Chapter 50: Principia

< Chapter 50: Principia – 2 >Science begins as a branch of philosophy known as ‘natural philosophy.’ This was an attempt to interpret the self-evident and immutable laws of nature, which do not belong to ‘human experience.’

Borrowing the words of Galileo Galilei, it was the pursuit of philosophical truths written in the language of ‘mathematics’ in the ‘book’ of the universe.

It started with the thoughts of Greek philosophers, expanded into a more universal realm by Galileo and Kepler, and found its language through the analytical geometry of Descartes and Fermat.

And then, it blossomed when it met Isaac Newton, a genius of the century.

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“Author?”

“Yes.”

“I am the Chief Mage, but… I may be smart and amazing as the Chief Mage, but…”

“Yes.”

“I don’t understand any of this at all…”

It meant that too many concepts were mixed together for this world to comprehend. In fact, this world was at a level where the Renaissance and post-modern eras were blended. In some aspects, it was more advanced.

Hygiene was perfectly maintained, printing presses at publishing houses ran all day, carriages and automobiles coexisted on the streets, and although crude, there were machines that could be called airplanes or submarines.

One problem was that this world’s civilization was not built on the foundation of ‘natural philosophy’ that pursued self-evidence but was built on countless statistics and empirical bases.

In a way, it could be considered the extreme of scientific extrapolation. Since this was a world where ‘individuals’ could manipulate ‘phenomena’ like magic, it was inevitable.

“Right? Actually, I don’t really understand it either.”

“What?”

“So, I am planning to work on annotations. The annotations might end up being much longer than the main text, and there might be parts that need to be completely rewritten, as well as many pieces of knowledge that were not in the original ‘Principia’.”

“I don’t understand… I am the Chief Mage…”

“That’s why I need the help that only Chief Mage Millie Cléang can provide.”

“Only I can provide…?”

“Yes. If Millie Cléang doesn’t know it, probably no other mage would know it either. So, I’m planning to use that as a ‘reference point’ to rewrite the book.”

Unlike Isaac Newton from the original history, I didn’t plan to deliberately write in a complex manner. Although I borrowed the name of Principia, what I intended to create was a sort of ‘science textbook’—a textbook containing theories that could be considered the backbone of natural science.

I planned to annotate as kindly as possible, explaining step by step the processes that lead to knowledge not present in this world, thereby unraveling the knowledge about ‘the self-evidence of causality’ through this book.

In the terms of this world, it would become a ‘magic book’ of the ‘Gray Magic Tower.’

“Heh, heh heh… Right… If I don’t know it, no other mage would know it either…”

“Yes, yes.”

Millie Cléang chuckled, indulging in her own self-admiration. Then, suddenly curious, she tilted her head and asked a question.

“But how does the author know it…?”

“Well, you see.”

Since I couldn’t explain it as knowledge from a past life, I just joked.

“Wouldn’t it be a revelation from the Lord?”

* * *

“Everyone… I’ve brought a new magic book….”

“Chief! Thank you!”

“This magic book was written by Herodotus…. As for how I managed to ask Herodotus to write a magic book…”

“Thank you for your grace, Chief! I’ll read it gratefully! But I must go now; the Tower Lord has given me a task! Thank you!”

Under the leadership of Millie Cléang, the Chief Mage of the Gray Magic Tower, the magic book ‘Principia’ was distributed to the tower. The mages of the Gray Magic Tower began to read Principia with a mix of curiosity and puzzlement. The idea of a magic book written by a novelist was too hard to grasp.

Because of this, they approached the book with a light heart.

“Kyaaah─!”

“The Chief Mage has brought a devil’s book!”

“This knowledge─, this knowledge─! It’s so beautiful─!”

They eventually lamented in pain after encountering excessive knowledge. If it had been an ordinary person, they would have dismissed Principia as an ‘incomprehensible, esoteric book’ and discarded it….

But they were mages.

They couldn’t create knowledge out of thin air, but they could at least draw out the ‘possibility of understanding’ the knowledge that existed before them. Constantly enhancing their magical influence by strengthening their potential as mages was the foundation of all magic.

However, to enhance a certain ‘potential’ also meant narrowing the range of possibilities.

All mages erased the option of ‘not pursuing magic,’ binding themselves to their magic.

The mages of the White Magic Tower were plagued by wanderlust all their lives, and the mages of the Blue Magic Tower suffered from an obsession with uniformity and order.

And the mages of the Gray Magic Tower.

“Is this… magic…? Ah, the fabric of the world is unraveling….”

“All laws can be defined by mathematics…? Even the movements of the celestial spheres are merely automatic machines moving according to mathematical truth…? If we apply this to magic…!”

They swore to create new knowledge from existing knowledge.

This included the application of knowledge, proofs, derivation of new formulas, fusion with other disciplines, engineering design, and practical methodologies.

Perfectly understanding one piece of knowledge and deriving new knowledge from it was the oath of the Gray Magic Tower, which held ‘causality’ as its truth.

Using the knowledge and methodologies defined in Principia, the mages restructured, deconstructed, and reinterpreted existing engineering designs and blueprints.

This ‘magical truth’ soon led to the materialization of phenomena.

Finally.

“Ahhh! We finally succeeded in long-distance flight with the ‘airplane’! We flew over the previous crash points dozens of times without a single crash!”

They succeeded in surpassing the ‘magical boundaries’ that had been hindering existing engineering advancements.

Once they succeeded, the rest was simple. Mass-produce standardized aircraft, establish flight routes, and undergo multiple test flights to achieve statistical stabilization.

This was a very familiar process for the Gray Magic Tower, which could be considered a group of engineers.

“Record the flight data! Communication mage! Send the news to the White Magic Tower! Tell them we’ve achieved flight beyond the limits of previous experiments and are establishing flight routes!”

“There’s no one at the White Magic Tower right now!”

“Where the hell did they all go?!”

“I heard they couldn’t wait for the oceangoing ship to be completed and left southward in canoes?!”

Of course, there were minor issues. Like the mages of the White Magic Tower attempting to cross the ocean in canoes after their wanderlust was triggered by reading ‘The Adventures of the Boastful Duke.’

While the Gray Magic Tower specialized in mechanical design, they still needed the help of other towers for other fields.

For an airplane to fly properly, they needed the Blue Magic Tower’s assistance with mass production and standardization, and they had to work with the White Magic Tower to create flight routes.

Only after minimizing the chances of a crash to the extreme could they truly say the airplane was ‘completed.’

Magic was unforgiving in allowing anything to succeed by ‘chance’ before it was perfected, but once completed, it was more generous than any coincidence.

Now, ‘airplanes’ were added to the history of magic.

“Heh heh, Author…. Would you like to try flying it…?”

“No, I’ll pass.”

“Flying is so much fun….”

“The scenery from the last test flight is still flashing before my eyes….”

* * *

The Gray Magic Tower began stabilizing various inventions that had previously been halted due to ‘magical constraints.’ Airplanes, submarines, steamships…. Civilization, which had been stagnating due to magical reasons, started moving forward again, and at an astonishingly fast pace.

Among these advancements, the most noticeable progress was in transportation.

“Is it true that this submarine can explore under the ice of the North Sea?!”

“Let’s go to the center of the world! The equator! Seeing the World Tree with my own eyes would be worth any amount of gold!”

Various adventure novels and ‘The Adventures of the Boastful Duke’ spurred endless resources into the development of transportation.

Everyone in this world wanted to see the hidden wonders of this planet with their own eyes.

The Arctic, the oceans, jungles, deserts…. Places once considered inaccessible were being explored one by one. Numerous travelogues and adventure stories were published simultaneously by various publishers and sold out quickly.

Curiosity about the unknown, passion for exploration, and fear of the grand and overwhelming nature…. People of this world could now imagine the ‘universe’ in a more concrete and realistic way. Their perception of the ‘worldview’ expanded.

I planned to nudge that imagination towards a more ‘literary’ direction.

“Since we have the novels of Jules Verne, we should also have those of Herbert George Wells….”

With the power of the science fiction genre.