Chapter 206
Translator: Dreamscribe
Cecilia stopped where she stood, her shoulders shaking with laughter.
She had come rushing here armed with her most dazzling dress and razor-sharp tension, but now she felt she hadn't trusted Seo-ha nearly enough.
'This is just who he's always been.'
Why did people shrink at parties like this? It was probably because they longed for that world, desperate to blend seamlessly into it.
But Seo-ha didn't crave the glamour, so he had no need to grovel, which was why he could remain the freest outsider in the room. The ambition he carried was far too big for him to be seduced by a glittering world.
'Nice try.'
They must have figured that with the right mix of flattery and splendor, sweet music and a well-placed seduction ploy, a naive twenty-year-old would be easy to handle.
But Seo-ha had taken only the question they'd thrown out as a pretext, and taken it at complete face value.
"Now, if you look here at the structure of the group formed by the rational points on the curve E...."
This was the first time she had heard Seo-ha speak Korean.
He always used English, not just at MIT but at the lab as well. Yet watching the board, Cecilia could follow his entire explanation. This was the charm of mathematics; the power of numbers and symbols transcends language.
'Is it because it's his mother tongue? He feels different somehow.'
The pauses between his words were shorter and his voice pitched lower, making him seem more confident. Cecilia hid her face behind the fan Emma had pressed into her hand and glanced around.
"Pfft!"
The sight of the distinguished guests breaking into a cold sweat made laughter slip out of her. She awkwardly coughed a few times to cover the slip.
Uncomfortable as the situation was, why couldn't any of them stop Seo-ha? One look at his face and the reason was easy to guess.
He was utterly sincere about all of this.
'You want to understand Utopia? Wow, really? I can't just throw away a chance to explain the beauty of this cipher!'
Such a simple thought process.
Though it seemed that very sincerity had paralyzed their ability to think.
Cecilia decided to extend a helping hand to these poor guests.
"Excuse me."
She approached Seo-ha's side with elegant steps.
The guests, already at their limit, turned their eyes to her. They looked at her as if beholding a savior.
She raised her hand and asked, looking at Seo-ha.
"Director, how long do you project Utopia's lifespan to be? And what is the basis for that assessment?"
Seo-ha looked at Cecilia and flinched in surprise. But he soon answered with a bright smile.
"Since no one can know the future, I can't guarantee it one hundred percent, but even assuming the worst case, I believe it will remain secure for at least three centuries. Because the mathematical foundation of this cipher...."
Seo-ha sank back into his explanation.
While his attention was fixed on Cecilia, the guests inched backward and drifted naturally away from the spot.
Relief was written all over their faces, as if they were all thinking, 'Saved!'
"Huh? Where did everyone go?"
Having finished his explanation, Seo-ha looked around with a deflated expression.
Only ten minutes ago he had been surrounded by a crowd, but now just a handful of people remained. People with pens and notebooks out, eyes wide open. Most likely the core researchers of the various companies.
"I guess I couldn't explain it simply enough...."
Seo-ha's shoulders slumped. He looked genuinely dejected.
Cecilia consoled him.
"The budget won't be a problem, so don't worry. That was never the point of this event anyway."
"Right? Honestly, I figured as much. I just hoped at least one of the influential people here would properly understand it. It would be a big help when they set policy."
"Relax. Just that firm answer of yours, 'three centuries', will have already put their minds at ease. It gave them the confidence that it's safe to go all in on Utopia."
"And here I thought my explanations had gotten a lot better from all those team meetings."
It felt a little unkind to Seo-ha, but Cecilia was actually somewhat relieved.
"Well then, Director. Now that the lecture is over, shall we go enjoy the real party?"
"Sorry?"
She smiled bewitchingly and led Seo-ha into the crowd.
Beneath the brilliant chandeliers, her light-drenched green silk dress sparkled like a jewel with every step she took.
Cecilia picked out, with perfect precision, the heavyweights hiding their presence in the corners.
"Senator Rogers, it's been a long time."
"Hahaha! As beautiful as ever, Countess."
Senator Ted Rogers of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, who had hoped to quietly observe the situation, made an awkward face.
He was attending the party unofficially today.
"Did you enjoy the lecture?"
"A precious lesson I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. Though I think my interpreter had a rough time of it...."
Beside him, a Korean-American man who appeared to be his aide scratched his head sheepishly.
"Then you must have heard about Utopia's security. I don't know if you're aware, but our Director never says anything he can't back up."
The British Ambassador to Korea, the Asia division heads of multinational corporations, figures from academia and charitable foundations. Cecilia led Seo-ha around and targeted only the circles of foreign guests, methodically.
Out of the corner of her eye, she confirmed that the faces of the Korean dignitaries were steadily hardening.
'Hmph!'
Cecilia sneered inwardly.
She could see straight through how today's event had come to be arranged. From their standpoint, sitting down directly at the negotiating table would have been a risky choice. They would have had to face MIT. So instead, they pulled in the political world first to apply psychological pressure.
'Not that it seems to have worked at all.'
The decision to invite foreign guests was probably part of the same scheme. Give Seo-ha the plausible pretext of a technology presentation, and use it to send them a message.
The message that 'we can control Seo-ha'.
Seo-ha was talking with the vice president of the world's largest semiconductor company. He was smiling, passionately explaining theory.
By now, the title on the business card he'd received had probably already evaporated from Seo-ha's mind. Seo-ha simply wanted to show off Utopia, the fruit of what his team had achieved together. And to hope it would make humanity's lives safer.
"Is it all right to just leave him be?"
Chairman Choi of Sunyoung Group asked, looking at Lee Hyun-seok, the Minister of Science and ICT.
The Minister felt his head throbbing, as if running a fever. He was sick of these corporations that knew the circumstances perfectly well yet couldn't give up their special privileges.
"And what would you have me do?"
"Isn't Apex Lab Korea a government-affiliated institution?"
"Not exactly. MIT and Director Yu hold stakes as well."
"Even so, it's a research institute built on Korean soil, isn't it? And our government holds the power of budget execution. You should have taken measures to make sure this fruit doesn't leak away to the wrong places."
Impatience seeped into Chairman Choi's voice.
"That's impossible."
At his blatant pressure, Minister Lee Hyun-seok clicked his tongue in displeasure.
"When the contract was signed, MIT sent its own legal team. The institute's operational independence is spelled out in the contract too. Just because we hold the budget doesn't mean we can restrict Director Yu's actions."
"Why did you ever approve a contract like that?"
The Minister sighed.
"If it hadn't been that kind of contract, Director Yu would never have come to Korea in the first place. From the government's standpoint, we quite literally did our best. So if you want something, Chairman, then compete transparently with those corporations over there."
Not wanting to waste any more energy on a pointless conversation, the Minister turned his gaze toward the hall.
Chairman Choi closed his mouth and stared at the center of the hall.
'Cecilia Ashley.'
A countess, of all things, as if this were the Middle Ages....
He had assumed she would be some insignificant figure clinging to past glory, but he had miscalculated. Of course, he had known. That hers was a family of Hereditary Peers, holding a life seat in the House of Lords, deeply entwined in Britain's financial and political networks.
But the stature of the woman he saw in person went far beyond that.
"Lady Ashley."
A low, measured voice.
When she turned her head, a silver-haired old gentleman stood at the end of her gaze. A smile spread across her lips.
"It's been a long time, Roger."
Roger Bradford. An Italian-born banker, a heavyweight with influence reaching even the European Central Bank.
When Cecilia naturally extended her hand, he bent his knee without a moment's hesitation and kissed the back of it. She made small talk while smoothly drawing Seo-ha into the center of the conversation.
At first Seo-ha wondered what Cecilia was up to, but before long he caught on to her intent.
"Thank you."
Seo-ha's voice, barely audible.
"Don't mention it. Korean society is far more rigid than you think. Within this country, the chaebols' influence is beyond imagining. But there's no reason you have to play by the rules of the system they've set."
"Mathematics knows no race or nation."
Cecilia nodded.
"David Hilbert."
"I should get going. You came today for my sake, didn't you? You really saved me."
"Though it seems my worries were unnecessary."
"No. You were a tremendous help."
Seo-ha slipped quietly out of the party hall.
Stepping outside the building, the Seoul night spread out beautifully before him. Stars dotted the sky here and there above the ridgeline of Namsan. Breathing in the cold air, his head finally seemed to clear.
Seo-ha plopped down on a bench and sank into thought.
Since ancient times, mathematics had never been free from politics and capital. Galileo was patronized by the Medici family, and Leibniz served as court counselor to the Duke of Hanover.
"I never even thought about it."
Newton, Lagrange, Laplace, Fourier, Hilbert, Einstein, von Neumann.
All of them had received state support, and in exchange, they'd had to accept heavy constraints on the direction of their research. Even the European scientists who joined the Manhattan Project were, in a sense, paying the bill America presented for granting them asylum and professorships.
"I get it now!"
Seo-ha had never understood Erdős.
Despite his immense fame, the man owned nothing. No house, no position, no bank account; he wandered from one mathematician's home to another across the world. Even though he could easily have done his research in far better conditions.
"Was that the same reason Perelman went into seclusion?"
Cecilia's worried expression, the greedy eyes of the domestic and foreign political and business figures fixed on him.
"Government funding, huh...."
The independence spelled out in the contract was not independence in any true sense. Freedom that is granted can always be taken back. Even if he returned to MIT after his military service, things wouldn't be much different.
Then what should he do?
The conclusion came easily.
"Daisy, I want to set up a corporation. How much money do I have?"
Daisy's avatar on his phone broke into a brilliant smile.
[Heh heh. I've waited a long time for this, Master. You've finally made up your mind. Do you plan to place the world beneath your feet?]
Seo-ha made a dumbfounded face.
"No, I just want to be free from politics and capital."
Erdős and Perelman had only been able to win their freedom by throwing everything away. But he intended to pursue it in a different way.
*****
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