“In the pictures, those barrier patterns are lines…so I calculated thinking they were straight…”
“Huh? Yeah, that’s right.”
“But in the pictures…they look slightly…curved. Like if it was a spherical coordinate system, the calculations might change, maybe.”
“Yeah. I’m interpreting that as a physical phenomenon of the balloon pushing on the barrier but…”
“Um, the issue is an axiomatic contradiction, you see.”
“It can also be rephrased that way but…that’s just a semantic twist.”
“My enhancement magic…changes some of the axioms of magic, you see.”
Rita furrowed her brow. More than the composed expression from before, she stared at me seriously.
“You just said you change the axioms of magic?”
“Y-Yes.”
“That’s a new system. Did you construct it?”
“Uh, not anything that grand yet…”
“Is there something like fundamental equations?”
“No, um, not that far. Just individual incantations so far.”
My heart rate started climbing at this point. Right now among these experts, I alone was mouthing some wild fantasy. I must have messed up.
But Rita’s gaze piercing me held no suspicion. She waited for my words with a look of pure curiosity.
“…Sorry, I cut you off. This is related right? Please continue.”
“Um, I still don’t really understand but, just an idea…”
“Go on.”
“Y-Yes! I concluded the proper axiomatic system for enhancement is [By my will defining immutable principles, dual lines extend infinitely, intersecting somewhere]…in other words, hypothesizing magical dual lines never remain parallel…”
Rita placed the hand she had on her chin over her mouth.
“The lines in that photo are probably magical lines but…maybe they’re gentle curves, not straight lines – like if it was a spherical coordinate system, the calculations might change, possibly.”
When I finished, the conference room went silent.
It was a strange air of everyone keeping everyone else in check.
“…Let me try writing it out.”
That voice broke the balance.
It was Rita.
She carelessly peeled off and threw on the floor the papers stuck to the blackboard, then gripped chalk in her right hand.
Seeing that seemed unfamiliar.
Despite everyone writing around her, I hadn’t seen Rita holding a pen even once.
She noisily wrote formulas in rough handwriting. Five lines of equations popped up in the blink of an eye.
“This is what you mean right? Does it match?”
Looking at the indicated formula, I was shocked.
This was the formula for enhancing the forearm, changing the axioms of magic.
The character placement was different but the form should be the same.
“Ah, yes, that’s…”
“Thought so.”
Rita’s hand accelerated.
And this time in one breath, about twenty highly complex lines of equations were created.
“…What’s this? Probably related to permanence but…”
Expecting I might be asked again, I tried to follow the formulas being written. I barely grasped the meaning of the first few lines. I think it’s the code used for permanent enhancements like my speed enhancement.
But no good. I couldn’t follow the equation transformations.
“I understand up to about the first ten lines…after that, sorry. I don’t really get it.”
“No, it’s fine if the start matches.”
After that, the equations steadily built up. The area with papers stuck expanded as the blackboard became Rita’s complete territory.
“…I see.”
Her hand stopped and she lowered the chalk-holding hand.
“That’s it that’s it that’s it that’s it!”
Then suddenly she started scratching her head vigorously.
“Let’s see, let’s see, dual line theorem? No. So this was pretending to be a definition huh.”
More strongly than before, kan kan kan, characters were written over the existing ones.
“Need more paper need paper! Hurry bring some! Ah! Gather values!”
The Rita leading everyone was nowhere to be seen.
The team members’ eyes changed color. Following her orders, they searched for data, passed calculation paper, and watched carefully so as not to disturb this time even a little.
“Mr. Strauss! The template, uh, textbook one! Forearm enhancement is fine! How many axiomatic contradictions of [never intersecting] were there!?”
“Huh? Um…”
“Quickly!”
“Y-Yes! Two. The fifth parallel postulate, and the summation of internal values theorem!”
“Thank you!”
She wrote kan kan kan kan kan. The character sizes varied, sometimes odd spacing and blank lines appeared, equations jumping to the neighboring wall.
Waiting, a few hours.
“Got…there…”
Rita’s hand stopped.
The blackboard was filled with interlocking characters and diagrams. Though it looked disordered, the shapes were familiar.
The diagrams looked similar to the pattern floating on transfer circles.
“Mr. Strauss, understand the meaning?”
I shook my head sideways.
“It’s fundamental equations for latent magical power but, let’s see, this is hard to understand huh.”
Rita underlined part of the equations and started transforming that part.
The tangled symbols and diagrams were wholesale replaced with characters, rebracketed into a simpler form. The equation shape to note gradually emerged.
The transformations finished. She tapped the lower right of the derived term kan with chalk.
“This takes a passive form. If following conventional magical equations, you could say it’s past tense, but either way the meaning is the same. It’s read [In the space of somewhere intersecting, any system magified–]”
Being explained that far, something comprehensible came to me.
A minus one was multiplied by the right shoulder of the bracketed term.
I knew the interpretation of this notation. It was the same as the final word of the symbolic incantations I use in enhancement magic.
“–is imbued.]”
I swallowed.
“We fundamentally misinterpreted. The labyrinth objects didn’t move actively with magic. The objects themselves had no internal mechanisms. All of them were made to move passively, receiving external magical treatment.”
Rita walked tap tap in front of the blackboard. Then she turned to us and smiled slyly.
“In other words, the labyrinth was enhanced and moved.”
Piecing that together let me take the first step to understanding.
The hands of us who had stopped overwhelmed also started moving.
“Let’s welcome the new paradigm. What I just derived is a template equation. The calculations work but the meaning is ambiguous, it still lacks refinement. Mastery starts now. Analyze and train to your heart’s content.”
Pan, resetting it all, her palm slapped together.
“Luckily it seems we have abundant examples.”
Saying that brightly, glinting gazes gathered on me.
“No, um, it’s immature! Immature theory!”
“You opened your mouth so spill it all! Even hypothetical stuff!”
What followed was a barrage. It felt like they would dig up not just the roots but the soil too with the momentum.
I couldn’t keep up even talking quickly. Everything was crammed in, each point scrutinized in detail.
At some point, it feels like I was shouting.
Something like mental stamina exists.
The power to keep thinking about complex things.
Most of all, that’s what I lacked the most. After I spoke every speakable thing, I collapsed limply on the desk alone yelling.
“How was it, Mr. Strauss?”
“Tiring.”
“A revolutionary night. I’m truly glad I invited you.”
“You, you think so…? The magic equations got so jumbled up and advanced I don’t really understand anymore.”
“That’s just the difference in experience! With a little training, you’ll quickly grasp it!”
Is that really so?
From the sidelong glances, the simple magic equations I spouted were instantly deciphered, transformed, and a new theoretical model constructed.
Researchers sure are amazing.
“Was it maybe…a little fun too?”
For the first time, I felt Rita’s words held intricate intentions.
Intricate yet simple.
I see, she wanted me to experience this?
“…Yes.”
So I answered simply too.
“Good.”
Collapsing limply on the desk.
It was my first time speaking so intensely in my life.
And without caring how I spoke at that, whatever I pleased. I didn’t even have time to be concerned.
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And it seemed no one here cared either.
“Leader!”
While sentimentally reflecting, someone who didn’t seem like a researcher, frankly out of place here, came up to us.
“…What is it? We’re having an important discussion right now but…”
“Sorry. You should hear this.”
Rita lowered her face after being whispered to.
“Isn’t it too soon?”
“However…”
“Fine. Come back immediately. And don’t come again.”
“Understood.”
It felt odd how they seemed intent on not showing their face.
But the face I saw looking this way hadn’t changed from earlier.
“I have something to show you, so come?
“Oh, yes. Um…where to?”
“Bit of a rush. We’re going to another room.”
Saying that, she pulled my hand.
I wondered what it was about, but didn’t have any particular reason to refuse, so I stood up. If anything, being told she had something to show made me curious.
Leaving the conference room where everyone was completely absorbed, even flying fists.
Or rather…isn’t this getting too intense?
“But still…is it okay not to stop this…?”
“It’s academic freedom!”
“I saw blades and such but…”
“It’s fine it’s fine! True spirit of adventure can’t be bound by moral code!
At this point, it was beyond enjoyable and, how to put it.
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Guess this counts as mad scientist moment but was expecting something wilder.