"Ah! You two are so sneaky! Going out to have fun without telling me?" Edith walked out of the lab just as Ron and Illya drove back into the experimental zone, immediately complaining as she approached.
Ron chuckled. "We were just testing the performance of this bus."
Watching Edith curiously hop aboard and poke around inside, Ron turned to Illya and asked, "Do you think there are any issues?"
"The bus itself runs fine."
Illya rested her chin on her hand, entering thinking mode.
"But when people see such a large object for the first time, they clearly feel resistance—even fear."
"Though with time and familiarity, that shouldn't be a problem…"
Ron waved his hand casually. "I've got some ideas about that."
"For example, we can make the exterior look softer and paint various designs on it."
"This can also serve as a promotional platform."
"We could put images of Elementia and Magico from the Element Cards on it—advertising the cards while also reducing people's fear."
Illya opened her mouth slightly, realizing this was indeed a clever, two-birds-one-stone solution.
She couldn't help but wonder how Ron's mind worked—he always came up with ideas that solved problems while benefiting himself.
"There's another issue—the roads," Illya continued after adjusting her thoughts. "The City of Chaos is one of the most developed cities on the continent, and the roads are quite wide."
"But even so, the bus still feels crowded when driving."
"If Your Highness plans to promote buses in Tansen City, this must be considered."
"The bus is much larger than a carriage. If the driver isn't careful, it could easily hit pedestrians."
Ron nodded in understanding. After this test drive, he had noticed the same issue.
In this world, roads didn't have clearly defined pedestrian paths and vehicle lanes.
There were no curbs, no markings.
The only distinction between carriage lanes and walking areas was people's intuition.
So when no carriages were passing, it was common for people to walk right down the middle of the road.
Even in the Royal Capital, only a few main roads were strictly managed by patrols—and even then, there was no real concept of pedestrian lanes.
This would naturally be one of the changes Ron planned to implement in Tansen City.
There were far too many things he could do to "remodel" a city.
For now, he could only tackle things as they came—there wasn't a clear, detailed plan yet.
After all, Tansen City wasn't even officially his territory yet. The court debates still hadn't concluded.
"Anything else?" Ron asked after noting the road issue.
Illya thought for a few seconds, then glanced at Edith, who was still darting around inside the bus. She quickly looked away and said a bit awkwardly:
"As for the voice system in the bus… I think Edith might be more suitable than I…"
"Oh, that." Ron laughed.
He patted the bus and grinned. "I plan to launch only two buses at first—one for each route."
"You and Edith both contributed a lot to this."
"So I've decided: the first bus will be called the Liya, and the second will be called the Dis."
"As for your suggestion—since the first bus is named after you, it should naturally use your voice."
"And the second one, the Dis, will use Edith's voice. We'll need her help for that."
"…" Illya looked at Ron's sincere expression and didn't know what to say.
Something felt off, but she couldn't find a way to refute it.
In the end, she could only accept it reluctantly.
After asking Illya and Edith to conduct a final inspection of the bus, Ron headed straight to Harper's lab.
At that moment, Harper was frowning deeply, staring at several data sheets while scribbling calculations on paper.
Thanks to Illya's earlier research, Harper had made further breakthroughs in reversing mana into elements by using formulas describing conversion ratios among the six elements.
According to Harper, since the six elements showed no apparent similarities in form, why could they still transform into one another?
Clearly, there must be some deeper connection between them that had long been overlooked.
Why were Light and Dark elements separate from Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water?
Why could the four primary elements form composite magic, while Light and Dark could not?
Why did Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water convert at a 1:1 ratio through Element Potatoes, but Light and Dark converted into them at a 3:1 ratio?
And was this transformation related to mana?
When elements were converted into mana, why did reversing mana back into elements cause explosions?
Most of these questions—aside from conversion ratios—were already considered settled knowledge in the magic world.
Like how no one questions why one plus one equals two.
But now, Harper was trying to explain something at that level—
What exactly went wrong when mana was reversed into elements?
Harper didn't know.
Ron certainly didn't either.
He was basically a magic idiot…
He had tried using scientific concepts from his previous world to explain these phenomena, but it hadn't helped Harper or Illya much.
Or rather, their thinking was still confined within this world's framework—it was hard for them to step outside it and view the problem from a higher dimension.
Ron had that broader perspective, but could not apply it practically.
After all, his original world didn't have magic.
No elements, no mana—nothing like that.
So when Ron proposed the idea of something smaller than elements—"sub-elements"—both Harper and Illya were skeptical.
Because to mages, each tiny unit of an element already felt like a complete whole.
They simply couldn't imagine anything smaller.
Elements weren't the same as atoms in Ron's world.
Atoms were concrete physical entities, but elements existed somewhere between tangible and intangible.
In short, they were fundamentally different concepts.
This completely crushed Ron's hope of "revealing the truth of the world with a few clever insights."
The foundational logic of the two worlds simply didn't align.
And many things couldn't be experimentally verified.
For example, his "sub-element" hypothesis couldn't be tested—there was no way to isolate and dissect an element at a microscopic level.
So far, there has been no method to prove it.
Moreover, aside from Element Potatoes, they hadn't observed element conversion anywhere else.
So was this phenomenon unique to Element Potatoes, rather than a universal rule?
That was another headache for Harper and Illya.
Ron, of course, was unwilling to give up—this was tied to a side quest, after all.
So whenever he had a new idea, he came to Harper for validation.
After listening to Harper's recent findings, Ron asked:
"The mana in our bodies comes from absorbing elements through meditation, which are then converted into mana within the mana seed."
"When we cast spells, mana flows through fixed pathways and is released, forming magic."
"But after the spell is cast—what does that mana become?"
Faced with such a beginner-level question, Harper patiently corrected him:
"There's a slight mistake in your explanation."
"When mana is released, it doesn't directly become magic—it resonates with surrounding elements, gathering them to form a spell."
"As for where the mana goes—it's simply consumed. What's confusing about that?"
Ron, firmly believing in the law of conservation of energy, immediately objected:
"So mana just disappears from the world entirely?"
"If that's the case, mages keep converting elements into mana and then consuming it—wouldn't the total amount of elements in the world keep decreasing?"
"Does that mean one day, when all elements are used up, there will be no more mages?"
Harper shook his head calmly. "Of course not."
"Once a mage reaches the Legendary tier, they can sense the existence of the Elemental Plane."
"The elements in our world are continuously replenished from there."
Ron pressed further. "Then where do the elements in the Elemental Plane come from?"
"That's the domain of the God of Elements—Elementia," Harper said, momentarily stunned. "You should ask them, considering how close you seem."
Ron's face darkened. Still unwilling to give up, he muttered, "Isn't Elementia just a conceptual god? It might not even exist…"
"Don't say that so casually!" Harper was startled. "A conceptual god simply means there's no recorded divine intervention—not that they don't exist."
"Even though elements themselves don't have consciousness and can't generate faith…"
"It's best not to get entangled in such matters—even if you're a Chosen One."
Ron sighed helplessly.
Magic had developed for so long that its theoretical framework was already self-consistent—it wasn't easy to find flaws.
But he didn't give up. Changing direction, he asked:
"Then why can meditation convert elements into mana?"
"And different meditation techniques absorb different elements—yet mages can use mana to cast all types of magic. Why is that?"
Harper answered without hesitation:
"Meditation is essentially a way to resonate with elements."
"For example, Your Highness, your technique likely leans toward absorbing Water and Earth elements."
"That's why your wood-element affinity is strong. With the same amount of mana, your wood magic is powerful, but your fire and wind magic are weak."
"That's because your mana resonates poorly with fire and wind."
"…" Ron's confidence took another hit, and he finally retreated.
Honestly, he was starting to lose hope in this side quest…
The relationship between elements and mana was simply too complicated.
He still believed his "sub-element" theory had merit—but there was no way to prove it.
If even Legendary mages couldn't perceive anything smaller than elements, how could he?
Yet it couldn't be completely unrelated either.
After all, mana was derived from elements—there had to be a connection.
Perhaps even Legendary mages couldn't directly perceive the true essence of it?
Ron thought to himself.
But he wasn't Legendary—he had no idea what that realm was like.
It was said that reaching the Legendary tier fundamentally transformed one's existence.
But whether that included deeper perception into the microscopic realm… no one seemed to have explored that.
And since the magic world had already reached a consensus, few people were interested in questioning it.
Aside from someone like Harper—motivated by lab explosions—or Illya, nudged by Ron, most mages simply didn't care.
Sighing, Ron waved goodbye and left the lab.
Back in the open area, Illya and Edith had finished inspecting the bus.
Edith looked excited. "I heard the second bus will be named after me? That sounds fun!"
"Don't forget to call me when it's time to record!"
Compared to Illya, Edith clearly enjoyed this kind of thing more.
"Will do," Ron replied.
He then waved toward the patrol unit outside the experimental zone. Over twenty guards in plain clothes quickly gathered in front of the bus.
These were all human guards from the City of Chaos patrol force, originally from the Empire's inland regions.
Now that their service period was ending, Ron's offer was far more appealing than the positions offered by the military.
Ron had asked Guy to start recruiting them in early March.
By now, he had finally gathered this group.
Most of them were Tier 3 or 4 warriors, with the weakest still at Tier 2.
At ages 30 to 40, their talent was mediocre compared to nobles.
But far above ordinary people.
If they performed well, Ron wouldn't mind giving them some syrupy resin in the future to help them advance further.
As for why they were gathered here—
They were to head to Tansen City.
The bus was too large to fit into any storage space, so it couldn't be transported via the spatial transfer channel.
The same applied to these guards.
Spending 50,000 wealth points per person for subspace access wasn't worth it for people who wouldn't use it often.
So the only option was for them to drive the bus north to Tansen City—just like the previous Element Carriages.