A Better World (Record of Ragnarok x Reader)

Chapter 4 - It is the men

Murder was on her mind.

She was so very close to straggling the man before her, who returned her terrifying glare, with an equally enraged one. The proximity of their bodies could almost be considered comical, and if someone were to walk in on them at this very moment, their initial thought would presumably be that they were about to indulge in a kiss. And considering how intensely they stared into the eyes of the other, they may have been right. However, one looks into their furious faces and that someone would run away faster than a man finding out his girlfriend's pregnant.

Both of them had somehow managed to offend the other, and now they were having a stare-off.

Nikola Tesla, whose rage was infused by his passion for science.

And [Name], who, for the most part, just acted like her usual self.

Ten minutes. In the span of less than ten minutes since stepping into his room, or more like being forcibly yanked into his sleeping quarters, they were at each other's throats. Nikola was the first to yield due to the queen's intense stare, which promised a slow and excruciatingly painful death to anyone who dared to look into them for an extended period of time.

"I don't get it!" Nikola finally shouted, his veins popping out on his neck. "Just mere minutes before you proudly said you loved my inventions and all my work, claiming that you found the subject fascinating and wanted to expand your knowledge of the scientific field! And now, you suddenly dislike it?" She had spoken the truth to him in those moments. Really. "You admitted yourself to having been awestruck by my inventions when you first beheld them."

That she also did, and can you blame her? Never has she seen anything even remotely like it. As soon as she entered the room, her vision was filled with winged creations flying past her, sparks glistering in the air from the intensity of some of the hard-working machines, and light caused by something he had referred to as 'electricity'. A shiver had then gone up her spine, not from shock or awe, but from the coolness of the room. The chilly wind blowing from a machine at the other end of the room could emit both heat and cold according to the scientist.

Nikola Tesla.

She had yet to get it confirmed, but she was almost certain that this man was the scientist the valkyrie had spoken so highly of. He was undoubtedly amazing. Completely enamoured by the inventions before her, she had asked question after question that, judging by his puzzled reaction and how his vocabulary had been reduced to the one of a twelve-year-old, must have been common knowledge in this world. But he had answered her question nonetheless, his tone not necessarily condescending, but his words simplified for the purpose of him being understood. And yet, the passion in his eyes remained the same. And so, in her state of complete astonishment, she had unconsciously quoted the valkyrie.

"No wonder they call you History's Greatest Sorcerer," [Name] had said, with the same bright smile adorning her features since she had stepped into the room that could also rival a full-blown lab. The man did not take kindly to her words. At all.

"Magic? No! Non! Nem! Nein! I despise that word. What I use is no magic... it's science!"

"Despise?" she had drawled, her face showing no trace of the smile she had on just mere seconds before his answer.

"Well, of course! How could one not? Magic has no explanation. It does not lead to progress the same way science does. It does not encourage further research, because you cannot study something that goes against the laws of this world." But she heard the unspoken words.

An abomination, Magic was an abomination of his every belief.

She understood, that perhaps, in the eyes of a scientist, magic was impractical in the sense that not everyone could wield it. She got it. She really did. And yet, she could not bring her mind to not venture into the painful, ear-piercing screams from magic wielders all over the continent when the massacres of all magic – whether alive or not – began. Especially not when two of the victims had been her own parents. He, of course, knew nothing of it, but his insensitive reaction had struck a chord in her. But that's fine because she could return the favour.