Athena

A week later, City Hall Plaza was packed with people. In front of the temple, a temporary wooden platform had been erected, lower than the temple's highest step to show respect for the Elegant Goddess.

Passing freemen looked curiously at the white-robed, purple-sashed nobles and white-robed, red-sashed citizens gathered around the platform. They asked the freemen standing around the outside, "What are these nobles and citizens doing, gathering here so early in the morning? I didn't hear anything about a citizens' assembly."

"Get out of here. What citizens' assembly? Would a citizens' assembly need nobles attending? Unless it was a joint assembly."

"Then is this a joint assembly?"

"What joint assembly? Ace the Sage of the city-state is giving a lecture on logic."

"What kind of study?"

"Logic!"

"Lo-what?"

"Get lost already. Stop yanking my chain."

The nobles and citizens at the front were quietly discussing what concepts were, their intension and extension, and the categories of concepts. Then Ace, dressed in a solemn black robe with several badges pinned to his chest, stepped onto the platform.

A group of brawny men surrounded the platform, standing below it. They were the lecture's heralds. After Ace finished each sentence, they would repeat it loudly so that the entire plaza could hear.

"Esteemed nobles, citizens, and freemen, it is my great honor to discuss what logic is with all of you."

"You must all be filled with a thirst for knowledge and wisdom. Logic itself is a form of knowledge, a tool, the golden key that lets us understand the world objectively and impartially. Once we master logic, we possess an excellent framework for thinking..."

"Today, let us learn what judgment is. We are making judgments almost every moment. For instance, right now, you must be wondering whether the logic this little fellow up here is talking about is truly that useful. That is a judgment. Another example..."

"What is distribution?..."

By the end of the morning, Ace had roughly finished explaining judgment. Discussion below the platform never ceased. Some felt as though they had found a priceless treasure, some furrowed their brows deeply, while others saw stars and felt their heads spin. Even more people stopped Ace, with far too many questions about logic they wanted to ask him.

"Please do not rush, everyone. Ask your questions one at a time. I will record them all and publish a dedicated logic exercise book for everyone to deepen their studies," Ace told them with a smile. It was time for them to experience the boundless vastness of an ocean of exercises.

That afternoon, Ace went to the library to attend another small gathering of scholars. It was practically a stage for him alone.

With the knowledge of judgment as their foundation, he explained reasoning in depth. The classic three-part syllogism of deductive reasoning drew a collective cry of amazement from the scholars. It was not as though they had never used similar methods, but no one had ever presented the three-part syllogism so systematically and coherently.

Complete induction and incomplete induction provided effective methods for many scholars' research, while analogical reasoning gave their studies a more divergent approach.

Ace introduced hypotheses and verification, 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 scholars' eyes, he knew he had succeeded completely.

As a brand-new discipline, a body of knowledge that systematically guided the way people thought, logic would establish Ace's academic standing. As time passed, logic would gradually spread throughout the Salia Peninsula, and he would become a new rising academic authority on the Salia Peninsula.

More importantly, logic would subtly lead more people to think logically, to ask a few more times whether something conformed to logic. In the end, when he established the Wizard Organization, it would play an immense role.

The next day, while Ace was at Peter's house writing the remaining contents of logic and its exercise book, Morton hurried into the room and grabbed Ace by the hand. "Come on, change your clothes at once. His Highness the Crown Prince's envoy has arrived with an order to see you."

Morton pulled Ace along, changed him into a black robe, put him into the envoy's carriage, and blindfolded him.

In a quiet courtyard within the royal palace, Ace met the Crown Prince for the first time. She was a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, with gemstone-red eyes that shone like stars. Her sky-blue hair was tied up, her brows and eyes were resolute and vivid, and she wore silver-white skirt armor—strong without losing elegance.

"Are you surprised that I am a woman? Hardly anyone in the city-state has seen me. For certain reasons, I cannot appear as the Crown Prince before I come of age."

With a trace of melancholy, the girl said, "Until today, when I sent someone to listen to and record your lecture, I could not resist wanting to meet you. My father happened to leave the city, giving me the chance to see with my own eyes what sort of person could be so favored by the Goddess of Wisdom."

After hearing the girl's words, Ace felt that he had accidentally fallen into major trouble. He had seen the Crown Prince whom no one had ever seen—this was no good thing.

When the king returned, it was entirely possible that, to keep the secret, he would simply chop Ace down.

Ace patiently considered how to first soothe the girl's curiosity, then prepare to run away.

The girl snorted with laughter, and in that instant she was as charming as a spring breeze.

"Seeing your brows knitted so tightly, are you worried that when Father returns, he will chop you in half with one stroke? Do not worry. The royal family has a wondrous item that can make people keep secrets strictly. With such a clever head of yours, I would not be so willful as to let it vanish for nothing."

The girl gently stroked Ace's hair. "I did not expect you to be such a young child. I will first swear a pact with you using the Pact Scroll. Uncle Arnold, come out quickly."

A muscular man, bare-chested and wearing red shorts, a black cape draped over his shoulders, a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right, leaped down from the roof with a bang.

Seeing the man's icy gaze and the explosive power displayed by his eight-pack abs, Ace could not help feeling a chill run down his back. His entire body felt like a cat with its fur standing on end.

"Athena, you should not have brought this boy here," Arnold said in a deep voice.

"But he is already here. I know you have a Pact Scroll. He is the city-state's famous sage; he cannot lose his life in the royal palace."

Arnold stared coldly at Ace, then looked helplessly at Athena. At last, he lightly touched his belt, and a scroll appeared out of thin air.

Is that storage space? Ace dearly wanted to spread out his spiritual perception and investigate, but circumstances were stronger than he was. In the end, he chose to follow his heart.

"Do you think I am very willful? You must hate me, right? No matter how you look at it, I have caused you enormous trouble."

Though Ace agreed beyond measure inwardly, outwardly he still chose to follow his heart. "Your Highness has already considered my safety. Being fortunate enough to make your acquaintance is also an interesting experience."

"Really?"

Athena's eyes brightened slightly, then dimmed again.

"Since the day I was born, I have been cursed by Demon Lord Gaogen. He killed my grandfather and also wishes to harm me."

"Even the Ancestor God could not completely remove the curse. He bestowed the Guardian Authority upon me. So long as fewer than twenty people see me in person before I come of age, then when I reach adulthood, I will completely dispel the power of the curse and transform it into my own strength."

I truly do not want to know your secret at all. Ace was nearly losing his mind. He only wanted to lie low and develop quietly. Even his promotion of logic was meant to subtly change people's way of thinking and make it easier to establish an organization in the future. Yet he had never expected to attract a Princess carrying such a massive secret.

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