Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Following Lucien’s suggestion, after writing down “electromagnetism” on the front page of the paper, Dieppe had submitted it to Arcana Review Board. It was said that every groundbreaking finding would receive the feedback from the true world, so he wondered when that would happen to him. Perhaps he had to wait until an experiment that supported his finding was available…
In his understanding, the broad application of wave–particle duality was a breakthrough close to general theory of relativity and new alchemy in terms of significance, and as important as the discovery of the periodic table of elements, so the feedback should occur. However, he also understood that without a solid experiment, he would not even believe in it himself. Therefore, the feedback from the true world had not arrived yet.
“Electromagnetism. To Mr. Marcus and Mr. Yana,” said the cold, metal-like voice of an alchemical life.
The paper had been sent to the two authorities in the school of electromagnetism. Since it was a paper developed by a high-ranking arcanist, it wasn’t sent to their students or editors, but directly to their desks. After they finished their own studies, they finally had the time to pick the paper up.
Marcus looked quite young despite the fact that he was already a high-ranking sorcerer. He had bright red hair and always wore a pair of black gloves like those night watchers. He would not take the gloves off even when doing experiments or practicing magic spells.
“A Hypothesis Based on Light Quantum Theory and the Study…” Marcus read the title of the paper, frowning. His black velvet gloves gently striking the front page of the paper, Marcus was a bit confused and felt a bit reluctant to read further, as the discovery of light quantum had messed up his understanding of electromagnetic wave again.
But he still opened it and took a few glances at it. After knowing the premises that the hypothesis based on, an interested smile appeared on his face, “That’s something…”
The paper was dozens of pages long, and the content was not tough for Marcus. It did not take him long to finish reading it.
“Electrons are waves? Interesting. Dieppe applying the duality to a brand new level… Good for him,” Marcus grinned, as he could imagine how pissed the supporters of particle theory would be, but he soon released a sigh, “but it’s still a hypothesis that is waiting for solid experiment proof. Who knows when such an experiment can come out…”
Honestly speaking, Marcus did not really believe in Dieppe’s paper, although the paper did cater for his taste. After verifying the deduction process himself, Marcus wrote down.
“Bold, amazing hypothesis. It’s an adventurous attempt to approach the truth of the world and therefore is for certain very subversive. I’ll give the paper these comments: Groundbreaking, extremely important, worth broad discussion, and universally-applied in terms of microscopic particles. However, as it remains to be a hypothesis based on deduction, I suggest that, for now, ten arcana credits and two hundred arcana points be given, and further award can be granted when a solid experiment is available.”
Marcus did not give the paper the comment of being groundbreaking as the paper was from Lucien’s wave–particle duality.
Finishing the writing, Marcus put the paper back in an envelope and started reading other papers. In his eyes, no matter how interesting the paper was and how well it catered to his taste, it was still unworthy of his major attention and time. Maybe in his spare time, he could give some thoughts to the possible experiment, but so far he had no clues at all. And there were still lots of important things waiting for him to do.
Meanwhile, in Yana Aamir’s study, the short, brown-haired man was so amused that his back bent forward, “Electrons are waves? Good for Dieppe for his imagination. I bet Raventi had given him some good lessons!”
But he had to admit that the paper was indeed interesting, and he was happy to see how those particle theory supporters felt after reading the paper. In the future, if they kept mentioning Mr. Evans’s light quantum theory, they could use this paper to fight back. But then he shook his head: The hypothesis was still waiting for experiment proof, and the experiment might not be able to come out in decades, or there simply was no such an experiment. If that was the case, the paper would be forever forgotten by history.
He had seen some bold hypotheses, especially after Lucien Evans’s a series of successive subversive findings. However, none of them could present any conclusive proof, and therefore, they remained to be bold hypotheses.
Yana had to restrain himself from giving the paper high comments. He finally put it down this way, “Interesting, genius imagination. It is the most inspiring paper that I have read so far this year, as it has broken the restraints from our old belief. However, with out experiment proof, this innovative, extremely important, and universally-applied paper which is worthy of broad discussion still remains as a fancy. At this point, I will give it eight arcana credits and a hundred fifty arcana points. I hope that all arcanists can join for the experimentation.”
Although he was saying that all arcanists should try to develop a valid experiment, Yana himself quickly turned to work on other things. Before he could finish all the tasks that had been piling up, Yana was very unlikely to verify the hypothesis.
The result soon returned to Dieppe. He was not surprised by the poor, nine-credit award. If it had been Dieppe himself reviewing the paper, he might just give one or two credits as the award. Obviously, the two board members loved his hypothesis.
Then Dieppe started thinking which journal he should send his paper to, Electromagnetism? Light-darkness? Or Common Arcana? Dieppe knew that there was no way that he could publish his paper on Arcana and Magic, as in this paper there was only a hypothesis. As for Element, the editor would definitely tear his paper into pieces if he dared to send it.
When he was thinking, his servant came in and brought him an invitation letter for contribution.
It was from Nature.
Because of the profound influence of general theory of relativity, in the recent half year, the subscription volume had also been increasing rapidly. Now it had been the most authoritative in math, ranking the same level with Element and Astrology, and therefore it was a very good option for the paper.
Dieppe instantly accepted the invitation, and one of the reasons was that Mr. Lucien Evans was this journal’s honor editor. It seemed that the journal was trying to gain some influence outside of the realm of mathematics to become a comprehensive journal like Arcana and Magic.
…
Marcus and Yana let the news out on purpose. Therefore, within two weeks, some well-informed arcanists had known that there was such a paper available and bought it.
Staring at the paper in front of him, Larry felt a bit amused. After reading through it, he felt that he was in a dream. He wondered if it was because Dieppe wanted to scare people that he threw at people such a bold and nonsense hypothesis.
Gaston was quite close to Raventi, and therefore, Larry also knew Dieppe relatively well. He grinned and shook his head, and then put aside the paper.
In Department of Battle Sorcerer, sitting in his armchair, Jurisian was also amused by the paper. He kept grinning that the muscles in his face even felt a bit sore. Jurisian did not mind the paper, and in fact, he liked the hypothesis. However, if the paper was proved, a new round of head-explosion would surely ensue, just like what happened after the hypothesis of light quanta was confirmed. However, this time they did not have another three years to get prepared.
Jurisian put aside the paper. He would try to design an experiment when he got time.
In Atom Institution, Sprint was also reading Dieppe’s paper. His status had been improved a lot since Lucien Evans joined the Highest Council. He disapproved of the paper since he did not believe that this subversive hypothesis would come true at all. After all, there was only one Lucien Evans, and not everyone could make overturning but also reasonable hypotheses.
In the students’ eyes, the paper was a joke. They were those who first knew of the existence of electrons, and also those who had done most of the experiments on electron. All the experiment results had shown the particle property of electron already. When the hypothesis of light quantum was first put forward, it still more or less made the slightest amount of sense because of Ether theory, but this time, it was totally different.
“Nothing supports it.” Heidi agreed.
Annick tried to say something, but he also felt that the hypothesis was indeed ridiculous. So he nodded like the other students. But he finally added,
“I mean… If we’ve got time, we might still want to work on designing an experiment magic circle based on the electron wavelength given in the paper to see if there is any diffraction or interference. Only experiments explain everything.”
Although Sprint disliked this crazy hypothesis, as Lucien’s student, his attitude remained cautious, “Yes, we can deny it using an experiment. But so far there’s nothing like this matching the given wavelength.”
“Doesn’t do any harm to give it a try. It’s practice.” Heidi grinned.
The students had reached the agreement, and they had no intention of telling this to their teacher. In their eyes, the paper did not deserve too much attention, not to mention their teacher’s attention.
However, when the grand arcanists finished reading the paper from Dieppe, they were much more alert and worried than ordinary arcanists, since the hypothesis did stem from light quantum hypothesis, and therefore, it could be possibly correct, but due to the limitation on current research methods, they could only try to improve some existing magic circles in their spare time. After all, they were too occupied by their own studies and arcana research.
…
The beginning of February had arrived, and Lucien had successfully constructed Vengeful Gaze within his soul.
As a member of Arcana Review Board, Marcus had the earliest access to all the latest journals for this month. But he would not read all of them, just simply Arcana, Magic, Electromagnetism, Astrology, Element, and Nature. As for the rest of them, he would first read the digests first to decide if he would dig in further.
Picking up Arcana, without surprise, Marcus saw the headline on the cover:
“Vol.2, 825, to praise the birth of general theory of relativity, a great theory put forward by Mr. Lucien Evans who leads us to the truth of gravity.”
This was what an epoch-making arcana find deserved.
Flipping the page, the front page was Douglas’ and Bergner’s final review result and comments:
“This is an epoch-making theory, which reveals it to us that the nature of gravity is curved space-time. Despite the complexity of the deduction, it is so well-conceived and rigorous that no errors exist. The calculation result based on the theory fits perfectly in the data of morning star precession when it approaches the perihelion and how time elapses faster on an artificial planet. Therefore, we can say it with confidence that the theory offers so far the closest description of the truth of gravity and thus it is one of the most significant findings in the history of magic!”
“If my objectivity can be ignored here, I will give it the top honor. The general theory of relativity carries unmatched theoretical beauty and it will lead the development of arcana to a brand new level.”
“The system of general relativity had led us into the most basic yet deeply-hidden nature of arcana, where the stunning truth of the world is partially revealed to us. I suggest thirty thousand arcana credits and eight hundred thousand arcana points be given to Mr. Evans for his relativity system!”
“It’s a night of miracles. What happened at this very night will be remembered forever by the upcoming generations and they will picture and praise this very night using their biggest interest and most vivid words.”
Marcus took a deep breath. He was slightly shocked by the reward but he also agreed that it was reasonable. The theoretical system of relativity was the most simplified and beautiful discovery in electromagnetism, and it solved the most difficult problem that had bothered arcanists generation after generation.
Marcus flipped through the pages. All the papers were on or about general theory of relativity. He then put the journal aside because he had to stay fully concentrated when reading general theory of relativity, so he was going to save it until later. The entire theory was still very difficult for him.
After reading Magic, Marcus picked up Nature. He wanted to read the papers on Evans Geometry and tensor analysis.
Taking a glance at the content page, Marcus saw a familiar title, A Hypothesis Based on Light Quantum Theory and the Study.
He slightly frowned, as he never expected that Nature would publish such a sheer hypothesis. He wondered if Dieppe had used any tricks to get the paper published.
Turning the page, Marcus was surprised to see the comment from the editor under the title of the paper,
“…Maybe this paper is pulling up a corner of the curtain and showing us a small part of the truth…”
The contributing editor was Lucien Evans.
Marcus’s hands suddenly felt numb. The journal dropped from his hands on the desk.
“… pulling up a corner of the curtain?”
Marcus repeated the comment in low voice. He could not believe his eyes. Although Lucien Evans did not necessarily mean being always correct, such a comment from him was enough to make most arcanists look at this paper again and put more attention to it!
