"Your Majesty," Murphy beckoned, transforming the boot that had flown away as a bat back to its original form and fitting it onto Sofia's foot. He then stood up and said, "What I want to do has never changed."
"Since the moment I came into this world, that thought has always been brewing in my mind, growing ever since I graduated. Now, I am just nurturing it further."
"My path has always been consistent. That path is to understand magic."
He gestured with his hand, and the vine that had formed into a spear blossomed with flowers before reverting back to a normal vine.
"After my last battle with the shamans, my understanding of 'magic wands' deepened. Now, for certain minor magical effects, I can use my fingers instead of a wand to direct the magic as I wish."
"I seek to understand magic in a clearer, more intuitive, and more accurate way, getting closer to the essence and truth of magic."
"Whether I'm selling potions to Muggles, running Muggle enterprises, or now trying to save the Soviet Union, it's all for this purpose."
Empress Sofia gently tapped her foot on the ground, feeling the pain had subsided. She looked puzzledly at Murphy, "I'm sorry, Mr. Darkholm, but I don't see the connection between these."
Murphy smiled, "Your Majesty, what do you think magic is?"
"Magic?" Sofia pondered. "Isn't it just magic?"
"Yes, for most wizards, magic is as natural as breathing and eating."
"Therefore, few wizards attempt to understand magic."
"Wizards simply use magic, like fire. We know fire brings warmth, cooks food, lights up the night, and can kill enemies. To do all these things, we don't need to know what fire is."
"However, such use is limited. Simple summaries of life experience cannot replace rational deduction and induction."
"If we don't know the specific temperature of fire, we can't design blast furnaces or produce steel in large quantities. Without understanding why fire boils water, we can't invent steam engines or power plants. We would forever be in the era of using candles for light."
"Similarly, with magic, the deeper our understanding of something, the better we can use it."
Murphy took out the spray he had used on Sofia earlier.
"Take this, for example. White fragrance essence can heal wounds. Most wizards only use it for obvious external injuries, but when we understand that sprains and strains are also tissue damage and that white fragrance essence can act at the cellular level to promote cell division and tissue healing, we can reasonably assume it can be used for bruises and sprains."
Empress Sofia nodded slightly, "I understand your reason for wanting to understand magic, but what does this have to do with what you want to do with Soviet Muggles?"
"Because studying magic requires the use of science," Murphy replied.
"Science? You mean Muggle knowledge?"
"Science is not just knowledge, but an effective research method," Murphy said. "Wizards aren't adept at using this method, but Muggles are, so I need Muggles to study magic."
"But that would expose us to Muggles, right?" Sofia objected. "Even Arkaim follows the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Are you planning to break it?"
"Your Majesty, I'm not intentionally opposing this law."
"However, the Statute of Secrecy will inevitably be broken," Murphy declared. "In the next fifty years, if not by me, then by someone else."
"You mean there are other wizards who want to break the Statute of Secrecy?" Sofia asked.
"No, not wizards, but Muggles, Your Majesty."
"We live in the same space as Muggles, breathe the same air, and stand on the same earth. Although we have used spells to hide ourselves, this concealment isn't perfect. With the advancement of Muggle technology, it will become increasingly difficult to hide."
"Technology?"
"Yes, technology based on Muggle science. You can think of it as a kind of Muggle magic."
"I know what technology is. But... the Statute has been in place for three hundred years..." Sofia clearly didn't believe it.
"That's the problem, Your Majesty."
"The Statute has been in place for three hundred years," Murphy said. "In these three centuries, our magic has hardly advanced. Our strongest spells were already known three hundred years ago, and even spells from over a thousand years ago are still effective. In these three hundred years, we haven't become stronger, and perhaps we have even regressed."
"In contrast, the Muggle world has changed drastically in three hundred years."
"Three hundred years ago, Muggles were still using oxen to plow fields and wells for water. They had no trains, planes, or powerful artillery. But now, their weapons can destroy a city or even exterminate a race. Their satellites can see a train on the ground from 36,000 kilometers above."
"They don't have magic, but technology is their magic. They don't have flying brooms, but their planes can fly faster than sound, transporting hundreds of people from one end of the earth to the other in just a few hours. They don't have wands, but trust me, a Gatling gun kills a hundred times faster than the most powerful wand."
"What's more terrifying is that Muggle technology is still evolving, and it's growing exponentially, exploding."
"Two hundred years ago, they invented the steam engine; a hundred years ago, the telephone and light bulb; fifty years ago, the atomic bomb. Just last year, they developed the internet."
"Technological development isn't linear; it's an exponentially upward curve. The scientific advancements that took a thousand years or a hundred years in the past now only take ten or even five years. In the future, they might only need a year, six months, or even a month."
"That explosive technological singularity is coming soon. In the next few decades, Muggles will update this world with a disruptive invention or discovery every month or even every day."
"Their capabilities will grow stronger, their control will extend further, their satellites, radars, cameras, drones, and various detection and monitoring devices will become more precise, and their ability to discern anomalies will strengthen. Concealing ourselves from them will become increasingly difficult, increasingly impossible."
"Not only that, in the microscopic realm, they already have femtosecond-level observation capabilities, able to see the movement of an atom. In the future, they will even create attosecond lasers."
"Do you know what that means? Ten to the negative eighteenth of a second, which is one hundred quintillionth of a second. I've told you before, lightning is fast, but even the fastest lightning can't move an atom's distance in an attosecond."
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