Throne of Magical Arcana

“It’s just about using the hypothesis of energy quantum to explain the photoelectric effect,” said Lucien honestly with a constant smile on his face.

The corner of Fernando’s mouth twitched a bit. “You call this ‘enlightening’… I don’t think there are arcanists who want to be enlightened like this.”

Fernando and Lucien had excluded all the other possible explanations together, and the only possible answer left was the hypothesis of energy quantum. Therefore, after the initial reluctance and struggle, Fernando was the one who accepted this hypothesis the most. However, even so, Fernando would only use it when analyzing the black-body radiation, but never in any other fields.

Then Fernando mumbled. “So you want to use the hypothesis to build your own system?”

If Lucien’s paper was just a further explanation of the hypothesis of energy quantum, it would not be that subversive. As long as Lucien had not proved the hypothesis with experiments, Fernando would not need to be too worried that Lucien might destroy the entire Congress with his theory.

As he turned the pages, Fernando’s expression became more and more serious. “Although in the studies of the black-body radiation, I’ve started to feel inclined to use the quantum hypothesis for explaining the energy absorption and emission, I still don’t think it’s necessary to further apply the hypothesis to explain the presence and transmission of light. Brook’s equations have well offered a good explanation, and hypotheses should not be multiplied unnecessarily.”

Although Fernando was on the side of the wave theory of light, he was not a firm supporter. But any arcanists who specialized at Electromagnetics would be deeply shocked by and fell in love with the beauty in Brook’s equations, which was like an elegant piece of poetry of the Goddess of Magic. Therefore, facing the hypothesis that challenged Brook’s theory, Fernando still had spontaneous rejection in his heart, although the hypothesis perfectly and precisely explained the photoelectric effect.

Lucien was not surprised that this idea was very unacceptable even for an open-minded grand arcanist like Fernando.

Fernando put down the paper and said in a serious tone, “however, this is the best explanation of the photoelectric effect that I have ever seen so far. If you spend some time to improve the magic circles and conduct an experiment with great precision as your evidence, it might be easier for people to accept it.”

“So far I’m not capable of doing such an experiment.” Lucien did not mention the true reason behind it was if he included the experiments, some sorcerers’ cognitive world would be shattered or injured.

After he read the paper, Fernando knew that the requirements for carrying out the experiment were extremely high, so he didn’t think much after hearing Lucien’s excuse. “Although I do not agree with you, yet based on the entire process, I still have to admit that your viewpoint is very enlightening, as it reasonably and succinctly explained the photoelectric effect. Your explanation does leave a deep impression on me. But, the last part, in which you talked about the particle-like property of the instantaneity of time and the wave-like property of the time average… It’s too weak and redundant! It makes people feel that you’re not even a firm supporter of your own hypothesis yourself! You’re trying to find a peaceful place to get along with the wave theory, in a ridiculous way!”

“In fact, this is my true point, or we can’t explain the diffraction of light, nor the photoelectric effect.” Lucien tried to be bold.

Fernando gave him a stern look and asked, “so you’re saying it’s both wave and particle. Then what on earth is light? You assume that quantum effect divides light into portions, so it’s a combined formation. But why don’t you think further? Why these many light quanta generally show the properties of wave? Why do the quanta march forward following the rule of wave?

“Did you ever see the knights charging? Without strict command and training, their charging would be a disaster, instead of in an organized form of a triangle. But who commands the quanta of light so that they move in the form of waves? The God of Truth?!

“Have you ever thought about it?!”

Even when talking to his favorite student, Fernando was still the same strict and straightforward. Lucien could almost feel the sprays from his teacher.

“… No one’s giving command, Sir. It is wave itself, and, of course, exhibit the features of wave. Sir, I don’t think it will work trying to explain why light carries the features of waves from the perspective that light is particles. Light is wave itself,” said Lucien sincerely.

However, Lucien’s words did not make any sense at all in Fernando’s ears. To him, light’s form of existence could be something beyond his imagination, but it still had to make sense!

Thus, he roared. “What about the photoelectric effect?!”

“Light also consists of light quanta. In this case, we don’t need to think about it from the perspective of waves.” The way Lucien was talking started to become philosophical.

But Lucien was not planning on roaring against Fernando right now, not at all, since he was still far from revealing the final answer. So he said, “Sir, this is not yet a mature theory… I’m still thinking. So it’s not included in the paper.”

Fernando slightly nodded, although he still kept a straight face. He allowed his student to have a rich imagination, but it had to base on solid reasoning. “Comparing to your true viewpoint, I find this paper much more lovable. I don’t want to arcana studies to fall into a philosophical debate in the end.”

Then Fernando knocked at the desk and said, “are you sure you’re going to submit the paper without any experiment support? Be ready to face the attack from most of the arcanists.”

“It’s okay. Without a conclusion, they’ll soon forget about it.” Lucien did not really care.

Looking at Lucien, Fernando shook his head, “Don’t underestimate the perseverance of the arcanists. Some won’t let you go.”

…

Returning to his own office in Arcana Review Board, Lucien saw a paper on his desk. However, as soon as he picked it up, Lucien frowned. Since people got to know how he helped Levski and saw how successful Levski was right now, many arcanists started submitting their own “subversive” papers directly to Lucien, hoping that Lucien would support them so they could become famous overnight.

However, their papers did not even respect basic logic, and Lucien could not even take a second glance at their derivation processes. Claiming that they had overthrown Brook system and Douglas system, the papers were more than absurd. Lucien had to try his best to hold himself back from the urge to tear down the papers into pieces, throw them on those people’s face, and call them “folk arcanists”!

However, after calming down a bit, Lucien still wanted to be objective, since he was well aware of the fact that how destructive prejudice and stereotype could be. He started reading the paper carefully.

It turned out to be worse than ever. The author did not even understand the theoretical system that he wished to overthrow before claiming that he had found its problems. Lucien started to feel that the previous authors were in fact quite sweet, since at least the problematic parts were in the reasoning sections.

“Not bad as a joke though…” Lucien picked up the quill-pen and started marking.

In Sorcerer Administrative Department, there was a totally absent-minded look on Eric’s face. His sat still with his eyes staring forward at the void.

Sitting in front of him was a black-haired, blue-eyed, good-looking young man in his early thirties. Words were pouring out from his mouth. “Based on my years of studying, I have located the fatal error in Mr. President’s theoretical system in Force Field. My finding is powerful enough to pierce through the seemingly solid system and save all arcanists in the Congress from the misunderstanding which has lasted for hundreds of years.”

Eric did not want to say anything else. The man sitting in front of him was a sorcerer specializing in the school of Electromagnetics. Obviously, he knew nothing much about the Force Field theories.

“Unfortunately, most members of the board don’t have their own thoughts. All they want to do is to follow the authority. However, now we have Mr. Evans, a young and brave board member who dares to challenge the errors. I’m sure he’ll be able to understand my paper and face the errors. I will earn my honor back,” said the man triumphantly and confidently.

Eric touched his thin hair and said, “Peavy… There are still other people waiting… You can come back three days later.”

Peavy shrugged. “What a pity. I was going to tell you some details about my theoretical system.”

Suddenly, the iron cage burst out white light, and a document appeared inside.

“Hey… I think it’s yours, Peavy.” Eric called Peavy, who was already at the door.

Peavy was very surprised. “My paper deserves this fast response?!”

He wore a badge for fourth circle sorcerer and one for level-one arcanist.

Eric took a quick glance at the paper. The muscle of his face twitched a bit, and then he handed the paper back to Peavy. “You may want to take a look at it yourself.”

Peavy turned the pages, only to find the many crosses in red ink. Following each cross, there were comments and the corresponding correct derivation process. At the edge of each page, there were strange comments such as “Two points are deducted.”

Seeing the red crosses, a blue vein bulged in Peavy’s forehead. All he could see now were the red crosses.

He quickly turned to the last page, and saw Lucien’s comment: “Starting from the full score,100 points, after deducting all the points for the errors, only 1 point is left. Ten points are given for the clean-looking handwriting. 11 points in total. The standard for passing is 60 points. Therefore, the paper fails to pass.”

Lucien had veto power on deciding whether a subversive paper could pass. Also, the paper had been rejected by the other members before as well. Therefore, the alchemical life directly gave the final decision — Fail.

Peavy’s face burnt as he saw Lucien’s many comments.

In his mind, since all of Lucien’s comments were against his derivation and reasoning, Lucien must be wrong!

“Evans has nothing different! He’s just another puppet of the authorities! He doesn’t want to see a genius like me to rise, doesn’t want to see me overthrow the president’s system, doesn’t want to see me win even more prizes than he had!” Peavy turned around angrily and left the office. There was hatred in his voice.

Eric released a long sigh. In his opinion, the Congress should put these people together, and let them have fun and argue within their own small circle.

…

Since it was Lucien Evans’s paper, the electromagnetic golem directly informed Lauren, instead of sending it to his students and the editors of the journalLight-darkness .

One day later, archmage Lauren came back to Allyn and started reading the paper.

“Stupid and stubborn! Why is he still bothering with his hypothesis on energy quantum? Ridiculous…” Lauren dropped the paper, looking rather pissed. “How dare he to even try to quantize light?! That’s drawing close to the particle theory!”

Lauren started doubting Lucien’s past achievements, wondering if it was just because of his good luck. The paper submitted by him completely made no sense, and there was no evidence at all!

“I am going to do an accurate photoelectric effect experiment and throw the result on your face!” Lauren’s fury was burning, as the two theories that he believed in were under the attack from Lucien’s absurd hypothesis.

However, after he calmed down, Lauren realized that currently, he was not capable of carrying out the experiment because of the limitation of apparatuses. But this did not mean that he could not give the review comment. So he sat back at the desk and grabbed his quill-pen.