X
Join our Discord server and get release updates for every novel you follow.
Join the ServerKlein stood motionless for a long time before the blackboard polished from obsidian.
The chalk in his hand had already snapped into three pieces.
The dense equations on the blackboard were like tangled vines, ultimately converging into the kinetic energy formula that had kept him awake all night.
E_k = mc² – m₀c²
The mathematical logic was flawless.
Every step of the derivation had been double-checked dozens of times, as rigorous as an absolute defense incantation.
But that tail end—that “-m₀c²”—was like a sudden, off-key screech in a perfect symphony.
It was too jarring.
As a mage who pursued ultimate simplicity and elegance, Klein could not tolerate the appearance of a “constant of integration” with no physical meaning in his formula.
If kinetic energy, E_k, represents the energy brought by motion.
Then what did that subtracted m₀c² represent when the object was at rest?
Mathematical junk?
Or some dead number casually written down by the Creator to balance the universe’s books?
“It seems you’re stuck on it.”
Lia’s voice echoed in the empty laboratory.
She was wearing a loose robe, her golden hair scattered casually over her shoulders, holding two cups of steaming coffee.
Klein didn’t turn around, his gaze still fixed on the formula.
“It shouldn’t exist, but the math tells me it must.”
“If you can’t get rid of it, why not try moving it?”
Lia walked over and placed the coffee on the lab bench.
She took the half-piece of chalk from Klein’s hand and drew a red line on the blackboard.
The m₀c² term was moved to the left side of the equation.
E_k + m₀c² = mc²
“Now, look at it again.”
Lia’s voice was soft, yet it carried a gentle, guiding magic.
Klein’s brow was tightly furrowed.
He stared at the rearranged equation, his brain working at high speed.
On the left side was the kinetic energy, plus… that constant term.
On the right side was the total relativistic energy.
Kinetic energy is imparted when an object moves.
Lia’s finger rested on that string of red characters, her fingertip stained with a bit of glaring chalk dust.
If you take away the kinetic energy, letting the object return to absolute rest.
This equation doesn’t go to zero.
It still has this term left: m₀c².
Lia turned her head, her pale golden eyes reflecting Klein’s gradually constricting pupils.
“Klein, do you think it’s possible.”
“That mass itself is a form of energy.”
“A form of vast… imprisoned, slumbering energy that has always existed within matter itself.”
BOOM—!
There was no thunder outside, but Klein heard a deafening roar in his ears.
It was the sound of his old worldview collapsing.
He abruptly lowered his head, looking at his own chalk-dusted palm.
If what Lia said was true.
If mass was energy.
Then what kind of demon was locked away in this insignificant speck of chalk dust in his hand?
m times c squared.
Even if the speed of light was taken as only three hundred million meters per second.
Its square was an astronomical number.
Before this number, even a microgram of mass, if fully released…
Klein’s throat went dry, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
It was not fear.
It was the instinctive physiological reaction of a human being staring directly into the blazing sun of truth.
“This means…”
Klein’s voice was hoarse, as if polished by sand. “The soil under our feet, the cup in our hands, even the dust in the air…”
“This formula says that all these things, in terms of the vast, slumbering energy they contain… are all slumbering suns.”
Lia finished his sentence, her tone so calm it was almost cold.
“This is the truth of the world.”
“Matter is condensed energy, and energy is released matter.”
“The alchemists’ millennia-long pursuit of turning stone into gold is a joke before this, because the power contained within the stone itself is billions of times more precious than gold.”
A deathly silence enveloped the top floor of the mage tower.
Klein felt as if all the blood in his body was flowing in reverse.
He grabbed the eraser and violently wiped away all the complex derivations on the blackboard.
The complicated calculus, the hair-pulling transformations, all vanished.
Leaving only a pure, black slate.
Then.
With all his strength, in the very center of the blackboard, he wrote down that minimalist verdict.
E = mc²
Just a few short characters.
Concise, cold, yet unassailably cool and certain.
It just sat there quietly, seeming to exude a pressure that surpassed all Ninth-Circle forbidden spells.
“The formula of creation,” Klein murmured to himself.
Before this formula, all fireballs, all chain lightnings were nothing more than primitive men waving torches.
True power had always been slumbering at the microscopic end of matter.
Waiting to be awakened, or to be detonated.
“You seem to have known all along.”
Klein turned around and looked at Lia. It was not a question.
“I merely had a conjecture.”
Lia walked over, gently wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her face against his rigid chest.
“And you, you proved it with your own hands.”
“Are we going to publish it?”
Klein’s hand hovered in mid-air, hesitating for a moment, before finally resting on Lia’s hair.
“This thing… will blow the entire magic world sky-high.”
“If we don’t, President Samuel will probably come after us for making all his hair fall out.”
Lia let out a soft laugh, the vibration of her chest passing through to Klein, allowing his tense nerves to relax a little.
“Besides, the truth should not be buried.”
“Even if it is dangerous.”
Klein closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the confusion in their depths had vanished, replaced by resolve.
He walked to the desk and spread out a fresh sheet of parchment.
The quill, dipped full of ink, flew across the paper’s surface.
He sealed the formula, one capable of destroying cities, and the terrifying physical meaning behind it, into words.
In the title section of the paper, he paused for a moment.
He lifted his pen and wrote a line.
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.
A plain, even somewhat boring, name.
Who could have imagined that beneath this simple disguise was a sharp blade capable of splitting the atomic nucleus?
“Send it to Samuel.”
Klein handed the rolled-up parchment to Lia.
“Let’s hope his heart is stronger than his hairline.”
Lia took the scroll and casually tossed it into the nearby teleportation array.
With a hum of spatial fluctuations, the verdict that announced the arrival of a new era vanished into thin air.
The eastern sky began to show the fish-belly white of dawn.
The first ray of morning light pierced through the clouds and shone into the mage tower’s floor-to-ceiling window.
The light hit the blackboard, and the formula E = mc² seemed to be plated with a golden edge.
“Is it over?” Lia asked.
“No.”
Klein turned around, his back to the rising sun.
His shadow was stretched long, enveloping Lia.
“This is just the beginning.”
He lowered his head and placed a gentle kiss upon her pale golden eyes.
“Good morning.”
The excitement doesn't stop here! If you enjoyed this, you’ll adore The Boy Who Bit Moma's Leaf. Start reading now!
Read : The Boy Who Bit Moma's Leaf
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂