by Feng Yue
Everyone parted very quickly to the side, clearing the way to the middle of the dancefloor. Once they were in their positions, the conductor raised his conductor baton and a beautiful melody was soon playing in the air. Fortunately, Ye Qingxuan had read through two books on palace dances before he came so he managed to pull it off, even though his movements might be a little stiff. The only thing was that they sometimes got too close during the dance.
Being so close to the Queen and feeling the white silk material in his hands, he was at a loss somewhat. Fortunately, the awkwardness did not last for too long as Mary asked quietly, “What do you think about this gown? The tailor just about managed to rush it out in time. Do you think it suits me?”
“It’s simply beautiful and astounding. I am completely captivated.” Ye Qingxuan maintained his smile as he lavished plenty of praise. This gown was a good fit for Mary’s body shape but what made it impressive was its ability to capture her sophisticated qualities while maintaining an air of authority. On top of that, it did not seem out of place when she stood beside Ye Qingxuan’s attire, which was similar to a uniform. The tailor has put in a lot of effort. It was not easy. Ye Qingxuan swallowed his saliva and realized that his throat hurt.
“Is that so?” Mary raised her eyebrow with a teasing look. “Are you feeling nervous?”
“Yes.” Ye Qingxuan nodded. He could not help but sigh and answer honestly, “Your Majesty’s favor has taken me by surprise.”
Mary looked at the complicated expression on his face and was able to see the embarrassment and nervousness. She smiled slyly. “I had no other choice, Your Highness. You have to think from my position too.” In the middle of the dance, she leaned forward slightly. Her entire body was almost touching Ye Qingxuan. She put her lips close to his ear and whispered, “I apologize for today. At least… don’t let them think that it was a one-sided affection. It will make things very awkward for the Queen.”
“My apologies, it’s my fault.”
Mary smiled and shook her head. “Say no more of such things. Let’s dance.”
“Alright.” Ye Qingxuan nodded his head and focused his attention on following Mary’s movements. He could feel a layer of sweat on his palms as he touched her slender waist to twirl her around to the music. As the melody gently played, he could hear the sound of her breathing. It made him feel as if the Queen was like fog and he needed to release her hands so that she could slowly float into the sky.
But Mary held onto his hands all the way. She looked at him quietly with a smile on her face. Her gaze was focused and serious. When the melody finally came to an end, Ye Qingxuan could not believe how time had passed by so quickly and everything that had just happened felt as short as only a moment.
“Mr. Ye,” amidst the applause, he could hear Mary’s voice, “can you give me a hug?” She looked at Ye Qingxuan and said quietly, “Just for a while.”
Ye Qingxuan did not say anything, except to stretch out his hands and take her into his arms. “As long as you want,” he whispered.
Mary smiled and leaned against his chest. “Thank you.”
Ye Qingxuan lowered his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, he heard Mary’s voice, “It seems that parties are not entirely useless. We might as well have one every day.”
Ye Qingxuan was stunned. Your Majesty, is it worth doing this just for a dance? There are many things in Anglo that still need to be done. If you start the ball rolling by holding extravagant parties, when will this nightlife end!
“Cough cough, Your Majesty, if there is anything you require of me in the future, you only need to summon me. There is no need to go to such great lengths and waste the country’s money.” Ye Qingxuan quickly put a stop to the idea, only to see the corners of Mary’s mouth curling up into a smile.
“Are you initiating a rendezvous? I am glad to know that the Prince is so earnest.”
“…” Ye Qingxuan was about to vomit blood. He had a nagging feeling that he had fallen into Mary’s trap but strangely enough, he did not dislike it.
“Don’t worry, I will not trouble you. Just don’t avoid me next time.” Mary released her hands at last and straightened his collar. Then, she tip-toed and whispered into his ear, “I am available on Saturday afternoon.”
Ye Qingxuan saw only darkness.
628 Prototype Part 1
Half a month later in a huge underground space that should not have existed below the sixth basement floor of the Royal Institute of Research, all was dim, illuminated only by the pale lights.
There were cracks all over the floor, making it look like some sort of dilapidated building. There were still traces of spiders and insect eggs in the corners.
“What kind of godforsaken place is this?”
Ye Qingxuan pointed at the spiderweb on his clothes. “We’d better install a ventilation system. Aren’t you afraid of suffocating?”
“Actually we already installed one and incorporated it into the Royal Institute of Research’s circulatory system. I had only ever considered my own breathing requirements, but fortunately we have a bit of a power surplus. You’d better thank God for the fact that you can breath right now.”
Newton answered without the least bit of courtesy. Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes.
It seemed like this guy had set his heart on the plan, even to the point where had contributed his secret base as a testing ground.
He reckoned that this was the place where Newton performed his forbidden research.
From what he could see, many of the sets of equipment here were a rare commodity among all the nations. In fact, Newton had to have built many of them himself.
It was clear that there were many good things still to be had from Newton, he had just to think of a way to get them out of him…
No matter who was in charge, they would have to quickly learn some underhanded techniques. They would teach themselves all kinds of ways to put pressure on their employees. Especially if that employee was Newton, that gold mine that had not stopped producing.
“This is the research data.”
Newton placed a document into his hands and motioned for the workers to quickly prepare the testing site. Ye Qingxuan browsed the document casually, and could not help but raise his eyebrows.
“Zebra? Not a bad codename. Where did you find him?”
“Prison,” Newton said casually. “That guy fought in the first Indian Colonization War. After he retired, he laid low for a while. They say that when he was captured, he had already killed sixteen active duty marines with his bare hands. Keep reading, he is a demon in human form…”
Ye Qingxuan turned the page over and sighed, “Two hearts? Four times the adrenaline? Natural regeneration? It’s no good, it’s no good. If he was taken by the Dark Musicians, he’d make for an awful test subject.”
Newton rolled his eyes. “Do you think you’re so so different from the Dark Musicians now?”
Ye Qingxuan thought of those insane Dark Musicians, always running around kidnapping children and trying to recruit him to join in their schemes.
“I’m still very different,” he answered seriously.
“Shut up, the experiment is starting. Prepare all departments.”
Newton ignored him, walking up the steps and shouting for everybody to make ready with all haste. Afterwards he waved his finger at Ye Qingxuan, “Don’t stand in the middle, move over, right, a little more, stop. Right there, don’t move.”
He moved Ye Qingxuan into the corner and then slipped behind him, as if using him as a shield.
He picked up the microphone and said, “All departments confirmed, begin the experiment.”
Scrape!
The sound of chains dragging came from behind the iron gate.
Amidst this ear piercing noise, the several hundred kilogram gate started to slowly lift. When it reached the halfway point, it started to resist. But finally it was lifted to the top with a roar.
A giant so burly that he did not resemble a human walked out of the dark
ness. His bare shoulders were covered in layer upon layer of tattoos. Some were his own original tattoos: demons, snakes and churches, but the rest were new: musical notes and array movements.
His knotted muscles heaved in time with his breaths under the pale lights. He slowly crept forward.
He walked barefoot across the floor, dragging heavy shackles behind him that seemed to weigh him down no more than an empty can would.
Even his forehead seemed abnormal. It arched out, as if there was something sharp hidden underneath the skin.
Neither in his character nor in his appearance did he seem like a law abiding citizen.
Looking all around the testing site, Zebra was shocked. He did not see the strict security measures he had expected. Instead it was all empty.
Finally, his line of set came across the completely unprotected Newton, and his face began to change.
“Test Subject A1, don’t just stand there, our time is precious,” Newton said impatiently.
“I am not A1, call me Zebra!”
A fierce light flashed in Zebra’s eyes. He began to slowly walk closer. “Perhaps we should discuss some…problems with my treatment.”
Newton sneered disdainfully and waved at him impatiently. “I don’t care if you used to be called Zebra or Cow, right now we’re in the middle of an experiment.”
Ye Qingxuan shook his head and laughed softly. “Looks like we’re having trouble before the experiment even starts.”
Newton looked a bit embarrassed. “There wasn’t enough time,” he answered awkwardly, “we had to dispense with the formalities. Where could we have found so many volunteers? We had to make do with prisoners on death row.”
Ye Qingxuan sighed and tapped his cane on the ground.
“Let’s begin the experiment, gentlemen, after all our time is precious. I have a ‘wonderful’ tryst waiting for me this afternoon that I can’t be late for.”
It was only now that Zebra noticed the thin young man standing beside Newton, similarly undefended. That bag of bones was not even thick enough for him to poke his finger through.
He could kill both of them at once.
But the white-haired young man seemed completely unconcerned. He just looked at him, with a slight smile that seemed to say he already knew what he was thinking.
Although he had not yet spoken, his pitch-black eyes expressed what he was thinking very clearly.
It’d be nice if you didn’t give me any trouble.
It’d be best if you didn’t.
Without knowing why, Zebra averted his gaze, looking back at Newton ferociously.
“We had a deal.”
“The deal was that after you had completed the experiments, I’d let you go, not to let you stay here free of charge just to stand there blinking at me.”
With Ye Qingxuan there to protect him, Newton was not afraid of anything, and with this bolstered confidence began to berate Zebra. “What are you standing there for? Are you waiting for lunch? Get started!”
Zebra unwillingly swept his eyes over them, then took two steps back and stood firmly in the middle of the testing site.
“Begin the first Net of Aether music theory transmission test!”
The metal pipes on the wall transmitted the researcher’s voice. On the other side of the wall, instruments of harmonious melody were already wedged into the floor, with many cables stretching out from them. They were tangled up into a hopeless mess, and were thrust through interfaces in the wall.
Deep beneath the floor, an enormous hub began to turn.
Six newly made external combustion engines that had originally been Sterling model engines fired up. This massive amount of power started the aether furnace, and flashes of aether sprang out from within. Under the shifting of the instruments of harmonious melody countless cables surged methodically, illuminating the alchemy array in the testing site.
The flashing metal reflected off the floor, the ceiling and the walls.
A burst of static electricity appeared out of thin air, making a loud humming sound. Newton’s hair stood on end, making him look like a half-bald hedgehog. It was incredibly ugly. But Ye Qingxuan was not affected at all. Not even his fingers were shaking.
This degree of electrical field disturbance caused by the friction from the turbulent aether was, as far as he was concerned, not worth wasting his power to smooth out. The Symphony of Predestination’s own gravitational force was enough to quash these insignificant ripples.
Newton glanced angrily at Ye Qingxuan. This guy was purposely watching him make a fool of himself!
After a short while, the joyful voices of the workers came through the pipes, “The harmonious melody repeater has successfully started!”
At this point, even Ye Qingxuan was surprised.
He never would have thought that in only half a month Newton could have already taken the first step in realizing the framework of the Net of Aether.
Even though he had provided the basic structure of the music theory, and there was a method that could be used to decipher the pattern, and he had three Royal Musicians cooperating with him on this, to have done so much work in such a short time was no mean feat.
This was the benefit of having a top researcher. Before the research had even started he had already ruled out over 70% of erroneous research paths, saving huge amounts of time and resources.
“This is within expected parameters, nothing to get excited about.”
Newton smiled coldly and waved his hands, “As long as there aren’t any problems with the theories or the calculations, even a pig could follow the steps to set these things up. Only you wouldn’t have to pay a pig three times the salary of a white-collar worker. Continue the experiment, the next part is the most important.”
After saying this, he turned towards Zebra, still standing there in the center of the testing site, and looked at him expectantly.
At the urging of the voice coming through the pipe, Zebra walked forward, and reluctantly started dressing himself in the equipment laid out on the workbench.
A helmet, gloves, vambraces, a breastplate…
It looked like a suit of broken armor, covered in patches and weld marks, with cables wrapped all around it. It had to have been extremely heavy. A scrawny person wouldn’t have been able to wear it.
Each part of the heavy carapace had lock catches that could be fastened to each other. By the end, Zebra was completely covered save for his left arm and shoulder.
Even while wearing the heavy equipment Zebra still moved about freely and unrestrained. He raised his left hand curiously, and stared at the interface in the middle of his palm and at the crude buttons on his left hand and arm.
Finally, he looked at the wire that he was dragging under his feet.
The wire was directly connected to a hole in the floor, and ran down to the next level. It looked like it must reach to some huge piece of equipment.
At the moment he finished putting on the armor, the musical notes engraved into the arrays lit up, including the ones tattooed on Zebra’s skin.
The arrays had linked the symbols carved into his flesh with the suit of armor. The aether circulation was complete.
“Bridging complete!”
“A1, from this point forward give a detailed report of everything that you feel,” the researcher said through the pipes.
“A little…hot…”
Zebra’s writhing body had not quite adapted to the recently created aether circulation. He looked at the glowing music notes tattooed on his skin, “It really itches. It hurts a little bit, but I can take it.”
“Excellent. Let’s begin. We’ll need you to be patient for a few minutes. The process might be a bit difficult for you…”
Before he had finished speaking, a shudder went through Zebra’s body, and his face became ashen. He gritted his teeth and a hideous look passed over his face. In the corner, several machines monitoring his vital statistics emitted an ear-piercing noise.
Zebra gave a sha
rp cry.
The heartbeat monitor began to flicker wildly, indicating that both his hearts were beating like crazy, and that there were abnormal secretions of various hormones, muscle spasms, hyperaemia, and swelling.
629 Prototype Part 2
A burnt smell lingered in the air. It came from the flesh scorched by the overheated notes on the body surface.
Ye Qingxuan found the symptoms particularly familiar, and the memory of the creepy old woman, who had been transformed into a half-demon, that he met when he first came to Avalon suddenly popped up in his mind…
“The research on human body transformation that Anglo originally carried out in secret?” he frowned.
The old man replied, “Yes, the research project has indeed provided us with a lot of convenience, or at least, it has contributed part of the mature technology regarding the imprinting of musical movements on the human body.”
Newton waved his hand nonchalantly, “Rest assured, I know that you are the Grand Inquisitor, and have not transplanted demon blood onto him. The Net of Aether is meant to be applied to humans anyway, so demon blood is actually redundant.”
Ye Qingxuan simply shook his head and said nothing.
Actually, it wouldn’t have mattered even if the subject had been transplanted with demon blood. The Religious Court of Inquiry has done way more things using demons. If the need arises, all sorts of damn technologies can be disclosed to Newton…
In fact, if Ye Qingxuan had not been overseeing the old perverts, the dungeons of the Religious Court of Inquiry might have descended into some goddamn unimaginable state at the moment.
Of course, he naturally wouldn’t air such dirty laundry in public due to the embarrassment.
Moreover, God knew what chaos would ensue if Ye Qingxuan was to put Newton the madman together with the old perverts.
He withdrew his gaze, and it landed on Zebra’s twitching body.
Observing him with the naked eye would yield nothing more than a man convulsing in wisps of electricity. However, a musician could clearly observe to the letter countless notes flickering in and out of sight in the alchemy array within the armor with his sensing. The notes compiled music theory, which traveled downwards along the cable, and connected itself to the instrument of harmonious melody, which was acting as a repeater.
