Standing, fear paralyzed my body. There it was, the bear-like monster in front of me, attempting to slash me using his paw.

“Ahhh...” Sitting, I found myself in Emily’s bed. “It’s that dream again. Aggh.”

My head hurts just by remembering it. I’ve seen this somewhere before. I think this is called “post-traumatic amnesia”.

Emily suddenly woke up, and looked at me as she brushed her eyes. “Hiiro, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Sorry, I woke you up.”

“It’s okay.”

Oh yeah. I need to learn about this world.

“Emily, can I borrow your books on the bookshelf??”

“Hmm. Okay, Hiiro. Go on.” Emily returned to sleep; I went down to read.

“This is weird. These are not English, Tagalog nor Japanese but I can read them.”

Come to think of it, I can perfectly understand Emily. If I'm really in another world, shouldn’t I be unable to converse with her? I mean, it’s such a big coincidence for the two of us knowing the same language. I hope I can find the answer after I read these books.

Curious, I grabbed a quill pen and wrote on a paper I found. “Weird, I can even write and comprehend these letters like normal.”

Oh, my penmanship is the same as in my world; they’re also bad.

Afterwards, I grabbed a book. “Hmm, This looks very old.”

“Septem... war… -Eteria-… the -Demons- ... -Humans-… they… spell. The purpose… from another… weird weapons…”

“This book is too old.” The pages were broken, and some text were faded out. “I can’t get any information from this”.

As I walked towards the shelf, I grabbed a another book, however, it was the same as before.

Moments later...

“Ahhrrg, All books related to history are too old... Well, at least I learned a few things: One, this world is called -Eteria-; two, a kingdom is equivalent to a country in my world and three, there was a war between the humans and demons before. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a decent map.”

Also, what’s the date today? I don’t see any calendars.

“Does a calendar even exist here?”

Base on the structure of Emily’s house, I can only assume that this is medieval times.

Curious, I grabbed another book, and began to read a few pages. “Necromancy, huh?”

Some parts were torn, however, I could understand a few.

“Five humans betrayed their kind and decided to pledge loyalty to the demon king. The demon king accepted and gave them the ability to master a forbidden magic; necromancy, the magic of the dead.”

Is this the origin of necromancy?

“The humans who pledged loyalty gained an infinite amount of life energy; they would never age. They can still die normally by other means like their fellow humans, however, having infinite life energy gave them the ability to cast necromancy without limits.”

Wow. Being a necromancer is pretty cool.

Curious, I continued to fast read through the pages until I saw the topic about reanimation.

Based on this book, necromancers usually target a knight, a mage or anyone with high fighting capability when using reanimation.

“Unfortunately, I was just a student before I died so I can’t fight.” That fact made me depressed, after all, I was summoned in another world; I probably expected something amazing should happen.

What’s so special being summoned in another world when I can’t even do anything.

“I’m just… a pile of walking bones...”

“Wait, a minute. Emily can use magic, right? Maybe she can teach me...”

Morning came, and I asked Emily after she ate breakfast, “Emily, please, teach me magic.”

She stared at me with a puzzled look. “Hiiro? why do you want to learn magic?”

“It’s just that... when you used magic before... I thought you were cool.”

“C-cool? I’m not really...”

“So I thought that if I learn magic, I can fight beside you and protect you.”

She looked at me. “Hiiro...” She then smiled. “Okay, Hiiro. I’ll teach you magic.”

-Day 1-

We’ve decided to take the lessons outside, under the tree near the house. Attentively, I listened to Emily as she discussed the basics of magic.

“ is like the air we breathe. It exists everywhere,” She walked left and right as she lectured. “It is the combination of all energy around us, specifically ,” She then made gestures using her hands. “Life energy determines when a living being would die. Having a little means you will die early. It means the opposite if you have a lot.”

So, it’s like the life span of a living being.

Emily stopped walking and faced me, “However.” She then raised her fingers. “When a living being dies before all of its life energy is depleted, the remaining life energy will then fuse with the surrounding energy, creating a different energy, mana.”

I see. So life Energy is different with mana but similar.

“A mage can control mana and create certain phenomenons, like shooting fireballs, controlling animals or resurrecting the dead. We call this phenomenon as magic.”

I barely understand anything, however, I get the important parts.

“Then... How can I use magic?” There was a bit of silence.

Huh? Did I say something wrong?

“You just need to learn to control mana” Emily made a peace sign using her right hand. “There are two ways to do this.” She then pointed them simultaneously using her left forefinger. “You can either write a or use a . Both methods need an incantation to work, however, the first one requires lesser incantations since most parts are already written in the rune. The second one requires lesser symbols, some don't even need one, depending on what are inserted in the magic tool.”

“I see.”

“Although, some magic tools are marvelously made that it can reduce an incantation of a spell to, at most, one to two words. It may sound easy, however, doing that is very difficult.”

Hmm. So a magic tool is like a computer program.

“I understand. Then, how do I write a rune?”

“No, I won't be teaching you how to write a rune today.”

“Huh? Then… What am I going to do today?”

“You're going to meditate.”

“What?”

In order to control mana, one needs a huge amount of concentration. Since I didn't need to eat nor drink, I meditated for three days straight. Despite her shyness, she was very strict when it comes to magic. Every time my concentration was off, she immediately hit me with her scepter.

“Ow…”

I can still hear the cracking sounds my bones make every time she does that. Good thing, it didn’t break.

“However, this pain is nothing if I can learn magic.”

-Day 3-

“Hiiro, you’re being distracted again!”

“I’m sorry. Can you teach me how to control mana now? I’ve been doing nothing for three days.”

“Doing nothing and meditating are two different things.” Emily looked me in the eyes.

“But… but--”

“No buts. No, means no,” Her face was scary, it was like an angry girlfriend who just had a fight with his boyfriend.

Wait, what am I thinking? She’s not my girlfriend.

“I’m sorry.”

“You need to perfect meditation first before we—” Suddenly, Emily collapsed.

“Emily!” However, before she hit the ground, I caught her. “Emily, you’re burning!”

Why did I never notice this? Emily is beside me all this time. Even though she still eats and drinks, she only sleeps two hours a day just to monitor me. I am only thinking about myself.

“Emily, get a hold of yourself!”

Carefully, I carried her back to the house. Once inside, I found out that going to the second floor was difficult.

This is bad. I can only use the ladder.

However, I didn't want her to sleep on the first floor, since there was no bed. “Argh. I need to think fast.”

I need to do something. Something. Something…

“Emily, I’m sorry but could you hold onto me tightly for a bit?” I’ve decided to piggyback-carry her.

I need to be careful. One wrong step and I might trip over and make the situation worse.

“Emily, please be okay.”

Slowly, I climbed the ladder until we’re finally at the top. I put her in bed so she could rest.

“I’m sorry, Emily. I’m sorry...”

Her voice was very hoarse from the fever. “Hiiro... It's not your fault,” she coughed as she felt the pain in her throat. “I… I pushed myself too hard.”

“Emily.”

“I’m okay now... Let's... continue your meditation.”

“Please, don't talk, not now. You need to rest.”

“But.”

“No buts. I can't concentrate when you're sick. I promise I’ll meditate later. Your health is top priority.”

Today, I learned something, a strict teacher will also be strict with themselves.

I guess it's the same with my professor in my world. Sensei, sorry for doubting your words. I realize how important it is now.

Worried, I nursed Emily for a whole day. After Emily became well again, I continued my meditation.

-Day 8-

“Hiiro… Wake up… Hiiro… Wake up.” As I heard a girl's voice, I opened my eyes.

“Woah. Oh Emily? Did I do something wrong?”

I don’t remember doing anything except meditating.

And by anything, I mean literally anything.

“Nothing. You meditated perfectly. You’ve been doing it for five days.”

“Really? Then I can finally...”

“Yes, I'll teach you magic. But for now, let’s take a break. I'll teach you tomorrow,” Emily replied.

“Yes!!! Finally”

-Day 1 After Meditation-

Today, Emily will teach me how to use magic. For some reason, she didn't want to teach me necromancy and taught me instead.

“Okay, Hiiro, today, I will teach you how to write runes. Are you ready?”

“Yes, I am ready.”

“Let’s start then,” Emily began to write in the air.

“Oh, Goddess of Fire, Descend and lend me thy strength... !!!” A ball of fire then appeared and exploded in the swamp.

That’s so cooool.

“This is fireball, the most basic fire spell. What you saw was its normal rune and incantation. However,” Emily raised her hand. “Writing it in a more complex rune will reduce its incantation.” She then wrote a different rune. “!!!” A ball of fire appeared again and exploded in the swamp..

“As you can see, I only said the word fireball and the spell cast like before. My mother once told me that great mages can cast high level spells without incantation using complex runes.”

Magic is amazing. Hmm... Come to think of it, Emily is a necromancer and yet she can also cast elemental magic.

“Ahm. Emily, you're a necromancer right? How come you know elemental magic? And you seem adept in it too...”

There was a slight pause before she answered. “My mother… was a genius when it comes to magic. She was the one who taught me how to use elemental magic. However, she didn’t teach me necromancy. I had to learn it by myself,” Emily replied.

“Oh. Did she tell you why?”

“Please, Hiiro, not now.”

It seems something happened between Emily and her mother. I am curious, but I guess if she doesn't want to talk about it, I will not push her to.

“Hiiro, let’s continue with the practice.”

“Okay.”

“Before we proceed to incantation, you first need to master writing a rune.” Emily sat on the ground, and wrote something. “You can write a rune on anything; the ground, the trees or even in the air.” After she completed writing, the rune on the ground glowed.

Cool..

“Today, you will write a rune on the ground until you can make it glow like this one.”

“Okay.” Excited, I then started writing one… two… three… runes. I kept writing and writing, hoping for it to work, however, the day passed and none of them glowed.