Only Study Is Noble

"Do you have a dream?"

One morning, Mayuna solemnly asked Ruben, who had just gotten out of bed.

"?"

Naturally, all she got was Ruben's blank stare, as though one of the two of them had not fully woken up yet.

"So, are we really going to live like this for the rest of our lives?"

Mayuna reflected on her recent life. Every day, she stayed cooped up at home. Aside from teasing the poor mermaid, there was nothing else to do. There were books, sure, but anyone would get sick of reading all the time! If this continued, she would turn into a shut-in. She might even evolve in the wrong direction into an overweight shut-in! That was something Mayuna could not accept no matter what.

"You're overthinking it. I'll die many years before you do."

Ruben replied calmly. The stronger a mage was, the longer they lived, just like in the novels on Earth. A Magic Saint could casually live for centuries. For a Magic God like Mayuna, her life had only just begun, while he had already passed a quarter of his.

"Who was talking to you about that?! Can't you have some ambition? Why do you spend every day holed up in this wooden cabin? Young people should strive for something! I can help you."

When Ruben suddenly started talking about lifespans, Mayuna felt as if her heart had been tightly clenched. After dismissing that feeling as an illusion, she continued. Ruben clearly did not know how to make use of his resources. Mayuna constantly gave off an aura of I'm your strongest support and Anyone who bullies you is dead, yet he turned a blind eye to it. He would rather guard that pile of cold machinery than conquer the world. He was nothing but a salted fish with no dreams.

"I probably don't have a dream. But there is something I want to do. I want to go to school."

"School? A magic academy? What would you go there for?"

Mayuna's three questions in a row made her confusion clear. There were no schools in this world that taught anything besides magic, and she truly could not understand what Ruben wanted to do there.

"To learn about magic. My head is full of scientific knowledge, so I'm curious about a system like magic."

"Look, I'm not trying to discourage you, but someone without magic power can't become a mage. You know that, right?"

Mayuna had thought Ruben wanted to study magic in pursuit of a dream. But rather than let him run into a wall later, she would rather crush that idea now. It was better than being rejected by someone else.

"I know. I don't want to become a mage; I just want to understand it. Curiosity has always been the ladder that guides humanity's evolution."

"Have you decided which academy to attend?"

"Yeah. I heard there's an academy in a big city called Terrylima. Once I save enough money, I'll go study there."

"Terrylima? The most famous school there is Rhine Magic Academy, but its tuition is also the most expensive in the Holy Empire. Can you manage that?"

"That's why I'm not in a hurry. Schools in this world don't have age requirements, so I can take it slowly."

"But until you save enough money, are we still going to live the same unchanging life? We'll turn into overweight shut-ins sooner or later."

"What have you been learning from Dragon? I'm going to buy ingredients today. Want to take a stroll around Dris with me?"

Ruben complained weakly. Although Dragon and Mayuna were also a pair of bickering enemies, whenever Mayuna was bored, he still took on the role of a television for her—albeit not voluntarily.

"Go into the city? No, I'm not going."

"Why? You've been here so long, but I've never seen you enter the city even once."

"You're from another world, so perhaps you don't know. Because my appearance closely resembles a terrifying legend, people are very afraid of someone who looks like me..."

The moment her appearance was mentioned, Mayuna's mood worsened considerably. Living with Ruben for so long had nearly made her forget about it. Only now did she remember that if she entered the city looking like this, she would probably suffer the same fate again. Back in the imperial capital, she usually relied on a spell that drove away idlers when wandering around.

"What legend?"

"Just a boring legend. Go by yourself. I'll wait at home."

"Wait here."

Ruben nodded and went down to the second underground level. Half an hour later, he returned, but his appearance gave Mayuna quite a shock.

"Y-you look like this..."

Mayuna could not help reaching out to touch Ruben's pure white hair. She even tugged hard on it. After confirming that it was not fake, she looked into his eyes. His formerly black pupils had also turned red, though they were a little lighter than hers. Standing beside Mayuna, he looked like her brother.

"I developed a lot of useless gadgets when I was bored before. Hair dye and contact lenses are among them."

Ruben remembered that when he had first arrived in this world, the abundance of knowledge stored in his mind had made him want to build things all day long. Like a child who had gotten a new toy, he could see at a glance what could be made from the materials at hand, so he made everything he could.

"Are you stupid?! If you become like this, won't people discriminate against you too? Change back, now."

Mayuna grabbed Ruben's clothes and shouted. The suffering she had endured because of her appearance as a child had unknowingly become one of the knots in her heart. That was why she rarely showed her true face. The first time she had revealed it before a crowd was when she had just become a Magic God, and most people who saw her had been startled.

"Mayuna, have your parents ever hated the way you look?"

Ruben suddenly grabbed a handful of Mayuna's snow-white hair, held it in his hand, and asked seriously.

"...No."

"They surely knew that boring legend too, yet they never made you change your appearance because of it. They still loved you dearly. Don't you understand what that means?"

"The prejudice of most people piled together might make you doubt yourself, but would those who truly love you start hating you because of that?"

"You are who you are. Don't worry about what others think. What they think is their business. If they hurt you because of it, just hit them back. Don't you always call yourself an unparalleled beauty in front of me? Do you not even have that much confidence?"

After Ruben finished speaking, he placed the hair he had been holding into Mayuna's hand. Mayuna, who had once hated that hair so much, suddenly did not find it quite so hateful anymore. She could understand that since Ruben could change his own hair color, he surely could have changed hers as well. Yet he had not tried to change her at all. Instead, he had put himself in the same position as her and told her that he would remain by her side.

If she traveled with someone like him, then even being discriminated against did not seem like such a big deal.

PS: Please bookmark and recommend this story.

PS: Ruben loved learning just like the author did. All you readers surely loved reading too, so let's review this Five-Year College Entrance Exam, Three-Year Mock Exam book first.