As we stepped out of the house, the sun was shining brightly.
It was definitely a sunny day. Quite a beautiful one, actually.
In the middle of the crisis we were going through, a day like this would probably have been described as:
"A perfect day."
A river ran near the farm where Yeana and I were staying. Part of its current passed through the property, providing a constant supply of water that kept the soil moist and allowed the plants to receive practically effortless irrigation.
In theory, it was the perfect place to test my affinity with earth.
But there was one problem that had been tormenting me for days like a thorn buried in my chest.
Guilt.
And along with it came a feeling of inadequacy that seemed to grow stronger with every passing day.
Yeana did everything.
She handled getting supplies, keeping us safe, managing our money, watching the surrounding area, and, on top of all that, making sure the two of us survived.
And the worst part was that she didn't seem bothered by it.
She never complained.
She never blamed me.
She simply did whatever needed to be done.
Meanwhile, I just existed…
Well.
I was beginning to feel like I was completely useless.
I walked beside her, still lost in my own thoughts, until we finally reached the specific area of the farm we had discussed that morning.
Various vegetables and legumes were growing there.
For logistical reasons, they were practically the only crops we could grow in our situation. We were in the territory of the earth element, where the quality of the soil was exceptional.
The earth itself could support the plants with an ease that seemed almost absurd to me.
All we needed was water, seeds, and time.
And apparently, a little magic.
Yeana was the first to speak.
"From what we know, you can only produce minerals that, in theory, are metals," she said. "But we could still find a use for them."
She said it with the same serious expression she always wore.
I looked at her.
"I don't know much about agriculture," she continued, "but unlike the other types of magic you've used, this one comes to you as naturally as breathing."
I was stunned.
The confidence Yeana placed in me was…
Strange.
I wasn't sure I deserved it.
Although, thinking about it, she didn't exactly have many other options.
She had to trust me or die without ever trying.
Besides, we were both fugitives from the empire.
Even if the authorities decided to stop the search, that didn't mean all the nobles would simply accept our situation.
Finding a normal job wasn't an option.
I couldn't do it.
I didn't even belong to this world.
And Yeana was even worse off.
Her face was probably already plastered all over the empire, and by now, she was most likely the subject of gossip among the nobles.
All because of…
My fault.
Entirely my fault.
I didn't even have the nerve to look her in the eyes after all the problems my existence had caused in this world.
And just as I continued drowning in my unnecessary and overly dramatic thoughts…
Yeana pushed me.
Yes.
She pushed me.
I couldn't stop myself from crashing straight into the water.
My clothes, which weren't exactly fancy but were the only ones I had, were completely soaked.
I lay there for a few seconds, staring up at the sky.
What was with these people and pushing others?
Was it part of their culture?
While I was still on the ground, Yeana simply looked at me with a cold expression.
"Anastasia River, stop having useless thoughts."
I blinked.
"Whether it looks like it or not, I'm risking much more than you with this experiment. If we run out of this month's harvest, we could starve to death. Besides, I've been carefully injecting magical power into the plants every day to make sure they grow properly and much faster."
I stayed silent.
Yeana continued.
"Thoughts like yours don't help. They only get in the way."
Her voice was firm.
"I thought you were smarter than this and understood the situation you're in better."
She paused for a moment.
"I definitely overestimated you."
And without saying anything else, she walked away.
She didn't even look back.
She headed straight toward the garden, leaving me there, soaked and with a horrible feeling in my chest.
For the first time since I had met her, I had seen Yeana genuinely angry with me.
And the worst part was that she was right.
I wasn't doing anything.
While she carried practically all the responsibility for keeping us alive, I had been wasting my time drowning in thoughts that solved absolutely nothing.
Yes, I could create metals.
But I could only create the ones I knew from my world.
And that was the problem.
In this world, the most valuable metals weren't necessarily the ones I knew.
The most important ones were those that contained magical power.
And I couldn't create those.
The metals I produced were extremely pure, yes.
But their purity didn't mean much here.
At best, they were useless pieces of metal.
Trinkets.
Even if they had some commercial value, Yeana going out to sell them could pose more risk than benefit.
So, in reality, my ability wasn't solving our problem.
At least, not yet.
I slowly got up from the ground.
My wet clothes clung uncomfortably to my body.
I sighed.
I had to think.
Mathematics.
Science.
Biology.
Chemistry.
History.
And everything else I had learned over the years.
I had always been a prodigy at school.
If there was something from my old world that I could use here, I had to find it.
It had to exist.
Something.
Anything.
And then, while I was drowning in a glass of water trying to find a solution to my situation, I remembered something.
A chemistry class.
My teacher was an extremely strict woman.
She also came from a family of farmers in a remote rural area, far away from the city, and she constantly criticized the modern farming methods that had developed during the twenty-first century.
The memory came back with unexpected clarity.
It was 11:30 in the morning.
I was sixteen years old and sitting at my desk.
There were thirty minutes left until lunch.
While I paid attention to the lesson, several students around me didn't seem remotely interested in listening.
That made my teacher lose her patience.
Suddenly, she shouted:
"QUIET!"
Her scream echoed throughout the classroom.
It was so sudden that all of us froze.
The room fell into absolute silence.
Even breathing felt like a sin.
The chalk scratched against the board.
My teacher drew three enormous symbols:
Fe. Zn. Mn.
"LISTEN CAREFULLY!"
She slammed her hand against her desk, sending a small cloud of dust into the air.
"Farmers think plants only need sunlight and water."
She pointed at the board.
"Wrong."
Then she walked over to a potted plant and tore off a green leaf.
"Plants are biochemical machines. And they run on metallic fuel."
She stopped in front of us.
"Iron, Fe, participates in the formation of chlorophyll and allows the plant to make use of light."
Then she pointed at the second symbol.
"Manganese, Mn, participates in fundamental processes related to photosynthesis and the plant's internal functions."
Finally, she pointed at the third.
"And zinc, Zn, plays a role in enzymatic processes and growth regulation."
Her gaze slowly swept across the classroom.
"Iron for absorption and processing. Manganese for keeping essential processes running. Zinc for regulating growth."
She placed the chalk on the desk.
"If you control these elements in the soil, you can directly influence the plant's development."
She paused.
"But remember something."
Her expression became even more serious.
"One milligram too much can be enough to turn something beneficial into a problem."
The memory began to fade.
My teacher's voice slowly disappeared, replaced by the imagined sound of an eraser wiping the board clean.
And then I understood.
I stood completely still.
That was the key.
But…
It also sounded much more complicated than it seemed.
I looked at my hands.
Then I looked at the crops.
I could create metals.
I could manipulate earth.
And I knew which elements plants needed.
Maybe…
Maybe I could use that.
The problem was that I would have to do it precisely.
Too little wouldn't accomplish anything.
Too much could be harmful.
And I was exhausted.
Completely exhausted.
After everything that had happened, after escaping the palace, facing Nella, discovering that I was an experiment, and trying to understand my own abilities…
I just wanted to sleep.
I stared at the sky.
It was a beautiful day.
The sun was high.
The air was pleasant.
And for some reason, all I wanted to do was lie down and enjoy the atmosphere.
Surely, while I slept, I would find the light.
The right path.
The exact method to make it work.
Yes.
That was it.
I needed to sleep.
---
Right then, Ana lay down on the ground.
And she literally did just that.
She went to sleep.
After all…
It wasn't like she was that smart to begin with.
She was just a simple human who had arrived in a strange world.
She wasn't special.
She wasn't a prodigy.
There was nothing particularly extraordinary about her.
That was what Ana thought.
And she fell asleep.
But perhaps…
She was simply lying to herself.
Just so that, even for a few seconds, she could feel as though she wasn't living through the greatest tragedy of her life.