Inside the Atomic Institute, Annick—who had somewhat recovered his composure—listened to the faint cheers drifting in from all directions and hurriedly tuned the arcane radio to the "Truth of the World" channel, because he believed that this channel, whose audience was Archanists, would certainly carry a more detailed report—such as what principles and data his teacher had used to correct the sun's position.
The reason they didn't ask their teacher Lucian directly was that after returning to Allence from the "Cosmic Observatory," they had immediately tried to contact him to report Hattie's discovery of the new particle. But the butler Leo told them that their teacher had sealed off the top floor of the arcane tower and would likely keep it closed for quite some time.
"…According to the report submitted by Lord Evans, during the following experiment, he observed anomalous deflection of light and hidden spatial anomalies. Based on these findings, he corrected the sun's universal standard coordinates…" As Annick had anticipated, Samantha the "Lark" read through Lucian's "Discovery Report" in meticulous detail, providing a complete description of the entire process—enabling high-ranking mages and above to replicate the experiment, and allowing mid- and low-ranking mages to understand the theoretical basis for correcting the sun's coordinates.
Such a report left every Archanist who heard it without a shred of doubt. Lord Evans had indeed discovered the sun—discovered it with solid reasoning and evidence. Otherwise, his report would not have been written with such thoroughness as to allow others to replicate and reproduce it. Reproducibility, replicability—these are the hallmarks of Arcane!
"…My, what a complex experiment." Although Hattie herself had designed equally complex particle collision experiments and artificial intelligence improvements, she couldn't help but be stunned—because this was genuinely too complex, too complex for any ordinary Archanist to have designed.
The perpetually confident and rebellious Splint was forced to admit in a hushed voice: "I'm afraid only Teacher could have designed such a complex yet effective experiment…" Even he couldn't have done it.
Although he held fundamental disagreements with Lucian on the observer effect, Annick still deeply admired his teacher. He was a pioneer opening up new fields one after another, a proposer of revolutionary theories, and the principal architect of the great developments in Arcane research and magical society over the past decade or more. He himself still had an immense distance to cover.
"Mm, in the entire Council, there are fewer than ten people with both the imaginative spark and the deep Arcane foundation for something like this. But I still think it's too complex—perhaps Teacher also relied on a bit of luck, perhaps his original intention was to conduct a different experiment…" He hesitated before voicing his judgment.
This assessment did not provoke any displeasure from Hattie, Katrina, or the others, because they had long been engaged in Arcane and magical research and understood well that some discoveries truly do require a bit of luck. For instance, back at the "Cosmic Observatory," everyone had designed very similar experiments, yet Hattie had ultimately been the one to discover the new particle well ahead of the rest. The reason was that during her design, a small flaw had slipped in… Of course, only Archanists who had conducted long-term experiments and possessed deep foundations could truly seize "Lady Luck's gift."
"Regardless, the sun has finally been discovered! The annals of Arcane Magic have turned to a new page!" Hattie declared, her eyes blazing as she clenched her fist.
…………
On the thirty-first floor of the Allence Arcane Tower, every Archanist of the "Sky Broadcasting Station" listened with excited faces as Samantha conducted her broadcast—on Louise's side, the news was aimed at ordinary citizens and did not contain the knowledge they needed to pay attention to.
And unlike before, Samantha—who was now reading the report in her hands—was no longer wearing that cold, indifferent expression. Instead, a smile played at the corners of her lips, an irrepressibly good mood that rather stunned the Archanists accustomed to her usual demeanor.
Over the past few years, the steady retreat of determinism had caused tremendous anguish in the hearts of most Astrology Division Archanists. Yet they had been compelled to slowly shift their outlook, and so they appeared quite melancholy—leading many poets of Luntat to praise them as truly worthy Archanists who studied the vast starry sky, possessing an exceptional poetic temperament. But the discovery of the sun had ignited the long-dormant passion within them, burning away their melancholy and pain. At least for this period, their joy was genuine and their spirits soared.
The mystery that had plagued the Astrology Division for tens of thousands of years had finally been solved today!
Finishing the last word, Samantha smiled and set down the manuscript in her hands, gesturing for the next program host to begin. She then left her seat, walked out of the room, and drew a deep breath of the cool, refreshing nighttime air.
"I originally thought the discovery of the positron was already sufficiently shocking—who could have guessed that Lord Evans would also find the sun." Several Archanists she knew well gathered around her.
Samantha looked up at the cool, dreamlike silver moon in the sky, a touch of joy coloring her tone: "If not for him—this Grand Archanist—I'm afraid no one else could have designed such a complex and unimaginable experiment. This may be Lady Luck's favor, her acknowledgment of the Astrology Division's tens of thousands of years of devoted pursuit—and so she gave rise to someone like him."
Although she hadn't spoken the name, everyone around her knew she was referring to "Atomic Sovereign" Lord Evans. And what she had originally wanted to call him was not "Grand Archanist," but rather an "Arcane Freak."
That was one of the nicknames many Archanists privately used for Lucian—because any single achievement he attained was something the vast majority of Archanists could never accomplish in a lifetime, yet he produced one every few intervals. If that wasn't an "Arcane Freak," what was?
Precisely because of this, they had never once questioned how Lucian could have designed this extraordinarily complex experiment—because he was synonymous with miracles.
"After today, our Astrology Division is no longer a magical school without roots…" another Astrology Division Archanist said, his voice full of emotion.
For the Astrology Division Archanists, the fact that planets truly existed and were material beings did not cause them to doubt the foundation of their own divination. After all, the "Starry Sky of Destiny" did indeed exist "up there."