Upon returning to the Atomic Research Institute, Lucian was warmly welcomed by Hetty and his other students.
"Professor, you're absolutely brilliant! You swept the Oliver Transformation into your Theory of Relativity in one stroke, completely demolishing any reason for 'aether' to exist!" Katrina exclaimed with excitement. Her professor had been silent for over eight months — and all along he'd been brewing this epoch-making paper!
Hetty shouted: "Professor, why didn't you give us even the slightest hint? You just went and finished it without a word. For these past seven or eight months we've been constantly mocked by those electromagnetic and light-dark school mages!"
Since it was their own professor who had proposed the theory, and since he had emphasized that the Douglas motion system was merely the low-speed approximation of this broader framework, Reiliya and the others had accepted it with almost no resistance. As for the concepts of spacetime, they were still in a daze — their arcane knowledge wasn't yet sufficient to fully grasp it. It was confusing, but not bewildering.
Beyond them, Lazar and Rourke stood with their hands in their pockets, smiling at Lucian. Jerome held a copy of Arcane, seemingly waiting for a chance to ask questions. Ophelia, Lovie, and the other assistants clustered at a distance, their faces brimming with excitement. They had, in a sense, witnessed firsthand a paper that could earn its author a seat among the Grand Archanists — they had witnessed a breathtaking chapter of history.
Beneath their excitement lurked a thread of envy toward Hetty, Anik, and the rest. They were Professor Evans's own students, free to crowd around him and celebrate. The rest of them could only watch from the sidelines.
"How could a paper like this be pulled out all at once? Did you not see these months of incubation?" Lucian said pointedly, hoping that his students and friends would think twice before jumping to hasty conclusions the next time they encountered a new paper.
Sprint had at some point caught Anik's habit of scratching his head. His usual arrogant expression had vanished entirely, replaced by the most sincere admiration: "Professor, I don't understand most of this paper, but that formula showing mass increasing with velocity — it seems like it could explain why the electromagnetic cyclotron's theoretical predictions don't match the actual results? Just now, after calculating with Anik and the others, we adjusted the electric field's oscillation frequency and actually achieved higher-energy particles than before! Was it this problem that inspired your paper?"
Hetty, Ophelia, and the rest all pricked up their ears. The Arling Impression weekly had already offered a substantial sum for the story behind the Theory of Special Relativity — but they were self-aware enough to know that whether this kind of story could be shared with others ultimately required Lucian's approval.
"Actually, once I had mastered classical electromagnetic theory, I attempted to integrate the Speaker's motion system into it, but ran into numerous problems. It wasn't until the speed-of-light experiments gave me the breakthrough I needed. After passing through intermediate stages somewhat similar to the Oliver Transformation, I naturally derived these formulas from as few foundational assumptions as possible. And the relativistic effects you discovered serve as powerful evidence for the theory." Lucian delivered the explanation he had long prepared.
Anik seemed to suddenly recall: "Back then, in your explanation, there was already a speculation about mass change — and Hetty said it was impossible!"
Hetty's freckles had faded considerably by now. Blood rushed to her cheeks and she glared at Anik in embarrassment: "How was I supposed to know it would work out this way? That's a domain only high-ranking Archanists delve into!"
"But you're my students. So as of now — you understand what that means." Lucian smiled.
But that handsome, refined smile looked to Hetty and the others like the grin of the most savage demon. The professor's meaning was crystal clear: they were expected to understand and master Special Relativity. That meant remedial lessons, remedial lessons, more practice, and still more practice!
Seeing their wilted, hail-beaten expressions, Lucian chuckled: "The sooner you master the basic transformations and the spacetime framework, the better it will help you shape your cognitive world from a higher plane, free from the constraints of old theories. But I should mention one thing in advance — this spacetime view is still incomplete. When you study it, keep firmly in mind that in the future it will very likely need to be modified by introducing other theoretical frameworks."
These students, trained by him from a young age, were in a unique position: since the old arcane theories had not yet solidified, they were ideally suited to absorb new ones. Give it a few more years, and it would take far more effort to make the transition — they might even become shackled by outdated viewpoints, never again capable of producing truly creative work.
Hetty nodded, recovering her spirits, and asked curiously: "Professor, will your next submission be about the relativistic effects that Anik and the others discovered? Quite a few mages I know in the electromagnetic and light-dark schools, who can't fully follow your paper, keep insisting this is still just a hypothetical theory. Heh — they won't be able to hold that line much longer!"
Sprint muttered under his breath: at the rate things were going, they might not even have mouths left to argue with.
Lucian didn't answer her directly. Instead, he addressed everyone: "This paper still has many rough edges. You're all welcome to join the discussion. We'll refine it together, step by step."
…………
Early in the Month of Passion, the fifteenth floor of the Arling Mage Tower.
In one of the offices of the Archanist Review Committee, several committee members from the Pale Hand had gathered.
As an authority in the necromantic field of cellular memory, Felipe had been naturally inducted into the Review Committee after becoming a seventh-rank Archanist. He stood with his hands tucked into the pockets of his black coat, leaning against the wall, looking at Peixor, Tinademos, and the other necromantic committee members: "I wonder how Evans will respond to that paper — 'On Several Errors and Paradoxes of the Theory of Relativity'?"
"Alvaro only submitted it two days ago. It's quite insightful. I imagine Lucian Evans won't have had time to prepare a response — we'll probably have to wait until next month," Peixor said. Having been shaken by the light quantum experiments and the Brook experiment, he was still in a state of confusion regarding both the wave theory and the particle theory of light, so Lucian's paper hadn't particularly rattled him. Aether was gone, and that was that. As for the overturning of the motion system, Lucian had explicitly described it as a sublimation — a more comprehensive interpretation with fewer restrictive conditions — and Peixor had accepted it without much resistance. For necromantic mages, after all, this was not the crux of the matter.
Tinademos, however, frowned: "I heard that Lucian Evans submitted a paper yesterday, but it probably hasn't been indexed by the Arcane Library yet, so I can't find it. I'm fairly sympathetic to Alvaro's position, but until I've seen Evans's response, I'll have to remain neutral."
She had witnessed last year's "brainstorm" firsthand.
"He's already established true authority. In his area of expertise, if he doesn't speak, if he doesn't respond, everyone feels uneasy," Felipe remarked, glancing at the emblem on his chest — seven black rings, seven silver stars. It didn't seem that far from Lucian's rumored eight silver stars and eight black rings, but in the minds of other Archanists, Lucian was already being mentioned alongside the Grand Archanists, possessed of a fearsome reputation and authority akin to a Lord of Hell. That was something rank alone could never confer.