Very soon, more than a month had passed. It was a very peaceful and calm period.
Prince William continued cutting down palace costs, King Donners was still seriously ill, and Richard was constantly studying magic from The Writings of Monroe.
After a period of research, Richard had finally learned several low-level Zero-ring Spells in addition to the Phosphorus Candle Spell, namely Flame Charge, Water Drops Condensation, Wind Bulwark, Wind Repulsion, Wind Agility and the Brute Force of Wind.
Flame Charge could throw a ball of flames and attack an enemy, harming him. Richard had tested it. Its power was akin to the sudden burst of flames when frying with a wok. If it was used to hit someone, it could indeed cause a somewhat painful burn, but it was not enough to kill a person.
After all, low-level Zero-ring Spells resembled magic tricks, and their powers were weaker. Their main purpose was not to hurt people but to cause panic. As far as this world's development was concerned, ordinary people would already be stupefied upon seeing fire suddenly appearing in someone's hand. It was not any lesser than the fear someone on Modern Earth would feel before a gun.
Water Drops Condensation could gather the humidity in the air and produce water drops in the surroundings. Simply put, it was similar to small-scale low-altitude artificial rainfall or water vapor liquefaction. When combined with Flame Charge, these two were enough to start a fire and create drinking water for living in the wilderness. As for its attacking power, sadly, there was none.
Wind Bulwark, Wind Repulsion, Wind Agility and the Brute Force of Wind shared the same source. Flame Charge was a fire spell, Water Drops Condensation was a water spell, whereas these four were wind spells. According to Richard's research, air currents played an important role in them.
For example, the Wind Bulwark could condense air and quickly form an impenetrable air wall to block attacks.
Wind Repulsion could condense air and use it to hit the enemy rapidly. It resembled a strong wind blowing towards the enemy, making him retreat uncontrollably.
Wind Agility could condense air and strengthen the lower limbs, thereby increasing the bearer's speed and jumping range, as well as degreasing the weight to improve his agility.
The Brute Force of Wind could condense air and strengthen the upper limbs, thereby increasing one's strength exponentially in order to throw sudden blows at the opponent.
The reason why Richard had learned these spells was twofold. First, it was due to the effects this magic offered. Second and most importantly, he wanted to study their mechanism.
Flame Charge was obviously the burning of combustibles and must conform with the law of conservation of energy. Water Drops Condensation was liquefaction, which meant that it had to conform with the laws of thermodynamics. Lastly, the four wind spells belonged to the category of fluid mechanics and must conform with the principles of fluid mechanics, such as the Prandtl-Glauert rule, the Kármán-Tsien equation, and so on.
Richardhad had attempted to explain these spells in a scientific way and thus master them. The end result had been that the spells cast by Richard were not as rigid as the ones in The Writings of Monroe.
For example, the Wind Bulwark Spell recorded in The Writings of Monroe was merely a compressed air wall of around one meter long and 40 cm thick.
However, Richard could create a super-compressed air wall, which was around two meters long, two meters wide, and two meters thick. It could even change into a spherical or cylindrical shape.
Another example was Wind Repulsion. The instructions in The Writings of Monroe were to compress a fixed volume of air and attack the enemy with it, which would make him retreat. But after using science to modify this, Richard could vary the quantity of compressed air to achieve the desired effect.
He could even stack several Wind Repulsion Spells together and convert them into one Powerful Wind Repulsion or an Extreme Wind Repulsion.
It was true that these were still Zero-ring Spells, but Richard could wield them to unleash greater effects.
Richard also believed that more could be done if he were to continue researching them.
In a flash, more than a month had passed yet again.
When the first yellow leaf in the birch forest outside Blue Lion City fell on the ground, the black coffin of King Donners was being carried out of the city. The weather was gloomy and rainy, just like the day he had died…
Three days ago.
The sky was dim. When the silky autumn rain fell, it resembled the prickling of needles, hitting people with bone-piercing coldness. This marked the end of the hot summer season and the beginning of autumn.
Seemingly due to the weather, the atmosphere in the entire kingdom had been sullen since morning, as if something was mounting and waiting to happen. The falling autumn rain and the sudden drop in temperature made everyone hide in their homes. The large palace was also extremely cold and quiet.
Amid the silence, Richard was carrying out his experiments.
A beaker had been placed into a jar of water to heat it up with a water bath. The boiling water in the jar made a gurgling sound as a large amount of steam emerged. As Richard watched by the side, he heard faint sounds coming from outside.
The first sound of sudden crying and panic came from the king's palace. Soon, it spread throughout the entire palace and then to Blue Lion City.
Boom, boom, boom. Someone knocked on the door of his private laboratory hurriedly. Richard frowned and shouted, "Come in." Immediately afterwards, Edward stumbled in. Right on his heels was old Butler Deron, who wore a sorrowful expression.
"Your- Your Highness, bad- bad news," Edward said breathlessly.
Butler Deron, who was behind him, said, "His Majesty, he—"
Before he could finish his words, Richard had already raised his hand. He then said expressionlessly, "I know."
"Then—"
"Let's go."
"Yes." Butler Deron turned around and led the way. Richard took a glance at the heating liquid. At last, he followed them out of the laboratory and the palace.
Under the cold autumn rain, they walked through the square and entered the bedroom in the king's palace.
The room was already empty, and so was the wine cabinet in the corner. Some furniture had also been removed. King Donners's corpse was lying on a bed in the middle of the room. His skin had turned purple-dark, he had been dead for some time.
At that moment, someone else was by the window, Prince William, who had rushed here once he had heard the news. His head was leaning on the bed, and his shoulders were shaking. There was no sound, so no one could tell if he was crying or laughing.
When he appeared to hear them, William looked up. With tears on his face, he looked at Richard and said in a hoarse voice, "Brother, Father, he is gone."
"Yes," Richard replied, showing neither sadness nor joy on his face.
William was visibly stunned, seemingly surprised at Richard's calmness. He wanted to say something but he eventually didn't. He turned his head and placed it on the bed again, saying repeatedly, "Father, Father."
Standing by the side, Richard stared… as if he was watching a joke.
After a while, the encoffiner arrived and began to tidy up King Donner's appearance, including trimming his hair, washing his body, and putting on his clothes and armor. The rest of the attendants also began to prepare the mourning hall. They either removed all the mirrors or covered them with black cloth. They extinguished the fire in the fireplace, opened all the doors, windows and locks, untied all knots and lit the candles.
Under such circumstances, William and Richard had to leave the room.
As such, the two stood at the entrance of the palace. A gust of cold wind blew. William tightened his clothes and turned to look at Richard. His voice was still hoarse when he spoke, "Brother, Father is dead, we—"
Richard did not respond. He looked at the constant drizzle in the sky and said, "The weather is getting colder, you should wear more clothes."
"Oh?" William was astonished. He soon realized that Richard merely seemed to be kindly reminding him, and he nodded, "Okay."
"It's going to rain," Richard said again as if he had not finished speaking. However, he did not continue speaking. Shaking his head, he stepped into the dense rainfall.
"I will attend the burial." A voice came from the rain.
Staring at him, William opened and closed his mouth a few times. At last, he shut his mouth and did not utter a word.