Early July, Year 825 — the temperature burned like fire against the skin.
On the thirty-first floor of the Arlining Magic Tower, Honore and several classmates — all of whom had passed their examinations to enter Holt Magic Academy — were excitedly examining the floor's Sky Broadcasting Station. Honore sighed with genuine regret: "What a shame the station only goes live at night. The academy closes at six in the evening, so we can't stay behind. Otherwise, I could have gotten Miss Skylark's and Miss Nightingale's autographs. With voices that lovely, they must be incredibly beautiful."
The reason several other zones on the thirty-first floor of the Arlining Magic Tower had been repurposed as teaching areas for Holt Magic Academy was that the tower already housed various high-level laboratories, ready for immediate use without the need to spend additional materials building new ones. The students' dormitories, meanwhile, were located elsewhere in the city.
"You could apply for after-hours Arcane Magic experiments," another student, Clark, said with an amused grin.
Honore pulled a face: "I've only been studying for two months. Most of the Arcane and Magic courses are still laying the groundwork. What would I even apply to do after hours?"
Holt Magic Academy had opened in early May. Students chose their own courses, graduated in two to five years, had a New Year break, but no summer vacation.
"Exactly — His Excellency Evans's Matrix Mechanics. I'm still completely lost," Clark said with a bitter grimace. "I've memorized the matrices and picked up the basics of how to perform calculations, but why does it work this way, why does it produce these effects — I have absolutely no idea. It's like doing a pure mathematics exercise. If you don't understand the Arcane significance behind it, the whole theory remains incomprehensible, impossible to master. I get dizzy just looking at it." Matrix Mechanics really was cold and forbidding, utterly resistant to approach.
Honore shook his head, trying to defuse the mood with a joke: "Isn't it like that line His Excellency Evans said — you understand every word, every calculation, but string them together and you haven't the faintest clue what it means?"
"Pretty much, yes. Special Relativity is the same way. I can follow the postulates and the logical derivations, but the actual spacetime relationships it implies, and how to apply them to analyze Arcane Magic — I'm completely in the dark." Clark sighed. As for General Relativity, only a rough overview had been provided, with no concrete coursework. Reportedly, across the entire Magic Council, fewer than ten people could claim even a preliminary grasp of General Relativity. It was doubtful that any of the academy's instructors were qualified to teach it.
Honore spread his hands and was about to respond when he noticed a faculty member from the academy's Academic Affairs office step out of the magic elevator and freeze on the spot, clutching a copy of *Arcane*.
"Ernesto?" Honore called out in puzzlement.
*Clap.* The issue of *Arcane* in Ernesto's hands hit the floor. His eyes still held a residue of terror and dread as he stared at Honore, Clark, and the others. "No classes?"
"Right, the courses we enrolled in this week are finished. Ernesto — is that the latest issue of *Arcane*?" Honore asked curiously.
Holt Magic Academy had a strict rule: regardless of whether students could understand *Arcane*, *Arcane Magic*, or *Natural Philosophy*, they were required to read every issue and keep abreast of the newest and most cutting-edge Arcane and Magic research directions — lest they be left behind by the times. The academy subscribed to all three journals in bulk and distributed them to students free of charge.
Ernesto stared at the copy of *Arcane* on the floor as though it were a demon. After a hesitation, he said: "It is this issue of *Arcane*. But don't believe the contents right away — it's best to verify everything through your own experiments."
"A revolutionary theory? An experiment?" Honore's eyes widened as he gazed at the journal on the ground. The mind-shattering shockwave of the Light Quanta era had left an extremely deep impression on him.
"'Electron Diffraction Experiment Using Single Crystals'…" Clark read aloud the title of the page where *Arcane* lay open, his face a mask of confusion. "Electron? Diffraction? How could those two things possibly be connected?"
Because Lucian had been secretly preparing to explore the Land of the Dead, his electron diffraction experiment had been postponed by another two months. He would only submit it to the Arcane Review Committee after his departure.
Honore could not resist picking up the journal, muttering under his breath: "Clark, do you remember the previous issue of *Arcane*? The one where the Supreme Council discussed Mr. Dieppe's paper?"
"Mr. Dieppe's paper…" Clark's expression twisted as though some monstrous creature had come to mind.
Honore read the paper with a mixture of greed, anxiety, and fear. He saw the materials preparation, saw the detailed experimental procedure, and finally saw the resulting image — that familiar, classic diffraction pattern.
"It's… it's real. Electrons really do exhibit wave-like properties…" Honore's eyes seemed to lose focus as he involuntarily voiced the thought.
Fortunately, Lucian's earlier lecture breaking through the fog of conventional thinking — along with his illustrative examples — had laid the groundwork. Honore had already begun to accept that electrons were an unknown phenomenon not yet fully explored, so what tumbled from his lips was "electrons possess wave-like properties" rather than "electrons are waves." His worldview did not collapse; he did not suddenly question the objective existence of reality.
Clark shook his head vigorously: "It must be verified by experiment! Must be verified!"
Ernesto nodded emphatically as well. Gathering a few students, he headed straight for the high-level Magic Laboratory to prepare experimental materials using His Excellency Evans's method.
An indeterminate amount of time passed. When that dreamlike image finally appeared before their eyes, Ernesto slumped into a chair, clutching his head with both hands, his expression one of tremendous agony.
Honore nearly jumped out of his skin, half-expecting Ernesto's skull to burst open, scattering red and white matter everywhere.
Thankfully, Ernesto gradually composed himself. He stared at the world around him, unable to comprehend it: "It has both particle-like nature and wave-like nature. Then what about the real world? I feel like I no longer understand anything I once took for granted."
Afraid that Ernesto would spiral further into obsession, Honore hastily changed the subject: "There's a joint paper in *Arcane* by His Excellency Evans and several of his students — they reprocessed Matrix Mechanics using classical mathematical tools from the past. It looks much cleaner and simpler."
"But no matter how clean or streamlined, it still can't be understood, still can't be mastered. Until you figure out the Arcane significance behind the mathematics, it remains an inescapable 'Matrix Labyrinth,'" Clark said, staring at the journal in his hands, his brow deeply furrowed.