The strange peacefulness continued as year 820 of the Saint Calendar came. It felt like the new star was a normal celestial phenomenon and nothing was going on.
After short vocation, Lucien entered the gate of the Atom Inst.i.tution with the Sun Staff, which was transformed into a gentleman's cane. He was thinking about the initiation of Allyn Telephone and Telegraph company and the promotion of the alchemical items.
Before Lucien could take off his hat and put it on the rack, he heard Lazar's voice. "An… An artificial planet?" Lazar's voice was trembling uncontrollably.
"The star that brightened up half of the sky that night was created and launched by President Douglas!" Heidi still had a crisp voice like a girl, but it was extremely sharp at the moment. It seemed like she was shocked by some unimaginable power.
Lucien realized that Douglas had published the experiment on Arcana. He then smiled and greeted Lazar and Heidi who were still in shock.
"Hey, Lazar. Hey, Heidi. Happy New Year. You're so early."
After reaching the third circle, Lazar already knew what he should do now as a middle-rank mage. He would read every issue of Arcana and Magic as soon as they were released. Before, Lazar could barely understand any articles that were published on Arcana and Magic, so he had no interest in buying them. Most of the time, he simply borrowed them from the arcana library. He was more interested in Element and Common Arcana. Now, Lazar would arrive early only on the release days of the two journals every month and Lucien was thus not surprised.
What surprised Lucien was that Heidi, who usually woke up late, could get up so early.
"Mr. Evans, Annick has become a formal sorcerer!" Heidi turned her head around and answered Lucien's question without thinking too much. "I'm motivated! I'm going to get up early and meditate. I am going to get up early and study!" She tightened her fist.
Lucien did not know that Annick had become a formal sorcerer. Although the communication satellite had not been launched yet and no long-distance calls could be made, Lucien still spent most of his spare time on the initiation of Allyn Telephone and Telegraph Company and its subordinate Arcana Voice. He only had time to chat with his apprentices during the New Year's party and did not know that Annick was already very close to advancing.
This made Lucien consider handing the matters over to professionals or sorcerers who enjoyed running businesses after setting everything up. He could just sit there and get his share. The most important thing for him was to advance his arcana and magic level. He also needed to improve the alchemical items.
"When did he rank up?" Lucien asked delightedly.
Heidi tightened her fists.
"Yesterday! He has been working on his private research recently and he didn't even rest during the New Year holiday. He suddenly had some breakthrough yesterday. Then, he successfully advanced without the help of potions, before he had enough spiritual power! If I hadn't gone to ask him on a difficult problem I encountered, I wouldn't be able to find it out!"
"Advancing just several months after his adult ceremony, Annick is not bad at all when compared to the other apprentices at his age." Lucien nodded, satisfied. It seemed like Annick made quite some progress on the verification of the photoelectric effect, proving that it was electrons that were emitted.
It suddenly occurred to Lucien that he might have trained a bunch of future Holm Crown Award (or Silver Moon Medal, etc.) winners. In the future, there might be a sentence like this in the History of Magic: "Atom Inst.i.tution, a small place with a lot of honorable names and forerunners that are respected by the later generations".
Although with Lucien's paper on his discovery of the natural radiation ahead, Annick would probably not be able to get the Holm Crown Award this time. It was highly likely that he would be able to get the award later if he could keep exploring at the frontline of elemental research.
Heidi tightened her fists again. "I'm certain that I could do better than them!"
At this moment, the other apprentices arrived, all appearing energetic and excited.
"Congratulations, Annick, you're a formal sorcerer now," Lucien smiled and greeted.
"What? You became a formal sorcerer?" Sprint burst out. He thought he would be the first one to advance among the apprentices.
Layria and Katrina also stared at Annick with surprise, joy, admire, and depress. They could not believe that the always reserved Annick could become a formal sorcerer so fast.
Annick blushed under the attention of the others. "I made some progress with my experiment yesterday; my meditation environment then changed, so I consumed the potion and tried to construct a first-circle spell. I only tried it once and I somehow succeeded." He sounded a bit shy.
Annick had never been stared at like this and he felt a bit uncomfortable. He lowered his head as if he wanted to bury himself into the ground.
"You've verified that it's the electron?" Lucien asked. He was happy with Annick's achievement.
Annick nodded. "Yeah."
"It's a result that might get you the Holm Crown," Lucien said half-jokingly.
Heidi, Layria, Katrina, and even Lazar suddenly gasped deeply. They thought for a while and realized that there was indeed a chance for Annick to be awarded the Holm Crown prize.
Yesterday, he was still a sorcerer apprentice, but now there was a chance that he could be awarded the Holm Crown. It sounded more like a legend than an actual legend. Even Lucien, who got the most honorable reward when he was not yet 19, had already become a formal sorcerer for almost a year by then.
Annick felt even more uncomfortable after he heard the gaspings.
"It's impossible. I can only prove that the electrons come from the metal, but no practical evidence shows that it comes from inside the metal atom. There's a chance the atoms absorbed the free electron when binding together." Annick shook his head.
Then, Annick sounded as if he was talking to himself. "I don't want the reward even if I have the chance to get it."
"Why?" Lucien was not the only who was curious here. It's surprising that someone would decline an honor like the Holm Crown prize.
Annick responded, "I don't like standing in the center of the stage. I can just study, do my experiment, and improve quietly, right?"
"If you're qualified for the award one day but decline it, you'll draw even more attention. It's something that has never happened before." Lucien smiled and explained why Annick's plan was impossible.
"That's right…" Annick belatedly understood the reason.
At the same time, Lazar finally realized what was happening. He raised the Arcana he was reading and exclaimed, "everyone, do you remember the newborn star that was destroyed by G.o.d's Arrival about half a month ago?"
"Yeah, why?" Sprint's attention quickly s.h.i.+fted to Lazar. The incident that night had left a deep impression in his mind.
Layria and Katrina also turned to look at Lazar curiously. They beautiful bright star was still clear in their memories.
As the other apprentices' sight s.h.i.+fted away from him, Annick was relieved and his expression loosened. Then, he also turned to look at Lazar in the same way.
In Allyn, every sorcerer who knew about the background are shocked by or, at least, interested in the Newborn Star.
When Lazar was going to show off the big news he found and tell everyone how shocked and respectful he was, Heidi took his chance and spoke first. "The star was created and launched by Mr. President!"
"What?!"
"That's impossible!"
"It's artificial? Seriously?"
The exclamations expressed how surprised everyone was.
"It's true! The first paper on this issue, Summaries of Simulating the Astronomical System
with an Artificial Planet, is from the President!" Lazar quickly waved the Arcana in his hand.
"The experimental data, the actual data, the comparison between the two, and the descriptions of the trajectory. It must be true!"
With the idea of the artificial planet, it would not be hard for people who had studied Douglas' theoretical system and achieved some results to create the whole model with the previous data, so Douglas did not try to hide his experiment. For people who could understand the experiment, it would not take them too long to figure everything out, and for people who could not understand it, they would never be able to figure out the truth.
Though obviously, he hid some of the actual situations and Lucien's plan was only mentioned in a small discussion, so the enemy would not be enlightened by the published materials.
"H-How is this even possible?" Layria muttered. To the sorcerers specializing in Astrology, the stars in the sky represented the fate of all creatures with intelligence. No one believed that "fate" could be man-made.
Sprint, Annick, and Katrina were all in a state of absence. Their pride from their recent improvement of skills and knowledge was destroyed by the shocking truth.
Lazar noticed that Lucien was simply smiling silently, as if he was not surprised at all. Suddenly, Lazar had a flash of intuition.
"Lucien, don't tell me you partic.i.p.ated in the experiment?"
Everyone's sight instantly fell upon Lucien's face.
"I provided some suggestions." Lucien smiled and nodded. He had nothing to hide as long as no one knew who initiated the experiment. After all, the Church's attention was on the one who completed the experiment.
Lazar clicked his tongue twice. "I don't why, but I was not surprised at all when I heard you were part of it."
Heidi quickly turned the pages and, not surprisingly, she saw Douglas's words at the end.
She started reading in a clear silvery voice. "Special thanks to those who helped me during the experiment, Fernando, Bergner, Lucien, Artil, Luciana, Norman… Teacher's name is really here…"
Once again, they realized how talented Lucien was.
"Let me what else is published on this issue." Lucien raised his hand and took over the journal. His own issue was probably in his office of the Arcana Review Board.
Lucien checked the t.i.tles and suddenly saw an article published by Artil by the end. The t.i.tle was Does Ether Really Exist. It was an article for pure discussion purposes and could not earn any reference credits.
Lucien inhaled slightly and slightly read the short article, which sounds like a declaration of war.
"… The artificial planet experiment strongly proved the President's theories, and the lightspeed experiment based on the theory has proved that Ether does not exist."
"… I will offer a reward of 50,000 arcana points for other theoretical explanations of the experiment, explanations including Ether!"
"The arcanists who question the experiment and believe in the existence of Ether, please use your wisdom and 'imagination'!"
Lazar was reading the article by the side and he abruptly shouted in excitement, "that's it! It's time to make the ones who believe in the wave theory face their mistake!"
Elemental sorcerers like Lazar and Rock always believed in the particle theory.
After hearing Lazar's words, Lucien felt like that a debate war was coming.
