The wind was cool and refreshing, and the sky was high and the clouds were broad. That was the view of the golden moon in Allyn.
"That's why I like October best in Allyn …" Thompson, a member of the Affair Committee, looked at the view outside of the window with his cup of tea in his hand.
While exclaiming, he turned around and pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. He said to his student, Condon, "You came in after only one knock. Is there anything urgent?"
Thompson was an easy-going man who was always nice to his friends, students, and subordinates. He did not pay much attention to etiquette. Therefore, he did not blame Condon for barging in recklessly.
As he talked, he closed the mission report on the desk. It was the rule of the Affair Committee. Those who were not supposed to see it, even his students, were not allowed to see it.
This mission report was the one submitted by Katrina. Since the 'cause and effect' of the 'demon worship incident' was clearly investigated by her, this report was not taken seriously in the mission area. At that time, the senior-rank sorcerer on duty casually flipped through the report and thought that there was no mistake about it. He judged that Katrina's mission was completed, and the report was naturally filed in the archives.
However, Thompson himself attached great importance to the 'demon worship incident', because it was similar to the recent incidents in Rentato, Cocus, the four countries of the strait, and the northland coastline where primeval devils were summoned and worshiped, but they were essentially different.
Therefore, after he finished his work, he retrieved the report and planned to analyze and compare it in detail to see if any Demon Lords were developing the power of faith, or if they had other purposes. More importantly, he wanted to figure out if the incident was independent or if it was related to the incidents that happened within the Congress of Magic's jurisdiction, so that he could find the "Bird of Death" behind the curtain.
It was a pity that the report only suggested that a Grand Knight increased his strength by worshipping demons.
"However, some of the details are too coincidental. However, the person involved is completely dead, and it has been such a long time. It's basically impossible to continue the investigation. Can I go to the abyss and ask the Demogorgon of Darkness if it is you that Viscount André worships? Or capture 'Death Storm' Niner and force him to confess why he took Viscount André as his student. "Thompson covered the report with his right hand and tapped it with his index finger.
On his opposite side, Condon was a young, slim, and tall man. His cheeks were hollow, and his skin had been 'burnt' into dark red as if he had been exposed to too much sunlight. He was wearing a fashionable monocle on his right eye. He said in a hasty voice, "I'm sorry, master. After I knocked, the door opened a gap on its own. I thought that you had let me in …"
Thompson knew his student's impatient but honest character very well. He asked in confusion, "The door opened by itself. I didn't close it?"
"I don't know. Uh, I ran into Alferris in the corridor. It seemed very satisfied …" Condon suddenly remembered something.
Thompson grimaced regretfully. "… Just leave it be. What's the matter?"
He made a bet with Alferris a while ago, believing that it was unlikely that he would be fooled by Alferris' illusions as he was close to the ninth circle, especially in the Allyn magic tower. Therefore, if Alferris could take away anything from his office without anybody's help, he would have to open the treasury and let it choose a lot of gems. It seemed that … But it was not a bad thing. He could lower his wariness now.
"Master, Mr. Evans submitted a paper named 'Determinism, Self-Consciousness, and the Origin of Magic', which constructs a model of the essence of magic. Although many questions remain unresolved, such as why magic patterns can help to communicate with the 'real world' and what mechanism they hide, it has opened a new door for us to study the nature of magic and supernatural powers … Today, somebody accidentally discovered the paper in the arcana library. It immediately raised a sensation …"
Condon seemed to be excited. Also, because of his impatience, his words were like a storm. Thompson almost couldn't react at all. "Stop, stop, stop. Give me the paper first!"
For a senior-rank arcanist, it was much easier to read a paper than to listen to such exciting descriptions.
Accepting the paper that Condon lent him, Thompson glanced at the date and said in both surprise and relief, "It was submitted three days ago? No wonder it wasn't published in 'Arcana' or 'Magic' … "
Generally speaking, as long as the papers of grand arcanists were of certain value, the journals wouldn't refuse them. They would even fight to get them. However, Lucien had mostly only published his papers on 'Arcana', 'Nature', and 'Element'. Occasionally, he would write for 'Common Arcana'. Therefore, 'Arcana' wouldn't let go of such an important paper. Also, since it was about the nature of magic, 'Magic' wouldn't allow anybody to publish it, either.
He continued to read and frowned slightly at the first part. Determinism seemed to be in a precarious situation!
However, as Lucien went on, his eyebrows were completely relaxed. Now and then, he pushed his gold-rimmed glasses and said in a low voice, "The observer effect is not completely absurd … It's a novel theory that the material foundation is not 'solid', but if that's the case, why is everything so normal without magic and supernatural powers? Is it because of the mysterious transition from the microscopic level to the macroscopic level? Huh, Lucien has thought about that, too … The weak observer and the strong observer …"
He was completely devoted to the paper. Even though the paper hadn't been proved by any experiments and phenomena, and the 'observer effect' had been rejected by the mainstream of the Congress, it was logically self-consistent and seemed to be real.
Condon was not surprised by his teacher's reaction. He picked up the quill on the desk and wrote down some of his teacher's questions and opinions on the draft paper.
"… The energy that replenishes spiritual power comes from the 'real world'? The redundant matter in magic comes from the 'real world'? Huh … "Thompson seemed to have thought of something in his confusion. He hurried to turn around and picked up the latest issue of 'Element' from the bookshelf. Then, holding his gold-rimmed glasses, he said in shock," Isn't that the problem that the ocean of negative energy can solve? "
"Yes. The arcanists who read the paper couldn't help but associate it with the ocean of negative energy. It happened to solve the most fundamental problems in Mr. Evans' paper on the nature of magic!" Condon's ears were keen enough to hear his teacher's mumbling. He said excitedly, "One of them is dedicated to the source of magic energy, and the other has proposed hypotheses about the nature of magic. Together, they constitute a complete magic system!"
The magic system that he was talking about was not the same as the magic system.
"This is probably the first formal model of the nature of magic that is supported by theories since the beginning of magic. No, it should be the model of all supernatural powers." Thompson was also slightly excited.
In the history of magic, the earliest sorcerers had already asked what the nature of magic was and proposed their own ideas. For example, the system of earth, fire, wind, and water elements. The ancient sorcerers constructed a hypothesis about the bottom level of the world, believing that there were energy planes that were purely made of the same elements. They named them the Kingdom of Fire Elements, the Ocean of Water Elements, and so on. Another example was the system of origin. They believed that there was the origin of magic, and it was part of the truth of the world …
Those magic images were still influencing generations of sorcerers to this day. The names such as fire element were proof. However, the ancient sorcerers did not explore the world enough. The magic images were all based on their imagination without any theoretical basis. They were fantasies instead of models in the definition of arcana.
In the heyday of the Magic Empire, sorcerers paid more attention to regular studies and applications than to the groundless nature of magic. After all, it was enough to know that spiritual power was the prerequisite to perform magic. Therefore, even the great Sun King Thanos never proposed a model of the nature of magic.
The Congress of Magic, on the other hand, had been studying the nature of magic since it was established. However, due to the inadequacy of other theories, the research had been slow. Therefore, Douglas and the rest of them did not propose their own model of the nature of magic recklessly, in case their fantastical ideas influenced other arcanists.
It was not until today that Thompson truly saw a model that described the nature and origin of magic. Also, it was based on the cutting-edge achievements in the microscopic domain!
Whether or not the model was correct, it was of great historical significance … Thompson was suddenly in a trance. He had witnessed history again, which seemed to be happening a lot in the past ten years.
Condon said excitedly, "Therefore, somebody has already called the results described in the two papers' Evans -Telaviv Model ', the first model of the nature of magic!"
After the two of them discussed for a while, Condon proposed to leave, saying that he had to study it more carefully.
Watching him fold the papers and put them into his storage bag carefully, Thompson was somewhat amused. Then, he watched him walk to the door of his room.
Suddenly, Thompson realized what was going on and shouted, "Stop!"
However, Condon had already stepped into the corridor at this moment!
He turned around abruptly, and a layer of white mist rose around him. After the mist dispersed, he turned into a little crystal dragon with beautiful scales.
It dragged out a large ice cream from below its belly and licked it in great satisfaction. Then, it said in a childish and gloating voice, "Thompson, you've lost!"
Condon came when he was thinking, distracted his attention by discovering that the door was not closed and that 'Alferris' was passing by, fascinated him with the paper, and behaved exactly like Condon, except that he took away the papers that recorded the discussion … Thinking about it, Thompson had to admit that Alferris had a new understanding of illusion, but he was the one who had suffered a loss!
Watching Alferris leave with an awful expression, Thompson couldn't help but continue studying Lucien's paper. "… Weak observers … Strong observers …"
He was suddenly stunned. Thinking of his recent investigation, he said in fear, "The accumulation of the power of faith seems to be the gathering of special electromagnetic waves on the surface, but it's actually the gathering of weak observers that are evolving toward strong observers?"
"Well …"
What would the experts who were adept at 'playing' with the power of faith think of the paper?
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