Chapter 1242: Chapter 1242

The girl declared her identity, revealing the truth from her heart. Clutching the paper scroll, she curtsied to Jenkins in mid-air.

"Sir, thank you for your guidance."

Though her essence remained unchanged, she had undergone a remarkable transformation. This new form was her true self. If Jenkins wasn't mistaken, she was a type of exotic creature known as a "Book Fairy." These beings were born from ancient tomes, tasked with protecting the books from harm and finding them worthy owners.

The [Book of All Things] was long lost, but as a fragment of it, the [Book of the Heart] was certainly ancient enough to give birth to its own unique Book Fairy. That explained the blue aura Jenkins had seen when he first observed her. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novelꞁire.net

This was not the outcome Jenkins had anticipated. He had merely intended to make the book understand that since it possessed a soul and wasn't just an automaton, certain rules could be circumvented. Now that the [Book of the Heart] had truly awakened to consciousness, Jenkins found himself unsure of how to proceed.

"So, are you still willing to exchange knowledge with me?"

He asked with some hesitation. He could sweet-talk a piece of paper without batting an eye, but he couldn't bring himself to use the same tactics on a fairy with a human form. This was a fairy, not a pixie, and it was common knowledge that fairies were kind, lawful creatures who were naturally friendly toward intelligent life.

"Yes, sir. I have seen the knowledge you possess. I am grateful that you helped me understand who I am. In return, I will do everything in my power to answer your questions."

"So, what sort of questions can you answer for me? Oh, would you like some fruit?"

Jenkins did his best to maintain a friendly demeanor.

"I am no longer merely a fragment of the [Book of All Things], yet the fragment of the book is me. Therefore, I can bypass some limitations, but not too many. You see..."

The elegant fairy spoke, then painstakingly unrolled the scroll she was holding. It wasn't blank; it was covered in a swath of ancient text Jenkins didn't recognize. The words weren't written in ink but appeared to have been branded by fire. Every letter glowed, and their deep red light brought to mind the image of churning magma.

"While I still cannot bypass certain rules, I can at least tell you what lies sealed beneath this city. This is my way of thanking you; no exchange of knowledge is required."

The fairy girl declared with great earnestness.

Though they might seem similar, the fairy folk were entirely different from pixies. Fairies were darlings of the world, born from the very spirit of nature, almost a natural phenomenon themselves. They generally did not possess foul temperaments. Pixies, on the other hand, were mostly mischievous, with a majority harboring malice toward humans.

"So, the thing beneath the city is..."

"It is the culmination of gears, machinery, and steam, forged by the ancient civilization of the Third Epoch. It was the supreme marvel of that age, created by mortal hands—a miracle that can never be replicated..."

The fairy explained, waving her hands, as the scroll beside her flickered with an ambiguous light. With her words, illusions materialized above the page. They showed countless bizarrely shaped creatures bustling around a colossal iron furnace.

"But like most marvels, it spun out of control, a victim of its own power, and was subsequently sealed underground. Since that time, generation after generation has discovered it, used it, and then sealed it away again. In truth, since the Third Epoch, that thing has never fully escaped its prison beneath the city. Each time it threatened to break free, a new seal was layered on top of the old. Over tens of thousands of years, even I cannot say for certain how many layers of seals lie beneath Nolan."

This information partially matched the murals Jenkins had seen when he went underground to reinforce the seals, following the last words of Mr. Pisco (as mentioned in Chapter 826). Furthermore, the entity calling itself the [A4 Type Arithmetic...] had admitted its own creation was deeply connected to a "Gizmo-making machine" that the people of that era had excavated.

"So, what exactly is it?"

"I cannot speak its name, nor can I describe its form, lest it become aware of us. But I can tell you its original purpose when it was created back in the Third Epoch: it was meant to aid in computation."

With a wave of the fairy's hand, a dense cloud of mathematical symbols materialized above the parchment. The little fairy's grasp of mathematics seemed questionable, however, as the symbols appeared to have no logic or order whatsoever.

"Aiding computation?"

"Yes, to aid in computation. The Third Epoch was a long one, and the mortal civilizations enjoyed a lengthy period of peace. This allowed them to develop the power of steam to its absolute peak. I know that people of your time consider it a barbaric age, but in truth, their progress far outstripped your own.

Because their steam technology had become so advanced, the ancient peoples gradually realized their methods of calculation could no longer keep pace with their needs. Since they couldn't alter the fundamental rules of mathematics, they created a tool to assist their computations. Then, they boldly imbued it with supernatural power... and that was the beginning of the end."

Jenkins's jaw had dropped open, an unconscious reaction he wasn't even aware of. The Book Fairy's description reminded him of a peculiar machine from his former world. He collected his thoughts and interjected before she could continue.

"That machine... is it assembled entirely from gears, levers, and springs? Does it store numbers using sets of gears, and higher-order numbers using arrays of those gear sets? Does it perform calculations through the interlocking, rotation, and shifting of those gears, using punched—"

"Please, say no more!"

The fairy hastily cut him off.

"It will become aware of us! Its computational power is so vast it can calculate nearly every possible 'present moment.' Please, don't go on... How could you possibly know all that?"

What Jenkins was describing was not knowledge from this world, but something from his past life: the so-called "difference engine." It was a brilliant concept proposed during the age of steam and industry, but for a variety of reasons, a functional version had never actually been built.

"A difference engine... I should have realized it sooner. In an 18th Epoch defined by steam, what could possibly be more dangerous? This is a world where belief shapes reality, after all. A machine with such immense computational power, once touched by the supernatural... Oh, that's absolutely terrifying."