Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: The Magic Tower Genius Hides Physics
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Several days later, an official summons arrived from the Magic Tower Administration.
It ordered me to appear as a witness at the "Magic Tower Schools General Assembly."
"Looks like I made it in as an assistant after all."
There was a reason I'd been name-dropping Giuseppe during the incident resolution.
That's when my roommate Liam spotted the summons on the desk and gasped.
"Isaac, is this for real?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. They want me at some meeting."
"...You talk about the Schools General Assembly like it's just a casual outing."
Liam pointed at the summons and continued.
"This isn't just any meeting. The Schools General Assembly only happens once per quarter. It's the Magic Tower's most important decision-making body."
"Ah."
No wonder the summons looked so fancy.
"Attendees are usually school heads and senior professors with decades of experience."
"Wow..."
This was turning out to be a bigger deal than I'd thought.
In my past life terms, it felt like a new hire presenting at an executive board meeting.
Liam went on.
"The people at the assembly... they're the living history of the Magic Tower. They won't tolerate anyone shaking the tower of common sense they've built."
"Any scholar would feel the same."
"Especially if it's in a way they can't understand."
"..."
Liam didn't sound like he was speaking in generalities.
The morning of the Magic Tower General Assembly.
Giuseppe and I headed to the main building's 45th-floor conference hall.
Rumble rumble.
The Floating Stairs carried us both upward for quite a while.
"..."
"..."
Giuseppe looked unusually tense.
I said to him,
"As long as we stick to the plan, it'll be fine."
"You really think so?"
I had a perfect plan.
1. When my turn comes, give a decent presentation.
2. There is no 2.
It seemed simple, but that was by design.
The more complex something is, the more fragile it tends to be.
That's just how the world works.
"Junior, if it's too much, I can present instead."
"No, I'm good."
I turned down Giuseppe's offer.
Appreciated the sentiment, though.
Thud.
The Floating Stairs came to a stop.
They say the higher you go in the Magic Tower, the fewer signs of life there are.
Floor Manager Ellara had told me that.
But not today.
The 45th floor was packed with more graduate students than I'd expected.
-"Hey, don't move that over there! That's another school's spot."
-"Then where should I put it?"
-"Over there!"
Ah.
I realized why there were so many people.
'They're here to work...'
Of course the graduate school would handle setup. It'd be weirder if school heads showed up hauling their own achievements around.
I even overheard snippets about our school here and there.
-"Huh? The Magic Survey School is attending this assembly? Aren't they the ones exiled to the annex?"
-"Voice too loud. Everyone can hear."
-"So what if they do... It's true."
...If you're gonna gossip, at least say something nice.
"Senior, is this how our school is always treated?"
"Ignore it. That's just how it is."
"Hmm..."
Our school's position felt like humanities departments on Earth—literature, history, philosophy...
'Makes me wanna mess with them...?'
Pity was one thing, but this was over the line.
I checked the affiliation of the student who'd just defamed our school with "factual" insults.
'Flame Element Magic School.'
Perfect.
I'll take their next failed commission.
And claim 50% of the compensation from you guys too.
"What are you staring at so intently?"
"...Nothing. Time to head in."
We entered the conference room and took our seats.
Soon, people started gathering in small groups, and the meeting began.
"We now commence the Magic Tower General Assembly for the 2nd quarter of Imperial Year 374. Before we start, let us pay respects to His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, who watches over the Empire..."
I skimmed through the pointless opening ceremony.
And glossed over the other schools' presentations too...
Then it was our turn.
"Next up is the Magic Survey School's results report on the 'Capital Central Bell Tower Sound Normalization Plan.'"
On cue from the vice dean's words, I stood up.
The professors glanced at me and murmured.
-"He's young."
-"Beyond young... He's a kid."
No surprise I'd draw eyes—an upstart in a room full of old-timers.
I gave a slight bow to the elf dean seated at the head table, then began my presentation.
"The most crucial part of this presentation is the calculation of 'sound reflection.'"
I drew on my past-life thesis defense experience to carry on.
And so...
"That concludes my presentation."
My turn ended.
Hypnotizing myself as "Steve Jobs" throughout had paid off.
'Not bad at all...'
I was satisfied with that.
Right then.
"I have a question."
Someone from the Magic Tool Material Processing School raised a hand.
"Oh no..."
Giuseppe muttered beside me.
"That's Rufus. My classmate. He's pissed we got paid so much."
Rufus shot up like he'd been waiting for this moment.
"The core of this report is controlling the path of 'sound particles.'"
Wait. Sound particles?
Waves, not particles?
Did I say that?
"But there's a major issue here. Sound isn't made of particles to begin with."
Rufus puffed out his chest proudly.
Like he'd uncovered some profound truth.
"..."
I was too dumbfounded to speak for a moment.
'Can I even say it now?'
I glanced at the elf dean.
She nodded silently.
Guess that's permission.
I asked Rufus,
"Where in my report does it say sound is particles?"
"You said it 'reflects,' didn't you? That means particles, right?"
"...Pardon?"
"..."
My words failed me.
Damn it.
Explaining wave reflection principles...
Where do I even start...?
Of course, rambling like I did with Liam would be easy.
'But if I do that...'
I snuck a peek at the dean.
'The backlash would be too much...'
Even the simplest one-dimensional wave equation wouldn't work.
This world hasn't developed calculus.
As I stayed silent, the Sound Magic School head spoke up.
"Rufus is right. Sound is a wave. Like water waves, sound doesn't reflect cleanly off walls—it scatters and breaks."
Another school head chimed in.
"...That said, we can't dismiss the Magic Survey School's report. The problem's solved, so 'reflection' must be fact."
"There've been attempts to explain light transmission via ether lately... Maybe sound too?"
"Indeed... Light reflects, so that could explain it."
They muttered among themselves, spouting utter nonsense.
What? Ether? Light's medium?
A chill ran down my spine at the name of science's longest tormentor.
I desperately wanted to replicate the Michelson-Morley experiment.
But not here, not now.
The professors' chatter continued.
"So even sound proves the ether exists..."
"Fascinating that sound works the same."
"Come to think of it, our lab..."
The feast of misconceptions...
Snap.
My thread of sanity broke.
I spoke without even asking to.
"No."
"What?"
"That's not it."
"..."
Dozens of eyes snapped to me instantly.
"..."
"..."
The attention was suffocating.
...I hate this stuff.
I met their gazes head-on and spoke again.
"Sound is a wave, and it can explain reflection and other behaviors without ether."
Giuseppe gripped my wrist tightly beside me.
Don't do it, huh.
But no choice.
If you've drawn the sword, you have to swing it.
I turned to the elf dean.
"May I use the blackboard?"
"Be my guest."
I approached the blackboard on the side of the room.
And picked up a piece of chalk.
'Ahh... I didn't want to show off here...'
I drew a sine wave graph on the board.
"Waves transmit energy in this form. As you see, waves have peaks called 'crests' and lowest points called 'troughs.'"
I marked a few points on the graph.
"When two waves meet, if one wave's crest overlaps another's crest, the height doubles. So..."
The dean responded to my words.
"The sound amplifies."
"Exactly."
I went on similarly about constructive and destructive interference in sound.
No equations to prove it, so I rambled descriptively.
Once I finished, the professors started chiming in one by one.
"It makes sense... It makes sense, but..."
"According to this theory, could we cancel sound with sound?"
"The theory holds water, but no proof."
"Wasn't the bell tower commission proof enough?"
"...That could be luck. Reproducibility is key."
Once the fire's lit, it doesn't go out.
Not until the fuel's burned up.
As the room's noise grew irritating.
Clap!
The elf dean clapped her hands.
"Quiet."
That tiny sound silenced the entire room instantly.
She said to me,
"Isaac Uphills. Can you devise an experiment to prove your claim?"
"Of course."
"Do it."
...
At my command, graduate students brought in a massive water tank and two bells.
'That tank must weigh a ton...'
Poor grad students.
The dean asked me,
"According to you, what should happen?"
"Just as the wave heights vary in the tank—high and low—so the bell sounds will be loud in some spots and quiet in others here."
"Good. Proceed."
"Yes."
I dropped two pebbles into the tank simultaneously.
Splash.
Two ripples spread across the surface.
Soon, patterns emerged where they met.
Some spots surged higher, others went eerily still. Clear interference.
"It... it's real."
A young professor murmured beside me.
Rufus retorted immediately.
"Not yet. The bell sound proof is still pending."
The dean nodded.
"Now, ring the bells."
Two grad students rushed in holding the bells.
"No, not you two."
"...Pardon?"
"Isaac Uphills. You do it."
No defying the dean.
"...Understood."
I levitated the two bells into the air with telekinesis.
And rang them.
Dinggg.
Grad students stood at the spots I'd predicted for interference.
They'd report how the sound actually behaved.
The students walked back and forth between constructive and destructive zones.
"Pattern matches the tank! The sound really gets louder and softer!"
"For real...?"
"Yes!"
"The sound... really vanishes...?"
The Sound Magic School head also paced the predicted overlap points.
Dinggg.
The bells rang again, and he spoke.
"It's real..."
Everyone hung on the "sound" expert's words.
He muttered softly.
"What the hell have I been doing all this time..."
The other professors glanced at him and fell silent one by one.
"..."
"..."
Normally I'd ring a few more times... but should I stop here?
Then the dean whispered in my ear.
"Keep ringing. I want to test something."
"...Yes."
Boss's orders.
Dinggg—
The bells rang again, and the Sound Magic School head's face stiffened.
But the dean ignored it.
She addressed me again.
"Now add some wind."
"...How strong?"
"Enough to blow away a sheet of parchment."
"Got it."
I devised a spell on the spot.
FD = ½ * ρ * v² * CD * A
Calculated the parchment's drag. From that, the minimum wind speed needed.
ΔP = ½ * ρ * v²
Then created pressure difference to generate wind.
Whoosh. Wind blew.
The dean said,
"The interference pattern changed."
"Air is sound's medium."
"Can you calculate how waves change with airflow?"
"...Extremely difficult."
"How difficult?"
"Every imperial citizen would need parchment and pen to track air movement."
"Then how'd you fix the bell tower? Air flows there too."
"...The bell tower is sealed except for a few passages. Approximations made it calculable."
"Ah."
The dean's eyes sparkled. She looked thrilled, smirking.
"Excellent answer. Take notes."
"...Notes on what?"
"Not you—tell the Sound Magic School head."
"..."
His hands trembled.
"..."
He silently pulled out parchment and jotted down my words.
The dean smiled at him.
Her beauty inversely proportional to her humanity shone through.
"We'll have to overhaul all the university textbooks. Lots of work ahead."
She continued,
"Meeting adjourned."
The professors froze in stunned silence at her unilateral declaration.
Sticking around would just tire me out more.
Time to bail.
I hurriedly packed my things and stood.