Chapter 427: The Hard-won Compliment

“Nature…” Neeshka coughed a bit, “… Your explanation is persuasive, Mr. Evans, but… isn’t this title a bit too broad for a math journal? I’m afraid that people wouldn’t be able to understand it at first glance.”

That was the thought shared by all the board members, including Levski. Unlike the other journals, for instance, Arcana, Magic, and Astrology, whose names had a very clear indication, Nature sounded like a journal that was established by the Druids. Although they appreciated Lucien’s belief in math, they still had to face the reality that math still served the study of arcana and magic.

Obviously, Lucien couldn’t say that it just a mischievous decision —”Science” would require him to create and define a new word in this world, but for “Nature” he could quote directly — so he explained, “I’m in fact putting a lot of hope into the new journal. Although so far Nature is still a math journal, in the future, I hope it can publish all the arcana theories that are hard for people to accept or understand instantly. With its main focus still on math, Nature will hopefully become a journal describing the World’s Truth that is as important as Arcana and Magic.”

This was too ambitious to the members present. Both Arcana and Magic had a history of over several hundred years, with Arcana focused more on theories, while Magic was more on the side of application. They were the top journals to arcanists just as Canon to the followers of the Saint Truth. Their position was irreplaceable.

Therefore, the members did not take Lucien’s words to heart. What Lucien just said would be a beautiful wish or an aim that they could work towards. Milina spoke with a smile, “as you said, we use math to describe the true world… From this perspective, I guess Nature isn’t a bad name. Names like World or Truth sound too arrogant, and Math sounds too limited…”

“I agree on the point that Nature can be the platform for sharing the theories that are relatively hard to accept. Our journal could provide them help… ” Levski thought of his experience and agreed upon Lucien’s idea.

Salgueiro, the middle-aged man with messy hair, slightly frowned. “But how do we tell between those really valuable papers and the absurd ones that deliberately seek to be weird? If Nature opens the gate to all of them, as a journal of 2.0 Influence Factor, it would encourage many arcanists to spend lots of effort in fabricating eye-catching theories that are unrealistic and incomprehensible.”

Levski did not know what to say, while Lucien answered preparedly, “Nature is a pure math journal. Then our judgment should base on pure logical deductive reasoning. If a paper logically makes sense, but it can’t pass the review of the board, we can publish it in the discussion content. However, if a paper has fundamental fallacies in logic, it is not qualified and should be rejected.”

“That’s it!” Levski recalled Lucien’s enlightening speech.

The board members present all nodded silently. They had learned from their mistakes in Levski’s case.

A few minutes later, Neeshka said while he looked out and saw that the sun sinking low in the west, “This is the longest review meeting that I have ever attended, and from which I got the greatest lesson. Mr. Evans, please submit the three papers to the review board as soon as possible; we are waiting to write new comments for them. Hopefully, we will be finished before the application for Nature is approved.”

Although all the board members specializing in math in Allyn were all here, the procedures for reassessing the papers should still be followed.

“I’ll do it today, before the Sorcerer Administrative Department closes.” Lucien realized that it was already past five, and they had all skipped their lunch.

After watching the board members leave the meeting room, Levski turned to Lucien. “Mr. Evans, thank you very much. Without you, I would still be living the same miserable life.”

Since Levski was completely devoted to developing his geometry system, he had not reached middle-rank, and he had no time for doing tasks given by the Congress to earn more money. For a long time, Levski lived a very poor life. He had to move out of Allyn as everything in this city was too expensive. His income relied on the subsidy from the Congress for level-two arcanists and second-circle sorcerers. When he was sick, life became even harder and he had to look for other sources of income.

Therefore, Levski was still very excited when expressing his sincere gratitude to Lucien again. To him, Mr. Evans saved him, as well as his theory – For the many years, Levski saw this geometry system as his kid.

“You don’t owe me anything. You deserve it,” said Lucien gently. “Try your best to run the new journal, Nature, so you can help more geniuses like you.”

Levski had experienced strong emotional fluctuations today. Now after he had calmed down, he felt quite exhausted. He grinned to Lucien. “You’ve changed my life… That’s for sure. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about elements, or I would definitely try to work in Atom Institution to learn more from you, Mr. Evans.”

“I’ve learned things from you as well – Perseverance. You can just call me Lucien or Evans by the way,” said Lucien. “Every single person has his or her own strength. Both of us know that our new geometry systems are still frameworks right now. They lack analytical abilities and still require further exploration. I hope we can all work towards this direction.”

“… Also,” Lucien added, “don’t forget about arcana and magic. To explore further and solve more problems in the field of math, you have to improve your knowledge of arcana and magic. Only in this way will you live longer, and when you’re elder, your brain will still be able to function well.”

“Yes, yes!” answered Levski excitedly.

Seeing the fatigue in Levski’s eyes, Lucien asked him to go back and have a good rest.

His hands in the pockets, Lucien watched Levski left the meeting room. When Lucien turned around to collect the documents, he heard Fernando’s voice.

“Your speech isn’t bad. The closer we are to the truth of the world, the greater the limitation our body and soul can impose on us. We have to stick to our tools — math and magic — to free ourselves from what we see and feel. Abandoning its correspondence with reality and focusing exclusively on axioms and deductive reasoning, this might be the direction for math development in the future.”

Staring straight ahead, Fernando paid a compliment to Lucien, which was very rare of him.

Lucien was quite surprised. He carefully examined Fernando, making sure that he was not Little Crystal in disguise.

Fernando stared back at him. Confirmed, it was indeed Fernando.

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“I was inspired by what Levski and his New Geometry had experienced…” Lucien said.

“Really?” Fernando looked at Lucien meaningfully.

Lucien replied fast, “Of course. By the way, what are you studying recently, Sir?”

Fernando looked a bit pissed. “I did the experiment on cursing substance, and found that it could radiate electrons and a new element, as expected. But I also detected the trace of another strange unknown element. The amount was extremely low, so it will take some time and effort for extraction.

“But this is finding is enough to make most arcanists crazy. What are elements and atoms in essence? What do they look like inside? Why are there new elements being radiated out?

“So… I’ve been trying to probe into the inner structure of an atom. Unfortunately, there are currently no proper and handy magics available to assist in the exploration of the microworld. We’re indeed limited by our soul and body.”

Lucien finally realized why his short speech was able to touch Fernando and win his rare compliment. After weighing his words, Lucien said carefully, “we can make bold assumptions first, and then rule them out using experiments. We can’t see the inner structure of an atom directly, so we can only rely on indirect methods…”

“You think I don’t know it?!” Fernando roared at Lucien.

……

Inside Tower.

Holding a thick stack of papers, Samantha knocked at the door and heard her teacher’s voice, which sounded a bit melancholy.

“Come in.”

Samantha was quite surprised seeing her teacher in such a mood. She lifted her blond brow slightly while maintaining the serious look on her face and pushed open the door.

“Sir, these are the papers today.”

“From Lucien Evans?” Asked Neeshka, looking back.

Samantha browsed the paper stack,

“Another Perspective on Parallel Postulate… from Lucien Evans… Sir, you lost today?”

“Lost… Yes, we lost… in a very bad way. Arrogance and prejudice defeated us. Levski’s right. His new geometry system is different from Tower Geometry, but compatible with it,” said Neeshka, who now looked ten years elder when he was with only his student.

Samantha was slightly shocked. “So Lucien Evans came up with a real model?”

Samantha was also an arcana genius and enjoyed the same reputation as Larry, Jurisian, and Rachel. She specialized in Astrology, Electromagnetism, and Maths. After reading Levski’s paper, she also could not accept it.

“Yes… It is a hyperboloid that looked like a saddle…” said Neeshka in the bitter tone, “He also provided the proof showing how the two geometry systems are compatible using the unit circle. And he put forward another new geometry system that corresponds to Levski’s system. He is indeed a genius. Maybe next month he will be winning Arcana Scepter with Levski… Not sharing, but separately.”

Samantha’s attempt to keep her face expressionless finally failed, and the look on it became complex. “Why I didn’t think of this… winning the highest honor in three different fields before senior-rank…”

“Pass me the paper,” said Neeshka briefly. After leafing through the paper, he picked up the quill-pen and wrote,

“Starting from Levski’s geometry system, but heading the opposite direction, Lucien Evans assumed that for any given line R and point P not on R, in the plane containing both line R and point P, there is no line through P that does not intersect R. Using perfect deductive reasoning, he obtained a series of propositions and conclusions that no one could never imagine. Thus, a new, fully-developed, and independent geometry system has been established — the Evans Geometry. He also proved the realizability of the system on a curved surface. Therefore, it is no more just an imagination.

“Putting aside practical significance, focusing simply on axioms and postulates as well as strict deductive reasoning, Lucien Evans has shown us his unique conception. His geometry system is of great impact, and has brought us a conceptual revolution.

“Without doubt, his new geometry system is a great contribution to the development of geometry. It is universally-applied, groundbreaking, has a significant position and deserves broad discussion. I suggest four hundred arcana credits and four thousand arcana points be given as a reward.”

When Neeshka was writing, Samantha stayed beside him, watching. The look on her face kept changing, from frustration to admiration to disappointment.

“Samantha, a new journal is in preparation, and Lucien Evans’s speech will be put on the front page as the inscription. You read it carefully. It can be inspiring to you.” Neeshka added while putting down his quill-pen.

“Uh?” Samantha was first surprised, and then she became very curious.