Chapter 549: Remark

Oliver was rather amused by their reactions. He smiled, "Rest assured. Your head should still be intact after you read it, which is both my estimation and the prophecy of astrology."

Mariana was still unrelieved. "Mr. Oliver, you know that Mr. Evans' papers can be quite disruptive and... destructive. Also, you have summoned us in advance for the review. In my heart, I feel that a terrible devil has been projected into my cognitive world, and that my head will explode after one moment of carelessness. Could you tell me why you made such an estimation and why you chose us?"

Coughing to hold back his laughter, Oliver had an even deeper understanding about Lucien's image in the eyes of most arcanists. His name obviously sounded more distressing than the Lord of Hell and the Will of Abyss, particularly when his name was associated with a paper. Such an irregular review procedure was exactly like Brook before.

"I chose you for the review because, based on your papers in journals such as 'Magic' and "Electromagnetism' in the past three months, you already had a rough idea and started researching it. Therefore, your cognitive world will certainly not be broken." Oliver spoke of the real reason.

Of course, he did examine their fates with astrology in advance.

"We had a rough idea?" Annhora recalled in suspicion and soon remembered something. "Do you mean the studies on your transformation formulas and the deeper understanding about the relationship between time and space?"

Oliver nodded softly. "That's right. I believe you will earn a lot after reading this paper."

Not entirely convinced, and taking over the paper with shivering hands, Annhora and Mariana both saw the title of the paper: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies and Mass-energy Equation.

Huh. The title does not look very disruptive, does it?

Therefore, the two of them began to read carefully, with quills and blank paper next to them for them to calculate with.

As he read on, Annhora's left hand, not occupied by the quill, scratched his hair subconsciously and turned his white wig wryly. He seemed both interested and overwhelmed by the research, and his head was swooning.

Mariana, on the other hand, bit her lip as she often did when she was still a little girl. She mumbled, "Time? Space? How can they be like this?"

His fingers crossed, Oliver looked at them peacefully on the surface, but his eyes were rather solemn because of their reaction. After eight months of preparation, there shouldn't be another incident of massive brain explosions, right?

Also, the view on time and space in the theory of relativity was not perfect yet. They should be able to see the problems. Their worldview might be messed up, but their cognition wouldn't collapse for now.

After a long time, Annhora suddenly raised his head and said both frantically and confusedly, "I find it hard to believe that time is the speed's function, but it is such a charming thought. Also... Also, there are a lot of problems."

"As Lucien said himself, this is just a preliminary, inconclusive paper that hasn't introduced many things beyond the inertial frame of reference. There are also many unanswered problems. However, I think that the view on time and space is very interesting." Said Oliver with a smile. For a man of liberal arts, such a view of time and space better fitted his appetite.

"This paper completely renews our understanding of time and space. Had it not been for the consideration in the past months, perhaps my cognitive world would've been broken and solidified because the chaos. Well, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Evans must've proposed the paper several months ago, right? The discussion since then was meant to psychologically and intellectually prepare us?" Annhora suddenly realized what happened.

Oliver nodded. "Yes, it was written before my transformation formulas were published. This paper made groundbreaking contributions to the macroscopic and high-speed studies. Perhaps that was part of the reason why some planets are still undiscovered. I believe you can see its worth as well as its imperfect parts."

"Yes. I believe that most of the senior-rank arcanists in the school of electromagnetics and the school of Light-darkness can accept the paper, however reluctantly. It is based on the classic electromagnetic theory and extrapolates it by sweeping the obsolete ideas in it." Annhora said in approval.

Mariana, next to him, murmured to herself in bewilderment, "But what about Ether?"

Annhora frowned. It was not until then that he discovered that, based on the paper, Ether was no longer of any use. It had quietly withdrawn from the stage of history. The foundation of the wave theory probably needed rectifying.

Hearing Mariana's words, Oliver said with a bitter smile, "Ether, waves and particles, we've been arguing about them for nobody knows how many years, but it is more and more difficult to understand them as time goes on."

"It's like two groups of knights in a battle. Both parties are fighting vehemently, but neither of them can crush the enemy and secure the final triumph." Mariana was back to herself. "Mr. Oliver, this paper needs to be proved by experiment phenomena and results in order to be aptly assessed."

Oliver took out another paper and unfolded it before them. "This is Lucien's paper on how to improve the cyclotron, where the relativistic effect has been observed. Also, I have certain problems regarding artificial planets here that involve the changes of time and space.

Oliver only dared to present the paper after seeing that the previous paper was still acceptable.

After reading the paper, Annhora knocked his head hard, "If I had focused more attention on the discussion of this problem in that issue of 'Arcana', it probably wouldn't have taken so long, and I could've inferred Mr. Evans' paper in a couple of months."

"It means that Mr. Evans' ideas and direction are right, although the paper is not perfect yet." Mariana also offered her input and then praised the mass-energy formula.

After the new alchemy was proposed, they began addressing Lucien as Mr. Evans instead of Member Evans, but its meaning was entirely different.

When he returned to his office in the Arcana Review Board, Annhora soon received the paper assigned by the alchemical life. Without further reading, he simply wrote his comment with the quill:

"This is a sublimation on Mr. President's motion system. It fixes the limitations that the motion system was only accurate in low speed and extrapolates the concept of motion to a macroscopic and high-speed scale. It has also preliminary resolved many problems in the melting of electric and magnetic theories, giving us the hope of establishing a unified theory in arcana.

"Also, based on Mr. Evans' proposition that we should infer from as few hypotheses as possible, we discover, to our surprise, that our understanding about time and space seems to have reached a marvelous and chaotic intersection. It is entirely different from the time and space we knew in the past. Not only does the paper disrupt the structure of time and space in our cognitive world, but it also disrupts our concepts in daily life that are founded on absolute time and space. It makes me more bewildered than ever, and I'm even starting to question the value of my life."

"It's hard to believe that time slows down, and space constricts, as speed increases. It is in violation of our intuitive perception and our imagination based on that, but the formulas presented by the paper seem convincing enough and closer to the origin of the world. Also, Mr. Evans has already noticed the theoretical effect of increased mass caused by accelerated speed during an experiment with the cyclotron. At this moment, a hallowed gate in my heart seems to have collapsed, but from the ashes rises a brand-new one."

"Although the system of relativity that Mr. Evans established is not perfect, and the problem that it is only limited to the inertial frame of reference but not universally applicable remains unresolved, the value of this paper is unquestionable. The mass-energy formula that mark the relationship between mass and energy, in particular, are full of mathematical and magical beauty. It is concise, powerful, and contains unimaginably profound mysteries, just like the poetic Brook formulas. Whoever is not shocked and attracted by them does not have any talents in arcana!"

"Mass and energy, time and space, they are the wonders of this world. Perhaps, we can obtain extremely powerful strength from it. In light of that, here is my assessment on Mr. Evans' paper: This paper, after perfected, will change the paradigm and give us a wiser understanding about time and space, mass and energy. Also, it is doubtless that a relativistic system will be founded on this paper. Therefore, I suggest a reward of 3,000 arcana credits and 80,000 arcana points."

Because there were still a lot of insidious problems, and a system was not established yet, Annhora did not offer a remark and reward as impressive as what was given for the new alchemy before, and nor did the Congress grant Lucien the title of grand arcanist. However, Mariana, who had made a similar remark, felt suffocated, because it meant that Lucien Evans seemed to be growing into a real grand arcanist based on either the new alchemy or the special theory of relativity!

......

On the thirty-third floor of Allyn magic tower...

"It took them eight months before they understood the prelude of the theory of relativity. Those guys are dumber than I thought!" Fernando's estimation at the beginning was half a year at most.

Lucien, on his opposite, smiled and said, "It is not an easy conversation to break one's own conceptions. However, after such a long time of preparation, probably none of the senior-rank arcanists will have brain explosions."

If another massive brain explosions took place, Lucien would feel that he had picked up an innate magic of clearing everybody on the street wherever he went.

"With the credit reward, your arcana level should be able to improve to level eight, right?" Asked Fernando casually, who did not really care about it.

The higher the level is, the more difficult object enchantment would be. The effects of arcana and magic badges could not be further improved.

Lucien nodded. "The feedback from the new alchemy over the past eight months is truly terrifying. The paper, the innovations on the materials, and the lowered difficulty to craft magic items all brought me abundant revenues. Plus the credit reward, I may be able to upgrade into level eight in another two to three months."

In particular, the discovery of the splitting of spectral lines under strong magnetic field and the theoretical explanation on the new alchemy brought him the Jurisian Silver Moon Medal in the electromagnetic field. It also made Lucien's cognitive world more stable and accelerated his studies on eighth-circle and seventh-circle magics. Up until so far, he had learnt nine of them in each category.

"'Arcana' will be issued tomorrow. If there are no major events, we can focus on the preparation for July." Fernando looked at the window and said solemnly. The upcoming battle would decide the Congress of Magic's fate in the near future.