Chapter 138: The Shape of Truth

The reception room was exceptionally quiet.

Outside the window, the wind buffeted the glass, letting out a faint wail.

Augustus sat upon a crimson velvet single-seater sofa.

The principal of the Royal Academy of Magic, a Ninth-Circle Evocation Archmage.

Currently, he held a cup of steaming red tea in his hand.

He set down the teacup; the porcelain base collided with the saucer, emitting a crisp, light clink.

Lia sat opposite him.

She held a parchment document in her hand, her gaze skimming over the complex clauses written upon it.

Klein stood in the shadows behind Lia, leaning against a bookshelf with his arms crossed, his blue eyes fixed on Augustus.

“Honorary Professor,” Lia read out the large characters at the top of the document.

“Yes, Honorary Professor.”

Augustus nodded, the wrinkles on his face smoothing out.

“It does not require you to keep daily office hours, nor do you need to be responsible for specific administrative affairs.”

“You only need to hold one public lecture every month to answer the questions of high-level apprentices or lecturers.”

Lia set down the document.

“Did those old professors in the academy agree to this?”

“They had no choice but to agree.”

Augustus smiled, his fingers lightly tapping against his knee.

“Maxwell’s Equations are right there. The sign for the Department of Physics has just been hung.”

“Currently, every apprentice in the academy is circulating your thesis.”

“If I didn’t invite you back, I fear the students would be holding a sit-in protest at the principal’s office tomorrow.”

Lia looked at Klein.

Klein remained expressionless.

“What about the salary?” Lia turned back to look at Augustus.

“Five thousand gold coins per month. Plus, permanent reading rights for the Forbidden Section of the Royal Library.”

Lia’s pupils contracted slightly.

“Deal.”

Lia picked up a quill and signed her name at the end of the document.

Augustus stood up and took the document, the smile on his face deepening.

“Then, three days from now, the first class. I will have the largest tiered lecture hall cleared out.”

Augustus walked to the door, paused, and looked back at Klein.

“Klein, you should come along too. After all, that is your apprentice.”

“If you aren’t present, I fear those frantic little brats might tear the podium apart.”

Klein didn’t speak, only offering a nod.

***

After seeing Augustus off, Lia slumped back into the sofa.

She waved the advance check in her hand.

“This money is easy to earn.”

Klein walked over, took the check from her hand, and set it casually on the table.

“Easy?” He looked at Lia. “Do you know what the academy is like right now?”

“What could it be like? Just a bunch of studious students, right?”

The corner of Klein’s mouth twitched.

“You’ll find out in three days.”

***

Three days passed quickly.

During these three days, the name “Lia Farrien” practically dominated the headlines of the capital’s newspapers.

[The Youngest Honorary Professor in History!]

[The Incarnation of Truth is About to Begin Lecturing!]

[The Dawn of Physics!]

The various exaggerated titles made Lia’s scalp tingle.

On the morning of the lecture.

Lia put on a brand-new set of black mage robes.

These robes had been specially prepared by Klein, with silver runes embroidered on the cuffs and collar.

They were not overly aged but possessed enough gravity to command the room.

She stood before the mirror, trying to fasten the top button of the collar.

She couldn’t reach it.

The fingers of this body were a bit short, and the position of that button was too far back.

A hand reached over.

Long, slender fingers pinched the silver button, easily pushing it into the buttonhole.

Klein stood behind her, helping her tidy the collar.

“Don’t be nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” Lia insisted stubbornly to her reflection in the mirror.

“I’m just thinking about what the first sentence should be.”

“Say whatever you want.”

Klein’s hand slid down her shoulder, helping her smooth out the cuff.

“Just try not to scold those students until they cry.”

“Am I that fierce?”

“You are.”

The two walked out of the Mage Tower.

A carriage was already waiting at the entrance.

The journey was silent.

When the carriage passed through the gates of the Royal Academy of Magic, Lia heard a sound akin to a tsunami.

It was the sound of human voices.

Massive, noisy, and mixed with the chanting of various incantations.

The carriage stopped in front of the First Teaching Building.

Lia pushed open the door.

The scene before her left her stunned on the spot.

The plaza in front of the building was packed with people.

Not just students, but many lecturers in formal robes, and even a few old men wearing professor badges.

They held banners inscribed with various complex physics formulas.

“She’s here! She’s coming!”

Someone shouted.

The crowd instantly boiled over.

Hundreds of pairs of eyes fixed on Lia simultaneously.

That fanatical gaze almost threatened to ignite her.

Lia instinctively took half a step back.

A hand pressed against her back.

The palm was warm, the pressure steady.

“Go,” Klein’s voice whispered in her ear.

Lia took a deep breath, straightened her back, and stepped forward.

The crowd automatically parted to create a path.

Lia kept her eyes forward and strode quickly into the teaching building.

Klein followed behind her, the mana fluctuations from his body faintly radiating outward.

He kept those students trying to rush up for autographs at a distance of three meters.

The largest tiered lecture hall was located on the first floor.

But it was clearly not large enough.

When Lia entered the classroom, her first reaction was that she had entered the wrong place.

This wasn’t a classroom; it was a tin of sardines.

The seats were full, and the aisles were packed with standing people.

There were even people hanging off the windowsills.

More ridiculously, hundreds were floating in mid-air.

Those wind-element mages who knew the Levitation spell hung themselves near the ceiling chandeliers.

Holding notebooks, they looked down at the podium from above.

A powerful isolation barrier had been applied around the podium.

Otherwise, it probably would have been submerged by now.

Lia walked up to the podium.

Klein stood to one side like a temple guardian.

The noise vanished eerily the moment Lia came to a standstill.

In a classroom of thousands, it was so quiet one could hear breathing.

Everyone stared at this eighteen-year-old girl.

Lia cleared her throat.

An amplification array carried her voice clearly to every corner.

“I am Lia Farrien.”

“Today, we will not discuss specific formula derivations. Those can be found in books.”

Lia picked up a piece of chalk, turned, and wrote “A Connection” on the massive blackboard.

“We are going to talk about connections.”

Lia turned back and tossed the chalk into the box.

“Until now, we believed the world was fragmented.”

“Fire is fire, lightning is lightning, and force is force.”

“Fire mages look down on water mages, and Force Field mages think Elemental mages are crude.”

“Each of you guards your own little plot of land, believing it to be the entirety of the world.”

Lia’s voice wasn’t loud, but her tone was certain.

There was some commotion below; indeed, this was the norm in the magic world.

“But Physics tells us that this fragmentation is wrong.”

Lia raised her right hand.

“Klein.”

Klein raised his staff and gave a light tap.

The air in the center of the classroom began to warp.

A massive three-dimensional projection appeared in mid-air.

It was a complex model.

“Look here,” Lia pointed to the far left of the model.

A cluster of red flames was burning there.

“This is heat.”

As Lia’s finger moved, the flames began to rotate, driving a piston in motion.

“Heat becomes mechanical motion. This is force.”

The piston was connected to a magnet, cutting through a closed coil rapidly.

“Motion becomes electricity.”

The coil lit up with a blue glow; current traveled along the wires, lighting a lamp at the end.

“Electricity becomes light.”

“And light…” Lia paused for a second. “Shining on the surface of an object causes its temperature to rise.”

The light shone back onto the original heat source, causing the temperature there to rise once more.

“It becomes heat again.”

The entire model formed a perfect closed loop.

There was no mana involved; it was purely the transformation of matter itself.

The students below sat with their mouths agape.

Those wind mages floating in the air even forgot to maintain their spells; a few nearly fell down.

They had seen magic; they had seen Forbidden Curses.

But they had never seen such a direct, naked display of the rules.

“This is Physics,” Lia said, looking at the shocked faces below.

“All things are interconnected; energy is conserved. No single phenomenon exists in isolation.”

“Those spell models you study are merely levers that use spiritual power to pry at these rules.”

“Understand the rules, and you are the master of the rules. Fail to understand them, and you are merely their s*ave.”

A deathly silence filled the classroom.

Then, thunderous applause erupted.

The applause lasted for a full five minutes.

Augustus stood at the back door, looking at the petite figure on the podium.

He stroked his beard, his eyes full of admiration.

‘Well said.’

The applause gradually subsided.

It was time for the Q&A session.

Countless hands shot up.

Lia randomly pointed to a boy sitting in the front row.

“You.”

The boy was so excited his face turned red.

When he stood up, his knee hit the desk, causing him to grimace in pain.

“Pro… Professor! I want to ask…”

The boy took a deep breath, seemingly mustering all his courage.

“Recently, there has been a massive controversy regarding the nature of light.”

The atmosphere in the classroom shifted instantly.

The previous warmth turned into tension.

Everyone pricked up their ears.

This was currently the biggest minefield in the magic world.

The Particle Faction and the Wave Faction had already fought over a dozen brawls over this issue.

The boy swallowed and continued: “Some say light belongs to the Particle Faction, while others say it is a wave because of interference.”

“You are the proposer of Maxwell’s Equations, and your equations predict that light is an electromagnetic wave.”

“But…” The boy pulled out a photograph from his coat.

It was an experimental photograph that had only recently begun to circulate.

A prototype of the photoelectric effect.

Light shining on metal was knocking out electrons.

“If light is a wave, how can it knock out electrons like hitting a ball?”

The boy stared fixedly at Lia.

“Professor, do you believe light is ultimately a particle, or a wave?”

The gaze of the entire audience pricked Lia like needles.

This was a trap.

No matter which one she answered, she would offend the other half of the room.

Furthermore, existing theories truly could not perfectly explain all phenomena.

Klein took a step forward, seemingly intending to interrupt the question.

Lia reached out a hand to stop him.

She looked at the boy, then at the eyes below—some expectant, some skeptical.

She remained silent for a few seconds.

Using magic, she shaped a cylinder in mid-air.

“What is this?” Lia asked.

“A cylinder,” the boy answered.

Lia placed a light to the left of the cylinder; the light passed through, casting a rectangular shadow on the right wall.

“Now look at the wall. What is it?”

“A rectangle.”

Lia then placed a light at the bottom of the cylinder; the light shone upward, casting a circular shadow on the ceiling.

“Now look at the ceiling. What is it?”

“A circle.”

Lia dispelled the magic and patted her hands.

“If the person looking at the wall insists it is a rectangle, and the person looking at the ceiling insists it is a circle, they will argue for a lifetime.”

“They might even fight, bleed, and view each other as heretics.”

Lia walked to the edge of the podium, looking down at the boy.

“Light is the same.”

“We are using a low-dimensional perspective to observe a high-dimensional truth.”

“When you test it with ‘particle’ methods, it shows you its rectangular shadow.”

“When you test it with ‘wave’ methods, it shows you its circular shadow.”

Lia’s voice echoed through the classroom.

“Do not let your arrogance limit the shape of truth.”

The boy froze.

Everyone in the hall froze.

The boy slowly sat back down, the fanaticism in his eyes fading, replaced by deep thought.

Lia glanced at the wall clock.

“Time is up.”

“Class dismissed.”

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