Interlude

Rainer vaguely remembered that on Earth, academic journals had a concept called the impact factor, roughly the ratio of how often papers were cited to the total number of papers, used as a reference for the quality of a journal's articles. He had asked for the catalog because he wanted to see whether there was a similar metric for judging the various academic journals.

Unfortunately, this world had no such system yet. Modern magic had only been established for three hundred years, and its various institutions were still being explored. In most cases, problems were only patched up after they arose.

If he could become a member of the High Council, perhaps he could help advance academic reform, Rainer thought. But it was only a thought.

Setting down the catalog in his hands, Rainer considered it for a while before ultimately deciding to wait for the paper's review results before giving a reply.

It was already late at night. Rainer stretched and decided to read for another hour before going to sleep.

The past two days had been quite fulfilling. The writings of this other world contained a vast amount of knowledge, and by combining it with the knowledge in his own mind, Rainer had more or less figured out how far this world's magic had developed.

Magic was divided into schools such as elemental magic, alchemy, astrology, necromancy, transmutation, and laws. Astrology and necromancy were more rooted in ancient magic, and modern theory had yet to delve deeply into them. Elemental magic and alchemy were comparatively easier to understand.

From Rainer's comparison of the various theories, magical theoretical research in this world was basically equivalent to the early days of scientific development on Earth, though it was advancing rapidly. Lord Isaris Alberton, the foremost authority of the school of laws, had proposed the three laws of motion fifty years ago, directly rewriting nearly every related spell model.

Rainer had also seen quite a few familiar theories, but in the end, he turned his attention to the closest field: alchemy.

Ever since Lord Igglesfield proposed the concept of elemental mass, measuring the masses of various elements had been all the rage among alchemists for nearly fifty years. So far, the masses of all forty-six discovered elements had been determined. Everyone had turned their attention toward discovering new elements and finding the patterns between them.

New elements could still occasionally be discovered, but the patterns between elements seemed impossible to trace.

"I wonder whether this world has a periodic law of elements too?"

Rainer thought for a moment, then sensed that something seemed to be outside the window.

Turning around, he discovered it was a tiger-striped stray cat.

"How did it climb up here?"

Rainer smiled and opened the window. The stray cat immediately leaped inside, as though it had been chilled by the cold wind outside.

The stray cat looked around the room, then turned its gaze toward Rainer.

"Meow—"

It gave a soft cry.

"Hungry? But I don't really have anything to eat."

Rainer put the remainder of his dinner on the floor. It was a smoked meat sandwich; he had originally saved half of it as a midnight snack.

"Meow~"

The stray cat seemed delighted at the sight of the food. It circled the plate once before lowering its head.

But to Rainer's surprise, the cat actually stretched out a paw and pulled apart the sandwich, then picked up the smoked meat in its mouth, completely ignoring the vegetables and bread on either side.

Were cats in magical worlds this clever?

Rainer's mouth twitched as he watched the stray cat finish the smoked meat, lick its paws, then pace through the room as if inspecting its territory before leaping out through another window.

Everything fell quiet again. Rainer tidied up for a while, then lay down in bed.

Outside the window, the moon was bright, the stars twinkled, and the night was like water.

The following afternoon, Rainer received word that the first batch of Cola samples had been produced. He brought Claire to the Antoine Alchemy Workshop in town.

"Such impressive efficiency, Mr. Antoine."

Rainer praised him. Before him sat one hundred bottles of Cola. The Cola was bottled in lightweight glass with metal caps. The labels on the bottles had been designed by Charlotte at Rainer's request, bearing the words "New Moon Cola." Their black-and-red color scheme was simple yet distinctive.

While reading Charlotte's experiment notes, Rainer had discovered that the girl was quite skilled at sketching. After asking her about it, he learned that Charlotte had been good at drawing since childhood. It was only because of her father's opposition that she had given it up and focused on magic.

After hearing this, Rainer suggested sponsoring Charlotte's continued art studies. In his view, visual design would certainly play an enormous role in the future, and getting ahead of the game was the way to go.

"As long as the alchemical array is designed properly, producing these is very simple."

Antoine pointed at the glowing magic array in the room.

A bottle was lifted from a crate into the air by an unseen force. Sugar water from a barrel on the other side traced an arc through the air and slowly flowed into the bottle. Then the bottle actually turned upside down and swiftly flew toward a glass vessel fitted with a tube.

The tube extended through the mouth of the bottle all the way to its bottom. A stream of gas emerged from it, while the bottle began to vibrate slightly, mixing the gas with the sugar water.

With a swoosh, the bottle flipped upright again, and a metal cap immediately sealed it. The crimped edges Rainer had designed gradually closed, locking the gas inside the bottle.

After that, a printed label flew onto the bottle, and the finished Cola fell into a temperature-controlled insulated box. With that, a bottle of Cola was complete. It was unlike anything on Earth, full of the flavor of a magical world.

Though the entire process was complicated, it actually took no more than a minute. Including the time needed to replace ingredients, producing one hundred bottles of Cola took only two hours. And this was just one production line.

That would have been utterly impossible on Earth. Setting up a production line alone would take a great deal of time, and manpower would be needed for bottling and inspections, not to mention all sorts of operating costs. Here, a single first-circle alchemist could handle everything.

Praise magic.

Impressed by this world's advanced productivity, Rainer nodded and asked,

"Do you have any thoughts on sales channels, Mr. Antoine?"

Upon hearing Rainer's question, Antoine picked up a stack of letters from another table.

"I contacted several old friends who've looked after my business. We've more or less solved the issue of the first batch of goods. This is the shipping list."

Rainer looked it over. Most of the orders came from potion shops, far removed from the food and beverage industry he had initially envisioned. But on second thought, Cola on Earth had originally existed as medicine too, so there was no need to dwell on it.

Still, the quantities on these orders were quite small. Even the largest order was only for twenty bottles. No one could yet accept such a novel beverage, and the orders had been placed entirely out of consideration for Antoine's connections.

"It seems that if we want it to sell big, we'll have to rely on word of mouth."

Rainer was not worried that the Cola would fail to sell, but if he wanted it to become popular in a short time, it seemed he would need a little opportunity.