Oneshot The Alchemist's Apprentice, Or How My Modern Knowledge of Science is Useless In This World

My name is Satoru Hijima, a 30-year old man living in Japan, working as a teacher and a researcher in one of the more famous universities of the country. My life, if I were to be honest, was quite average and unsatisfactory. Sure, I won many awards from the scientific community, but nothing that really put my name out there in the world. And my private life was pretty much in ruins, with me still living in a rented apartment alone with no wife or even a girlfriend in sight. I had pretty much stopped trying a few years back, devoting myself entirely to my research. Unfortunately, that didn't really bear fruit, and my personal project got halted thanks to the lack of funds. And now, I mostly worked as a boring, middle age professor that no students took seriously,

That is, until one day, I lost my life due to a car crash while going to work. And just like that, all my efforts in this long 30-year old life was gone, vanished in an instant.

And to my surprise, the next time I woke up, I was no longer in my old body, or my old Earth for that matter.

My new name is Fredrick von Vaunterbach, a 13-year old boy living in the kingdom of Altrusca, on the capital city of Verna. I am the eldest son of the Vaunterbach family, a minor noble house in the kingdom.

Indeed, I have been transported into another world.

The first thing that came into my mind, after the confusion had cleared of course, was something like "This is it! This is my chance!". Just like in the novels I often read (my guilty pleasure, if I might add), this world's technology level was still in the late medieval era. With my knowledge, I would be able to revolutionize the world and I would finally have the life of fame and glory that I always wanted. Not to mention that this new me had quite the handsome face, even as a little kid. I knew that I would become a handsome man once I grew up. Combined with my family's status, I would have no problem in finding a good wife.

And so every day ever since I was reborn (I started when my new self was just eight years old), I strive towards that goal. My first goal was to become recognized as a genius prodigy, so I would get the attention I needed from the royal family. And it was terribly easy. Sure, I had some difficulties at first accepting all the fantastical things that were the norm in this world, but after that hurdle was completed, I managed to graduate from the best noble school in the kingdom, first place with all As on my marks at the tender age of thirteen. Normally, people would graduate at the age of eighteen to twenty.

Immediately I received a summon from the royal family to present myself in front of the king. I excitedly though, "This is it! This is the part where I will present my innovations to the king!". I already studied the state of the kingdoms thoroughly and I could give a couple of suggestions that would greatly increase the quality of life and the happiness of the populace.

And so imagine my surprise when the king ignored anything I had to say, and instead told me that I had been given the honor to become the apprentice to the famed alchemist of the queendom of Manasca.

Alchemy. Oddly enough, unlike the other branches of magic, books talking about it were extremely rare. He only knew it as an art to combine materials to create something new out of them. That didn't exactly help. But what made him even more curious however was the fact that it was never categorized as a proper magic art. It was instead categorized as an old-fashioned method of science that had fallen out of use ever since the rise of magic.

Reading that, I wondered if alchemy was really actual science and that the development of this world had stagnated thanks to the prominence of magic. Magic also kept the ruling class in charge since most mages were born out of the noble class, justifying their rule over the commoners.

And so when I heard the king praising alchemy, as the queendom she came from had experience a rapid growth in just five years thanks to it, I rightfully was taken by surprise. I had thought that alchemy had become wholly irrelevant. And now here I was told that it contributed so much to another kingdom's growth that the king had welcomed an alchemist to his own, treating her like an honored guest instead of a person of a lower stature, since she was standing beside him instead of kneeling before him. And the alchemist was not some old, experienced person either. She was a girl of twenty at best. Was this really said famed alchemist who revolutionized an entire kingdom?

"So, I want you, Fredrick-dono, to learn as best as you could from Miss Manady right here, so that our kingdom could employ alchemy as well to increase the prosperity of our nation," the king said as he stroked his beard, smiling as if everything was right in the world.

"B-but how about my proposal, Your Honor?"

"Hmm, I apologize, Fredrick-dono, but right now, the kingdom doesn't have the resources required for the reforms you suggested. And to be honest, I do not see the point of some of your suggestions. Like your suggestion of raising the literacy race of the populace. Farmers and craftsmen wouldn't need to know how to read after all."

And with that, the discussion was adjourned.

In the end, the role that I was aiming for had been filled with this alchemist girl.

Lilia Manady was her full name, and it turned out that she was an apprentice of another alchemist, the one that started the reforms in the queendom of Manasca. Well, former apprentice, as she had been deemed worthy to act as a full-fledged alchemist. Her master stayed there while she came here at the request of the king. It seemed the king was smitten with what he saw on his last visit to the queendom.

Now, I had to change my plans with the presence of this girl. She looked quite naive and innocent, judging by her face. She looked to be the kind of girl that just aped what her master taught her without any thoughts for her own innovation. There, I could come in and become an even better alchemist than her. If it were something that combined science and magic, then I should be able to do it better than anyone as I had the knowledge of modern world science and my magic power was great as well.

Unfortunately, that plan was soon to be revealed to be a failure too, as, like Lilia said, "Hmm, it seems you just don't have the talent to be an alchemist."

It turned out that only a chosen few could become an alchemist, as the innate talent needed was extremely rare. Without it, you couldn't make even the simplest potions. I had tried so many times to make just a basic healing potion but the mixture simply wouldn't mix properly.

It was aggravating.

Alchemy, after I learned about it, was basically magical science. You took the property of different materials and combined them to create something else with said properties combined. It obviously broke the rules of chemistry so hard it wasn't even funny, but it was something that a scientist could really study. Its potential was so much more than just magic.

And yet, it had to be bound to a certain few, giving them power so much more than the rest.

Adding to my annoyance, the girl I thought was innocent was actually really clever. Frighteningly clever in fact. I remembered the day I made a makeshift microscope out the materials available in her workshop. I proudly showed her the sight of micro-organisms, thinking that she wouldn't know about them.

"Ah, this is a zoom lens, isn't it? And you made it without alchemy? Impressive!" she said cheerfully as she took a peek with it.

"Hmm, not bad, not bad!" she then said when she was finished with it. "This must be the first time you discovered those little things, isn't it? Don't worry about them! They're just really, really tiny creatures! They wouldn't harm you at all!"

She already knew about them. She already knew even though through all the medical and biology books I had read, never before micro-organisms were mentioned.

So how did she know? Her master taught her obviously. But then how did that master know?

It didn't make sense. Which was why I asked her about it.

"Oh, the books you read never mentioned them? Well... zoom lenses are alchemical creations after all. Of course the common people would never know about them," she answered with a smile.

This was where I first realized something.

Alchemists didn't share their knowledge with the non-alchemists.

When I suggested that she should tell this to the doctors of the kingdom, she only replied with "Oh, that wouldn't be necessary. It would just confuse them more, I think,"

"B-but with this knowledge, they would be able to revolutionize the medicinal world!" I replied back passionately.

"Hmm? Really? I don't see the connection. Those little creatures... they're just little tiny spirits after all!"

And now I knew that she didn't really know what micro-organisms were.

Once again, my thoughts flared up. "This was my chance to overcome her!" I said to myself.

However, what I didn't know that you didn't need to learn about bacteria and viruses to heal people if you were an alchemist.

One day, a plague hit the capital. It was a mysterious plague, with no one knowing how to deal with it. The doctors could only soothe the pain of the sick, and not heal them.

I went to the site with Lilia and with my knowledge, I immediately recognized it as the black plague. Yes, the same sickness that wiped out 1/3 of Europe in the dark ages.

Quickly, I acted, begging Lilia to leave right away before we became infected as well.

But then, with a smile, Lilia only patted my head and said, "Everything is going to be okay. Behold, the power of alchemy!"

She took out a potion from her bag. And without any hesitance, she poured its content to the ground.

Immediately the area was enveloped with a soft white fog. The fog smelled so pleasant, and as it enveloped my body, I felt pleasantly invigorated and full of energy, as if I just had the most wonderful sleep.

It turned out that the medicine she just used was Elixir. And it was synthesized exactly to be used en masse like this.

The fog covered the entire plagued neighborhood. And with that just one Elixir, the plague was brought to at end.

Once we returned, Lilia explained that the Elixir was a legendary medicine capable of curing any illness. It could only be synthesized by a high-level alchemist and the ingredients for it were terribly rare.

...It was no use. With such a medicine, even my modern world would wish for it.

And so my days as her apprentice continued. I learned more and more about alchemy, while not being able to step a single foot into it myself. And the more I learned, the more I was awed by it.

And the more I hated myself for not being able to use it.

One day, Lilia's master came for a visit. And I had the opportunity to join in our their conversations.

It was beyond me. It was absolutely beyond me.

I felt like a child, ignorant of everything while listening to them talk.

They talked about alchemy ideas of bending time and space to create warpgates quantum manipulation to create a luck potion, and even the process of fusion happening on the core of the sun so they could create their own miniature sun.

No wonder Lilia managed to turn a desert into a fertile land that one day. Or to create a perpetual energy core used for the first factory in the kingdom (thus making my industrial revolution plan obsolete). Or that other day where she joyfully declared that she managed to create the potion of youth, spending half of the day as a ten-year old before changing back.

Alchemy was terrifying.

I now understood why alchemy knowledge wasn't spread to the masses.

I was now sure that if Lilia wanted, she could create a weapon similar to the caliber of a nuclear bomb. Or something even more terrible.

The masses only knew her for creating miraculous items that helped them in their daily lives. They had no idea how much power she held in her hands.

Since when? Since when alchemy was this advanced?

Was it because of Lilia's master? Was she the one that revitalized alchemy and made it grow so much more?

I had no idea.

But one day, when Lilia took me with her to a faraway structure floating in the sky, I realized it.

This was not the first time alchemy had grown this much.

These ruins... they were made with alchemy too. And the previous civilization met their demise on the hand of alchemy as well.

Perhaps it was a cycle. Alchemy grew. Alchemy destroyed. Alchemy declined. Then alchemy grew once again.

With this, I admitted my defeat.

I would now observe from a distance what kind of direction the world would take with all these alchemical inventions.

I could already see change happening in the world.

One day, the queen of Manasca abolished the monarchy and turned the queendom into a republic.

Meanwhile, some of the mages of Altrusca tried many times to besmirch Lilia's efforts, in a futile effort to keep their relevance. But when their archmage was defeated in combat by Lilia, the archmage that could summon thunder and rain and the wind itself to fight for him, they truly realized just how frightening alchemy was. Not even his massive summoning of the Four Great Elemental Spirits could win against Lilia who eliminated them without hesitation using her miniature satellite, who flew up to the sky and bombarded them with atomic erasure lasers.

And thus, they surrended.

Six years then passed since I first became Lilia's apprentice. Now the kingdom had grown and transformed into something completely different. The king pretty much always agreed with anything Lilia suggested. Farmers and tradesmen could live a more idle life with tools that would work on their own. Realizing that she couldn't synthesize medicine constantly to everyone in the kingdom, Lilia, along with her master, came up with magic tools that could heal any sickness. They spread them around the kingdom so doctors could use them to heal their patients. They still couldn't make many of it though so only a handful of doctors were given the tools. So they were only used for sickness that conventional medicine couldn't handle. Warpgates were now online as well so you could travel instantly between different parts of the kingdom.

The rest of the world looked jealously at the two nations And eventually, they would be willingly absorbed into them as long as they could enjoy the same privileges.

Oh, some of them tried to steal the technology of course, but they soon realized they couldn't replicate it at all. And when they tried to kidnap Lilia or her master, well... let's just say they didn't come back in one piece.

And now it was the seventh year. I was still with Lilia, acting as her assistant, but now, she had an actual legitimate alchemist pupil. Her name was Mary, thirteen years old, and she was shaping to become another bright alchemist in the future.

In the end, I didn't become anyone special. But at the very least, I could become a pillar to support to that special someone.

 

That's some beta MC you got there.

 

Can't be helped. He's not the one with the OP skill.

 

Good oneshot! But I'm not sure if it will be great if this turn into a series.

Every time MC try to do something using his modern knowledge, the girl will solved it easily with alchemist. It feel's like every chapter is created just to break the MC ego.

It will be great if MC can become FullMetal Alchemist.

Well, good oneshot nevertheless.

 

That's why it's a one-shot. Too lazy to write an actual series. Will take too much effort.

Your usual WN story will probably have the MC bring modern technology as a rival to alchemy, or even just outright beats it while lecturing the alchemists for not having a sound foundation upon their method. He'll also be able to use alchemy and he will improve upon it with his knowledge. He'll also share the knowledge with the masses.

This is a little "take that" to those kinds of stories.

By the way, if I were smarter in technobabble, I would've written down the conversation between Lilia and her master. That should be fun.

If this were to be a series, you would have to have a lot of technobabble like that. It would also be a comedy, with the MC taking the brunt of the joke, I think.

Damn, should've added creation of homonculus up there. She would be able to create a basic "biological golem" for manual labor and more advanced ones that look just like a human only emotionless, and they act somewhat similar to the house elves from Harry Potter, living and existing to serve their master.

An automaton could work too. Not a futuristic robot, but more like a doll with computational power. Medieval era robots basically.

 

i liked it, good job..