Chapter 242: The Truth Filter

Shortly after Klein sent Lia’s manuscript to the Magic Association, this brand-new booklet began to appear throughout the royal capital.

The cover design was extremely minimalist, featuring a single row of gilded characters against a deep blue background: The Introductory Handbook for High-Energy Particle Experiments.

Announced under the name of Samuel, the President of the Magic Association, this handbook was designated as mandatory reading for any mage applying for machine time at the Heinrich Kingdom Institute of High-Energy Particles.

Every submitted proposal had to strictly follow the standards elaborated within the handbook.

The moment the news broke, the capital’s magical circles erupted into a frenzy.

“What? Another exam?” A Fifth-Circle mage who saw the announcement at the gates of the Magic Association widened his eyes.

“I already took one exam to become an official mage! Now I have to take another one just to apply for an experiment?”

“The price is ten silver coins! Why don’t they just rob us?” another mage complained, though he still obediently walked toward the sales point.

Most mages wore expressions of displeasure.

They were used to exploring the mysteries of the world through inspiration and intuition, but now they were being asked to bind their thoughts with a set of cold, rigid rules.

“Energy conservation? Momentum conservation? What even are these? Is my Fireball spell not energy appearing out of thin air?”

“Protons, neutrons, muons… by the Gods, these words are more tongue-twisting than obscure dialects.”

The complaints rose in waves, but no one dared to take them lightly.

Everyone knew that the massive machine in the valley was currently the best shortcut to truth and fame.

To obtain that precious ticket known as “Machine Time,” they were willing to pay any price, even if it meant studying this seemingly dry and dull “introductory handbook.”

***

A week later, a marvelous shift occurred in the topics of conversation at the “Alchemical Beaker,” the capital’s busiest mage tavern.

In the past, when mages gathered, they talked about who had invented a novel spell or which noble had posted a high-reward bounty.

Now, every corner of the tavern was filled with brand-new terminology.

“Balay, I looked at your new proposal,” a mage from the Evocation Department said, swirling his wine glass while addressing his companion.

“You want to search for ‘ether’ by accelerating electrons to collide with space itself, but you forgot what was written on page seventeen of the third chapter: the injection of energy must have a clear target.”

“What exactly is your ‘space itself’? What is its ‘mass’? What is its ‘charge’?”

The Fifth-Circle mage named Balay turned red. “I… I believe space is a special medium, it…”

“‘I believe’?” The other immediately caught his slip and raised his eyebrows triumphantly.

“The first item in the list of error examples in the last chapter of the handbook is ‘I believe’! Professor Lia clearly pointed out that conjectures without any theoretical model or mathematical support are a waste of precious machine time!”

Balay was rendered speechless by the rebuttal and downed his wine in one gulp.

At another table, two young mages were debating intensely.

“Your calculation is wrong! Muon decay produces an electron and two neutrinos; the energy should be distributed according to the mass-energy equation.”

“In your model, you only considered the electron’s kinetic energy and completely ignored the energy carried away by the neutrinos. This violates the law of conservation of energy!”

“But neutrinos cannot be directly observed!”

“Inability to observe doesn’t mean they don’t exist! The handbook states clearly that ‘conservation laws’ are the foundation and the iron rule! Your entire proposal is built on a false premise!”

The surrounding mages didn’t try to mediate; instead, they listened with great interest, occasionally nodding in agreement.

“Since when has an argument between mages been so rational and harmonious?”

“Professor Lia’s lecture truly opened our eyes.”

“Her ‘Law of Conservation of Energy’ is simply a masterpiece of physics!”

“I merely question the scope of application for energy conservation. Does it truly apply to all macroscopic and microscopic phenomena?”

“That is pure nonsense! Energy conservation is the foundation of all things! How could you question it?”

Once upon a time, arguments between mages were filled with emotional phrases like “I feel” or “My mana tells me.”

Now, they waved the handbook, citing page numbers and laws as if it were not a magical text but an indisputable legal code.

Rigor had become the new fashion.

Being able to find a logical loophole in an opponent’s proposal based on the handbook earned one far more respect from peers than releasing a flashy high-circle spell.

***

This trend soon fed back to the High-Energy Particle Institute in the valley.

Archmage Horace sat in his office with a new batch of experimental applications piled before him.

He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, a look of relief on his face.

“Incredible,” he marveled to Master Grey, who had come to report.

“Just half a month ago, the applications I received included someone wanting to use the particle accelerator to find their missing pet, claiming it might have ‘quantized.’ Someone else wanted to verify if ‘Love’ was a fundamental particle.”

Master Grey nodded in deep agreement. “I heard that on the capital’s black market, the handbook—which is in short supply—is being sold for five gold coins a copy, and even then, it’s hard to find. They’ve given it a nickname: ‘The Truth Filter’.”

“‘Filter’? That name is quite fitting.” Horace picked up an application from the top, an appreciative smile appearing on his face.

“Look at this, a proposal from a Fourth-Circle mage. He wants to back-calculate an unknown interaction force by precisely measuring the mass difference between protons and neutrons.”

“The proposal is thirty pages long, cites three of Laplace’s papers, and establishes a complete mathematical model. Although I think there’s a slight issue with his model, this line of thinking… this logic… it’s beautiful!”

Reviewing work, which once caused Horace a splitting headache, had now become a form of enjoyment.

The whimsical nonsense had vanished, replaced by proposals that, though perhaps green, were logically rigorous and filled with sparks of thought.

He no longer needed to look for gold in piles of trash; now, he only needed to select the one worth polishing from a heap of different ores.

Lia’s little booklet had set a minimum threshold for the mages of the entire kingdom and guided the thirst for knowledge of an entire era in the right direction.

***

Inside the mage tower, Lia was enjoying a rare afternoon tea.

Adèle rushed in once again like a whirlwind, waving the latest issue of Capital Gossip.

“Lia! You’re famous! No, your book is famous!” She spread the paper on the table, pointing to a section.

“Look at this! Principal Augustus of the National Magic Academy has officially designated your Introductory Handbook as a mandatory course for all theoretical students! It’s said that students who don’t pass this course won’t even be eligible to choose a topic for their graduation thesis!”

Lia picked up a strawberry tart, took a small bite, and said indistinctly, “I should be collecting royalties.”

“Now, the way young mages in the capital greet each other has changed,” Adèle imitated. “They’ll ask: ‘Hey, does your proposal today comply with the conservation laws?'”

Klein sat nearby quietly leafing through an ancient text, but the corners of his mouth tilted up slightly.

He put down the book and looked at Lia. “Horace just contacted me. He said the institute’s machine time for next month is already fully booked. All the approved proposals are of very high quality.”

“That’s good then.” Lia swallowed the dessert in her mouth and took a sip of red tea.

“At least he doesn’t have to worry about so-called ‘soul particles’ anymore.”

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