In the same area where I had performed my electrophoresis experiment, I stood with both Livia and the scholar. Livia had just finished going over the basics of yesterday's experiments. She was a little bit off in her explanation, but the general gist was fine. The scholar humored her, but after some time and replicating the experiment, he took on a more serious interest as he began to write down our findings.

"Now that Livia has finished going over what we have figured out, I'll outline the steps of the next part of the experiment. We will first be drawing the natural water from the air out to ensure we are working in a dry environment. The second step is to use air magic to collect the gases that formed from the previous experiment. The third step is to, in simple terms, merge the gases into water."

"That will involve quite a bit of magic, some of which seem to be more on the technical side," the scholar said.

"Technical?" I asked as it seemed as though the scholar knew something pertaining to my experiment.

"We know that air can be composed of multiple gases. The fact that we can extract water from the air using water magic is evidence of this, however, such extraction methods yield minimal results for a taxing amount of control. What's more, I imagine being able to differentiate gases using wind magic compared to water extraction is likely to be several orders of magnitude more difficult."

"... Wait, there have been experiments about this before?"

"More experimental magic control exercises. None of which were intended or hypothesized to have any utility aside from maybe removing harmful gases from an environment."

"How come you're not skeptical about my words?"

"You supposedly already have results suggesting water can be broken down into two different gases, and we know that air is composed of multiple. You also detailed how you will avoid mistaking natural humidity with the water you plan on creating by combining the gases. I'm inclined to believe you have a precocious understanding of alchemy."

"Wait, is what I'm doing considered alchemy? My book on the subject made no such mention."

"Ah, I suppose you acquired the texts regarding how to transmute gold and brew elixirs of immortality," he chuckled.

"... Judging from your tone, alchemy has more than one meaning."

"Yes. Its origins are based on the fanciful literature you have read, but the field of alchemy is no more than applying magic to exert control on the natural world."

"So there was a field of magic regarding this. How come I couldn't find any texts on this?"

"Simply because what advancement in the field has been relegated to control exercises for other magics. Quite frankly, your current discovery is already breaking new ground."

"Wait, but how? This is a basic experiment. How had no one gotten this far?"

"Simple. Why would anyone ever think water was composed of two gases, and why would treating water to electricity cause a liquid to separate into two gases? I am rather curious why you would think of such a thing in the first place."

Now that he mentioned it, it would be incredibly weird for someone to think that water was made of oxygen and hydrogen when there was no reasonable theory to build off. I only knew because my previous life had been during a time in which science was the avenue of progress. While elements of it were still present, the focus of science now tended to be geared purely for practicality instead of theoretical.

"In any case, I want to see if my theory can hold up in the reverse. Livia, remember what I said?"

"Muuu... Fine," she said before shuffling away to hide behind the dirt with her ears plugged.

"Leon?" the scholar prompted.

"Safety reasons. I don't want her to get caught up in an explosion in case accidentally I make a mistake."

"Your experiments can explode?" he asked worriedly.

"The last one, not so much. This one... I could foresee potential health hazards," I sheepishly said.

"And why do you think this one might explode?"

"I am setting off a spark on some... fiery gases."

"... How concerned should I be?"

"I'm 70% sure everything should be fine."

"Still much safer than adventuring, I suppose."

"Could I also ask you to create a wind barrier to prevent the humidity of the outer region from interfering with the experiment?"

"Hmm?"

"Even if we draw water from here, the surrounding areas will still have it and will naturally fill the immediate area given time."

"That would skew the results. How large of a region do you need?"

"It probably is best to set aside a 5x5x5 cube. while I'm only going to use a small fraction of the space, I'd much rather not experiment right in my face."

"That sounds wise."

I gasped as I woke up. Livia was crying by my side while the scholar was speaking with a muffled noise. Oh, his voice was becoming clearer. It wasn't that he was talking low, but my ears were simply ringing.

"What happened?" I coughed out. My throat hurt, and my voice was raspy. God it felt like my insides were cooked.

"Well... in order of events. You strained yourself and likely gave yourself mild aether exhaustion. Something about too little of the gases you were looking for. After having scoured the entire cube of these two gases, we both experienced terrible difficulty in breathing. Your insistence on setting off a spark to complete the experiment caused a massive conflagration that launched you quite a distance and knocked you out."

"Ugh... why didn't I stop earlier?" I groaned.

"I assumed childish stubbornness," he said with a slightly miffed expression.

"... And why didn't you try to stop me?"

"I assumed that with so little of the gases, the spark wouldn't have caused that large of an explosion. Clearly, I underestimated the potency of alchemy."

"Where's the water?"

"Still on about that lad? You could've died," he said with a disappointed tone.

"Need to know how much water was made to know if I mistook the amount of gas," I coughed.

"Hoh?"

"If there is a lot of water, then I collected too much gas. If there is too little, then adding magic to this caused the problem. The latter of which means that going further down this lane of magic is pointless... unless I want to become a demolition expert."

"Very well," the man said in a more normal tone as he shuffled away. I heard a metal squeak and some footsteps.

My vision was soon filled with the image of a pail. At the bottom, a very small puddle of water lied.

"Think the water was blown away from the explosion or evaporated?"

I shook my head.

"The water doesn't even cover the very bottom of the bucket. This is the actual amount the gases would have produced. Unfortunately, adding magic into the mixed caused the explosion."

It was a shame. It looked like the few days were a waste of time. Now how was I going to get the water?

My thoughts were interrupted when the old man bopped my head.

"What gives?" I yelped.

"No need to be sad. While the experiment didn't yield the results you were hoping for, we did learn about a potential alternative application."

"Hoh? Is being a demolitionist a lucrative job?"

"Amusing, but no. You just replicated a high level fire spell using the most basic fire spell and an unorthodox control exercise for air magic."

"Uh..."

"Think of it like this. You used less than a hundredth of the magic necessary to perform a high end spell, and depending on the refinement of the method, potentially a fraction of the control necessary," he said the last part more as a prompt than anything else.

"Depends if you can create complex material," I groaned. If it were simply for something where I did not care for the continued existence of the byproduct, then generating something like gasoline shouldn't cause too much issue. Not like water where the continued existence of and need for use by living material could cause issues.

At this, he frowned.

"Ah, that would be more taxing to the point the outcome is likely less efficient than the current methodology."

"Figures."

"So what are you going to do now, young man?"

"Probably shelf this idea for later. I still need to get water to my fields," I groaned.

If conjuring or creating water was out, I would need to find a way to draw water from the closest water source... which was several miles away. If chemistry was out, physics was probably what I needed to solve my problems.

"Probably for the best. Though next time, would you mind terribly checking in with me before you conduct your next experiment? It would put my mind at ease to have some experts take a look at your methodology for safety sake."

"Probably for the best. Having a second opinion could do wonders."

He then placed a sack of coins in my hand.

"Huh?" I stammered.

"For the experimental design you have shown me today. I can think of a few scholars who would pay top Dia to explore the details of what you have shown me."

Well, that was something. It would definitely help fund my next project.

Side-Plot:

With the explosive results putting an early end to the day, I guided the children home. Little Olivia was glued to Leon's side after the scare. Leon had awkwardly promised to curb his experiments. It looked like Olivia was finally aware that Leon had a reason for being so concerned for her safety.

It would have been a shame to see such a precocious child hindered. It was part of the reason of why I offered to look over his work. While safety was a concern, I wanted to see what Leon could come up with and Olivia's concerns could have hindered progress too much. If her concerns were allayed, Leon could work freely.

After delivering the two children to Olivia's home and giving Mrs. Gardenia some hints to give a more lavish meal, I went directly to the Bartfort home. I had to speak to the patriarch immediately. I wanted to confirm something.

I found him in the armory doing maintenance on the weapons.

"Ah, Lord Lucas. I hope my son didn't trouble you too much today."

"Lord Bartfort, did your son experience a high fever recently?"

"... Did Leon tell you that?"

"And afterwards, did he seem different?"

"What do you know?" the man said with a pleading look.

"I believe he is an Ashen Child."

AN:

1) Introduced the idea that combining science and magic causes synergistic effects in terms of creating energy. Imagine violating the rules of thermodynamics.

2) Also introduced the fact that reincarnators have appeared before and do stupid enough things to deserve a title. Probably will go more into detail next chapter. If I do, it will likely be a side chapter.

3) And thus all the build up to this water synthesis experiment, lead to a failure. That's right people, Leon will fail at shit in this fic. But in all seriousness, the low ass percentages of oxygen and hydrogen in the air would have ensured this failed in real life anyways.