Chapter 600:

Darkness Before Dawn

historical

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When he arrived at the Affair Committee, Lucien happened upon Norman, Douglas’ student, who was one of the members.

“Your Excellency Evans, you are the truth of elements...” Norman greeted him according to the rules of the Congress.

Lucien smiled. “Such trouble is unnecessary. It’s too much a waste of time. When I met the Excellencies before, I only paid tribute to them the first time we encountered.”

“Mr. Evans, is there anything you want the Committee to do?” Norman asked, “In fact, you don’t have to come in person. You could’ve contacted any member in the office or asked us to go to your library.”

Lucien pointed at the conference room. “Certain things can be better explained with a face-to-face conversation.”

Describing the arrangement regarding the Holt Magic College, Lucien looked at Norman and asked, “Is there anything unclear?”

“Your Excellency, this is a wonderful thought. I have never seen such a teaching method before. As a graduate from the magic school myself, I could’ve saved one year of my time if I had the chance to choose courses and teachers on my own.” Norman praised the new pattern. He certainly had astonishing gifts to be picked by Douglas.

Lucien thought to himself. If he proposed the method to anybody else, they might be thinking that it would ruin the atmosphere in schools and sabotage the traditional teacher-student relationship, like the dilemma he encountered when he was in Douglas Magic School. However, Norman gave it a very high remark based on his personal impression almost without any analysis.

“The apprentices are mostly very young. Making choices on their own only means self-indulgence. Different age groups require different ways. It’s certainly not the best solution to just let them do whatever they want.” Lucien rose. “The studying period of the college will be two years. They can graduate in advance or apply to delay one year. You will draft the details.”

“Alright. I’ll summon the members and discuss it with them soon.” Norman had already recorded Lucien’s instruction in the magic circle.

When Lucien was about to leave, a middle-rank arcanist walked in, “Mr. Norman, Her Excellency the Witch of Iceland has sent over a confidential recording stone. She asks the Committee to sort it out into a paper.”

“A recording stone?” Norman looked at Lucien strangely. Was there anything else that the Highest Council wanted them to do?

After Gaston invented magic gramophone, many other arcanists developed similar products. The recording stone was one of them. It was much simpler and more convenient than in the past.

“It’s some of the discussion during the meeting.” Lucien stopped leaving and decided to observe Norman. Although he was certain that the discussion would not result in an earthquake in the sorcerers’ cognitive worlds according to logic and prophecies, he still needed to infer other people’s possible acceptable based on the reaction that Norman had after hearing the recording, so that he would know how to publish his papers.

Seeing that Lucien sat down again, Norman thought that he had other instructions regarding the content in the recording stone. So, he hinted for the middle-rank arcanist to leave first, and he activated the recording stone after turning on the sound-blocking magic circle in the conference room.

“There are no experiments that confirm the wave nature of electrons yet...” Hathaway’s clear and cold voice came over.

Norman immediately realized what it was about. They must be discussing Dieppe’s paper and Mr. Evans’ remark.

As the argument went on, Norman became more and more focused. Quite a few arcanists expressed their opinions. For example, if the particles were waves, why were humans not waves when they were made of particles? He also agreed with Hathaway’s theory that particles’ special vibrations showed the feature of waves.

By the time Oliver asked Lucien’s opinion, Norman glanced at Lucien who was seated on the chair comfortably, finding it hard to believe that he just asked ‘what are waves’ and ‘what are particles’.

However, after Lucien explained his idea with the motto of ‘the blind feeling the dragon’, Norman became more solemn than ever, as if he were considering the most complicated problem. He mumbled to himself, “Bats, lizards, waves and particles... This is truly an unprecedented perspective...”

The recording came to a halt before Fernando talked. Norman was still deep in thought, as if he were trying to understand Lucien’s opinion.

After a long time, he finally remarked half in delight and half in bitterness. “Mr. Evans, thanks to your perspective and your easy-to-understand metaphor, even if the electrons are proved to be waves in the future, I wouldn’t need to worry that my cognitive world would collapse.”

Then, he spoke of his own understanding, seeking Lucien’s approval. “...We can consider it as something that we haven’t completely recognized. We cannot define it with part of its features but can only describe it in a certain range. Day is not night, but the sky can behave in two statuses that are day and night. The different time of observation results in its different appearance.”

It was much easier than directly accepting that particles were waves. Sorcerers were always reverential about the unknown. They described it only according to their experiments.

Naturally, Lucien could not say that the ‘sky’ was actually a superposition state of ‘day’ and ‘night.’ Seeing that Norman accepted it rather well, he rose and said, “This is the discussion about certain problems at present. The main purpose is to ask the arcanists to keep an open mind about the unknown. They must not introduce the previous concepts blindly, or they will never see the big picture.”

“Arcana studies are important, but the methodology of arcana studies seem equally important!” Said Norman with mixed feelings.

Lucien nodded his head with a smile. That was exactly the methodology, to wit, the ways and the attitude with which one observed and processed problems.

Seeing that Lucien was about to leave, Norman led him to the door and remarked somewhat gloomily, “Can the problems in the new alchemy only be resolved if electrons are regarded as waves? It makes me feel that the new alchemy has reached the most difficult moment. There’s barely any hope. The only dawn that can be seen is unacceptable under the system.”

The existence of materials was real. Even Norman, an arcanist who was more inclined to the wave theory, found it more or less unacceptable to introduce the concept of waves to matter. He felt helpless and frustrated about the dilemma surrounding new alchemy.

“You forgot again. It is just a mysterious material that shows the features of waves.” Lucien bid him farewell. It was impossible to change one’s mindset overnight.

After seeing Lucien off, Norman rubbed his cheeks. “They feel so real. I find it hard to believe that they are waves...”

...

As the chairman of ‘Will of Elements’, Morris soon got the heuristic paper after it was published. Browsing through it, he put on a self-mocking smile. “The new alchemy on one side, and electrons as waves on the other side. This is really a tough choice.”

“Master, this is the third time that you have made the same remark, during the one hour that I discussed questions with you.” Florencia said, more or less complaining. “Why are you so concerned about the problem? Just because it can be explained from the perspective of waves doesn’t mean that it can’t be explained from the perspective of particles. Instead of worrying about that, you should devote more of your attention to your research. However, you sound less hesitant than the previous two times.”

She was a member of the Affair Committee who was better at doing things than research.

Morris smiled. “You are very keen. Lucien explained electrons from a new perspective. It’s not unacceptable even if they behave as waves.”

“Is that so?” Florencia asked for the paper and read it carefully. In the end, she smiled and said, “The early discussion was truly intense, but Lucien does have a special way of thinking. That must be the reason why he has presented so many revolutionary achievements... I rarely see anybody simplifying the question with only one metaphor.”

“Perhaps, this is the true nature of the wave-particle duality.” Morris heaved a sigh. “However, judging from Lucien’s meaning between the lines, he is more inclined to resolve the problems in the new alchemy with waves, too.”

“The cornerstone of elements and the fundamental code to describe particles have to address its problem with waves. What irony.” Florencia chuckled but looked rather gloomy.

Morris rose and walked to the window. Looking at the grey sky and the depressing, overwhelming snow that blocked his vision, he remarked, “The new alchemy is exactly experiencing such weather right now. There are huge snowflakes in every direction, and nobody can see a way out. We can only grope while we step forward. Even the unacceptable and nonnegotiable things in the past must be clutched as long as they indicate the way out.”

“This is a dilemma for Lucien as well as all the other elements in the field of elements and alchemy. We are like trapped beasts that have to resort to all means possible in order to break out of the siege and see the dawn again.”

Florencia also walked to the window and sighed. “I hope that such confusion, depression, coldness and loss end as soon as possible, so that we can pass through the infinite dark night and reach the dawn where everything is dyed red by the sun.”

“The darkness before the dawn is the deepest and thickest.” Morris observed. It was also the last obstacle before the half-solidification of his cognitive world.

...

Raventi, Gaston, LockLynn, Marcus and other senior-rank arcanists felt more or less the same when they read the heuristic paper. On one hand, Lucien’s example made them more open-minded towards particles, allowing for a shift of their mindset; on the other hand, they were all frustrated by the bottleneck of new alchemy.

Were they going to ask for the wave theory’s reinforcement after their endeavors in particles proved in vain?

If even waves could not address all the problems, would the model of new alchemy be completely wrong since the very beginning?

In the unknown world of pure darkness, the new alchemy seemed to have reached an intersection that would decide its own fate!

“Perhaps, we are already approaching success, except that there is only one correct way in the darkness around us. If we walk on the correct way, we will ascend to the throne of magic and arcana after one step and master the mysteries of matter, but if we go the wrong way, we will fall into a bottomless abyss and crash into pieces.” Looking at the depressing blizzard out of the window, Raventi suddenly had a feeling: The most critical moment for the new alchemy has come. Would it rise and illuminate everything like the sun, or would it fall like the moon and let the darkness re-embrace the world?

...

At night, having replied to plenty of letters, Lucien re-entered his library and sat on his chair. Then, he brought out the tremendous experiment data.

Plans could never keep up with changes. Lucien shook his head and picked up his quill, starting to write: On Quantum Mechanics.

Outside of the window, snowflakes were dancing in the coldness and darkness.