhaps now was the best time to "invite" Professor Christian to Veneta.

But if the goal is to bring Christian to Venetta, it is even more important to prevent the United Provinces from realizing the value of Christian Huygens.

If Christian can uncover the answer to Winters' question, it might be even more significant for the Alliance spellcasters than the discovery of angular kinetic energy...

……

……

When Winters and Axel returned to their dormitory, two federal officers in rank and file were guarding the door with a group of unfamiliar soldiers.

They weren't officers, but soldiers, real soldiers, unfamiliar faces.

"You two! Come here!" Upon seeing Winters and Axel, one of the mustachioed officers shouted sternly, "Are you two Venetta guys?"

“I am, he isn’t,” Winters replied. The nickname 'Veneta guy' made him very uncomfortable.

Upon hearing the answer, the mustachioed officer pointed at Winters and shouted, "That's him! Seize him!"

Five or six fierce soldiers rushed over and subdued Winters.

"Why are you arresting me!" Winters was furious, but he could not resist and was tied up by the soldiers.

Axel, unaware of the situation, suppressed his anger and asked, "Sir! We were just taking a short walk in the school, is it really necessary to arrest someone?!"

"Shut up!" The man with the mustache stepped forward and slapped Ike hard across the face. "You took people away without permission, and I haven't even settled accounts with you yet! Get to the military court! I'll deal with you after I'm done here!"

Ike stood at attention.

The man with the mustache slapped Ike again: "Get lost!"

Axel of Orange gave the mustachioed officer a deep look, saluted, and turned to walk toward the military court without a word, glancing back at Winters every now and then.

Another officer rode up to the dormitory gate and, from a distance, shouted, "Have you found it?"

"Found them!" the man with the mustache blurted out. "They're all here, we've found them all."

The mounted officer glanced at Winters, who returned the glance with a furious look.

The mounted officer sneered and waved his hand: "Take him away!"

The man with the mustache led Winters to the gates of the Military Academy, where several carriages were parked. They were the kind of specially made carriages used to transport prisoners, with dark, large carriages reinforced with steel bars, and no windows on any of them.

The man with the mustache pointed to a carriage, and the soldiers pushed Winters inside.

A chaotic noise filled the carriage.

"Who?"

"what happened?"

"Who's coming?"

"It's Winters!" Andrei's furious voice rang out: "It's Winters Montagne!"

A small window with iron bars opened in the roof of the carriage, letting in a sliver of light. In the dim light, Winters could see that there were other people in the carriage—his other fellow Venetians.

The students fumbled in the dark and hurriedly untied the ropes binding Winters. Winters calmly asked Andrei, "What happened?"

Andrei retorted irritably, "I...f***ing don't know...you fucking provincial bumpkin!"

After the car door was closed, several metallic clanging sounds were heard, indicating that multiple structural reinforcements were used.

Winters had only been in the carriage for a short time when it began to move.

Without windows, the warrant officers at Vineta had no idea where they were going.

He called out, but no one paid any attention.

He was insulted, but no one responded.

The carriage continued its journey until nightfall before finally stopping.

Winters listened carefully to the sounds outside; it seemed they were changing horses.

The man with the mustache appeared through the iron window on the roof of the carriage, supervising the soldiers as they stuffed water bags and bread into the carriage.

"I need to pee!" Andrei shouted angrily.

“Use a bucket,” the man with the mustache replied.

"I need to poop!" Andrei was even more furious.

"Use buckets too."

"Fuck your mother!!!"

"Thank you on behalf of my mother."

"Where are you taking us?" Winters asked coldly. He seemed to have calmed down, or rather, he was too angry to show his anger.

"Where are you going?" A strange smile appeared on the mustache's face. "You are going to Palatum, the land of galloping horses."

The scroll of galloping horses must be set in the land of galloping horses.

Christian's understanding was still limited by the times. The formation of large fire tornadoes is not only related to the fire scene but also to atmospheric conditions, but he had already made considerable progress.

I drew a diagram of his fire tornado experiment equipment; readers who haven't seen it can scroll up to take a look.

Thank you to all the readers who voted for the book before, and thank you to reader Tianjing for the monthly ticket. Thank you.

Thank you to the following readers for their recommendation votes: Xiaocheng Shaonianlang, Ni de Shenghuo Li Duoduo, Ami, Ke kkkkk, Jiang Xue Diaoweng, Qingjiao Wo Xiyangyang, Yunzhongyue1981, Yushi Tongzhou, Danding de Huiguo, Tianshui Youjiaren, Xiaocheng Shaonianlang, Zhengyi Chunjie Shi Koala, and Tianjingtou. Thank you all.

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(End of this chapter)