Basic Elements

"Sandwiches are delicious."

Claire savored the rich meaty juices between her lips and teeth, along with the delightful blend of fresh vegetables, and could not help letting out a pleased sound.

In the end, she had still surrendered to that tempting aroma, asking Rainer for a sandwich before immediately losing herself in the wonderful food.

But Claire soon noticed the meaningful look in Rainer's eyes. She promptly turned away and spoke in a slightly muffled tone.

"Don't misunderstand. I just wanted to learn how to make this sandwich, that's why I..."

Hearing Claire's clumsy explanation, Rainer smiled without exposing her, then turned to Charlotte instead.

"Charlotte, what do you think of the paper?"

When Charlotte heard Rainer call her name, she looked up. Still holding Rainer's paper in her hands, the girl thought for a moment before answering.

"The arguments in the paper are extremely clear, and the supporting evidence is comprehensive. Honestly, I can hardly believe that the experiment described here was the one I performed before."

After a pause, the girl continued.

"But there's one part I don't quite understand—the second-to-last chapter."

Opening the paper, Charlotte pointed to one page. Its heading read, "Chapter Four: An Investigation into Changes in Mass During Experiments." In this chapter, Rainer had focused on the basic principles of the Law of Conservation of Mass, which Charlotte found truly difficult to comprehend.

Before this, Charlotte had never considered what happened to an object's mass before and after an experiment, nor did she understand what value there was in investigating it.

In her mind, unchanged mass had seemed only natural. Yet after Rainer brought it up, Charlotte realized there seemed to be another mystery hidden within it.

"Why is it that when one substance becomes another through combustion, the total mass of the products before and after the reaction does not change? And judging from this experiment, part of the mass seems to have transferred from Limestone into Quicklime and that special gas. Just how is that achieved?"

Rainer nodded slightly as he listened to Charlotte's question.

This girl really was highly accomplished in Alchemy. She had noticed the issue so quickly.

"Are you saying that mass has a carrier?"

Rainer guided her patiently, and his words surprised Claire somewhat.

In Master Hohenheim's alchemical theory, mass was an inherent property of an object, representing the amount of elements it contained. In his view, elements possessed uniform mass; the more elements an object contained, the greater its mass. The mass of an object per unit volume was called density.

For example, rocks and metals differed in density because of the amount of Earth Element they contained. Within the same volume, the Earth Element forming iron was greater in quantity, while the Earth Element forming rock was less. That was the fundamental distinction between the two as different substances.

Yet in Rainer's paper experiment, part of Limestone's mass had clearly gone into the special gas. This seemed to involve the transformation of elements. After all, by common understanding, Earth Element should be heavy and stable, utterly unlike the flowing, light Wind Element.

But Master Hohenheim had long declared that the four basic elements were the most fundamental forms composing all matter, and that they could not transform into one another. Every other substance was formed through the condensation of the four basic elements.

If they could truly discover a way for elements to transform into one another, it would be a shocking discovery.

Even though flowing water could become steam after heating, mages had long understood that it was not true gas, but merely water droplets too small for the naked eye to observe. No one had ever achieved a genuine elemental transformation.

Then did that special gas consist of a new substance formed by mixing Earth Element and Wind Element?

That was far too strange.

Because Rainer's argument seemed to suggest that the basic elements were not truly "basic," as though they could be further divided. It completely contradicted current alchemical theory.

As Claire fell into thought, Charlotte gently shook her head.

"I don't know. Relying on this single experiment alone, I don't think we can find conclusive evidence yet."

After all, in the experiment where Limestone was heated to produce Quicklime, the substances had not been completely transformed, nor had anything appeared from nowhere. Without identifying the gas's composition, they could not say that the special gas had definitely escaped from the Limestone. They needed more direct evidence.

Alchemy had always been a discipline founded on experimentation. Any theory could be overturned by an exceptional experiment. Conversely, if something could not be reproduced through experimentation, then every conjecture was meaningless.

"I also believe that perhaps the four basic elements are not the most fundamental substances. Take water, for instance—it may be composed of certain materials. Of course, these are only guesses. I may find an opportunity to conduct some experiments to verify them soon."

Rainer spread his hands with feigned helplessness. Though he had ten thousand ways to prove that water was actually a compound, bringing it up so rashly would be too conspicuous. His first paper could still be explained as inspiration gained from Charlotte's experiment, but presenting a second revolutionary paper so soon would arouse suspicion.

He also needed to wait for this paper to gain traction in academic circles. Once everyone had begun changing their views, he could proceed step by step. There might be unexpected developments, such as some academic authority drawing inspiration from Rainer's paper and decomposing water, but that was still better than Rainer being captured and sliced up for research.

"Does that mean you already have an idea, Headmaster?"

Charlotte was somewhat astonished. Questions they had never even dared to imagine in the past had apparently already been considered by this seemingly frivolous headmaster. Was he naturally gifted, or simply insane?

"Not yet, but I have a general direction."

Rainer decided to end the topic. His first paper had not even been published yet, so there was no need to think too far ahead.

"Let's leave that for now. Professor Claire, I need to leave the school tomorrow. You're coming with me."

"Huh?"

Claire clearly had not yet recovered from the previous discussion. Only when she heard Rainer call her name did she answer hesitantly.

"Go... go where?"

"Didn't I tell you before? We need to find an Alchemy workshop capable of producing Cola."

Rainer asked in return, looking at Claire as though he were caring for a disabled person.

"Uh, I-I remember, of course. I mean, where are we going to find an Alchemy workshop?"

Claire hurriedly covered for herself. Her embarrassed expression was rather endearing.

"Right here."

Rainer smiled and pointed at a simple map spread across the table.