Brothers

Before the sun had risen the next day, Joseph was already up early, as he had grown accustomed to doing. This was an era without the internet, games, or even electric lights. Ordinary households couldn't afford candles, let alone oil lamps. Once night fell, everything was pitch-black. Joseph, who in his previous life had been used to going to bed after eleven, had now developed the good habit of rising early and turning in early. In fact, that was how people in this era generally lived.

Joseph got dressed, left his room, and went out into the church courtyard. The sun had yet to rise, and even the eastern sky had not begun to pale. A half-moon and a few fading stars still hung in the black-velvet sky. It was already mid-December, or Nivôse by the later Republican Calendar. Paris had not had any snow yet, and the weather was still not especially cold, but by early morning a layer of frost had already settled over the rooftops and courtyard.

A burly figure was swinging an axe as he chopped wood in the courtyard. Joseph knew it was Father Jean-Jacques. Every morning, he exercised this way.

"Good morning, Father!" Joseph went over and greeted him.

"Ah, Joseph. Good morning." The priest tossed the axe aside and straightened up, smiling at Joseph. "Going for a run?"

"Yes, around the church," Joseph replied. "Twenty laps, and I'll be ready for breakfast."

"Ah, where's your brother?" Father Jean-Jacques asked.

"He's up too, washing his face. He'll come running with me in a moment. By the way, Father, we'd like to treat you to a good lunch today. I promise nothing will go wrong this time!" Joseph said, a little sheepishly.

"Sounds good! No problem!" Father Jean-Jacques replied.

Just then, Napoleon came out from behind them. Unlike Joseph, he wasn't so easygoing, so he merely nodded to Father Jean-Jacques before following Joseph out the door.

The two of them started running along the road beside the church. Since entering military school, Napoleon had remained short, but his physical fitness had improved considerably. So he sped up first, trying to leave Joseph behind and claim victory.

But Joseph had no intention of letting him have his way.

"With those two little legs of yours, you think you can get ahead of me?" Joseph sped up too. After arriving in this era, he had learned that its medical care was appallingly poor. Even a minor cold could kill someone at any moment. That was why strengthening his body and improving his resistance to illness had become Joseph's way of staying alive. Lycée Louis-le-Grand didn't demand nearly as much physical training as a military academy, but Joseph had never slacked off on exercise. On top of that, he had long arms and legs. When it came to running, his natural advantages were clearly superior to Napoleon's. How could he let Napoleon, whom he had always kept under his thumb, overtake him?

So Joseph sped up too, and in just a few strides he was ahead of Napoleon again. Napoleon began to accelerate once more...

"Damn it... If your legs weren't longer... this time I..." Napoleon bent over, panting as he spoke in gasps. The rising sun tinted the white mist streaming from his mouth and nose a pale red.

"If you can't outrun me, you can't outrun me... What good are excuses... Still... still, beating you this time... was a lot... a lot harder than before." Joseph replied, breathing just as hard.

That was right. Joseph believed he had to outdo Napoleon in as many areas as possible. It wasn't because he was competitive or anything like that, but because he wanted enough credibility in the future to put the brakes on Napoleon.

"All right, caught your breath?" Joseph asked. "If you have, I've got something to tell you."

"I've been fine for ages." Napoleon straightened up and spoke as he walked on.

"I just won the grand prize for an essay." Joseph pretended to be calm. "The prize money is six hundred francs, so we can have a big celebratory meal at noon."

"Your essay won?" Napoleon stopped in surprise.

"Of course. When your big brother takes the field, what problem can't he solve?" Joseph said smugly.

"What did you write about?" Napoleon asked. "Why did you win instead of me?"

"Because I may have overturned one of Sir Newton's claims."

"What? How could that be?!" Napoleon stared at Joseph wide-eyed, trying to find some sign of a joke on his face. But all he saw was that detestably smug expression.

"I discovered a phenomenon that can be used to show that the nature of light is closer to Hooke's view—that it's a wave, not a particle," Joseph replied.

"So it was only that." Napoleon put on a dismissive air. "I thought you'd overturned the three laws."

"The three laws aren't going anywhere for now." Joseph shook his head.

"Not in the short term?" Napoleon was taken aback again. He shook his head. "You mean you've found a flaw in the three laws, but you don't yet have evidence to refute them?"

"No." Joseph shook his head. "What obvious flaw could there be in Sir Newton's three laws? I simply refuse to believe them, out of faith."

"Out of faith? Do the three laws leave no room for God?"

"No, that's not it." Joseph shook his head. "I just can't accept absolute determinism. That idea makes me feel as though life has no meaning at all."

"What does that have to do with determinism?" Napoleon clearly didn't understand.

"Ah, my foolish brother. You really don't have the makings of a great scholar." Joseph said. "According to Newton's three laws, we can regard the universe's current state as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. If a sage knew the forces governing every natural motion and the positions of every object in nature at any given moment, and could analyze that data, then the motion of everything in the universe—from the largest object to the smallest particle—would be contained in a single simple formula. Nothing would be uncertain to this sage, and the future would lie before him just like the past. Everything would already be determined, just as Oedipus could not defy that terrible prophecy, no matter what he did—because even his resistance was simply one destined link in the chain. If I truly believed in the three laws, what meaning would my life have?"

This explanation was completely beyond Napoleon's expectations. He furrowed his brow and thought for a long while, then shook his head. "I haven't found the problem with your argument yet, but there must be one. Otherwise, that conclusion is simply too hard to... Wait! Joseph, aren't you a devout believer? Isn't God that sage? God is all-knowing and all-powerful. But you can't even accept that He's all-knowing. You're a false believer."

By the end, Napoleon was laughing heartily, apparently pleased to have caught his brother out.

"That's a different matter," Joseph said. "Besides, I can smell Calvin in what you just said, you heretic!" Joseph laughed back at him.

Calvin was an important leader of Protestantism and a major proponent of determinism in philosophy and theology. France, meanwhile, was Catholic territory, and Catholics considered Calvin a heretic. Since Napoleon had just said that God's omniscience meant predestination, Joseph retorted by calling him a heretic of Calvin's sect.

The two of them teased each other for a while, then returned to the church together.

After breakfast, Joseph casually tested Napoleon on his studies, then brought out his prizewinning essay for Napoleon to study carefully. He also demonstrated the two experiments involved.

"I'm starting to believe your argument," Napoleon said. "What problems does this conclusion still have?"

"Plenty, of course," Joseph replied. "Every wave needs a medium to travel through, but the medium through which light travels is still a serious puzzle. For instance, light moves incredibly fast. We haven't yet measured its exact speed, but there's no doubt that it's extremely fast. For a wave to travel at such a speed, its medium would have to be extraordinarily strong. But even though we move through such a rigid medium, we've never felt any resistance from the luminiferous ether. In short, there are quite a few problems here. Still, I believe that as research progresses, we'll eventually find a solution, even if it isn't the one we expect."

"Too bad," Napoleon said. "I'm very interested in this, but I have to admit that, at least for now, I haven't the faintest idea where to start."

"Ah, my foolish brother, you have to understand that everyone has different talents. Some people may naturally be better in certain areas, but not necessarily in others. For instance, when it comes to mathematics and the other natural sciences, I don't think you can hold a candle to me. But perhaps you'll surpass me in other fields. For example, if there's a little hole, you can squeeze through it, while I probably can't."

Listening to Joseph's earnest words at first, Napoleon had felt a little touched. To be honest, although he thought highly of himself and believed he had a great talent for mathematics and the natural sciences, he wasn't someone who liked to deceive himself. Though he refused to admit it aloud, he knew deep down that his talent in these fields really was inferior to his brother's, and it often left him feeling rather dejected. Joseph's earlier words had genuinely warmed his heart. But then Joseph had brought up squeezing through a dog hole, and Napoleon was so furious he really wanted to punch him.

"Joseph, you're a real piece of work," Napoleon said.

"Haha..." Joseph laughed smugly. "Besides, considering the difference in our heights, you definitely won't be able to eat as much meat as I can at lunch."