‘...No, does it even make sense to make aluminum?’
Eugene had thought of aluminum after hearing the Mage Tower’s commission, but he soon shook his head.
Of course, aluminum fulfilled both of the Mage Tower’s requirements.
First, its affinity with the Lightning Element.
Aluminum’s conductivity was roughly 60 percent that of copper, which was commonly used for electrical wiring on Earth, and this principle held true in this world as well.
Metals such as copper and gold had good affinity with the Lightning Element, so they were used in many fields, including the manufacture of magical devices and artifacts. As a result, they were considered valuable among mages and commanded high prices.
In other words, the principle that affinity with the Lightning Element equaled conductivity held true.
If so, aluminum, whose conductivity was nearly as good as gold’s, could also be presumed to have good affinity with the Lightning Element, as the Mage Tower’s commission required.
On top of that.
‘They said a metal as light as a sheet of paper….’
Aluminum had a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter, more than twice that of ordinary paper, which had a density of 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter.
However, there was a variable here.
‘Paper in this world is expensive and rather thick.’
Papermaking technology in this world had advanced beyond a primitive level, but the quality was still generally poor and the price high.
Furthermore, because of the lack of papermaking technology, the fibers could not be finely broken down. Its texture was rough, and it was thick as well.
Paper itself was light, so the expression “as light as a sheet of paper” was still used. However, because the sheets themselves were thick, they were far heavier and rougher than modern paper.
On top of that, aluminum was more than three times lighter than copper. Even on Earth, where far more varieties of metal were used than in this world, it was considered lightweight and used in fields that required extensive weight reduction.
In other words, if he could make aluminum, he would fulfill both of the Mage Tower’s conditions: a metal “as light as a sheet of paper” and “with good affinity for the Lightning Element.”
But.
‘That's only if Earth’s science and technology still work here….’
The manufacturing process for aluminum could broadly be summarized into the Bayer Process and the Hall–Héroult Process.
The Bayer Process involved crushing bauxite, an ore that contained aluminum, then reacting it with a sodium hydroxide solution under high pressure to make a compound called sodium aluminate. This was filtered, crystallized, and heated to produce alumina.
Up to that point, he could somehow manage with the workshop’s equipment and reagents.
The crushing could be done at a nearby forge, and he could rely on the Magnus Family’s name to obtain minerals with similar properties. As for a high-temperature, high-pressure furnace, such furnaces were used in alchemy as well, so there should be somewhere he could borrow one.
The problem was.
‘The next step, electrolysis… that is the problem.’
The issue was the Hall–Héroult Process: converting the alumina produced through the Bayer Process into aluminum through electrolysis.
The Hall–Héroult Process melted the alumina using a flux, then used electrolysis to reduce aluminum ions into metallic aluminum at the cathode.
And that was the greatest problem.
‘Is electrolysis even possible?’
He could somehow find a substitute material for the flux, but electrolysis was the problem.
Eugene had not mastered alchemy, but through his education so far, he possessed more than enough knowledge for a basic-level alchemist.
And as far as he knew, electrolysis had never been attempted even once in the field of alchemy.
No, he did not even know whether the concept of an ‘ion’ existed here.
He did not remember ever learning even atomic theory, which was common knowledge in modern society, so it was natural that no one had conceived of breaking matter down into molecular units. But since this was a world with magic to begin with, he was not even sure whether such a thing was possible.
‘This seems impossible….’
Just as that thought crossed his mind.
-Have you even tried it before saying that?
For a moment, Eugene felt as though he had heard such a voice.
“...Professor?”
He looked around, but there was no one in the room besides Eugene.
‘Damn it, even after dying and being reborn, I'm still hearing things like this.’
Realizing what had happened, Eugene let out a sigh.
During his graduate-school days, his advisor had constantly assigned difficult and complicated experiments to her students, especially Eugene.
And among those experiments were some that seemed utterly impossible based on his knowledge.
So whenever he said, “You want me to do this experiment? No matter how I look at it, I do not think it will produce any results….” the professor would always ask whether he had tried it, then tell him to try it first and bring her the results.
Of course, in most cases, the results turned out exactly as Eugene had expected. But sometimes—very, truly rarely—decent data would appear, almost by dumb luck.
‘...Right. There are things you only learn once you try. That's the spirit of an experimental scientist.’
She had been a mentor so horrible that he never wanted to think of her again, but the fact that something of hers remained with him even after death and rebirth meant that she must have been a mentor after all.
‘Let's try it first.’
***
To test aluminum refining, Eugene first set up a simple electrolysis experiment.
He needed to find out whether it was possible at all.
If it was not, he would need to attempt refining through a more complicated and traditional chemical method. Therefore, determining whether electrolysis was possible was essential.
The experiment Eugene attempted was the simplest one possible: electrolyzing saltwater.
If low-reactivity graphite electrodes were placed in an aqueous sodium chloride solution—saltwater—and voltage was applied across them, chlorine gas would form at the anode and hydrogen gas at the cathode.
And since the formation of gas could be confirmed through bubbles and the smell of chlorine, making those observations would allow him to conclude that electrolysis was possible.
‘But applying voltage is the problem….’
Unlike on Earth, lightning in this world was regarded as a type of element that could be handled through magic.
There were similarities, such as metals having affinity with the Lightning Element, but Eugene did not even know whether the concept of ‘voltage’ existed.
‘I still have to try.’
Since he had nothing that could apply voltage, he substituted it with the 1st Circle spell ‘Lightning Generation.’
‘...I'm not sure whether this will work.’
Still, there were things one could only learn by trying.
Eugene lowered the electrodes of the simple electrolysis device he had prepared into the saltwater.
“Please, work….”
With a prayer in his heart, he activated the mana stone.
CRACKLE.
The sound of the Lightning Element flowing through the wires began to ring out.
And then.
“....”
Nothing happened.
Something that could be called an electric current clearly flowed through the wires, but the electrolysis reaction Eugene had expected—the formation of chlorine and hydrogen gas at the ends of the electrodes—did not occur.
The Lightning Element that had entered through the wires with a crackle simply spread through the water and vanished.
“Haah….”
Eugene let out a quiet sigh.
‘It was never going to be that easy….’
He would have to seek another method to survive, but for the moment, he had no motivation to do anything.
After letting out a long sigh, Eugene went outside the workshop.
The 43rd Workshop that Eugene managed was somewhat removed from the bustling streets where people usually passed.
However, the surrounding environment was maintained reasonably well. There was even a small garden, and a narrow stream flowed nearby.
‘The scenery is nice….’
As he took a walk and looked around, Eugene thought blankly.
The workshop itself was old and small, but the scenery around it had been beautifully arranged.
It was enough to make him want to live here for the rest of his life.
Of course, compared to the main house, everything was as different as heaven and earth.
But compared to that stifling place, this one felt more like heaven.
The problem was.
‘If this place fails, I fail too….’
If he could not accomplish the task he had been assigned, Eugene would have to bear responsibility in one form or another.
It was only a guess that his father would step in, but even if he did not, there was a high chance that his damned blood relatives—who were eager to tear one another apart—would make a move.
That meant the dream of living peacefully in a place like this was impossible.
‘If only I could live a peaceful life, flowing along like that stream….’
As Eugene watched the stream with that thought in mind, suddenly.
‘Wait, flowing?’
A thought came to him.
‘Water flows because of a difference in potential energy.’
It was a kind of physics.
All matter sought to move from a high-energy state to a low-energy state.
A full explanation would have to begin with the concept of entropy, but to put it simply, high-energy states were unstable and low-energy states were stable.
Water flowed for the same reason. Gravity created a difference in potential energy between high and low places, so the flow of water could be understood as movement toward a stable state.
The key point was that a ‘difference in potential energy’ created the flow of water, not that the ‘flow of water’ created a difference in potential energy.
And because this was a universal law of physics, it applied to electricity as well.
A difference in potential energy—namely, a potential difference—formed between two points through which current flowed. Charges then flowed along that potential difference, and that flow of charge was what people called electric current.
‘But ordinary lightning magic does not work that way.’
Ordinary lightning magic could be interpreted as manipulating the Lightning Element.
It could also be interpreted as using mana to forcibly move charges and create a flow where no potential difference existed.
That was why the electrolysis he had attempted earlier had not worked.
There had only been a flow of charge, with no potential difference. Therefore, the anions and cations in the solution could not gather at their respective electrodes according to the potential.
‘To forget something this basic… I must have gotten pretty rusty.’
He had probably become confused because it had been so long since he had thought about science.
The important thing was.
‘Then I need to create a potential difference.’
Of course, creating a potential difference through ordinary magic was impossible.
However, the first page of every magic textbook contained the following two paragraphs.
-Magic is the act of locally twisting the laws of the world through a magician’s power: mana.
-Magic has no limits. However, magicians do. Those limits are defined by a magician’s understanding of the world. The universal forms of magic are merely common understandings shared by many magicians.
In other words, magic had no limits, and the form magic took was determined by one’s understanding of the world.
That was why many mages great enough to be remembered by history possessed their own unique magic systems.
‘...I need to try.’
Eugene immediately closed his eyes, raised both hands, and formed an image in his mind.
Rather than the existing image of creating the Lightning Element, he imagined his left hand at a high potential that drew in negative charges and his right hand at a low potential that drew in positive charges. Then he used mana to give that image form.
Since potential was a concept from physics, it was difficult to envision it concretely. For that part, he took inspiration from the countless electromagnetism practice problems he had solved during his undergraduate years.
He created the image of potential by overlaying the graph of a potential well created by a potential difference onto reality.
Of course, that alone was not enough.
To use magic, he also had to handle mana in a manner that suited it.
So Eugene materialized the image in his mind by overlapping the methods of handling the 1st Circle lightning spell and force-field magic.
After concentrating for a long time, Eugene controlled his mana and manifested the image.
CRACKLE.
The sound of electric current flowing began to reach him.
Eugene opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.
‘It works.’
An electric current flowed between his hands.
Rather than moving the Lightning Element in the conventional manner, he had succeeded in creating electric current through an electromagnetic potential difference.
There were not many free electrons in the air, so the current itself was exceedingly weak. But the important thing was that it flowed.
Unlike the existing systems of magic, this was a magic system that only Eugene Magnus could create in this world.
‘Then I need to try electrolysis.’
Eugene ran into the workshop. This time, he gripped an electrode in each hand, lowered them into saltwater, and formed the same image of a potential difference in his mind.
Then, slowly.
“...It works!”
Bubbles began rising from the ends of the electrodes, and the smell of chlorine gradually spread.
Electrolysis was taking place.
‘Then.’
Once he knew electrolysis was possible, there was no reason to hesitate.
Eugene quickly organized the materials that might contain aluminum in his mind, then spoke to Workshop Master Edgar.
“Workshop Master Edgar.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Please prepare the materials I am about to list as quickly as possible. First, a large quantity of Rebosite, then Albaurite and corundum…. Ah, and please also obtain a furnace that can withstand high pressure….”
***
A few days later.
‘Ugh, I'm dying….’
Workshop Master Edgar was heading to the workshop, exhausted as though he had been beaten all over.
That was because, under the direction of Eugene Magnus, who had recently become the workshop’s manager, they had done far too much work over the past few days.
First, the furnace capable of high temperatures and pressure had been a problem.
Since the Magnus 43 Alchemy Workshop had no money, Edgar had to visit other alchemy workshops in the area and try to borrow a furnace.
-Please, just do me this one favor. Our young master told me that I absolutely had to get one.
-I am begging you. I will open a bottle of expensive wine for you later, so please…. What are friends for…?
That was how he had barely managed to borrow a small furnace about the size of a single flask.
On top of that.
-This is called an electrolytic cell. It needs to be made from a material that can withstand at least a thousand degrees. Make graphite rods like this as well…. The important thing is that I need to be able to control it with magic. We will be using it under high-temperature conditions, so I would appreciate it if you arranged protective artifacts properly too…. Its purpose? Ah, I will use it for electrolysis, but that is…. No, it would be complicated to explain, so please make it according to the blueprint for now.
Eugene had also asked them to make something called an electrolytic cell, an object whose purpose they could not possibly understand.
The blueprint itself was not especially complicated, but the Magnus 43rd Workshop was a failing workshop.
To secure as much stability and quality as possible, they had to cram in control magical devices and protective-magic artifacts on top of the materials the workshop already possessed. As a result, nearly all the workshop’s money and resources had been spent just to make an electrolytic cell barely larger than a soup bowl.
In other words, they had gone all-in with the workshop’s entire resources to make an object only large enough to hold in one hand, whose purpose no one even knew.
Once the rental cost of the high-temperature, high-pressure furnace was added, the workshop had accumulated an unbearable debt. From Edgar’s position as Workshop Master, it was a matter shocking enough to shake heaven and earth.
‘...Well, it is none of my concern. The workshop is going to fail anyway.’
Workshop Master Edgar had nearly given up.
In truth, it did not matter even if Eugene Magnus was doing things Edgar could not understand.
The 43rd Workshop had not produced any results for a long time, so it would soon be closed down.
It would have been different if someone with real promise had arrived as manager, but as far as Edgar knew, Eugene Magnus had no remarkable connections and almost no influence within the Magnus Family.
The situation would not change merely because someone like that had become the manager.
Unless they produced results capable of completely overturning the situation, the workshop’s closure could not be avoided. In that case, there was no need to understand the meaning of all this pointless labor.
The workshop was going to fail anyway. It would merely fail a little faster.
Of course, something that could overturn the entire situation might suddenly occur.
Of course, something that defied common sense could come from the hands of that young master with no backing.
For example, a metal commissioned by the Kalibore Mage Tower that was as light as a sheet of paper while also having good affinity with the Electric Element.
‘It is an absurd thought, as expected.’
It was as absurd as a salamander that spat water.
With a bitter smile, Edgar entered the workshop.
“...Young Master?”
He was startled upon seeing Eugene sitting there in a very haggard state.
“Ah, Workshop Master Edgar. You arrived at just the right time.”
“What on earth happened to you?”
“It is nothing, so do not worry. I only stayed up all night.”
As he said that, Eugene held a lump of silver-colored metal in his hand.
‘No, it looks different.’
It was neither silver nor iron, but something slightly different—a metal Edgar had never seen in his life.
“Um, Young Master. The thing in your hand is….”
“I wanted to show you. Please hold it yourself.”
With that, Eugene casually tossed the lump of metal.
“Pardon?”
Edgar instinctively held out his hands.
‘Ah, at that size, it is going to hurt my hands….’
But it was too late to pull them back.
TAP.
The metal fell into Edgar’s hands.
“...Huh?”
Holding the metal, Edgar was startled by the unfamiliar sensation.
He lifted it and lowered it again. He even shook it beside his ear.
“What?”
But his bewilderment only deepened.
The reason was simple.
“...Was there ever a metal this light?”
The metal in his hand was as light as a sheet of paper.