The Second Law of Thermodynamics
A thick, sticky silence settled over the entire Thermodynamics Lecture Hall. But that was merely the calm before the storm. One reporter hurled a question at me, and the interest directed my way began to explode.
The three major newspapers representing the Empire all jostled to thrust their small sound-amplifying devices—microphones—toward me. Difficult-to-answer questions. Questions I didn't want to answer. Questions that were safe to answer. They all mixed together at once, creating an atmosphere like a noisy marketplace. I felt exactly like one of those corrupt politicians you only ever see on the news.
With questions pouring in from every direction, I had no idea what to say.
Fortunately, Elena stepped in at just the right moment and blocked them. She declared that the exam was still underway and that any approach toward the students was strictly forbidden. She added that if they had questions, they should direct them through her—the official sponsor of the academy's talent development foundation.
In situations like this, Elena really was a huge help.
"Hey, Sir Fix! What the hell was that thing earlier? That new weapon that made a kee-iiing sound!"
But no matter how powerful Elena was, she couldn't stop the students from swarming me. The countless cadets surrounding me had all fixed their attention squarely on yours truly.
"You basically ripped Max apart, didn't you? That was incredible."
"Your strategy was insane! Honestly, the teammates Sir Fix brought along weren't exactly impressive, were they?"
"Hey, Ed. Do you study military tactics too?"
"Can you give me one of those weapons? I'll pay whatever it takes!"
"What's the underlying principle? There was a mana stone embedded in the bracelet—how many spell formulas did you have to combine to enable that kind of transformation?"
"Oi! Sir Fix! Look over here too!"
The endless barrage of questions as they clung to me. As expected, it was just as troublesome. As a typical engineering nerd who simply enjoyed tinkering with machines, having this avalanche of attention all at once was overwhelmingly exhausting.
"Ugh—this is annoyingly loud."
But at that moment.
A woman's voice pierced through the countless noises surrounding me and dug straight into my ear. And I wasn't the only one who heard that sharp voice. Because it was infused with mana.
The owner of the voice was Isabella. Her violet eyes were glaring at the crowd. The students began to glance around nervously and slowly return to their seats.
"Umm… yeah, the test is still in progress."
"Haha. We can't cause a disturbance."
"Where was my seat again…"
The moment they met Isabella's gaze, the crowd scattered quickly. In the end, the only people left around me were my original teammates.
As soon as Isabella confirmed that, the angry expression on her face melted away. She turned toward me and gave a small smile. Then, with a quick turn, she headed back to her own seat.
Was she trying to help me out of a difficult situation?
"Um, Edga Fix."
While I was watching Isabella's retreating figure, one of my teammates called out to me. It was Pio, the fallen noble.
"Before the match started earlier… I'm sorry for ignoring you. My family's situation isn't great, so… I think I took it out on you. You seem to be doing so well even though you're a commoner, while someone like me is so worthless. I guess I was jealous too."
Pio scratched the back of his head as he apologized. He was the guy with the red slicked-back hair—the one who'd broken a few ribs and gotten eliminated alongside the others who had ignored me. But now his attitude had done a complete 180.
"…It's fine since we won. It was thanks to your cooperation, Pio, that we were able to win like this."
"Haha. I just did what you told me to. By the way, just speak comfortably. We were teammates and comrades, even if only for a little while."
"…Hmm, alright. Let's do that."
It was absurd for a commoner like me to speak casually to a noble, but if the other party permitted it, there was no problem. It was more comfortable for me this way too.
Next, Charlotte spoke up.
"U-um, how about we all just drop the formal speech? S-since we're all connected by this… this bond."
Charlotte's round glasses gleamed as her face flushed bright red. For someone as timid as her, that must have taken tremendous courage. Let's all be friends. And the mood was such that everyone gladly accepted.
"Yeah. Let's keep in touch from now on."
"It was an honor to fight alongside you. You're the kind of guy who succeeds at anything he does."
"I-I was really g-glad I could work t-together with you, Ed."
We exchanged our farewells like that. The next test would be an individual competition rather than a five-person team battle, so there was no longer any reason for us to stay together.
After saying our goodbyes, we each scattered back to our seats.
Six more team matches followed, and finally, all the winners and losers of the first round were decided.
The first round has concluded. We will now make an announcement regarding the second round.
Once the first round ended, the supervisor stepped onto the platform and began the announcement. The content was that the second round would be held at the same time tomorrow and would be conducted in a tournament format.
Thank you all for your hard work. You are dismissed.
After the instructor's dismissal order, I immediately headed out to meet Enya. I had promised to visit her earlier.
It was right as I was leaving the Basic Tactics Department Building 7.
"Ed."
Someone called my name. The owner of the voice was Enya. She had already been waiting for me near the entrance.
"Ah. Lady Cruel. I was just about to go find you."
"Hehe. How did you know where I was?"
"You always take a carriage home once your schedule ends, right? I was going to head to where the carriages wait."
That was right. Enya commuted to the academy. Always with her three close friends.
"Oh, so you knew I take a carriage. But meeting in front of those girls felt a bit awkward. They don't really understand my hobbies."
"They don't like Baldohjae much?"
"They have no taste in art."
"What a loss for them."
"Puhuhu. Right?"
Enya fidgeted with her hands and smiled brightly. Then, perhaps conscious of the eyes gathering around us, she glanced behind her before turning back to me.
"U-um, should we move somewhere else first? It's too noisy here."
"Sure. Actually, I know a really good spot. It's incredibly quiet and secluded."
"Oh, where is it?"
"My personal workshop. Want to see it?"
"…!! Yes! I want to see it!"
"Haha. Then I'll show you the way."
* Spell Formula Analysis/Combination Faculty, Building 3, Room 207.
Ed brought Enya there. It was a personal laboratory prepared exclusively for him. Of course, it was ridiculous for the academy to give an entire premium room to a mere commoner. And it wasn't some tiny storage closet either—this was a luxurious, state-of-the-art research lab packed with every kind of equipment and facility imaginable.
Under normal common sense, a lab like this would usually be reserved for professors or leaders of major projects. That was why Elena had pulled some administrative tricks. She registered the room as her own sub-laboratory and assigned Ed as a working scholarship student here. His official role was to inspect equipment and clean the lab.
She had told Ed that if any professor complained about him using the lab, he could simply reply, "I'm cleaning right now." Apparently, because she'd caused quite a scene to snatch this lab, there might be one or two professors who would pick fights. But Elena assured him she would handle any such issues, so he didn't need to worry.
"Um, Ed. What are these sparkling things?"
At that moment, Enya called out to him. While looking around his lab, her eyes had lit up at the sparkling blue light inside a test tube.
Ed stepped beside her and answered.
"It's mana."
"…M-mana?"
"Yes."
"I can see mana with my eyes… That's amazing."
"I made it visible on purpose. I received a lot of help from Head Professor Elena."
"Ah… from the head professor."
"Yes. And actually, the blue light you're seeing right now is tens of thousands of mana particles clumped together. A single mana particle is so tiny it's invisible to the naked eye."
"…This tiny light is made of tens of thousands of mana?"
"That's right."
"…That's fascinating. How did you figure that out?"
"Because I'm researching it. The properties of mana, the characteristics of mana, the energy conversion formulas of mana… I'm trying to uncover the secrets of mana."
Enya nodded with a thoughtful expression. Then, looking at Ed's face illuminated by the blue mana light, she said,
"You seem even more incredible than I imagined, Ed. That gauntlet you wore today must have been made through this kind of effort."
…Effort, huh.
Ed smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. While it was true he'd put in effort, it was largely thanks to the cheat-like abilities called Engineering Mindset and Creator's Hammer.
Enya then looked at the test tube and continued.
"I'm curious about your secret. What kind of effort did you put in to create something so amazing?"
Ed's secret. In other words, Enya was curious about his mental world. What kind of mindset and attitude did one need to create something so extraordinary?
But Ed simply muttered something cryptic.
"Well, I just tried to decrease entropy."
"……Pardon?"
The word entropy that he'd casually muttered. It was a term that penetrated the Second Law of Thermodynamics and served as the most fundamental concept for explaining the universe. After all, it described the directional flow of natural energy.
"Ah, well—"
But there was no way Enya, a native of this world and not a science major, would know such a concept. So Ed decided to explain it in simple terms she could understand.
"So, entropy is… um… a term I kind of made up?"
Of course he hadn't actually invented it, but he decided to phrase it that way for simplicity.
"Umm… basically, you can think of it as the degree of disorder."
"The degree… of disorder?"
"Yes. Want an example?"
Ed pointed at the test tube as he spoke. When Enya turned her gaze toward it, he continued his explanation immediately.
"If you look at the test tube, you'll see the mana inside is moving around randomly, right?"
Just as Ed said, the mana inside the tube was bouncing around haphazardly in every direction. When Enya nodded, he went on.
"I consider this state of mana to be disordered. It's moving around wildly without forming any particular shape."
"Oh… I see?"
"Right. Then let me turn this mana into an ordered state."
Ed drew a reinforcement spell formula on the panel connected to the test tube. Immediately, the same formula appeared on one wall of the tube. He then infused the formula with mana.
"There. When I do this, the mana that was wandering randomly inside the tube takes on the shape of the reinforcement formula and becomes ordered."
As Ed explained, the mana that had been floating chaotically in the air became trapped within the grooves of the formula, emitting a blue light in the exact shape of the reinforcement spell.
Having understood, Enya nodded.
"I call this a decrease in entropy. The mana that was wandering disorderly has now taken on the ordered shape of the reinforcement formula."
"…Hmm. So what you're saying is that because the mana has taken on the ordered shape of the formula, you consider the disorder of the mana to have decreased? That… entro…?"
"Entropy."
"Yes. Entropy. So you're saying the entropy has decreased. Is that correct?"
"Exactly. You catch on quickly."
When Ed praised her, Enya gave a faint smile. After taking a moment to steady her breathing, she turned to him and said,
"Then that means you've been working to help mana take on specific forms. You said you only decreased entropy."
"Yes, that's exactly it. Because mana naturally moves in the direction of increasing entropy."
Ed pressed a button as he spoke. The 'reinforcement' symbol on the panel disappeared, and so did the formula on the test tube wall. At the same time, the mana that had formed the shape began to scatter randomly again.
"See? When the ordered shape of the reinforcement formula is removed, the mana scatters randomly again. In other words, entropy has increased."
"…I see."
Enya nodded as if she truly understood. Excited now, the engineering nerd Ed opened the test tube and continued.
"Mana always moves to increase entropy. If you remove the container called a test tube, the mana will wander throughout the entire lab like this."
Enya watched the sparkling blue light spread from the test tube and fill the entire laboratory. Ed didn't stop there. He opened the lab window and said,
"And if there's no lab container, it would roam throughout the entire Building 3. Once it leaves Building 3, it would spread across the whole academy. That's how mana's entropy keeps increasing."
The concept of entropy was something she could almost grasp, yet still found difficult to fully understand. At that moment, Ed knocked over a cup of water and continued.
"It's not just mana that increases entropy. Water neatly contained in a cup will also spread out once it loses the form holding it. If you spill a perfume bottle, the scent it held will spread everywhere and gradually fade. Even a piece of red-hot iron will lose its heat over time and grow cold, because the heat spreads in all directions."
"…Hmm. Now that you mention it, that makes sense."
"Exactly. The laws of this universe are designed so that entropy increases. Disorder is constantly growing."
"Umm… a universe where disorder keeps increasing… That's difficult."
Enya scratched the back of her head and smiled bitterly. Ed thought her reaction was perfectly natural. After all, she didn't know that this universe was continuously expanding. She didn't know it was heading toward thermodynamic death.
So he decided to share only his own conclusion.
"Haha. Did I explain it too complicatedly? What I'm saying is that I worked to find a single order within this world filled with disorder. Technology advances the moment that order is discovered."
After listening to Ed's explanation, Enya nodded. Finding a single order within chaos. Somehow, it felt like something she could understand.
"If that's the case, then swordsmanship is similar, isn't it? Out of thousands or tens of thousands of possible thrusts and slashes, we impose a single standardized form and call it 'swordsmanship.'"
"That's right. And Lady Enya, you have an incredible talent for finding that order. You can learn any sword style with ease."
"…Hmm. But Battojutsu is different. That one doesn't come easily no matter what."
"Haha. That's because it's a sword style that only exists in manga."
"…That's true."
"Well, that's precisely why I think it's such an attractive style. Even someone with your genius talent has no choice but to go through trial and error to master Battojutsu, right? Maybe you're actually enjoying the process of discovering the order called 'Battojutsu' itself."
Enya recalled those days. From the moment she first picked up a sword, her talent had been so overwhelming that every sword style felt boring. The only thing that had ever made her heart race was the unknown sword art called Battojutsu. And chasing after it was her ideal—her very romance.
"Perhaps we… are the same kind of person. People who seek order within chaos."
"Haha. You think so? Well, now that you mention it, maybe we are. I seek the order of mechanics, and you seek the order of swordsmanship."
Ed—the one who seeks the order of mechanics. And herself—the one who seeks the order of swordsmanship.
Enya liked the way he phrased it. So she wanted to get closer to him using his own words.
"Ed."
She steadied her heart and called his name. With a blush on her cheeks, she gazed at his handsome face.
When Ed tilted his head and looked at her, Enya spoke.
"T-then… h-how about we… also look for the order… between us…?"
"…Huh?"
"According to what you said, the entropy between us is still high, right? Since we don't have any relationship yet… it's in a state of… chaos?"
"……?"
"So, I want to lower the entropy between us. First… by fitting our unpredictable relationship into the frame called… f-friends! Friends."
"……?"
"And then… after that…"
Enya's face turned so red it looked like it might explode as her words trailed off. Realizing what she was about to say, she frantically waved her hands and exclaimed,
"N-no, never mind! There's no 'after that'!"