The Quarrel at the Ceremony

A few days later, Victor summoned the territory's nobles once more for the ceremony to elevate Octavia to the rank of knight.

When the nobles saw that the Marquis was about to elevate such a young girl, they began whispering among themselves. Some even thought Octavia was destined to become Victor's future lady of the court.

As for the two researchers being made honorary knights, Octavia had stolen all the attention, and they drew little discussion.

Fortunately, Victor had already prepared for this. The research team brought the telegraph to the lord's manor and demonstrated it for everyone at the ceremony. They also set up two more machines, one in Sea Song Town and the other in Wood Fort Town. There were now four telegraphs in all, though the oldest had not been modified and could not communicate with the others.

Everyone was amazed that this unremarkable lump of iron could send their words dozens of kilometers away in just a few minutes, then receive a reply in the same amount of time. It seemed nothing short of miraculous.

At first, some people did not believe it. A few even thought that the Marquis and everyone else had been deceived by some strange sleight of hand.

So Victor had one of the doubters write a sentence and send it to the machine at the Government Affairs Office in Wood Fort Town. Then he told the man to ride over and check for himself.

Several others who wanted to see what happened, including James and Ron, went with him.

When they arrived at the other machine a dozen or so minutes later and saw that his sentence had long since been received and translated, they were stunned.

The doubter still had his reservations, so he wrote another sentence and sent it