WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 685: Story of the Past. Witch Hunt - 2

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It was an age when there was not much to learn.

The famous scholars of the day were also well versed in theology and exchanged knowledge with the Sanctum. The Sanctum sponsored such intellectuals, gathering and preserving their achievements.

When alchemists were being thrown into boiling molten metal to die, it was the Sanctum that pulled out and saved scholars trained in alchemy. Without the Holy Maiden's foresight and warnings, the continent's intellect would have regressed for more than a century, ushering in a dark age. Even amid the war, Sanctum missionaries relayed news of the continent's situation to scholars in the Northern Sea.

"This can't be. Professor Lavoisier is dead!"

"Professor Lavoisier? The one behind the theory of alchemical elements...?"

"Professor Lavoisier was the one who drew the line between material changes that occur without alchemy and alchemy itself. I learned alchemy from the professor too. The professor was stubborn, but incredibly intelligent. How could this...!"

"It's a great loss for the continent."

War had no eyes. The intelligent and the foolish alike were swept up in madness and died. The terrible news arriving one after another from afar only brought the scholars closer together.

"Madness and anti-intellectualism are rampant. We can't tolerate such madness."

"Let's form a society and gather the knowledge we possess. It doesn't matter whether it belongs to witches or alchemists."

"If we're going to survive here, we need to build a tower of knowledge."

The gathered scholars formed the Babel Society and used their knowledge to build their strength.

Earth arts, Druidism, alchemy. There were already countless powers in the world. If someone understood the Demon God and aligned their mindscape with it, the Demon God's innate arcane would lend them power. The Babel Society met alchemists, druids, and worshippers of the Earth Mother who had fled the war, then studied the Demon God's power.

"Knowledge is power. We need to gather more knowledge if we're to overcome this crisis."

Geniuses of the century from different fields gathered in one place. With scholarly curiosity as their foundation and the desperation to survive as fuel, they debated and held meetings. They did not care where they were. They talked while sitting in wagons, stayed up all night in rooms with fireplaces, and sometimes gathered in village squares to shout at the top of their lungs.

Even those who had once avoided alchemists gradually came to welcome them. The high-quality alchemical coal made by Fahrenheit was precious fuel, Pascal's windmills could do the work of ten strong men, and Decibel's string telephones allowed them to communicate with distant villages. The refugees, who could not afford to be picky, eagerly learned and adopted the advanced techniques.

Because it had been an empty land with nothing there, the Babel Society's knowledge seeped into everyday life without resistance. The Northern Sea plains, once barren, were filled with learning and knowledge.

They were humanity's cutting edge. Like the Babel of myth, the geniuses who had gathered from every corner gradually built a tower of knowledge and became the group with the greatest power and highest reputation in the Northern Sea lands...

"This really is just like Babel. Everyone is chattering away in a different language."

One day, Principia casually said that as he watched a Babel Society debate. Silence fell over the Babel Society.

A genius recognized another genius. They could tell even more clearly when that genius surpassed them.

Principia was a scholar more outstanding than anyone else. Whenever someone struggled with an academic explanation, he would suddenly appear and put the theory in order for them. The way he laid scholarship out before the world was beautiful and precise, enough that even proud scholars would defer to him.

Then, whenever an argument broke out, Principia would say he needed to focus on his research and disappear for years. That was another reason the other scholars deferred to him.

This time was no different. Rene asked him after he returned without warning following nearly five years away.

"We presumptuously adopted the name Babel to honor the craftsmen from across the continent who worked together to build a tower. We shouldn't imitate their ending as well. Professor Principia, would you calm down and explain it to us?"

Rene gently rebuked him, and Principia scratched his temple. Knowing that meant he agreed, Rene calmly waited for him to continue.

"Well, how should I explain this? If nature were a book, you are all doing nothing more than reciting your own book reports. You've all seen the same thing, but you're saying different things. At this rate, we'll become like the real Babel... Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"...Have you been reading some sort of novel? Why are you suddenly talking about book reports?"

Principia was no better at explaining himself. The other scholars could not understand what he was saying either.

Unable to watch any longer, his assistant stepped forward.

"I believe this is what the professor means. They say nature's great principles are written in God's language, don't they? Yet we explain what we understand through all kinds of rhetoric and metaphors. That's why it takes so long to understand one another. We first need to standardize our academic language, so that the ending from the tale of Babel is not repeated."

Principia nodded at the assistant's explanation.

"That's roughly right. Not perfect, though."

Only then did the Babel scholars understand Principia's words. Every scholar in the Babel Society was exceptional, but each was immersed in their own world. Most had awakened innate arcane, using those powers to establish trading companies or found families and steadily build their influence.

Their academic progress, however, had slowed. Their completed innate arcane stood in their path like a kind of limit.

"Do we really need to do that?"

One's greatest wall was always oneself. The mages had each run into an academic wall, and rather than break it down, they had refined it into something even firmer and achieved innate arcane.

To them, Principia's argument was far too vague.

"Your ambition is lofty, but it's too abstract. There is no God's language capable of explaining principles. Even if there were, mere humans could not understand it."

"There are countless laws in the world, and a single human can learn only a few."

In the past, they might have listened more closely or followed him. But too much time had passed while Principia was gone. The scholars of the Babel Society had become people of power, governing this land in the form of a federation. They had too much to give up to be driven solely by their passion for knowledge.

And above all else.

"Professor Principia. You don't even possess innate arcane yet, do you?"

No matter how intelligent someone was, without innate arcane, they were not considered to have completed a field of learning of their own. Principia's words did not carry the same weight as before.

"At least lay some groundwork so we can see it and judge for ourselves, Professor. I respect you, but I have no time to devote to something so dreamlike."

"Send us a letter later if your research progresses."

Everyone was indifferent. Just as they were about to leave...

"The process of finding God's language? It sounds interesting. Would it be all right if I dared to see it?"

Rene was now the bishop of the Northern Missionary Society, as well as a speaker and sponsor for the Babel Society. She was busy beyond measure, yet she showed great interest in Principia's research.

Rene had been watching Principia closely. He was a genius, but he did not like having his own logic challenged.

That was why Principia presenting an argument meant his theory was already complete. Rene needed to see the theory Principia had likely completed after dedicating years to it.

Because...

"Oh. You took the bait! Assistant, just like you said!"

"...Pardon?"

"From the start, the only person I needed was Bishop Rene. I didn't need anyone else. Only you."

"...Excuse me?"

"Bishop Rene. You once studied coordinate geometry while drawing maps, didn't you? I need your maps. I've already finished the calculations in my head, but I had no way to explain them. Only geometry can support my theory."

Principia showed pure scholarly goodwill.

He must have needed Rene's knowledge. The coordinate geometry Rene had devised while drawing maps of the Northern Sea was revolutionary. Principia must have remembered it because it had impressed him, then sought her out once he needed it.

Receiving that transparent scholarly goodwill, Rene felt guilty.

There was only one reason Rene wanted to help Principia.

Principia was the scholar most likely to become a Demon God.

As expected, Principia's research was nearly complete. Rene's geometry was the final piece of his research. He sought to explain the principles of the world from their very roots, describing the movement of the world through simple principles.

Rene was a scholar first and a cleric second. Looking through Principia's research, she was amazed and absorbed. His casually scrawled notes were fascinating subjects for thought, and his papers, only a few pages long, contained discoveries that would be recorded in history.

"Earth arts, Druidism, alchemy. Even divine power. There are powers in this world gained through faith."

Even in Babel, where all the world's talent had gathered, Principia was a genius who stood apart. Living alongside him, Rene came to hold an instinctive doubt about human intellect.

Was intellect an extensive property or an intensive one? Could countless humans putting their heads together ever catch up to a single line of insight he had left behind? If they could not, then for the advancement of humanity, was one genius worth more than tens of thousands of people?

"But where does that faith come from? Can one gain that power simply by believing blindly, without thought, reflection, or interpretation? No, they can't. Not every blind worshipper of the Earth Mother is proficient in earth arts, and even druids who have lived in forests their entire lives have different affinities. That means power does not come from faith. Power comes from knowledge."

Principia drew on paper. The transmission of force. The movement of matter. Changes in state. He connected the learning he had gained by speaking to Babel's many scholars. He simplified, approximated, assumed, and compared, recreating those phenomena using only words and drawings.

"Knowledge is true faith. By understanding, we can directly wield power. Like this, if we recreate Fahrenheit's principles of heat and flame."

The paper burst into flames in an instant. Fahrenheit's discovery, the principle that formed his innate arcane, had been recreated with no more than a sheet of paper and a drawing.

Without humanity even realizing it, one human had brought about an enormous leap. Rene shuddered. Having contributed to a great discovery of the age, she murmured in a trembling voice.

"It truly is... magic."

Principia clapped his hands in delight.

"Good! That's it!"

"Pardon?"

"I was wondering what to call it. The assistant is good at everything, but has no sense for names. They kept trying to give it grand names like God's language or runic script."

"I'm still better than you, Professor. Recreating principles through natural philosophy? It's too long and boring."

Ignoring the assistant's grumbling, Principia wrote a title on the cover of the book he had been working on.

The Principles of Magic.

It was the beginning of great magic, announcing the end of mystery.

Footnotes:

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