Chapter 31: Reflection.
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We can understand what we don't already understand. Incredible, right?
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While Liu, completely oblivious to what was going on, tried to make some kind of sense of what she was seeing.
"... I really need to stop saying stuff this embarrassing out loud..."
Lumian adjusted himself on the Form to get more comfortable, while visibly thinking back on what he himself had just said.
'... he's... on the Form... without going through it?'
Trying to put what she was seeing into words in a realistic way, Liu couldn't help asking a question:
"... but, the Form is... isn't it air to begin with?"
"Or gas, rather, right?"
Milo, being in the same situation as Liu, also asked a question.
Lumian was about to answer, but Liu, even though she had noticed, couldn't help continuing to ask questions.
"Why is it solid now? No, how can it even be solid? Why is it solid... only now, and not before?"
Smiling, Lumian answered in a neutral voice and with the utmost calm.
"That's why I told you that it's our ignorance that is dangerous. On the other hand, the Form's ignorance can, on the contrary, become a safety tool when we're aware of the causes and consequences that this ignorance has on its actions."
He crossed his legs, settling into a more distinguished position, while Liu and Milo looked at each other...
"....."
... as if to say:
'... he completely lost me...'
Redirecting their attention toward Lumian, the "professor" staying in his role, he waited patiently for more questions.
"I still don't see where you're going with ignorance... even less now... how is the Form's ignorance useful to us?"
'....'
Liu tried to formulate a sentence, a hypothesis, an idea... to expand on Milo's question, or maybe find an answer to it.
"Um..."
But, she couldn't do it. Lumian's words seemed logical, but beyond Liu and Milo's understanding.
The fact that she had opened her mouth to...
"... no, nothing."
... say nothing. That fact embarrassed her to the highest degree in this situation.
Had Lumian waited for Liu to finish fidgeting behind Milo while searching for something to say, before explaining? No...
'Again!!'
... before suddenly repeating an action that was just as surprising in Liu's eyes, which didn't leave her time to be embarrassed. She instantly turned her gaze toward Milo's face, only to see nothing but a grimace.
"This time I haven't blocked any sound. And you'll see that my hand will come out completely intact."
'... who cares!'
Liu kept her gaze fixed on Milo's face, using him as an intermediary to find out what was happening through his reactions.
But she didn't stay like that for long. It was already the second time in a short while that this had happened, seeing the same result again wasn't really bothersome or anything else.
'... if he only did that to scare me...'
Without waiting for any reaction from Milo, she took an action that this time required only a little courage: she redirected her gaze straight toward Lumian.
He was still sitting with his legs crossed, expressionless... and he pulled his arm away from the Form...
'... how?...'
... or rather, he took his hand out as if it were nothing, a description better suited to what was happening now, compared to the first time.
"The Form flees Luminosity by instinct, just as it moves away from Liu by instinct. In the same way, it changes state when it senses something approaching it. That's also one of the reasons why it moves away from Liu."
Although they had questions, Liu and Milo were silent and stayed that way, waiting for the explanation that professor Lumian seemed well on his way to giving.
"You see what I mean by state, right?"
But he still asked a frankly pointless question, so obvious that it didn't need proving, which irritated Liu a little.
'... liquid, solid, gaseous...'
Liu therefore nodded with an abrupt movement of her head, and stayed silent, expecting him to continue. Which he did...
"Well then, if that's the case, don't stay passive and move the conversation forward. Otherwise you'll only endure my teaching, without ever making me endure your reflections."
She, who had been expecting to finally get an explanation, found herself thinking about a subject other than what interested her, irritating her a little more.
'... but we're already asking him questions... what more does he want?'
"Rushing headlong into difficulty will only help you move forward."
Having slid a little compared to his earlier position, Lumian straightened up on the Form. Which Liu noticed precisely...
'... he's getting on my nerves...'
... using what she was seeing as a mental escape, she envied Lumian for being able to sit on something that looked really...
'... comfortable, I almost want to try.'
"Until now, I've more or less provided all the explanations on every subject, myself. I could have explained all of this to you without waiting for any of your questions. You have no real use in our situation. So in your opinion, what is the best way to move your learning forward?"
Lumian's words were far too inconsistent for Liu to have an answer...
'... a cryptic sentence, a real one, a logical one, an unpleasant one and an annoying question... hhaa, I'm sure the Form is super comfortable...'
Without even trying to answer, Liu, overwhelmed by many different things, finally sat down in the grass, her gaze turned toward her shadow and Milo's, leaving Lumian's words out of her head for a moment.
'... I want to know how the Form works, but mister doesn't want to tell us...'
Completely ignoring Milo, Lumian, the Form... she wrapped a few blades of grass around one of her fingers, complaining inwardly about Lumian's attitude.
The coolness of the grass, the feel of the ground, the relaxing of her muscles... made some of her irritation disappear.
'... he's right... but that's exactly the most annoying part. If I don't understand, how can I think about it?...'
The other two stayed silent, allowing her to focus on herself, to think... in her own world.
The result was: that she was no longer thinking about Lumian's words, but about the situation itself in general...
'... no, wait...'
"If I don't understand, how can I think about it?"
... which made her formulate that question out loud.
An honest question, outside of what Lumian had established, without even wondering whether that question, whether that reflection, would move the conversation forward or even whether it was what Lumian wanted.
Her gaze still turned toward the ground, her hands still playing with the grass in front of her... Liu asked herself that question. She asked it to the others. She asked it to the world...
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But, without understanding there are no reflections, right? So how can we understand what we don't already understand?
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