Mid Evening - Late Spring : Home

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"Could you.. teach me more about this.. science thing?" Mother looked at me with an unusual gleam in her eyes as night encompassed the sky behind her.

It was a question that caught me so off guard that I just went silent. As much as I wanted to immediately agree, I wasn’t sure what to say. -For her to learn science, she would have to abandon everything she was taught about how the world works…- This would be a hard pill to swallow for almost anyone, let alone a prideful dragon.

But the incredibly familiar and comforting warmth I felt in my chest after seeing Mother’s eager expression made me finally cave. "Haha, alright. Just know it won't be easy to understand."

A smile of excitement came to her face immediately as she puffed up her chest. "I was top of my class at the academy! I can handle it!"

I held back a laugh, thinking her confidence was born of naiveté. "Alright, in that case, do you want to start now?"

"YES!" She nodded vigorously like an eager child.

"Haha, in that case, I'll start by explaining what exactly science is." There was a short pause while I thought of how to say it. "In basic terms, science is the study of how the physical world works and functions."

Mother's face immediately morphed with confusion. "But.. if science is the study of how things work, wouldn’t that just make it the study of magic?"

-She’s freakishly sharp sometimes...- It was a question I knew was coming, and, to be honest, I had no idea how to explain it. I was aware that mana and magic were inextricably linked to science, but my knowledge of the subject was too limited to teach. -But I guess I don't actually have to mix them yet anyway...- "You aren’t totally wrong, since mana and magic do affect it in many cases, but science can exist independently without magic."

"Huh? How?"

"You see, the events caused in the world around us are the consequences of the countless laws and rules of the world colliding. The fundamentals of science are the basis of the world, so even if mana completely disappeared, the world would still exist and function similarly to now."

Mother gave me an amazed look the moment I finished. "The world.. could function without mana?"

Noticing she was already getting caught up on something she didn't need to stress over just yet, I quickly shifted her focus. "Try not to worry too much about understanding that just yet. Once you get a decent understanding of the basics, things will start to click."

"O..okay..." She reluctantly nodded after pulling herself out of thought.

-Maybe she.. can actually learn it…- Getting hopeful, I jumped straight into the most basic topic I could. "Alright then, let’s start simple." -I should tie this into Newton's laws as well...- "If I take this rock, and let go of it, it falls, right?"

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She slowly nodded as she tried to think ahead of me.

"That is called a force. You can also think of a force as anything that could possibly put any object, like this rock, into motion." I continued after waiting for her nod in understanding. "Now, if I take this rock and set it in your palm... You feel its weight, right? Well, that is you resisting the force pulling it into the ground with an equal but opposite force!" I smiled as I noticed her eagerness to learn slowly resurface through the confusion. -She might actually be able to learn it!-

And with that mountain of excitement, I continued teaching her all through the night, eventually getting her so hooked on learning it that she got upset when I stopped the session at sunrise.

She was already significantly farther ahead than I expected, having learned many of the basics to the point that she could apply her knowledge to ask better questions by the time morning rolled around.

But even though I could have kept teaching her through the day as well, I wanted to give her a bit of a break and give her time to think about some of her questions herself. At the end of our session, I left her better questions unanswered to let her work to figure some of them out herself, thinking it would be more engaging and fun for her.

And that it was.

During the day, she would watch over Krystallo while pondering the countless questions and theories she had, and each evening, when she would swap out with Father, she would dart up the mountain and throw her speculations at me.

It was honestly incredibly enjoyable for me as well, as I felt like I saw a part of myself in her, and that was more than enough to get a new routine.

Our lessons became daily before we knew it, and before we knew it, a whole five months had passed.

But not as much changed as one would expect. Although she had made immense progress, she was still only about halfway through general physics, and we still hadn’t even started the other realms of science like chemistry. -But we’re getting there…-

Although she was still building her foundation, she was already coming up with ideas to make her spells and aura more efficient, and instead of her excitement toning itself down after a while, she only got more eager and came to me with more ideas and theories every day.

Eventually, her eagerness to learn got to the point where she would poke her head out of the doors to the cave to watch Ilios and I’s afternoon spar, then bring questions about why I changed certain things in my movement to the evening lesson.

In a way, she became quite obsessed with physics, but I honestly thought it was great.

It was something both of us loved talking about, and it gave her something to eagerly look forward to every day, as well as give me an excuse to spend more time with her.

But the teaching didn’t just benefit her, it also benefited me! After taking the time to actually teach it all to her, I strengthened my own understanding and even found a few more loopholes I could exploit with mana and take advantage of in my movement.

It was actually such immense growth that after only around a month, I caught up to Ilios in speed, but sadly it didn’t last long, since his growth sped up as well.

Regardless, over those 5 months, Ilios and I both improved by leaps and bounds, to the point that we were actually pushing the sound barrier in some of our recent sessions.

-But calling it a barrier is an understatement…- "Hah.. hah.. Hah…" *thump* Plopping myself down after an intense spar, I glanced over at Ilios. "You alright, Ilios? I accidentally hit your nose there at the end."

"Hah-hah-hah-hah… Ruff…" Panting from exhaustion, he let out an exhausted woof, as if to say he was fine.

"Haah... Good…" There was a moment of silence as I idly glanced around the green, pasture-like field that had grown in place of the forest I destroyed several months prior. -Burning everything sure did make it come back up nicely…-

But as I laid in the cool grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun, I felt a sudden fluctuation in the mana around me. -Hm?-

Paying closer attention to it, I noticed the turbulent mana suddenly start being pulled toward the entrance of the cave, a couple hundred meters away.

-Is it finally time?-