"Hey, Kyle, do you still rember that person?"
"I forgot a long ti ago."
"I haven’t even said who it is yet."
Kyle stopped what he was doing, glared fiercely at the short man, and then said, "Don’t bring trouble upon yourself, Hodge. We barely got out of the Candlelight Church. I don’t want to go back in."
"No, no, I just suddenly thought of him again." Hodge chuckled awkwardly. "He always had so many interesting stories. To be honest, I never even knew where he got them from. Those words were fascinating too, gravity, so kind of law. It’s a pity we’ll never hear such interesting stories again."
Kyle also fell silent. After a long ti, he replied in a deep voice, "He’s already dead."
Indeed, everyone knew that the worker Hughes was dead.
The Candlelight Church declared him a heretic, claiming that the things he spoke of were blasphemous stories.
Kyle didn’t understand blasphemy; he only knew that the last person willing to tell them stories had disappeared.
Sotis, he even felt indignant. Just telling stories made soone a heretic?
Then heresy didn’t seem so bad after all. At least, listening to all those strange things made the exhausting days, the days when he wanted to die, a little easier to endure.
Unfortunately, there was no going back.
Neither of them spoke again, quietly applying grease to the machines.
"Speaking of which, this factory is really strange. The steam engine here looks nothing like the ones in Rhine. And that thing over there, what is it even used for?"
"That’s a blast furnace. It’s used to slt pyrite ore and can simultaneously produce sulfuric acid, steel, and slag, which can be used to make concrete." A female voice suddenly whispered in their ears.
It took Kyle and Hodge two seconds to react to what had just happened. A chill ran down their spines as they slowly turned their heads.
"S-Sister Chloe, greetings!"
The bear-like Kyle and the small, thin Hodge instantly straightened their backs, their expressions stiff as they exchanged frantic glances.
When did she arrive? How much did she hear?
Hodge was now filled with regret. Why had he run his mouth? Why did he have to bring up Hughes?
They were dood now. He could only hope that the nun had arrived late and hadn’t heard their conversation.
Unfortunately, Chloe tilted her head slightly and curiously asked, "I answered your question. Now it’s your turn. You were talking about that heretic, right? What exactly did he say?"
The two of them exchanged a terrified glance and quickly denied it. "Sister, we didn’t say anything! We forgot all about those things a long ti ago! We already told everything we knew!"
"Oh? Including gravity?"
Hodge’s face turned bitter. She had heard everything. This… What should they do now?
Kyle instinctively glanced around. There was no one else in the factory.
This nun was thin and short, like an insect he could crush with one hand. If they acted now, no one would see—
He clenched the wrench in his hand.
Then, he lowered his hand and dropped the tool on the ground.
He was just an honest worker. Even if terrible thoughts occasionally popped into his mind, his innate kindness would always prevent him from acting on them.
Beside him, Hodge struggled internally before finally speaking. "Sister, we actually already ntioned this during interrogation. I—I didn’t deliberately rember those stories. It’s just that they were truly interesting."
"Then, tell about them."
"Yes, ma’am." Hodge stamred. "I only rember bits and pieces. There was supposedly a rchant..."
"So? What does the water overflowing from that pool have to do with? Water pressure? Buoyancy?" Chloe asked with curiosity. "Go on, what happens next?"
"Next… nothing. Hughes was called away by the supervisor and never ca back."
"Tsk, what a fun story, and it just stops halfway? How boring." Sister Chloe looked displeased. "But gravity and first cosmic velocity—that’s interesting."
Kyle and Hodge exchanged a look, a trace of confusion in their eyes. This nun’s attitude seed… different from what they had expected.
"Alright, I get it. It was indeed a good story. Do you two have anything you want to ask?"
"Uh… Do we… not need to repent or anything?"
"Repent? If you want to, it’s not impossible."
"No, no, no! I was just saying! Just saying!" Hodge quickly waved his hands and took a step back.
His face showed a mix of shock and delight. They were being let off just like that?!
"You had already confessed all of this before, and neither of you did anything against the rules. Why would I punish you?" Chloe shrugged indifferently.
"On the contrary, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I know everything about the factory’s construction and production process. Whatever you don’t understand, you can ask ."
The two exchanged glances again. Kyle scratched his head hesitantly before finally asking, "Sister, I’ve been curious, what exactly is this factory for?"
"A steel mill. That blast furnace is built to slt iron and produce steel. But it also has many byproducts, such as sulfuric acid, which can be used to make nitroglycerin. You should have learned about nitroglycerin a few days ago. The molten iron will be processed here, while the slag will be used to manufacture concrete. In fact, a large portion of the steel here will be turned into concrete for construction."
"Concrete? Construction?"
The two beca even more confused. How was steel connected to construction?
Weren’t buildings supposed to be made of brick and stone?
"Yes, construction. You should know that we are being watched by a bunch of monsters, right? In the future, Castel will build many fortresses along the coast. All of these will require concrete, you can think of it as a kind of liquid stone, with steel used as its frawork."
"Liquid stone… with a steel frawork?"
Hodge and Kyle stared at each other in shock. They couldn’t even imagine what that would look like.
"Advanced classes will explain it soon. Our ti is limited. The lord has decided to convert all of Castel’s factories to steam power. Workers who have learned basic chanical knowledge will also join production. So of you will probably be assigned to the cent factory, which is currently understaffed."
"Cent…"
"You burn listone, grind it into powder, and add water, it exothermically hardens into the most primitive form of cent. Have you ever seen it before?"
Kyle shook his head, but Hodge nodded and said hesitantly, "I heard about it in Rhine. They said it’s troubleso and not very effective."
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