Chapter 441: Pioneer Of Advancement

Mavis shot across the grass and skidded to a stop between him and the door, arms thrown wide as if she could physically block him with her body.

"Just a look."

"No! Never! I won’t let you inside, Dummy Hero!" She flung both arms out as wide as the net would allow. "Not a single step! Don’t—Ah!"

Unfortunately, her enthusiastic movement proved too much for her bound legs. She overbalanced, tipping forward with a startled yelp, her face heading straight for the ground.

But Luca was there.

He caught her easily, his arms wrapping around her waist, pulling her against his chest. Her breasts pressed against him, and Mavis felt a wave of heat wash over her, though not nearly as intense as what Sigrid would have felt.

Despite the flush on her cheeks, she still looked up at him.

"Don’t go inside, Dummy Hero." She punctuated each word with a glare. "I swear, if you try to force your way in, I’ll hunt you down with my traps for the rest of your life!"

"Why not?"

He asked gently, while admiring her pretty eyes.

"I thought someone like you who thinks so highly of herself and believes she’s above everyone else would love to show off her inventions."

"Even yesterday, when you presented your sword, I saw the pride in your eyes. You were proud of what you’d made."

He raised an eyebrow.

"So why are you so against it now?"

Mavis hesitated before finally answering.

"That was...That was before I saw the things from your world."

Her voice had lost its usual arrogance. She looked away, her ears drooping.

"When I thought I was the pinnacle of innovation, that no one could match my genius, I was happy to show off. I was proud." She let out a bitter laugh. "But then I saw what you brought yesterday. Those prosthetics that helped the elders walk again. And when I tried to figure out how they worked..."

She shook her head.

"I couldn’t. Not even close. There were so many components that were simply beyond my ability to analyze. The moving parts alone were so intricate that I had to sit down with one of the elders for hours just to begin understanding them. And she complained the entire time."

She met his eyes, and for the first time, Luca saw vulnerability there. Real, genuine vulnerability.

"I realized in that moment how ignorant I truly am. I’ve been living in a primitive world where technology is stuck in the stone age because we relied on mana for everything. Compared to your world, which is centuries, maybe millennia ahead my inventions are nothing."

"They’re just...children’s toys."

Another bitter laugh.

"The moment I show them to you, you’ll laugh at me. I’m sure of it."

This wasn’t the arrogant, condescending Mavis who had mocked everyone in the village. This was someone who had just discovered that her entire worldview was built on a foundation of sand.

Luca was quiet for a moment.

Then he let out a deep sigh.

"Oh, Mavis. Oh, Mavis. You naive little creature."

"...What did you just call me?"

"You’re an idiot."

"Excuse me?"

Luca didn’t say anything back and instead set her down on her hooves and turned away, walking over to a patch of bare earth by the fence.

He then started to pick up some fiste sized stones as he said,

"Watch. I want to show you something."

He set down five stones in a row.

Then he set four stones on top of them, taking up the gaps between them.

Then three. Then two. Then one at the very top.

He stepped back, and there stood a little pyramid, maybe a foot tall, sitting in the grass between them.

Mavis looked at it in confusion.

"...That’s a pile of rocks."

"Well, it is. But let me tell you something."

He pointed at the top stone.

"See, this stone right here? This is the invention you saw yesterday. The prosthetics. The peak of modern research. Technology so advanced that it isn’t even available to the general public. The absolute pinnacle of what my world can achieve."

Mavis nodded slowly. Then Luca pointed to the two stones directly beneath the peak.

"But to build that, you need the knowledge represented by these stones. The research and development that came before. These are the foundations that support the pinnacle."

He pointed to the three stones below.

"But even those required their own foundations. More research. More development. More people working, failing, trying again."

Finally, he pointed to the five stones at the very bottom.

"And this—" He touched the base stones gently. "—this is the most rudimentary research. The most basic, primitive knowledge. Compared to the top stone, it doesn’t compare at all. It looks like sticks and stones."

He looked at Mavis, who was watching him with intense focus.

"But without it, the top stone wouldn’t exist. Without those basic foundations, none of the modern inventions in my world would exist. Everything is built on the research that came before."

He gestured at her workshop.

"So, what you’re doing, your inventions, your creations, they’re the same as these base stones. You may think they’re primitive and basic, that they can’t compare to what I showed you. But let me tell you something."

He reached out and pushed one of the base stones.

Boom!

The entire pyramid collapsed, stones scattering across the ground.

"The moment you take away that foundation...the entirety of society and the future of technology collapses with it."

"That...I..."

Mavis stared at the scattered stones in awe. Her mind was racing, trying to process what he had said.

All her life, she had believed she was the smartest person in the room...and she was.

She was smarter than every centaur in the village, smarter than most beings on the entire demi-human continent.

Her inventions were revolutionary by their standards.

But compared to the researchers and scientists of Luca’s world who had metal boxes that flew through the sky, small panels of glass that could do anything with a touch, devices so advanced they seemed like magic...

...she was nothing.

Because of that she had been so discouraged. So certain that her work was worthless.

But Lucas’s words...

It wasn’t the kind of hollow praise that adults gave to children to make them feel better. It was a genuine recognition of her worth and her contribution.

She wasn’t just playing with toys. She wasn’t just making inferior copies of his advanced technology.

She was a pioneer!

The foundation!

The first stone in a pyramid that would one day reach heights she couldn’t even imagine!

"So, so you’re telling me..." She gulped, her voice barely above a whisper. "That what I’m making right now isn’t useless at all? That I’m...that I’m going to be remembered? That my name will go down in history as Mavis, the one who started it all?!"

Luca chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"I don’t know about all that. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t. You can’t really predict the future."

He stepped closer, lifting her chin with one finger.

"But what I do know is this: what you’re making right now is what everything else will be built upon. So never be ashamed of your work. Stay as proud as you always are, even if it’s annoying sometimes."

Mavis’s spirits, which had been deflated mere moments ago, suddenly surged back to full power.

Her chest puffed out!

Her tail lashed with excitement!

Her ears perked forward!

"I knew it!" She declared. "I knew I was destined for greatness! It was literally written in the stars!"

She was practically vibrating with renewed energy, desperate to return to her workshop and start creating again.

Then she scoffed, crossing her arms.

"And, that invention of yours, the leg brace. Well let me tell you that anyone could have made that! Look at it. It’s got an entire civilization behind it. It’s standing on shoulders of giants. But I—"

She jabbed a finger at her own chest

"—I made everything with my own two hands from scrap and nothing! With no foundation whatsoever! Which means I am the true mother of technology in this world. The original. The first!"

"That’s—"

"There’s no argument. I am! I’ve decided it!"

She tried to strut around to demonstrate her majesty.

Unfortunately, she forgot she was still wrapped in the net.

"Woah—!"

She stumbled forward, falling directly into Luca’s embrace for the second time.

And somehow, it felt warmer than before. As though she were seeing him from a different angle now, not as an annoying, shameless hero.

But as someone who understood her and encouraged her when she needed it most.

She looked away quickly, pushing against his chest.

"L-Let go of me, Dummy Hero. I’m fine. I can stand on my own!"

But Luca didn’t release her immediately. He was looking at her intensely and he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was.

Her blue eyes sparkled like the ocean in the afternoon light, and her silver hair caught the sun in ways that made it seem to glow.

She was small, yes. Tiny compared to her sister.

But there was something about her, a fierce intelligence, a burning passion, a refusal to be overlooked that made her presence feel ten times larger than her physical form.

"You’re probably the most beautiful blacksmith I’ve met, you know that?" He said, the words slipping out before he could stop them.

Mavis’s face turned even redder.

"Of course, all the blacksmiths I’ve met all have burly muscles and thick beards that have caught on fire more then once, so it’s not hard to beat."

Luca added, before looking down at her with a charming smirk,

"But I don’t think anyone deny how pretty you look."

"SHUT UP!"

Mavis shrieked, completely overwhelmed by the compliments that she had no reply.

"Don’t say weird things." She mumbled into his shirt. "J-Just, get this off me."

He chuckled at her adorable reaction despite being one feisty little pony and got the net off her.

"So." Luca said, as she shook herself loose. "Does this mean I get to see your workshop?"

Mavis’s eyes lit up...and then immediately narrowed with suspicion.

"Fine. Fine. But let me tell you, if you laugh at a single thing in there, I’m kicking you out and you’ll never set foot in it again. I mean it!"

"I won’t laugh."

"And you’re not allowed to touch anything without asking!"

"I won’t."

"And especially not the things on the left shelves! Those are mid-assembly and if you breathe on them wrong I’ll have to start over!"

"I promise. And—quick question. Ever since I saw that wheel, I’ve been dying to know. Did you make a source of electricity?"

Mavis tilted her head.

"A what?"

"Electricity." Luca made a vague gesture with his fingers. "Zzip. Zzap. The flow of energy that runs through wires and makes machines go. You touch it and it bites you."

Mavis’s brow furrowed. "I don’t know what that is."

"...You don’t?"

"No." She shook her head, then brightened. "The wheel does something else entirely. Come on—I’ll show you! It’s not what you think it is, but it’s really cool!"

—

The moment Luca stepped inside of Mavis’s workshop, he was was taken aback.