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Chapter 521: Paradox

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lucien, who knew a thing or two about Sard, speculated his intention with the newspaper in his hands. “He is trying to influence the clergy and the night watchers of the Holm parish and build them into his own subordinates? The communication of personnel must be for the same purpose. He will also be able to send spies to other parishes...”

When he thought that Vera Amelton had mastered the inquisition in the Holm parish, Lucien felt quite reverential for Sard, who had made such great use of the incident where a few radical night watchers lynched a liberal noble.

“Chances are that Sard is behind the few night watchers... But what does he want exactly by doing so? Divide the Church after he grows powerful? However, both the new church that he creates in the future and the South Church will no longer be the best in the world. Even their own territory will be invaded by the Congress, the North Church, or the Court of Elves. Sard can’t be that stupid, can he?”

“On the other hand, if the Lord of Hell is behind him, it would be understandable that his goal is to weaken the Church. However, for people like him, unless the benefits overwhelm his sanity, he will never degenerate into a servant of devils from a saint.”

“Is Sard trying to replace Benedict II after the pope is summoned by the Lord?”

“It’s been almost thirty years since Benedict II’s coronation. According to history, he has no more than thirty years before he ascends to Mountain Paradise like the previous popes. Sard, whose longevity is still huge, can definitely afford the wait.”

The phenomenon that popes in history always had a short time had been noticed by the Congress of Magic and other forces, but it never had a reasonable explanation. It was suspected that they were too close to the God of Truth and used the god’s strength too often, and therefore their body and soul couldn’t take it anymore.

Lucien shook his head and browsed through the newspaper, thinking to himself, “I hope Natasha learns a thing or two about Sard. If he intends to divide the Church, he will have the full support of the Highest Council. However, what I fear is that he is ambitious enough to instigate the Church to fight the Congress so that he can eliminate his opposition in the five parishes, before he ascends to the throne of pope with the secrets from the World of Souls.

“By then, he may very well break the limits of longevity for other popes, which will be a nightmare for any force.”

While thinking, Lucien went to the top floor on the royal magic tower of Holm, ready to return to Allyn by way of the Element Paradise.

During the gap of the ‘second battle’, Natasha reminded Lucien that the Church paid even more attention to him after the new alternate dimension was discovered because a man who was likely to be at the peak of legendary must be suffocated in the cradle!

Therefore, she asked Lucien not to meet her too often, and she would contain herself, too. She also suggested that he jump via the demiplanes when he went to Allyn.

Strolling in the corridor, Lucien encountered many members of the Will of Elements. He greeted them in with a constant smile.

Those sorcerers, however, looked equally weird, which made Lucien rub his face and smell it in confusion. He had taken a hot bath before he left. There shouldn’t be any scent of love on him anymore. What could be the problem?

“K, what’s the look on your face?” By the time Lucien encountered the tall and frank K, who also had the weird expression, he finally couldn’t help but ask.

Since Larry, K’s teacher, was on a quest, K had been studying the ‘new alchemy’ independently for a while and met many problems that he would like to discuss with Lucien. At this moment, he tried to hold back his smile and scratched his head, “Lucien, you are like a man who just had his wedding. You have this foolish smile on your face, and you emit a weird sense of satisfaction. You are also walking unsteadily. Anyone with the preliminary experience can tell what happened.”

His meaning between the lines was obvious.

Lucien rubbed his forehead in embarrassment. Did he show his cockiness so patently?

So, he hurried to hide his smile and tried to make himself not look so happy.

After talking to K for a while, Lucien stepped into the Element Paradise. After the change of time and space, he saw a pair of silver-grey eyes before he was adapted to the dizziness.

“Your Excellency Hathaway...” Having just slept with her junior, Lucien couldn’t help but feel that she was some sort of ‘mother-in-law’ standing before him.

Not having any expression, Hathaway said very seriously, “She is a girl that is very serious about love. I hope you are not as a playboy as Oliver.”

Grand Arcanist Oliver had always been used as a negative example by the rational ladies.

“Your Excellency Hathaway should know very well my love life in the past years. Commitment is the gentlest but most powerful strength in this world, and that is my attitude towards both magic studies and my love.” Faced with his ‘mother-in-law’, Lucien was naturally both sincere and solemn.

After a brief silence, Hathaway nodded her head slowly, with slight delight on her face as if she was comforted by the fact that Natasha and Lucien were finally together. “I’ve been watching you. If you were otherwise, I would’ve stopped you. If you contradict yourself, we will be enemies.”

Her words were always concise and sometimes subtly ambiguous.

Lucien secretly wiped his cold sweat. Thankfully, he had always been strict about himself. Except for his illusions, he abode by his principles even when he was alone, or it would’ve been hard for him to pass the test of his ‘mother-in-law’. “I will cherish her, respect, comfort her, and accompany her from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live.”

Under the pressure of his ‘mother-in-law’, it was hard for Lucien to organize his speech, so he simply modified the wedding vow from Earth.

Hathaway did not pursue any further but nodded, “He who honors his words is a qualified man. I have some questions regarding the new alchemy to discuss with you.”

Hu. Finally passed. Lucien took a long breath in his heart. Discussing arcana questions was much easier than facing the interrogation of such an intimidating ‘mother-in-law’.

Lucien and Hathaway did not stop the discussion until more than half a day later. Then, Lucien returned to Allyn, planning to ask for the files about the clergy in the Holm parish. The files specified which of them were radicals, which were reactionists, and which were appeasers who wished to live in peace with the Congress of Magic. The list could be given to Natasha for her reference.

It was the beginning of the operation that Lucien had come up during his ‘philosophical state’, partly based on the British Reformation.

He found the order that Henry VIII issued very agreeable. “Those who do slanderously and maliciously publish and pronounce, by express writing or words, that the king should be heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the crown... are guilty of high treason. ”

Hardly had he left the magic tower of the Will of Elements when Lucien’s monocle became hot. So, he turned on the magic circle.

“Lucien, where were you? Come here. Oliver has some questions that he wants to discuss with you.” The Lord of Storm’s loud voice echoed.

Lucien hurried to explain, “I spent the morning discussing ‘new alchemy’ with Her Excellency Hathaway...”

Fernando, however, had already cut the communication impatiently. He was rather bad-tempered when he was reverse-engineering ‘fission’ and ‘fusion’, and he was not interested in Lucien’s explanation at all.

Turning off the monocle, Lucien raised his eyebrow. Had his master made Oliver accept it? That was rather fast...

...

On the 33rd level of the Allyn magic tower, Lucien walked into Fernando’s library.

Fernando was scribbling when Lucien walked in. Suddenly dazed, he said in a vague smile, “Today is your birthday. Did you date the queen last night? Also, it seems that you’ve been well tasted by ‘Her Majesty’, haven’t you?”

“Huh?” Lucien secretly suspected that his disguise was flawed. How could his teacher tell?

Fernando immediately laughed out aloud. “How inexperienced of you. I was just bluffing. However, I could tell that you had a date with Natasha even without using the prophecy magic.”

“Why?” Asked Lucien, subconsciously.

Fernando chuckled, “I smelled the air of estrus when you were far away. How about it? Do you feel that your life has entered a new phase?”

Lucien was rendered speechless.

“How shocking. I thought that it would take you years before you made any progress, but it actually only took several days. I’m beginning to suspect that you are not my student Lucien!” Fernando ‘mocked’ Lucien, “but I’m completely relieved now. Natasha is now definitely on the Congress’ side. We will try to support you to be the Prince of Nekso. But it will take time. Don’t be hasty. Lucien, what a rarely-seen gem you are. Not only are you capable of arcana studies, but you are also good at sex-traps...”

Fernando was in such a good mood that he sounded more and more absurd as he rambled on, but he seemed more happy about Lucien’s love life than about the Congress’ increasing influence on Holm.

Prince of Nekso was a title for the queen’s husband, originated from the title of the prince who built the Nekso Palace.

“Master, where is His Excellency Oliver?” Lucien hurried to change the topic.

Fernando grew serious when it came to arcana questions. He led Lucien to his demiplane and showed him Oliver, who was wearing a white wig. It must be admitted that he was a handsome, graceful middle-aged man.

“Evans, when Fernando gave me your paper, I found it unacceptable and believed that the view on time and space was ridiculous and wrong. However, after consideration, I realized that this view had germinated in my heart a long time ago, and I never had the guts to boldly take the step forward because of the boundary of the experience and common sense of the past.” Said Oliver in a smile.

Lucien was slightly relieved. It seemed that this guy’s cognitive world was not broken. “I feel relieved that Your Excellency Oliver does not reject it.”

“In fact, when we studied electromagnetism, many sorcerers and I tried to integrate Mr. President’s theory with Brook’s theory, thereby constructing a real arcana system that can be used in every aspect. After all, the sources of all things should have the same nature, which we can call magic, or arcana, or truth, but it can’t be in two different systems.” Oliver spoke of his dream.

It was the common wish of all sorcerers to find a system that could explain everything. They had been pursuing it for thousands of years since the Magic Empire.

“During the integration, we found a lot of problems and conflicts, which were never resolved because we could not let go of our common sense in the past. It was exactly because of those experiences that I found it not difficult to accept your paper. I believe that many other sorcerers are the same, but of course, those who cannot accept it are definitely the majority.”

Lucien nodded his head. He had estimated that the ‘relativistic time’ would be attacked by everyone and did not expect that certain sorcerers had already done remarkable research on the problem. The idea was so disruptive that Oliver and his fellows would certainly not write into papers but would only discuss in private until convincing proofs were found. Therefore, Lucien knew nothing about it earlier.

Oliver changed the topic. “But there are still a lot of problems in your paper. I would like to discuss them with you today.”

“With pleasure.” Lucien sat on the couch next to Oliver. Fernando was ready to join the discussion, too.

Oliver took out his paper and pen. “It’s about relativity and the dilation of time. Consider a simplified experiment. There are two twins. The elder brother flies at a speed close to that of light, whereas the younger brother stays where he is. When his brother reaches a planet that the light can only illuminate with a journey of fifteen years, he returns immediately. Then, which of them will be younger when he meets his brother?”

“From the perspective of the younger brother, he was still, and his brother flew away at a speed close to that of light. According to the formula where high speed equals to slower time, his elder brother obviously should be younger than him.”

“However, from the elder brother’s perspective, according to the principle of relativity, he can regard himself as still, in which case his younger brother had fled away from him at a speed close to that of light. Then, obviously, the younger brother should still be younger.”

“So, it is a paradox.”

Lucien smiled. It was exactly the problem that he expected.