Throne of Magical Arcana

Inside the villa at the suburb of Allyn…

Blake completely devoted himself to the calculation of the redundant precession of the Morning Star at the perihelion according to Lucien’s formula.

During Lucien’s intentional pauses, he wrote quickly, his quill not stopping at all.

Suddenly, he raised his head, his eyes full of shock and disbelief. Then, he rushed into the library searching the arcana and magic books.

He was not a sorcerer who was good at astrology and force fields, and he did not remember the observation of the redundant precession carefully. However, the impression he had about the number was burning inside his head, making him unable to control himself and his head was swollen.

The result of his calculation seemed very close to the observed value in his impression!

What did it mean?

What did it suggest?

One book after another was drawn out by him, only to be thrown away after his casual look. Finally, he found his childhood book from a long, long time ago – ‘Fifteen Conundrums About Astrology’!

His hands shivering, he looked into the table of contents and found ‘The problem that the observed precession of the Morning Star at the perihelion does not agree with the prediction of Douglas’ motion system – Page 39′.

Turning the pages quickly, Blake saw the eye-catching data at first glance.

After a crack, the hard-covered book fell to the carpet with a dull noise. Blake stood where he was like a statue.

The two values were so close. What did it mean?

At this moment, Lucien’s voice spread out of the magic radio again:

“After calculation, we can determine the redundant precession of the Morning Star at the perihelion to be… which basically agrees with observation.”

His words were filled with such powerful charm that Blake was suddenly back to himself, whose facial muscles were horribly twisted because of his wild joy.

What did it mean?

It meant that the explanation on the nature of gravity had both the theoretical support and factual confirmation!

It meant that Mr. Lucien Evans’ general theory of relativity was the theory closest to the truth of gravity so far!

It meant that the problem that baffled Mr. President and many other arcanists was not unanswerable. It was unnecessary to introduce a supreme being for gravity to be self-consistent! Mr. Lucien Evans had offered an explanation that completely surpassed the age and any imagination!

It meant that the path of arcana was not wrong. There were perhaps a lot of unresolved problems, but everybody was always on the path of working them out!

Although he could hardly understand Lucien’s general theory of relativity, it did not prevent Blake from deducing and calculating with part of the conclusions. Based on the result, he believed that the theory could explain the nature of gravity. His previous confusion and loss were entirely gone.

Perhaps, it was exactly because he did not understand it that he had no suspicion and directly went for the answer.

The nature of gravity had been explained, and so would the other baffling arcana problems, as long as they forever pressed forward in exploration and research and never gave up!

“Mr. President, have you heard Mr. Evans’ theory? I believe that your confusion must be gone now…”

……

“After calculating, we can determine the redundant precession of the Morning Star at the perihelion to be… which basically agrees with observation.”

When Lucien said that, Samantha watched him in shock and excitement in the broadcast room. The problem that bothered the school of astrology for years was resolved in such a way. Also, it proved that Lucien’s explanation on the nature of gravity was closer to the truth.

She had been admiring Lucien’s talents and achievements, but she was very confident in herself when it came to horoscopes. Because Lucien had never made any accomplishments in this field, she never realized that he had such astonishing, profound and innovative understandings about gravity and astrology.

Looking at Lucien who was speaking casually, she had the same feeling when Mr. President answered questions for her teacher and herself. They were both so calm and remarkable.

In a trance, Samantha thought to herself. After Lucien resolved the time error on the artificial planets by introducing the gravitational time dilation, her cognitive world was suddenly seething. Even though she had only just learnt the basic content, her cognitive world was already half-solidifying. Her teacher, Neeshka, was an authority in mathematics and only second to Levski and Levski in geometry and tensor analysis. So, she was quite good at that field, too.

“This is definitely a groundbreaking paper… No, a paper that surpasses the age!”

Around her, most arcanists looked more or less the same, except that their achievement was not as great as Samantha because of their insufficient mathematical expertise.

However, the panic that Douglas’ speech brought to them vanished. Confusion was acceptable as long as confidence was still there! Lucien Evans’ accomplishment at such a moment showed them the bright prospect of arcana. Even though they could not understand it, the conclusion and the final calculation seemed fine.

Hellen had stopped reading the paper and decided to read ‘Nature’ of the past four years after she was back. She said to Fernando in a low voice, “I seem to have seen another Mr. President…”

“Sometimes, he is not that stupid.” Fernando snorted and intended to criticize his student, but still gave a remark of ‘pretty good’ – for his standard – in the end. Then, he continued reading the paper.

It was the most intricate and abstruse paper he had ever read. He mumbled, “If Douglas sees this…”

In Allyn, in Rentato, in Salyvaor, in Cocus, in the Solar Islands and the Pearl Islands, the arcanists and apprentices, no matter how much they really understood, became refreshed and confident again.

Lucien cleared his throat and closed his backup paper. “This is my opinion on the nature of gravity. It fits the phenomena observed so far, and I have offered a few prophecies to be prove it. I believe that we will have better understanding about gravity and space after the equations of gravitational field are solved.”

Then, Lucien suddenly changed the topic, “However, I can only say that my paper is closer to the truth, but it is not the truth. Flaws about the theory will be found, and it is only applicable in a certain range. Up until so far, what we can grasp is the relative truth but not the absolute truth…”

Seizing the opportunity, Lucien introduced certain notions he talked about earlier again. Samantha, Blake and other arcanists nodded slightly, gaining a deeper understanding about the development of arcana in the past hundreds of years.

“…I believe that everybody can be confused now and then during studies. I had similar situations myself and I still do. I am often lost and sometimes lose confidence… This is perfectly normal. There’s no need to feel that you can’t find any field of research. Too many things are out there waiting for us to study.”

“‘The more you know, the more ignorant you feel you are.’ That’s a philosophical proverb, but I would like to add something else to it. ‘It is exactly the reason why we should work hard and stop ignorance from becoming our label. Thinking and exploration should be what we are most proud of when we live in this world.”

Clap, clap, clap. The arcanists in the broadcast room applauded. They were already freed from the incident just now. Even if the conversation was real, so what? Everybody could be lost and unconfident now and then, but they could also resume their journey after their mood got better!

Seeing that Samantha was about to talk, Lucien hinted her to wait and smiled, “As a matter of fact, I finished another experiment just now, which proved the existence of neutrons.”

What?

The arcanists in the broadcast room and other places couldn’t close their mouth. While accomplishing such a paradigm-shifting paper, Lucien Evans discovered neutrons?

Was it a night of miracles tonight?

For the sorcerers who were adept at elements, such as Larry, K, Timothy, Ulysses and Annick, they felt blood surging into their heads, and they almost passed out.

The discovery of neutrons meant the fundamental validity of the new alchemy. It meant the age of grand development for the school of elements!

Controlling his body, Raventi listened to the experiment procedures carefully.

After Lucien finished, he rushed into his laboratory as if he had cast Advanced Speed on himself.

Discovering neutrons from the conservation of momentum and energy after collisions had always been his methodology, but the materials had to be tried again and again. He estimated that it would take him three years to finish the experiment. But right now, everything was different. With Lucien’s experiment, he touched the edge of neutrons directly.

Finding the materials and making a plate, Raventi turned on the cyclotron and let the Helium atom nucleus hit the metal plate again and again.

When he captured the traces when protons were blown out, he had the feeling that his hands were shaking beyond his control.

When the data was recorded, he felt that his eyes were blurry.

When he calculated that the rays that blew out protons were neutrons, two suns seemed to be rising inside his grey eyes.

BOOM!

Rentato was suddenly enshrouded in clouds and thunder!

“Is somebody’s cognitive world half-solidifying because of Lucien’s paper and experiment?” Natasha looked at the sky out of the window delightedly and proudly.

Kritonia, after hearing Lucien’s introduction, noticed the weather change in Rentato in shock. “Another archmage’s cognitive world is half-solidifying? Is it because of the explanation on the nature of gravity or the discovery of neutrons?”

“Judging from the disorder of elements and the shadow of the atomic nucleus, it’s the discovery of neutrons.” Benedict III was also watching Rentato.

Kritonia found it hard to accept. “Before, I only knew that the improvement of arcana studies could strengthen the sorcerers, but can a single paper and one experiment result in such astonishing effects?”

“Does Lucien’s paper and experiment equal five legends?”

“Both the general theory of relativity and the new alchemy are far more valuable than five legends.” Benedict III’s voice became cold. “We did not pay enough attention to Lucien. I will raise his rank on the Cleansing List again and ask ‘Night Executioner’, the top night watcher, to deal with him in person.”

‘Night Executioner’, the top night watcher, was a legendary sorcerer. Therefore, the Church never included him when it announced its power, but only claimed that it had nineteen saint cardinals, five divine knights (Melmax, Anthony, Beliel, Stone and Vaharall). However, when the Congress of Magic and other forces evaluate the strength of the Church, they would still include ‘Night Executioner’ and consider the number of the top experts of the Church to be twenty.

Kritonia found it impossible to understand the consequences of arcana studies, but the consequences had already happened. “Your Holiness, what’s Lucien’s rank going to be?”

“The thirteenth. The Fallen Morning Star will be right after all the top legends.” Replied Benedict III unemotionally.

After the explosion of ‘Eternal Blaze’, the top eleven on the Cleansing List were all experts at the peak of legendary. Ranking from the first to the eleventh were: the pontiff of the northern heretics; ‘Emperor of Arcana’, Danisos; ancient vampire, Dracula; primordial dragon of time, Danisos; the elvish queen; the Prince of Abyss and Duke of Bronze on the first level of hell; Edwyn Brook, the Emperor of Control; Fernando, the Lord of Storm; Hathaway, Master of Infinite Oceans and Lord of Elements; and Rhine, the Silver-eyed Count, who could borrow the power of the Silver Moon and be as strong as the peak of legendary for a short while.