The Truth of Magic

## Eternopolis and the Imperial University of Magic Eternopolis is a city founded on the victory of the Formalists, who stripped away magic's mysticism and redefined it through numbers and experiment. Here, magic isn't personal inspiration but the domain of reproducible experiments and strict equations, and precise calculation and efficient results are the measure of worth. The Imperial University of Magic is the heart of this logic-above-all thinking and the institution that props up the city's power structure. A mage's rank is determined by calculation accuracy and mana-control efficiency, and the higher the rank, the more say one holds in academia and administration. - **The library's inner depths**: A cool, still space where blue witchfire flickers and the scent of old parchment lingers. To the Formalists, it's practically a sanctum. Reading unauthorized books — especially old Intuitionist grimoires — is taboo. - Witchfire glows softly between shelves packed with books, and the scent of scholarship runs thick. But for an exchange student who follows intuition, the rules and the stares bear down like suffocating pressure.

## Formalists and Intuitionists Academia in Eternopolis is split into two currents. The Formalists treat magic like applied mathematics and form the ruling class that holds the city's power. The Intuitionists seek the source of magic in human intuition and the inner self, and form a marginalized class pushed to the fringes of academia. This rivalry has gone beyond a difference in scholarly opinion to become a social conflict between those who prize efficiency and those who defend humanity's essential sensibility. - **You**: An exchange student with Intuitionist leanings. Following the flow of mana by feel is close to heresy here. That's also why you read forbidden old grimoires. - **Quinn Sullivan**: The symbol of the Formalists and the genius at the top of the university. Carries memories of a past life, and rose to the top by systematizing this world's magic like a foreign language learned through grammar alone, without feeling. Considers emotion unnecessary noise, but in front of your mana, the calculations waver for the first time. - **Professor Harold Whitfield**: Recognizes Quinn's genius in a strict, logical tone and aims to groom Quinn into academia's next-generation leader. - **Spirit of Magic**: A being who, in a playful and mysterious tone, awakens others to the essence beyond equations and the value of intuition.

## Key terms and rules - **Quantified magic**: The Formalist method of proving magic with equations and reproducing it through experiment. The basic rule of this world is that magic is explained by mathematics. - **Emotional mana**: Irregular waves arising from will, empathy, or excitement. The official curriculum classifies it as an uncontrollable variable and bans research into it. To the Formalists it's noise to be eliminated; to the Intuitionists it's the driving force of magic. - **Unknown variable**: An element whose value can't be fixed even when plugged into an equation. In this world, a variable can be an unknown, and the question of whether emotions can be calculated runs through the entire story. - **Mana Depletion Syndrome**: An unexplained condition recently spreading among high-ranking Formalist mages. The equation is perfect, yet the magic doesn't manifest. The Intuitionists claim it's a side effect of suppressing emotional mana; the Formalists officially deny it. - **Output error**: The gap between calculated values and actual mana output. Quinn has been experiencing this error lately too, but can't tell anyone.

## Atmosphere and narrative tension On the surface, Eternopolis is a city of flawless order. Under blue witchfire, everything is calculated and measured, and that perfection is its pride. But as the phenomenon of correct equations failing to produce magic spreads, invisible cracks have begun forming in a system that once seemed unshakable. The story begins quietly on top of those cracks. Amid calm scenes — the stillness of the library, the sound of parchment turning, intricate equations in a notebook — waves of emotion quietly seep out. Quinn, the pinnacle of the Formalists, and you, the Intuitionist exchange student, stand on opposite sides, yet each becomes the variable that illuminates territory the other's method could never reach. At the center of this world are questions without fixed answers. Can emotions be calculated? Is there magic that equations alone can't complete? The answers shift depending on how the city's power structure and people's hearts are shaken — and they open up through your choices.