Chapter 175 - Chapter 174: Clues to Rare Metals
The second month of wind, the second week, the day of wind.
It was already late at night, when Kistil and Nerisfeene were likely asleep in their rooms.
Mika was in his own room, silently drawing circuit diagrams for magic tools.
There were two lights in the room.
The "Lighting Ball" illuminating the entire room from the ceiling, and another "Lighting Ball" used as a stand light to illuminate his work area.
No, strictly speaking, there are three.
Fee, who is bumping into the "Lighting Ball" near the ceiling and acting wild, can also be considered a light source, for now.
Although the amount of light is overwhelmingly insufficient.
Well, if Fee really tried, they could produce a light so bright you couldn't even open your eyes.
They just don't do it because Mika would get angry.
"Phew..."
Mika put down the pen and lightly shook his hands to loosen them.
Groaning the chair, Mika leaned back against the chair's backrest.
He lightly rotated his shoulders, scratched his head with a pori-pori sound, and left his room for the dining area.
Quietly, quietly, so as not to wake the two of them.
He had thought about taking one "Lighting Ball" with him, but Fee noticed Mika moving and floated up onto his shoulder with a fuyo-fuyo motion.
It was a bit dim, but since being able to see the general layout of things was enough, he decided to take Fee along as a substitute for lighting.
In the dining area, a pitch-black object stood out against the surroundings.
It was the refrigerator that had been delivered after the reinforcement of the floor was completed.
He had already been using it for several weeks, and it had been operating without any problems.
The water inside the cabinet, which had been a concern, hardly appeared at all.
He had been basing his thinking on his experience in Japan, where humidity was incredibly high, but this country was not very humid.
Water hardly accumulated at all.
"We just need to wipe it lightly once every few days, right? That's normal, isn't it?"
Adopting Kistil's opinion, he no longer needed a magic tool to process the water inside the cabinet.
At first, Kistil and Nerisfeene were honestly taken aback by this "refrigerator," a huge lump of metal that was so rugged.
But after Mika put his self-made cooling device inside and left it for a night, they seemed to understand the meaning of it.
"So... does this mean ingredients won't spoil if you put them inside, Mika-sama?"
"It spoils less in winter than in summer, doesn't it? It's the same. Just think of the inside of this refrigerator as being like winter."
With such a simple explanation, both of them understood.
If you just use it, you don't need to worry about complicated things like bacterial growth or cells breaking down; "It lasts longer in winter than in summer. That's it." was sufficient.
Mika opened the refrigerator, took out the milk substitute, and poured it into a glass.
Why "substitute"? Because, of course, it wasn't cow's milk.
He didn't know what kind of milk it was.
Judging by the shopkeeper's explanation, it seemed close to goat's milk, but in the end, he didn't really understand.
Well, as long as it's delicious, that's all that matters.
As Mika drank the mysterious milk beverage with a goku-goku sound, Fee began to absorb Mika's mana.
(This guy...)
When Mika reads books or draws circuit diagrams, having his mana absorbed distracts him with the movement of mana.
So when he told them to stop, they acted as if to say, "Is it okay then, as long as it's not that?" and kept absorbing it frequently.
Mika shrugged lightly and put the glass into the bucket for washing dishes.
"Water Splash."
He rinsed the glass lightly and returned to the room.
Then, he gazed at the circuit diagram spread out on the desk and let out a light sigh.
■■■■■■
About a month ago.
Paraleira had given him additional materials.
It was something they had investigated from a certain ruin, but naturally, he couldn't understand a single word of what was written there.
After all, there was no way he could understand ancient characters, so he was merely reading Paraleira's deductions.
However, among those materials, there was something incredible in the drawings Paraleira had sketched.
It was more accurate to call it a diagram rather than a picture.
Diagrams drawn on the walls of ruins are often simple things.
Four circles.
Three small circles, each externally tangent to one another, with one large circle containing those three circles internally.
That was all.
Inside the three small circles, the same symbol was written, so it was thought to represent the same thing.
A symbol was also written on the large circle, but it was different from the symbols written on the three small circles.
And, as he turned the pages of the material, a different diagram was drawn next.
This time, many small circles were drawn, and again, a large circle contained those many circles.
Inside the small circles, some of the symbols written on the large circle that contained the previous three circles were written.
And, on other small circles, two other types of symbols were written.
In other words, if the first small circle is A, then the one containing three As becomes B.
And, inside a collection of many Cs and Ds, Bs are mixed in here and there.
That was the kind of diagram it was.
A symbol was also written on the large circle containing B, C, and D, so let's call it E.
And Mika casually turned to the next page.
"Haaaaaa!?"
Seeing the drawn diagram, he shouted out loud.
"No way!? Is this the Rutherford model!?"
What was drawn there was the internal structure of an atom itself, with electrons flying around the nucleus.
No, strictly speaking, it was just that "it looked like that."
Mika stared fixedly at the drawn picture, frozen in place.
Why did such a thing exist?
It seemed that even the concept of an atom did not yet exist in this world.
Perhaps someone had thought of it, but no one had proven its existence, and it was not widely recognized.
And yet—
"...Wait, this was drawn on a prehistoric civilization's ruin, right?"
In that case, ...eight thousand years ago?
Even the closest estimate was five thousand years ago.
How could that be.
It was impossible.
"Even if alchemy had advanced... No, this isn't alchemy. It's science."
It was science from the twentieth century.
He didn't understand.
Mika turned the next page.
There, more than half missing, was also a diagram of a slightly more symbolic atomic model.
Something that looked like it could be drawn on the cover of a textbook.
Mika touched his forehead and shook his head, as if to say, "Oh no..."
"Ah... wait, wait. Wait, I said wait. Something is wrong. This can't be the atomic model."
Mika slammed the material onto the desk, looked up, and covered his face with both hands.
It seemed my head was finally going crazy.
"It's eight thousand years ago? Am I an idiot?"
He was seriously trying to believe a plot from an occult magazine.
Calm down.
Come back to your senses, me.
There is no P continent.
It was true that things called "out-of-place artifacts" were sometimes discovered.
But these were ultimately just things people assumed "would be impossible with the technology of the time," and they were made possible through various methods.
There were still things that couldn't be explained today, but that was only because modern people couldn't think of those various methods.
(.........................)
Thinking that far, he shifted his gaze to the material.
In that case, was this also information obtained through various methods thought of by people of that time?
"Even so, it's the structure of an atom? That's too much of a leap."
It was ridiculous.
Mika, feeling ridiculous, put the material into the magic bag.
"Haah... let's sleep already."
His imagination dominated his head, and no proper thoughts could arise.
I'll read it again tomorrow, properly.
Thinking so, he quickly got into bed.
He turned off the "Lighting Ball" and decided to sleep that day.
But even the next day, he couldn't get rid of the foolish thought.
No matter how he looked at it, it only looked like the diagram of the internal structure of the atom proposed by Rutherford.
And, assuming this was an atomic model.
Before that, he looked at the diagram that came before it again.
The first diagram depicted three circles assumed to be A as elementary particles, forming a nucleon called B.
The next diagram depicted this nucleon B, along with protons and neutrons, constituting the atomic nucleus.
It looked like it was drawn that way.
"Wait, aren't nucleons just protons and neutrons? What is B?"
A third nucleon?
Did such a thing exist?
"And, constituting one nucleon with the same elementary particles? What about color charge? Where is the color charge?"
Mika held his head and writhed in distress.
Help me, Professor GooP!
Honestly, even with my vague memory of knowledge, I can't do anything about this!
It was turning into quite an incredible story.
It was turning into that...
"...Does this mean that the composition of matter in this world is all like this? Or does it suggest that there are substances with such a special composition?"
Which one is it?
In the first place, it was a story of assumptions piled on assumptions.
It was nothing more than Mika's imagination.
(............Still, compared to that, it's still better.)
Even if he thought of a way to conceal mana, it would only be a clue to predict the state of rare metals.
Even if he succeeded, nothing would progress from that alone.
"That's the same for us..."
Muttering that, Mika turned his gaze to the material.
He didn't even know what the elementary particle A was.
In the first place, it wasn't certain that this suggested the composition of matter at all.
He didn't even know what kind of thing was created from it.
But...
"Shouldn't we do what no one else has done?"
There were others who were concealing mana.
Even before Paraleira made the component analyzer, there was the hypothesis that they were trying, and various people were challenging it in various ways.
Mika crossed his legs and placed his hand on his chin.
"If, hypothetically, these three elementary particles were mana?"
Was A mana, with mana = elementary particles?
Or was the diagram of the part that turns energy-like mana into elementary particles simply lost?
He didn't know how they were connected, but it created a nucleon like a lump of mana, and that was bound to protons and neutrons by nuclear force.
Substances holding immense amounts of mana.
However, because they were bound by strong forces, they couldn't be sucked out, nor could they be detected.
Because they weren't just residing within, but constituted the substance itself.
Could such bound mana actually be utilized?
Like [Blessing] or curses, even if the effect was exerted, was mana not consumed?
Was mana not residing because "something" was already saturated?
Or was some repulsive force, like repulsion, working?
"It's really just imagination, but if I wanted to make excuses, I could make it sound logical enough... right?"
He had no confidence.
But, the diagrams in this material could be considered diagrams representing the composition of rare metals. ...Maybe.
And, thinking that way, the true identity of rare metals was—
"Isotopes of gold, silver, and copper, with nuclei of mana."
That hypothesis came to mind.
Hmm, fantasy.
Mika couldn't help but let out a dry laugh, "Ahaha..."
"Hey, we're living in a fantasy world."
If magic exists, anything goes, doesn't it?
"It's all mana's fault. Yes, it's all this guy's fault."
In Mika's mind, the theory that "whatever is unknown is mana's fault" was established.
"In the end, no one knows the correct answer, so even if you do what you're told, it doesn't mean it's correct, right?"
If so, shouldn't he focus on whatever he thought "seemed possible," even if it was imagination?
Mika thought seriously, tapping the desk with his fingertips.
"Should I cooperate with Paraleira and accelerate Paraleira's research?"
From what he heard, he thought Paraleira was excellent enough to be called a genius.
Having Paraleira solve the mystery of rare metals was not a bad method.
But...
"There is another possibility on top of knowledge Paraleira doesn't have at all."
He didn't know which was the correct path.
In fact, the possibility that both were wrong was higher.
Even so—
"It's not a bad eye to bet on."
Trying a completely different approach rather than focusing solely on Paraleira was not bad either.
"Even if I continue to provide financial aid, maybe the research can be separate."
As a thank you for teaching him various things, he would continue the financial aid.
Having decided on a temporary policy, Mika felt his own excitement.
■■■■■■
He picked up the circuit diagram on the desk.
It was becoming quite complex, and just confirming it was a struggle now.
When Mika assumed rare metals were "isotopes containing mana," he tried making them with mana as a test.
He had become able to make gold, silver, and copper from mana.
So, he thought that if it was just something with mana added to that, rare metals could also be made directly with mana.
But the result was a miss.
He couldn't make anything.
By the way, compared to making gold, with the same amount of mana, he could make nearly twice as much silver and about three times as much copper.
Currently, even spending the amount of mana he could handle at once, he could only make about ten or twenty grams of gold.
There might be a possibility of simple mana shortage.
If it was a mana shortage, he should just pour mana in.
There was still room in the mana gathered by "Absorb Wing."
But, here comes a very unfortunate announcement.
Mika couldn't handle that much mana.
Creating gold was currently the most mana-consuming.
Next was "Implosion," and then creating silver.
And this was the limit line Mika could handle now.
If he went beyond this much mana, it might explode.
Probably, if that much mana exploded, it wouldn't just end with Mika dying in an explosion.
This house would be blown away, and it would cause great trouble for the neighbor, exploding at that level.
Mika was good at fine manipulation of mana, but regarding this, he had to break through the limit.
That was something that couldn't be done immediately.
So, he had been training to extend the upper limit he could handle for about a month, but he was also trying a slightly different approach.
That was the circuit diagram he was drawing now.
He would call it a support tool for Mika to handle large amounts of mana.
It was a decoration to prevent explosions.
He mainly used materials that housed the power of the God of Darkness who governed space, and materials that housed the power of the God of Light who governed order and stability.
This created an image of stabilizing "Mika's mana" as a space.
However, these two powers were difficult to handle.
The material of the God of Light was difficult to stabilize unless the powers of the other five gods were gathered.
And the material of the God of Darkness had the property of weakening the effect with the material of the God of Light.
Therefore, the main effect was obtained with the materials of Darkness and Light, but to stabilize that effect, it was necessary to incorporate the materials of all the gods.
Well, he couldn't make the item at the level he was seeking all at once, so he was making it step by step.
By the way, the one he was making now was the third one.
Prototype Number One and Number Two were actually made and thrown into the magic bag.
He got the expected effect, but it was still far from the practical level.
He could order these magic tools to be made, but they were ridiculously expensive.
Even though it was possible to make them by throwing money at it, Mika himself was still studying, so he decided to make them himself.
If he had the confidence to make them himself, saving time with money was an option, but accumulating experience took time.
Thinking of it as a precious experience, he was making them himself. ...For now.
If it became troublesome, he would solve it with money, yes.
However, right now, drawing while thinking about this circuit diagram was quite enjoyable.
After Kistil and Nerisfeene, who woke up early in the morning, rested, working silently alone had become his recent daily routine.
It wasn't quite a hobby, but it was similar to playing "Puzzle" after school before.
Usually, Mika went to identify the curse of a commission request after school, and returned home around evening.
He went to the hot springs, ate dinner, and spent a time of gathering with Kistil and Nerisfeene.
And then, from the time the two of them went to sleep, creating this circuit diagram had become the recent pattern.
Most of all, although he aimed to be able to handle large amounts of mana even by making such magic tools, the reason he couldn't make rare metals with mana might lie elsewhere.
There was also the possibility that the diagram in the material depicted something completely different.
If that was the case, it couldn't be helped.
He hoped that by repeating such failures, he would eventually be able to make rare metals with his own hands.
As he was thinking that, Fee came slowly in front of Mika with flickering light.
"Hm? Is it that time already?"
When Mika asked that, Fee briefly brightened its light a little.
He thought it was on his shoulder, but it seemed Fee had gone to the dining area to check the time without him noticing.
Recently, when he concentrated on creating circuit diagrams, he sometimes didn't notice the time, so he let Fee notify him when it was time to sleep like this.
"Well then, I'll sleep for today."
When Mika said that, Fee brightened its light again.
Seeing that, Mika turned his squinting eyes toward Fee.
"...Are you telling me to sleep quickly?"
Without answering, Fee floated around the room with a fuyo-fuyo motion.
They probably thought they could absorb a lot of mana once Mika slept.
"You just absorbed it, didn't you? ...If it's bright, it's hard to sleep, so go to the dining area."
When Mika said that, Fee briefly brightened its light and left the room.
"They say obedient, they are obedient, but they've really lost all restraint."
Before, he thought they were secretly absorbing it while he was sleeping.
Now, they absorbed it many times a day.
Whether Mika was at the academy or at work, they didn't care.
Next time, he would ask Kistil or Nerisfeene to make the rules a bit stricter.
Thinking such things, Mika crawled into bed.
And thus, he turned off the "Lighting Ball."