The First Clash Between Science and Magic

Although Mayuna was very curious about how Ruben had managed to drink poisonous dragon saliva, she only asked once, and all she got was a perfunctory answer: "An accident."

The incident involving the mayor being attacked had not affected their lives in the slightest. Ruben had not figured out what the jade fragment known as the key was for, but there were plenty of strange things in this other world anyway. Thus, the jade fragment that certain people longed for was tossed into a corner to gather dust.

"Bzzzz."

The light tube above Mayuna's head suddenly began making an irritating noise. The God of Magic put down the book in her hands and looked up in confusion. It was not just the light tube—some of the other electrical appliances in the house were doing the same thing.

"Ruben, what's wrong?"

Mayuna had long since grown accustomed to things that glowed constantly like this. Calling them incredibly magical would not have been an exaggeration. Magic crystals used as household light sources normally had to be replenished with magical power every day. How could they compare to something as convenient as this, which lit up with the flick of a switch? Until today, Mayuna had always thought this thing called a light tube could run forever.

"It's almost out of electricity."

"Electricity?"

The God of Magic tilted her head, then gathered crackling arcs of electricity on her finger and held them out to Ruben.

"Go away. Stay away from me."

Ruben waved off the mischievous Mayuna. Who knew how the mages of this world could hold electricity in their hands? In any case, Ruben knew his limits. If he touched electricity barehanded, he would definitely get shocked into an afro. Finding no amusement in it, Mayuna dispersed her magic and followed Ruben out of the house.

The two came to the back of the small hill, in the direction completely opposite their home. It was Mayuna's first time here, and also her first time seeing that strange device. Two pillars around three or four meters tall were planted in the ground, with three irregularly shaped blades embedded at their tops, slowly turning.

"Does this have something to do with electricity?"

"Yeah. It's a wind turbine. It's gotten pretty rusty."

Ruben inspected his windmill and found obvious rust on it. If the blades could not turn properly, they produced far less kinetic energy, so naturally it could no longer generate much electricity.

There was nothing he could do about that. The materials Ruben had used when building it were rather poor, but even those inferior materials had taken him a long time to gather. Ruben was desperate too. If conditions had allowed it, he definitely would have used Gundanium alloy.

"Wind? Wind is related to electricity? Is it like that? Wind magic restrains lightning magic, right?"

"No. The principle of wind power generation is to use wind to turn the windmill blades, then increase the rotational speed through a gearbox to drive the generator. It converts the wind's kinetic energy into mechanical kinetic energy, then converts that mechanical energy into electrical energy."

"S-So basically, we just need wind, right? Wind magic, Vacuum Cyclone Break!"

Mayuna's eyes began spinning from Ruben's explanation. She had no idea what he was talking about and only understood that wind meant electricity. That made things simple. She raised her hand and threw out a seventh-tier spell.

Before Ruben could even say a word to stop her, he watched his windmill get ravaged by the gale and turned into scraps of iron. There was no need to repair it now. He might as well melt it down and build it again.

"Mayuna!"

"W-What?"

Only when Ruben suddenly called her name did Mayuna come back to her senses. Seeing the anger on his face, she seemed somewhat at a loss.

"Can you use your brain and think a little before doing something? Do you think this thing can withstand magic that powerful?"

"Y-You yelled at me! You yelled at me over this pile of junk, didn't you?!"

Mayuna finally realized that Ruben was angry. A wave of grievance rose within her. It had been two months. They had lived together for two months, and Ruben had never yelled at her even once. Mayuna did not know the value of this pile of stuff, but it was unacceptable for Ruben to treat it as more important than her!

"I'm trying to reason with you. Why is magic the first thing you think of no matter what you do? Can't you spare even a little thought for my science?"

"Because I'm a mage! Could your stupid science possibly compare to my magic?!"

"Since you put it that way, let's compete. I'll tell you clearly: there are things science can do that your magic absolutely cannot."

Ruben was truly furious. Not only had Mayuna refused to admit her mistake, she had insulted the science he loved most. What should one do when their faith was insulted? The answer was simple: fight to the death.

"Fine. Then let's compete to see who can fly higher."

Mayuna practically gritted her teeth as she agreed to Ruben's challenge, immediately throwing out the harshest condition possible. Flight had always been humanity's dream. Creatures unable to fly had never lost their longing for the sky, and even in a world of magic, that remained true. To fly using one's own power, one had to at least reach the level of a Magister, because only Magisters could use the seventh-tier wind spell Wings of Freedom to soar into the sky.

That was right. The God of Magic's face plainly said she was bullying him. How could a human without even a trace of magical power possibly fly?

"Hmph. Childish. Humanity conquered the skies as early as the beginning of the twentieth century. Dragon, spit out my hot-air balloon equipment."

"Tch. You two are even more boring than I imagined."

Dragon had been watching coldly from atop Ruben's head the entire time. Both of them were the greatest in their respective fields, yet they were arguing like children and had even proposed a duel. Disdaining their company, Dragon released a large sheet of fabric and a big basket from the space within his body, then fell silent.

"Watch closely, you foolish mage."

Ruben connected the hot-air balloon to its basket, then used a blower to inflate the envelope until it was full. Once it had completely unfolded, he added the most important fuel: propane. It went without saying how difficult it had been to produce such fuel in a godforsaken place like another world. Ruben had finally managed to save up a little, yet he was using all of it now, all so as not to disgrace Earthlings.

"What's wrong? Keep up."

Only after he had already risen more than ten meters into the air did Ruben speak to Mayuna, his face full of indifference.

"...I don't believe you can fly higher than me."

Seeing Ruben truly take to the sky, Mayuna found it difficult to accept. It seemed Ruben could shatter her understanding of the world no matter when it happened. Naturally, she could not admit defeat here. She immediately spread her invisible wings and followed him upward.

One thousand meters.

Two thousand meters.

Five thousand meters.

As the hot-air balloon rose, their contest continued. Mayuna kept herself at the same altitude as Ruben. Ever since learning to fly, she had never ascended so high into the sky. Today, she was going all out. Besides, the sight of Ruben's irritating face made her angry. She was carefully controlling her altitude and balance over here, while Ruben leisurely drank coffee, occasionally gazing out at the distant scenery. It was completely unfair.

"Well? Ready to admit defeat?"

Ruben finally spoke when they had risen to around ten thousand meters. He had wrapped himself in a blanket against the cold. At this altitude, the oxygen had noticeably thinned, and Mayuna was not doing well either. She had no cold-weather equipment, and a thin layer of frost had already formed on her eyebrows.

"I'm not admitting defeat!"

"Then I concede."

Mayuna's stubbornness was within expectations. Ruben sighed as well and held out his hand to her.

"Huh?"

Mayuna stared blankly at that hand. For a moment, she forgot to maintain her altitude and dropped quite a ways, but she quickly caught back up and looked at Ruben suspiciously, unable to tell what scheme he was plotting.

"I just wanted to tell you not to underestimate science. This is enough of a lesson."

Ruben grabbed Mayuna by the arm and pulled her into the basket, took off his blanket and draped it over her back, then handed her a steaming drink.

"You're not mad that I broke your things?"

"Things can be made again. Getting hurt over something like this would be more trouble than it's worth."

Ruben was right. Although the hot-air balloon could still rise higher, beyond that was no longer within reach. It was hard to say what would happen to Mayuna, but he himself would definitely get hurt.

"What a fool. Even playing with Aqua is more fun than sulking with you."

The delight in her heart made Mayuna work hard to keep herself from smiling. She seemed to have misunderstood Ruben's intentions, thinking that he had backed down because he was afraid she would get hurt. In reality, Ruben was in far more danger than she was.

Only now did Mayuna have the leisure to admire the colors from ten thousand meters in the sky. The ground had become a vibrant painting; no matter how hard she tried to look, she could not make out anything on it. Everything was so tiny. Being able to stay high in the air without casting magic was probably the surprise brought by the person beside her.

"Mayuna, try this."

After returning home, Ruben immediately made a simple electricity tester to see whether the electrical energy Mayuna produced could be used. The answer was, of course, yes.

"As expected, you're very useful! From now on, you'll be in charge of the power supply!"

After that, Mayuna, who had been responsible for the water supply, also became responsible for electricity.

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PS: A heroine's ten thousand uses.

PS: Thanks to reader Inherited Different Bloodline for the 2,000 reward, reader Moyu Xiaomo for the 1,000 reward, and reader Xiao Yu Doesn't Eat Fish for the 100 reward.