Chapter 154: Rationality Failure

The door to Klein’s mage tower was gently pushed open.

Two figures, still wrapped in the lingering pressure of the wind, burst directly into the main hall.

“Lia!”

Horace clutched the parchment full of equations, his voice echoing through the hall, startling several alchemy puppets cleaning the floor into an on-the-spot shutdown.

“Stop hiding! I know you’re here! Get out here and explain to me how that damned electron is supposed to spin if it’s not going to destroy everything!”

No one responded.

The hall was empty, only the echoes bouncing off the walls.

Horace was about to shout again but was pulled back by Eleonora.

“Keep your voice down.” Eleonora scanned the surroundings, her gaze finally landing on a high-backed chair at the reception desk on the first floor.

Someone was curled up there.

Adèle.

The usually lively apprentice was slumped in the chair, holding a cup of cold water, staring blankly at the ceiling, and exuding an aura of bitter resentment.

“Adèle?”

Eleonora walked over and waved a hand in front of her eyes.

Adèle’s eyes shifted, slowly focusing on Eleonora’s face.

“Ah… it’s Aunt Eleonora.”

“Where’s your mentor? And Lia?”

Horace eagerly leaned in. “There’s a huge problem with the gold foil experiment. I must see Lia immediately.”

“Not here.”

Adèle uttered two words.

“In the lab?” Horace turned to rush upstairs.

“Not in the tower.”

Adèle added faintly, “They went out.”

Horace’s steps faltered, and he turned back in disbelief. “Went out? At a time like this? Lia just advanced to the Seventh Circle, doesn’t she need to stabilize her realm? That control freak Klein would let her go out?”

Adèle slammed the cup in her hand onto the table.

“It was the mentor who took her out.”

She took a deep breath, as if to expel the frustration from her chest.

“Just half an hour ago. The mentor changed into a very flashy—oh no, a very formal black and gold suit. Lia put on that gray everyday outfit.

Then the mentor said, to celebrate Lia’s promotion and to prepare for the upcoming banquet, they needed to go procure some necessary supplies.”

“Procure?”

Horace was taken aback. “Buy materials?”

“Buy clothes,” Adèle said, expressionless. “And when they left, I personally saw the mentor very naturally take Lia’s hand. Not grabbing her wrist, but the hand-holding, fingers-intertwined kind.”

The air was silent for a few seconds.

Horace’s mouth hung open, his beard trembling, as if he were processing this enormous amount of information.

“H-hand-holding?”

“Yes.”

Adèle pointed at the main door. “Just like that, they brazenly walked out. Before leaving, the mentor even glanced at me and said the tower’s defensive arrays needed maintenance, and that I should stay behind and watch the house.”

“Watch the house…”

Adèle bit the air in grief and indignation. “I’m just a stone lion guarding the gate!”

Eleonora couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

She patted Adèle’s shoulder comfortingly, then turned to her still-shocked husband.

“It seems we really came at a bad time.”

“Academics are important, but the feelings of young people are more important.”

Eleonora, in an excellent mood, straightened her dress, a gossipy light twinkling in her eyes. “That block of wood Klein has finally blossomed. If you go and disturb them now, believe me, he’d throw you into a subspace rift.”

Horace shrank back.

Although he was a Ninth Circle, Klein’s unreasonable spatial magic was indeed difficult to deal with.

“Then we won’t disturb the young couple’s rendezvous. Adèle, you don’t need to tell Klein we were here.” The two had come quickly, and they left just as fast.

Adèle looked at the once-again empty doorway, then at the cold water in her hand.

“Heh.”

She gave a cold laugh, took out a handful of sour lemon drops from her pocket, and crunched them viciously in her mouth.

***

That evening.

A paper, co-authored by Eleonora Eisenberg and Horace von Eisenberg, was delivered to the editorial office of the “Journal of Truth” through the Magic Association’s express channel.

Through cold, hard data, the paper reached a conclusion that sparked immense controversy.

Matter is not solid.

The atom, studied by countless mages, was 99.9% desolate void.

All of its mass, all of its positive charge, was curled up in a nucleus only one ten-thousandth the size of the atom.

It was like compressing all the bricks of the Royal Capital’s grand cathedral into a single cherry, placing it in the center of the cathedral, while the rest of the space was filled with only a few flies (electrons) buzzing about.

This was the truth of the world.

The moment the paper was published, the entire magical world exploded.

Mages of the Elemental School slammed their tables, cursing that this was nonsense.

If matter was empty, why was the floor beneath their feet solid? Why didn’t the staves in their hands pass through their palms and fall to the ground?

Mages of the Particle School fell into a frenzy; they had finally found a basis to explain alpha particle scattering.

But then, the mathematicians entered the fray.

The mathematical faction, led by Horace, posed the fatal question at the end of the paper—

“If the electron orbits the nucleus, according to classical electromagnetic theory, an accelerating charged particle must radiate energy.

The electron’s energy will decrease, its orbital radius will shrink, and eventually… it will spiral into the nucleus.”

“Calculations show this process would take only one nanosecond.”

“In other words, if we accept this model, then all atoms should collapse in an instant, and the material world would cease to exist.”

“But we are still alive. The world still exists.”

“Therefore, either this physical model is wrong, or the great Maxwell’s equations are wrong.”

***

Royal Capital, The Laurel Branch Custom Couture.

The clamor of the outside world was completely blocked by a thick sound-insulating barrier.

This was the deepest VIP room in the shop. The air was filled with a faint, fragrant incense, and the magical lamps on the walls cast an ambiguous, warm yellow glow.

Lia stood before a huge full-length mirror.

She was wearing a deep blue evening gown.

Although its level of seductiveness couldn’t compare to the “Queen of the Night” Klein had previously shown her, it was by no means conservative.

The silk material clung tightly to her body, tracing a breathtaking silhouette from her collarbones downwards. The skirt flared out at the knees, revealing half of her fair calves.

The most fatal part was the back.

A deep V-neck plunged down to just above the small of her back, exposing a large expanse of smooth skin, with only a few thin silver chains crisscrossing it, swaying gently with her breath.

“It’s a little… tight.”

Lia looked at herself in the mirror, tugging uncomfortably at the collar.

This body had developed too well, so well that it felt foreign to her formerly flat-chested self.

A deep voice came from behind her.

Klein stood behind her, the distance between them so close it was almost non-existent.

He hadn’t called a clerk in.

His long, well-defined hands were resting on Lia’s waist, holding the laces of the dress’s back.

The mirror reflected their figures.

Klein was in a black formal suit, his posture tall and straight, his face cold and severe. Lia stood before him, the deep blue dress making her skin look as white as snow.

The top of Lia’s head just reached his chin. In the mirror, it looked as if she were completely enveloped in Klein’s embrace.

“Breathe in,” Klein said.

Lia subconsciously took a breath, her chest rising and falling.

Klein’s fingers deftly threaded through the silver chains and pulled slightly to tighten them.

His fingertips inevitably brushed against the skin of her back, bringing a slight chill.

Lia shivered, a fine layer of goosebumps rising on her skin.

“Your hands are so cold,” she complained in a low voice.

“It’s you who’s too hot,” Klein’s voice was right by her ear, his breath tickling her neck.

He finished tying the laces, but his hands didn’t leave. Instead, they slid slowly down the line of her spine, stopping at the dimples of her lower back.

His thumb caressed the spot lightly.

Lia felt her waist go weak, and she nearly lost her balance, leaning back into Klein’s arms.

A hard chest.

And that familiar scent of cedar.

“Klein!” Lia’s voice trembled slightly.

“Don’t move…”

Klein didn’t step back. Instead, he took half a step forward, pressing himself completely against her.

“There’s just one last clasp.”

His movements were slow.

As slow as if he were conducting some precise magical experiment.

“Horace and the others went to the tower today,” Klein said suddenly, his tone casual.

“Huh?” Lia’s mind was a bit foggy, her reaction half a beat slow. “How did you know?”

“A visitor inside the tower told me.”

Klein looked at Lia in the mirror, at her reddened earlobes. “Probably about that atomic model.”

Lia sobered up a little.

“They found the problem?”

“Did you know there was a problem with that model?”

He finally fastened the clasp.

Then, his hands naturally wrapped around Lia’s waist, holding her from behind.

His chin rested on her shoulder.

“Lia.”

He whispered in her ear.

“How did you know there was a problem with that model? Was it a hunch?”

Lia felt her heart beating very fast.

Not just because of the intellectual crisis, but because of this extremely dangerous posture.

She could feel the strength in Klein’s arms, the possessiveness that seemed to want to crush her into his very bones.

“Of course it wasn’t just a hunch.”

Lia forced herself to focus on her words, trying to cool the situation down.

“I’ve studied it more deeply than they have. I’ve already hypothesized and verified their ideas. Classical electromagnetic theory is inherently invalid at the microscopic level.”

“Invalid?”

Klein let out a soft laugh.

The vibration traveled through their pressed chests.

“Just like me right now?”

Lia was stunned. “What?”

“Rationality failure.”

Klein turned his head.

His lips brushed against Lia’s cheek, finally stopping at the corner of her mouth.

He didn’t kiss her.

Just maintained an extremely ambiguous distance.

“According to the original plan, I should be in the lab right now, analyzing that newly discovered ‘Radium’ element. Or in my study, grading Adèle’s abysmal homework.”

“But right now…”

“…all I can think about is whether the zipper on this dress would break if I pulled it a little harder.”

Lia’s face instantly flushed crimson.

“Klein! This is a shop!”

“This is the VIP room. I set the barrier myself.”

Klein’s voice was a little hoarse. “Besides us, no one can get in, and no one can hear.”

He released one hand, took her chin, and forced her to turn and look at him.

In those deep blue eyes, the usual calm self-possession had cracked, revealing the surging dark fire beneath.

“Lia.”

“You’re a Seventh Circle now.”

“That ‘colleague’ proposition, how have you considered it?”

Lia was forced to tilt her head up, looking at the man who was so close.

Before this, she had always seen him as a mentor, a protector, a partner.

But now.

That shell called ‘mentor’ was peeling away, revealing the aggression of a man underneath.

“I…”

Lia opened her mouth, her mind a chaotic mess.

“Haven’t decided yet?”

Klein’s thumb pressed against her lips.

“It’s alright.”

“It takes time for the edifice of classical physics to collapse.”

“I have plenty of patience to wait for you to rebuild it.”

He turned Lia back to face the mirror.

Their eyes met in the reflection.

Klein’s hands rearranged her slightly messy dress, and he returned to his cold, abstinent demeanor, as if the dangerous man from a moment ago wasn’t him.

“But this one won’t do.”

Klein frowned as he looked at Lia’s exposed back in the mirror.

“It’s too revealing.”

“Huh?” Lia was stunned. “But you picked this one…”

“When I picked it, I didn’t intend for you to wear it out.”

Klein said with perfect justification. “We’ll wrap this one up. Like the other one, it’s only to be worn in the tower.”

“Change into another one.”

Klein let go of her and walked to a nearby rack, picking out a conservative long dress with a collar that buttoned above the collarbone and sleeves that reached the wrists.

Lia looked at the dress, which seemed designed to wrap a person up like a mummy, and the corner of her mouth twitched.

“Klein.”

“Mmm?”

“You really are a control freak.”

“That’s called being rigorous.”

Klein handed her the dress, a very faint curve gracing his lips. “Whether it’s in experiments, or with you.”

Lia held the dress, watching Klein’s back as he turned and walked out.

Her heart was still pounding violently in her chest.

She looked down at the dress in her hands, then at her own flushed face in the mirror.

“I’m done for.”

Lia covered her face.