“Göttingen? It’s difficult if you change your destination so suddenly, sir.”
“I’m in a hurry. Please. I’ll pay extra, so hurry.”
“Understood.”
Andrew Wiles let out a sigh of relief.
This year’s ICM had been an exceedingly satisfying festival for him.
‘To think he’d grown so well.’
He had thought the boy was different from the very beginning.
Before he was even seven, he had already been wrestling with a difficult problem. Even if it hadn’t been Seoha, Wiles believed that a truly outstanding student might take interest at an early age.
But to continue researching it for seven years and ultimately solve it? That was something that could only barely be explained by assuming he possessed a talent on the level of Pascal or Gauss.
From then on, Andrew had kept his eye on Seoha.
In this world, there were countless geniuses who withered away because of the wrong environment or poor choices. If Seoha ever showed any sign of that, Andrew had even considered bringing him to England and personally supporting him.
‘He must have had an excellent adviser.’
But that was not all.
In the age of capitalism, mathematics could never be called an attractive discipline. The reality was that even the greatest mathematicians did not receive compensation worthy of them.
So talent alone could never carry one to the end of this path.
A mathematician needed a noble soul.
The strength to endure alone through years no one recognized, the stubbornness to never turn one’s head even when the world pointed elsewhere.
He knew that better than anyone.
During the seven years he had devoted himself to Fermat’s Last Theorem, almost no one around him had understood him.
‘The ultimate mathematician.’
If God had shaped a being solely for mathematics, would it look like this?
A person born with both supreme talent and soul. Had he ever seen such a human being in his life? The superhuman of mathematics he had only vaguely imagined while reading biographies of Gauss—Andrew saw that image in Seoha.
‘I had the soul, but not the talent.’
If he were to tell someone else such thoughts, he might be accused of being a fraud.
But to him, it was true.
He had solved Fermat at the age of forty-one. As a result, he could not receive the Fields Medal. Later, he had only received a silver medal in the form of a special award.
After that, he had received the Abel Prize and the Wolf Prize, two of the three great prizes of the mathematical world, but he had achieved nothing further. His was a talent that could not dare approach Gauss or Euler. But Seoha was different.
“Ah! Göttingen is going to become…”
Suddenly, the thought occurred to him.
What if the Riemann Hypothesis were proven at a university that mathematicians still visited as if on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land?
“It would have been nice if it had been Oxford.”
It was a murmur that would have made Whitman and Brenner fly into a rage, pointing fingers at him, had they heard it.
***
Two hours later, the Göttingen campus had turned into something resembling a marketplace.
Cars filled the parking lot, and scholars who normally conducted themselves with dignity had gathered in front of the auditorium with their ties loosened.
“You’re saying we can’t go in? Does that make any sense? This is our university!”
“Don’t worry. I’m telling you, we’ll just watch quietly.”
Theo, Sri, and Ben stood before the oak doors with stiff expressions. Behind them, Cecilia and Sujeong stood with their arms crossed, their faces stubborn, as though joining in their resolve.
Sujeong felt as if her heart would burst. Suddenly, the team members’ phones had started ringing like mad, and messages asking for confirmation had poured in.
“We have to stop them, now!”
The moment Theo saw the messages, he had bolted out.
The men had followed him, and then Sujeong and Cecilia, unable to simply stand by, had joined as well, leading to the current situation.
“Now listen, I’m Meyer. I’m a professor at this university. I don’t know the details, but this isn’t something that will be solved by you standing here like this.”
He beat his chest in frustration, but the team members did not budge.
They had no other intention. They simply thought they could not allow anyone to disturb Seoha.
“I’m sorry. Today may be an extremely important moment for humanity. I promise we’ll explain everything properly afterward.”
“Th-that’s right. He’s going to announce it anyway, so couldn’t you just read the paper after everything is over?”
The professors’ lips trembled.
Inside, a fog that had lasted for two whole centuries was being lifted. And they were being told to skip the process and only look at the result? It was like telling painters not to watch da Vinci paint The Last Supper.
‘Buy the art book when it comes out later.’
There was no way such persuasion would work.
Just then, a silver-haired gentleman slowly stepped out through the crowd. It was Andrew Wiles. At his appearance, the scene filled with raised voices fell silent in an instant.
As a legend of the mathematical world appeared, even the excited professors showed him courtesy and made way.
“I fully understand how you feel. But if today is the day I believe it to be, please let us in.”
Theo’s eyes wavered violently.
“We simply want to witness the moment truth is born. That moment will surely become a source of brilliant inspiration to many. It will be good for the mathematical world as well.
I will guarantee it. If there is anyone so senseless as to disturb Seoha’s concentration, I will drag them out myself. Everyone will only watch without so much as making a sound. Isn’t that right, everyone?”
At Andrew’s words, the scholars around him nodded eagerly.
“That’s right!”
“Of course.”
Theo bit his lip. Just as he was about to speak, a familiar voice came from behind him.
“Professor Andrew, you had better keep what you just said.”
Everyone’s eyes turned.
Dean Whitman, who seemed to have rushed over in haste, was gasping for breath. His shirt collar was soaked with sweat and drooping limply.
“Theodore, open the door. Everyone feels the same desire to become a witness to the scene of history.”
Now, there was no stopping it.
Theo nodded with a stiff expression.
Creeeak—
The heavy oak doors slowly opened.
The mathematicians there were seized by the illusion that the doors of a sacred temple were opening.
No one hurried. The professors who had been shouting until a moment ago only glanced at one another.
“Then I’ll go first. Excuse me.”
Andrew straightened his tie and buttoned his jacket.
Step.
Step.
Because he had come in such haste, his appearance was a mess.
The scholars unconsciously adjusted their clothing. They did not know why, but they felt they had to show proper respect.
When they passed through the corridor and entered the lecture hall, the scene they had seen in the photograph appeared before them.
Three enormous blackboards.
One of them was already completely filled.
“Hm.”
Like a diligent student, Andrew sat at the desk in the very front. The professors then began filling the seats behind him.
Scratch, scratch.
Seoha’s hand did not stop.
What he had to face was the monster that had ruined more mathematicians than any other in history. He had no room to scatter his nerves.
He could see that something was happening. But that information merely formed on his retina like scenery, then vanished; it did not reach the realm of thought.
Whitman took a seat in the back row.
He placed his hands neatly on his knees and pressed his lips together. The corners of his eyes were moist.
Sujeong crouched down by the aisle in the very back row and hugged her knees. Feeling as if tears might spill out, she looked up at the ceiling. Even so, she could not contain the overwhelming emotions rising within her.
Theo looked around.
Before he knew it, the six-hundred-seat lecture hall was filled with professors. All of them were staring at the blackboard without taking their eyes off it for even a moment. A few took paper and pens from their bags and began writing down the equations.
Scratch, scratch.
The second blackboard began to fill.
***
“What on earth…”
Sri’s mouth fell open.
The taxi chaos on the first night had only been the beginning. Starting with the mathematicians who had departed from Hanover, scholars using flights began pouring into Göttingen from the next day onward.
“It’s a relief Theo is here.”
If it had been him, he would not have been able to stop Seoha.
He thought back to what had happened yesterday.
“Haa, haa.”
Seoha’s breathing was rough.
His shirt was a mess with white powder, and because of the chalk soaked with moisture, his fingertips had split and begun to bleed. But Seoha did not stop. Everyone had been so overwhelmed by the sight of him writing equations as if possessed that no one dared step forward.
“Seoha.”
Theo took hold of his arm.
Seoha looked at him with eyes full of confusion.
“You need to rest now. If you can’t do that, then let’s stop.”
“……”
Silence flowed.
After a long while, Seoha nodded with a reluctant expression.
That was the signal.
Ben brought a chair and placed it behind him. Sujeong took out disinfectant and gauze and treated his hands. When Sri opened the cap and handed him a water bottle, Seoha took it and gulped it down.
It was swift treatment, as though they had agreed on it beforehand.
Ding—
Cecilia opened her phone to check a message, then smiled brightly.
“I booked a hotel right in front. Go now, wash up, and sleep. I’ve prepared food too.”
The accommodations nearby had all been fully booked, but the Ashleys’ capable butler had managed it.
“…Thank you, everyone.”
He felt ashamed.
Unable to look them directly in the eye, Seoha lowered his head.
Murmur, murmur—
When Seoha left for rest and a meal, Göttingen instantly turned into a venue for collective review. To prevent possible damage, Theo stretched a red cord around the blackboards like a police line.
“Andrew, how does it look to you? Do you think it can really be solved?”
“We can’t know anything yet. He’s only just moved past the starting phase.”
“Is there nowhere to get coffee here? Caffeine!”
“Is this a dream? To think something like this would happen… Hilbert will rise from his grave.”
“Now, everyone, let’s organize our notes. If there are parts that are hard to understand, let’s discuss them and resolve them together. We can’t fail to keep up with Seoha’s pace when he comes back!”
Elderly scholars sat down on the floor like undergraduates and studied the formulas.
Sri could hardly come to his senses at that unreal sight.
And when he came outside, the scene that appeared before him was this.
The lawn in front of the auditorium had transformed into an enormous campsite.
“O Goddess Namagiri! What on earth am I looking at right now?”
Göttingen was a small city of one hundred thousand people. It had no facilities capable of accommodating the scholars flooding in.
Considering the gravity of the matter, President Brenner had specially allowed eating on campus.
From specialized mountaineering tents to crude items that seemed to have been hastily procured from nearby supermarkets, tents of every color stood packed around the area.
There, professors were engaged in heated debate while exposed to the cold dew.
The coffee and snacks Ben and Sujeong had prepared had long since run out. Instead, the restaurants in downtown Göttingen, having unexpectedly hit a boom, were diligently making and delivering sandwiches and hot soup.
Even the cafeteria, which had been closed for vacation, was already preparing to open for business.
“About line 14 there—I kept failing to understand it, but it wasn’t that he skipped over the proof of topological continuity. If you twist this part like this…”
“Professor, how far have you understood?”
“Ahem. Well… almost all of it. There are a few parts I’m slightly lacking on, but I’ll be able to resolve them quickly.”
Even while standing in line to receive food, the scholars did not let go of their notebooks.
Click!
Someone took a picture of the scene and posted it on Reddit.
[Homeless People at the University of Göttingen in Real Time]
The post instantly received tens of thousands of upvotes and spread across the world.