The Imperial Princess, Isolde Arcanus was in her office, reading a thesis.
[Calculus – The Method of Series and Continuity] "No matter how many times I read it, it's pure genius."
She knew Sir Valerius was a great mage. But she never imagined he was this brilliant. Future historians would undoubtedly mark this thesis as the beginning of the 'Magic Revolution'.
Just as Isolde was about to turn the page of the [Principles of Calculus]...
'Your Highness.
Do you have a moment?' The voice of the Dean echoed in her mind. It was Telepathic magic.
Goosebumps rose on Isolde's arms. The range of Telepathy was proportional to the strength of one's willpower. If so, just how powerful was the Dean, who could send a Telepathic message from the Magic Tower to the Imperial Palace, right across the city?
She felt a chill, but at the same time, a sense of relief. Relief that this immensely powerful being was a long-standing ally of the Imperial House of Arcanus.
"Of course, Dean. What is it?"
Isolde replied to the Dean's Telepathy with her own voice. She didn't know the principle behind it, but she was sure the Dean would hear her just fine. 'It is about the upcoming medal awarding ceremony.'
"I know. It will be a grand affair. The theory of the Great Mage, Sir Valerius, is truly remarkable." '...
Hahh...'
A faint sigh was mixed in with the Dean's willpower.
"Is there a problem?"
'Your Highness.
There is, in fact, one thing that troubles me. Do you know of a mage of commoner birth named Isaac Upperhills?'
"Isn't he one of the recipients of the second class medal this time?"
Isolde had heard the name Isaac Upperhills before. 'The original discoverer of [Calculus] was not Sir Valerius, but Isaac Upperhills.'
"... What? Are you saying Sir Valerius plagiarized the thesis?"
Crumple.
The princess gripped Valerius's thesis tightly. Her mouth opened. 'No. That is not the case.
Of course not. That boy deliberately attributed his own achievement to Sir Valerius.'
"Why on earth would he do such a thing..."
'Your Highness was once a mage of the Magic Tower yourself, so you understand the impact of [Calculus].'
"Of course. I am already in the process of persuading His Majesty to proceed with related projects."
[Calculus] was a weapon that would change the face of warfare in the Empire.
In a war between mages, precision was the greatest weapon of all. 'The boy feared the repercussions his theory would bring, so he sought to give the honor to his teacher, Sir Valerius.'
"He got scared because he has no one backing him."
The Dean's Telepathy continued. 'That is correct, Your Highness. If you would take this into consideration, it would be a great help to that young genius.'
"I understand."
From nobles to commoners, they were all citizens of the Empire.
"I will meet with him myself."
Isolde decided to take the new student's side. 'Thank you, Your Highness. I shall take my leave now.'
A quiet silence fell over the office after the Telepathy ended. The Magic Tower is taller than the Imperial Palace. This is because the history of mages is longer than the history of the Empire.
"I shall take my leave now."
The Dean ended her Telepathy with the princess and stood by the window of her office. Her eyes, which could look down upon everything, did not reflect the scenery of the capital. Her only interest was...
"Isaac Upperhills."
Magarta Magica murmured the name. His grades at the Magic Academy were average. From admission to graduation, he was just an ordinary student.
The records proved it. For such a person to solve the 'Achilles and the Tortoise' problem and devise [Calculus]...
"He was clearly mediocre, so how did he become a genius?"
Geniuses are not made. They are only born. And yet, Isaac was born mediocre and 'became' a genius.
How beautiful.
For a human mage, who lives for barely a hundred years, to overcome the wall of genius.
"Talent deserves a fitting reward."
The princess would be a good guardian for that child. The 10th-floor laboratory of the Magic Tower. After my meeting with Count Ludwig, a new concern had arisen.
"It's nice that I learned Telepathy... but I can't really use it."
Analyzing my willpower as brainwaves and breaking them down into simple waves using a Fourier transformation was fine. The problem arose when I tried to reassemble those simple waves. Count Ludwig, upon receiving my Telepathy, nearly collapsed.
If it was powerful enough to make a mage who had risen to the rank of corps commander stagger... 'It's probably closer to military-grade than commercial...' It seemed I needed to refine it until it was commercially viable.
Of course, commercialization is an engineer's job, but... Honestly, it was a shame. Just think about how much humanity advanced with the single change from messenger ravens to telegraph wires.
Telepathy was clearly a skill worth polishing. And for that, observation was essential.
"First, I need an explanation of what a mana field is."
I closed my eyes and connected my willpower to the mana field. After that, I didn't move a single step for half a day. I etched the minute noises of the mana field into my mind.
About ten hours later, a very faint mana signal was caught in my detection net. The transmission point was the 49th floor of the Magic Tower, the Dean's office. The receiving point was far away, in the direction of the Imperial Palace.
'It seems the Dean sent a Telepathic message... but her method is different from mine.' At the very least, she wasn't using a Fourier transformation on her willpower like I was. 'Then how is she doing it?'
The output of her willpower wasn't much different from mine, so if I just knew the method, I felt I could replicate it. I opened my eyes and spent the entire night recording and analyzing the pattern of the Telepathic magic from moments before.
The next morning, Giuseppe arrived for work and was surprised to see me sprawled out on the sofa.
"Junior. Why are you at work so early?"
I answered with hollow eyes.
"No... I'm not at work."
"Does that mean..."
"Yes. I haven't gone home yet."
"Good heavens."
Giuseppe shook his head. Even though he himself had struggled for three weeks with paperwork. He worries too much.
"What on earth are you working so hard on?"
I pointed to the wave graphs recorded all over the chalkboard and answered.
"Telepathy interception."
A partial success. I couldn't replicate the Dean's Telepathy, but I had managed to decode it.
"..."
"..."
"...!"
I informed Valerius of the 'decoded contents of the Telepathy'. Actually, it had been five minutes since I told him.
"..."
"..."
"...?"
"..."
However, Valerius still showed no reaction. He just stared blankly, flipping through the detailed mana data of the Telepathy. A moment later, Valerius's mouth opened haltingly.
"So, how long did it take you to analyze the Dean's Telepathy?"
"It took me all day. I thought I was going to lose my mind."
Is he finally acknowledging my hard work?
"My word..."
Valerius continued.
"To do this in just one day. It's driving me mad..."
"Is something wrong?"
Did I analyze it incorrectly?
"Among mages, it's considered common sense that 'intercepting another's Telepathy' is impossible."
"... Huh? Why?"
"Because Telepathy is the act of sending the pulse of one's soul, and that pulse can never belong to another."
"..."
"..."
I was at a loss for words. I didn't even know where to begin. If we were talking about something like the 'weight of the soul', we could have a normal conversation.
At least that claim is quantifiable, so it can be proven or disproven through measurement... But a pulse... the pulse of the soul... what on earth was he talking about?
Heartbeat?
As I stood there dumbfounded, Valerius spoke.
"You should keep the fact that you can interpret Telepathy an absolute secret."
"..."
"..."
"Mages have many secrets."
Valerius was serious. ... I didn't know what a 'pulse' was, but I could tell I had done something significant. If I let this slip and the word got out, would those 'underworld mages' he mentioned before come looking for me?
Let's keep this skill a secret from now on. I changed the subject tactfully.
"By the way, isn't the content of this Telepathy a bit suspicious?"
"Suspicious? Where?"
I pointed to the page where I had interpreted the Dean's Telepathy. Since I had only managed to decode the Dean's side of the conversation, it was a mystery what was said on the other end. That part made me a little uneasy.
"I haven't even read that far yet."
"..."
"Ahem. My apologies." '...
There's no good in knowing how to decode Telepathy, so I'll just read the record.' After reading the entire interpretation, Valerius let out a hollow laugh.
"The princess. Do you know anything about the princess, Doloren's disciple?"
"No. Not at all."
"I thought so. The princess has a completely different personality from the other members of the Imperial House of Arcanus."
"... Is she something of a troublemaker?"
"She has a strong sense of justice and looks after the citizens."
"..."
"..."
So that means the other members of the imperial family are unjust and oppressive? The future of the Empire is bleak.
"Anyway, the Dean used that to make the princess take a 'personal interest' in you. I suspect... the princess will seek you out soon."
The princess is summoning me. This was no time to worry about the future of the Empire. My own future was the most uncertain thing of all.
And so, the next day. I was slumped over my desk in the lab. 'The princess is coming...?'
Just thinking about it was overwhelming. Giuseppe asked me.
"Isaac... is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong."
"Really?"
"Except for the fact that the princess might storm in here."
"... Tell me more."
And so I told Giuseppe about Valerius's speculation.
"We need to prepare."
"Prepare for what?"
"Hmm... snacks and tea?"
Just then, a knock came from the lab door. Knock, knock, knock. I hate the sound of knocking.
If, by some chance, I become the Dean in the future, I won't let anyone into my office. I only want to communicate with people when I want to.
"That's strange. No one was scheduled to come today."
Giuseppe opened the door with a puzzled expression. Outside the door stood two people I had never seen before. A tall man and a petite woman.
"How can I help you?"
The woman answered Giuseppe's question.
"I've come to make a request to the School of Magical Surveying. I have something to say directly to Researcher Isaac Upperhills."
A request? For me?
What could this be about? The woman introduced herself as a 'merchant running a small guild on the outskirts of the capital'.
She said.
"I'd like to ask for your advice on whether we can use [Calculus] to improve the efficiency of our guild's transport pipes."
"You'd be better off asking Sir Valerius about that."
"I heard that Researcher Upperhills also has a knack for [Calculus]."
"... Who told you that?"
"..."
"..."
She didn't answer. This was suspicious, no matter how I looked at it. By now, everyone in the Magic Tower knew I was good at calculus.
But an outsider was a different story. There was no way a rumor about me could have spread. Many people know the name of Sam Altman, who created GPT.
But how many know the names of the programmers who toil under him? It was only natural that these people shouldn't know me. I asked the man next to the woman.
"Does the gentleman beside you have anything to say?"
"... I do not."
I quietly used my mana to sense them. It wasn't just out of caution. I wanted to identify the source of the subtle 'sense of wrongness' I had felt from the moment they entered.
'There's something around their faces...?' I could feel an invisible flow of mana. 'Are they disguised with magic?'
Typically, when one uses magic to disguise themselves, a magical 'staircase effect' occurs. This is because the principle involves applying mana to the face in small, pixel-like units. But right now, I couldn't feel those 'pixels'.
'Could it be... anti-aliasing?' Looking closer, I could see it. The outlines of the disguise were vaguely blurred.
This was a considerably high-level spell. I didn't think a mere merchant guild would be able to handle something like this. In that case, the identity of these people was...
'It must be the princess.' It wasn't a guess. It was a certainty.
I spoke to Giuseppe, who was sitting at a distance.
"Senior, where are those tea leaves the School of Ancient Rune Studies gave us as a gift?"
"Those precious leaves? Now?"
In response to Giuseppe's words, I turned to the disguised woman and replied.
"Her Highness the Princess has graced us with her presence. How could we possibly serve her ordinary tea?"
At that moment, I felt the woman's shoulders flinch and stiffen. A moment later, the disguise spell was released, and the guests' true identities were revealed. Blonde hair and golden eyes that shone like the sun.
It was the Empire's Third Princess, Isolde Arcanus. She looked at me and asked.
"... How did you know?"