Chapter 59: Worked To The Bone

The journey toward the Treasure Room was mostly uneventful. After they left the Academy and Garao with their small caravan, they only encountered monsters once on the first day.

Three pig monsters with slightly varying mutations attacked the students. They were handled by the nobles with varying degrees of efficiency.

Victoria’s group, consisting of her and three of her attendants, performed the best. Then came Benjamin and his two followers. Last came a small group of nobles who were not part of Victoria’s clique, who barely managed to kill the third pig, and only did so after sustaining an injury.

The commoners didn’t even get a chance to prove themselves. At first, they weren’t interested, but that changed when Shim Lester half-heartedly did his duties and informed them that the field trip was both a learning experience and a test.

Their performance was graded.

Grades weren’t everything to Alec and the others. They didn’t have families and reputations to uphold, after all. But good grades were important if they wanted better positions after graduating.

Better positions meant less discrimination and so on.

But more importantly, they couldn’t let themselves be pushed aside like that. They weren’t any worse than the nobles.

However, the first of the two days of travel ended without a chance for them to prove themselves.

Alec and the others got some joy, though, from seeing the nobles forced to sleep outside.

Although Shim Lester wanted to coddle them, camping outdoors was an inevitable part of monster hunting. It was part of their duties as nobles.

It even seemed like some of them were used to it. Claas Sura and Theo Vurus, Benjamin’s minions, went around and made sure Victoria Fosra, Madelynn Yanter, Nia Lason, and Ticka Highfield had their tents erected and campfire lit.

Alec felt a little sorry for the two warriors. They were being worked to the bone.

In a way, they had it worse since they were barely treated like humans. Alec and the others, while treated as outcasts by the nobles, still had their friends. Claas and Theo only had each other.

But Alec was in no position to pity them. As long as they worked hard, they were fine.

No matter how hard Alec worked, it seemed Benjamin was still carrying a grudge. He wasn’t the only one.

For some reason, Shim Lester had been keeping an eye on Alec whenever both of them were outside the carriages.

Alec did his best to ignore it.

“Guys, I’ve been thinking about something,” Maura said, breaking the silence.

“Hoh? That’s progress,” Taryeon responded without looking away from the piece of meat he was holding by the fire. It seemed he was planning to replace the chewiness of the cheap meat with char.

Maura ignored him and looked at Alec, who was deep in a state of focus with his eyes closed.

“What is fire?”

“That’s it?” Erio asked.

“That’s obvious. Fire is…” Erio’s voice trailed off, and his confident attitude vanished like smoke in the wind.

Fire was fire. It was part of everyday life. What did she mean by that question?

Seeing Erio’s bluster, the others immediately tried to think of an answer to Maura’s question.

“Fire is fire. Is there a need to think deeper?” Isidore eventually said, unable to think of a satisfactory answer.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, Isidore.” Maura smiled so cheerily that it was obvious she was condescending. Of course, there was a need to think deeper. To improve her magic, she needed a deeper understanding of fire.

“Water is a liquid. It freezes when it’s cold, and it boils when it’s hot. Wood is a living material. It grows when it’s alive, and it dries out when it dies. It can be hard and soft. It burns, and it can shatter. Dirt is the cradle of life and both small and big.

“But fire is…just fire. It’s hot and bright. It can’t be frozen when everything else can. It can’t be preserved without something to burn. Conversely, as long as there’s air and fuel, it lasts forever. What is it?” Maura asked in frustration.

“It’s not the only thing that can’t be frozen.” Taryeon still hadn’t looked away from the piece of meat on the fire. It apparently wasn’t black enough.

“What?” Maura said, mostly to keep him talking.

“You gave two examples of things that can’t be frozen. Heat and light. You can’t freeze sunlight, and you can’t freeze the heat spreading from a fire or a human body.”

“But then what is heat and light?”

Alec cracked open an eye and glanced at Maura.

’Heat is the rapid movement of molecules, and light is electromagnetic radiation or something. I’ve also heard it acts as both particles and waves, whatever that means. I probably won’t be able to explain it to these kids, though.’

“Do you have something to say?” Maura noticed Alec’s gaze.

Alec sighed.

“I don’t know about heat and light, but I know fire is both. It’s…a reaction that occurs when something burns. Think of it as proof that something’s burning. It’s a release of energy.

“During a tree’s lifetime, it absorbs and stores energy in itself when absorbing water, nutrients, and sunlight. When the tree is turned into firewood, all of that stored energy is released as fire.”

Maura frowned and sank into thought as deeply as Alec usually did. Alec watched her for a while.

He hadn’t missed how great her affinity for fire was. She had threatened to set Taryeon on fire more than once, and it did not always seem like she was joking.

But he wasn’t sure if science was the right way for her to understand it.

He was about to return to reading and learning runes when she looked at him again.

“If what you said is true, Alec, what then is the point of fire spells? Or rather, how do they work?”

Alec’s eyes widened. Fire spells created flames without burning anything. A moment later, he squinted.

“Don’t they burn the mana?”

Instead of answering, Maura cast a Fireball too fast for the others to react. But instead of sending it flying, she let the spell spin in place while she fed it mana, overriding the Regulator.

After a while, she slowly shook her head.

“Nope. The spell uses mana to create flames. I imagine it’s similar to how the other spells create their elements.”

“I would say that for earth magic, it’s more like the spell transforms the mana to a physical manifestation of the attribute.” Reece’s words didn’t change Maura’s conclusion.

“But it’s still a stone or whatever, right?”

Reece nodded.

“It’s the same here. When I cast Fireball, I create a ball of fire that I send flying. But it is not burning anything. So, is it really fire?”

“Do we have to get so philosophical?” Erio asked. He had gotten a headache just from listening to them talk.

“’Shut up, Erio,’” Alec, Taryeon, Maura, and Reece said in unison.

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