Coincidence

"Theo…" murmured Agnes, watching her brother approach.

A girl with white hair turned around, looking in the same direction as Agnes. Seeing Theo running carelessly down the sidewalk, she whispered:

"Do you know him?"

"Does Miss Hansen have a boyfriend?" Edina, another friend of Agnes, asked sarcastically.

"He's my brother…" Agnes muttered. Edina's eyebrows shot up.

"Is that Miss Luanne?" commented the girl with white hair.

Agnes stepped down to the second step of the stairs. Meanwhile, Theo stopped on the sidewalk, not even touching the first step. The two exchanged glances, and he, knowing how his sister acts, noticed the biggest difference in her: the huge dark circles under her eyes from the exhausting routine of a student in Myrddin.

"My girl… You look exhausted, huh?" Theo commented genuinely.

He began to stretch, raising his arms above his head and then placing his fingers on his back, which cracked so loudly that even Agnes's friends heard it.

"And you look old… are you a teenager or a thirty-year-old adult?" the gray-haired girl laughed.

"And you, extra, who are you?" Theo retorted.

She widened her eyes and let out a grumble.

"This is Isabel Di Ham," Agnes introduced, showcasing her friend as if she were a display. She was still surprised to see the boy there.

"Di Ham?! From the county of Durham? That makes her Antony's cousin, doesn't it?" Theo thought, noticing how she acted in front of royalty. However, he quickly dismissed that thought. He had never regretted standing up to nobles, and today wouldn't be the day he started.

"Hey, kid. Who gave you permission to look at the princess with such disdain… Hey, huh? Aren't you the blond kid with the bangs?" Isabel's guard tried to intimidate Theo but quickly recognized him, having a brief shock.

"Is there a problem here?" Luanne asked, stepping between the guard and Theo.

Theo pulled Luanne's arm aside and confronted the guard.

"Aren't you… Sigmore?"

"Yes. And you're the blond kid… wait, I'll remember. The name of that hero… Lu… Lumen! Lumen. Wow, the world is small."

"Are you already using the codename I gave you?" Luanne smiled.

"Do you know him, Sir Sigmore?" Isabel asked.

"Yes. The kid's tough. He almost killed me just for accidentally cutting his bangs…"

Luanne turned abruptly to her godson, forcing him to look at her.

"You almost killed him?" Luanne asked.

"It was just a friendly…"

Sigmore pulled Theo aside, distancing themselves from the girls. Whispering, the guard pleaded:

"Please, don't say anything about the villager. My job is to protect the great-granddaughter of my leader. If he finds out I was drinking in a corner bar and fighting villagers instead of doing my duty… Sir Lincoln will kill me! So, can you help me with this?"

"Sigmore is a direct subordinate of Sir Lincoln? I underestimated the street guard too much…"

"You owe me one," Theo said.

"Deal."

Theo turned around, scratching his throat, but the girls had already ignored the subject. Luanne and Isabel were talking while looking at documents in the girl's arm, so the boy waited for his godmother to finish. Meanwhile, he looked at the papers in Agnes's hands and noticed scientific projects.

"Can I take a look?" Theo asked Agnes. She simply handed them over without effort.

Just glancing at the first page, he noticed what was wrong.

"It's wrong."

"What?" Agnes asked.

"Combustion isn't an element. It's a phase of energy discharge. Performing combustion doesn't mean using an elemental attribute, but rather our nuclear energy, like mana. In nuclear combustion, our nuclear energy comes into contact with the air and releases energy as heat. That's how the fire element works. However, since only a percentage have this domain, few can master the fire attribute… Adjust your justification."

"Really…" she said, yawning. Her eyes teared up from sleepiness.

"When was the last time you slept?" Theo asked, handing the document back to his sister and putting an arm around her shoulder.

"I think three hours in the last month…"

"Deviants can go weeks without sleep, but for those who rely on mental effort…"

"I'll be fine, brother. But I need to finish this soon. Maybe I'll get a promotion…"

"Promotions or school grades aren't more important than mental health," Luanne interjected. "Christopher wouldn't allow you to kill yourself for science. Our most powerful weapon is the mind; with it worn out, we are nothing."

Isabel and Edina nodded in agreement.

"Theo. I talked to Isabel, and she'll take you to Alexander while I handle something in the other lab. I'll be back in half an hour, so we'll still spend the time I promised together."

"Alright," Theo agreed.

"Get along, please…"

"Great, let's go. Dr. Alexander hates it when I'm late delivering papers," Isabel said, heading toward the gate.

"See you later." Theo bid farewell to Agnes, hugging her. "Feisty, huh?" he commented to Sigmore through gestures. The guard just gave a sideways smile.

"He's become peculiar…" Sigmore said to Luanne. "Last time, he had cheerful eyes and demeanor, and he didn't exude the sensation of an aura. Has he entered the path of Nirvana, Lady Luanne?"

"Yes, it was the only way out of his nuclear problem. But… how do you know him, guard of the princess?"

"It was a coincidence…"

"Coincidence… Apparently, it's a word that defines him well."

☽✪☾

Isabel accompanies Theo down a hallway. The girl reviews some documents in her hands, while Theo looks at some historical figures framed on the walls. The hallway seemed endless, as they had been walking for more than two minutes.

"What kind of person is Alexander?" Theo asked. "I know he's one of the greatest scientists we have today, but what is he really like?"

Isabel stopped in front of a metal door.

"A genius. Someone cheerful. Curious. He'll probably test your way of thinking. He likes to see others' perspectives, so he'll ask you about any subject. Don't worry, he'll welcome you well."

Placing her hand under a steel button, Isabel released a bit of mana into the door, and a gear turned. The door slid back and lifted off the ground, splitting into two parts that moved to their respective sides—right and left.

Theo let out a surprised sigh, but Isabel pulled him inside the room before the door closed. The sound of chalk hitting a blackboard echoed through a large room.

"Isabel," Alexander called. "Can you bring me another chalk? This one's almost gone…" he said. His hair was white and short, showing some signs of hair loss. The scientist's silver eyes scanned the board, reviewing the calculations again.

Walking between the tables and technological pieces scattered on the floor, Theo looked at some drawings on papers. All the drawings were related to the cores of deviants, the main topic Alexander researches.

Seeing a box of chalk on a table, Theo redirected the wind vectors and brought a chalk to Alexander's hand. At first, the scientist didn't notice that no one had physically handed it to him. A cool breeze blew through the room, forcing Alexander to notice Theo's presence.

"Dr. Alexander, this is Theo Lawrence, Miss Luanne's godson," Isabel introduced. "He came here to…"

"So you're Miss Luanne's boy? Interesting. Did the necklace that Dr. Christopher, your godmother, and I made work perfectly?" Alexander asked.

"So far, yes," Theo replied.

"I see… Theo. I have a question for you." Alexander descended his ladder and walked over to Theo, even tripping over some boards. "Being from Romerian, you know many gods. But you must have something in mind about this question… What is God to you?"

The scientist's question completely surprised Theo, even silencing him for a moment. Looking away, thoughtful and still surprised, but before he could formulate his answer, Alexander offered some help.

"Let me help you. For me, there can't be a God. A divine being who created everything, a perfect being who doesn't need to learn anything more, because they already know everything… imagine the empty existence of someone like that? Living without the feeling and knowledge doesn't make sense. The pleasure of life is to know, to learn, to think, to doubt. Not to create and know everything. Even the most brilliant discover things about what they've created, so… how could there be a being who simply knows everything? Is powerful from the start? Of course, for a perfect being, that's irrelevant. But for me, it doesn't make sense for an omnipotent being to have such an empty existence…"

"For me, God is the universe," Theo countered. Alexander opened his eyes, seeking attention in the boy's words. "Not a being, but something. Something infinite and perfect, pure, powerful, and unique. That which is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The one who is the law itself to guide chaos. The reason 'something' exists. The one to blame for there being value and meaning in life; after all, we are always, even if unconsciously, seeking to understand it and even equal it. God isn't a being that can be understood, but something that will never be explained… Whether it has consciousness or not, it doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is knowing the reason for existence…"

"What a beautiful worldview… It's the first time I've seen someone think like that. Anyway, Theo Lawrence. I'm Alexander Cosmogenos, a conductor-type deviant. How can I help you?"

"Miss Luanne asked for him to stay here while she handled something. She'll be here in half an hour," Isabel explained. "I'll be at my desk, don't disturb me."

Theo and Alexander looked at Isabel with disdain.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask," Alexander said. "If you want to study something, or even see your godmother's work, that's the perfect place," he said, pointing to the left side of the room.

"Are these the mana machines?…" Theo asked, picking up a folder on the table, which contained over fifteen hundred pages of projects from the revolution of machines.

The scientist swallowed hard. Knowing that Theo came from the Lawrence duchy, he lamented in his eyes. The region where Theo lived was the most affected in the entire empire of Romerian. With over twenty thousand deaths, thirteen thousand injured, and more than five thousand missing. Even ten years later, the numbers still gradually increase with new discoveries.

Alexander knew that, being the duke's son, Theo likely saw his father lament and blame himself for the deaths of so many people. After all, Ethan Lawrence was a man who could have prevented and saved at least everyone in Midian, but what affected the machines also affected Ethan's core.

"Yes. I helped with some projects, which were even sent to Lawrence… so, a large portion of the lives hurt was my fault."

"It wasn't," Theo argued. "If it were just one or two machines, maybe. But there were mass explosions. It's impossible for there to have been so many calculation errors. And also, in one of the broken machines I witnessed, I saw its core destabilize… it was covered in a black, vapor-like substance. Its spores made me spit blood and nullified the protective barrier my father created… That wouldn't be a calculation error."

"Wait," Alexander interrupted, stunned and frowning. "You witnessed the nonexistence?"