During the ICM, Fields Medal recipients are given several official engagements.
Commemorative interviews with the laureates, panel discussions, meetings with young mathematicians from various countries. Seoha faithfully appeared at every one of them and fulfilled the duties assigned to him.
Hanover New Town Hall.
It was one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe. Completed in 1913, the ground was so wet that 6,026 beech piles had been driven into the foundation to support the weight of the structure.
“It’s an incredible building.”
“It’s one of Germany’s prides.”
At Seoha’s admiration, the guide smiled with satisfaction.
Its exterior looked like a medieval castle, yet it housed the world’s only arched elevator. Elevators usually rise vertically, but the one in Hanover New Town Hall ascended along the curve of the dome, bending upward at a seventeen-degree angle.
Whirrr—
‘Is this the optimal solution under geometric constraints?’
The Germans had built this with technology from over a century ago.
While he was thinking about the conditions needed to distribute the elevator’s load and maintain equilibrium, they arrived at the banquet hall.
Clap, clap, clap!
The moment Seoha, the protagonist of the evening, entered the hall, applause poured in from all sides.
Elders of the mathematical community, MIT personnel including Dean Whitman, the members of Team Apex, the President of Germany and the President of the International Mathematical Union, as well as past Fields Medalists, all appeared with their own medals hanging around their necks.
The president clasped Seoha’s hand and offered sincere praise.
“To think the frontier of human intellect could be so young… It’s moving. I hope you will continue to produce astonishing achievements in the future.”
“Thank you.”
Click.
Click.
As the two shook hands, flashes burst from every direction.
Reporters dispatched not only from Korea but from all over the world roamed the venue. The gentle melody of a string quartet flowed through the hall. Waiters dressed in tuxedos moved busily, carrying German Riesling wine and canapés.
“Sujeong! That’s wine. You’re not allowed to drink.”
In the United States, one could drink alcohol from the age of twenty-one. But this was Germany.
At Theo’s attempt to stop her, Sujeong stuck out her tongue.
“In Germany, you can drink at sixteen, you know? Don’t you know the principle of territoriality?”
“These canapés are seriously delicious. They have caviar on them. This is your first time having caviar too, right, Ben?”
“I get it. It’s embarrassing, so please be quiet…”
Amid the pleasant conversations taking place here and there, a white-haired gentleman approached Seoha.
“Seoha, it is an honor to meet you like this.”
He greeted him in fluent English and held out his hand.
“My name is Karl Heinz Brenner. I serve as the president of the University of Göttingen.”
Why would the president of another university…?
Seoha was momentarily flustered, but assumed it was merely a formal greeting.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Yu Seoha.”
“I heard you have a great interest in Riemann. Is that true?”
Seoha looked at him with puzzled eyes.
“That’s right.”
“Then this should be of help.”
He took a card from inside his jacket and placed it in Seoha’s hand. It was an elegant yet weighty card. On its surface, the image of Athena, goddess of wisdom, was engraved in gold leaf.
“Our university library houses the Riemann Archive. The materials he left behind in his lifetime are preserved there as they were. Including the paper in which he proposed that famous hypothesis.
Because they are historical materials, even professors need permission to view them. But if you have that card, it’s a different story. It is an access pass that allows entry to every area of the university.”
At Seoha’s surprised expression, he looked pleased.
“Furthermore, our university still has the observatory where Gauss spent his life, preserved in its original form. Hilbert is buried in Göttingen City Cemetery. His gravestone is engraved with the famous phrase he spoke at the Paris Congress.”
Seoha swallowed, looking as if he had been bewitched.
“Göttingen is the home and sacred ground of mathematics. Gödel’s doctoral dissertation, presented at our university, was a masterpiece. After all, it was the theory that changed the history of mathematics—the incompleteness theorem.
Minkowski, Ackermann, Max Born, Felix Klein, Emmy Noether, von Neumann, Edmund Landau. All of them were geniuses who passed through Göttingen. It is, truly, the history of modern and contemporary mathematics itself, is it not? One could say it is the university with the dignity most befitting your doctoral dissertation, Seoha.”
Step, step.
“How shameless of you, to so readily speak the names of mathematicians you drove out with your own hands.”
At the cold voice that came from behind him, President Brenner’s complexion stiffened.
“Whitman.”
“I don’t want to bring up a tragic past, but I simply can’t hold back. Edmund was my teacher’s teacher. A master of number theory, and he was humiliated by students in his own lecture hall and driven out.”
Thud!
He roughly set his champagne glass down on the table.
“After expelling all of them, the Nazi Minister of Education asked Hilbert, didn’t he? Whether the mathematics department had become a little cleaner now that the Jews had been driven out.”
As if he knew the story, Brenner’s face flushed red.
“They say Hilbert answered like this. That there was no longer any mathematics in Göttingen.”
“You are being rude.”
“The rude one is you. How dare you try to take Seoha! Do you have any idea what he means to MIT?”
The two old men’s momentum clashed tautly.
While the two were engaged in their verbal battle, Seoha quietly withdrew and slipped out of the hall.
‘Lucky!’
Seoha stroked the card he had tucked into his jacket through the fabric.
He had been at a loss as to where to begin, and this was perfect timing.
On the way back to the hotel, Seoha was lost in thought in the car.
After entering his room and pacing for a long while, he called the team members together as if he had made up his mind. They had come in casually, but seeing Seoha’s firm expression, they sensed that something was unusual.
Rustle.
Everyone sat down on the floor without a sound. After a brief silence, Seoha opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry, but after the closing ceremony, would you come with me to Göttingen?”
It was different from his days at the gifted high school.
They had worked hard together for a long time. They had the right to witness the proof.
Theo was the first to understand the situation.
“You’re finally ready?”
Nod.
Theo did not ask Seoha why he would not proceed in the laboratory at MIT. The Seoha he knew had an emotional side when it came to mathematics.
‘There may be inspiration that only comes here.’
“Wow! I’ve got goosebumps…”
Sri roughly rubbed his arms.
“I thought it wouldn’t be long, but I didn’t expect you to solve it in this faraway land.”
“Have you decided on the place?”
“W-will there be anything I can do?”
Sujeong, Cecilia, and Ben looked at Seoha with tense faces.
Seoha took out the golden card and showed it to them.
“Good. Leave the preparations to us.”
Theo spoke with a chilly expression.
This was perhaps a historical duty given to him. He felt the illusion that the goddess drawn on the card was smiling.
“Thank you.”
The next day, under Theo’s command, the team began to move.
“First, we assess the site.”
Seoha wanted to carry out the proof without any commotion.
Sri opened his laptop. A map of the University of Göttingen campus appeared on the screen.
“What about lecture halls?”
“There are a few large lecture halls built in the early twentieth century. Among them, this one would be the best.”
Auditorium Maximum, a large tiered lecture hall with a capacity of six hundred.
It was a space where Riemann and Hilbert had lectured. As it happened to be vacation, there would hardly be anyone visiting.
“Cecilia, if any problems arise, could we ask you to handle the local response?”
“Of course.”
Even outside Britain, the power of the Ashley family remained intact.
“Ben and Sujeong, please handle supplies. We don’t know how many days this will take. Get the things Seoha is most familiar with.”
“Got it.”
“That’s what I can do best.”
Theo nodded as he looked at the team members.
“It will definitely become a historic site. I’ll be in charge of Seoha’s health and the records.”
Theo rented a luxury van.
Inside it, the supplies Sujeong and Ben brought were stacked neatly. Hagoromo chalk, A3 paper, spare clothes, various snacks Seoha liked, a CD player, and so on.
Everyone wore solemn expressions, as though they were a special forces unit heading out on an operation.
“It won’t do us any good to draw people’s attention. Let’s keep movement to a minimum. We may have to eat and sleep in the lecture hall.”
The top priority was to make sure Seoha’s concentration was not broken. Theo intended to adjust everything according to his wishes.
Sujeong said with an expectant look.
“My heart’s pounding.”
“We’re not going camping!”
“Says the person who bought a tent and sleeping bags in the back?”
The ICM closing ceremony ended without incident.
Seoha maintained his composure in front of people until the very end.
Vroooom—
It was an hour and a half by car to Göttingen.
The car was quiet as it drove down the road. Outside the window, the green plains of northern Germany stretched endlessly. Beneath the gloomy sky, wheat fields and birch forests appeared in alternation.
Seoha sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed.
‘Has he already started?’
Theo glanced at Seoha. His fingers were moving minutely on his knees.
The car entered the city of Göttingen.
Low modern buildings, students on bicycles, moss clinging to stone walls.
“Huh? Look at that.”
Sujeong said, looking out the window.
[Gauss Street]
[Riemann Street]
[Dirichlet Square]
It made them feel anew that they had come to a place of history.
By the time they arrived on campus, it was evening.
The street had grown dim. Cecilia got out of the car and walked toward the building. She was going to meet the administrator they had contacted in advance.
Ben and Sujeong began taking luggage out of the trunk.
“You okay?”
Theo asked in a low voice.
“Yes. I want to start as soon as possible.”
Water was overflowing.
Seoha felt he could no longer control his heart.
“It’s done!”
Cecilia smiled with the golden card slipped over her finger.
Creak—
Auditorium Maximum.
When they opened the heavy oak door, cool air and the scent of time washed over them. Chalk dust, the old floor, traces of the space where the intellects of the century had lingered.
Seoha stood in the corridor and looked ahead.
It was the place he had seen in his dream. Without a doubt, he had been standing there up ahead. As though he had been waiting for a very long time.
“Riemann.”
When he entered the place Riemann guided him toward, a vast lecture hall unfolded.
A massive blackboard spanning three sides, and hundreds of seats spreading out in a semicircle.
Step, step.
Seoha slowly descended the stairs.
No one followed him.
He stood at the lectern and looked ahead.
The countless great scholars who had lectured here. When he closed his eyes, the scenes of history he had only imagined through books were vividly drawn in his mind.
A chill ran through him.
Ducky was rejoicing.
It was shouting for him to hurry and release it.
‘Yeah. I’ll praise you. For you, you held out for a long time.’
Seoha took a deep breath, then murmured softly.
“Let’s begin, Ducky.”
Ducky laughed. Silently, with its entire body.
Seoha’s pupils contracted. Like a dam collapsing, the desire he had suppressed burst forth all at once. Tens of thousands of formulas and geometric fragments rose up and circled the auditorium.
His field of vision narrowed.
Every sense unnecessary to the proof was cut off.
All he could see was the blackboard. It was a thrill of liberation he had not felt in a very long time.
“So this is the real Seoha…”
“Oh, my God.”
The team members murmured as they stood in a daze.
It was on a completely different level from the state of extreme focus he showed from time to time. Perhaps, right now, even basic communication with him might be impossible.
Theo instinctively knew that this was a dangerous state.
‘Seoha, you’re okay, right?’
On the way here, Seoha had repeatedly made him promise not to worry even if he seemed unfamiliar. For now, all he could do was believe in him.
* * *
The lights of the auditorium showed no sign of going out deep into the night.
Sven, a night guard patrolling the campus, tilted his head at the light spilling out from the second floor. Due to a mistake, the situation had not been relayed to him.
“Who is that?”
He carefully opened the door and entered.
Creak—
“My God.”
The scene unfolding before his eyes evoked a bizarre yet sacred feeling.
One of the three enormous blackboards was filled with white formulas. A boy in a shirt was writing something as if possessed.
Around him were a tent and sleeping bags, and unidentified foreigners watching him with solemn expressions.
Tap, tap.
They were recording something using cameras and laptops.
Sven instinctively realized that this was something serious.
Click!
With trembling hands, he took out his phone and photographed the scene. Then he sent a message to Professor Meyer of the mathematics department, with whom he was on friendly terms.
—Professor, someone is inside the auditorium. He’s writing a whole bunch of strange formulas. Do you happen to know who this is?
A short while later, a reply came back.
—Do nothing and stay exactly where you are!
Professor Meyer, who had been at an after-party following the ICM closing ceremony, nearly fell out of his chair when he saw the photo.
The person holding the chalk was undoubtedly Seoha. And what he was writing right now was something related to the Riemann zeta function.
He hurriedly shared it with other mathematicians.
[Urgent! It appears Yu Seoha is currently solving the Riemann Hypothesis in Göttingen.]
—Photo attached
The message spread.
Ding!
Ding!
Mathematicians from all over the world, heading home from Hanover or on their way to airports and train stations, checked it at the same time.
Their surprise lasted only a moment. Then chaos began.
“Cancel my train ticket. Taxi!”
“Stop! Stop the car. No, I know it’s difficult, but I need to get out right now!”
“Turn the car around! To Göttingen! Hurry!”
Thousands of cars driving along the Autobahn changed direction all at once, as if they had made an appointment.