TF Chapter 9 Not Secret Anymore
"What state do we call a particle that is vibrating at a very high frequency?"
This was a question I had an answer to. Today, Celeste had for some reason decided that we needed a theoretical lesson. I was still wondering what the point was as all that we were supposed to do was self explanatory.
"High energy state." I answered after a moment of looking at my other companions who were practically clueless. It looked like I was the science nerd in the group.
"Yes! Mystery boy and robot girl should have read more. After your graduation, provided you become forgers, read more of the science stuff. It will be very important if you want to advance."
Hmmm...good point. I had to keep that in mind. My superficial knowledge definitely wouldn't be enough.
"Anyway, this high energy state is what you first have to deal with, before taking the particle away from the molten stream...I know, many particles will be bombarding your spiritual appendage every second, but you will have to figure out how yourselves."
Then, what was the point of the lesson?! I wondered, exchanging glances with the other two, whose eyes clearly had the same puzzlement as I.
"Well...take what I have just said as a hint on what to do." She said with a confident expression, though I was skeptical. Sometimes I even wondered whether Celeste really had the qualifications to guide us.
A few minutes later, she left, leaving us to mull over what she had said. That got me pondering...how does one get a particle from a high energy state to a low energy state?
I scanned the archives in my brain, the ones which had become dust-laden with disuse.
According to current technology, it requires slowing down such a particle by a few methods, with one being getting the particle into a cryogenic chamber. Surely I can't use that as it is useless in my current predicament.
So...what can I really use? I pondered. No...the question should be, what can I take away from that idea?
The spiritual appendage is something that we can manipulate. Is there a way to make it so that it can somehow manage to get the atom from a high energy state to a low energy one?
The moment I thought of that, hope sprouted within my heart, not to mention the excitement that came with it, so I decided to share my ideas with my teammates.
First, I laid out my thoughts, the ones which had gotten me excited in the first place and waited for their feedback.
"It could work in theory if we could get the spiritual appendage to vibrate at a lower frequency such that the particle's own frequency slows down." Danny boy said after a moment, his palm cradling his chin, making him appear as if he was more knowledgeable.
"You are forgetting one thing...do we even have any idea on how to simulate frequencies? I doubt we would even know what frequency the high energy particle is vibrating at."
Bora was right, but that still didn't stop me from directing a dissatisfied glare her way. I had been really excited about my idea yet, she had just brutally shot me down. How frustrating!...wait!
"What if we could get a feel of the frequency through the spiritual appendage's interaction with the particle?" A lightbulb moment had overcome me for an instant, causing all my dissatisfaction to vanish.
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"What do you think, Bora?" Danny boy threw the ball into her court. I didn't find it strange since even I would have done the same thing. She was the main voice of disagreement after all.
"We will try it. But, we shouldn't get our hopes up. It might not work, or might require hundreds of tries before we get it right."
It looks like she wasn't one of the optimistic ones. She was a very pragmatic and logic oriented individual.
When a human stays in a single place for an extended period of time, they either get fed up, or, get used to it. So far, I didn't think I had reached the level of getting used to being in a single stone room for extended periods of time, so I suggested that we take a walk outside to clear our minds after our idea machines, the brains, ran out of things.
I was in the middle, something that made me wonder why as it made me feel as if I was the leader of our little party. I hated this, but there was no way to complain myself out of it, so I stuck with it.
The city was the same, except that there were many more people moving along this road, with many of them recognisable faces. They were the freshmen, just like us, who had been with us during the orientation. With a keen eye, I noticed the tiredness on their faces, probably from having been attempting to pick up a metal atom, just like us.
"There are way too many people taking a break." Bora spoke as if she wasn't too pleased about it, her tone suggesting that if they had the time, they should have been hard at work.
"Bora, why are you impatient?" I asked, conjuring up a memory of earlier where I had had to thoroughly convince her out of the stone room.
"..."
Nothing came back from her. There must have been a circumstance that caused her impatience, something she didn't want to talk about. But I knew one thing, if she continued with this attitude, it would eventually lead to her having to share this with us.
'Its worrying having to worry about sharing a secret I don't want to know about. She might even require our help in the future...' Just the thought of that made me cringe. Human interaction always brought about these particular cons. Again! Why hadn't they made it stay like last year? A single individual working alone?
Screaming was the thing I wanted to do the most but couldn't. Danny boy was useless at human interaction, something that made me even more furious.
I kicked at the ground with such force that I raised some dust. Yes, the roads hadn't been paved or anything. It was the same red soil as outside this city. It was a wonder how such little amount of dust was there, considering the heavy usage and obvious lack of rain.
We were moving in the direction of the large entrance in the brown wall as it was pointless moving in the direction of the academy where everything was restricted. Not to mention that we had also been restricted from checking out the other quadrants.
'Are we really going to have to spend 5 years in this boring place?' I wondered. There had to be something that these people did as entertainment, right?
"We meet again my dear fellow." The voice caused me to frown and zero in on the person, upon which I developed disgust within.
The idiot who had managed to trigger Danny boy's rage. What did he want? Couldn't he have pretended not to see me? Besides, Danny boy was also beside me, didn't he see him?
"A little birdy told me a secret." The guy said, bringing his entourage of 3 along with him, causing our two groups to appear as if we were facing off.
"What secret? And stop blocking the road if you favor your life." Bora said, her face sporting a very heavy frown. The menacing expression alone was causing the people who had come with the idiot discomfort.
It was good that we had someone like her, someone whose coldness could scare people.
But, apparently, these people weren't moving away. There was also something odd I noticed. They weren't checking out Kim Bora. Had the idiotic young master lost interest? I wondered even as I got the chills from their gazes which had all for some reason decided to congregate on me.
"I heard that you have the highest chance of becoming a forger, and since we are somewhat acquainted, I decided to deepen the bond. What do you say?"
Alarm bells rang in my mind at the question. Had Celeste somehow leaked my vision? No, I didn't think so. From the little time I had interacted with her, I knew that she wasn't one to act with such frivolity...so, the only way these people would have come to know would be because the person she had reported to had leaked the information.
As expected, I should never trust those in higher levels of power. Now...does this idiot think I would think to befriend it for even an instant?
I searched for an answer to the guy's question but came up empty.
"You seem to have forgotten my warning..." Danny boy drawled. The same coldness from before had come back in the tone of his voice. He even moved to stand in front of me, facing off against the group.
'Would he be able to take them on?' I wondered, asking myself whether I should flee or prepare for a fight. I knew myself best. There was no way I would be able to fight since I had never had an interest in physical activities. An intellectual like myself would be better off hiding somewhere!