Stranger was very happy.
She did not know how her companions were doing, but she truly was happy right now.
Because the guest she was receiving at that moment was completely beyond her expectations--
"Yes, I also think the Philosopher's Stone is impossible to achieve. It violates one of the core principles of the Equilibrium Path, 'equivalent exchange,' so it is actually a mistaken goal."
A gentle-looking girl with long, sea-blue curls was sitting in a private room, chattering animatedly with the young man in front of her.
Rather than a man, the young man was more like a boy. Even though he no longer looked young, and might even have been nearing or already reached thirty, there was a shy, bashful air about him.
He had messy black short hair and wore black-rimmed glasses. His clean-cut air made him resemble a scholar more than a nobleman, a style completely at odds with the extravagance and decadence of this place.
"I think what you said is absolutely right!"
The young man was delighted, thrilled and excited to have found someone who shared his views. "Have you studied alchemy too? What do you think about 'technicalization'?"
"Technicalization" was a term in alchemy. In the past, it was usually derogatory.
That was because alchemy was actually an extremely complex discipline--it encompassed broad methods of understanding the world, including various philosophical concepts and methodologies. Specific alchemical formulas formed their own systems, and everyone's understanding differed in subtle ways... In most cases, alchemists preferred to re-derive formulas according to fundamental principles, or completely analyze other people's recipes and thoroughly study them before making them their own.
"Technicalization" referred to the hasty teaching methods of alchemy instructors who, out of misguided impatience, taught apprentices too many alchemical recipes before they had fully mastered the basic