Chapter: 6
“Isn’t it common sense that the world is made up of elements…?”
This was the reaction of a grand wizard who had lived his entire life in a medieval fantasy.
“Well, that doesn’t make any sense. If the smallest unit of everything isn’t an element… then what about elemental magic? You know, fireballs and ice spears? Why is it that some wizards are great with fire magic but can’t handle earth magic to save their lives?”
My answer, of course, was ‘I don’t know.’
After all, isn’t magic a concept that only exists in imagination back on Earth?
Unless I were a former PhD in physics or something, it was highly unlikely that the ordinary guy I was, employed in a mundane job, would gain insights into the fundamental principles of magic using the powers of modern science. There hadn’t been any so far, and I didn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
The tower master, with an expression akin to someone hearing that the world is actually made of chocolate, gently retorted.
“And besides, if the world is different, the laws of physics could be different too. Just look at the spirit realm; it operates on a completely different set of rules compared to the continent. Isn’t it possible our world doesn’t conform to those?”
That was indeed a sharp point.
“‘In my universe, I fly.’ Isn’t that a famous line?”
Various common understandings from Earth might not apply in this world. Isn’t it already a world where magic exists?
Moreover, it seems gods and demons might actually be real, with priests and demon summoners receiving direct powers.
Unlike on Earth, the ground might be flat, or maybe the universe isn’t immense but instead consists of small, precious planetary systems.
I thought such possibilities could exist, so I didn’t jump to conclusions.
Thus, I conducted an experiment. I wanted to see how far Earth’s scientific principles could be applied in this world.
“It turned out to be almost all correct.”
“Really?!”
“Of course, I’m not really, uh… into research, so I only tested simple things.”
These were famous experiments straight out of a science textbook—checking if a planet is round by observing the shadow of a stick, detecting cosmic background radiation, or making crystals form on sticks.
I struggled a bit to gather some materials for a few experiments, but the funding that flowed into the tower was nearly invincible—a divine blessing.
Excluding things enchanted with magic like mithril, scientific knowledge had a winning streak.
I was even able to conclude that the continent is indeed a round planet.
“So, the continent isn’t flat…!!”
“Calculating roughly, it’s a planet with a radius of about 7500 km, but I just did that as a pastime, so it isn’t entirely accurate.”
“So, it wasn’t that there’s just an edge of the ocean falling into the infinite void…”
After my reincarnation into this world, when I farmed potatoes with my parents in the countryside, I heard stories like that while receiving bread from the local priest.
About how the god of darkness and the god of light created humans, and so on.
In the middle of that story, there was a part claiming the earth is flat and that if you ventured into the sea, you’d fall into the void.
The tower master, perhaps deep in thought, clutched his head and groaned. It appeared common sense was being directly challenged, leaving him baffled.
A desire sprouted within me to pour modern knowledge into that little head of his, corrupting his scientific understanding, but I held back. I wasn’t a scientist; I was a fantasy wizard who enjoyed TRPGs.
In fact, whether the Earth is flat or round wasn’t the important part.
We needed to focus on a slightly different point.
“There’s no certainty if it’s really like that or if I might be mistaken, but isn’t it kind of fun to think about it?”
“…Huh?”
There’s a spell that conjures butterflies here.
A child who has never seen a butterfly will create an entirely different illusion than an adult who has been raising butterflies for decades. The adult triumphs.
The power of an illusion increases based on how concrete it is and to what extent one believes in it.
This applies even when conjuring the illusion of a single knight.
Just imagining ‘a knight guarding the castle gate’ cannot compete with ‘the castle gatekeeper knight, who has a childhood friend he’s known for a long time, currently crushing on the miller’s daughter, but then his childhood friend unexpectedly moved nearby, creating an awkward situation.’
In short, the importance of well-defined creative backgrounds cannot be overstated.
“Wouldn’t this be useful for illusion magic?”
“Oooh…”
The more thoughts one has, the stronger the illusion becomes. My groundbreaking endeavors as an illusion wizard could potentially stem from how this knowledge allows for rich character backgrounds in stories.
The whole world is material.
You can find TRPG material even in the raindrops flowing down your window.
Just the sound of a neighbor knocking can inspire genres ranging from thrillers to romances.
While I did yearn to indulge in a bit of modern knowledge euphoria with thoughts like ‘Isn’t this something you don’t know?—’, it was more about wanting to give the purple tower master some entertaining stories.
“So, rather than making a painful expression, how about thinking of it as a chance to acquire interesting material?”
“B-but thinking about how vast the universe is kinda scares me. Doesn’t it make life feel utterly meaningless…?”
“Isn’t it actually exhilarating to think it means there’s an incredible amount of space for humanity to explore? Now, let’s move on to the biology section. I have so much I want to say!”
===============================================================
That damn medieval age was particularly filthy.
Not knowing about germs meant folks would wash maybe once in a while and eat rather carelessly…
My daily washing by the stream was met with ridicule from medieval families who thought I was being excessive.
But now was the time for retaliation.
I would unleash the poison called hygiene management into this medieval fantasy.
“Here’s a microscope. It’s an object that allows you to see small things up close.”
“…And?”
“This is the purple tower master’s underwear. Do you happen to use clean magic every few days?”
The purple tower master seemed to consider whether she should tear apart that blasphemous illusion alongside this world. Yet when I maintained my brazen demeanor, she seemed to think there might be a reason to this.
It was embarrassing, but she responded with a face that conveyed she wasn’t quite sure why she felt embarrassed.
“…W-well, I use it once a week.”
I smacked my forehead at that answer. Then, I set up her panties on the microscope slide and encouraged her to take a look at her own sin.
The tower master tilted her head to the side and brought her eye to the microscope, nearly leaping back like a cat who suddenly spotted a cucumber.
“Ugh, eww… What are these strange wriggling slime masses…?”
“Aah, you didn’t know? They are…”
“P-please speak properly.”
The tower master concentrated a terrifying amount of power on her finger, and I opted for a polite approach.
“They are microorganisms. Literally, they are small living beings.”
“…A-am I not being teased? They really exist outside too, right?”
“Yes. Symptoms like colds, itchy skin, runny noses, and fevers—none of these are curses but caused by germs. They are the bad guys among microorganisms.”
“Germs…”
“These little guys breed in dirty places. On unwashed skin, unlaundered clothes, or in unclean laboratories…”
“…!!”
The tower master was visibly horrified, shaking herself off as though bugs were clinging to her clothes.
But, of course, things you can’t see aren’t just going to fall off.
“It seems you only use clean magic around the time your clothes start smelling a bit. By that point, they’re probably crawling with them. Crawling!”
“Don’t use that phrase…!!”
“This is why you should be washing every day. It’s also the reason you need to wash your hands often. I’m not overreacting; it’s just that you all are dirty—”
“I get it, I get it!”
The purple tower master sincerely wore a disgusted expression. And she kept fidgeting.
Once you become conscious of how to breathe, it’s hard to forget—kind of like that.
The tower master appeared incredibly anxious now that she knew about the little friends crawling on her skin.
I’m confident of this. With this, the tower’s cleanliness quota just increased by one.
“I’d rather not have known.”
“Had you not known, it would have been even dirtier.”
“D-don’t call me dirty in front of a lady!”
“Shall we go check out the war weapons next?”
===============================================================
I connected a computer to the movie theater screen to show some video materials.
Guns.
“…So you can use these without learning magic, right? It seems ordinary folks would end up fighting frequently…”
“Doesn’t that feel threatening? Imagine all the peasants in the territory armed with guns and declaring war.”
“Well, if the golden tower’s ‘Metal Distortion’ barriers are in play, they’d turn to scrap…?”
As expected, guns didn’t seem particularly threatening here.
In a world where a person could become a walking battle tank with effort.
But what about missiles?
“If mages are stationed, they could defend against them, but if they really set out to produce…”
Nukes.
“…Were the only ones you lived with mad wizard types wanting to drive the world to ruin?”
“Umm…”
“Common sense dictates that weapons capable of turning everything to ashes with a simple mistake are practically the same as a dark mage trying to resurrect an evil god, right?”
“Exactly?”
“But then… since it’s also possible for other countries to resurrect an evil god, wouldn’t it make sense to prepare for that too…?”
“Uh… yeah?”
“Were the only ones you lived with mad wizard types wanting to drive the world to ruin?”
Thinking it over carefully, I couldn’t deny it.
Was mankind’s madness such that otherworlders would confuse us for ‘you mad wizards’?
“If this is what comes out of scientific advancement, maybe it’s better for everyone to live in ignorance…”
The tower master murmured as if she had witnessed a terrifying giant octopus.
Before thoughts akin to dumbing the populace emerged in that grand wizard’s mind, I guided her to the next course.
“Lastly, let’s go to the place where I used to live.”
“Where you used to live?”
“Yeah. The last part should be a story about my past; would you listen?”
The tower master nodded her head.
I asked again, just in case.
“You can skip it if you think it might be boring.”
The tower master smacked my head with a spatula conjured from an illusion.
Seemingly urging me to spill it all, I laughed.
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