After the three of them arrived at the beach, Lorraine Hill looked around and soon discovered Letis and others at the beach restaurant. They were eating cold drinks on the open-air balcony on the second floor.
Niya waved from above, and the three people below also responded, and then walked over.
"Want some ice cream?"
Several people turned around the dark walls and stairs, walked up to the second floor, and saw Letis saying to several people.
The location of this restaurant is excellent. It is on a hillside, overlooking most of the harbor. The spacious open-air balcony on the second floor is equipped with parasols, small tables, and rectangular wooden flowerpots with long inside.
The guardrail is composed of low flowers and plants and a few round poles, which is quite poetic and picturesque.
"I want to eat~" Lily, who particularly likes sweets, replied in a hurry, and then walked over briskly.
After the three of them sat down, several cups of ice cream dotted with cherries were quickly served.
Breathing the warm and comfortable sea breeze and drinking cold juice, a few people started talking and recounted what they had seen today.
"I saw a lot of new things, and some of them I liked very much." Lily said, and Bumansha and Niya also quite agreed.
"Of course, these are all huge changes brought about by technological innovation." Letis said with a bit of pride. As a descendant of a mage born in Lurna, she was naturally quite proud of this.
"It is indeed more comfortable." Alena agreed, but she did not envy Lurna's new invention, because the Southern Islands under the Chuyue Council were also developing well. The two have their own merits.
"What do you think of Lorraine?" Bu Mansha looked at the girl who was quietly drinking juice.
"Me?" Lorraine Hill had experienced similar things in her previous life, so she was naturally not greatly affected. She just felt that the current technology was not developing fast enough.
In Lurna, or the Land of Oz, machinery, power and other technologies have reached a very high level over the past few hundred years, but they have not spread as quickly as in previous lives, but progress has slowed down.
She was also thinking about the reason just now. After all, this world is different from her previous life.
"It feels very good, but why hasn't it been popularized in a large area? This is Yubeile. Although it is good in all aspects, other small places are still the same." Lorraine Hill answered.
"Maybe because I can't afford it." Niya said with emotion, good things are always expensive.
"It's a bit expensive, but the cost is there." Letis said, raising her finger.
"The purchase of raw materials, refining, processing, etc. all require money and costs."
"Which links are very costly and expensive?" Lorraine Hill asked with interest. She wanted to know the opinions of everyone in this world. It happened that several of her companions came from all over the world.
"First of all, it's the materials." Letis felt this deeply. She herself is from the Lurna alchemy faction.
"Metal ore is mined from various countries and then transported. Every time it changes hands, every time it passes through a noble checkpoint, you need to pay. When we finally buy it from a merchant, the price will be difficult to lower."
"Manpower is also the reason." Alena said about her own experience. She comes from the Southern Islands, where the population has never been very dense.
"Many people have to farm, fish, do chores, etc., and not many locals can recruit workers."
"Then let people from other places come." Lily asked simply and directly.
"For outsiders to come so far away, they must pay more, otherwise they might as well stay at home. Moreover, when outsiders come, local food may not be enough to support them, so they have to import food, so the price will be higher.
Already."
"That's it." Lily was a little embarrassed.
"Generally speaking, the profit margin is not big enough." Lorraine Hill thought thoughtfully.
The high cost of materials and labor makes the profit margins of goods smaller and the prices difficult to get cheaper. Only a small number of people can afford them, so the market cannot expand.
The market is not large, and the overall profit ceiling is not high. This has led to the fact that related technologies and products have not expanded explosively, but have progressed slowly.
"But it's better now." Letis said while holding the cup and looking at the busy port.
"After the merger of Rulna and Verga, the resources, land, population, and market have all expanded, and it is not as difficult as before."
"If Frost Rose continues to expand and merges the resources of the entire Snow Flower Seven Kingdoms, it must be able to break through the previous restrictions." Alena said with a sigh.
"Without the previous layer-by-layer card restrictions imposed by nobles from various places, the import price of raw materials can be reduced. In addition, as the population moves, labor costs can also be reduced." Lorraine Hill added.
"Yeah, that's it, isn't it awesome?" Letis said cheerfully.
"But what I, Alena, like to do most is to break the illusions of your alchemists." Alena raised her finger.
"?" Letis looked at Alena with a little confusion.
"Our Chuyue faction is not bad. If we do it, the effect will definitely be good. Who will win in the future? I really can't say for sure." Alena waved her finger.
"Okay, okay, you two don't fight anymore."
Bu Mansha came out to smooth things over. Although Alena and Letis had been roommates for more than a year, they were like enemies and always had different views on each other.
After a few people sat on the second floor of the restaurant for a while, they returned to where they lived. Alena and the three of them also took back the musical instruments they bought each other.
At the dinner table, the two of them continued their previous argument.
"It's easy to cool down, preserve food, or make ice cream using alchemy tools." Letis said about the advantages of the alchemy school.
"This is not difficult. There is a kind of conch in our southern archipelago. After improvement, it is born with an inscription. As long as a little magic crystal is added, it can also release cold air. Moreover, it does not use metal and is not easy to break."
"But the output is not high, and the cycle is also long."
"The output is not low. Some islands in the shallow sea are specially cultivated for this kind of conch. As long as a few mages maintain it, there will be thousands of them in a year. Your production model requires more metal and mages," Alena retorted.
road.
"What about magic motorcycles, or even airships? You can't popularize these." Letis once again pointed out the advantages of her school.
"Well, although vehicles are not good, our special beasts of burden are more adaptable to various road conditions and can travel everywhere without building roads." Alena continued.
...
Lorraine Hill listened quietly to the argument between the two, feeling a sense of novelty. At the same time, he slowly understood the characteristics and advantages of the two factions.
The alchemy faction undoubtedly overlaps with the industrial machinery of the previous life. It does have advantages in heavy industry, large machinery, unified standards, and production capacity.
However, Hinatsuki's group also has many advantages in biology, pharmaceuticals, coping with various environments, being small and flexible, and requiring low material requirements.
It would be great if we combined the strengths of both factions. Unfortunately, it still seems a bit difficult at the moment.