Translator: Dreamscribe
"The Riemann Hypothesis really is an absurdly horrific problem."
During the regular meeting,
Sri nodded at Su-jeong's words.
"I was sure we'd caught its tail, but every single path turned out to be a trap leading to a dead end. The nickname 'Mathematician Crusher' isn't just for show."
"Still, I think it was more than worthwhile. We reviewed nearly every existing theory. Honestly, that's not something that should even be possible. It was only doable because of Seo-ha."
Theo said, drawing an X next to the hypothesis written on the blackboard. Cecilia was of the same mind.
"We essentially conducted a comprehensive survey of two centuries' worth of accumulated data in just a few months. If I'd heard about it secondhand, I wouldn't have believed it myself."
Even Seo-ha hadn't expected to solve a Millennium Prize Problem in a matter of months. But he had at least wanted to point his teammates in a clear direction.
"We're back to square one. I don't know what it is, but the Riemann Hypothesis keeps slipping past human intuition. Like quantum particles that change state the moment you observe them."
The Riemann Hypothesis unquestionably holds.
After receiving authorization to use The Core, Apex Lab had pushed the computation of zeros on the complex plane to the limit. The result was that they discovered zeros numbering in the trillions, and every last one of them fell within the range Riemann had predicted.
"But there were results. The zeros of the Riemann Hypothesis clearly follow the law of energy levels (Eigenvalues) of some specific system. And that ties into the physical law that Hermitian Operators (Hermitian Operator) in quantum mechanics always have real eigenvalues."
Scratch scratch.
Another case of failure was added to Seo-ha's notebook.
"Which means that someday, this mathematical enigma will be proven through a physical reality."
Theo watched him with interested eyes. Until just a little while ago he'd worn an obvious look of exhaustion, yet today Seo-ha's face was sparkling with life.
"It might take years, or a stretch of time far longer than that. Maybe, like the mathematicians before us, we won't live to see the end of this immense problem."
Seo-ha closed his notebook and lifted his head.
He met the eyes of each teammate seated around the table, one by one. And then, looking a little bashful but sounding more sincere than ever, he spoke.
"So what I'm trying to say is....
Even if I get lost and fall into some absurd trap, please stay by my side so I can come back to the starting point and begin again. I hope you'll all keep lending me your strength in solving this terribly, wondrously strange problem."
"...."
"...."
A silence fell.
Seo-ha looked at his teammates with a tense expression. He hoped, please, that his sincerity would reach them.
"Pfft!"
Theo couldn't hold it in and clapped a hand over his mouth. Then, as if giving up entirely, he leaned back into his chair and started laughing out loud.
"Hahaha! What was that!"
"Why are you even saying something so obvious?"
"It was kind of cute, though."
Su-jeong's mouth curved upward into an arc.
'So Seo-ha isn't superhuman after all.'
To her, Seo-ha had looked like someone who held the answer to every unsolved problem in the world. But Su-jeong had seen it, in that brief moment while he waited for his teammates to respond, Seo-ha's fingers had been trembling ever so slightly. It awoke a memory in her that she had forgotten.
He was still the same unpretentious boy from Okcheon. Unfailingly kind and pure, yet sometimes stubborn. And he too was just one human being who felt loneliness and fear when facing this vast abyss.
'What a relief.'
Su-jeong looked at Seo-ha, then turned her gaze away.
'That I'm a mathematician who can be of use to him.'
The unexpected reaction had made Seo-ha's face go red.
To varying degrees, every one of them had staked their lives on mathematics. They were not the sort of talents who would break easily before a monster of the century like the Riemann Hypothesis. Seo-ha reflected that his thinking had been shallow.
"Hm."
Cecilia watched them all with interested eyes.
After several months spent together, the personalities of the team and of each individual felt tangible to her. Why was it that she was thinking of a fantasy novel she'd read as a child?
A story about a party rallied around a hero, overcoming trials and slaying the demon king.
'Knight.'
Theo pretended otherwise, but he was a fervent devotee of Seo-ha.
The reason the once impossibly arrogant Theo now quietly followed at Seo-ha's back was not submission. It was the reverence one offers to a being who perceives truths of a higher dimension. To Theo, Seo-ha was the one and only Messiah in this world, the one who would guide them to mathematical sanctuaries humanity had never reached.
She looked at Su-jeong.
'Mage.'
A specialist in number theory, she was the wizard who parted the mists that enigmas spread out and systematized the laws of numbers hidden within.
It also seemed as though she harbored some other intention, but that would become clear with time.
Cecilia's gaze shifted to Srinivasa.
'Alchemist.'
He would be the alchemist who dropped Seo-ha's mathematical inspiration into the great cauldron of engineering and transformed it into materialized data. To Sri, Seo-ha was the philosopher's stone of legend incarnate; surely he believed Seo-ha was the being who would turn lead into gold.
'Then what am I?'
Cecilia brought her index finger to her lips and fell into thought.
'Princess? Since I'm nobility.'
She shook her head with a start.
If one followed convention, the princess was meant to end up with the hero at the journey's end. So the role of a verse-reciting bard or sage would be more fitting.
This strange yet powerful expedition was founded on trust in Seo-ha.
So long as he did not give up, no one would disembark from the journey before its end. Even if what awaited them at that end was not the happy ending everyone hoped for.
"Cecilia?"
"Yes?"
Waking from her reverie, she found everyone looking at her.
"What amusing thoughts are you having, to be smiling like that?"
"Nothing much. I just remembered a story I used to love."
Cecilia's eyes curved softly.
At some point Seo-ha had picked up a piece of chalk again and was moving freely across the blackboard. Beside the equations, he drew a geometric diagram.
"Let's hypothesize that the reason the zeros align on the critical line at 1/2 is because that line is the only axis in this system where time-reversal symmetry (Time-reversal symmetry) is preserved. From here on, let's try substituting this numerical correlation into an operator spectrum and tracing it that way."
Su-jeong clenched her fists as she watched the blackboard.
Seo-ha was attempting to graft the dynamic laws of quantum mechanics onto the classical soil of number theory. This bold attempt meant trying to implement, in practice, the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture that modern mathematics had held as mere speculation for decades.
There would be failure, but no despair.
Seo-ha had no doubt that the countless failures, stacked up, would in the end become the staircase leading to truth.
* * *
[K-Classical Rising Star Han Gyeo-ul to Perform with New York Phil. Anticipate the Melody That Will Fill Lincoln Center.]
-Han Gyeo-ul (Curtis Institute of Music), the prodigy pianist Korea has produced, will perform alongside the world's most prestigious New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Local time this coming weekend, at David Geffen Hall in New York's Lincoln Center....
(abridged)
There is yet another reason this stage is drawing attention.
Namely, the piece that will close out the program is not a traditional classical work but 'The theme of Duckie', composed by mathematician Yu Seo-ha, in its world premiere.
One can't help but wonder. Why is the piece titled Ducky's Theme?
Upon investigation by this publication's reporters, it was found that Yu Seo-ha's love for ducks has been extraordinary since childhood.... He even had a nickname during his school days based on this....
(abridged)
Beyond being the same age and both distinguishing themselves in the arts and mathematics respectively, the two share the unique bond of being classmates at Gifted High School.
According to an anonymous source, the two were very close at the time....
(omitted)
└His composition, her performance.
└What kind of ridiculous situation is this even? Performing with the NY Phil at Lincoln Center, omg
└Sounds like a whole movie plot. Let's make the genre a thriller.
└Anonymous? Why do I feel like I already know who it is? ㅋㅋㅋ lots of kids who were jealous.
└Han Gyeo-ul's face is insane. She's qualified enough to be my future wife.
└Dial it back. She's still a minor.
└What even is that school? I hear Lim Su-jeong is an alum too.
New York's Lincoln Center David Geffen Hall (David Geffen Hall),
Gyeo-ul stood before the large full-length mirror and steadied her breathing. The navy silk dress, reminiscent of the sea at sunset, shimmered like rolling waves each time the lights caught it.
"Hoooo."
She had been lucky. There was no other way to describe today's events.
The New York Phil naturally had brilliant pianists of its own. Even among the senior students at Curtis, there were more than a few performers with careers far more impressive than hers.
Gyeo-ul herself had not expected that today's seat would be hers.
"Stop! You're not capturing the feeling at all!"
At Lawrence's harsh words, the pianists dropped their heads one after another. Neither the winner of a world-class competition nor the veteran with decades of experience could grasp the emotion of the piece he was so relentlessly demanding.
"This piece isn't played with technique! Listen carefully, you can feel it from the theme. Solitude, compulsion, loneliness, a suffocating, sinking pain. This part is crucial if it's going to rise and move people in the second movement!"
When everyone had shaken their heads, the last to sit at the keyboard was Gyeo-ul.
She didn't look at the score. She had played the piece thousands of times already; when she closed her eyes, she could feel Seo-ha's heartbeat within it. No one understood his desperate, agonizing struggle better than Gyeo-ul.
The moment her fingers pressed down on the keys, Lawrence's eyes snapped open.
"I was looking for it somewhere far away, for no reason."
Her reverie ended there.
Gyeo-ul took one last look in the mirror and adjusted her appearance.
Bang.
The dressing room door flew open and Lawrence strode in, step by step. The sternness he usually wore was nowhere to be found; his face was full of a boyish excitement.
"Gyeo-ul, are you ready? It's already the calm before the storm out there. The audience can't even imagine what they're about to hear tonight."
He laughed in a low voice, as if anticipating something.
"Yes, Maestro."
Gyeo-ul rose from her seat and walked down the corridor leading to the stage.
The sound of the orchestra tuning in the distance, the murmuring of the audience. At the end of the corridor, at the entrance to the stage where the dazzling lights poured down, Gyeo-ul paused for a moment.
She looked out at the audience.
The hall was packed.
Somewhere among them would be world-renowned critics, and notable figures from Korea and New York. Gyeo-ul's gaze slid past them indifferently and turned toward one side.
A seat on the second-floor balcony, slightly removed from the stage: the best seat she had been able to secure. Among the lavishly dressed crowd, she spotted a boy fidgeting awkwardly with his tie.
She felt certain that even if he were mixed in among tens of thousands, she would be able to find Seo-ha.
Thump.
The moment she confirmed Seo-ha's presence, every negative feeling, the anxiety, the stage fright, was washed cleanly from her mind.
She closed her eyes and opened them to find herself in the music room of Gifted High School. A space where only the two of them had existed in all the world. Gyeo-ul's eyes filled with longing.
This piece might, after all, be the story of their immature, younger selves from that time.
Clap clap clap!
Gyeo-ul gathered up the hem of her dress and walked out to the center of the stage.
"Now then, it's time for the duck to take flight."
*****
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