In the Mansion of the Lord of Cecil City, a silver-white metal ball with a diameter of one meter and three meters and a pleasant funny smile on the surface slammed into the gate of the Lord's Mansion with little force, and behind this metal ball, a metal box less than a meter long floated.

After two impacts, the door opened from the inside, and Betty, dressed in a maid's dress, appeared at the door, the little maid blinked at the Iron Ball Star outside the door, with a hint of surprise on her face: "Mr. Egg? Are you here? ”

Although the Iron Ball star rarely leaves her "Throne of the Machines", Betty is often taken around the city by Rebecca, most often visiting several factories and research facilities, and she is naturally familiar with "Mr. Egg" in front of her.

"Is the lord here?" There was a pleasant buzz from within the silver-white metal ball, "Or Miss Rebecca - I've got something good to show them!" ”

Betty blinked and reacted for a second: "The lord and the young lady are not here, they went to the Magic Technique Research Institute, but they should be back soon." ”

Nicholas Egg floated his round body up and down: "That's okay, I'll go in and wait." ”

The strangely shaped "Mr. Egg" is a master of mechanical technology in the territory, and he is a "person" that the lord values very much, which Betty still knows, so she directly followed Gawain's previous instructions and took Mr. Egg to the study on the second floor of the mansion.

As the mechanical director of the territory, Nicholas Egg actually rarely leaves the mechanical research institute, let alone the industrial area in the eastern part of the city, but this does not mean that he is ignorant of what is happening in the territory, after entering Gawain's study, he first saw the map of the southern territory that was hanging on the wall of the study, and noticed that in the upper part of the map, the location marked as the Rock Fortress has been affixed with the sign of Cecil.

"At least you'll get a good night's sleep," a low hum came from inside the metal ball, "and all those shells are not in vain." ”

Betty, the little maid, stood in the corner of the study, but she didn't know much about the lord's war, and she wasn't interested in it, she just stood there quietly, looking like she was wandering into the world, and she didn't know what was going on in her little brain.

Nicholas Egg waited in the study for a while, feeling a little bored, and couldn't help but talk to Betty: "Speaking of which, little girl, are you literate?" ”

Betty woke up from her fugue state, she was stunned, and then nodded a little uncertainly: "Yes...... Although I didn't recognize it all. ”

After saying this, the little maid, who was not very brainy, seemed to have finally entered the state, and realized that she had not yet entertained the guests, so she quickly picked up her large teapot from the side and walked towards Nicholas Egg, while the latter was still looking down on herself: "Oh, you can know the words, just know it, then you usually see it...... Hey, what are you doing with a teapot? ”

Nicholas Egg looked at Betty with a funny face (and he really had no other expressions to use), and then saw the dumb little maid speak very seriously: "Mr. Egg, do you want some black tea?" ”

Nicholas Egg was instantly stunned: "...... You didn't even notice I didn't have a mouth?! ”

Betty seemed to have taken a serious look at the structure of the iron ball star in front of her, and circled around twice as if she was looking for an opening to pour tea into, and only after finding that she hadn't found it did so, she stretched out her voice "Huh-" and said: "Huh...... Not really! ”

"Nonsense, you don't know that this face is painted on my surface," Nicholas shook his body and continued the topic just now, "Then if you are literate, can you read the newspaper?" ”

"Newspapers...... I can read it, I usually read it," Betty nodded, a happy look on her face, "The lord also gave me a set of stationery, scissors and glue - and he taught me how to cut out the contents of the newspaper and make a book!" ”

After saying this, Betty circled around the Nicholas egg again: "...... Mr. Egg, you really can't drink tea. ”

Nicholas Egg couldn't understand why the little maid was so obsessed with serving tea to her guests, but he was really worried that this stupid girl would have to dig a hole in her body and pour tea into it, so he patiently explained: "I'm different from you, I don't usually have to eat or drink...... Or rather, I eat differently than you......"

Betty finally stopped wandering, and looked at the metal ball in front of her with wide eyes and a curious expression: "How does Mr. Egg usually eat?" ”

Nicholas Egg said casually: "Oh, usually it is absorbed by the body surface......"

As soon as he said this, he realized that the little maid next to him probably misunderstood, because the girl was shaking the big teapot in her hand while looking his round body up and down, and her face was full of eager expressions. ”

Betty suddenly had a somewhat disappointed expression on her face: "...... Oh. ”

Nicholas Egg popped up a question mark: "Anyway, why are you so obsessed with serving tea to guests?" ”

Betty showed her trademark sluggish expression again, and reacted for two seconds before suddenly saying, "Sister Ginny said, she said that the most important thing for the maid in charge of receiving guests is to pour new tea for the guests in time......"

"Ginny......" Nicholas Egg recalled, realizing that he had never heard the name, "Is there a new maid here in the Lord's Mansion?" ”

Betty shook her head, "No, Sister Ginny was the maid in the castle before, and she was in charge of entertaining guests, and she was the most powerful of us." ”

After saying that, she paused, as if to remember something, and continued: "She sometimes sneaks the leftover snacks from the guests to the kitchen and gives us ......"

"The castle ...... before," Nicholas Egg muttered in a low voice, understanding what was going on.

He noticed that Betty was depressed and realized that he had said something stupid earlier, which caused the topic of stupidity.

However, he didn't know how to comfort a human - this kind of erect creature with overly complex thoughts and emotions had too many incomprehensible properties, far less incomprehensible than metal and machinery, and he could only learn what he used to say when he heard humans comfort each other, and said dryly: "Don't be sad, everything will be fine." ”

"I'm not sad, I'm getting better," said Betty, shaking her head, as if she had picked herself up, "Mrs. Vincent has said that being alive is the happiest thing." ”

Nicholas Egg floats quietly beside Betty, reaffirming that humans really are complex and interesting creatures.

Soon, the most complex and interesting of all the human beings he knew arrived.

Gawain pushed open the door of the study, and as soon as he entered the room, he saw Betty holding a teapot and a large metal ball standing next to Betty, and he showed a smile: "Nicholas, I heard that you brought a 'good thing' to show me?" ”

Followed by Gawain and poking out her head again, Rebecca squeezed into the study: "I'm coming, I'm coming—Mr. Egg, what did you get out?!" Bearings for car engines or boats? ”

In the entire "Cecil R&D and production system", the most closely related to the mechanical manufacturing of Nicholas Egg is the Magic Technology Research Institute managed by Rebecca, the latter, as the main R&D department of practical technology, often entrusts some blueprints that have completed theoretical verification to the Mechanical Research Institute to realize, and this kind of order is usually more than the processing capacity of ordinary "mechanical bachelors", and it is generally handled by Nicholas Egg himself, under normal circumstances, Nicholas Egg will always hold several orders from Rebecca in his hands.

So as soon as I heard that Nicholas Egg had come to the Lord's Mansion with "good things", it was not Gawain who was most excited, but Rebecca.

On the other side, after greeting Nicholas Egg, Gawain looked at Betty who was holding a teapot, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw the teapot in the other party's hand: "You didn't force our master craftsman to drink tea, did you?" ”

"Mr. Egg doesn't have a mouth," Betty shook her head, "he can't drink." ”

“…… You," Gawain shook his head helplessly, rubbing the little girl's hair, "Go back and rest." ”

Betty left the room, and Nicholas Egg came up to Rebecca and placed the metal box that had been floating near him firmly on the ground, "Those two things are almost done, but I'm bringing the finished product of another order today,"

The lock on the metal box opened automatically, and the lid popped up, and a metal roller device about eighty centimeters long, with rune interfaces visible at both ends, and faint lines faintly veined in the silvery white surface, floated out of it.

Nicholas Egg's proud voice sounded in his body: "It's not easy to achieve its function - although the principle and structure diagram are very clear, it is not easy to master the appropriate ratio of Mithril alloy, even I tested it for a long time to make it work stably." Miss Rebecca, accept your order. ”

"This ......" Rebecca looked at the metal roller in surprise, "You've finally made it!?" ”

Gawain vaguely guessed what it was after seeing the shape of the metal roller, but turned to Rebecca for confirmation: "This is—"

"This is the most important structure of the new printing press!" Rebecca smiled brightly, in order to design this thing, it took a lot of effort in the Magic Technology Research Institute, "I call it the 'Arcane Transfer Cylinder', with this, the printing press you asked for can be quickly plate-making, easy to edit, continuous printing, and reusable." ”

"Arcane cartridges?" Gawain didn't expect Rebecca to learn his habit and create a new term for Sheng, he repeated the word, curious about the metal cylinder in front of him, "Can you demonstrate it now?" How does it work? ”

"It still needs an input unit to work, but if you just want to see what it looks like when it starts, you can just inject magic into this part......" Rebecca said as she put her hand on the end of the metal cylinder, "Carefully pour some mana into it, and give the test symbol to ...... Hey, Ancestor, what are you doing......"

Gawain didn't wait for the girl to "inject magic" and pulled her hand aside: "I'd better do it - you don't blow up the house again." ”

After saying that, he no longer paid attention to Rebecca's sulking appearance, but put his hand on one end of the metal device under the guidance of Nicholas Egg.

A faint amount of magic was carefully injected into the metal canister.

After only a few moments, rows of neatly arranged lines and symbols glowing blue appeared on the surface of the silvery-white metal cylinder.