Let's take an example: an apple falls.
Now, the first question: Why does the apple fall?
Newton immediately raises his hand and answers: The law of universal gravitation. The apple is pulled by the Earth's gravity, so it falls.
Now, the second question: Why is there universal gravitation?
Newton raises his hand again and confidently states: It is God's arrangement; God established universal gravitation.
Now, let's analyze the two answers.
The first answer belongs to the realm of physics.
The second answer belongs to the realm of metaphysics.
In a word: Metaphysics investigates the reasons for reasons, the laws for laws, and the questions about questions.
This is the compulsory course "Metaphysics" for Lykeion magicians.
Later generations, when compiling the works of the great philosopher Aristotle, first compiled a book called "Physics." Then, they compiled the profound and abstruse topics Aristotle discussed into "Metaphysics," which, translated literally, means "After Physics."
In short, this ancient philosopher realized long ago that—
The end of science is theology.
And upon arriving in this godless world, Aristotle naturally continued to study the question about this question:
Why is a godless world a godless world?
After more than a decade of research, exploration, and investigation, Aristotle arrived at an answer, and to prove it, she was about to reveal the truth of the world—
But from ancient times to the present, the cost of revealing the truth has been extremely heavy. Only her disciple, Conquering King Alexia, as one of the seven kings, could execute this step.
And Aristotle was not reluctant to share some incidental findings from her quest to prove this ultimate question with her disciple.
For instance,
To break through the Britannian capital within 40 days and extract the Holy Spear, Rhongomyniad,
Aristotle is now, through magic, subtly posing a question in the subconscious of everyone within the capital, Winchester:
[Does humanity have free will?]
Centered around this question, everyone in the capital will dance, perform, and answer this ultimate self-interrogation in the palm of her hand. In the very end, following her orchestrated script, they will detonate this logical bomb.
However,
At this moment,
Outside the capital city of Winchester,
Aristotle, who was sitting by a fertile field, observing magical beasts emerging from the ground to devour the incomplete corpses of farmers in the fields, while writing strange things on a parchment, suddenly looked up.
The question she posed received feedback moments later, an impossibility under normal circumstances.
She perceived a loneliness so intense that her pen almost slipped from her grasp—
This boundless, almost nihilistic loneliness instantly dispersed the interrogation of meaning, rewrote the causality imposed on a certain target, and erased a line of text from the parchment in her hand, causing the predetermined story to veer towards chaos.
And the erased text read:
[King Suya Pendragon will gather his Knights of the Round Table in the capital, begin his struggle to ascend the throne, and at the advent of the end, draw the Holy Spear, Rhongomyniad, for the survival of Britannia, fighting until only he remains, ultimately to be captured.]
"Huh?" Aristotle blinked, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.
"Such sorrow and loneliness exist in the world... and someone so afraid of death?"
Meanwhile, inside the Winchester Grand Casino.
Suya had never felt such considerable agency before.
He had always been the type who only moved when prodded hard with a whip. Self-interrogation and confusion constantly plagued him, even during battle, and this emotion had always troubled him.
But now,
No, not just now—ever since crawling out of that ruin, Suya's will to survive was glowing as if he'd been injected with a stimulant!
Within a single day, after a night raid on enemy lines, a royal banquet, an ally's arrest, an inquisition by the church, and a monstrous attack—such a packed day should have left him exhausted, wanting nothing more than to find a pillow and fall asleep.
Yet now, Suya felt his consciousness incredibly clear. He clearly recognized:
He needed money.
He needed to convert that money into tangible power before it became worthless.
Although Suya wasn't entirely sure how money would translate into power yet, that didn't stop him from starting to "grab" it—
At this moment,
Both Gawain and Merlin looked strangely at Suya as he exchanged the enormous sum of 4,600 gold pounds into individual chips, each with a minimum denomination of 1 gold pound.
He held these 4,600 chips and looked at Merlin and Gawain, beckoning them over:
"Don't just stand there, come get some."
"Everyone, come take 1,533 chips."
Watching this, Merlin looked astonished and asked, puzzled: "Wait, Suya, isn't it troublesome to carry them like this? We could have exchanged for larger denomination chips."
"Stop talking nonsense, carry them."
Suya placed the divided piles of chips into trays specially provided by the dealer, handed one to Merlin, picked up another, and placed it in front of Gawain.
Gawain froze for a moment and asked, "Knight Suya, am I supposed to play too?"
"Originally, I should have given you 2,000 chips. The quantity is a bit short now, but it should be enough later. Didn't we agree? The tuition fee is 10,000 gold pounds."
"But..." Gawain stared blankly at the small mountain of chips in the tray in her hand. She wanted to say that she hadn't actually helped much, and the most crucial step hadn't even been taken yet!
But Suya spoke first:
"I've checked, 12 out of 100 tables are roulette. Next, you two will take these 1,533 chips and place bets according to my instructions."
Merlin asked, "What are we betting on?"
Suya replied, "The single number with the highest payout."
Betting on the single number with the highest payout means betting on one specific slot. If you directly guess the final resting place of the ball in roulette, one chip can instantly multiply 35 times, becoming 35 chips.
Calculated at the table limit of 1,000 gold pounds, theoretically, if Suya placed 29 chips on each table and guaranteed that he guessed the ball's final resting place every time,
Then, with 12 tables, in one round, Suya could win 12,000 gold pounds with a bet of 348 gold pounds.
It would only take 250 rounds to break Princess Morgan le Fay's record in this casino, winning 3,000,000 gold pounds with 4,600 gold pounds.
Hearing Suya's words, Merlin was immediately shocked. She then looked at Suya as if he were a spendthrift, asking exasperatedly:
"You mean, you're going to drag twelve tables at once? Play with twelve roulette tables simultaneously?"
Suya nodded as if it were obvious, replying:
"That's right!"
If only there were more roulette tables, the amount would be even more outrageous.
At this point, Merlin hesitated for a moment, then immediately gritted her teeth and warned:
"Have you considered that with this betting strategy, if you don't guess correctly on a single table, all 4,600 gold pounds will evaporate in just 13 rounds."
But Suya only gave her a confident smile:
"But, if I guess correctly, then Merlin, it will only take 25 rounds to win back everything you've lost."
"Do you know the probability of such an impossible thing actually happening?"
"Hmm?"
"One in a billion!"
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