Douglas noticed that several Grand Archanists and Legendary Mages had already gathered here, so he asked with concern: "Did Benedict III use these past few days to do anything? I doubt he exposed his secret method of sealing me inside the demiplane without some ulterior motive. Did he perhaps tamper with our conversation to manipulate public opinion or deceive a member of the Supreme Council?"
Hearing the Chairman's question, Lucian couldn't help but feel a twinge of admiration—even while trapped inside a demiplane, Douglas had still managed to deduce most of the situation.
Among the Legendary Mages present, Fernando had the longest experience and the fewest reservations. He spoke in a booming voice: "Douglas, just because you're confused about the nature of gravity, its origins, and the initial driving force of rotation, that doesn't mean you should lose confidence and invent some supreme being to explain everything away! A hundred thousand questions aren't scary—what's scary is losing the ability to even ask 'why.' Believing that some god can solve everything and being satisfied with that, completely abandoning the pride of being an intelligent creature—that's what's truly frightening. This time, the Church used excerpts from your conversation to nearly shake the confidence of every Archanist in the entire Parliament."
Douglas furrowed his brow slightly: "Did Benedict III use the hidden second half of the conversation to sow confusion?"
"I admit, there are times when I'm confused and lost, times when I can't see the way forward. But whenever I return to reality and discover there are still so many unanswered 'whys,' I'm filled with renewed drive. And a supreme being is not necessarily the God of Truth—it could simply be a name for the true nature of the world. The night sky is so vast and boundless; against its backdrop, the entire world is impossibly small. Why would I worship a god who fights over believers and resources in such a tiny place?"
Fernando laughed: "Now that's the Douglas I know. I told you—you'd never fall so low as to worship the God of Truth."
Nearby, Helen quietly patted her own cheek and let out a breath. Brooke, Heather, and Oliver all wore expressions that, to varying degrees, betrayed their relief and delight.
During an organization's period of rise, many contradictions are masked by that very momentum of growth.
Douglas didn't waste time on pleasantries and cut straight to the point: "The entire Parliament was affected? Through the Sky Broadcasting Station? I'll go clarify things and announce to everyone the despicable tactics Benedict III employed."
He worried that a day and a half's delay might have let the lies fester beyond recovery.
"No need to rush—the effect has already been neutralized. Why don't you tell us what actually happened first?" Fernando was eager to learn the full story.
Douglas looked at the group in confusion: "Neutralized? Fernando, didn't you just say it nearly shook the confidence of every Archanist in the Parliament?"
That was a rather dire description.
Brooke, owing to his complicated relationship with his teacher, had been listening quietly at the side without saying a word. Heather, who preferred silence whenever possible, said nothing. Helen, burdened by guilt, was too embarrassed to speak. Only Oliver smiled and took up the thread: "Chairman, the crisis of confidence arose because the Archanists saw that you, the very proponent of gravitational theory, were yourself confused about the nature and origins of gravity. They sought philosophical and theological comfort instead, and began to doubt their own paths. Once someone explained the nature of gravity and restored everyone's spirits, the wavering naturally subsided."
"That's a relief." Douglas paused, not quite processing it at first, then suddenly tilted his head: "Wait—Oliver, what did you say? Someone explained the nature of gravity?"
He turned to look back at the True Realm and asked with probing curiosity: "How long was I sealed in the demiplane? A day and a half? Could it be that under the Pope's strange magic, time flows at different rates inside and outside? Has it actually been decades?"
Previously, there had been absolutely no signs of anyone being able to explain the nature of gravity, so this news shook him profoundly. Could it be a time dilation effect caused by the seal? Otherwise, how could such a thing suddenly emerge in just a day and a half?
"It was indeed a day and a half—but it represents several years of sustained effort by Lucian Evans. He proposed a theoretical explanation for the nature of gravity. The theoretical predictions perfectly match the observed anomalous perihelion precession of the Morning Star, as well as the calibration values for artificial celestial bodies experiencing faster time at high altitudes compared to the surface." Oliver chuckled.
Douglas stood stunned for a moment, then said urgently: "The paper? Let me see it!"
In that instant, he seemed to forget everything else he had intended to do.
Helen handed him the copy of the paper she had obtained, along with the contents of the book list Lucian had written out: "Chairman, here."
Taking the paper, Douglas flipped it open and began reading. His calm, composed expression gradually faded, replaced by eyes brimming with intense focus. Great swathes of shadow materialized around him as he directly constructed an auxiliary calculation array.
He kept reaching up to scratch his head, turning his neatly combed white hair into a disheveled mess.
Understanding his urgency about this problem, even the impatient Fernando refrained from interrupting.
After a long time, Douglas tugged at his bow tie, half-bewildered, half-manic: "I understand the general idea. The nature of gravity is the curvature of spacetime caused by mass. I've seen the geometric language in the journal *Nature*. But is the derivation process rigorous?"
Though he was one of the foremost figures in mathematics, merely reading the *Nature* journal allowed Douglas to grasp tensor analysis and several other novel methods at considerable depth. Still, in such a short time, he could not fully comprehend general relativity.
Fernando answered: "At the very least, neither Begner nor I found any flaws in the mathematical derivation. It's just that Lucian used somewhat cumbersome and verbose mathematical methods in places—not elegant enough."
"Spacetime curvature… mass… energy-momentum tensor… perturbations in spacetime curvature propagating as waves…" Douglas murmured the paper's contents to himself, sinking back into his state of a hundred thousand questions.
Lucian, Helen, and the others maintained complete silence, not disturbing the Chairman. It was a long time before Douglas suddenly snapped back to awareness, took a deep breath, and reined in the trace of excitement and fervor that had surfaced on his face. He walked up to Lucian, patted him on the shoulder, and said: "I wouldn't dare declare your theory correct at this point, but you have unquestionably proposed a genius idea that transcends its era—one that matches all observed phenomena and deepens our understanding of gravity's true nature. The greatest gain of the Magic Parliament over these past decade has been your joining us. I deeply regret not insisting on my own instincts back then and letting Fernando become your master."