Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The alchemical lives that worked for Arcana Review Board were responsible for several tasks: First, sort the papers received based on their keywords and forward them to the board members in the assorted fields; Second, send review results to the Sorcerer Administrative Department; Third, work out the weighted average of the comments given by the two assigned board members to conclude the final descriptive evaluation as well as how many arcana credits and points should be rewarded; Fourth, when two members’ comments differed greatly, send the paper to a third person.
And if the two board members did not agree on the review result given by the third person, a small meeting consisting of all the board members in this field and the author of the paper should be called for, during which the final decision would be reached after an oral defense of the author and discussion among the attendees. The meeting would be audited by a special consultant from the Highest Council.
The Arcana Review Board, as the most special department in the Congress, did not follow the formal organizational form and had no president or vice president. The entire fifteenth floor only consisted of the members, their servants, and some middle-rank sorcerers doing administrative work.
The alchemical life was now in a dilemma: It had somehow made a mistake and sent the paper to three board members at once. Now that all three of them had reviewed the paper, yet their opinions diverged remarkably like the difference between heaven and hell.
Finally, it left behind its own mistake and found a way out: Send all the comments to Mr. Neeshka, Ms. Milina, Mr. Evans, and the author Levski; Invite them to attend the small meeting which was going to be held at nine in the morning tomorrow; Also, send invitations to the other board members specializing in mathematics and to the Lord of Storm.
As the grand arcanist who had been guarding Allyn in the past several years, Fernando was the most ideal person to be the special consultant. If he was too busy to spare time for the meeting, he would be able to turn down the invitation at as soon as possible, leaving enough time for the alchemical life to invite other grand arcanists or legendary sorcerers.
…
In Sorcerer Administrative Department, Eric scratched his thin hair in confusion. He vaguely remembered that something similar happened before, but he could not come up with an accurate answer on what was happening.
Levski’s face, which was pale from catching the train early in the cold morning, now looked beyond miserable. “M-maybe, my paper was thrown into a garbage can…”
It was something that he had once experienced. At that time his paper had failed to pass, so he tried to submit his paper to some journals including Arcana Discussion, hoping that more people could see it and maybe even approve it. However, he never heard back from any journal, not even a rejection letter. Later, Levski was told that the editor had thrown his paper away after reading only one-third of it, believing that it was someone’s mischief.
“…” Eric was not sure. Although he knew Lucien relatively well and regarded Lucien as a mature young gentleman, Eric was uncertain if Lucien would throw the paper away, since it was understandable for someone so talented like Lucien to be proud and perhaps, a bit arrogant.
Suddenly, the iron cage burst out white light again. Levski got slightly startled, and silence seized the office.
“Maybe your paper is there… It was missed.” Eric comforted Levski.
Levski nodded fiercely, bereft of speech.
When the light disappeared, Eric took a closer look at the file and grinned. “It’s yours.”
Levski released a sigh of relief. But just in the next second, he became nervous again. Levski tried to reach out his hand several times, but retreated it in the end. He said in a trembling voice,
“Eric, please read the comments for me, one by one.”
Eric was also curious, so he agreed. In his mind, he hoped that Lucien’s comment could be sharp and straightforward, so Levski could finally know that it was time to give up and return to his normal path of life — Before Levski got obsessed with his geometry system, he was a hard-working promising arcanist majoring in Astrology and Math, who was appreciated by both the Congress and Tower.
Picking up the file, Eric saw two pages of comments and started reading.
“Mr. Neeshka, level eight arcanist, seventh-circle mage, authority in Astrology, Force Field, and Math, commented, ‘If Levski’s dream was to develop a paper that no one in the world could understand or accept, his dream would have come true. This paper is full of ridiculous errors. Like what I said, I strongly recommend Levski to look out of his window to see the bright sunlight and blue sky. This is our true world, and it has nothing to do with the geometry system in his imagination. My conclusion remains the same. The paper is useless.’”
Levski lowered his head. The comment from Neeshka was within his expectation, but was even bitterer than the last time. His hands clenched in fists, and his body uncontrollably trembled slightly.
Eric cast a sympathetic look at Levski, and he continued to read.
“Ms. Milina, level seven arcanist, seventh-circle mage, authority in Astrology, Electromagnetism, and Math, commented, ‘This paper is full of strange reasonings that do not make any sense, and the conclusion goes the opposite from common sense. Here I warn the author: Stop harassing the board members using your paper. Except for the format, the paper has nothing that meets the requirement for submission, but format will not help it pass the review. I don’t think there would be a new geometry system that differs from Tower Geometry.’”
Levski lowered his head. It was not known whether he was trying to hide the rage and despair on his face, or was he simply too embarrassed to look up. But judging from his still tightly-clenched hands, the answer was quite obvious.
At this moment, Levski felt like he was falling down from a cliff. He tried hard to fly up, to grab onto something, but he was not unable to do anything. He was going to fall into the pit of forever darkness, with his eyes wide open.
Then Levski heard the sound of Eric turning the pages. Levski’s face flushed, and his body shook, as if he had just caught a last glimmer of hope.
After a second, there was only silence. Ten seconds later, silence. After a minute, there was still only silence. Unable to bear it anymore, Levski finally looked up, only to see that Eric was just standing there, staring at the page, like a statue.
“Eric?” Levski’s voice quavered.
Like he had just woke up from a dream, Eric started reading as if in somniloquy.
“Mr. Evans, level six arcanist, fifth-circle mage, authority in Element and Thermodynamics, commented, ‘A daring hypothesis, rigorous deductive reasoning with no mistake at all. The author shows us a brand new geometry system that differs from Tower Geometry. If we can put aside our past experience and what we can see with our bare eyes, we will recognize an independent, well-developed, true, logical geometry system that should be named as Levski Geometry.’”
Levski’s mouth opened subconsciously. He was completely shocked. What he just heard made him feel it was a dream.
Eric was now staring at Levski as if he had never known this old friend. Then he kept reading.
“Although the value of this finding cannot be compared to that of calculus, I would still like to use the award given to the discovery of calculus as the standard to address the significance of this paper. May us all appreciate Mr. Levski’s great contribution to geometry, as well as his long-time perseverance.”
His head was buzzing. When Levski heard the thankful words, his eyes were blurred with tears.
Eric shared Levski’s feeling, and his voice softened.
“This is a groundbreaking, innovative, and universally-applicable paper, which deserves extensive discussion and surely will play a significant role in the development of arcana. I suggest that six hundred arcana credits and five thousand arcana points be given as awards.”
Levski opened his mouth, trying to say something, but failed. Suddenly, he burst into tears. Finally, his many years of hard work paid off! His many years of suffering and pain paid off!
Levski had a tough character and had never cried over this issue in the past decade. But now, he could not control himself anymore.
In fact, Lucien had thought of regarding the paper as “of extreme importance”. But since Levski had not provided any mathematical model so far, Lucien decided to give the paper a slightly more moderate comment.
Reading the remaining content the file, Eric waited until Levski calmed down a bit and said, “Since the comments vary greatly, a small meeting is going to be held at nine tomorrow morning. Remember to come.”
“I will,” Levski answered firmly. As long as there was one board member who saw the value of his paper, Levski was already very encouraged and believed that his life was no longer a waste.
Standing up, Levski murmured in low voice, “Thank you, Mr. Evans.”
…
In Fernando’s study.
After a minute of silence, Douglas stood up excitedly. “Young people are indeed more creative. Lucien, although what you said isn’t an easy job, your words have made me feel energized again.
“Maybe Bergner said is true… This is the era of great revolution and rapid development. I can’t wait to carry out the idea!”
As soon as Douglas finished his words, he summoned a space gate and went back to his own demiplane at an astonishing speed.
Fernando’s red eyes were now staring at Lucien thoughtfully. After a while, when Lucien was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, Fernando finally said,
“I don’t think your proposal is that simple…”
“It’s not that complicated,” said Lucien “full of confidence”.
When Fernando was about to ask some more questions, the magic circle on his desk lit up and a file appeared.
Picking up the file and skimming through it, Fernando grinned. “You’re such a troublemaker, Lucien. Tomorrow morning at nine, on the fifteenth floor there’s going to be a small meeting for the paper you reviewed. Huh, why are you always different from other people?”
Lucien was not surprised, “So, are you joining the meeting, sir?”
Fernando glared at Lucien and said sarcastically, “I gotta think carefully whether I should get involved in something that is supported by you. After all, it’s probably very dangerous… Wait a second, oh it’s a mathematics paper, so it won’t affect the cognitive world. But I still have to read the paper first.”
Lucien was a bit speechless. He was not sure how Fernando actually thought of his student in his mind.
……
In the tall tower, Neeshka was looking at the file silently. After a while, he threw the file onto the desk and said angrily, “What is Lucien Evans thinking about? Does he just simply supports everything that is shocking? Does he know what logic is?! Can he see the real world?!”
