Chapter Four: The Fate Intertwined by the Little Cabin

"What are you doing?" Ruby suddenly felt as if his body had become several times heavier, and he toppled straight toward the ground. But Mayuna was already prepared. "Cloud Magic: White Cushion." A soft, fluffy cloud appeared abruptly on the floor, catching Ruby’s body and preventing any injury.

"This isn’t scientific at all. How could a cloud possibly be soft?" Lying atop the cloud, Ruby exclaimed in disbelief.

"That’s not the point!" Mayuna nearly lost her balance. He wasn’t questioning her or shocked by magic at all, but focused on the cloud itself.

"I meant to ask earlier—why don’t you have any magic? Everyone in this world possesses magic. And what about these suspicious gadgets? They completely overturn everything I know about this world. Just who are you, really?" Mayuna sat on the sofa, looking down at Ruby sprawled on the cloud. She was no simple young lady—her mentor was notorious as Eura the Chicken Thief, a master of all sorts of shady dealings. What? You own a rare magical tome? It’s mine now. What? He’s got a pile of magic crystals? They’re already in my dimensional ring.

In short, before becoming a Saint Magus, Mayuna lived on the run, never a peaceful day. As for afterwards—well, once she became a Saint Magus, no one could best her anymore.

"It’s simple. I’m not from this world. These are all scientific inventions I created. I’m a scientist." Ruby wasn’t angry at Mayuna’s lack of gratitude; he confessed his secret quite honestly, though in truth it wasn’t much of a secret.

"Then tell me, how did you cure my illness? Even His Holiness the Pope couldn’t manage that." The fact that Ruby was from another world didn’t surprise Mayuna—this world wasn’t isolated. Legend said the great God of Light resided in the heavens, and angels from the Church would occasionally descend.

"Obviously, you primitives only know to use magic to cure disease. Healing magic merely activates the body to speed up recovery—it works well for injuries, but what about viruses inside the body? They thrive on the nutrients you feed them, multiplying faster. The more you use that lousy magic, the faster you die."

"Oh." Mayuna responded, not really understanding the scientist’s explanation, except that he was from another world.

"We’re total strangers; why did you save me? Aren’t you afraid I might be a villain?"

Mayuna pressed further. This was what puzzled her most. Earlier, she’d obeyed Ruby’s directions for medicine and food not because she was naïve, but because she knew she was dying anyway—what did it matter what happened? Yet unexpectedly, she was cured. Now that she’d survived, she wanted to understand why people trusted each other so easily.

"I will never stand by and let someone die in front of me! If I have the ability, I must save them. Until I bring you back from the brink, I don’t care who you are."

"You’ve guessed wrong. I am a villain. Now I’ll take all your things and sell them for a good price." Mayuna didn’t understand why Ruby had become so earnest. Perhaps that’s what it meant to be a fool. She wanted to scare him, to remind him of the dangers of the world.

"I can always make more if I lose them. But will your tears return to you? If you’re truly a villain, why were you weeping so sorrowfully in front of this wooden cabin?"

"You saw that..." Mayuna was at a loss for how to respond, and with a wave of her hand, she ceased supplying magic power—the spell dissipated.

"You said you’re from another world? The Demon Realm, or the Celestial Realm?"

After composing herself, Mayuna continued her questioning. Visitors from other worlds weren’t uncommon here; especially those from the Demon Realm—one could spot their traces in any large city.

"Neither. I come from Earth, a world entirely different from this one. There’s no magic there, only science."

At last, Ruby could move freely. He sat down beside Mayuna without the slightest hesitation, prompting the girl to inch away uncomfortably.

"Are these the strange contraptions? I’d love to see your world someday." Mayuna picked up the alarm clock from the table, fascinated by the endlessly circling second hand. If all it took to reach Earth was a ‘door,’ she could open one herself.

"It’s not as simple as opening a door, like with the Demon Realm. Besides... it’s been destroyed."

"Destroyed? Why?"

"Nuclear war. To put it in terms you’d understand—it was as if countless magicians unleashed forbidden spells all at once, devastating the planet’s ecosystem. The land can no longer bear plants, humans and animals can no longer be born, all the freshwater is polluted. It’s a living hell."

"Wait, then how did you get here?"

Mayuna tried to imagine such a battle—it would indeed leave irreparable wounds on the earth. But the crucial point was how Ruby had come here. The world called Earth shouldn’t be reachable by simply opening a door, or surely someone would have known by now.

"I was sent here by a man—as the last survivor of that world."

"How old are you now?" Mayuna wisely refrained from asking who that man was; she wasn’t one to pry, nor did she expect Ruby to tell such things to someone he’d just met.

"By this world’s reckoning, about twenty."

"About?"

"Yes. When I was sent here, my body was transformed into that of a five-year-old child. They adjusted my physical state to the healthiest period, then left without a care for my survival..." A trace of resentment crossed Ruby’s face. That person was truly irresponsible. If not rich or powerful, at least leave some food. It felt like he’d simply switched burial plots at a whim.

"Just like me... How did you survive?"

"This mountain has plenty. For instance, gathering firewood—while mages can conjure fire, places like restaurants sometimes lack workers, so there’s always some need. The fruit growing on the trees can be sold too. I relied on this mountain to make it through the hardest times."

"So that was possible... I really was a fool." Judging by the timeline, Ruby must have arrived in this world shortly after she was taken in by her teacher. Though he hadn’t arrived as a true child, adapting to survive with a child’s body so quickly was far better than her, who’d simply curled up and cried in a corner doing nothing.

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