Chapter 15
Chapter 15
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: The Magic Tower Genius Hides Physics
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The day after the special lecture.
I was reading a magic book in the school lab as usual.
About an hour later.
Screeech.
The door opened, and Giuseppe arrived for work. He said,
"Junior... I told you there's no need to come in this early."
"There's nothing much to do at the dorm anyway."
Ha ha.
Giuseppe let out a hollow laugh.
"I'm truly grateful. Always thankful."
"...?"
"By the way, how was yesterday's special lecture? Lord Valerius always gives out these bizarre assignments every week. I'm curious."
"Senior... You knew all about it?"
Then why didn't you tell me?
"I had no choice. If I'd mentioned it first, Lord Valerius would have come looking for me for sure."
"Ah, I see."
Now it made sense.
Being chased by an archmage was a bit frightening.
After that, I explained everything that had happened yesterday.
From the two shadow tricks to the bizarre assignment at the end.
Once I'd finished, Giuseppe nodded.
"That's just like him. So, what are you planning for the next assignment? 'Discuss something impossible with magic'... "
"Yeah..."
I spilled the details of what I'd agonized over all last night.
My original plan had been quite grand.
I'd intended to apply Gödel's incompleteness theorems to magic...
But I gave up.
This world didn't yet have the mathematical logic needed to support that proof.
It was obvious it'd just come off as incomprehensible nonsense if I spouted something that complex.
"So, I prepared something simpler instead."
I pulled out the single sheet of parchment I'd written up overnight and handed it to Giuseppe.
"What do you think of this?"
"...It's shorter than I expected."
Giuseppe took the parchment.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
In the quiet lab, filled only with the sound of the clock, Giuseppe read through my writing.
A moment later, he spoke.
"This is..."
His hand trembled faintly.
"Incredible. It's clear and beautiful."
...Really that good?
Fortunately, the second week's special lecture didn't start with 'find the classroom.'
We gathered in a proper lecture hall, waiting for Valerius.
Whispers spread among the students around me.
"We're not first-year undergrads, and they give us homework like this?"
"...You must be pretty confident."
"Nah. I totally bombed it."
Watching them snicker among themselves reminded me of my past life.
'Those guys' assignment was 'what is magic'...'
The more I thought about it, the lamer the topic seemed.
It'd been just over a year since I possessed this body. How was anyone supposed to know what magic was?
A moment later, Valerius appeared, and the lecture began.
"Alright, submit the assignments I mentioned last time."
One by one, the students placed thick stacks of parchment on Valerius's desk.
'Whoa... look at that thickness.'
Everyone must have worked really hard.
Mine was thin, though...
Was that okay?
'I'll turn mine in after class.'
Submitting now would draw way too much aggro.
Valerius flipped through the students' assignments casually and said,
"This garbage... I mean, the assignments. I'll read them when I'm bored later."
Did he just say garbage...?
I guess I wasn't the only one who heard.
One student raised a hand, face twisted in annoyance.
"...While doing the assignment, I got curious. What do you think magic is, Professor?"
This was clearly a protest.
Like, 'Our work is garbage? How great is yours, then?'
"Good question. 'What is magic?'"
...But Valerius completely ignored the student's passive-aggressive tone.
Valerius stepped up to the blackboard.
"Explaining with words is boring, so let me show you an example."
He picked up a piece of chalk and began drawing an intricate magic circle on the board.
Circles layered upon circles, filled densely with runes.
Counting each circle as one circle, seven circular magic formations formed concentric rings.
"Seven circles. A seventh-circle spell..."
"I've never seen a structure like that."
"Did he make it himself?"
The students couldn't decipher the magic circle Valerius had drawn.
...Honestly, neither could I.
'It's pretty esoteric.'
It was magic no ordinary mage could touch.
Once the magic circle was complete, Valerius looked at us and said,
"What kind of spell is this? Anyone want to guess?"
"...Um. Meteor Fall?"
"The sixth circle does have a structure borrowed from that. Partial credit. Any other guesses?"
Valerius pointed at students one by one, hearing their answers.
"Something related to reagent production."
"You spotted the structure in the fourth circle."
...
"Something to do with uniform motion."
"You interpreted the seventh. Not bad."
But no one got the right answer, and my turn came.
"Last one. Dolloren's disciple. What do you think?"
"..."
Should I say it?
Thanks to the other students buying time, I'd managed to analyze the spell.
'But how do I even describe this...'
It was a bit tricky.
Pfft. Valerius chuckled.
"No use pretending you don't know. Fine. Let me demonstrate it myself."
Valerius channeled mana into the magic circle.
"Behold."
The entire magic circle erupted in dazzling light.
The other students probably expected some grand archmage spell.
But what appeared was.
Fwoosh.
A single small fireball.
Valerius held the fireball above his hand and showed it to us.
"Huh...?"
"Did the magic circle fail to activate?"
"No way... It's Lord Valerius."
Murmurs rippled through the room.
At that moment, Valerius's gaze turned to me.
"Dolloren's disciple. Explain. Why did this spell manifest like this?"
All eyes focused on me.
'Damn it...'
I should have spoken up earlier.
The attention would have been less then.
No helping it.
Things had come to this, so I'd just say it.
I took the chalk from Valerius and stood at the blackboard.
"So... this is a kind of nested hypothetical question spell."
In my eyes, the magic circle looked like this.
'Permission to use a fireball? Approval to ask for permission to demand approval to question the disclosure of the existence of a question about...'
It was horrifying.
A magical quadruple nested hypothetical.
One student spoke up at my explanation.
"...If that were the case, we would've noticed too."
"If it were just a list of negations, sure. But this spell disguises that structure as 'modules.'"
I pointed out each part of the magic circle.
"See? It mixes abbreviations from different schools, but after each part computes, almost nothing remains."
Each school in the Magic Tower uses different abbreviations and operators for secrecy.
This spell exploited that, loading the final process with masses of operators that cancel out.
I erased those 'fake structures' one by one.
Circles 1, 2, 7 cleared.
"Whoa..."
"It's real. They're disappearing."
Circles 3, 5, 6 cleared.
"Now what's left is..."
"Just the fourth circle."
After clearing everything erasable from the fourth circle too...
Inside the seven massive circles, only the barest skeleton of a basic fireball remained.
I channeled mana only into the remaining parts and activated the magic circle.
Fwoosh.
A fireball formed again.
I turned to Valerius.
"Is this right?"
Valerius nodded.
"Correct."
Whew.
A sigh escaped me.
I hated presenting.
I hurried back to my seat.
Valerius pointed at the blackboard and said,
"As you saw, if the logic breaks, the result is ridiculous. Magic is ultimately just a logic puzzle."
Exclamations erupted here and there.
Everyone must have had some realization.
"Now we're at the starting line. Here's the question."
With a gesture from Valerius, the blackboard with the magic circle flipped.
Whoosh.
"If magic's foundation is logic, what happens when you push it to its limit?"
On the back of the blackboard was a bizarre magic circle.
"Alright. First real lesson. Experience it yourselves."
The moment Valerius poured mana into the magic circle.
Everything went white.
Dizzy.
I suppressed the vertigo and stood.
"What the hell is this...?"
Before my eyes stretched a white marble track.
Unbelievable.
"Magic can even do this?"
Looking around, I saw the other students from the special lecture too.
"An ambush?!"
"Ugh, my head's splitting."
Everyone seemed confused about the situation.
Then, Valerius's voice boomed from the sky.
He continued his explanation.
As he said, a small turtle was visible ahead of us students.
Plod, plod.
It crawled along the track at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Ah. Could it be that one?
Valerius continued,
'Achilles and the Tortoise.'
The paradox that had tormented Earth's scholars for ages.
The moment Valerius finished speaking, cheers erupted from the students.
"A... wish? From Lord Valerius?"
"Insane...!"
An archmage's promise carried weight.
He'd probably grant just about anything within his power.
"Begin!"
No sooner had Valerius shouted than the students' eyes gleamed like beasts'.
Gwendolyn Everglow moved first.
"Winds, lend strength to my legs!"
She mixed beastkin chants and incantations to cast her spell.
'Reducing air resistance and increasing stride length?'
Gwendolyn concentrated mana in her legs and shot forward faster than anyone.
"What? Already?"
"A freshman skipping incantations... impossible."
As the other students marveled, Gwendolyn raced on.
The distance to the turtle wasn't far.
"Caught it!"
She easily reached the turtle's position.
But...
Plod.
The very next instant, the turtle was slightly ahead of her.
"Huh...?"
Gwendolyn took another step.
At the same time, the turtle inched forward too.
Plod.
"Wha-what??"
One step closer, and it pulled away.
Half a step, and it pulled away...
Even a fraction of that.
Through countless infinitesimal moments, the turtle held its position ahead.
Its sturdy shell seemed to taunt:
Meanwhile.
Valerius peered down at the 'miniature racetrack' on his desk.
Inside, tiny doll-like students desperately chased the crystal turtle.
He'd said to overtake it, but he didn't expect success.
Magic was logic, and this miniature was a prison of logic.
Thus, they couldn't escape it with their own hands.
"Leave 'em for about 30 minutes, then pull them out. That should give them something to think about."
He was about to leisurely sip his tea.
But then.
Something anomalous happened in the miniature racetrack.
"...?"
While the other students still trailed the turtle...
One in particular.
The black-haired little doll, Isaac Uphills, had already passed the crystal turtle.
Plod, plod.
No matter how the model turtle crawled, it couldn't catch Isaac's steps.
"Impossible..."
He nearly dropped his teacup.
The magic circle was perfect.
No magical tricks, no physical cheats.
Logic had to be absolute.
Since magic was logic.
"How in the world..."
Did Isaac leapfrog the turtle?