The New Finance Minister's One Cheap Stake

Chapter 46 A Bargaining Chip for the New Finance Minister

"Varán, I know your father." The burly man at the casino stopped, and Necker flashed his usual business smile: "How can you, as a nobleman, gamble in such a low-class casino? They can't afford to lose, and they have no credibility whatsoever."

"I...cough cough, my father has already tragically passed away."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, child." As Necker pulled Varan up, he noticed the poor young man was still clutching a crumpled donkey skin.

"I know your boss. He still owes money to Fu Rong Bank! Tell the boss and manager to bring the money and apologize to Valen and the Baron's son!" The burly men exchanged glances, then two of them went inside without a word, while the remaining two subtly restrained the two men. Necker's bodyguards also stepped forward to confront them.

"Poor child! I heard you had a stroke of good luck once?"

At this point, Varon's eyes lit up: "Sir, you can't believe it! I've never felt so exhilarated and invincible before! My God, I am the greatest general before the roulette wheel today!"

As Necker listened, he pondered: Although Valen's father was only a baron, and it was quite possible to hit a baron by throwing a stone randomly on the country streets of Valois, he was well-known and had a wide circle of connections among the nobility, especially among the provincial nobles, because of his close relationship with the chief of the guard.

What's the point of this tiny casino? Neker wants to use His Majesty's guarantee to gamble big with the Holy Kingdom. He just happened to find a new chip today. He glanced at the dusty Varon, though the chip was dirty and needed to be wiped clean to see its value.

As the new decade began, Rorschach kept revising his thesis while traveling between the Alchemy Department and the Magic Tower, obtaining a large amount of data.

Although the core of the paper is the conceptual ideal model of the "Carnot cycle," he still needs to conduct some experiments to establish a suitable temperature scale in order to explain the principles used.

Thankfully, the commonly used temperature scale in this world is still defined by dividing the freezing and boiling points of water into 100 equal parts. This was jointly established by the Alchemy Association, a subordinate organization of the Magic Guild, and the Church of Order during the Old Empire era.

Indeed, the Church of Light and Order established many units of measurement and standardized the common language of humanity on the continent during the Old Empire era; they were truly a beacon of light for mankind—"In the name of God, this is all part of the Great Order."

But in the field of thermodynamics, this was not enough. Rorschach needed a temperature scale that could describe absolute zero, so a new set of experiments began. Rorschach found Pascal sleeping in the library.

"I'm about to begin. Remember to keep an eye on the readings." The magnesium strip, polished to a gleaming shine, was carefully attached to the wall of the glass test tube coated with ferrous sulfate. Rorschach had used these teaching instruments from the alchemy classroom to assemble a simple device for determining the ideal gas constant.

As for green vitriol oil, which is sulfuric acid, Rorschach didn't know how concentrated it was. The Alchemy Department didn't have it yet, so Rorschach found an apprentice who knew [acid splashing] to get a large cup of acid. He extracted the greenish, thick liquid with water and then distilled it to get a relatively clear and transparent acid. Whether it was sulfuric acid or not is another matter, but it could produce hydrogen gas.

"Rorschach knows alchemy?" But it seems different from the alchemy I know. This was Pascal's thought when Rorschach asked him for a favor.

Pascal was initially deceived by Rorschach, but he couldn't resist the mage's enthusiastic invitation to the alchemy classroom. In the classroom where no one else was around, Rorschach revealed his true colors.

"Pascal, how can you back down? Didn't Professor Cano ask you to help your junior brother? Speaking of Professor Cano, he gave me the right to deduct disciplinary points. You're in a bit of danger, senior." It wasn't anything else, just the junior brother kindly reminding his senior brother not to get expelled.

How could Pascal be threatened by a sixteen-year-old? He retorted, "Do I need my junior brother to remind me of my situation?"

And so it came to this: "Group 13, water bath temperature 36 degrees, volume of generated gas." Pascal's voice had completely lost its vitality, reading and recording the data weakly.

While the other apprentices were likely already in bed preparing for sleep, Rorschach's experiment was finally completed.

He roughly estimated the data and said happily, "Thank you so much! Today's experiment is complete. You've worked hard, senior!"

"As expected of a young mage, so young yet so studious. Wait, what is today's experiment?" Pascal's previously dazed eyes suddenly widened as he stared at Rorschach.

"Don't be alarmed, I need to organize the data later. No experiments are needed for the next few days. Thanks for your help, senior!"

"Alright, goodbye, junior brother." Pascal walked out of the alchemy classroom looking exhausted, yawning repeatedly.

Avogadro's constant will be measured later. After I finish measuring it, it will be Rorschach's constant. We can temporarily omit the concept of molar quantity; Rorschach could obtain an approximate value for the ideal gas constant with dimensions of mass. He divided the volume of hydrogen by its mass to obtain the relationship between different temperatures and the reciprocal of hydrogen density.

The data points are approximately distributed along a straight line. After obtaining the data using a regression equation, Rorschach extended the line to the point where the volume of hydrogen gas is approximately zero at atmospheric pressure. The intercept of this hypothetical point is "absolute zero," the zero point of thermodynamic temperature.

"About -280 degrees, very close to the data on Earth." The verification experiment, copied directly from his previous life, was crudely designed and likely had a large margin of error. It was like shooting the arrow before drawing the target. However, the fact that the values ​​were similar to those in his previous life still made Luo Xia shudder for no reason.

"Copy it into the paper. That's the open formula. No, this is the starting point of the Röscher temperature scale!" If the paper is published successfully, alchemists studying thermodynamics in this world will likely have to learn Röscher's first law and second law. Should they use Röscher's constant to calculate the Röscher quantity under the Röscher temperature scale, or perhaps they shouldn't use the name anymore?

A month after Rorschach arrived at the Tower of Stars, he took the first draft of his thesis to Master Cano.

"Did you write this?" Kano looked at the paper, which was as thick as a booklet, with a strange expression.

"Yes, the students have been studying the steam engine these days, checking the alchemy department's materials and doing some small experiments to verify their ideas."

Carno had intended to look at it later, but a casual glance through it caught his eye with a conclusion: "The efficiency limit under an ideal model?"

"The efficiency limit of a steam engine, and the students don't understand those dwarven gadgets, so let's start with energy. After all, their specialty at the Imperial Academy was [Fireball]."

Is the fireball spell related to all this math? Kano's eyebrows practically shot up. He looked at it, then sighed, "It doesn't seem to have anything to do with magic."

"Because it is too profound and ever-changing, students should start with the laws of nature and then delve deeper into the situation when magic is involved."

Kano nodded, accepting the explanation. He flipped through the pages again and again, sometimes even looking back. Finally, the slightly overweight master slumped into his large leather chair, rubbing his eyes: "Your ingenious ideas are brilliant. Many of your methods of argumentation remind me of the great philosophers of the old empires."

"But! You made a mistake right from the start that only philosophers from the old empire would make—that heat is a form of energy? Is that what the empire's magic academy taught you?"

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(End of this chapter)