Electrolysis Experiment

When the first ray of morning sunlight shone into the plaza of Crescent Academy, Rainer was already up. He changed into a clean, comfortable shirt, picked up the notes he had prepared over the past few days, and got ready to head to the laboratory.

To get from the tower where Rainer lived to the laboratory building, he had to cross the courtyard. Several students were already up early. Even though it was a rest day, some well-bred noble young ladies still kept healthy habits. Some silently practiced magic in a corner of the empty plaza, while others held books and prepared to go to the classroom for self-study.

Morning light shimmered on the dewdrops, and the lingering chill of night had yet to fade. Rainer greeted the girls nearby, but those noble young ladies were clearly still wary of him. Only one cheerful student returned his greeting. Rainer paid no mind to these details and walked straight toward the laboratory building.

There were many vacant classrooms. Holding the key Claire had given him, Rainer came to one of the laboratories, took the necessary experimental equipment from the cabinet, and began assembling the apparatus for the experiment.

The paper described the process of the electrolysis experiment in great detail. For Rainer, who possessed Apprentice-level magic power, the greatest difficulty was probably setting up the Electrolysis Array.

But Rainer naturally had a way.

Just after he had assembled all the equipment, Teacher Claire arrived with Charlotte.

As a First-Circle Mage, Claire was clearly able to sustain the operation of the Electrolysis Array, so Rainer "invited" her to take part in the experiment.

As for Charlotte, Rainer felt it was necessary to cultivate her scientific spirit in advance, and also let her ease the fatigue of rushing her drawings over the past few days, so he had Claire bring her along as well.

"What experiment are you going to do?"

Claire looked at the water tank filled with water, somewhat baffled.

"Electrolysis."

Rainer answered, then opened Alchemy to the paper by Seventh-Circle Mage Cornwall Penzance.

"Electricity can decompose some highly reactive elements. I designed this experiment because I want to decompose a substance people once thought could not be decomposed."

Following Rainer's words, Claire and Charlotte looked at the place he was pointing to, but there was nothing there except a basin of water.

"Is this some solution, or some kind of special liquid? But no matter how I look at it, it feels like ordinary water..."

Claire pressed, but very quickly, she realized Rainer's intention.

"Uh, no way. You mean... water?"

Hearing Claire's words, Charlotte also widened her eyes and looked at Rainer in disbelief.

Water was one of the four basic elements proposed by Master Hohenheim, representing life. In the field of ancient magic, magic had not even been divided into elements or factions such as Alchemy, but had simply been separated into the four major schools of wind, water, fire, and earth. From ancient times to the present, water had always been considered indivisible.

In fact, at the very beginning of modern magic's establishment, mages had tried to decompose water through all kinds of methods. They burned it, froze it, struck it, and many times, they successfully obtained certain substances from water, but those were later proven to be nothing more than impurities. Even today, water was still regarded as a cornerstone that formed the world, one of the four basic elements.

"I said before that after I had sufficient preparations, I would try to decompose water."

"But in the attempts of those people in the past, even when heated, water only turned into steam. For hundreds of years, mages have exhausted every method and still haven't succeeded."

Claire argued. Emotionally, she felt that Rainer was spouting nonsense, but after the previous experiment, her reason faintly looked forward to Rainer's success. This contradictory mentality left her caught in the middle.

"But they never used lightning."

Rainer's single sentence left Claire speechless. Immediately afterward, he added with a slightly teasing tone.

"Why don't we make another bet? I do rather miss seeing you in a maid outfit, Teacher Claire."

That sentence made Claire's cheeks flush scarlet, and she turned her face away somewhat indignantly.

Charlotte watched their interaction and sighed helplessly.

"Since there are no objections, I'll explain my line of thought."

Rainer did not conduct the experiment directly. Instead, he proceeded step by step, partly to lay the groundwork for what came after.

"First, assume that water is a compound. The reason it cannot be decomposed is because the elements that make up water are too reactive and react extremely easily with other substances. Is this hypothesis reasonable?"

"Uh, if water really is a compound, then there isn't much wrong with putting it that way."

Claire said reluctantly. Most of the elements discovered so far were metals and the like that already existed in nature as simple substances. Elements with especially reactive properties were indeed rarely heard of.

"Then, according to Lord Penzance's paper, the new element obtained through electrolysis, 'Kaila,' is an extremely reactive metallic element, and can even react directly with water."

Continuing from what he had said before, Rainer tapped with his finger on Alchemy, pointing out the section in the paper that explored the properties of the new element "Kaila." It had to be said that Cornwall Penzance truly lived up to his status as a high-level mage. His experiments on its properties were extremely comprehensive, and he had almost perfectly described the properties of this element.

What these high-level mages lacked was merely a bit of inspiration. Many times, it was not that they could not think of something, but only that they "had not thought of it yet." If they were given a spark of thought, then without Rainer lifting a finger, they too could create brilliant and colorful modern theories.

His thoughts returned to the laboratory. The reaction between "Kaila" and water should be a type of displacement reaction, with "Kaila" replacing the hydrogen in water and producing a hydroxide and hydrogen gas, at least on Earth.

But Lord Penzance had overlooked one point, which was that gas was produced in the reaction. This was very normal, because according to the description, the reaction process was extremely intense, and it was easy to overlook a gas that had not originally been within expectations.

In his paper, he described the alkaline solution obtained after "Kaila" dissolved in water. This solution could precipitate a certain substance. In his view, this was a compound of water and "Kaila," rather than water having already been decomposed into two parts.

"After reading this paper, I began to boldly hypothesize that water is made up of two elements, at least one of which is highly reactive. If the method of electrolysis is used, then these two substances can be obtained. Logically, up to this point, there should be no problem, right?"

Rainer confirmed. At this moment, even more doubt had appeared in Claire's eyes. This teacher silently nodded and did not raise any questions.

"Then, if during the experiment, the mass of the water decreases and other substances with unique properties are produced, that means my hypothesis is correct. Water is not a basic element, but a compound. If the opposite happens, then it means my hypothesis is not valid."

As he spoke, Rainer arranged the experimental apparatus, pulling two wires from the Electrolysis Array to serve as the positive and negative electrodes, and inserted them respectively into two test tubes filled with water and inverted in the water tank.

"Everything is ready. Let's begin the experiment, Teacher Claire."

Rainer signaled, and had Claire slowly activate the Electrolysis Array.