Vanka rode atop his horse, the occasional crackling sound breaking the stillness as the horse's hooves echoed against the cobblestone path. The rhythmic clatter resembled the ticking of a pocket watch, a hypnotic lullaby in the dim night that made one feel drowsy.
"Prince, what happened earlier? You and that so-called Flower Fairy~" Vanka called out to the carriage, his curiosity getting the better of him. His question snapped Jace out of his near slumber, and he couldn’t help but think back to the perilous moment that had just occurred. A shiver ran down his spine as he silently thanked his quick reflexes.
"Good thing I reacted in time, or that so-called Flower Fairy would have skinned me alive. She might have even gone for my stomach," Jace muttered to himself, a cold chill running through him.
The carriage soon reached the manor gates. In the night, the estate looked like an abandoned castle where witches were imprisoned, dark and foreboding. As he dismounted and took his first steps inside, a pair of reflective eyes in the shadows caused Jace to freeze, his legs tensing as he instinctively took a step back.
"Is this manor haunted? Ow! Ow!" Jace yelped.
"It's not a ghost, Your Highness! It's me, Ikam!" A sobbing maid sat at the entrance, her face streaked with tears. When she saw the prince, she quickly stood up, her voice panicked.
"Your Highness, Prince Simon's men have cut all our candles and smashed the candelabras. We have no light left in the manor," Ikam said angrily.
The grand mansion was plunged into darkness, with only the occasional caw of crows and the silent, watchful eyes of owls perched on the large tree by the door. The owls, motionless, seemed like Simon's spies, giving the eerie sensation of being watched. In the darkness, people either succumbed to despair or pursued the light—Jace was among the latter.
By the pond, the moonlight reflected off the water’s surface, casting a faint glow—a glimmer of hope in the shadows. Jace sat by the pond, skipping stones across the water. The splashes of the stones mingled with the cawing of the crows, creating a lonely and silent atmosphere. Jace found himself missing home, especially the comfort of his double bed with its silicone mattress. He enjoyed lying on it, reading a few books like God Does Not Play Dice and How Physics Came to Be by the light of his bedside lamp until he drifted off to sleep.
Lost in thought, Jace was startled when a frog suddenly leaped out of the water, its muscular legs propelling it nearly two meters into the air. It landed on a waterwheel, its leap and landing drawing Jace's attention.
"A waterwheel... of course! A waterwheel to generate power!" Jace’s eyes lit up as inspiration struck him.
He recalled his childhood lessons and realized that harnessing the power of the waterwheel might be the key to generating electricity for the manor. Driven by this new idea, he gathered his two servants by the pond.
"Bring me some materials," he ordered. "We won’t remain in darkness for long." The servants, seeing an opportunity, quickly began to design a makeshift waterwheel-powered generator.
They hastily collected whatever they could find: copper wires from old decorations, metal scraps from the kitchen, and wooden planks. Jace sketched out a basic generator design, explaining his plan to the servants as he drew.
The servants, though clueless about the mechanics, followed his instructions without hesitation, motivated by the prospect of a solution.
"I’m going to build a small waterwheel-powered electric lamp. The waterwheel will drive the generator to produce electricity to light up our home," Jace explained.
He continued by teaching them the principles behind the electric lamp. "The waterwheel will harness the kinetic energy of the flowing water, turning it into electrical energy. This energy will be transmitted through copper wires, lighting the bulbs we create."
The night deepened, and the manor remained engulfed in darkness. Jace meticulously cut the copper wires into segments, twisting them to form the filaments for the bulbs.
"Simon, don’t think you can defeat me this easily," Jace murmured as he worked tirelessly. Hours passed, and the lamp began to take shape.
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