Chapter 23: Of All Pursuits, None Surpasses the Study of Books

“Do you have a dream?”
One early morning, Mayona asked Ruby, who had just woken up, with a rare seriousness in her eyes.
“?”
Unsurprisingly, Ruby responded with a dazed look, as if one of them hadn’t fully woken up yet.
“I mean, are we just going to spend our lives like this?”
Mayona reflected on her recent days—staying home every day, with nothing to do except occasionally teasing the poor mermaid. There were books, of course, but even reading could become tiresome! At this rate, she’d turn into a shut-in—maybe even evolve in the wrong direction into a lazy, overweight recluse! This was something Mayona absolutely could not accept.
“You’re overthinking it. I’ll die many years before you do.”
Ruby replied indifferently. The more powerful a magician, the longer their lifespan—the same as described in Earth’s novels. A Mage Saint could easily live for centuries. For someone like Mayona, a Mage God, life was just beginning, while Ruby had already lived a quarter of his.
“That’s not what I meant! Don’t you have any ambitions at all? Why do you stay cooped up in this wooden cabin every day? Young people should strive for something! I can help you, you know.”
At the mention of lifespan, Mayona’s heart gave a twist, but she brushed aside the feeling as an illusion and pressed on. Ruby clearly didn’t know how to use his resources: Mayona was always radiating the aura of “I’m your strong support” and “Anyone who bullies you, I’ll take care of them,” yet he ignored it, preferring to tinker with his cold machinery rather than conquer the world—a complete dreamless layabout.
“I don’t really have a dream, I guess. But if you’re asking if there’s something I’d like to do, I’d like to go to school.”
“School? You mean a magic academy? For what?”
Mayona’s confusion was obvious—there was nothing taught in this world except magic, and she couldn’t see why Ruby would want to go.
“To study magic, of course. My head is full of scientific knowledge, so I’m very curious about the magic system.”
“Not to discourage you, but without magical power, it’s impossible to become a magician. You know that, right?”
Mayona assumed Ruby was dreaming of becoming a magician, but she’d rather crush that hope now than let him hit a wall later—it was kinder than letting others reject him.
“I know. I don’t want to become a magician—I just want to understand it. Curiosity has always been the ladder of human progress.”

“So, have you decided which academy to attend?”
“Yes. I heard there’s an academy in a big city called Terrilima. I’ll go once I’ve saved enough money.”
“Terrilima? The most famous school there is the Rhine Magic Academy, but the tuition is the highest in the Holy Empire. Can you manage that?”
“That’s why I’m not in a hurry. Schools here don’t have age requirements. I can take my time.”
“But until you’ve saved up, are we just going to keep living this monotonous life? Sooner or later, we’ll turn into lazy shut-ins.”
“What have you and Dragon been learning, anyway? I was about to go buy some groceries. Want to come to Derys with me?”
Ruby sighed. Dragon and Mayona were a pair of frenemies, but when Mayona was bored, Dragon would take on the role of a living television—albeit a rather unwilling one.
“Go into town? No, I won’t.”
“Why? You’ve been here so long, but I’ve never seen you go into town even once.”
“You’re from another world, so you might not know. My appearance closely resembles a figure from a terrifying legend, and people are very afraid of me...”
Mentioning her looks dampened Mayona’s mood. Living with Ruby for so long had almost let her forget—entering town looking as she did would surely bring disaster. Back in the capital, she’d only wandered about thanks to a spell that repelled passersby.
“What legend?”
“Just a silly story. Go on your own—I’ll wait for you at home.”
“Wait a moment.”
Ruby nodded and disappeared to the second basement level. Half an hour later, he returned, but his appearance left Mayona genuinely astonished.
“You—you look like this now...”
Unconsciously, Mayona reached out to touch Ruby’s pure white hair, even giving it a firm tug. After confirming it was real, she looked into his eyes: his previously black pupils were now red, though slightly lighter than hers. Standing side by side, they looked almost like siblings.

“I invented a lot of gadgets when I first arrived in this world out of boredom—hair dye and colored contact lenses were among them.”
Ruby remembered that, in those early days, his mind was so full of knowledge that he approached everything like a child with new toys, immediately seeing the possibilities in every material on hand and making whatever he could.
“Are you an idiot? If you look like this, you’ll be discriminated against just like me! Turn it back, now!”
Mayona grabbed Ruby’s clothes and shouted. The suffering she’d endured as a child because of her looks had become a deep-seated trauma, so she rarely showed her true face. The first time she revealed herself to a crowd was when she became a Mage God, and most who saw her were shocked.
“Mayona, did your parents ever dislike your appearance?”
Ruby suddenly took a handful of Mayona’s snow-white hair in his hand and asked earnestly.
“...No.”
“I’m sure they knew about that silly legend too, but they never tried to make you change your appearance. They loved you all the same. Don’t you see what that means?”
“The prejudice of the masses may make you doubt yourself, but those who truly love you—would they really hate you for that?”
“You are who you are. Don’t bother with what others think—it’s their business. If their malice hurts you, fight back. Don’t you always claim to be a peerless beauty in front of me? Where’s that confidence now?”
With that, Ruby let go of her hair, placing it in Mayona’s hand. Under the light, the hair she had once despised suddenly didn’t seem so objectionable anymore. Mayona wasn’t stupid—if Ruby could change his own hair color, he could change hers as well. But he hadn’t tried to change her, only put himself in her place and told her that he’d be right by her side.
With someone like that walking the road with her, even if the world scorned her, perhaps it wouldn’t matter so much after all.

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P.S. Like the author, Ruby loves to learn. All you readers must enjoy books too, so let’s review this “53” together.