Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins

Although I spent three years as a student at the Federal University of Magic, I had only two people I could call close friends.

I hadn’t had opportunities to socialize with peers since my time in the Empire.

Occasionally, Susan and a few others would give me pitying looks, but I didn’t mind because even having two friends was quite encouraging for me.

Anyway, the female friend was planning to continue her undergraduate studies, becoming a 4th-year student this year.

As for the male friend…

That is, Werner, like me, had graduated early and was now standing before my eyes.

Naturally, he had joined a research lab focused on experimental magic.

He opened the door wide and gestured to me.

“Don’t just stand there, come in. We’re still in the midst of preparations.”

“Can I come in? It’s someone else’s research lab.”

“It’s too late to back out now.”

Well, that’s true.

After all, I was the one who asked Werner to experimentally verify my research topic.

“…Excuse me.”

I bowed my head to the air and stepped into the lab. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

It was a lab neatly painted in white and light green. 

It felt somewhat empty, perhaps for the flexible installation of experimental equipment, but the wires attached to the equipment on the desk were sprawled out as if refusing to allow that sense of emptiness.

Werner stood alone at the center of this chaos, maintaining the equipment.

There was an apparatus that looked like various things installed inside a glass tube.

Werner spoke while turning a screwdriver.

“Wait about 30 minutes. I’m almost done, but it takes time since it needs to be handled precisely.”

“What exactly is that apparatus?”

“It’s a slightly modified Crookes tube *1. It maintains a vacuum inside the glass tube, and I inserted a thin metal foil. It’s perfect for measuring the photo-corpuscle effect *2.“

“Ooh.”

I didn’t hide my admiration.

All I had given Werner was a copy of the paper and a letter with my requests, and he had created something like this with just that?

“That’s amazing.”

“I’ve spent three years on this, it would be troublesome if I couldn’t do this much. But what’s really amazing is your paper.”

“My paper?”

“Yes. The particulate nature of light!”

Werner shouted, pausing his screwdriver work.

“It was an experiment I had vowed to do someday. I didn’t expect to do it so soon. It’s thanks to you, Eugene.”

“…I’m the one who should be thankful.”

I smiled awkwardly and scratched my cheek.

Professor Müller didn’t give lengthy reasons when rejecting my paper.

That’s all he said.

He’s not the kind of person to say such things without reason.

Another professor might have rejected it without reason to maintain their authority, but Professor Müller wouldn’t do that. 

‘Convince.’ I could guess why he used that word.

I crossed my arms, leaned against the lab wall, and said:

“The probability of a prestigious journal like ‘Annals of Magic Studies’ accepting a paper from a novice theoretical wizard without experimental evidence was low. Thanks to you, I’m saved.”

“Haha! That’s right. Moreover, this challenges the existing established theory. Light has long been concluded to be a wave, and here we are proving its particle nature. It’s almost like shaking the very foundation of polarity magic studies.” [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Werner was right.

The polarity magic studies built by Benjamin and Klaus Müller had almost perfectly proven that light is a wave.

Polarity magic studies, which had become an established field without refutation for decades, and…

…the hypothesis of a gray-haired scholar who had just entered the doctoral program two months ago…

There was an extreme difference in credibility between the two.

It was obvious which side the journal reviewers would favor.

“But.”

Werner smiled more deeply as he continued working.

“If we’re right, we can flatten the noses of those stuck-up old fogies.”

“…Huh.”

“This is exciting. Yes, this is the kind of issue needed to draw me in. As expected, you’re the best theorist that I acknowledge.”

His expression was full of an arrogant smile.

I hardened my expression. If I kept looking at that shameless face, I felt like it might rub off on me…

After 30 minutes passed like this….

Finally, Werner straightened his back, putting the screwdriver back into his belt.

“Maintenance complete. Phew, I’m exhausted.”

“Should we take a break?”

“No. Let’s start the measurements right away. If we delay, the vacuum might deteriorate.”

“Alright.”

We gathered in front of the experimental apparatus.

Werner, still wearing leather gloves, placed his hand on the switch, and I stood beside him, holding a research notebook and pen.

“Starting now. Light irradiation. First one.”

Click—

The switch was turned on.

The set amount of energy and properties of light. Accordingly, the Type II magic [Ray] was automatically cast from the magic battery.

Psst, a very small noise spread.

As soon as Werner closed the switch back, I hurriedly checked the phosphor inside the glass tube.

After checking several times, I concluded.

“…No marks at all.”

The phosphor for detecting and measuring the kinetic energy of cathode rays was clean without a speck.

However, this wasn’t a failure.

It was an intended result.

“When we made the wavelength longer, nothing happened. But we had increased the light intensity… As expected, light intensity and cathode ray emission are unrelated.”

“Good. Then let’s continue with the measurements.”

“Yes. The core of the paper’s content is the proportional relationship between frequency and kinetic energy. *3“

It’s a good start.

I smiled slightly.

Not to be outdone, Werner laughed even more loudly.

“…Hahaha!”

“What’s so funny?”

“I just think experiments are really enjoyable. Eugene, why did you want to become a theoretical wizard?”

I answered without hesitation.

“Because there’s a theory I want to complete. What about you?”

“Simply because ‘I like experiments.'”

“…Hm?”

Werner, crouching down to adjust the ray, grinned. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

“Magic studies is such a paradoxical field. Unlike mathematics, which builds from the ground up based on axioms, wizards still don’t know what magic power is. We just utilize it.”

Questions poured endlessly from his mouth.

“Is magic power a substance, a wave, or just a force? Why can humans use magic? Why does magic power respond to human will…?”

“……”

“I guarantee, these are not questions that can be answered by theory alone.”

Werner looked at me and said:

“Do you know? They say that Henry Yoris Russell, the scholar who committed suicide, invented the magic battery, which will go down in the history of magic studies, half by accident *4.”

T/N

An image of the Crookes tube mentioned here can be found in the Illustrations Google Drive, linked at the pinned comment on the homepage. The apparatus itself acts like a vacuum tube where electrons flow when voltage is supplied across the positive terminal (the anode) and the negative terminal (the cathode). In this modified Crookes tube, light interacts with the thin aluminum foil covering the small hole. This interaction can cause electrons to be emitted from the cathode if the light has sufficient energy, resulting in a measurable current. (Note that this is considering electron flow and not conventional current, as electrons are emitted from the cathode to the anode).
The photo-corpuscle effect seems to be this world’s parallel of the photoelectric effect in reality. Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for “his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” This effect essentially implies that electrons are emitted when light is shined on metallic surfaces, implying that light is comprised of particles, implying that light is both a particle and a wave.
If this relationship is proven, it supports the photoelectric effect and proves that light is both a particle and a wave, as increasing the frequency implies increasing the number of particles that come into contact with the foil. If the measured voltage (which is essentially kinetic energy or KE) increases with frequency, then it is the number of particles (photons) that come into contact with the foil that determines how much voltage (KE) is produced (and not the intensity), proving that light is both a particle and a wave.
In reality, dynamite was also technically invented half by accident. Before inventing dynamite, Nobel first experimented with the explosive and highly reactive nitroglycerin as an explosive but one day discovered that mixing the said component with diatomaceous earth resulted in more controlled explosions. That combination was later called dynamite and has been sold commercially.