Chapter 108
Translator: Dreamscribe
The sound of a violin drifted in gently from somewhere.
A soft melody of strings spread outward, as if someone were whispering quietly.
The viola and cello joined in after.
'What piece was this?'
The sound floated like mist, wrapping itself around Seo-ha.
'Ah! Bach's Sinfonia!'
A stage stretched out before his eyes.
A space both unfamiliar and familiar.
Seo-ha looked around.
The soaring ceiling was made of wood. The walls and floor were entirely wooden as well.
The gilded Baroque ornaments affixed to the walls stirred a strange sense of deja vu in him.
Candles set in candelabras swayed in the breeze, dyeing the entire hall in a warm yellow glow.
'Huh? Where is this?'
Where Seo-ha sat was a wooden chair roughly in the middle of the hall.
Up ahead, he could see large, ornate chairs. Elegantly dressed people sat in them.
Wigs he had only ever seen in portraits, and every woman wore a voluminously puffed dress.
'The seventeenth century?'
Vmmm- shhhh- eeee-
The sweet melody of the violin grew gradually softer as the piece drew to a close.
At that moment, someone beside him stood up, raised both hands high, and clapped.
"Bravo!"
Startled by the sudden shout, Seo-ha looked to his side.
A man with a somehow familiar face.
He was not particularly tall, but his weight made his belly stick out prominently.
'Where have I seen this person?'
On his head sat an oversized Baroque-style wig.
His appearance was comical, but in his eyes, Seo-ha could sense an intelligence as deep as the abyss.
Clap, clap, clap!
The man rose from his seat and sent fervent cheers toward the performers.
"Perfect structure, beautiful balance and symmetry! Bach must surely have been one who understood the divine!"
He turned his body and looked straight at Seo-ha.
"Don't you agree, Seo-ha Hartmann?"
Seo-ha felt the hair on his entire body stand on end.
But unable to turn away from those eyes seeking an answer, he managed to force out a reply.
"...I'm not sure about the divine, but he certainly must have understood mathematics."
The man's expression turned to one of utter shock, and he stepped closer to Seo-ha and whispered.
"Shh! Don't say such blasphemous things where there are people around. We had better head home."
Once they stepped outside the theater, the smell of the air changed.
The cool, damp scent of dirt rising from the road, the stench of waste someone had discarded, and the mingled smell of dust and lime exhaled by old stone buildings, all of it mixing together until nausea washed over him with every breath.
"Why are you making that face?"
The man looked at Seo-ha with a puzzled expression.
"It's nothing."
The language they were speaking was medieval German.
In the distance, two spires rose tall into the sky. The Marktkirche, a historic German building.
'Hm? How do I know this?'
Seo-ha gathered information naturally as he conversed with the man.
The portly middle-aged man's identity was that of the seventeenth-century German mathematician Leibniz, and Seo-ha was said to be his one and only disciple. He was living as an apprentice in Leibniz's home, studying mathematics and philosophy.
'Seo-ha Hartmann, is that my name?'
Clatter, clatter.
An elaborately decorated carriage approached.
The two stepped aside to the edge of the road and waited for it to pass.
"Whoa!"
When the coachman pulled the reins, the horse let out a rough breath and came to a stop.
"Lower your head and wait a moment. They appear to be nobility of high standing."
Seo-ha quietly swallowed his breath.
Clank.
The carriage door opened, and a beautiful noblewoman stepped out.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Seo-ha lifted his eyes.
"Huh?"
Skin so translucent it seemed to hold light within it, and calm, composed eyes.
Even dressed in a seventeenth-century gown, Seo-ha could recognize her at a glance.
But he could not remember who she was.
'She seems like someone I know....'
She flicked open her fan with a soft rustle and covered her face with an elegant gesture.
"That is the young lady of the Winterfeld household."
Leibniz whispered.
"Winterfeld (Winterfeld * winter)."
Seo-ha quietly repeated her name to himself. It felt like the answer was on the tip of his tongue, but a thick fog seemed to cloud his vision.
She approached with light, graceful steps, brushing past Seo-ha as she went.
Seo-ha stared blankly after her.
Back at the house, Seo-ha prepared Leibniz's meal.
It was not as though he had cooked often, yet his body remembered, and he did everything naturally.
The cast iron pot hanging over the fireplace, the three-legged pot, the mortar for grinding spices, all of it was familiar.
A meal of bread as hard as a brick (Schwarzbrot) and cabbage stew; the two sat across from each other at the table and enjoyed their modest supper.
Leibniz's days were simple.
He researched mathematics and frequently stayed up through the night. For him, morning was merely the hour when he no longer needed to keep the candles lit.
No one came to visit his house.
Leibniz's relationships with others existed only out of necessity.
As a diplomat and administrator, he had to meet many people, but he never exchanged more words than necessary with anyone.
Contact with his family was rare, and he had no lover, let alone anyone he could call a friend.
A few days later, during dinner,
he looked at Seo-ha with a disappointed expression.
"I see you couldn't take your eyes off the Winterfeld young lady again today."
"Cough, cough!"
He nodded as if he already knew everything.
"I understand. She is a beautiful person. But mark my words. If you seek achievement, never give your heart to a woman."
It was far too sudden a remark.
Not understanding why, Seo-ha made a puzzled face.
"Pardon?"
"What do you think is the common trait between myself and Sir Isaac Newton?"
Newton?
He knew who that was. Knowledge flowed naturally from Seo-ha's lips.
"You both devised calculus around the same period."
He shook his head.
"That is merely the result. What common trait allowed us to accomplish such a thing?"
Leibniz gazed out the window into the darkness as though looking at an old friend.
Seo-ha saw an undeniable loneliness in his face.
"It is that we both kept women at a distance our entire lives."
Seo-ha blinked.
"Excuse me?"
He continued in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
"Neither of us ever married, nor even had a romance, our whole lives. Women are beings who demand a frightful amount of time and emotion. No matter how exceptional a person may be, once they give their heart to another, their focus scatters. It means that the driving force of one's life becomes divided."
Seo-ha swallowed hard at his utterly serious expression.
"And it is not only women. Family, friends, all relationships only interfere with research. For those of us who pursue truth, such things are entirely unnecessary.
He and I realized this early on, and that is why we were able to leave behind great achievements."
He took a sip of water.
Then he looked Seo-ha straight in the eye and spoke.
"You have talent. And your attitude toward life is much like mine."
Unable to hold back, Seo-ha countered.
"Me? No, that's not right. My family and friends are all precious to me."
He shook his head and spoke with a resolute expression.
"No.
Seo-ha Hartmann, I know you. You place the highest value on finding truth. Everything else is merely secondary.
Family? Friends?
You will abandon them all when the time comes. How do I know? Because Sir Newton and I did the same. The power God has granted us is finite.
You too, Seo-ha, will soon realize that you must reduce the 'waste.'"
It was confusing.
What could this man possibly know about him to make such harsh declarations?
But Seo-ha could not call his words entirely false. If he could understand all the laws of the world, how great a price would he be willing to pay?
"Forget the Winterfeld young lady. I say this as one who has walked that road before you. Marriage is the ultimate waste."
He could not bear it.
Just as Seo-ha was about to lash out in anger, a knock came at the door.
Knock, knock.
Seo-ha unclenched his fists and slowly rose to open the front door.
"Hellooo."
A young girl with a red kerchief on her head, a small duck cradled in her arms.
Seo-ha felt a powerful sense of deja vu so strong it nearly split his head.
"Quack, quack!"
"Hush, Ducky. You'll startle him.
Excuse me. My mother sent me to bring you bread."
She handed over the bread, waved, and walked away.
Seo-ha hurriedly called out to her.
"Wait! Your name.... What's your name?"
The girl smiled brightly like sunshine.
"Liné, my name is Aureline."
Clank.
After closing the door, Seo-ha leaned his head against the wall and turned the name he had just heard over in his mind.
"Aureline."
A word derived from Latin.
Its meaning: dawn's grace, blessing of the daybreak.
"Seo-eun (曙恩)?" [TL: 曙 (dawn) + 恩 (grace) — the same meaning as Aureline]
Seo-ha murmured the name once more.
"Aureline.... Seo-eun."
In that instant, a spark ignited inside his head.
The two names overlapped into one, and a massive flood of memories poured in.
The beloved hanok in Okcheon, and on its wooden floor, Seo-eun was running about.
"Oppa! Let's play the number game!"
Seo-ha's eyes flew open.
Then he walked with firm, determined steps to stand before Leibniz.
Leibniz watched Seo-ha with curious eyes.
"Sir, I will not live the way you did. My family and friends are precious to me."
Leibniz furrowed his brow.
"Are you saying you would give up truth? You?"
Seo-ha shook his head.
"No. I intend to have it all. My precious family, the friends who care about me, and even a partner in the future, every single one, without exception."
A shadow of the loneliness he had kept hidden all this time flickered across Leibniz's face.
"A truly grand ambition.
It is not just us. Among the great scholars of your era, was there even one who was devoted to family life? Go on, tell me.
Einstein, von Neumann, Alan Turing, none of them managed to build a normal family. Do you think you can approach truth without paying the cost?"
For the first time since arriving here, Seo-ha became fully himself.
"I can do it."
"How?"
The corner of Seo-ha's lips rose. And with eyes that held not a shred of doubt, he said,
"Because I'm better than all of you."
Leibniz's jaw dropped.
"Well then, I'll see you again someday. I have a lot of questions I want to ask."
"Seo-ha Hartmann!"
"Call me by my real name. My name is Yu Seo-ha."
"Yu Seo-ha?"
"Yes, remember it. It's a name that will be written far ahead of yours in the history of mathematics."
Seo-ha kicked the door open and left the house.
Running along a seventeenth-century cobblestone road in uncomfortable leather shoes, he could not move as fast as he wanted.
'I need to go back, don't I?'
This place was most likely a dream.
In a dream, the length of time is proportional to the processing speed of consciousness.
Considering his own cognitive abilities...
Seo-ha realized that five minutes in reality could expand to something nearly infinite in this place.
'Wake up, now! Don't tell me I have to live out my entire life here?'
He ran aimlessly down the road.
'Where am I supposed to go?'
What appeared before his eyes was a grand mansion like a palace, the crest of the Winterfeld household engraved at the entrance.
Seo-ha walked inside without thinking.
The hall was blindingly bright.
'There shouldn't even be electricity here....'
Looking up at the ceiling, an ornate chandelier was pouring down light.
The floor was polished marble gleaming smooth, and dozens of people were dancing elegantly to the music.
"...A ball?"
An orchestra was playing.
A rhythm similar to a waltz, yet somewhat more rustic.
The clink of glasses, the chatter of people here and there; Seo-ha stood frozen at the doorway like a man turned to stone.
"The young lady of Winterfeld has arrived!"
At the announcement of someone who appeared to be a butler, every gaze turned to one direction.
Turning his head, Seo-ha saw a figure descending.
Hands in white gloves,
a dress of soft ivory,
from a slender waist, voluminous skirts cascade down like a waterfall.
It was winter.