Greetings, Mister Principal

Almost all the people here, most of them were members of Mercury Balance, including Fleming and Kanon.

Kanon shuddered when he heard Reiner's words. Since he had already experienced backlash when he first reviewed the paper, he did not experience the magical fluctuation at this moment, but he was still a little unwilling to accept it. It was the theory that has existed for three hundred years, how could they just disregard it?

He wanted to ask a question. But before Kanon raised his hand, another mage had already stood up.

It was Willas, the Fifth-ring Mage. He got up first when everyone was contemplating and asked in a deep but clear voice.

"I have a question. In the latest issue of Alchemy, Sir Fleming proposed the assumption that the fire element has a negative mass, which explains many problems in the combustion reaction. Will the combustion reaction be divided into many kinds of types, or in other words, only when there is fire elemental can it be considered the 'real' combustion reaction?"

Obviously, he was trying to defend the original combustion theory. The past achievements have influenced many generations of mages. If it was directly overturned, it was not just a matter of textbooks being rewritten. Many achievements and some buried papers would need to be reassessed. Even if it was high-level mages, and they may have to pay the price for the mistakes they had made.

"Sir, I want to use another thing to answer your question."

Hearing what Willas said, Reiner smiled, then said in a confident tone.

"At this moment, in this hall, there is a giant dragon."

As soon as he said this, many people's faces showed surprise.

A dragon! ？ ？

This powerful creature has not appeared in this world for thousands of years. People were currently only able to come into contact with the closest relative to dragons, the lesser dragons. But after countless generations of reproduction, they had become beasts with a trace of the dragon's blood.

Lanchester remained silent, although he didn't know what Reiner meant, he vaguely felt something.

"A dragon? Mr. Ian Gray, where is it?"

Willas felt confused, his question was not answered, but Reiner brought up another weird topic, which made him feel like he had been fooled.

"It's here."

Reiner pointed to the void under the dome of the conference hall, and everyone looked up, but only the exquisite paintings on the ceiling could be seen.

"It's just invisible. We can't detect it with the naked eye." He added.

Willas felt that Reiner was mocking himself even more.

"Then can I touch it?" He asked.

"No, of course not, you can't touch this dragon by any means."

Reiner said lightly, causing a discussion in the conference hall.

"Does it breathe fire? The temperature of the flame can always be measured."

On the contrary, Willas seemed to be aware of something at this time, no longer irritated but proposed various strategies.

"Its flame has no temperature, so it cannot be measured."

Reiner shrugged.

"What about using a magic power detection device, the dragon must have magic power too?"

The two were tit-for-tat. Whenever Willas proposed an observation method, Reiner always uses a reason to avoid this observation method.

"So, this dragon..."

Willas shook his head, seeming to give up the argument.

"It is impossible to observe its existence with any known observation method, or it can use corresponding characteristics to avoid observation. It is there, but we cannot observe it. Did you mean that? Mr. Rainer Ian Gray?"

Hearing Willas' final conclusion, many mages including Kanon had doubts.

If there really was such a dragon that was invisible and intangible, and could not be observed by any means, then what was the difference with no dragon at all?

They looked at Reiner, wondering what he meant by mentioning this.

But Lanchester, who had read Reiner's paper, quickly understood that what Reiner said was the basis for his refutation of the fire element theory.

After a pause, after looking around the stage, Reiner spoke.

"It cannot be proved by any means, but it exists in various theories. Such things are not just this giant dragon, but also the fire element."

Willas was silent.

In the three hundred years since the introduction of the fire element combustion theory, people have been trying to find the pure fire element, but nothing has been achieved. So far, there was no evidence to prove that the fire element actually existed.

Therefore, assumptions such as negative mass were all made to assume the existence of the element of fire. They were bricks and tiles built on top of illusory buildings.

"I think that if we can add an unnecessary explanation to the theory, then we can add a second, a third, or even an infinite number, just like the giant dragon, so no matter how absurd the theory is, it can be established on the assumption of infinity."

Reiner's words aroused everyone's thinking. Indeed, sometimes the more something needed to be explained, the more conditions would be added, and then the more people would not believe its truth.

"Therefore, in our thinking process, if it is not necessary, we should not add assumptions. If we do not add other necessary conditions and assumptions, if this theory does not hold, then it is very likely that the theory itself is wrong!"

This deafening remark reverberated in everyone's heart. Everyone present was very clever, which immediately triggered a lot of thinking.

"Of course, this is just a summary of my experience, not the truth of the world, but I believe in one thing."

Reiner paused deliberately for a while before continuing to speak.

"The closer the theory and formula are to the truth, the more concise and elegant they should be. This is also the goal that the mages have been making constant progress for so many years. That is to describe the world we live in in a precise and concise way."

The conference hall fell into silence, only the downpour outside the window was rustling.

Lanchester was slightly astonished. He did not expect that a young apprentice mage could have such a concept. When all living beings were still worrying about tomorrow's dinner, his vision was already on the future, on higher things.

"You really look like him."

Lanchester uttered a quiet muttering to himself, then stood up and clapped first.

Taking this as an opportunity, all the mages stood up and gave the warmest applause to this mage apprentice, who deserved to be the leading role of today's meeting.

Fleming wiped his sweat. He saw that Kanon, a student next to him, was a little lost. He patted him on the shoulder, then stood up and applauded. At the same time, he whispered to Kanon.

"At least, we can return to the right path from the wrong path, can't we?"

Kanon was stunned, unable to answer.

Outside the window, the thunder was weakening, and a storm was about to end.

But more storms were brewing