Chapter 153: The Hand of Paleness
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Lucien’s attitude was not out of Felipe’s expectation, so he put on an elegant smile, “It’s my great pleasure that Professor actually heard my name before.”
However, although he was saying that, in Felipe’s mind, as a talent who had already published his first article on the influential journal Magic, he felt that of course Professor should have heard his name.
Then, Felipe changed his tone, “But it seems that you don’t really value this gathering, Professor. We are all from the congress, and you’re still wearing that ugly black hood? That doesn’t match your status.”
Lucien knew that now every word he said might put him at great risk, but remaining silent all the time would definitely make him more suspicious. So, he carefully kept his answer short and answered with a husky tone, “Honestly, I don’t want you, Mr. Felipe, to stir any trouble for me when we get back to Allyn.”
At first, when Lucien was trying to use the identity Professor to pretend that he was a member from the Will of Elements, Lucien did not expect to have such a big trouble, and even his crystal ball did not suggest anything specific. After all, it was totally unexpected that even within the congress there was such great conflict between different factions. Although Lucien’s only intention―as well as his major goal―was to find out who was the liaison in Sturk, this Mr. Felipe would definitely give him a hard time, and Lucien was almost regretful that he decided to use the identity of Professor without a second thought.
Lucien knew that he was in a dilemma. It was impossible for him to just admit everything right now in front of this guy.
“Well… You’re pretty straightforward, Professor,” said Felipe. Then he pointed at the long couch on the other side of the study, “We still got some time before the gathering. I’d like to have a conversation with you… you know, to exchange some ideas.”
Then Felipe turned to the viscount, “Do you mind?”
“Of course not. Go ahead.” The viscount did not care. He raised his glass of wine a bit and nodded casually.
Although Lucien didn’t want to talk to him at all, he forced himself to stay calm and sat down on the couch, “What do you want to talk about, Mr. Felipe?”
Inside Lucien’s mind, he was praying that Felipe would not mention anything about the congress or the Kingdom of Holm. He knew nothing about them!
“No… No… No…” Lucien said to himself in his mind, and his heart was beating so fast that it almost jumped out of his throat.
The pale flame in Felipe’s eyes disappeared and his dark pupils came back.With a gloomy smile on his face, Felipe pointed at the man standing close by, “This is my student, Cleveland, and he’s also a second circle sorcerer studying necromantic magic after me.”
Lucien simply nodded to the middle-aged man.
Then Felipe continued, “Besides that, Cleveland’s also interested in Element magic. After Mr. Donald won the twenty-fifth ring from Holm Crown prize recently with his groundbreaking research analyzing new elements by introducing the knowledge of spectral analysis, Cleveland is planning to write an arcana essay on spectral analysis as well. However, he definitely needs some help there and that’s why I started to gain some interest in the field of Element as well. If you don’t mind, Mr. Professor, maybe we can exchange some ideas over this topic.” When he was talking with great confidence, Felipe crossed his fingers and Lucien noticed that his left hand was missing the little finger.
Although Lucien could tell that Felipe must be very confident when talking about the Element school, he felt very lucky that Felipe did not go to the directions where he knew nothing about.
Feeling a bit more relaxed, Lucien quickly started to analyze Felipe’s intention. Now that Felipe did not ask him anything about the congress and the Kingdom of Holm, Lucien was certain that Felipe was not doubting his identity right now. Instead, he was talking about arcana, and that meant this topic was more important than anything else.
However, what Lucien wanted to figure out was that why a necromancer wanted to talk about elements and arcana? What could this do for him?
Lucien was guessing that Felipe was probably trying to test his knowledge or his arcana level.
Based on Lucien’s past experience in the small circle of magic in Aalto, it was not difficult for Lucien to link knowledge to power in this world, which was also true in his original world. He was not almost certain that Felipe was trying to test his arcana level to figure out how powerful he actually was and then, based on that, to decide whether he should directly attack him, since the best way to figure out one’s arcana level was to talk about the cutting-edged knowledge in the person’s professional field.
Thinking of that, Lucien really learned his lesson this time. He knew that he was becoming more and more careless from many times of being lucky and getting abundant rewards. Fortunately, Felipe was only talking about the fundamental principles of Element arcana, and Lucien, being the opposite of the most common cases, had more profound knowledge of the scientific facts, which was understood as arcana knowledge here, behind the magic phenomena. In other words, Lucien’s arcana level should be higher than that of his magic power.
“Mr. Professor?” Seeing that Lucien remaining silent, Felipe pushed him in a threatening tone, and the pale flame appeared in Felipe’s eyes again. He was waiting for the mysterious Professor to reveal his knowledge and power.
Lucien smiled, “I happen to have some understanding in spectral analysis. However, I prefer that we do not dig into this field too much, since there’s nothing else more valuable than knowledge, right? I can’t just say everything to you straightforwardly without getting any compensation.”
Spectrum was a topic that was relatively familiar to Lucien since he had read a couple of related books in his spirit library, and he also to some degree understood the principle of the atomic knowledge involved. Furthermore, according to Lucien, the researches in the field of Element, which was actually Chemistry in his original world, still remained at the macro level. In other words, sorcerers here acknowledged a bunch of chemical phenomena but without knowing why, and that was the key point limiting them from finding more new elements.
Speaking about this, after Lucien became a real sorcerer, some of the books in his spirit library were unlocked, and the knowledge in those unlocked books was all relatively basic.
Lucien did not realize the change in his spirit library until he first tried to do his astrology meditation during his trip. This also confirmed Lucien’s guess that the seals of the books should come from the suppression of the power of the world’s origin. Lucien could only contend with and unlock the seals by strengthening his soul and spiritual power.
“Fair enough. Although, to be honest, as a sorcerer from the Hand of Paleness, I quite dislike people from the Will of Element. I think we can be straightforward with this, ha. I do respect others’ research results and I won’t steal them,” said Felipe. Seeing that Professor still remained quite calm, Felipe had a bad feeling that Professor might really have an insight into this field, which meant he was a sorcerer of high arcana level. And, in most cases, one’s magic level should still be lower than the person’s magic level.
Leaning against the couch, Lucien started his speech, “The theoretical basis of spectral analysis is that the combustion of different elements produces different flame colors and lights. While the flame colors can be overlapped and covered by each other, the spectrum cannot. Through the analysis called spectrocolorimetry, the ranges and colors of bright spectral lines are independent and they do not affect each other. And that’s why spectral analysis can be used to identify different elements and discover new elements.”
During Lucien’s short speech, he also used a couple of elements for example, whose principles worked basically the same with some elements in his original world.
Felipe listened to Lucien’s explanation carefully and raised a few questions from time to time. When Lucien finished his words, Felipe applauded gently and commented, “Impressive explanation. Even clearer and easier to understand than Mr. Donald’s arcana paper.”
Although he was saying so, Felipe started to keep an even stricter vigilance over the man sitting across him on the couch.
Seizing the chance, Lucien continued, “In fact, spectral analysis is more on the application side. In order to find new elements, we don’t need to go too far more than just mechanically doing experiments. However, what we need to think about is why the spectrum of each element is different? Why don’t they overlap? Why there are bright and dark spectral lines? As far as I’m concerned, these are the directions that we shall pursue in order to deepen our arcana knowledge, and I believe that is Mr. Douglas’ true intention of defining Arcana.”
Felipe was very surprised with Professor’s insight into the field, and even the viscount who was listening to their conversation casually on the other side of the study was touched by Professor’s questions. When the arcanists in the Congress of Magic were still wild with joy with finding new elements, the man sitting on the couch was seeking for the nature of these findings.
“If we can explore more about the world itself…” Felipe murmured. He could not help but think of the shocking comment that master Douglas, the Emperor of Arcana, once addressed, and the young man sitting in front of him at that moment shocked him again.
“Professor’s arcana level might be even higher than mine!” Felipe thought to himself.
…
It was almost the time for the Feast of Death.
All of a sudden, the huge castle started to move in the darkness of the night. The tall towers became its strong stone arms. When the arms pressed against the ground, the lower part of the castle was pulled out from the ground.
Keeping the balance, the castle secretly “walked” toward the mountains and gradually became invisible.
No wonder the location of the Feast of Death never changed…
