Chapter 171
Translator: Dreamscribe
"Göttingen? You can't just change your destination on me like this, sir."
"I'm in a hurry right now. Please. I'll pay extra, so please hurry."
"Understood."
Andrew Wiles let out a sigh of relief.
This year's ICM had been, for him, a festival of the utmost satisfaction.
'To think he'd grown up this well.'
He had thought the boy was a cut above from the very start.
The boy had thrown himself at unsolved problems before he was even seven. Even setting Seo-ha aside, he thought a truly exceptional student could take an interest from an early age.
But to keep researching for seven whole years and finally crack it? That was something only explainable if one assumed he possessed talent on the level of a Pascal or a Gauss.
From that point on, Andrew had kept his eye on Seo-ha.
This world held countless geniuses who withered away through the wrong environment and the wrong choices. If he had spotted any sign of that in Seo-ha, he had even been prepared to bring the boy to England and sponsor him personally.
'There must have been a fine mentor.'
But that wasn't everything.
In the age of capitalism, mathematics could hardly be called an appealing discipline. The reality was that even the most brilliant mathematician received no fitting reward.
So talent alone could never carry a person to the very end of this road.
A mathematician needed a noble soul.
The strength to endure, alone, the years when no one took notice; the stubbornness never to turn one's head even when the world pointed elsewhere.
He knew this better than anyone.
During the seven years he had clung to Fermat's Last Theorem, almost no one around him had understood him.
'The ultimate mathematician.'
If there were a being whom God had shaped for mathematics alone, would he look like this?
A person born with the highest talent and soul at once. Had he ever seen such a human in all his life? The mathematical superhuman he had only vaguely imagined while reading Gauss's biography, Andrew saw that very image in Seo-ha.
'I had the soul, but not the talent.'
If he were to confess such an inner thought to someone, he might be accused of false modesty.
But to his mind, it was the truth.
The age at which he solved Fermat was forty-one. And so he never received the Fields Prize. He only later received a silver medal in the form of a Special Prize.
Afterward he received the Abel Prize and the Wolf Prize, the so-called three great prizes of mathematics, but there was no achievement beyond that. His was a talent that could not dare come anywhere near a Gauss or a Euler. But Seo-ha was different.
"Ah! What on earth will become of Göttingen now..."
A thought suddenly struck him.
What if, at the university that mathematicians still flocked to as if on a pilgrimage, even the Riemann Hypothesis were proven?
"It would have been better if it had been Oxford."
It was a mutter that, had Whitman and Brenner heard it, would have sent them into a finger-jabbing rage.
***
Two hours later, the Göttingen campus had transformed into something like a marketplace.
Cars packed the parking lot, and scholars who normally carried themselves with dignity were gathered in front of the Auditorium with their neckties loosened.
"We can't go in? That's absurd! This is our university!"
"Don't worry. We just said we'd watch quietly, didn't we?"
Theo, Sri, and Ben stood with hardened expressions before the oak doors. Behind them, Cecilia and Su-jeong stood their ground with arms folded and resolute faces, as if to show they shared the cause.
Su-jeong felt as though her heart would burst. The team members' phones had suddenly started ringing like mad, and messages had come pouring in asking for confirmation.
"We have to stop them, quick!"
The moment he saw the message, Theo had bolted out.
The men had followed after him, and then Su-jeong and Cecilia, unable to just stand by, had joined in too, and that was how the present situation had come about.
"Now look here, all of you, my name is Meyer. I'm a professor at this university, you understand. I don't know the details, but you standing there blocking the way isn't going to change anything, you hear?"
He thumped his chest as if wronged, but the team members didn't budge an inch.
There was no ulterior motive behind it. They thought only that no one could be allowed to disturb Seo-ha.
"I'm sorry. This may well be a very important moment for all of humanity. We'll be sure to explain it properly later."
"Th... that's right. He's going to publish it anyway, so couldn't you read it as a paper once it's all over?"
The professors' lips trembled.
In there, a fog that had dragged on for a full two centuries was lifting. And they were being told to skip the process and look only at the result? It was like telling painters not to watch da Vinci paint The Last Supper.
'Buy the art book when it comes out later and look at it then.'
A pitch like that was never going to work.
Just then, a silver-haired gentleman slowly walked out through the crowd. It was Andrew Wiles. At his appearance, the scene where shouts had been flying fell silent in an instant.
As the legend of the mathematics world appeared, even the agitated professors gave way, showing him their deference.
"I understand your feelings well enough. But if today is the day I believe it to be, then please, let us in."
Theo's eyes wavered violently.
"We only wish to witness the moment a truth is born. That moment will surely become a source of dazzling inspiration for many. It's a good thing for the mathematics world too.
I'll vouch for it. If there's anyone so senseless as to break Seo-ha's concentration, I'll drag him out myself. We'll all just watch, without so much as a breath. Isn't that so, everyone?"
At Andrew's words, the scholars around him nodded over one another, eager to agree.
"That's right!"
"Of course, of course."
Theo bit his lip. The instant he was about to open his mouth, a familiar voice came from behind.
"Professor Andrew, you'd better hold to what you just said."
Everyone's gaze turned.
Dean Whitman was catching his breath, as if he'd come running in a hurry. His shirt collar was soaked with sweat and hung limp.
"Theodore, open the doors. The wish to be a witness at the scene of history is the same for us all."
Now there was no stopping it.
Theo nodded with a hardened expression.
Creeeak.
The heavy oak doors slowly opened.
The mathematicians standing there fell into the illusion that the doors of a holy temple were opening before them.
No one hurried. The professors who had been shouting just moments ago only glanced at one another, reading the room.
"Then, allow me to go first. Excuse me."
Andrew straightened his tie and fastened the buttons of his jacket.
Step.
Step.
Because he had come in such haste, his appearance was a mess.
The scholars unconsciously smoothed their clothes. They didn't know why, but they felt they ought to show respect.
Passing through the corridor and entering the lecture hall, the scene from the photographs appeared before them.
Three enormous blackboards.
One of them was already full.
"Hmm."
Like a diligent student, Andrew took a seat at the desk in the very front. The professors began filling the seats behind him.
Scratch scratch.
Seo-ha's hand did not stop.
What he had to face was the monster that had destroyed more mathematicians than any other in history. There was no room to let his attention scatter.
He could see, more or less, what was happening. But that information merely formed on his retina like a backdrop before vanishing; it never reached the realm of thought.
Whitman took a seat in the back row.
He laid his hands neatly on his knees and pressed his lips tightly shut. The corners of his eyes were damp.
Su-jeong crouched in the aisle of the very last row and hugged her knees. She looked up at the ceiling because she felt the tears were about to come. But even so, she couldn't contain the swelling emotion rising within her.
Theo looked around.
Before he knew it, the 600-seat lecture hall was packed with professors. Every one of them watched the blackboard without taking their eyes off it for an instant. Several pulled paper and pens from their bags and began copying down the equations.
Scratch scratch.
The second blackboard began to fill.
***
"What in the world is this..."
Sri's mouth fell open.
The taxi chaos of the first night had been only the beginning. Led by the mathematicians who set out from Hanover, scholars came flooding into Göttingen by air from the next day on.
"Thank goodness Theo was here."
If it had been him, he would never have been able to stop Seo-ha.
He thought back on what had happened the day before.
"Haah, haah."
Seo-ha's breathing had been ragged.
His shirt was a mess of white powder, and his fingertips had cracked and bled from the moisture-laden chalk. But Seo-ha did not stop. It had been a time when no one dared to step forward, overwhelmed by the sight of Seo-ha writing out equations as if possessed.
"Seo-ha."
Theo had grabbed his arm.
Seo-ha had looked at him with eyes full of question.
"You need to rest now. If you can't do that, let's stop."
"......"
Silence flowed.
After a long while, Seo-ha nodded with a reluctant expression.
That was the signal.
Ben set a chair down behind him. Su-jeong took out disinfectant and gauze and tended to his hands. When Sri opened a water bottle and handed it over, Seo-ha took it and gulped it down.
It was treatment so swift it was as if they had arranged it all beforehand.
Bing.
Cecilia opened her phone, checked a message, and smiled brightly.
"I've booked a hotel right up ahead. Go wash up and sleep now. I've got food ready too."
The lodgings nearby had all been full, but the House of Ashley's capable butler had pulled it off.
"...Thank you, everyone."
He felt ashamed.
Seo-ha couldn't bring himself to look them in the eye and dropped his head.
Murmur, murmur.
When Seo-ha left his spot to rest and eat, Göttingen instantly turned into a venue for collective review. To prevent any possible damage, Theo strung up a red cord around the blackboards like a police line.
"Andrew, how does it look to you? Do you really think it'll come together?"
"We can't tell anything yet. It's only just gotten past the opening stage."
"Isn't there anywhere to get coffee around here? Caffeine!"
"Is this a dream? That something like this could happen... Hilbert will rise from his grave."
"All right, everyone, let's organize our notes. Let's discuss the parts that are hard to understand and work them out together. We can't fall behind the pace when Seo-ha comes back!"
The aged scholars plopped down on the floor like undergraduates and pored over the equations.
At that surreal sight, Sri couldn't gather his wits.
And then there was the view that met him when he stepped outside.
The lawn in front of the Auditorium had transformed into an enormous campground.
"O goddess Namagiri! What on earth am I looking at right now?"
Göttingen was a small city of a hundred thousand. It had no facilities to accommodate the flood of scholars.
Considering the gravity of the matter, President Brenner had specially permitted eating on campus.
Tents of every shape and color stood crowded together all around, from professional mountaineering tents to shoddy things that looked hastily grabbed from a nearby supermarket.
There, professors carried on heated discussions, taking the cold dew as it came.
The coffee and snacks Ben and Su-jeong had prepared had long since run dry. In their place, the restaurants of downtown Göttingen, met with an unexpected windfall, busily turned out sandwiches and hot soup and carried them over.
Even the cafeteria, which had been closed for the vacation period, was now preparing to open before anyone noticed.
"That line 14, you see, I kept not understanding it, but he didn't just skip over the topological continuity without proof. If you twist it like this here..."
"How far have you understood, sir?"
"Ahem. I've... I've got nearly all of it; there's a slightly lacking part, but I can solve it in no time."
Even as they stood in line receiving food, the scholars did not let go of their notes.
Click!
Someone photographed this scene and posted it on Reddit.
[Live: The Homeless of the University of Göttingen]
The post instantly racked up tens of thousands of upvotes and spread across the entire world.
*****
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