Chapter 128: The Scarecrow and The Country of The Sky (2)
After pouring out a series of stories, the old scholar quietly caught his breath.
His expression held a slight relief and an even greater lamentation.
Sophia asked him, “What do you research in this city? Is it all just calculating and verifying the formulas and theories that Elphaba demands?”
“Half right and half wrong, you could say. Back when this old man was in his prime, while solving Elphaba’s requests, we used to do other research in our spare time.”
The old scholar’s eyes became distant as if longing for the past.
“Things like turning useless mold into medicine, trying to make clothes from spider webs, or studying the sex life of fly couples to try to suppress their reproduction. Well, most of them were fanciful and not very useful. But it was fun.”
However, the old scholar sighed as he added, “But all those things are only possible with money and time. Today’s Laputa is busy researching ‘immediately useful’ technologies demanded by the ground, so we don’t have the capacity for such interesting but visibly unproductive research. What can we do when they threaten to drop the island if we don’t listen?”
To the old scholar’s lament, Sophia asked back, “Didn’t you say it was Elphaba who gave the ground dwellers the weapon to drop the island?”
“That’s right. It was a tower with the ability to shoot a huge magical spear into the sky.”
“Has that weapon ever actually been used on this sky island?”
“No. It was meant as a threat, they deliberately missed. But its power was enough to cause massive damage to this island.”
“And you’re saying every single city on the ground has such a weapon?”