Translator: Dreamscribe
[Looks like Cecilia has joined Apex Lab.]
-Heard it from a reliable source. Turns out the LOGIA ranking tournament was a real audition.
└What happened to Sri?
└Survived in 4th. When it was all over, every single one of them made it into the rankings. Seo-ha's eye for talent is something else.
└Wasn't Cecilia attending Oxford?
└She's a countess, she can do whatever she wants. Even if she weren't, there isn't a university that would turn down someone of Cecilia's caliber.
└An all-star roster of Earth's grad school elite?
└Reality is, a lot of them don't even have bachelor's degrees. But when you look at the papers they've put out, you have to wonder what degrees even mean.
└A gathering of brainy, multinational hotties. Good-looking too. Feels like there'd be a lot of office romance.
└I work at a university lab, and the really smart ones are always underdeveloped in that department. Like God made sure to at least balance things out.
└Office romance ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. If they had that kind of energy, they'd spend it on research.
└The countess has descended. Looks like the lab needs to stock up on a proper tea set.
Clinking.
The sound of a teacup broke the silence.
Su-jeong looked back and forth between the Starbucks cup in her own hand and the finest bone china teacup in Cecilia's, feeling strangely unsettled.
The rich aroma of Earl Grey milk tea spread through the air around her.
"...Um, Cecilia? What is all this?"
Su-jeong asked in a trembling voice.
"Miss's research efficiency is best produced in an optimal environment."
A middle-aged man in an immaculate suit had appeared at some point and bowed with restrained precision. It was Morris, the butler of the House of Ashley.
At a gesture from him, the scenery of the lab began to transform in bizarre ways. The fabric sofa Seo-ha had often used had, somewhere along the line, been replaced by a top-grade genuine leather one, and the plastic table and box of instant coffee mix that had sat in the kitchenette had vanished without a trace. In their place stood a mahogany table that might have belonged to 18th-century aristocrats, along with a luxurious teapot.
Cecilia nodded, then spoke with a grave expression.
"Morris, don't make too much of a fuss."
All four people in the lab were thinking the same thing.
'This is already plenty of a fuss!'
"My apologies. I exercised maximum restraint and intervened only where compromise was not possible. I shall take my leave."
Morris bowed politely and stepped outside.
It was a moment that drove home the fact that aristocrats really did exist even in the modern age. Sri couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, like prey cowering before a predator. Theo, with practiced hands, used the tea implements Morris had left behind to brew some tea.
"Let's all have a cup. A tea time in the lab isn't bad either."
Theo cracked a breezy joke as he set out the teacups. For Seo-ha, he prepared a sweet, smooth milk tea loaded with milk and sugar.
Only then did the team members finally relax, picking up their teacups with awkward gestures.
"It's delicious!"
Seo-ha took a sip, and his eyes sparkled.
"Quite skilled at handling tea, aren't you?"
At Cecilia's compliment, Theo shrugged.
"Comes with being Irish, unintentionally. Influence of my parents. I don't have particularly warm feelings toward English aristocracy, so I hope you'll understand."
"M...me too!"
Sri, sensing his chance, chimed in.
Only then did Seo-ha realize the source of the awkward atmosphere. Even someone with only a passing knowledge of history couldn't fail to sense the subtle tension in this combination. As it happened, both men's homelands shared a history of deep wounds inflicted by England.
"But taking it out on an unrelated party when you weren't the one who made those decisions isn't very grown-up either."
"Wow!"
Seo-ha marveled at her deft, socially adept pivot.
Sri snapped his head toward Theo. It was the kind of look one gave a traitor.
"M...me too."
A voice that nearly trailed off into nothing. It wasn't that he didn't have his grievances, but waging a last stand to the bitter end in front of a countess was a bridge too far.
"Pfft!"
Su-jeong couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
At the same time, Seo-ha couldn't hide the smile tugging at his lips, and he raised his teacup to cover his face.
-Clink
These were things one encountered often enough living as a British aristocrat. Cecilia set down her teacup with a stiff expression. She did not readily offer apologies. The weight of her ancestors' deeds was far too heavy to be settled with a mere word. All that could be done was to do one's best for a better future.
"Welcome, Cecilia."
When Seo-ha extended his hand, the atmosphere softened considerably. It had somehow become a welcome party for her; Cecilia hesitated briefly, then removed her glove and took Seo-ha's hand.
Everyone broke into wide smiles and welcomed her.
"Welcome, Cecilia!"
"It's reassuring to have you on the team."
"Welcome!"
The previous day, after she had left, Apex Lab had held an emergency meeting.
Various opinions had been voiced, but there was no disagreement that she was a possessor of extraordinary mathematical intuition and a rare talent more than qualified to join the team.
"Thank you. I heard that Apex Lab was taking on the Riemann Hypothesis. Truth is, I've been wrestling with the problem on my own for a long time too."
The fragrant Earl Grey flavor filled the lab.
As if a single good cup of tea had cast a spell, the taut tension had, at some point, transformed into a pleasant flutter of excitement. Theo walked over to the blackboard and began writing out new equations. It was the result of his own analysis of what had happened yesterday. From there, another discussion spun off, and a heated debate began.
"Hmm, good."
Dean Whitman stood outside the lab, watching them.
Like a massive star pulling surrounding celestial bodies into its orbit, geniuses were gathering around Seo-ha.
Where that gravity led would be a treasury of knowledge that humanity had never before reached. Through his glasses, he saw the fervor of the young geniuses and smiled with satisfaction.
* * *
Two months passed.
Contrary to concerns, Cecilia had assimilated smoothly into the team and was continuing her research.
It had been a period when everyone threw themselves body and soul toward the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, but the results they had hoped for had not come.
"I thought we'd at least get some tiny breakthrough."
Seo-ha muttered to himself as he looked in the mirror.
It was something he had already braced himself for, but reality was harsher than expected. He could feel the team growing weary. The cause of this lay with Seo-ha.
His exceptionally keen intuition had recognized too early which paths were dead ends.
He gazed at the equations filling the blackboard.
A theorem that mobilized every technique of modern mathematics, said to be the pinnacle of Analytic Number Theory. Others might find it impressive, but in Seo-ha's eyes, it was a ridiculous spectacle of running in circles within an enormous labyrinth.
"Is it really impossible?"
So close, yet always out of reach.
Every point he had thought was a hint turned out to be the entrance to yet another maze. It felt as if someone hidden behind a veil was mocking and ridiculing the limits of human intuition.
Seo-ha could no longer endure the frustration.
Bang!
He threw open the lab door and stepped out.
He had wanted to say something hopeful to his team. Encouragement along the lines of "we're almost there, let's push through." But in the face of a problem that might take who-knew-how-many years, he couldn't bring himself to speak such irresponsible words.
Buzz buzz-
Summer had arrived before he knew it.
Seo-ha sat on a shaded bench and let his overheated mind cool.
It had already been several years since he had resolved to prove the Riemann Hypothesis. Considering the number of papers he had read during that time, and the sheer volume of hypotheses he had erected and discarded, there couldn't be many scholars who had studied the Riemann Hypothesis as deeply as he had.
The 'Great Riemann Hypothesis Era' that Seo-ha had opened was beginning to wane. They, too, must have belatedly realized that that alone could prove nothing.
"Was I too full of myself?"
Mathematicians who had devoted their whole lives to this were hardly rare.
Seo-ha realized that he had, somewhere deep down, been assuming that his few years held more value than their entire lifetimes. Unfortunately, the monster Riemann had summoned was not an opponent that could be brought down by so little.
"Nothing for it. Just have to see it through to the end."
Not long ago, he had begun keeping a notebook.
Just as he had when he first tackled the Four Color Theorem, he was meticulously recording the history of wrong answers. For Seo-ha, this was a declaration that he accepted this would be a long campaign.
"What do you mean, 'nothing for it'?"
At the voice from behind, Seo-ha's eyes widened.
"Huh?"
Gyeo-ul was smiling shyly from behind the bench.
Her pale sky-blue skirt fluttered with every gust of wind. Having passed through the height of her growth, she looked noticeably more mature. Seo-ha caught sight of her delicate collarbone and the smooth line of her neck, exposed in the warm season, and hurriedly turned his head away.
Whoosh-
The occasional breeze emphasized her feminine silhouette all the more.
The pale color of Gyeo-ul's hair glittered in the sunlight. Seo-ha thought again, as if realizing it anew, that Gyeo-ul really was a beautiful person.
Her mouth slowly opened.
"Feels like it's been forever since I last saw you."
"Yeah, sorry I haven't come to visit."
"No, I mean it's been a while since I've seen you when you're not ill."
Seo-ha nodded absently.
Truth be told, he had been feeling at the end of his tether lately. Not wanting to show his family and teammates the prickly side of himself, he had bottled up his emotions so tightly that the stress was on the verge of bursting out. At least, he thought, he was glad he hadn't shown Gyeo-ul a pathetic version of himself.
But whenever he met her, he ended up leaning on her without meaning to. As if by conditioned reflex, his inner feelings slipped from his lips.
"Why is it that you show up every time I desperately need you?"
Gyeo-ul's shoulders twitched.
But then, as if she had adjusted, she gave a crooked smile.
"Well, about that...."
She slipped closer and whispered in Seo-ha's ear.
"Your premise is wrong, silly. Haven't you considered it might be because you always need me?"
A crisp citrus scent wafted over.
Seo-ha's face flushed red. Gyeo-ul watched his reddened face and smiled like a victor. Propping her chin on the bench's backrest, she leisurely took in his reaction.
"You could've called ahead. What brings you here today?"
"I wanted to deliver it in person."
Gyeo-ul opened the clutch in her hand.
What she held out was an envelope with a gold border embossed in fine detail. Seo-ha slowly opened it.
[New York Philharmonic & Curtis Institute of Music Concerto]
-Piano Soloist : Gyeoul Han
"Already?"
A collaboration with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center....
Watching Seo-ha's awestruck face, Gyeo-ul wore a satisfied expression. It was the same feeling she had always felt whenever she was around Seo-ha.
"Keep reading."
Seo-ha's eyes scanned down the program.
Rachmaninoff, Beethoven.... normally, a concerto performance would end with classical repertoire. But at the very end, an unexpected line was written.
[World Premiere(Premiere) - The theme of Duckie(Composed by Seoha Yu)]
"Huh? Really?"
Seo-ha was so startled he let out a loud exclamation without meaning to.
He had jotted the score out for Lawrence, but he had assumed it was just a personal curiosity.
The fact that the world's finest orchestra was going to perform that embarrassing piece was mortifying beyond endurance.
Gyeo-ul leaned her upper body over the bench and whispered. A lock of her hair fell and brushed against Seo-ha's shoulder.
"Do you have any idea how desperately we've been practicing the last few months? I thought I was going to lose my mind. You'd be hard-pressed to find a player in the orchestra who hasn't cried."
"Hahaha."
Seo-ha pressed a hand to his forehead and laughed weakly.
"One of the longtime members of the New York Phil said it was like Lawrence had turned back into his twenty-years-younger self. I'd only ever heard rumors that he was a terrifying, passionate conductor, but I never imagined I'd get to find out for myself, in the flesh."
Lawrence drove the musicians as if he'd kill them.
A piece so intricately constructed that it gnawed at the souls of those who played it, but at its end, he felt, lay a liberation and redemption they had never before experienced.
"Dying of curiosity, aren't you? But I'm not going to tell you. Come and hear it for yourself."
Gyeo-ul didn't wait for Seo-ha's answer and shot him a playful wink. Then, her pale sky-blue skirt swaying, she vanished like a shimmer of summer heat haze.
*****
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