Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Princess's Visit
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Imperial Princess Isolde Arkarnus was reading a paper in her office.
[Calculus - The Method of Series and Fluxions]
"Even looking at it again, it's genius."
She knew Sir Valerius was a great mage. But she hadn't expected this level of brilliance.
Future historians would surely hail this paper as the starting point of the "Magic Revolution."
Flick. Just as Isolde was about to turn the page of [Principles of Calculus],
-'Your Highness. Do you have a moment?'
The dean's voice echoed in her mind. It was telepathy magic.
A shiver ran down her arms, goosebumps rising.
The range of telepathy transmission was proportional to the strength of one's will. For the dean to send it across the city from the Magic Tower to the Imperial Palace... how powerful was she?
Isolde felt a chill, but at the same time, relief. This formidable being was a long-time ally of the Arkarnus imperial family.
"Of course, Dean. What is it?"
Isolde replied aloud to the dean's telepathy. She didn't know the principle, but the dean would hear it clearly.
-'It's about the upcoming medal ceremony.'
"I know. We'll make it grand. Sir Valerius's theory is truly remarkable."
-'...Sigh.'
A faint sigh mixed into the dean's telepathic voice.
"Is there a problem?"
-'Your Highness. There's one thing bothering me. Do you know of a commoner mage named Isaac Uphills?'
"One of the recipients for the 2nd-class medal, isn't he?"
Isolde had heard the name Isaac Uphills before.
-'[Calculus] was first discovered not by Sir Valerius, but by 'Isaac Uphills.'
"...What? Does that mean Sir Valerius stole the paper?"
Crumple.
The princess gripped Valerius's paper tightly. Her mouth opened.
-'No. Nothing like that. It couldn't be. The boy deliberately credited his achievement to Sir Valerius.'
"Why on earth would he..."
-'Your Highness was once a mage of the Magic Tower, so you understand the impact of [Calculus].'
"Naturally. I'm already convincing His Majesty to launch related projects."
[Calculus] was a game-changer for imperial warfare. In mage-versus-mage battles, precision was the ultimate weapon.
-'The boy, fearing the repercussions of his theory, chose to give the glory to his mentor, Sir Valerius.'
"He's scared without a proper backer."
The dean's telepathy continued.
-'Exactly, Your Highness. If you consider this, it would greatly help the young genius.'
"Understood."
From nobles to commoners, they were all subjects of the Empire.
"I'll meet him myself."
Isolde decided to side with the freshman.
-'Thank you, Your Highness. Then I'll take my leave.'
The Magic Tower stood taller than the Imperial Palace.
This was because the history of mages predated that of the Empire.
"Then I'll take my leave."
The dean ended her telepathy with the princess and stood by the window of her office.
The dean's view, which overlooked everything, did not reflect the capital's panorama.
Her interest lay solely in one thing.
"Isaac Uphills."
Magarta Magica murmured the name.
His grades at the Magic University were average. Both admission and graduation records showed a perfectly ordinary student.
The records proved it.
Yet this same person had solved the "Achilles and the Tortoise" paradox and invented [Calculus].
"He was clearly mediocre. How did he become a genius?"
Genius wasn't nurtured. It was innate. Yet Isaac had been born mediocre and become a genius.
Beautiful. For a human mage, with a lifespan of barely a century, to surpass the wall of genius.
"Talent deserves proper reward."
The princess would make a fine patron for the boy.
Magic Tower, 10th floor lab.
After meeting with Count Ludwig, a new dilemma had arisen.
"Learning telepathy was great... but I can't put it to use."
Analyzing thoughts into brainwaves and using Fourier transforms to break them into simple wavelengths was fine.
But recombining those simple wavelengths was the problem.
Count Ludwig, who received my telepathy, nearly collapsed. If it could stagger a legion commander...
'More military than commercial...'
It needed refining before commercialization. Though commercialization was engineers' work...
Honestly, it was a shame.
Consider how humanity advanced just from carrier pigeons to frontline couriers.
Telepathy was definitely a technology worth perfecting.
For that, observation was essential.
"First, I need to figure out what a mana field is."
I closed my eyes and connected my thoughts to the mana field.
I stood motionless for half a day, imprinting the mana field's subtle noise in my mind.
About 10 hours later, a faint mana signal snagged in my detection net.
Transmission origin: Magic Tower 49th floor, dean's office. Reception: far-off Imperial Palace direction.
'Looks like the dean sent telepathy... but her method's different from mine.'
At least not Fourier transforming thoughts like I did.
'So how does she do it?'
The thought output was similar to mine, so if I knew the method, I could mimic it.
I opened my eyes and spent the night recording and analyzing the telepathy pattern.
The next morning, Giuseppe, arriving at work, was shocked to see me sprawled on the sofa.
"Junior. Why are you here so early?"
I replied with hollow eyes.
"No... this isn't arriving early."
"You mean..."
"Yeah. I haven't left yet."
"My god."
Giuseppe shook his head.
He'd suffered three weeks on paperwork himself.
Always so worried.
"What on earth made you work so hard?"
I pointed to the blackboard filled with wave graphs.
"Eavesdropping on telepathy."
Half a success.
I couldn't replicate the dean's telepathy, but I decoded it.
"..."
"..."
I informed Valerius of the "telepathy decryption contents."
It had been 5 minutes since.
"..."
"..."
But Valerius still showed no reaction.
He just blankly flipped through the detailed mana data on the telepathy.
Moments later, Valerius's mouth finally opened haltingly.
"So. How long did it take to analyze the dean's telepathy?"
"All day. I thought I'd go mad."
Finally acknowledging my effort?
"Good heavens..."
Valerius continued.
"In one day. Incredible..."
"Something wrong?"
Did I mess up the analysis?
"By mages' common sense, 'intercepting another's telepathy' is impossible."
"...Pardon? Why?"
"Telepathy carries the pulse of the soul, and that pulse can't belong to another."
"..."
I was speechless.
Where to even start explaining?
'Soul weight' might allow normal discussion.
At least those claims were quantifiable, verifiable by measurement...
But pulse... soul's pulse...
What did that even mean? Heartbeat?
Valerius spoke to me as I stood dazed.
"Keep your ability to interpret telepathy an absolute secret."
"..."
"Mages have many secrets."
Valerius was serious.
...Whatever a pulse was, I knew I'd done something big.
If word got out from loose lips, would those "dark mages" he mentioned come knocking?
Keep this technique secret from now on.
I changed the subject casually.
"Anyway. Doesn't the content of this telepathy seem suspicious?"
"Suspicious? How so?"
I pointed to the page with the dean's decoded conversation.
I'd only decoded the dean's side, so the responses from the other end were unknown. That uncertainty nagged at me.
"Haven't read that far yet."
"Ahem. Sorry."
"...No need to know the decryption method. Just read the transcript first."
After finishing the transcript, Valerius let out a hollow laugh.
"The princess. Dolloren's disciple. Know anything about her?"
"No. Nothing."
"Figured. The princess has a character unlike other Arkarnus imperial folk."
"...Like a spoiled brat?"
"Full of justice, looks after her subjects."
"..."
So the rest of the imperial family was unjust and arrogant?
The Empire's future looked dim.
"Anyway, the dean used that to pique the princess's 'personal curiosity' in you. Probably... she'll summon you soon."
The princess summoning me.
No time to worry about the Empire's future.
My own was the most uncertain.
The next day, I was slumped over my desk in the lab.
'The princess is coming...?'
The thought alone was burdensome.
Giuseppe asked me.
"Isaac... something wrong?"
"No, nothing."
"Really?"
"Except the princess might barge in."
"...Tell me more."
I relayed Valerius's speculation to Giuseppe.
"We need preparations."
"What kind?"
"Hm... tea and refreshments?"
Then, a knock echoed from the lab door.
Knock knock knock.
I hated door knocks.
If I ever became dean, I'd never let anyone into my office.
Only communicate when I wanted.
"Strange. No appointments today."
Giuseppe opened the door, puzzled.
Two strangers stood outside.
A tall man and a petite woman.
"What brings you here?"
The woman answered Giuseppe's question.
"We have a commission for the Magic Survey School. Directly for Researcher Isaac Uphills."
A commission? For me?
What for?
The woman introduced herself as a "merchant running a small trading company on the capital's outskirts."
She said,
"We'd like advice on improving our transport wagon efficiency using [Calculus]."
"Ask Sir Valerius. Faster that way."
"I heard Researcher Uphills has expertise in [Calculus] too."
"...Who told you that?"
"..."
She didn't answer.
Suspicious no matter how I looked.
Everyone in the Tower now knew I was good at calculus.
But outsiders? No way rumors spread that far.
Many knew Sam Altman's name for creating GPT.
How many knew the programmers under him?
They shouldn't know me.
I asked the man beside her.
"Does the gentleman next to you have anything to say?"
"...No."
I quietly scanned them with mana.
Not just caution. From the moment they entered, I'd felt a subtle "offness." I wanted to identify it.
'Something around their faces...?'
Invisible mana flows.
'Magic disguise?'
Typical magic disguises create a "stair-step effect." Applying mana in pixel-like units to the face.
But no pixels here.
'Anti-aliasing maybe...?'
Looking closer, yes. The disguise edges were smoothly blurred.
High-level magic. Unlikely for a small trading company.
So their identities...
'The princess.'
Not a guess. Certainty.
I said to Giuseppe, seated far away,
"Senior, where's that precious tea from the Ancient Rune Letters School last time?"
"That now?"
To Giuseppe's words, I replied facing the disguised woman.
"How could we serve mere tea to Her Highness the Princess?"
That instant, the woman's shoulders twitched and stiffened.
Moments later, the disguise magic dissolved, revealing their true faces.
Golden hair shining like sunlight, golden eyes.
Empire's Third Princess, Isolde Arkarnus. She looked at me and asked,
"...How did you know?"