Throne of Magical Arcana

Lucien could feel his teacher’s complex feelings. He handed his papers over and said, “There’s nothing subversive in it. It’s just trying to explain Mr. Douglas’s experiment on light speed and the related correlation. It shares some similarities with the previous assumptions put forward by several arcanists.”

Lorentz Transformation. That was what Lucien prepared for his teacher to get him mentally prepared.

Fernando still felt quite suspicious, but he took the paper anyway and started reading. As he read further, the look on Fernando’s face changed greatly.

Lucien could not help asking, “Sir, is it alright?”

Fernando grinned, “This is the second time this month that I read something like this.”

Lucien was a bit surprised, “Someone submitted a similar paper already? But, I didn’t find anything similar when I searched among the files in Arcana Review Board. I wouldn’t bring it to you if I knew…”

Fernando temporarily put aside all his questions about fusion and fission and looked more cheerful now then he usually was, “I know, because he hasn’t submitted it yet. He dared not. He brought it to me and asked my personal opinion.”

“Who is he?” asked Lucien curiously. He was actually not too surprised since the data from the light speed experiment had been available for more than three years, and many wave theory supporters were trying to use the data to support their belief. It was not a big leap forward if an arcanist had found something like Lorentz Transformation.

Although the sorcerers in this world were experiencing lots of turnovers because they still had a lot to explore, when it came to sheer thinking, they were good.

“It was Oliver. Three years ago, he had a bet with Florencia, and he started working on it since then. His project was delayed because of the exploration of the new dimension, and he finally finished putting together the whole transformational equation group. His paper’s saying that, using Ether as the observer, moving length contraction happens to compensate for the difference in light speed in all directions, which explains Douglas’s experiment. I suppose your paper is about the same thing, right?”

Fernando just finished reading the introduction of Lucien’s paper. He assumed that Lucien’s paper was the same.

Lucien nodded, “Yes, but why did Mr. Oliver not submit it?”

Although Oliver was studying the Dark Dragon Lord, he should still be able to have his wife, Florencia, or his students submit the paper.

“Because he believed that there were still things, important things, missing, and he couldn’t explain why the phenomenon exists. He then got a new direction to go in, but the reasoning couldn’t go further. So he was kind of stuck, which was why he came to me.” said Fernando.

“So what’s your opinion, sir?” Lucien asked.

Fernando smacked his lips and said, “I told him that his thinking wasn’t clear enough yet. He was still swinging from one side to the other. But I also couldn’t help him with explaining the cause of the phenomenon. I told Oliver to find some time to talk to you. You’re known for being open-minded and creative, so you probably could help.”

Fernando put on a cunning smile and looked at Lucien, “I didn’t expect that you’d come up with the same explanation, but I remember that you’ve been ignoring Ether all the time. There’s no way that you suddenly decided to use Ether to explain Douglas’s experiment. Also, part of the equations, here, the length contraction, is problematic, and I’m sure you know it. So, Lucien, what are you really trying to achieve throwing this paper at me?”

Lucien looked in his teacher’s eyes, but did not say anything.

“I think you’ve dug in further. You are getting us prepared using this paper. You can take it out, your true paper.” said Fernando.

Lucien saw his teacher’s red eyes were very sincere and kind. He had to admit that his teacher knew him very well.

But should he just throw the special theory of relativity directly at Fernando?

Seeing that Lucien was still hesitating, Fernando glared at him and said, “What? You’re worrying that I might not be able to take it? Come on. I’ve already got my lesson from light quantum and energy quantum. There’s nothing that can explode my mind anymore. Even during that time, although I did lose control a bit, I’m still here, right? Safe and sound.”

Lucien still remembered clearly how Fernando suffered from the great frustration and fury when this happened last time. But he dared not say.

Weighing his words, Lucien said, “I think the change in length doesn’t come from the contraction of matter, but the contraction of space.”

“Space contraction… Interesting. Maybe we should see space from another perspective… Oliver once mentioned it as well.” Fernando wasn’t too surprised because of the existence of space barriers, demiplanes, and space spells.

“If we just put aside Ether here, just based on Mr. Douglas’s experiment, classical electromagnetic theory, and the studies on bodies in motion, we can put forward a postulate – the idea that the speed of light is a constant, independent of the relative motion of the source.” Lucien explained further.

Fernando’s right hand clenched and tapped his chin, “I see. If based on that, there’ll be lots of things to talk about. You just give me the paper.”

Lucien hurriedly added, “There’s one more precondition – the principle of relativity. There are quite some papers talking about it. You probably have read some of them before.”

Sorcerers often cast sound waves magic spells. A long time ago, they had found that when their enemies approached them quickly, the sound became quick and short; when their enemies fled away from them, the sound was prolonged. The change in sound waves seemed to be closely related to speed. The phenomenon was broadly discussed and therefore introduced the principle of relativity. Meanwhile, some arcanists were also looking at the changes in light waves from stars.

There was another common phenomenon that one could see in daily life to prove this: When a magic steam train approached from afar, the steam whistle would become increasingly sharper; but when it passed the observer, the steam whistle would become deeper.

Fernando nodded slightly, “Two preconditions only? Good. It’s like your style: Start from less axioms and hypotheses, and use more logical reasoning. Give the paper to me. I’m prepared.”

“Sir, why don’t you further develop Mr. Oliver’s transformational equations on your own based on the two preconditions? You can see the units in the equations from a brand new arcana perspective. In other words, they are no more mere math symbols.”

Fernando was a bit pissed, but he still accepted Lucien’s advice, “Let me see what conclusion you’re hiding!”

He walked back to his desk and picked up the quill-pen. He first wrote down the two preconditions, and then started working on the equations.

When he first started, everything went very smoothly. A grand arcanist’s knowledge was way more than enough for the initial deduction.

However, as he wrote down further, Fernando’s quill-pen stopped above a certain line.

The black ink formed a small drop at the pen point, and then dripped down onto the parchment.

The ink slowly spread out.

The space they were in, Fernando’s demiplane, Thunder Hell, suddenly became very stormy. The thundering and lightning were roaring.

Fernando looked up. His red eyes were full of shock.

Lucien did not look away. Instead, he looked right into Fernando’s eyes.

Fernando took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he started working on the equations again.

As Fernando wrote down more equations and more stage conclusions, certain changes were happening in the study.

Rulers, quill-pens, books were contracting, and the clock was ticking slower and slower.

Lucien closed his eyes and spread out his spiritual power. The changes were real.

However, the changes were so tiny that only a senior-rank or above could notice.

The changes taking place in Fernando’s cognitive world was affecting the real world!

That was the power of a legendary sorcerer!

After a while, Fernando finally put down the quill-pen in his hand and looked at the final conclusion attentively. He laughed in a mocking way at himself, “I thought I’d had a basic idea about the truth of the world, but I was totally wrong. Space and time are in fact very, very different from what we feel. The equation shows that time is actually a function of speed, depending on the matter. If it wasn’t my own derivation, I’d definitely yell at you badly.”

Fernando then looked up and said very seriously, “But this conclusion is based on the single postulate, and we need things more solid than this, although this can be used to explain why part of the starlight saw spectroscopic redshifts.”

Fernando had not fully accepted it yet. The conclusion had to be proved by some further evidence, or it remained a fancy toy.

“Well… We might be able to use it to explain some of the problems that we ran into working on the artificial planets. Of course, this theory is not complete yet. Gravity is not involved, so it must still be problematic.” said Lucien.

Then Lucien mentioned some records of data that his students collected and the questions coming up, “… so when we accelerated particles, there was a difference between the result and what we expected, and the theory of relativity would be able to explain it: Mass increases as the speed increases, so the orbital period also changes. We can use this formula to work out the variable and adjust the changing frequency of the electric field. If the particles can be further accelerated without trying away from the field, the theory of relativity will be able to be indirectly proved.”

Fernando decided to take action immediately. In his magic lab, Fernando did exactly as Lucien said.

Then Fernando got the particles that carried the greatest energy ever. Then, he released a sigh,

“Lucien, in your programme, Arcana Voice, you talked about outlook of world, on life, and on value. In my understanding, the outlook on the world is how an individual perceives the world. Apart from humanity and history, it equals a person’s cognitive world.”

Lucien had no idea why Fernando wanted to talk about it now.

Fernando grinned, “But when it comes to how to understand space, it also involves the outlook on life and values. So I’m thinking… Why don’t we call you the Destroyer of Three Outlooks”

Lucien’s face twitched a bit. He did not find Fernando’s joke interesting.

Fernando looked Lucien up and down with a meaningful smile on his face,

“I’ve learned my lesson from you, Lucien. That’s why I’m still here now after all of this. I am now more or less suspicious about every theoretical system. But for others, Lucien, you have to reveal your theory of relativity bit by bit, especially for Douglas. Your theory is a huge turnover to his, and he’s been through a lot of things in the past one or two hundred years. The wave theory of light, quantum theory… I’m afraid that this might be too much for him to take. I mean, I don’t think Douglas’s head is going to explode or his demiplane is going to collapse. Not that bad. But what happened to Brook might happen to him again. Mental changes are possible, too.”

“Sir, I never thought of throwing it directly at people. You insisted..” Lucien could not help complaining.

Lucien had started feeling more casual in front of Fernando.

However, Fernando just directly ignored Lucien, “I’ll start with Oliver. He should be able to take it as he’s seen the problems. Then I’ll have him submit his paper to make the senior-rank and above think.”

“Why senior-rank and above?” Lucien asked.

“Because those below can’t understand,” said Fernando succinctly.

Fernando then slowly walked back to his study and said.

“You’re already level seven in terms of arcana credit. The argument between wave and particle theory is still going on, and the number of papers about your new alchemy should be booming soon. With all these, this paper should be able to take you to level eight. However, now you should work on improving your magic level, as it’s just a matter of time for you to become a grand arcanist. You must have benefited from having the two legendaries temporarily living inside of your body, and I’m sure that the congress will also favor you to a great extent.”

Currently, Lucien had fifteen thousand arcana credits, which meant he was halfway from hitting level eight. He also expected that the reward credits from new alchemy would be very considerable.

In the study, Fernando handed Lucien the paper, “Take a look at what’s missing here. If there isn’t, I will not have to read your paper.”

Lucien took a glance at it and found that his teacher had also missed mass-energy equation as Einstein did. He smiled and picked up the quill-pen,

“Sir, there’s one thing missing.”

Lucien started writing on the parchment. The point of the pen slightly scratched the surface and made a tiny, soft noise. Fernando watched the entire process of derivation, and the look on his face changed several times: There was solemnity, shock, and then great excitement.

Lucien kept writing. Eventually, the formula came out: “E=mc^2”.

A thick bolt of lightning flashed through the sky outside the window. For a moment, the entire demiplane was illuminated by it.

Then the deafening thunder followed. It’s great power even made the window frames shake.

“I see! That’s what that part of the structure means! The mutual conversion between mass and energy! No wonder extraordinarily high temperature is possible in new alchemy!” Fernando said aloud to himself, out of great excitement.

He was so thrilled that it sounded like he was roaring. Finally, he had seen direction in making further progress in legendary level using new alchemy and by putting together all the fields that he was good at together!

Although the two magic structures – fusion and fission – were still too complex for him, and it would take time for him to understand bit by bit, he finally saw hope for reaching the next level!

……

In the Bright Hall in Lance, the Holy City, the grand cardinals were discussing the latest report submitted by Sard.

“The priests and night watchers in Holm parish are not being reliable.” said Saint Melmax, the leader of Temple Knights.

The rest of them remained silent. They all knew what caused the priests’ mental instability. Part of it was because the Pope had been improving and modifying some fundamental theology theories. If they said anything improper, the Pope might be pissed.

“If we choose to launch a war right now, most priests and night watchers in Holm parish would be ready to fight, which is good. But right now we’re not ready for a war. We have to focus our power on the new dimension where both population and resources are abundant,” said Benedict II in cold voice, “so do as Sard proposed: punish the night watchers and gather the red robes, including Amelton.”

Philibell hurriedly nodded, “As you command, Your Holiness. I’ll assign a new red robe to the Inquisition.”

No one else said no because this basically had nothing to do with them.

……

In the Radiance Church, Sard had received the written reply. He gently stroke the paper, smiling.

When his fingers came across, at the end of the punishment list, a new name appeared: Juliana.

But her punishment was much less severe, compared to the punishment for the other two night watchers who caught Baron Austin. She would be put into jail for a year, but the other two would be sentenced to death.

“Ask Octave to come.” said Sard to the red robe outside through the divine circle.

……

A while later, Octave walked out of Sard’s study. The look on his face was extremely gloomy and sombre. A couple of minutes earlier, he had been stripped of his title and duty as the leader of the Inquisition!

The position was only lower than a parish leader.

Octave felt that it wasn’t really his fault. Radical night watchers came up almost every year.

Killing a noble who listened to Arcana Voice was not a big deal.

Should they just watch evilness spread out but do nothing?

The Church was getting more and more cowardly!

Walking in the Radiance Church, Octave felt the sympathetic eyes from other priests. He thought to himself in his heart,

“Your Holiness, do you see this? They think I am right! Your decision isn’t proper!”

……

June 20th, after King Feltis and Princess Patrick’s funeral.

In a long, black dress, Natasha had an interview with Count James, Russell, and Henson.

“The Church has decided on the punishment. The two leading night watchers are sentenced to death, and all the other night watchers involved will receive different punishments. You may inform Baron Austin’s family, and please extend my heartfelt condolences.” said Natasha, crossing in front of her chest.

Count James wasn’t happy, “Only the night watchers? The lunatics won’t learn their lesson! We can’t live in fear all the time! The leader of the Inquisition must be punished, and any night watchers who are prone to go extreme must be controlled and killed! That’s what we nobles, at least most of us, believe. It’s also for your own safety, Your Majesty!”

In fact, the punishment decision was already acceptable to him. The Church, he knew, had made big compromise. He was saying this to see Natasha’s attitude.

Count Henson and Russell nodded.

Natasha said seriously,

“The Church is at fault, of course, as they did not keep an eye on those extreme night watchers. But they have apologized and made an acceptable decision. The murders’ death is the most important thing that Baron Austin would want. Also, Octave has been stripped of his duty. I believe that Saint Sard will keep the lunatics in line. I understand your concern, but what you ask for needs time.”

Count James was a bit disappointed, “We obey your wish, Your Majesty.”

After leaving Nekso Palace, both Russell and Henson jumped onto James’s coach, but neither of them said anything on their way.

When they almost arrived at the villa, Russell released a sigh and broke the silence, “Her Majesty has always been a follower since she was young, and she grew up in Aalto where the Church’s power is extremely powerful. It makes sense if she slightly favors the Church. Let’s not be too pessimistic.”

“But I’m afraid this is just the beginning. Her teacher’s Beliel, God’s Glory.” said James with his sullen-looking face.

Count Henson nodded, and he lowered his voice, “We have to be prepared, just in case…”

At this time, a Dragon Scale horse came close to the coach. It was one of Jame’s knights.

“What happened?” asked James.

Somehow the look on the knight’s face was full of surprise, “Her Majesty is visiting Holm Royal Magic Tower to see the seniors!”

“What?” Count Henson could not believe his ears. The world had seemingly gone nuts in his eyes.

……

In a spacious living room in Holm Royal Magic Tower, Natasha was waiting to see the sorcerer members in the royal family in Holm. She said proudly, “I really have to thank those extreme night watchers, or I wouldn’t be able to find a chance to come here. When Duke Rex asks, I’ll say that I’m here to reassure the Liberals. The Church caused these troubles, so they won’t say anything about this as well.”

But Natasha was also aware that visiting the magic tower was the farthest she could go. She could never visit Allyn. Holm was different because many royal families still gathered here.

“You’re not here just for this, right?” said Camil, who knew Natasha very well.

Natasha looked more serious now, “I took Lucien’s suggestion and collected some of my uncle’s hair and flesh. By testing them, we can know the accurate age of my uncle when he died to see if he was ever affected by the power of Heart of Time. This is very strong evidence, as time always leaves its trace!”

“‘Heart of Time’ could manipulate time after the princess’s death.” said Camil, who did not know much about the limit of Kritonia’s ability.

Natasha shook her head, “He can’t make time flow back. Also, Lucien told me that some changes only happened to people who were alive, unless he actually once brought uncle back to life.”

“Sorcerers are always full of tricks.” said Camil, who did not quite understand.

Natasha overlooked the city of Rentato from the high castle. After a while, she cheered up a little bit, “I’ve known Lucien for years, but I never got a chance to celebrate his birthday with him. I was quite upset that I was going to miss this one as well, but now the problem has been solved. I’ll visit Duke Rex’s manor and properties during the day and come back here on Lucien’s birthday in the evening!”

Natasha thought to herself hard what gift should she prepare for Lucien.

She walked back and forth in the living room, and then noticed that Camil was staring at her.

“What is it, aunt Camil?”

“Look in the mirror,” said Camil, using her chin to point at the mirror in the corner.

Natasha was confused, but she did as Camil said anyways. In the mirror, she saw a purple-haired lady whose cheeks were flushed with joy and excitement. Her face was glowing with a sweet smile extending all the way from the corner of her lips to her eyes.

“I look… different.” murmured Natasha surprisedly.

Natasha remembered that the last time she was like this was years ago, when she was still with Silvia.

Camil said calmly, “You’ve fallen in love with Lucien Evans.”

She was not asking, but saying a fact.

“What?!” Natasha’s eyes suddenly opened big as if she just got struck by a bolt of lightning.