It was a vast and dark mental image. A night in the North Sea where even the wind slept. The earth, where even the clouds had coldly settled, was flawlessly clear. On sleepless nights, people spent their time looking up at the sky. They reached out toward the ungraspable heavens and counted the stars.
"Professor! Watch out!"
However, gazing only at what is too far away makes one blind to what lies at their feet. Compared to that transparent and expansive sky, this earth is uneven and rugged. One misstep and you fall into a pit.
"I told you to watch where you're walking. You who pierced through the movements of that sky and stars couldn't even see your own feet—what kind of mishap is this?"
He could hear his assistant cackling in mockery. The professor, embarrassed and flustered, made excuses. He said he was too busy piercing through the vast and important movements of celestial bodies to have time to check his feet. And that the truth of those celestial bodies was far more important than some trifling pit.
[But in the end, I too was held back by the secular world.]
Inside 'Arrogance'. The Demon God of Universal Gravitation, Principia, conveyed his mental image as if exhausted.
The great scholar Principia. He was a member of the Imperial Academy, and a scholar renowned enough to be invited by the marquis to give lectures. His research on light even earned him a request for an audience with the Saint, so his fame was high across the entire continent. Even ordinary people felt proud hearing the name Principia.
Even he could not avoid the flow of the times.
The alchemy that destroyed the distant Jin Kingdom. With new knowledge ahead, people were at a loss. In particular, the commercial nation of the Marquisate of Marigold had to respond faster than anyone.
The Marquisate of Marigold appointed him, a distinguished scholar, as the director of the mint and sought ways to utilize alchemy. And Principia, an outstanding scholar, found a method far too quickly.
The Marquisate of Marigold utilized alchemy before anyone else and seized greater wealth than any other nation.
And in return, it soon became the enemy of the entire continent.
[No matter how I thought about it, currency reflecting the alchemical intrinsic value was the easiest and best method. But the production speed of alchemical currency was too slow, so my homeland ultimately chose gold coins made from fake gold.]
The burning mint. Shredded banknotes fluttered into the empty air. People wielding scythes and farming tools rioted, burning alchemists and merchants along with the money.
[Director of the Mint. They said it was a sinecure only old men in the back rooms took. They must have known from the start that I was devoting myself to alchemy. I didn't reveal the fake gold alchemical formula for nothing. Because of that, I became a hunted man unable to even make excuses.]
Principia tossed an apple upward and caught it again. The bright red apple fell slowly following gravity. Thud. The moment the apple was caught, the mental image the Demon God showed changed again.
It was the land of the Magic Federation. A land where starlight twinkled in the expansive sky, empty but therefore with all the more room to fill.
[Still, I barely managed to escape through various routes, thinking I might start a new life here.]
But an army invaded that very land. Tens of thousands of soldiers ransacked this pitiful and frail land, claiming they would hunt and kill alchemists.
[The Empire and the marquisates were drunk on the massive consumption economy created by war. So they invaded this insignificant land. For that reason alone—war.]
"Indeed. Because of the debased gold, the world overflowed with currency, and that led to overproduction of goods. The only way to incinerate that in a short time would be war."
[But that's the same as debased gold currency. A foolish method that would soon be found out.]
Principia wore an expression of contempt as he watched those soldiers and the policymakers beyond them.
[There is no war solely for consumption. If they truly needed consumption, they would have thrown it into a fire pit. A war without guaranteed enemies, territory, victory, or spoils is meaningless. So the Empire created an enemy.]
That was only natural. Even if it was a war of necessity, it was still war. It could only be waged with proper compensation and achievement.
[Not satisfied even after destroying my homeland, they invaded even this weak and pitiful land. I was held back again. When I barely had enough time to seek the truth as it was, I was calculating meteor orbits. How useless.]
It was a world where knowledge directly became power. They did not leave Principia alone, who was well-versed in both alchemy and magic. The filthy secular world kept grabbing at his ankles.
[I truly cannot understand human stupidity. They must know that I drop meteors. But they apparently don't realize that it will fall on their own heads. Why don't they stop even after seeing that power? I gave them sufficient warning.]
A sigh escaped the Demon God's lips.
Principia did drop meteors on the enemy army, but he dropped only as much as necessary, only where necessary. It was a very calm, rational, and at the same time considerate attack. If he hadn't cared about casualties, he would have simply annihilated the army.
This was the Demon God's consideration and mercy.
But humans failed to realize even that and kept clinging to him.
[And the Gold Marquis... To think that the one I once served and respected was such a fool. That was my greatest miscalculation.]
The Gold Marquis who stabbed Saint Rene at the end and even killed Principia. Principia, who died without understanding why, must have found it utterly absurd. He could neither comprehend that madness nor wish to.
[I'm sick of the secular world. Even if I'm understood by no one. I'd rather ascend to that universe and be alone.]
Principia let the apple in his hand drop and muttered weakly. Looking at him who had finished his grumbling, I asked.
"You suffered in the secular world and felt great disappointment. For someone betrayed even in your final moments, I thought it might be possible that you would drop meteors and destroy this land."
An outstanding Demon God disappointed in the human world attempts to destroy the lower realm. I thought such a scenario was also a possibility. The end Principia and Saint Rene met was that miserable.
"But thinking about it. A meteor never fell on the mainland, did it? They say 'Arrogance' will fall and whatnot, but it didn't fall even after you died."
If he had died, control should have been lost at that moment. The meteors should have struck the entire Empire and marquisates, as the Gold Marquis intended. But no such thing happened.
"Even after dying, you stopped the meteor's fall. Didn't you?"
There was only one reason. Because the Demon God, even after death, was stopping the meteor's fall.
Principia spoke to me with a still weary face.
[Because I decided to.]
"Decided with whom?"
[Bishop Rene.]
Plop. The apple fell once more, and this time the mental image of when Principia and Saint Rene last met came to mind.
[She persuaded me, and I agreed with her judgment. Then I should follow it.]
"But you died."
[That was an unavoidable circumstance, not grounds to revise my judgment.]
He died because he let his guard down. His head fell to the ground. But a Demon God is inscribed into the world. Even right before death, his power and mental image remain as an axis of the world.
[There are countless people in the world. Perhaps, even just one of them might discover the existence of ether. Someone with the talent to learn from my research and develop it further might appear. Since I couldn't deny the possibility Bishop Rene spoke of, I decided to follow her judgment.]
Principia kept his promise even as he was dying. Far away, he stopped the meteor that had begun to fall and returned it to its original orbit.
[Then someday. Someone will discover the existence of ether. Academia will put that person on the floating fortress and send them here. To prove that Bishop Rene's judgment and my waiting were not wrong.]
"Academia?"
That's the Demon King.
The Demon King continuously training magicians, going around asking if there was anything absolute, operating the floating fortress—it all had a certain consistency.
Perhaps his attempt to drop 'Arrogance' had nothing to do with the world's destruction or anything like that...?
[By any chance. Are you the human who found that answer?]
Principia asked me. He didn't seem to be expecting much. Should I tell him or not? After pondering for a moment, I shook my head.
"No. I cannot give you that answer. Because I already read it."
[If you read it, that means you know the answer.]
"Yes. I ended up finding out. Here, while meeting you."
But it's a little funny. Saint Rene. You desperately agonized and studied. You discovered a clue to ether, proved that even a Demon God isn't perfect, and told them to reconsider that judgment.
"Because you already found the fact that ether doesn't exist, didn't you?"
The Demon God had already found the answer.
"Ether is an unknown substance that fills the world like water. If ether exists, it means absolute space and absolute time exist. Because everything would be measured against ether as the standard."
The Demon King kept saying. That there is no absolute.
That wasn't some worn-out phrase telling one to consider differences in perspective. It was purely an academic statement.
"But ether doesn't exist. There is no absolute standard. All laws are equal for all observers. In other words. This is the meaning of there being no absolute."
[...The principle of relativity. That's what we called it.]
So this was a test. A problem presented on the earth by a genius who stood alone more than a hundred years ahead of his era.
Beyond the movement of objects, the background that allowed interference even with space and time lay there.
"Why didn't you tell Saint Rene? That you had already discovered ether doesn't exist?"
Actually, there was no need to yield to Saint Rene's persuasion. He had already found the correct answer. Honestly speaking, even if they brought anyone from that era, they wouldn't have surpassed the Demon God.
But the Demon God decided to stop. The reason was.
Principia, whose true thoughts had been discovered, let out an awkward sigh.
[She would have been embarrassed.]