Throne of Magical Arcana

“Did you first go over it?” After a while, Fernando finally asked.

Lucien, of course, understood what Fernando meant. He grinned and said, “Sir, it’s not a subversive paper… not at all. It’s just a following-up paper about the discovery of electron. Sir, you must know that I found the curse in the vase because of the induction of stream of electrons, so I verified the special material of the vase using the method of studying cathode ray.”

Fernando took the paper and complained casually, “I was always the one handling all the troubles you made after reading your papers. Can’t you just write some normal papers?”

For Fernando, he was in fact quite happy to see some okay-subversive papers because he was always looking forward to the progress in the world of arcana. However, coping with the aftermath of an extremely overturning theory such as the discontinuity of the form of energy was a totally different story. Being quite bad-tempered and impatient, Fernando hoped that he could just wait and then read the summaries of Lucien’s papers just like Douglas, however, as Lucien’s teacher, he was always the one in the front to handle all the huge cognition shifts.

However, Lucien was more than happy to have his very powerful and influential teacher handle all the troubles for him and to prevent more sorcerers from having their head exploded.

So Lucien just smiled but did not say anything when hearing Fernando’s complaint.

Turning the pages, the look on Fernando’s face became more serious. After a while, he finally made the comment, shaking his head, “Morris will for sure hate himself because he did not help Bellak.”

The title of the paper was A New Element that can Radiate Electrons Stream and Another Two Types of Rays. In Fernando’s eyes, the greatest finding in Lucien’s new paper was not so much the discovery of the new element called Uranium but it had proved the fact that the electrons indeed were from the corresponding atoms, and therefore, the inner structure of atom indeed existed. This accomplishment was worth another Holm Crown prize.

“It’s not the major focus of the paper, sir.” Lucien reminded Fernando in a low voice.

Fernando looked up with his sharp red eyes.

“Somehow the special material also emits a new element…” Lucien tried to make his language vague and ambiguous in case too much information would be released.

“What do you mean by emitting ‘a new element’?” Fernando doubted his own ears.

Fernando went back to the paper and read the specific part carefully. As he was reading, his tone became more serious, “Have you ever analyzed the special material? Is this new element part of the material itself?”

“I did. I extracted some of the special elements using the Collecting Spell and the magic circles, however, the new element—I called it helium—still existed. Although there can be some undiscovered elements in the material extracted, I am sure that no helium or its alchemical form was in it,” Lucien said to Fernando, pointing at the last several pages of the article.

“What is behind the elemental changes? Can elements change into each other?” Fernando could not help asking himself. After a few more minutes, he calmed down and said to Lucien as usually, “You’re indeed blessed by the Goddess of Luck, Lucien. You can even get a special material from the assassination against you. I believe that, at the end of our exploration, we’ll understand the secret behind the birth of substances.”

Following the tradition of the ancient magic empire, the Congress liked to use the title of the goddesses to refer to different things: the nature and essence of magic were called the Goddess of Magic, the more threatening coldness was called the Goddess of Ice and Snow… However, they meant totally different things from what the churches believed.

“Sir, I don’t want to submit the paper right away. I want it to be sealed for a few years just like how we did with Miracle Experiment,” said Lucien.

“Why?” Fernando was very confused, as this was not a subversive paper and thus it would no further piss off the Church and other sorcerers. It would be great if more arcanists could read this paper and thus had the guidance to explore the micro-world.

Fernando turned the pages and saw the new magic spells created by Lucien at the end of the paper: Evans’ Freezing Ray and Snow Goddess’ Whip.

“Just for this?” Fernando asked although he knew how powerful the two spells were as the founder of the field of Thermodynamics, “Your two spells have lowered the limit of ultra-low temperature by more than ten degrees, and as soon as you publish it, you can win and Ice & Snow Medal right away… You still don’t want to turn the paper in?”

Hearing that, Alferris’ stared at the paper very enthusiastically. It wished that the name, Alferris, could be added on the paper.

“Knowing the existence of helium, one can easily come up with the two spells. I want to keep them as my secret weapon.” Lucien explained.

Fernando grinned but shook his head, “You can’t keep them to yourself for long, Lucien. Don’t forget that Atlant has also taken away part of the material, and Punishment Department also has it. Take a guess, when can they figure this out?”

“In three or four years,” answered Lucien.

Fernando grinned, “The upcoming five to six years should be the key stage for you to become a senior-rank, and I don’t think it’ll be wise if you leave Allyn too often. So you don’t really need a secret weapon. Even if you have become a sixth or seventh-circle sorcerer, the two spells can still help you as they are indeed very powerful. You killed Bellak with the freezing ray, right? So your cognition world has been substantialized primarily?”

“Yup… when I confirmed that electron is part of atom’s inner structure.” Lucien dared not to say that the substantialization, in fact, happened when he put forward the assumption that the form of power was discontinuous.

Lucien thanked Bellak and the cursed vase again in his mind, as the finding that electron was part of atom’s inner structure was also shocking enough to substantialize one’s cognition world, or Lucien would not have any proper excuse.

The Lord of Storm did not doubt Lucien’s words but nodded slightly, “I see. You’re likely to become a senior-rank in three to four years. If you need any materials, go to my demiplane warehouse to see if you can find any. As you wish, the paper can be sealed for two years, but I’ll inform Atlant about it, I just don’t want him to waste his time. It can be a good thing that you postpone the submission. If you turn the paper in right away, Morris, the money pincher, is going to find his excuse that this was just a following-up finding and refuse to give you a separate ring. But, I’ve heard that Timothy and Ulysses are both working on the constitution of gas, and they’ve made some progress, so your paper probably can’t be kept as a secret for too long.”

When hearing that Lucien could have the access to Fernando’s demiplane warehouse, Alferris’ eyes immediately lit up and it stared at Lucien as if it was trying to incite him to take away every single item from the warehouse.

Lucien pretended that he did not see Alferris. Although he himself was pretty much a money pincher as well, he knew that he should not be greedy here, especially when right now he was not having a very tight budget.

“Anyway, in the next years, focus on improving your magic power first,” Fernando said to Lucien.

…

In Rentato, in Nekso Palace.

“We have to stop this! The Church and the Congress can’t launch the war!” James, the bareheaded duke said aloud.

The major nobles of the Kingdom of Holm who were right now in Rentato were gathered by King Feltis and Prince Patrick for the emergency that broke out today.

The leader of the noble parliament, Flenburg Duke Rakers, looked at James in a cold way, “Stop them? We’ve tried so hard to maintain the balance so the damned sorcerers can make their own living, but you see how they paid us back? It’s going to be a horrible mistake if we keep supporting them!”

Rakers was wearing the red wig and his face was carefully shaved. The deep wrinkles at the corner of his eyes shaped the contrast to his blue eyes. His eyes were shaped as those an imposing griffin, which complied with his title, King’s Griffin.

“No matter how open-minded and radical a noble is, he would not completely abandon the Church; and no matter how conservative a noble is, he is also aware of the fact that, without the Congress, we nobles would never have the power and status that we’re enjoying now.” Wolfburg Duke Russell did not want to waste any time but directly put the fact on the table.

Then the argument between the Conservative and the Liberal suddenly stopped. Silence presided over the palace.

Seeing the king’s squinted eyes, Hackson, Chancellor of the Exchequer, hurriedly made a pretended cough and said, “Please be careful with your language, Russel. Our honor and power come from God’s blessing, the generosity of our king, as well as our own effort.”

Prince Patrick said seriously, “The Church first caused the conflict, and we shall not put all the blames on the Congress. Meanwhile, we can’t let this rich and beautiful land suffer from war, so the mediation work is our responsibility.”

Mentioning their own benefits, power, and status, the nobles gradually came to an agreement. Only several old nobles who were extreme conservatives furiously left the meeting halfway.

After assigning all the tasks to the nobles, only the king and the prince were left in the palace except the servants.

The old king cast Prince Patrick a meaningful look and slightly shook his head. As he turned around, the king murmured to himself:

“What’s the future of kingdom… What’s the future of the family…”

All of them knew that the balance was too delicate to last forever. However, right now, they could only turn a blind eye to that fact because there was simply no better choice.

…

In the coach, Flenburg Duke suddenly sighed.

Another noble who was sitting opposite to him in the coach asked, “Sir?”

“The Congress of Magic is way too powerful. If we keep spoiling them like this and let them grow, we’ll pay for sure. James and those people are too myopic,” said Rakers.

“Then why did you support mediation?” asked the noble, “Let the Church and the Congress fight.”

Rakers shook his head, “Launching the all-out war right now isn’t good for us. We have to find the proper chance to defeat the Congress with one strike together with the Church, and then, again, we support the remaining power of the Congress so the Church would not take all the power. We keep repeating it this way, and thus hopefully the balance can be kept.”

…

“How long can we keep this balance?” asked the bareheaded duke James in Russel’s coach.

Russel answered in a deep voice, “One day, we finally need to make a choice—whether we should weaken the Congress, or completely remove the South Church like the countries under the control of the North Church. Before the Saint Truth dies out, the Congress will not become a threat to us. Also, the balance in the overall situation is easier to maintain than the smaller balance in an individual country. Without being careful, this precious thing can be broken.”

“If so… we won’t be able to ascend to Mountain Paradise.” Hackson sighed.

“Mountain Paradise? Haha..” James repeated with a laugh.

…

Several days later, Allyn still remained safe and sound. No war was launched by the Saint Truth.

Lucien got the message from Florencia:

“This weekend, your Holm Crown prize will be granted to you in Allyn.”