Ms. Radio: Now we are listening to the new year collection …
Ms. Radio: ... The world-famous painting Mona Lisa was found and returned to Musée de Louvre in the afternoon of December 13th.
Ms. Radio: ... The U.S. Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23rd, formally establishing the Federal Reserve System.
Ms. Radio: ... The conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia has escalated. Bulgaria challenged the Bucharest Peace Treaty. Tension is building up over the Balkan Peninsula ...
Ms. Radio: ... In London, futurists gathered under Big Ben, celebrating the upcoming 1914 ...
Sonetto: This is ... news of the outside world?
Sonetto puts Ms. Radio to her ears, paying full attention to the unfamiliar news.
After the snatches of news, when the channel knob has been turned to the right end, a familiar voice comes out.
Lilya: What about on your side?
Sonetto: Well, I am with Sophia.
Sonetto: Arcana is still in the hall. She hasn't taken any action so far ... Got it.
Sonetto: Please keep an eye on the Manus followers. Be mindful of the restriction set by the bangle.
Sophia: Who are you talking to?
Sonetto immediately hides Ms. Radio behind her.
Sonetto: Just checking up on Lilya.
Sophia: Please stay vigilant during the patrol.
Sophia: This is the last place we need to check.
On the white, soft beach, there are several geometrical bodies in different shapes. Some have sunk deep in the sand, while others are still standing unyieldingly.
Just like a minimalist art exhibition.
Sophia: We must keep this graveyard clean. Our dead deserve to be left in peace and undisturbed by the phenomenal world.
Sophia gets down on one knee before a cone-shaped body, dusting it meticulously.
Sonetto: Ms. Sophia, you said this is the graveyard?
Her hand quivers a little.
Sophia: Yes, the Geometry Graveyard, it is called.
Sophia: Four years ago, my father was restored to a geometric body on his way back to the island. So was 37's mother, who was also on that ship.
37: Hmm, why are you crying, Sophia?
Sophia: I was wrong! We calculated it wrong! 37!!!
Sophia: We miscalculated the impacted area of the Emanation. We thought the ships would be safe in the Gorgon Current, but the safe area is in fact five degrees away.
Sophia: When the Emanation happened, the bow of their ship had just entered the safe area. But it was too late ...
Sophia: My dad is gone, so is your mom.
37: I know, but why are you crying?
37: My mom and your dad have come back to us, right?
Sophia: Have come back?
Sophia: Do you call this ... coming back?
Sophia: Like this? In the form of geometric bodies, cold and silent, being pushed to the shore?
37 frowns, looking confused.
But then, the corners of her lips turn up.
As usual, she works out the answer within seconds.
Swift and precise.
37: No. They have gone somewhere further.
37: Look at them. These geometric bodies, how pure and how elegant.
37: I've never seen such perfect geometric bodies before.
37: If they are not from the eternal and transcendental world of Forms, how should we explain this?
Sophia: 37 …
37: I'm going to study the Emanation, Sophia.
37: This is the best chance ever. The transcendental world finally opens its door to us.
37: We will reach our hands to the Forms and explore the oldest and eternal laws.
37: Will you help me, Sophia?
37: Next time ... next time, I will definitely make a better calculation, I promise.
Waves lap against the beach.
In the fine sand, the geometrical shapes are bathed unyieldingly in the moonlight. Despite the endless tides they maintain their form, never eroded nor washed away by time.
An eternal monument.
Sophia lowers her head, as if she is trying to cut herself out of a miserable memory.
Sophia: Thank you for assisting 37 with her research, Sonetto.
Sonetto: Hmm? No, I didn't do anything. Timekeeper knows the "Storm" better.
Sophia: You have helped us greatly by just coming onto this island.
Sophia: For all this time, 37 has been locked up in the laboratory, refusing to talk to anyone, nor participate in any group study.
Sophia: Since the two-day Emanation in 1929.
Sophia: It is you who helped her revive her interest in other affairs in Apeiron.
Sonetto: These are Timekeeper's contributions. I barely did anything.
Sophia smiles bitterly and looks away.
Sophia: ... I can't help 37.
Sophia: Because I don't see the charm of numbers. I lack the perception that an integer should have.
Sophia: That's why I can't see my own number.
Sonetto: The numbers' ... charm?
Sonetto: Sorry, I have never thought about these. For me, arcanum is my inborn mission.
Sonetto: If you ask me, you are an unbelievably excellent arcanist.
Sonetto: You can flatten the ground, clean up the beach, and rectify errors ...
Sonetto: You did it in an efficient and precise manner, which is already an advanced ritual.
Sophia: Any students who have sworn to knowledge can do this easily.
Sophia: They aren't doing my job because they wish not to waste time on these trivial fragments of the phenomenal world.
Sophia: Because they have seen the truth.
37: The phenomenal world is never complete, like you can never draw a perfect circle there.
37: No matter how much time you spend on it or how sophisticated your device is, it is impossible to draw a perfect circle in the phenomenal world.
37: Errors always exist. The floating points after the decimal can be reduced, but not destroyed.
37: The perfect circle only exists in the abstract transcendental world.
37: Of course, anyone in the world can find out the value of Pi through the most primitive method.
37: Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Babylonians, they have all tried. They made circles with twine, painted on the ground with twigs, or measured the land with cubit rods, but none of them actually drew a perfect circle.
37: However different their practices were, they found out the sole truth—the approximate value of Pi.
37: Because the essence of the circle is hiding in the imperfect manifestation of it.
37: This is the truth. It is eternal, unchanged, pure, and transcendent.
37: Anyone can reach out to it at any time, in any place, by any means, and everyone will get the same answer from it.
37: The Forms transcend all Matters.
Her gaze is firm but distant.
37: The world of Matters we live in is being flooded and destroyed by the tides of pneuma. When the tides recede, what is left on the beach is the essence.
Regulus: Err, this doesn't sound right.
Regulus: Let me think. How come your theory reminds me of the Manus doctrine?
Vertin: 37, we see the "Storm" very differently.
Vertin: Among all the other things, we saw it, first of all, as a disaster.
37: But earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions … these are also "disasters."
37: These catastrophic events happen not because they have a reason to destroy. They just happened in this world, like we do.
37: This is what my mother taught me. She must be proud that she's a perfect geometric body now.
Vertin: ...
Vertin: I'm sorry for mentioning your mother.
37 frowns.
37: Why do you apologize, Vertin? Are you feeling guilty?
37: This is a very unusual feeling for a number like you.
Vertin: I don't get it.
Vertin: Why did you say my number is 0?
