Myrmidon and Dark Mage [4]

"Hey, what are you writing Marth-kun? It's strange ..., I have never seen these symbols before." Kassandra suddenly asked, revealing her thin swallowed-by-darkness like presence to him.

"Huh ..., why are you here, aun- I mean, teacher Nagi?" he was surprised because of her sudden appearance. But his reaction was only a slight jolt before he comes back into a calm state.

"Just now ..., you almost call me aunty again, don't you?" she scrutinized a dagger eyes at him.

"Since when you are in this study?" he casually ignored her probing.

"Since before, when the girls left I come in. Did you not know?"

"Did you knock the door when you want to enter?"

"I ..., did not." she smiled wryly.

He exasperated a long sigh before leaning his back on the chair, "Sigh ..., what do you need? I don't think you finding me to this room without any business whatsoever, right?"

"Right ..., actually, there's something I need to ask." Kassandra nodded her head and then sat down on top of the table right in front of him, "When the maid guides me to a room should be a spare guest room, which was adjacent to this study, there was this strange cool fog leaked from inside the room. And when the maid opened the room, the fog spread throughout the hallway. Does Marth-kun know something about it?"

"Aa ..., I forgot to take care of that, well ..., it's gonna be safe if that is if they didn't light up a fire or anything."

"Anyway, what's that fog? Did Marth-kun cast it with Magic? What spell is it?"

"... I use [Alteration] Magic to separate hydrogen from water and then using [Elemental] Magic, I freeze the temperature to sub-zero and turn them into a liquid state."

"Ohh ..., " her eyes looked blank after she let out that single oh, she then nodded her head in an exaggerated manner and said, "I see."

But that's not the end, she added with, "I don't understand a word of anything you said." while shaking her head left and right.

"Hmm ..., Teacher Nagi, if I ask you ..., what is water made of? What would be the answer?"

"What is water made of ..." she put her finger on her chin and contemplated for a bit.

But she was unable to find an immediate answer. In her mind, water is just water, it's the most fundamental form of matter alongside earth, fire, wind, and thunder. And thus she was stuck on finding how to answer this seemingly easy but hard question.

Kassandra at first wanted to answer with Water Magic Power. But as a Dark Mage, she found out about the real truth of this world. And that was the matter of the world was not consisting of only Magic Power. Most of all, Magic Power was something that 'glued' to a matter and not the main component of the said matter.

While alone in her tower, she sometimes pondered about this matter. There was never any serious study about nature, mostly because magicians tend to research more practical things. That was to create a more efficient and less power-consumption magic spell. 

Kassandra creased her brows while still in contemplation. Marth also didn't speak to interrupt her for a long time. He continued writing his rough draft of the curriculum while Kassandra still in the room, while sometimes mumbling something.

And they left the room after the maid invited them to the diner. With Kassandra still inside her own thought. Even after both of them met with Lin on the way, Kassandra was still entranced on her own pondering.

While the maids served the dinner, she absentmindedly ate the meals. Sometime glared at the water cup for no particular reason.

"I give up ...," Kassandra suddenly said.

"What's wrong, Nagi-shi ..., what's with this give up? Do you finally give up on your life yaka~?"

"Not that. Lin, your joke is still not funny." 

Kassandra looked at her with displeasure with Lin looked surprised with her remarks. Kassandra then turned her attention to Marth who was on the main seat.

"Marth-kun, will you tell me about it? I can't think of anything to answer your question."

"Okay ...," he nodded at her question, "First of all, if we talking about this topic ..., then Teacher Nagi needs to know about the atom."

"Atom ...?" Kassandra tilted her head in wonder.

Marth nodded his head and then took a sip of water from the silver cup.

"In this world, all of the matter consists of very small, indivisible particles, atom, or if it rooted back to the original language, atomos it has the same meaning as uncuttable or indivisible. 

Be it the water inside this cup, or the cup itself. Be it us, human, or other living beings..., they consist of small countless indivisible particles."

"..."

Kassandra tried to contemplate his statement and went into deep thought once again. Marth patiently waited for her to digest his words slowly. 

The first to stated that belief was a Greek philosopher Democritus. But it only in the early modern era when the true definition of the atom came into being after initiated by John Dalton.

But it was really unacceptable for him that there was never such thinkers exist in this world. It was incomprehensible for him, what they(the inhabitants of this world) did this whole time.

This was only his hypothesis, however, perhaps they were too reliant on the power of gods and magic. In results, they never observe nor think deeply about what happens with the world around them.

"Then you said that everything in this world ..., is consists of these so-called atoms? It is indivisible and uncuttable. And these atoms thing ..., it's soo small that humans can't see it right? If that's the case ..., how would you know that there are exist such things? How could you prove their existence?" 

True, even in modern earth the method to prove the atom of a molecule was only after numerous experiments conducted by modern physicists and chemists. Before that, they refer it with element or compound.

"Teacher Nagi, what is this cup made of?"

"Is it not from silver?"

"Yes, it is made of silver." Marth nodded his head with a thin smile, "That answers your question. We know about the atom because we have identified the earth elements and other natural compounds. 

Element is made of extremely small particles called atoms. All atoms of an element are identical, having the same size, mass, and properties. 

The atoms of one element are different from the atoms of all other elements. 

Compounds are composed of atoms of more than one element. 

And ..., I don't know if I should add this or not, but ..., A chemical reaction involves the separation, combination, or rearrangement of atoms; and it doesn't result in their creation or destruction."

He quoted the summarized text-book version of Dalton's atomic theory.

"This silver cup ..., it was cast from silver ore right? However, is it really made out of silver? I doubt that ..., this cup, perhaps made from some other elements and not just pure silver."

"Is that the case ..., but again, how can you be so sure, Marth-kun?"

"..." he drunk the rest of the water on the cup and then begin imagining something.

He imagined all of the elements of this cup turned into lumps of separate metal. And then he began pouring his Magic Power into it. Two Magic Power before he finally got a reaction and then stated the name of this new spell.

"Separate."

White light enveloped the cup, the cup then turned into lump of different pieces of metal on his hand. All with different sizes and colors.

"There ..., so it's about seventy percent silver, a small amount of iron mixed in ..., zinc, and there is boron and copper about ten percent. There's a small grain of other elements but let's ignore those."

'If that's the case, then that silver sheets also not pure silver.' what was Marth's though recalling his [Forming] spell this noon. He wasn't that well-informed with metallurgy, but at least he could identify which metal was this and that.

Kassandra took the silver chunk and carefully observed it, she waited for Marth's next explanation.

"As I said, an element is different from other elements. And just like this cup, even if it mainly made from silver, there were some other elements mixed in."

"Hmmm ..., so you mean that this is the true 'pure' element of silver?" she asked with the silver chunk on her hand.

"Yes, that is so ..." he has separated the metal-based on their relative mass number, so there'd be no mistake in those.

"And you said that in this silver element ..., consists of very very countless small silver atoms?"

'Not necessarily countless ..., we can count how many atoms if I have a scale, but yeah ..., let's not her confused more than this.'

"... yes, and this one consists of an iron atom. And why we know they are different? As I said, they have different size, mass, properties. Ummm ..., please pass me the silver Teacher Nagi!"

Kassandra handed him the metal, and Marth used another spell. This time, it was Forming. And from the metal chunk, he forms the silver into the same size as the small iron block.

"Here you go, now, Teacher Nagi ..., the two metal has the same size, right? But both weighted differently. And if we put them into the smelter, they would melt at different temperatures. That's what I'm talking about. The size I'm talking about was the atom size, and not the actual thing size. Teacher Nagi can see that I form these two to that of the same dimension."

"...," Kassandra weighted both of the elements on both of her hand, comparing it with creased brows, "I get the gist with this 'atom' concept. And so ..., getting back to the question before, so what is the composition of water? What atom the water made of?"

"It's actually made of two types of gases. Hydrogen and Oxygen. Ah, and the foggy you see in my study room back then, it was the result after freezing those gases."

"Gas? Is it different from the air?"

"Hmmm ...," Marth took a short pause before contemplating for a bit, "Actually, the air we breath ..., also consists of different atoms and different elements."

"Then, Marth-kun ..., can you also separate the air just like you separate the elements of the silver cup?"

"Yes, I can ..., but I need some kind of container to separate the gases in order for it not disperse and blend again."

"I-I see ..., I'm sorry for making such a request. This is interesting. You know, I've read some of the scholar notes, and one of them talked about the elements of nature. But because the scholar that write this was a weak sage who didn't reach the Third Circle, his works were never popular. I initially thought that this is a useless subject to study. However...," she looked at Marth on his green iris and then asked, "Marth-kun, the green fire you showed me back then, it was the result of you for having the understanding of this 'atom' right?"

"Hmmm ..., chemistry. Or maybe the understanding of science in itself."

"Science?!?" Kassandra asked back with newfound interest.

Thus, the Dark Mage and the Chemist went into heated discussion throughout the dinner. Leaving the Myrmidon on one side, silently eating the meals while unable to join their conversation.

"Nagi-shi ..., hasn't changed at all, yano~, sorya good then," muttered Lin Yue who smiled in a nostalgic vibe watching her friend self-absorbed on her own thought while discussing with the son of her other friend.

◊ ♦ ◊

The evening. Marth entered his room after drying his throat. Explaining an entirely foreign concept to another person was not as easy as he thought. Sometimes he found unable to answer Kassandra's question or providing her an explanation that was easiest to understand.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience. If he wanted to teach his slave about the knowledge of modern earth. Then he needs to know and understand the subject as if it was the back of his hand. And he knows that this was not an easy task to complete.

He changed into pajamas and then walked to his bed. 

Unexpectedly, on top of his bed, there was another person already lied down. 

No, this person was fainted with a trail of red blood from having a nosebleed. Dressed in thin silk clothes that emboldened her exquisite body curves.

'I completely forget about her ...'

It was Diana, the herbalist's apprentice girl. This noon he asked her to come to his room in the evening. And just like Hilda come with thin silk clothes, for some reason.

'And what the hell is happening here? Is she alright?'

He checked her blood pulse and breath. But she seems to be fine. Just having a nosebleed and fainted.

'If it's like this, I can't ask her anything. I want to know more about herbology and medicine compounding. But with her being in this state, I need to postpone that. More like, I can't do anything about it with her being like this!'

He took a towel and bowl full of clean water before wiping her nose, neck, and other parts of her body from the fresh blood. After that, he dragged her to sleep more comfortably on the bed.

'Now ..., what should I do? Should I sleep with her? This will be my first time sleeping with a woman, but meh, it's not like I want to do her or anything ...'

With that on his mind, he lied down beside her. The dream realm invaded his mind. And he slept comfortably with the brown-haired slave girl beside him.