Episode 7: The Doppler Effect
There were only three known archmages in the world.
But there was a fourth, unknown to most.
His name was Zerogia.
He had made Archmage Bardente his lifelong rival and dedicated himself to surpassing him. To that end, he locked himself away in a tower, continuing his research in seclusion.
He had abandoned wealth and fame for a very rational reason: he wanted nothing more than to defeat Bardente.
When he was twenty-three—a young, ambitious wizard attending the Imperial Academy in his third year—Zerogia prepared a thesis:
“On a Level-5 Applied Formula to Strengthen the Connection to the Spirit Realm, Referencing Almagest’s Orbital Charts.”
Even his professor lavished praise on it. It was a paper that went far beyond a typical student’s level—something that could truly contribute to the field.
But when he presented it, his audience murmured:
“Isn’t this similar to that paper a first-year, Bardente, presented recently?”
“Yes, almost the same—just a weaker version.”
“Right. Bardente’s formula is also level-5 but simpler and even covers the Spirit Realm, the Illusionary Realm, and the Fairy Realm all at once.”
A thesis he had worked on for over a year got dismissed like that.
Incensed, Zerogia gritted his teeth and set to work on another paper.
But time and again, the same thing happened:
“Wow! A master’s student producing research at this level?”
“Outstanding.”
“But, ah… unlucky timing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Bardente—a fourth-year—just presented a similar paper. His is more efficient and covers a broader scope.”
Bardente. Bardente. Bardente!
No matter where Zerogia went, that name was there.
By some bizarre twist of fate, their research topics always overlapped. Bardente was always one step ahead.
But the worst part…
From the very first time they shared a course:
“Oh, good to meet you, Senior… uh, Zerogia, right?”
And at Bardente’s graduation party:
“Ah, hello, Senior. Nice to finally meet you. I’m Bardente.”
Even after they both graduated and met at a mage’s conference:
“Oh, you studied at the same Academy? Bardente here—pleased to meet you.”
Bardente—
That man never once remembered Zerogia’s name.
So Zerogia swore to himself:
“I’ll surpass Bardente no matter what!”
In the end, he failed.
By the time he became an 8th-level archmage who could freely manipulate applied formulas, he was already 120 years old—forty years after Bardente had been granted the Archmage title.
Thus, Zerogia changed his approach:
“If not me, then my disciple will do it.”
He roamed the world in search of the greatest prodigy—and finally took one as his apprentice.
“Master, I can at last fulfill your long-held wish.”
Salinelle, the only disciple of Zerogia, bowed deeply before his master, now reduced to a skeletal form in his chair.
He had traveled the world for ten years under his master’s guidance, then spent another ten years honing his craft in various towers, and a final ten years waiting near Verite Barony—hoping Bardente’s disciple would one day emerge.
A total of thirty years of study.
Salinelle compiled the fruit of that research into a single volume:
Emendatum.
Its formulas could correct the errors in Almagest—the greatest book in the magical canon—making this potentially the most significant magical breakthrough in five centuries.
With just a few lines of Emendatum’s formulas, one could adjust the frequencies of the Spirit Realm, the Illusionary Realm, and the Fairy Realm listed in Almagest, thereby revolutionizing the world’s connection to the mystical realms.
It was a discovery that could reignite the dying spark of magic!
With this single volume, Salinelle would uphold the oath he’d made with his dying master, Zerogia.
“Master! I will surpass Bardente’s disciple and become the greatest wizard in the world. Then everyone will know that the disciple of Zerogia has crushed Bardente’s disciple!”
That part of his vow was already basically fulfilled—after all, Bardente’s disciple had all but been labeled a hopeless dullard.
“I’d hoped to see him once before leaving, but…”
Still, there was no reason to delay unveiling his monumental discovery because of some so-called “dullard.”
With that, Salinelle gathered his book and left the tower.
Outside, a merchant had just arrived to deliver provisions.
When Salinelle greeted him, the merchant said:
“Wizard, have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“The baron’s eldest son has come home!”
Baron Verite’s eldest son: Perseta Verite, Bardente’s disciple.
Salinelle decided this was fate.
“Perfect. I’ll see him at last, mock him thoroughly, and then leave this place.”
He headed toward the barony’s central town with a light step.
The barony was unusually bustling, as though every local merchant had gathered here. Carts were everywhere.
“What’s going on?”
Verite Barony was typically a quiet rural domain. Salinelle had spent ten years nearby and had never seen it so crowded. He surveyed his surroundings and saw an old man and some younger folks.
That old man—Gillyan—was drinking early in the day, regaling the young people with tales of his youth:
“It may seem strange to you, but when I was young, fairies appeared quite frequently. Back then—”
He suddenly trailed off, looking sheepish. Usually, whenever Gillyan started these “when I was young” stories, the local youth would roll their eyes and jeer:
“Oh, here goes the old man again, talking about the good old days.”
But today was different.
“Hey, why’d you stop talking?”
“Come on—what happened back then?”
“What do fairies like?”
“How did you spend time with them?”
“Mister, won’t you take on students? With fairies returning and all, you’ll need extra help!”
“Mister, have another drink—here you go!”
Today, Gillyan was both king and sage to the young folk, who pressed him for every scrap of knowledge about fairies.
Tears of emotion welled up in Gillyan’s eyes.
Salinelle’s eyebrow twitched as he overheard:
“Fairies? Did they really return?”
Nearby merchants chattered similarly—something about an unprecedented bumper harvest, wagons overflowing with top-grade fairy crops, people clamoring to buy.
Salinelle ran toward the Fairy Farm in a hurry.
“Wha…?”
He found it was true: the fields were filled with massive fairy crops like full-grown trees, laden with large, thriving fruit.
From time to time, he glimpsed flickering fairy wings among the branches.
“How did this happen?”
He quickly pulled out his prized invention, a “Mana Wave Detector,” and checked the frequencies emitted by the farm’s resonance circle.
“This… this is insane…”
Amazingly, the resonance frequency was almost identical to the Fairy Realm’s frequency he himself had recently calculated.
“Is it a coincidence? Or…”
Salinelle bit his lip. It could be pure chance—but if all this had happened after Bardente’s disciple, Perseta Verite, ended his seclusion…
“I have to confirm this.”
If Bardente was his master’s nemesis, then Perseta was his own.
Salinelle set off for the baron’s castle, his face grim.
Perseta scratched his cheek, perplexed.
“Why is he so upset?”
The visitor was a wizard who had suddenly shown up at the castle, demanding to see Perseta.
Given that he seemed quite high-level, Perseta had willingly agreed to meet, assuming it was about the Fairy Farm’s bumper harvest.
But Salinelle Demech had spent the past five minutes in tense silence, staring Perseta down.
Finally, Perseta tried to break the ice, but Salinelle cut in at once with a sudden question:
“If we consider our dimension to be ‘10,’ then one dimension is also ‘10,’ another is ‘9,’ and another ‘6.’”
An abrupt query.
But Perseta’s eyes lit up. We’re 10; the others are about 10, 9, and 6. He recognized the correlation, albeit in simpler form.
I used 1, 0.997, 0.913, and 0.589 in my own notation… so he’s quite accurate.
He was thrilled that, in this backward magical world, there was someone who had computed such values with decent precision.
Hiding his excitement, he answered calmly:
“You’re referring to their ‘intrinsic frequencies.’ Ours is 10, the Spirit Realm is also 10, the Illusionary Realm is 9, and the Fairy Realm is 6. Though it differs from Almagest’s claims, these are more accurate figures.”
Salinelle’s eyes went wide; his hand trembled.
So he does know! You’re the one who altered the farm’s magic circle, Perseta…
But he wasn’t finished yet.
“I recently invented something called a ‘Mana Wave Detector,’” Salinelle said.
“Really? That’s awesome!”
“With it, I found that each realm’s intrinsic frequency rises when the realm approaches us and falls when it moves away—corresponding to the forward and retrograde motions in Almagest. In theory, we can calculate each period’s frequencies more precisely without measuring them each time. It’s a major discovery based on Almagest.”
“That’s incredible!”
“So here’s my question: why would the frequency increase as a realm approaches and decrease as it recedes?”
Perseta was delighted. He answered without pausing for breath:
“It’s just like a whistling arrow: when it’s coming toward me, the pitch is higher and louder; when it’s going away, the pitch is lower and softer. The same principle.”
He had learned this at age seven from his master, Bardente, who had likened it to a “doppelganger changing behavior depending on whether it’s in front or behind,” dubbing it the “Doppler Effect.”
“U-uh…”
Salinelle hadn’t expected Perseta to know that. He blurted his surprise, but Perseta was on a roll:
“Your theory is fascinating, by the way. However, doesn’t it fail to explain the frequencies of the ‘Inner Realms’?”
“Inner Realms?”
“You probably know them as the Five Realms—Heaven, Hell, the Beast Realm, Mythic Realm, and Underworld. Your theory doesn’t apply to those five.”
Salinelle began sweating.
“How did you…? Are you saying you can explain the frequencies of the Five Realms too? Not even Ptolemaios managed that in Almagest…”
But Perseta, rather than explain, launched into the next topic:
“You mentioned creating a Mana Wave Detector. Then you know that the frequency rises for half the day—the so-called ‘Mana Day’—and falls for the other half—the ‘Mana Night.’ Right?”
“H-how do you know that…?! Did you build one too?”
Salinelle jumped to his feet. He had only discovered this variable and completed the related formulas just yesterday. Yet Perseta already knew?
For Salinelle, it was a world-shattering revelation. But Perseta—finally encountering someone who understood—found it exhilarating.
“Great! Then here’s a question.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Since a higher frequency means the realm is moving closer, and a lower frequency means it’s moving away, why do all mystical realms come closer for half the day, then recede for the other half? How do we explain that?”
It was like a bolt of lightning through Salinelle’s brain. A massive truth was descending on him, the deep secrets of this universe roaring in his ears.
He reached out for it.
“C-could it be… that our dimension itself is rotating? If so, that explains it—”
“Yes! That’s the dimension’s rotation!”
Perseta clapped and beamed. His eyes shone:
“You’re almost there! So, why are Almagest’s predictions growing ever more inaccurate? Why does magic seem to be disappearing? If our dimension is rotating, think about how that might affect Almagest!”
Dimensional rotation—it wasn’t over yet.
Salinelle struggled to keep his grip on this huge realization.
“Uuh… uuh…”
But this was much harder, like grasping a wisp of fog.
Perseta, unable to hold back, struck his knee and gave another hint:
“It means the ‘Mana Ecliptic’ has shifted! The path the Mana Sun takes across our dimensional sky has changed! What does that imply?!”
Thump!
At that clue, Salinelle was hit by an even bigger jolt of understanding.
“Ah… The angle! It’s changed because the axis of dimensional rotation moved! So the coordinates of each realm had to change since our reference frame changed!”
Perseta practically leapt for joy.
“Exactly! The axis of rotation has shifted! So Almagest—which describes the mystical realms’ motions based on the old sky—had to start falling out of sync!”
“Aah… Ah…”
Salinelle forgot about competing with Perseta; he was consumed by the monumental realization. But Perseta still wasn’t finished.
“And now, the truly final question!”
Salinelle snapped his head up in disbelief: Still not over?!
Perseta’s mouth opened and closed mercilessly, delivering the question:
“Why doesn’t your Doppler-based frequency prediction—taken from Almagest—apply to the Five Realms?”
Uhh… Uhh…
This time it was even harder. Salinelle clenched his thighs, trying desperately to focus.
Seeing no immediate answer, Perseta thumped his chest, offering another hint:
“Remember: our dimension is rotating! That changes everything from the beginning. Maybe you should question Almagest’s fundamental premise!”
Ah…
He almost had it. He reached…
But the giant revelation receded just out of reach.
At last, Salinelle, nearing his limit, gave a feeble reply:
“I-it’s probably because those Five Realms are higher realms… different laws must apply…”
Perseta clutched his head in frustration.
“No! No… We got as far as the axis shifting! You know the dimension is rotating! Why can’t you see it? Think, think!”
Though he spoke politely, the words were scathing.
Salinelle felt his pride cracking and his self-esteem plunging.
Perseta was likewise at his wits’ end:
You’re so close! Why can’t you say it? Almagest is wrong! Why can’t you say that we’re not the center!
The Mana Sun is the real center! Our dimension and all the other mystical worlds revolve around it!
Why can’t you say it?
We’re the ones in orbit! It only looks like they’re circling us because of our own rotation!
He wanted to shout it right then and there. If not for his vow—“I’ll let others discover it themselves”—he would have screamed it a hundred times already.
Daunted by Perseta’s intensity, Salinelle shrank back.
“Uh… well…”
That towering realization…
He could see it approaching, deafening, but now it was fading away.
What had once seemed so close was gone.
He remembered his original goal: to humiliate Perseta. Yet here he was, floundering, forced to accept the obvious:
Perseta fumed, eyes wild:
“Think! Think it through! Think!”
Finally, Salinelle lowered his head.
“Um, sir…”
“What? Did you figure it out at last?”
Perseta’s eyes gleamed with anticipation. Salinelle could only lower his gaze.
“I don’t know, Master…”
You’re going too fast…
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