Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
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I wanted to track down those terrorists and wipe them out right now.
But for the moment, I had to focus on what I could do.
Know your enemy and know yourself, and you'll win a hundred battles, right?
Wait... thinking about it, was that exactly it?
'A hundred victories? Invincible? Undefeatable? What was it again?'
I really should have studied some liberal arts.
Anyway, I decided to look into those cultist prayer-mongers.
Of course, with my zero humanities sensitivity, it was Laura who investigated and reported back to me instead.
Laura said,
"The official name of the 'cultist prayer-mongers' you mentioned is 'Guides of the Lantern'."
That was their name, huh? News to me.
"They've currently been designated as heretics within the Empire."
Good, they're heretics. At least that meant I wouldn't have to fight the entire Empire's worth of theologians.
"Their core doctrine is that 'all things in the heavens move according to the will of the gods,' and they revere astrology, predicting the future through the motion of planets or the brightness of stars."
"Does that stuff actually work?"
"Hm...? Do you believe in it?"
Laura gave me a strange look.
Hey, come on.
How different could magic be from astrology, really...?
I felt wronged.
But whether I felt wronged or not, Laura continued her report.
"This sect emerged centuries ago during the purge of mage-theologians. Their last official activity was over a century ago, so most people thought they'd vanished entirely... but."
"Now they've popped up again, huh?"
Laura nodded silently.
Now things were starting to make sense.
'To properly root out scum like these...'
Aha. That'll do it.
I picked up my quill and revised the final 'Discussion' section of my paper.
Magic Tower Thesis Review Association Chairman Simon kept moistening his parched lips.
But his mouth stayed dry.
It was nerves.
'Damn, damn, damn.'
The Dean had summoned him personally.
Not a letter—a face-to-face request.
Even during the massive fiasco with Sir Valerius's Calculus paper last time, the Dean had handled everything by letter.
But now, a direct meeting?
'What the hell is coming this time?'
The worst possible scenarios flashed through his mind.
Was the founding Emperor resurrecting from beyond the northern front to personally author a paper?
At last, the door opened, and Simon entered the office with a stiff expression.
"..."
"Heh heh."
Contrary to his fears, the Dean stood by the window, wearing a gentle smile.
"Heh heh heh."
'He's even laughing...?'
Simon had no memory of ever seeing that man smile so purely in his entire life.
If anything, it made him more terrified.
Simon cautiously glanced at the stack of documents in the Dean's hand.
And there it was—a familiar name.
'Isaac Uphills.'
You again.
'Is that guy some kind of paper-printing magic tool?'
While Simon screamed internally, the Dean spoke.
"It's been a while, Simon. You don't look well."
"Not at all, Dean. I'm just honored to serve the Magic Tower, as always."
"I see. Well, I look forward to your continued efforts."
The Dean handed Simon a single paper.
"A new thesis. As you know, things are chaotic inside and out of the Tower right now, so I'd like you to handle this one with an expedited review—just documents, no empirical defense."
"Pardon? Oh, yes, understood."
Simon took the documents in a daze.
The title was Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.
Co-authors: Isaac Uphills and... Anna Uphills? An unfamiliar name.
Whew.
Good. Nothing serious this time.
Simon let out a sigh of relief.
But then a question occurred to him.
For something this minor, a letter would have sufficed...
'Why call me all the way here for a face-to-face?'
Should he ask?
As Simon opened his mouth, the Dean gazed out the window and said casually,
"Simon."
"Yes, Dean."
"Have you ever seen a 'starfall'?"
"...Pardon?"
A few days later, a new rumor spread like wildfire through the Magic Tower.
There were two pieces of news.
First, the group behind the attack on Isaac Uphills was some heretical religious cult.
Second, their goal was his new paper.
How groundbreaking could this new paper be that even a hidden heretical group was targeting it?
Ellara suddenly grew curious.
To verify the rumors herself, she headed to the Magic Tower's thesis copying room.
It was already packed with researchers trying to hand-copy Isaac's paper.
A long line even snaked outside.
"Hey! Don't push!"
"Wasn't me. It was from behind."
Researchers... acting this enthusiastic?
'Most of them are probably newbies who came because of Isaac...'
Still, this was overkill.
It's not like he'd uncovered some eternal truth.
"I was curious, but looks like I can't see it myself."
In the end, she turned back toward her lab.
Upon entering, she saw a new junior sitting at a desk, grinning ear-to-ear at a parchment.
"You, is that...?"
"Ah, Senior! Yep, it's Uphills Senior's brand-new paper, fresh out! Wanna read it together?"
"You already got through that huge line?"
"Worth pulling an all-nighter since yesterday."
"..."
Going through all that for one paper...?
Ellara couldn't comprehend her junior's near-maniacal enthusiasm.
But thanks to it, she could read the paper early, so it wasn't all bad.
Ellara sat beside her junior and started reading together.
The junior made a fuss over every line.
"Whoa! Senior, check this out! There are three laws of force!"
"..."
"Oh my god, he proves them all with calculus!"
"..."
But Ellara couldn't join in like that.
She was certain. Once the junior grasped the implications, she'd be speechless too.
'What am I even looking at right now?'
All the 'motions' mages had only vaguely intuited were now described in precise equations.
Isaac had merely applied it to calculating celestial orbits.
The sensation that every truth had been unveiled at once left Ellara frozen.
Then, her gleeful junior, reaching the final page, shouted,
"Senior, look at this!"
It was the conclusion—the last paragraph, seemingly written by Isaac himself.
-Per the author's request and with the approval of the Dean and Association Chairman, this paper will be deemed verified upon fulfillment of the predictions below.
And below that were three celestial motion predictions calculated per the paper.
1. Based on comet observations, a starfall—i.e., meteor shower—will be observed near the Lyra constellation on April 22 at 10:20 PM.
"Whoa! That's just days away! Amazing!"
Ellara couldn't respond to her junior's excitement.
'Isaac can even see into the future now?'
Isaac's bold prophecy spread across the continent via thesis copies.
Not just local Magic Towers east, west, south, and north, but even noble houses treating astronomy as a liberal art received word.
And, naturally, it reached the 'Guides of the Lantern' believers secluded in a remote mountain village near the capital.
"..."
"..."
The mood in the hideout was oppressively heavy.
The recent attack had failed, and headquarters hadn't contacted them.
In the midst of that, one believer tremblingly held up Isaac's paper.
"Sh-should we report this to headquarters?"
The priest shook his head sternly.
"No. No need. It'll be a false prophecy anyway."
He glared sharply at the frightened believer.
"How can you unite with the gods with faith that weak? Your devotion is lacking."
"S-sorry..."
He scolded the believer, but his own heart wavered.
'Of course it'll be wrong. But if the unbeliever is right... what then?'
The priest addressed the believers.
"What day is it today?"
"The 22nd."
Perfect—it was the day of the paper's prophecy.
"...If you can't believe without seeing, then we'll have to look ourselves."
The senior priest led his followers out of the hideout.
But the night sky was obscured by dense branches.
"Priest, we can't see well from here... Should we give up?"
"...No. We're going to the mountaintop."
One believer asked uneasily,
"But Priest, our position might get exposed. Isn't it dangerous?"
The priest looked up at the night sky and replied,
"Tonight will be fine. It's the day the gods judge the false prophet's arrogance—they'll surely watch over us."
At the same time, the Magic Tower courtyard bustled like a festival.
All eyes were fixed on one place: the night sky.
"Is the starfall really coming?"
"Nah, no way. Starfalls are mana phenomena—you can't predict them to the minute."
"You read that paper and still say that?"
"Dude, honestly? I didn't even understand it properly. Probably a mistake."
Other researchers listening nearby nodded.
Truth be told, almost no one fully grasped the paper's contents.
But they'd gathered, skipping overtime, because it came from Isaac.
He seemed like the type to nail even wild predictions.
Thus, amid the murmurs, the courtyard clock tower struck 10:20 PM.
And ten seconds passed.
"Uh... not coming?"
"Even Uphills got it wrong this time?"
"Hey, it's only been ten seconds. Calm down..."
The speaking student froze mid-sentence.
His eyes went wide.
The entire courtyard fell silent.
Twinkle.
A streak of light slashed across near Lyra.
Then, dozens, hundreds of starlights poured down like rain.
The starfall descended.
I watched the meteor shower from the window of the Magic Survey School lab.
'The planets and comets have the exact same periods as on Earth...'
Amazing—no, fortunate.
If the solar system differed from my previous life, gravitational perturbations could have flung the planet out of orbit.
Giuseppe said from beside me,
"Beautiful, isn't it, Junior?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. It is."
"Tsk... you weren't even watching the shower, lost in thought."
"Ahem."
Around me were Giuseppe, Anna, Dolloren, and Laura.
'More meteors than expected.'
This rivaled Earth's Perseids.
Anna peered through the Newtonian reflector telescope I'd hastily assembled.
"Wow... just like a comet's tail—trails like smoke lingering."
Her excited voice brought an involuntary smile to my face.
I felt proud.
Giuseppe grinned at the sky, while Laura... wore her usual blank expression.
But her gaze locked firmly on the shower suggested she found it intriguing.
Then Dolloren smiled brightly and said,
"Watching the stars together like this reminds me of your master's defense—feels nice."
"Please don't bring that up..."
If I'd made just one less dome back then, it wouldn't have collapsed...
I got too excited since it was my first closed system.
As Dolloren opened her mouth again,
Crash! Bang!
Noise erupted from the next lab.
Actually, it'd been going on since the shower started.
'Isn't that the weird gas school over there? What the heck are they doing...'
I pressed my ear to the wall.
-"Ahh, killer starfall!"
-"Our School Head was right again!"
-"Hey! Bring booze! We're drinking all night!"
...They were watching the shower too, huh.
"Gah."
Dolloren couldn't take it and pounded the wall with her fist.
Bam! Bam!
"Quiet down, you lot!"
The noise beyond the wall stopped as if by magic.
Yeah.
Even without fearing rebound, they feared Dolloren.
A chuckle escaped me.
Then Anna tugged my sleeve.
"Oppa, that one's glowing."
She pointed to the crystal orb on the desk.
"Oh, you're right."
The orb was glowing red.
A signal from the Capital Guard and Hans's mercenary band.
I'd tipped them off: 'The Guides of the Lantern might move tonight.'
They'd said they'd just scout, but they'd outdone themselves.
Red meant one thing.
All targets secured.