my slow journey to infinity

Chapter 67 Sending off and welcoming

An inconspicuous private car drove into the small town of Lisenberg without attracting anyone's attention.

The person driving the car was none other than Roy Mustang, with the title [Alchemist of Fire]. Although the battle of annihilation of Ishval in this time and space ended with the defeat of Amestris, the war was lost and the national alchemists did not lose.

Not only have they made great contributions to national science and technology, but they are also strategic-level presences on the battlefield. No matter how hard you blame them, you can't get rid of them.

At this time, Mustang had been promoted to colonel.

However, due to his special status as a national alchemist and his own political ambitions, Mastan was placed in Central City by the supreme commander of the Eastern Army [Lieutenant General Gulaman] and openly demanded political status.

Today, Mustang took special leave from his busy schedule and returned to the eastern region with his capable subordinate [Lisa Hawkeye], Lieutenant, and came to the small town of Lisenberg, just because he received an "acquaintance" who cannot be ignored some time ago. ” letter.

On the outskirts of Lisenberg, the colonel quickly found the small machine shop mentioned in the letter. After being led in by a little girl, Colonel Mustang met the long-lost acquaintance.

At this time, Aqua Regia was debugging Alphonse's armor. On the sofa not far away, Edward was reading a hard-cover book. Aqua Regia was concentrating on debugging, and Edward had already stood up politely.

"Mr. Hill Via, is this the talent you recommended to me? He looks a bit young."

Mustang got straight to the point, and there was no mistake of mistaken identity. Although Edward was short, he was the only one in the room who matched the description in Wang Shui's letter.

"Oh, it's Mustang, wait a minute, Al, go to the backyard and try out the new armor. If you can fight with 70% of the counterweight, you only need to lose half the weight to live a normal life."

"Okay, Mr. Via."

Alphonse's childish voice came from the porcelain white and holy armor made of unknown material. He stood up easily and walked towards the backyard. Every step made the room tremble slightly. The heavy and mysterious armor couldn't help but make Mustang feel... curious.

"Sit down, Lieutenant Hawkeye too."

Wang Shui greeted calmly and said directly:

"My friends all say that you are short of people recently? You should be very free in the central government. Isn't the team brought from the east not enough?"

"Yes, it's too much leisure. I wanted to participate in management affairs, but they are quite... xenophobic, and they will even express their distrust of me directly.

I originally hoped to get your help, but you gave up your military post after the war. I suddenly received your letter a few days ago. I learned from others that you have been caring about the situation, and as for this... "

Mustang's words were a little too cautious and polite. He did not hide his ambition, but he was very careful when speaking to Wang Shui. As his military and political knowledge increased, he also learned about Wang Shui's terrifying economic power. At least he thought he saw it. all.

"Edward Elric, currently under the care of Mr. Via."

Edward took the initiative to introduce himself. Wang Shui had told him that an officer would be coming today, but he didn't expect it to be a colonel.

"Colonel, I can't help you much with your political ambitions and I'm not interested in it. As for means such as [political donations] and [public opinion offensive], I am interested in investing in you, but it's still early for you.

I specially called you here today because I want to recommend Edward to you. He has the talent to become the national alchemist. I think you should need such a helper. "

Mustang did not show any emotion such as joy. He remained serious, but nodded to Edward in approval.

"Since Mr. Via entrusted him, I will definitely take care of him."

"I'm not asking you to take care of me, I'm just asking you to give him a qualification and eliminate some complicated procedures. As for work, no matter what dirty work it is, you can leave it to him. If he wants to obtain more resources and knowledge, he has to pay Corresponding labor.”

Wang Shui patted Edward on the shoulder as he spoke. To be honest, Edward and Al's intelligence, maturity, and understanding left a very good impression on him, but he really didn't want to waste his time raising children.

And there are many lessons that cannot be taught through language and writing. The Elric brothers need to travel across the country to see the darkness that is rarely written in books, so that they can grow quickly.

"Isn't Edward your disciple?"

"No, they are my teacher's sons. I was too lazy to take care of the children, so I left them to you."

After confirming that Mustang was not particularly embarrassed, Wang Shui also relaxed his tone. He didn't mean to complicate this kind of communication, it was Mustang who was too reserved.

"Then I have to collect some reward." Mustang also smiled a little, and his communication was natural. Mr. Sylvia was particularly patient and friendly to him, which was a good sign.

"Speaking of which, I have something to show you, related to your master, Lieutenant Hawkeye's father."

After Wang Shui finished speaking, he immediately went to the desk drawer next to him and pulled out a notebook. He turned around and handed it to the colonel and lieutenant who were looking at each other.

"This is knowledge extended from the flame alchemy studied by old Hawkeye. It is my idea when I was working on various weapons. I have seen your flames from a distance. I think this thing should be useful to you. Helps.”

Mustang opened the notebook and started reading it. Lieutenant Lisa next to him couldn't help but move closer. Then she realized that she couldn't understand the dense calculation formulas at all, but some of the patterns looked familiar to her.

In fact, Mustang, as the national alchemist, was also stunned for a moment. It was obviously the Flame Alchemy that he was most familiar with. He knew almost every word and pattern on it, but the combination formed a new formula, which extended The new graphics and solutions also added many inexplicable parameters, and the complex changes made him dizzy.

"Via...Senior, what is [Death Fire]?"

"Ah? Did I write it in? Oh, don't worry about that. What you have to pay attention to is that the future of Flame Alchemy does not lie in the quantitative change of flame, but in the qualitative change.

No matter how much it is compressed or how much the temperature is raised, it will only reduce the efficiency of producing flames.Changing the nature of the flame is the simplest and most direct direction, and it is also the correct direction. "

Snapped--

As he spoke, Wang Shui snapped his fingers, and a cluster of fist-sized flames erupted above his index finger, and then quickly entered a quiet burning state. He activated alchemy so fast that no one present saw the blue flames. Lightning, and no one noticed the flow of energy.

The flame was silver-white, with an obvious black outline on the edge. The black and white colors maintained a dynamic balance while constantly interfering with each other.

"This is [Dead Fire], a special kind of flame, but it was not invented or discovered by me, nor was it the research of old Hawkeye. It is a special flame that originally existed in the world, or in other words, the form of energy existence. , I temporarily call it [the flame form of energy].

You can understand that matter has [solid state], [liquid state], and [gaseous state], and [flame state] is a state of existence of energy. I maintain this flame now without adding fuel, and it will not change due to Burning and dissipating... Well, it actually consumes a little bit, but it's very slow. "

When Wang Shui said this, Mustang and Edward fell silent. They were both thinking about what Wang Shui had just said.

"Don't worry and figure it out right away. I've written it very clearly in my notes. Go back and study it slowly. This is my investment in you. Edward is just passing by. Protect your own life. When you gain power, I will The capital will be recovered with interest.”

Such unkind words, Mustang nodded gratefully. As a titled national alchemist, he naturally loves and is obsessed with alchemy.

"Okay, you actually wasted so much of my time. Let's talk next. The phone number on this card can contact me directly. If you need help anytime and anywhere, just call me. Of course, the fee will not be very low." Wang Shui said a plain farewell and left here quickly.

He also has a meeting with people from the Ishval National Alchemy Research Institute in the afternoon. Now is the stage where scientific knowledge and technology are exploding, and he doesn't want to waste time on the plot.

After he left, Colonel Mustang communicated with Edward for a long time. As for the physical problems of Edward and Al, Aqua Regia had already mentioned it in the letter, and Mustang didn't ask any more questions.

He now needs powerful helpers with no background. If Edward can become the national alchemist through his own ability, then for Mustang, it will be tantamount to breaking the deadlock in his career.

That night, Colonel Mustang left. A week later, Wen Li and Granny Binako said goodbye to the Elric brothers at the small town train station, while Wang Shui was too lazy to see them off.

At this point, the human body refining incident has subsided, aqua regia has returned to daily life, and his sensitivity to the passage of time has once again decreased.

When he comes back to his senses from his busy life next time, the countdown to the plot has already begun.

……

……

In the spring of 1914, Wang Shui began to stay in Central City.

This is the base camp of the artificial humans, and the final BOSS, the Little Man in a Bottle, is underground at the Presidential Palace.

Since the defeat at the Ishval battlefield and the shock to Sylvia's force value, the androids have been quite quiet in recent years, and their persecution of the entire Amestorius has become much lighter.

The androids now dare not wander around outside for fear of accidentally encountering the masked Sylvia and being chopped into pieces by her for no reason.

Because this kind of thing really happened...

The artificial humans are becoming more and more low-key, but Wang Shui has always maintained a high-intensity surveillance of the enemy. Within one kilometer of the Presidential Palace, at least [-]% of all insects, birds, beasts, and even flowers, plants and trees are structural machines.

Because of Wang Shui's interference, the artificial man, who was already operating in secret, completed the blood mark with extreme caution.

They sent a large number of prisoners into the embassy in the core city of Ishval, and then secretly carried out a massacre. There may be innocent people mixed in, but Wang Shui chose to ignore it.

As for the Blood Seal in the North, it was originally not completed until very late in the plot, but now they have secretly completed it in advance.

There are still two years to go before a total solar eclipse, but preparations for artificial humans are basically complete.

In fact, Wang Shui had the ability to kill the little man in the bottle before he swallowed the "god", but Wang Shui wanted to see the "god" who was pulled into reality, but did not want to open the door himself.

But this time Wang Shui came to Central City not because of the final battle. He was just passing by at first and wanted to see if there were any new books in the National Library.

At this time, Edward's phone call made him realize that the time was almost up.

Wang Shui's car stopped in front of a large villa. When he got out of the car, he happened to see Alphonse sitting on the doorstep. His armor lowered his head. Al just murmured in a low voice, "Long time no see. Mr. Via."

Edward standing next to him is more mature than he was two years ago, but he has not grown much taller. He also has a look of loss and grief on his face now. When he saw Aqua Regia walking over, he acted like a helpless child - oh no , he is a child now.

"Have you caused any trouble again? Just tell me."

Aqua regia touched Al's steel head, but Al just pointed at the open front door of the villa behind him.

Wang Shui did not continue to ask the two brothers. He walked directly in and saw a middle-aged man with round glasses on his round head and a big dog beside him.

The middle-aged man, with a bruised nose and face, was leaning against the wall and stroking the silver pocket watch representing the national alchemist.

Wang Shui suddenly remembered that he had forgotten such a famous event.

[The Alchemist of Destiny] - Xiu Tucker.

Using his wife as a material, he created a synthetic beast that had certain intelligence and could talk. Through this technology, Shutak won the title of national alchemist.

Although the synthetic beast would only repeat - "I want to die".

Now because of the biennial certification assessment, Shutak's research has not made any progress, so he fused his daughter Nina with her pet dog Alexander, turning her into a human-canine hybrid.

Shotake, who was leaning against the wall, seemed to be blinded by the Edward brothers and did not react to the arrival of aqua regia.

Wang Shui reached out and touched the head of the synthetic beast. After carefully sensing her condition with alchemy, he immediately took out a small box from the awakener's space, took out a pill and stuffed it into her mouth, letting her Fell asleep.

"You! What are you going to do to my daughter! She is everything to me!"

Seeing the synthetic beast fainting, Shutak suddenly became anxious, and he quickly rushed towards Shui Wang from the wall.

But Wang Shui just hooked his fingers, and a large number of vines quickly grew from the wooden products in all directions in the room, binding Shutak layer by layer, and even blocked his mouth.

The two brothers outside the door rushed in immediately when they heard the sound. When they saw Shutak being hoisted into the air, they immediately said:

"Mr. Via! Don't kill him... No, I mean... Let the military judge him."

"Well, the military is not as naive as you."

Wang Shui sighed, looked at the big dog on the ground, and continued:

"Fortunately, I happened to be in Central City. If it had been about 20 hours later, the little girl's soul would have merged with the dog's soul in a distorted manner, and by then there would have been no hope of salvation."

"You! You can save her!" Al shouted, jumping up with excitement.

Edward also opened his mouth in shock. He had been reading about synthetic beasts here for several days, but he was completely helpless about the situation of the little girl Nina, because the synthetic beast technology itself had no recovery option.

But now, Mr. Via says it can, then it definitely can!

(End of this chapter)