Chapter 30: Athena

One week later, City Hall Square was bustling with many people. In front of the temple, a temporary wooden high platform was erected, lower than the highest steps of the temple to show respect to the Goddess of Elegance.

Freemen passing by looked with curiosity at the Nobles in white robes with purple ribbons and the Citizens in white robes with red ribbons surrounding the platform, asking the Freemen also gathered on the outside, “What are these Nobles and Citizens doing? Gathering here so early. I didn’t hear about a Citizen Assembly.”

“Go away, go away. What Citizen Assembly? Do Nobles need to attend a Citizen Assembly? Unless it’s a joint assembly.”

“Then is this a joint assembly?”

“What joint assembly? This is Ace the Wise of the city-state giving a lecture on Logic.”

“A lecture on what?”

“Logic!”

“Ruo what?”

“Just get lost, stop messing with me.”

…

The Nobles and Citizens in the front rows were discussing in low voices what a concept was, the intension and extension of a concept, and the types of concepts. At this point, Ace, dressed in a solemn black robe with several badges pinned to his chest, ascended the high platform.

A group of burly men surrounded the platform and stood below. They were the sound relayers for the speech. After Ace spoke a sentence, they would repeat it loudly so that the entire square could hear.

“To all respected Nobles, Citizens, and Freemen, it is an honor to discuss what Logic is with you.”

“You must all be full of yearning for knowledge and wisdom. Logic itself is a form of knowledge, a tool, a golden key for us to understand the world objectively and neutrally. By mastering Logic, you possess an excellent paradigm for thinking…”

“Today, let us study together what a judgment is. We make judgments almost constantly. For instance, right now, you must be thinking whether the Logic spoken by this young man here is really that useful. This is a judgment. And for another example…”

“What is distributivity?…”

The morning passed. Ace had roughly finished explaining the content of judgment. The discussion below was ceaseless. Some felt they had found a treasure, some furrowed their brows, and others looked dazed and dizzy. More people stopped Ace, wanting to ask him too many questions about Logic.

“Please don’t rush, everyone. Ask your questions one by one. I will record all your questions and publish a specialized Logic exercise book for everyone to deepen their study.” Ace said to the crowd with a smile. It is time to let you experience the boundless ocean of questions.

In the afternoon, Ace attended another small gathering of scholars at the library. This was almost exclusively his stage.

With the knowledge of judgment as a foundation, he thoroughly explained what inference was. The classic syllogism of deductive inference drew collective gasps from the scholars. It wasn’t that they hadn’t used similar methods, but no one had systematically and logically presented the syllogism before.

Complete induction and incomplete induction provided effective methods for the research of many scholars, and analogy provided scholars with a divergent method for research.

Ace introduced hypothesis and verification and explained the four fundamental laws of Logic: the Law of Contradiction, the Law of Excluded Middle, the Law of Identity, and the Law of Sufficient Reason. Looking into the eyes of the scholars, he knew he had succeeded completely.

Logic, as a brand-new discipline—a systematic body of knowledge guiding human thought—would establish Ace’s academic status. As time passed, Logic would slowly spread across the Salia Peninsula, and he would become a rising new academic authority on the peninsula.

More importantly, Logic would subtly influence more people to think logically, prompting them to ask if something was logical, which would play a huge role when he established his Wizard organization in the future.

The next day, Ace was at Peter’s house, writing the remaining content of Logic and the exercise book. Morton walked into the room in a hurry, grabbed Ace’s hand, and said, “Come on, change your clothes immediately! The messenger from the Crown Prince’s palace has arrived with an order to see you.”

Ace was pulled by Morton, changed into his black robe, boarded the messenger’s carriage, and was blindfolded.

In a quiet courtyard in the Royal Palace, Ace met the Crown Prince for the first time. She was a girl, around 15 or 16 years old, with gem-red eyes that shone like stars, long sky-blue hair pinned up, and an expression that was resolute and spirited. She wore silver-white skirt armor, appearing both strong and elegant.

“Are you surprised that I am female? Almost no one in the city-state has seen me, because for certain reasons, I cannot appear in my role as Crown Prince before I come of age.”

The girl said with a slight melancholic sigh. “Until today, I sent people to audit and record your speech, and I couldn’t help but want to meet you. It is fortunate that my Royal Father is out of the city, giving me this opportunity to see for myself what kind of person could be so favored by the Goddess of Wisdom.”

Ace heard the girl’s words and felt he had inadvertently gotten into huge trouble. The Crown Prince, whom no one had ever seen, had met him. This was not a good thing.

It was not impossible that the King would chop him in half upon returning to ensure secrecy.

Ace patiently tried to appease the girl’s curiosity first and then prepared to make a run for it.

Pfft. The girl laughed, momentarily charming like a spring breeze.

“Seeing you with furrowed brows, are you worried that my Royal Father will return and chop you in two? Don’t worry. The Royal Family has a Wonder that can make people keep secrets strictly. I wouldn’t be so willful as to let such a clever mind of yours be wasted.”

The girl gently stroked Ace’s hair. “I never thought you were such a young child. I will first bind you with a secret pact scroll. Uncle Arnold, please come out.”

A muscular man, stripped to the waist, wearing red trousers and a black cloak, holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right, leaped down from the rooftop with a bang.

Ace looked at the man’s cold eyes and the explosive power displayed by his eight-pack abs, and he felt a chill down his spine, his whole-body tense like a cat whose fur had bristled.

“Athena, you should not have brought this boy here.” Arnold said solemnly.

“But he is already here. I know you have the secret pact scroll. He is a famous Wise Man in the city-state and cannot lose his life in the Royal Palace.”

Arnold stared coldly at Ace, then looked at Athena helplessly. Finally, he gently rubbed his belt, and a scroll appeared out of thin air.

Is that storage space? Ace really wanted to release his mental power to sense it, but the situation was not in his favor, so he chose to back down.

“Do you think I’m very willful? You must hate me, right? No matter how you look at it, I have caused you great trouble.”

Although Ace wholeheartedly agreed inwardly, he still chose to back down on the surface. “Your Highness has considered my safety. To have the honor of meeting you is also an interesting event.”

“Really?”

Athena’s eyes brightened slightly, then dimmed.

“I have been cursed by Demon Lord Gorgan since birth. He killed my grandfather and intended to harm me.”

“The Ancestor God cannot completely dispel the curse. He cast a protective authority on me. As long as the number of people who have specifically seen me does not exceed 20 before I come of age, the curse power will be eliminated when I come of age, and I will transform the curse into my own power.”

I truly do not want to know your secret at all; Ace was on the verge of going crazy. He just wanted to develop his abilities quietly. The purpose of promoting Logic was to subtly change people’s thinking for the convenience of establishing his organization in the future, but he never expected to attract a Princess with a huge secret.

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