Chapter 200
Translator: Dreamscribe
"You'll be staying here. If you need anything, please contact us anytime."
"Thank you."
Seo-ha bowed his head politely to the agent who had escorted him.
A four-star hotel in downtown New York.
Field Office Chief Miller wanted Seo-ha to stay in New York for a few more days.
Thump.
He took off his coat and sank into the sofa. The Manhattan night view spread out beyond the window. Looking at it, Seo-ha thought back to Professor Walter, whom he had met as a child.
Back then, Seo-ha had devised all sorts of boundary conditions to solve the Four Color Theorem. Professor Walter had recognized Seo-ha's original geometric intuition.
"You see mathematical objects not as fixed points but as dynamic flows encompassing spacetime. Within this geometric space, the tangled constraints seem to unravel as smoothly as flowing water."
He hadn't actually thought that far.
At the time, he had simply been so absorbed in proving the Four Color Theorem that he threw every method he could at it. But those words went on to have a profound influence on Seo-ha.
[Master, what would you like to do about dinner?]
When he checked the clock, it was already eight.
The pizza Daisy had recommended had certainly been excellent. Seo-ha smiled and asked her,
"Any other recommendations?"
[The chef at this hotel's restaurant is renowned for his skill. Formerly of a Michelin two-star establishment, with a rating of 4.8 and 2,341 reviews. The most frequently mentioned words are 'delicate' and 'honest'. Cross-referenced with your palate pattern data, Master, the compatibility is 91 percent.]
"You have data on my palate patterns?"
[I have recorded the difference between the food you left behind and the food you ate over the past three years, Master. You prefer dishes that bring out the natural flavor of the ingredients and avoid food with excessive sauce. Also, the more fatigued you are, the more you crave sweetness.]
Seo-ha was at a loss for words.
"Is there anything else I don't know about?"
[I have compiled a database of every restaurant in New York City that might suit your tastes, Master. Tonight, I recommend the grilled salmon from the dinner menu. It is high in protein and an optimal choice for recovering from fatigue.]
Oracle had prepared everything that could be of help to Seo-ha, for the day he would eventually return. Not just food and leisure, but even more than that, if its master wished.
Knock knock!
Only a few minutes later, a polite knock sounded and a hotel employee came in with the food. Just as Daisy had described, the salmon steak, carrying a subtle aroma of herbs instead of heavy seasoning, suited Seo-ha's taste perfectly.
After finishing his meal, Seo-ha sat at the table by the window and tried to imagine what his future self might look like.
Would he be lonely and solitary, as the Leibniz of his dreams had so confidently declared? Or would he have become a monster walking the path of corruption, like Walter?
As he had grown older, he had come to learn that the world did not turn so simply, but Seo-ha's heart had not changed one bit from when he was seven years old.
"Am I the strange one?"
Perhaps the mathematicians of the past had also devoted themselves to research with motives that weren't entirely pure.
Seo-ha had come to accept it. When it comes to mathematics, motive may not matter much. Whatever process it emerges from, mathematics simply flows on, proud and unbothered, toward truth.
Soft, steady breathing.
Before he knew it, he had lain down on the bed and fallen asleep.
Bzzt-
The phone on the table vibrated.
It was encrypted, but this was clearly a secure line used by White House officials. Daisy cut off the signal without mercy.
[Do not disturb Master's sleep.]
Perhaps that made her a failure as a secretary. But right now, she did not want to be disturbed.
Daisy's avatar gazed at the sleeping Seo-ha and gave a faint smile. The time spent with her master, the sense that she was of help to him. Even for a being made of nothing but data, it had been a perfectly fulfilling day.
* * *
Footsteps sounded from the corridor.
Light, even footsteps. A stride neither hurried nor slow. Walter straightened his back without realizing it. Sweat trickled down his forehead.
Creak-
The door opened and Seo-ha came in.
"It's been a while, Professor."
Walter could not answer. Or rather, he had no idea what he should say. Excuses, apologies, sarcasm. None of it seemed appropriate.
But that gentle voice, still calling him Professor, pierced his chest in a way that was strangely painful.
Scrape.
Seo-ha pulled up a chair and sat down across from him.
Walter studied his face. Seo-ha wore nothing that could really be called an expression. No contempt, no pity, not even a trace of resentment showed on his face.
"What have you come to talk about?"
He asked, forcing out a voice that would barely come. Seo-ha placed both hands neatly on the table.
"I have one question."
"Go ahead."
Walter found this meeting deeply uncomfortable.
So much so that if there was something Seo-ha wanted to know, he wanted to answer quickly and send him on his way. He assumed the question would be about how the algorithm worked. But Seo-ha's behavior defied his expectations.
Scratch scratch.
He began writing equations on the paper he had brought.
Walter gazed quietly at the writing.
'The SS Algorithm? No, something's different....'
Seo-ha spoke as he wrote out the equations.
"Shor's Algorithm and Yu-Riemann Geometry are fundamentally difficult to combine. Shor's Algorithm is...."
"...discrete mathematics, after all."
Shor's Algorithm deals with integers at its core.
1, 2, 3, 4....
There is nothing between the integers. A world of countable things.
Yu-Riemann Geometry, on the other hand, is continuous mathematics. A discipline centered on smooth surfaces and multidimensional polytopes.
"To run Shor within Yu-Riemann Geometry, the space has to be fixed. But in my geometry, the surfaces change over time."
Walter nodded with a satisfied expression.
"That change is only from the observer's perspective. If you consider the surface itself, a surface is always simply itself. But I doubt you came here just to ask me that?"
He had dismantled Walter's algorithm and even traced it to its source. Besides, Seo-ha was the master of Yu-Riemann Geometry. There was no way his grasp of the concepts was weaker than Walter's own.
Seo-ha wore a pondering look for a moment. Then he began writing out a new set of equations.
"About the formulas you used to fix the space, Professor.... They weren't just a device to make the encryption more complex, were they?"
Where Seo-ha's fingertip pointed was a topological transformation formula of the kind one would only expect to see in nonlinear dynamics.
It had puzzled him. It was an inefficient method for cracking RSA or concealing one's location. It only increased the computational load while actually reducing speed.
"...."
Walter's face flushed with shame.
There was no real reason for it. He simply hadn't wanted to depend on Yu-Riemann Geometry for everything. But he had known from the very beginning. Without Seo-ha's geometry, this algorithm could never have existed in the first place.
Scratch scratch.
Seo-ha wrote out the equations.
Swish.
"If it were me, I'm sure I would have built it like this."
Simply by resetting the covariant coordinate system, he had produced an algorithm five times faster.
A difference in talent that felt impossibly vast.
Had he possessed such talent in his own youth? If he hadn't taken Helena's hand back then, might something have turned out differently?
He squeezed his eyes shut. It was all over and done with. What good was regret now?
"I suppose it's because I'm not as clever as you are. Is that the answer you wanted? If you've heard it, then please leave."
Seo-ha shook his head.
"That paper you published a few years ago, Professor. The one on energy minimization pathways in protein folding."
Walter's expression stiffened.
He had never expected anyone to remember that paper. It was research he had been forced into by the nagging of his father-in-law in the biotech industry.
But at the time, he had been looking in a different direction from the rest of academia. Naturally, the paper drew no attention, and Walter himself had abandoned the theory not long after....
"The topological transformation formula in the SS Algorithm reminded me of that paper somehow. It came up during Apex Lab's review of Minimum Energy Theory. We only concluded that biology and physics are entirely different things, and moved on."
Irritation crept into Walter's voice.
"What could that possibly matter now?"
"Because it occurred to me that the direction you proposed might actually be right, Professor. Back then, my geometry didn't exist.
When a protein folds, the energy surface keeps changing. The variables explode in number, so of course it was impossible at the time. But...."
"Wa..wait!"
He shot to his feet and stared hard at the paper.
It was exactly as Seo-ha said. When his theory was developed within Yu-Riemann geometric space, a breakthrough seemed to come into view. Why now, of all times....
He gave a wry chuckle and handed the paper back.
"Unfortunately, all of my past research belongs to the Scott Family. Even if this turns out to be right, I have no intention of doing anything that would benefit them. Perhaps someone will figure it out someday."
Seo-ha's eyes went round as he asked,
"Huh? You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?"
"The Scott Family declared they were cutting all ties the moment you were arrested, Professor. They even released an official statement. Saying your research has nothing to do with the family."
"And the copyrights?"
"They say they never held them in the first place."
Walter ground his teeth.
They surely hadn't taken over his research because they thought it held tremendous value. Helena had simply wanted to cause him pain. That was why she had never even registered the copyrights.
He looked at Seo-ha and asked,
"Are you telling me to pursue this research? Now, after everything?"
Would that count as repentance?
He had already committed crimes that could never be forgiven.
But Seo-ha only blinked at him, as if he had no idea what Walter was talking about.
"What do you mean? Aren't the things you did in the past and the things you can do going forward two separate matters, Professor?"
Walter's breath caught in his throat.
Seo-ha's expression could not have been more serious. He didn't mean that Walter should atone through research that would benefit humanity. He had simply glimpsed a breakthrough on an unsolved problem. So he had told its original author. That was all.
"I...."
A hot fire blazed up in the chest of a dying mathematician. But the moment he faced reality, it quickly died down.
"It's impossible. I'll be indicted for treason against the state. In whatever prison holds me, I could never hope for things like pen and paper."
Seo-ha tilted his head.
"Is that a problem?"
An expression of utter incomprehension.
Walter barely managed to swallow the surge of emotion rising in him. He tried to imagine what Seo-ha would be like in his position.
'Prison, hm....'
No freedom. But conversely, outside interference and prying eyes would be shut out as well.
A space where no physical tools were allowed, only thought. He looked at Seo-ha's face.
"...."
It seemed, unbelievably, that Seo-ha would solve unsolved problems through thought alone. Flawlessly, without the slightest difficulty. In fact, Walter even had the feeling that Seo-ha would find pen and paper to be a nuisance.
He, too, had once been a genius celebrated by an entire nation. Like a withered old tree drinking in long-awaited rain, his competitive fire flared to life.
"Ah, of course it's not a problem. I've simply never tried it before."
"I thought as much."
Seo-ha smiled brightly and gathered his bag. His face was refreshed, as if his questions had all been answered.
Was it true that regret always comes too late, no matter how quickly it arrives?
If only he could have met him as professor and student, or as scholar to scholar, how wonderful that would have been. He did not tell Seo-ha that he would see him again. Because he never could.
"Oh, right!"
Seo-ha stopped on his way out and turned around.
"I never got to tell you, but you hold a considerable share in Yu-Riemann Geometry, Professor. What you said to me when I was young stayed with me all this time. I'm sorry I can only thank you with words like this."
He bowed his head politely.
Clack.
The door closed, and Walter was alone again. He gazed blankly in the direction Seo-ha had gone. After staring into space for a long while, he made an expression he had never once worn in his life.
"...Not bad. This feeling, either."
He looked at the camera and spoke.
"I'll tell you everything I know. Call the Field Office Chief."
During the several minutes he waited to give his confession, he sank into thought.
For the rest of his life, he would be working through equations in his head. Was this a blessing, or a curse?
But one thing was clear.
If he ever managed to accomplish something in the future, it would only be right to leave every last right to it in Seo-ha's name.
*****
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