Winter Mansion [3]

"First of all ..., please write down the writing system that you're most familiar with."

"Me, me ...! Please let me do it!" Hilda raised her hand with this strange high-tension.

"Please do so, and don't forget to add the number from one to ten, and how do you write a hundred and a thousand."

"Alright." Hilda took the quill pen and begin scribbling into the paper scroll.

Because that was the only pen available, they must wait for her to finish. Though there was still a charcoal pencil, but it wasn't that great to use as a mean to write. Though, that thing was pretty lethal if it comes into drawing.

Marth took a look at the Uthgard letter with great interest. After all, he never knew or heard about this from the game. The UI could be set up into one of the 5 available language, but there hasn't any mention about the language inside the game. Rather ..., there wasn't any worth of detailing anything of what they speak and write.

'Hmmm ..., from the shape, I think it's not from the alphabet writing system.'

What Hilda written in the paper scroll was a set of symbols. It was a combination of dot, line, curve and square, looks similar to Chinese script by glance, but there was this systematic flow about it. So it was not an logograph.

'Is it something like Korean Hangul? If it's like that, then ..., I heard that Hangul also categorized as alphabet writing system because of the characteristics. So is it an alphabetical?'

While Marth was preoccupied with his own thought, Hilda stopped writing.

"I'm finished!"

"Okay, next is ..., please spell every single symbol you have written."

"Just spell?" Hilda look surprised but she nodded and pointing one of the symbol, she said, "these one will be [ae], [ai], [eo], [eu], [oi], [ie], [io] ...,"

While carefully listening to what she said, Marth noted down the symbol on another roll of paper. He have prepared it beforehand, the 26 letters from the Latin alphabet. And he just categorized the Uthgardian letter based on what he heard. 

That was the plan, but, it was too much of tongue twister. Every vowel sounds so different and there weren't just only five, it was at least ten or something vowels in there. It couldn't be categorized as just one from the five basic vowel from the Latin alphabet.

'For now, I'll put these two into this ..., and that one into, ohh ..., what she said just now?'

"Can you repeat what you said just now, yes ..., this symbol, what does it say?"

"Upsilon?"

"Oh! How did you spell it if it formed into one word."

"Uhm ..., like Y in the word Year?"

'I see ..., so upsilon is Y, I've learn something new. But why is that the ancient Greek letter come into being in this world?'

He proceed to list every sound of the letter into the alphabet. And after he finished with Hilda, the next was Sahara.

The Hijayah abjad, was like the name ..., it was an abjad writing system. Just like the Arabic writing system. Basically, there was no vowel in the letter, but after the letters combined into one word, the writer would immediately know how to spell it. 

When Marth looked at the similarities between this writing system with the letter used in the Scripture of his religion in the past, something inside his being snapped. He remembered of his past life. About his family, his adoptive family, his friends, and everyone he know from that world. In the end, he sighed and thinking out loud a curses.

'F*ck with that boring past life! I am gonna aim for my harem in this world and in this current life!'

"Master Marth?" Sahara probed him with creased brows.

He shook his head, forcefully let go of the thought inside his mind and gestured with his hand, "Continue."

"Alright ..." Sahara continued to make sound of each letter of the abjad, still with her beautiful long brows creased deeply.

The characters listing continued, the Moon Script that Diana talked about was like Japanese kana. Yes, it was really just like the mysterious and profound moonrune. No, really. It was like the Uthgard letter, but with more strong straight lines and less smooth curved lines. Just like Japanese katakana.

As for the dwarf rune, it was not the runic alphabet just like he thought. It was actually a writing system he was familiar with, the Abugida that originated from India and then spread throughout the rest of the South and Southeast Asia. 

The dwarf rune contained 18 basic letters, and it could change the vowels depending on the added symbol. And unlike the gentle curve of Javanese Hanacaraka, this dwarf rune was crude and straight ..., just like the Macassar Lontara Script.

'The rest is how to make them learn to read alphabet. As far as I know, alphabet is the easiest writing system in the world. Or ..., maybe I just can't understand the difficulty of the people from the East Asia of learning English Language and it's letter.'

Marth pondered while looking at the letter list.

'Hmmm ..., how about picture dictionary. I learned a lot of English vocabulary from those book back in the elementary. And back when I was learning Mandarin with Tian Tian Hanyu, there was also some picture to make it clear. Then ..., I can make Hilda draw it for me, and listing all of the word from them. Okay, that will do. The only problem is ..., the paper for making all of that.'

Marth glanced the roll of thick cotton paper in the table. The texture was uneven and there was some protruding here and there, most of all it was very thick. Ten sheets of this paper perhaps would be about two centimeters thick. 

This was also why book and paper was expensive in this world. Marth who used this to scribble whatever he stumbled across in his mind, this is a waste of paper.

'To begin with, if I think far ahead in the future, I will have numerous people as my underlings. And I want them to be able understand the language I'm using. So ..., I need to teach them my language, and basic general knowledge. In order to do all of that, I need to get a hold of papermaking plant and mass printing. But uhhh ..., as expected, it need a lot of people for all of that.'

Marth still pondering with his plan, still with his idle thought and empty gaze. The slave girls was puzzled by his dazed expression, but no one dare enough to raise a noise. 

Even the tactless Hilda was docile and become taciturn with Marth showing this serious face. The only person who was aware of what Marth's thinking was, the girl with [Mindreading] skills, Sahara.

Though, she could clearly read his mind, the only thing that she could read was some incomprehensible word and term. Soon enough she shook her head, unable to comprehend any meaning behind Marth's thought. 

She was aware that he planned to build some kind of workshop, or maybe a factory, but she couldn't understand what purpose of this so called factory. 

What is 'printing'? If someone lived in the age where there was no prior technology of printing, or even pressing, then they would not understand what it was.

However, what was occupied Sahara mind the most was 'In the game,' sometime Marth thought of that, and this peculiar thinking greatly disturbed her. She didn't know why, but for her who could read people's mind, this probably the first time she felt dread to a person who was neither lunatic or psychopath.

It was like, she didn't read the head of a people of the same world. That was what she conclude after a few time reading Marth's mind.

'Well, I'll just ask Hilda to draw some object and everything for me before I built my papermaking plant, and printing workshop. Ahh ..., I also need a separate shed to process the grease. Whew, what a crazy workload ...'

Marth concluded his thinking and then asked Hilda, "Hilda ..., I'll give you a list of name, it might be objects, animals, vegetables, or fruits, or even activities. Can you draw it?"

"This, does Master Marth want me to draw illustration for an encyclopedia?" Hilda asked back with her ever high-tension.

"Nope, unfortunately its not for encyclopedia, but a dictionary. I'll write it in the Ost Language and also the Indonesian Language, the language I'm proficient the most. I want you to learn this alongside with these alphabet letter. Hilda, you will be responsible for the drawing while the four of you will help Hilda to list the words in your natives language."

"Oh! A dictionary? Incredible! Can I also add some things in there?" Diana who was usually silent asked out of her initiation.

"Hmm, I won't mind. Rather, you should write the thing that I missed. I'll write it first, and you may add some later on." 

Marth dipped the quill pen in the ink and noted a few thing on his mind.

"..., this probably will be enough." Marth nodded his head and handed the paper to Hilda, seemingly satisfied with the list of things and activities, "Okay, thanks for the good work. You guys may leave and do the task I gave you."

After bowed their head, the four women left from the dining room. Marth also didn't idle around, he left the dining room with a basket full of discarded paper rolls.

He muttered something along the way, "Paper huh ..., I wonder, where can I get the ingredient to make the blanching agent. Eh, hold up ..."

Something grabbed his mind, and he rushed into the study with excitement.

◊ ◊ ◊

He didn't need to wait for Reno's men to get some animal fat. When he asked the cook, the middle-aged woman readily gave some to him.

With the fat available in his hand, he lighted up the fire and started with his experiment. 

Heating up the fat in a metal pot full of water. After sometime has passed, there was some greases in the water surface. He scooped it with a ladle and heated it up again in another container to get rid of the water. Doing this for several time, and there he got it, some animal fat.

Albeit he could only extracted for about half liter, it was enough for experiment.

'Well ..., it's time for the great revelation. Show me what you got, this complex chained ester!'

He imagined the molecular structure of the glyceryl tristearate and then remove two of the hydrogen molecule attached into the carboxylate acid of every chain. It now become C17H33, and the molecular name become glyceryl triolineat. The IUPAC name for oil, to be exact it was the main composition of the olive oil.

After finished with imagining, he spell the magical word. And this time, it was not in Germany.

"Change Molecular Structure!" 

As long as the meaning was successfully conveyed, even if it was some random words of the same meaning, it will be counted as a magic spell. Was what Marth thought about the magic spell.

Before this, he have done some prior investigation. And that was with the fire magic. And true enough, the spell worked with different language, even if he said it like [Api], [Geni], [Fire] or even the fricking chunni-like [Hou]. As long as the meaning was true to the definition of 'fire' and he imagined the true image of it, then 'fire' is it, the outcome of the spell.

So, magical word was never exist in the first place. He didn't have to use some language of other country and just use any language he most comfortable with. 

And that's how the spell constructed.

Marth poured six magic power to started the spell. The animal grease in the bowl basked in bright radiant light. And the structural molecule changed. 

"It's working! It's working! Goddamnit, just what is with this!?! Isn't this too much of a cheat?!"

Just what kind of sorcery is this! 

He changed a molecular structure of a grease to that of olive oil with just a single spell! This was beyond the scope of science. It was really defying logic.

But he just removed the hydrogen from the carboxylate chain, he couldn't destroy an atom or annihilate it completely from this world. Now, that would be really bizarre.

He couldn't destroy an atom, but he could separate it from the molecule to create a new bond. The separated hydrogen soon attached themselves and became a hydrogen gas (H2). 

This could be a better thing in any way. But something happened, and it was a major thing.

The grease that still on it's liquid state still has some residual heat. And albeit it was not that hot, it was able to spark the hydrogen which has the lowest combustion point of a gas. Thus, a spark has created.

And this immediately started fire that burn the newly transmutated olive oil. Silently looking at the burning oil in the metal pot, he smiled. And then let out a subtle short laugh.

"Fuha ...," he gazed at the burning oil once again, "Fuhahahahahahaha!!! It's success! Hahahaha!! I succeed in transmuting glyceryl tristearate into glyceryl triolineat! F*ck it! Just what..., what kind of incomprehensible thing is this sorcery! Aha ..., ahahahaha!!!"

And he laughed like a crazy. Perhaps he was too happy that he was unable to coop up with this happiness. It was too much of a shock for him.

The hydrogen combustion and then continued with the oil combustion was another proof that this transmutation spell work just as he expected.

This was the real transmutation of an alchemist. Something that he as a modern chemist and scientist(self-proclaimed) believed to be a product of ignorance from the olden age.

But hell, in a world where the magic will moved as you imagined it to be, this could happen. And yeah, he could change the entire molecular structure of a grease.

It might be seen as small feat, I mean, what's the big deal of changing a molecular structure of something like a grease? That's what an ignorance people without prior education would asked. But for him who stuffed his head with many chemical formula and equation, of course, this would be a great thing.

Chemistry is the study of matters and it's change. And to bring that change into a matters, one needs to follow some rules. Lavoisier's Law, Dalton's Law, Avogadro's Law, Gay-Lussac's Law. Those are some of the fundamental concept used in chemistry and probably in the study of physic.

But just a moment ago, he just create a method of extracting two hydrogen molecules out from where it should belong to ..., and change the entire molecular structure completely. Without any help of other molecule or solution. 

Just with waving his hand and chanting some magical spell.

"Fuhahahahaahahaahahaahhah!!!" Marth, or maybe the soul from the earth in his body laughed like a crazy.

This discovery definitely broke his last barrier of sanity. Nah, he's still sane. But just, well ..., probably it was the 'Eureka'-time for him. He's too happy for that, so at the moment just let him alone.

After that, some strange rumour circulated throughout the Winter Mansion. That the Young Master was acting strange, laughing like a maniac while looking down on a burning pot full of oil. Some said that he was playing some kind of game by torturing small animal into the burning oil. Some with bizzare imagination even said that perhaps Young Master Marth was in the middle of a devil summoning ceremony.