Chapter 588: Special Issue

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Although Natasha did not quite understand why Lucien became so serious all of a sudden, his opinion on the law of causality and his firm attitude still made the terrible feelings in her heart melt like snow under the sunlight. A world where everything was predestined and unchangeable was a most desperate and lifeless one.

Sensing the warmth of his hand and hearing his solemn voice, Natasha soon regained her natural-born optimism. Not bothering with the subject anymore, she smiled, “Are you planning to create an opera for me?”

“How did you know?” Lucien was somewhat surprised.

Natasha chuckled and said, “My eyes are very keen. I saw a manuscript, Valkyrie, on your bookshelf in your library this afternoon, and I think it’s for me.”

She did not show any modesty about ‘Valkyrie’ and thought matter-of-factly that it was for her.

Lucien heaved a sigh. “I planned to hire a troupe to perform it for us in honor of the anniversary of our mutual confession of love on my birthday, but I didn’t have the time of creation because of Sard and the incidents later. Also, the libretto is more difficult to create than I thought, and the music is even more so. I’ve only completed one third so far.”

Although it was based on the work from Earth, it was basically a brand-new masterpiece, which made Lucien run into a lot of difficulties.

Natasha smiled, not bothered at all. “That’s alright. We can wait until next year, or the next year, or the next, and so on. Speaking of opera, I’m planning to sponsor the Musicians’ Association of Rentato and rebuild a capital of music.”

She was a real lover of music. Now that she couldn’t return to Aalto for now, she planned to make Rentato a holy land of music, too.

“If I have time, I’ll offer guidance to the musicians of Rentato.” Lucien was already confident enough to say so. While the creation of Valkyrie was difficult, it allowed him to fully make use of the music knowledge that he had learnt. He was almost as good as Victor now.

His rapid progress benefited from the avant-garde music knowledge in his spirit library, as well as his sharpened mind after his soul became stronger.

Natasha took a deep breath of the gentle breath on the street and said humorously, “Then, on behalf of the musicians of Holm, I thank you in advance, master. If you don’t mind, I want your Uncle Joel to enter the association and bring the latest music trends and development of Aalto to this place.”

The smuggled Music Review and Herald of Symphonies naturally could only reflect what was on the top and could not let the musicians learn the real fundamental knowledge.

“I certainly wouldn’t mind as long as Uncle Joel is willing to.” Lucien had already learnt from Natasha that, after the initial excitement of a noble life, Joel began his music learning again. He worked so hard that he did not look like a middle-aged man at all.

Natasha looked at Lucien and said with a vague smile, “In fact, I talked about Joel only because I wanted to ask you when you were going to meet him. There shouldn’t be any danger now that the Church has retreated. According to the intelligence personnel who protected them, they had obviously changed their stance regarding sorcerers and clerics, thanks to Arcana Voice and the convenient alchemical items. They probably wouldn’t overreact. Also, they must be missing you. To know more about you, they often stay late and listen to ‘News of the World’ that they do not understand at all.”

Lucien’s heart was suddenly filled with warmth after hearing Natasha’s words. It had been only eight years since he came to this world, but it felt like an entire life. So, he answered in a low voice, “I’ll visit them in a couple of days.”

“Be happy. You should feel happy about that.” Natasha made a gesture of encouragement and then changed the subject. “Mr. Great Musician, do you have any revolutionary music principles? You have always been best known for your creativity. I find it intolerable that you haven’t produced any innovative works in years.”

Lucien smiled at her. “Why not? I have associated music creations with mathematics.”

“Huh? Music and mathematics? How can they be associated?” Asked Natasha in surprise. Music was a realm where the mind was absolutely free, while mathematics the most rigorous and suffocating. How could they be associated? It was not about the categorical, conceptual stuff like equal temperament but creation!

Lucien chuckled. “That’s why it is revolutionary. I have abandoned the traditional structural factors, such as theme, logic, motive, sentences, verses, and sequenced the substantial elements, such as rhythm, pitch, density of notes and timbre, with the permutation and combination in mathematics. Then, I created according to such a rule.”

“That sounds cold… but interesting. What’s the result?” Natasha knew that it wouldn’t be mainstream, but she had always been eager to try everything. Naturally, there wasn’t any objection from her.

After that, she added in with mixed feelings, “This is so arcanist!”

“I’ll show you some of my works after we are back.” They were the sequential music works that Lucien created when he was relaxing his brain. Later, they could also be applied to electronic music.

“Okay. If they are good, you will teach me how to create them tonight!” Said Natasha with great interest.

Lucien intentionally twisted her meaning and made fun of her. “Tonight? You seem to be avoiding something, don’t you?”

“Really? Do I look like an escapist to you?”

…

On the second day, after he saw Natasha off, Lucien returned to the Atom Institution in delight. There are many experiments he needed to confirm.

“Lucien, looking good!” Lazar was holding a journal, with a ‘I-totally-get-it’ look on his face.

“‘Arcana’ has been issued in advance?” Lucien recognized the cover, but the Highest Council only asked the journal to publish the news that he had been promoted to a grand arcanist on the cover and did not ask it to publish so many days in advance.

Heidi was still upset about the additional mission yesterday. She said gloomily, “Master, this is a special issue of ‘Arcana’. The discovery of neutrons proved the new alchemy. To celebrate the paradigm-shifting theoretical system, they have published the special issue that contains the papers over the past year including the predictions in the new alchemy and part of the experiments.”

“…There are also questions about the imperfect parts of the new alchemy.” Said Annick after a brief silence.

Sprint, on the other hand, was a bit angry. “Master said that the new alchemy was just a framework, and that there were many unresolved problems. So, why did they collect all the problems on the special issue instead of publishing them next month? I feel that they are questioning your new alchemy, master.”

“What’s wrong about that? Every theory is perfected and fortified by suspicion. I would be uneasy if there isn’t any suspicion. Besides, there are indeed many problems that the new alchemy haven’t been resolved yet. For example, it cannot describe the atomic structures with multiple electrons, and it cannot predict the intensity and width of the spectral lines.” Lucien understood the limitations of the new alchemy perfectly and replied without being disturbed at all.

Katrina nodded. “The problems you mentioned are all in the journal.”

Lucien took over the journal, only to discover that the silver lines on the black over were constructed into several lines of words. On the top was ‘Arcana’, and below it was ‘This issue is published in July of 824 to celebrate the establishment of the new alchemy and to congratulate Lucien Evans on becoming a grand arcanist.”

On the next page, it was the comment that Douglas wrote. “The new alchemy has undoubtedly achieved a glorious triumph. It has changed our age and will forever be remembered by the arcanists. I suggest an additional reward of 15,000 arcana credits and 500,000 arcana points.”

After him, it was the opinion of the two reviewers, Raventi and Prado, at the beginning. “Now, we can give all of our compliments in our previous review to Mr. Lucien Evans.”

In the end, Drummond, the general editor of Arcana, wrote on behalf of the journal, “Recently, the new alchemy has swept across the Congress like an unstoppable flood. Every new phenomenon and every experiment result matches its ‘prophecy’ perfectly.”

“it is now the highest law in the field of alchemy and elements and a key to open the gate of the Creator. Alchemy is no longer an illusion without theoretical guidance.”

“Through the new alchemy and the general theory of relativity, I have envisioned the arrival of a golden age. It is not only an age when we can really create gold but also an age when arcana and magic thrive and talents emerge.”

“500,000 arcana points… That’s not bad.” Lucien said satisfactorily. Arcana credits were useless for him now, but arcana points could be traded for legendary spells and legendary rituals (one million arcana points for one legendary spell’. That was an advantage that Thale did not have.

The first half of the journal was made of the published papers, such as Jurisian’s discovery and explanation on the splitting of spectral lines under strong magnetic field, and the second half included questions about the new alchemy that nobody paid attention to before, such as Fernando’s question about the distribution of external electrons, Hathaway’s question about the energy level and orbits, and Klaus’ question that the system could only explain the single-electron structure… Almost all the leaders of elements and alchemy, after expressing their support and appreciation of the new alchemy, cautiously raised their doubts.

Looking at the myriad of questions, Lucien smiled at Sprint who was rather angry at the beginning. “Does anger help you at all? What you should do is to come up with your own ideas to resolve the questions. I hope you begin your real study on Arcana by answering those questions. It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, but it will be terrible if you don’t have the guts to join the discussion. Your minds are more active and less restrained. It’s possible that you can fix the problems with ideas that never occurred to us before.”

“Understood, mater!” Hearing their teacher’s encouragement, Sprint replied first, his disobedient eyes full of fighting will.

Annick, Heidi and the other students also became excited. Joining the discussion and argument of the grand arcanists, legendary sorcerers and senior-rank sorcerers about the new alchemy was exhilarating enough when they just thought about it.

…

At night, Lucien arrived at the district of nobles in Rentato. Looking at John’s villa that was ablaze with lights, he took a deep breath and walked to the gate.

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