Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“This is one of the two premises of this paper, which I have named the equivalence principle…”
Blake did not find it hard to understand or accept that gravitational mass and inertial mass could be described as equal under an appropriate measure system. Some arcanists had done corresponding research and obtained accurate data. However, they all considered the equivalence of the two masses as a coincidence and did not study the deeper things behind the coincidence.
Listening to Lucien’s brief introduction to the experiment and the data, Blake felt that his head was swelling. He simply took out a piece of paper and a quill, recording and calculating on the table where the magic radio was placed, as careful as a student who was attending the class of a master.
Most of the arcanists who were listening to the broadcast were more or less doing the same. They did not usually have the opportunity to receive the guidance of someone who was half a grand arcanist. Also, what was reflected in the weather changes just now made them curious and excited, too.
“…This concludes the general special of relativity. In the next, I will deduce and construct the whole system with tools such as Evans Geometry and tensor analysis. Because many complicated notions will be involved, I will only give a general introduction so that you can know what is going on…”
Blake’s quill stopped after that. He could understand every single word that Mr. Evans said, but he had no idea what they were talking about when the words were connected. Dizziness spread out in his eyes. Weird, complicated words, symbols and formulas entered into his head without denoting any actual meaning.
It made him feel so lightheaded as if he had entered an obscure dream.
“…I thought that my arcana knowledge was good enough, particularly in mathematics, but today I’ve realized that I haven’t even touched the threshold yet…”
“…Are the senior-rank arcanists working on such stuff every day? But why can I understand half of the articles on ‘Arcana’…”
The same questions were echoing inside most of the senior-rank arcanists, too. They had been very confident about their arcana expertise and their intellectual faculty, but they began to suspect themselves after hearing what Lucien Evans said. It was so hard to understand that they could barely follow!
“Conclusion! Give me your conclusion first!”
They shouted in their heart crazily, deciding to listen to the nature of gravity first and study the paper later.
…
In the Tower…
Annonis also heard Lucien’s speech from his magic radio soon after the weather changes. He was solemn and even slightly skeptical.
For a level-nine arcanist and a ninth-circle archmage of the school of astrology, the gravity theory was of paramount importance. If he could grasp the nature of gravity and use it to solve certain problems that had been bothering him, he was confident to become a real ‘Astrologer’!
However, he retained the basic suspicion until he saw the paper and confirmed it. If the nature of gravity could be found so easily, Mr. Douglas wouldn’t have been so lost and confused.
He knew that Lucien Evans could stabilize the storm that Mr. President’s speech caused by proposing a theoretical explanation regarding the nature of gravity, so it was normal that he exaggerated it a bit. But he was still hoping that Lucien Evans could really resolve the nature of gravity.
Annonis merely listened and calculated in his head when the two basic principles were introduced, but he became more and more attentive when Lucien began the geometric description.
At some point, a pile of paper and a quill floated before him, helping him record and calculate things. Confusion beamed out of his face now and then.
The abstruse mathematical papers on Nature were useless for most arcanists and did not receive their attention, but Annonis was an archmage adept at the field. He had even published a few similar papers. However, even so, he couldn’t understand it any better. The paper was much more incomprehensible than he imagined.
Annonis’ library was extremely quiet. Nothing could be heard except for Lucien’s voice and the noise when the quill brushed the paper.
Suddenly, Annonis sensed something, only to discover Bergner, the Prophet, had walked in at some point. He was also recording and calculating the paper with ancillary magical circles and quills.
Not asking anything, Annonis focused his attention on Lucien’s speech again.
In the headquarters of the Will of Elements, Raventi, due to the lack of mathematical knowledge, could only record Lucien’s key points for future reference.
…
Inside the Nekso Palace…
Since she had guided her father in his tour after her father arrived, Natasha did not listen to ‘Arcana Voice’ or ‘News of the World’ today. Because the thunderstorm in Allyn was too far away, she did not pay much attention to it and merely thought that it was a local rain. After all, it was very typical in the summer.
It was not until the light of ‘Eternal Blaze’ illuminated the area that Natasha sensed something wrong. She hurried to contact Lucien. After failing to reach out to him, she feared that she might interrupt Lucien and wisely paused, seeking to talk to Hathaway instead.
After confirming that Lucien and Allyn were alright, she was relieved and turned on the magic radio, hoping to find out what exactly happened in Allyn.
Little did she expect that her most familiar voice would spread out from the magic radio, which made her completely relaxed.
The symbols and formulas were too complicated for Natasha to understand, but they could not stop her from listening to Lucien’s speech attentively.
As she listened, she held her cheek with her right hand, and her lips curled into a smile with delight beaming out of her eyes.
…
In the broadcast room of the Sky Radio Station…
Including Samantha, all the arcanists looked at Lucien innocently and ignorantly, as if he were speaking a nonexistent language.
Seeing the looks on their faces, Lucien realized that he had gone too deep. He hurried to end the geometric description and the equations of gravitational field and came to the conclusion:
“From above, we can see that mass causes the curve of time and space, which leads to the phenomenon of gravity. The nature of gravity is the curved space-time. We can make such an analogy…”
While the description of an elastic net was not accurate, it made Samantha and the other arcanists beamed with interest. They more or less understood the nature of gravity.
“That explains a lot…”
“Then, is it a force at all?”
“Can it be proved by any phenomena?”
…
Whispers of excitement and suspicion filled the room. Even Hellen was asking Fernando. That was an interpretation of the nature of gravity from an unprecedented perspective. It seemed to be a problem of the four-dimensional space, about the movement of objects in a curved time and space.
“This is completely beyond my imagination…”
“The model of time and space seems even more perplexing right now…”
Blake and the arcanists who listened to the magic radio were partly amazed by the unbelievable and yet spectacular explanation and partly rather suspicious about it, because the nature of time and space and gravity that Lucien described was too complicated even for people to imagine them!
The Prophet and the Astrologer in the Tower, however, looked gloomy. It was completely in violation of their speculations on the nature of gravity, which was now possibly not even a force.
Thankfully, there had never been an authoritative, well-accepted explanation about the nature of gravity, and they dare not found their cognitive world based on that. That was why it did not shake.
“This has to be confirmed by phenomena!”
“This needs to be proved!”
The two masters of the school of astrology said the same. After Levski Geometry, they had agreed that they must not blindly disapprove something with intuition and experience. However, any theory had to be proved by phenomena and experiments, or they would remain hypotheses.
Every arcanist had similar doubt. They listened to Lucien as he went on, “From the perspective of a curved time and space, it is possible to calculate the redundant precession of the perihelion of the Morning Star…”
The calculation was relatively simple. Many arcanists began to calculate in person as Lucien introduced. The Prophet was so excited that he was almost shivering.
Annonis understood him quite well, because the problem had baffled the school of astrology for a long time. The motion system based on the previous gravity theory did not agree with the observation.
The Prophet was suspicious that the error was caused by other stars there, but no traces of redundant gravity could be found after he explored the place in a space jump.
Many arcanists’ hair became white and their face was wrinkled for the question.
The Prophet had got the answer after Lucien introduced the calculation procedures.
“They’re the same… It’s very close to observation…” The Prophet murmured in excitement, “Is this the true nature of gravity…”
Annonis also got the final data. His eyes were suddenly covered in water, and he lowered his head to cover it, feeling satisfied that their years of hard work finally gained an answer.
The Prophet suddenly spoke loudly, “This is an achievement decades more advanced than the current arcana theories! I have envisioned a great development of the school of astrology!”
“I can now die without regrets after seeing this!”
Annonis held back his excitement and his tears. “Mr. Prophet, how can you die now? I still want to learn and explore the boundless space more deeply!”
After Lucien solved the problem of the artificial planets with gravitational time dilation, Annonis was already convinced of the system. His body shivering, he looked at the Prophet and said, “With Lucien’s relativistic system, the road ahead of you seems clear and bright again.”
“Is yours not?” The Prophet replied with a smile and remarked with complicated feelings, “In the future, nobody will have the courage to say that Lucien Evans made a wrong decision when he chose the school of astrology at the beginning…”
“I’m going to study the paper!” Said Annonis excitedly. He seemed to have seen the dawn of the half-solidification of his cognitive world!
…
In the sky far away from Allyn…
Kritonia rubbed his eyebrow. “So to speak, my blood power is to control the changes of gravity and matter?” He did not understand much of the paper.
Benedict III’s shadow, on the other hand, mumbled in a low voice, “Lucien Evans…”
