After the Great Debate, nothing much changed for ordinary citizens. The only thing they had to look forward to, if anything, was the release of Cosmos… The atmosphere in academia, however, was different.
In an empty conference room somewhere in the Imperial Academy’s Magic Tower, the chief professors of each school had gathered. There, Simon, the chairman of the thesis committee, reported what had happened during the Great Debate.
“…That is all. Are there any questions?”
At Simon’s words, the conference room was briefly engulfed in suffocating silence. Then an elderly professor sitting by the window cautiously asked, “…Then are you saying that the absolute nature of spacetime really has been overturned?”
“Yes.”
“…”
With trembling hands, the old professor removed the glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and set them on the desk. His wrinkled eyes stared blankly at the tabletop.
“The heavens have collapsed.”
Simon immediately replied, “It’s the Principia that collapsed.”
“That was my heaven.”
“…”
Simon had no idea what else to say. He hadn’t expected the defense to turn out like this, either. In truth, most of the mages from the Magic Tower had believed that the School of Magical Surveying’s newly published paper would be nothing more than “a slight additional interpretation” of existing scholarship.