333 Persuasion (2/2)

It was still early. The headquarter was still quiet. On Lucien's way to Fernando's study on the thirty-third floor, he barely met any people.

Fernando, the Lord of Storm, was still wearing his favorite ancient-styled, bright-red magic robe, sitting behind his desk and reading the letters.

”Lucien, if you don't have anything else to do, help me with the letters first. Use my tone and reply to these letters. After you finish, we go to the lab,” said Fernando directly. He did not give Lucien a word of praise for coming here early.

Lucien hurriedly nodded, ”I've finished the draft of the paper. Please take a look.”

”Good.” Fernando nodded. Fernando took over the pile of paper and read it very carefully. He did not treat it casually just because it was written by a middle-rank mage. From time to time, Fernando even cast the spells on his own for verification.

Seeing Fernando frown, Lucien's heart was grasped by a big hand.

”Illogical… How do you want to persuade the board using this?!” Fernando commented.

Although the comment was very straightforward, Lucien was glad that Fernando did not yell at him. His response was still within Lucien's expectation.

Lucien hurriedly nodded and put on a humble-student look.

After criticizing Lucien's paper from the very beginning to the end, when Lucien started to feel that his draft was basically just a piece of trash, Fernando softened his tone a bit and said, ”Of course, compared to all the shitty papers from those fools, this paper is still relatively interesting and creative. Nothing in the paper is a real mistake. Revise it and develop it into a decent paper. Don't put my name on it like some people. I don't want my name to appear on such a paper.”

”Yes, sir.” Lucien felt he just sweated a lot. Although Fernando did not yell at him, Lucien still suffered greatly hearing all the mistakes he made in this draft when Fernando pointed them out one by one. Because he relied on himself when writing half of the paper, Lucien knew that he would make a lot of mistakes, but he was still under huge pressure just now.

Before Fernando picked up these letters again, Lucien hurriedly said, ”Sir, I'm applying for starting a research group. This is my application.”

”Research group? Are you still not busy enough?” Fernando took over the application form, ”Atom… Atom Institution. What a big topic… Umm…'The institution aims at studying the relationship between the periodicity of elements and atoms, exploring more factors resulting in the characters of elements and atoms', combining the findings with elemental, electromagnetic, light-darkness spells, etc. In conclusion, the institution is established to facilitate the development of elemental magic and arcana system…'”

It seemed that Fernando was a bit amused when reading Lucien's application. Fernando did not take a serious attitude toward it. ”So… you need a big and fully-equipped lab, a lot of precious materials, and lots of arcana points as allowance. Young man, you don't get funds like this. This general, ambiguous application will not be approved by Magic Research Board. And you seem to be quite ambitious. You want to turn this into a long-term research? That'll make your application even harder.”

Lucien was prepared, ”I think… I think the way that the Congress currently reviews all the applications is to some degree quite short-sighted. Arcana is developing very quickly, and there are new fields emerging all the time. The new fields are not specific yet but we cannot give them up, nor can we merely rely on the senior arcanists' private researches. The resources should be allocated equally, so more arcanists can be involved. This is another reason why I want to set up Atom Institution. I believe that more and more arcanists have realized the importance of studying atoms since the periodicity was found.”

When he was saying that, he looked rather serious.

”You made me feel I was listening to a speech in the city council…” Fernando grinned. ”Tell me more about how you understand atoms. If you want to win my support, you have to persuade me first.”

Lucien knew that the cunning, old grand arcanist would not be deceived easily. He had to go further on this topic.

Lucien's brain quickly worked and he tried to be very cautious with his words, ”Since the periodicity was found, I've been seeking for something deeper behind the laws, but I was at a total loss. Then, by chance, the idea struck me that maybe we should step out of Atom Theory and question what we think we've already known. If atoms are the smallest units as people believe, why the features of atoms vary so differently?”

Lucien paused a bit. Fernando looked at him thoughtfully.

”Maybe…” Lucien was a bit hesitant, ”Maybe an atom can still be further divided!”