Math can explain almost everything in nature: from familiar things such as how clouds drift and how waves move to things like the expansion of the universe and the effects of the elementary particles. Since the beginning of time, we have communicated with nature using the language called math.

The next day, I asked Emily if I can borrow a book about rune writing.

While reading the books I noticed something.

“I knew it! This is Russian.”

“How is this even possible? I never even studied reading nor writing Russian.”

Quickly, I looked for a pen and paper. After that, I wrote something on the paper.

“And I can even write like normal.”

Unfortunately, my penmanship is the same as back in my world: it’s still bad.

“Now that I think about it, why can I 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 know the same language. No, that’s not it. I just didn’t notice it, but I’m conversing with her using this world’s language. I just didn’t notice because it seems so natural. Is there some kind of auto translate in this word?”

However, contrary to what I can read, Emily is not talking in Russian. Rather, in a language, I knew nothing about.

Anyway, I’ll worry about this later. I have to master rune writing.

Hours later, I’ve finished reading half of the book.

“Okay, I kinda get how runes work now in a deeper sense.”

Though there are still things I don’t understand.

“I’ll stop for a little bit.”

Maybe I should read some history books to kill time

“It’s a little late but, I also need to learn about this world. I’ve been too preoccupied with my training that I know nothing except magic.”

Afterward, I grabbed a different 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 are tattered, and some text were faded out. I can’t get any information from this”.

Walking towards the shelf, I grabbed 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; and two, there was once a war between the humans and demons. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a decent map.”

Also, what’s the date today? I first thought this is Medieval Age due to the design of Emily’s house yet why do the demons have clothes similar to the 19th century?

“Tsk. I’ll worry about this later. My priority right now is to master rune writing. I need to get stronger.”

***

Night time, I went to the forest to experiment with magic.

I need to do this alone since this can be dangerous. Who knows what I might cast with this…

“For now, I’ll try using Fireball for the base.”

Too bad though, the book didn’t explain how the writing of Fireball works. Let’s try with trial and error.

Every time I cast a Fireball, I altered one part of its rune, then observed the change. It took me a lot of casts to do it but I was able to study it. The rune seems complicated at first, however, it can be easily divided into three different steps: produce fire, compress that fire into a sphere and shoot that fireball with force. With the right symbols in the rune, a mage can simulate these methods and create a fireball.

My aim in this experiment is to repeat the first and second steps before I can shoot the fireball, producing multiple spells at once.

“Now it's time to put what I learned this morning to use...”

The whole night, I experimented with the rune, however, I couldn’t make it work.

***

Morning came, I continued training with Emily. She taught me a new spell called Water Mine. It’s a spell that produces a trap anywhere that caster places it, and when an enemy steps on it, it will explode and ensnare the enemy for a few seconds.

“Water Mine!!!”

A water sphere appeared in front of me. After Emily threw a rock at it, the mine quickly exploded.

“H-Hiiro, you... you did it,” Emily shouted while running towards me.

“Y-yeah… I did it.”

“Hiiro, you’re amazing,” Emily said looking at me with sparkling eyes. “To cast Water Mine after only a day of training.”

“Well... I’ve been practicing rune writing after all. That may be it.”

I didn’t expect it to be this easy. Seems researching more about rune writing paid off.

***

It’s been weeks since I started doing this, I hope I can make the “loop magic” work now.

After writing the rune I shouted, “Execute Loop Program: Fireball!” Suddenly, a large number of fireball runes appeared in front of me.

“I... I did it! Yes! Finally! ” Jumping up and down, I was too preoccupied that I forgot something. “Shit!!!”

Suddenly, the runes activated at the same time and blasted multiple fireballs in the forest. It exhausted my mana, which blacked me out.

***

“Hiiro… Hiiro… Hiiro.” It was a familiar voice.

“Emily?” Waking up, I saw the forest, replaced by a giant crater. “What is this?”

“Hiiro.” Emily hugged me, tightly. “I... I thought you were gone.” She began to cry.

“Emily...”

“Please, don’t leave me,” Her tears kept flowing. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“I’m sorry. But I’m okay now. You don’t have to worry.”

She then looked at me. “Hiiro,” she murmured and hugged me tighter. I hugged her back.

Still, I can’t believe I did this with just a fireball spell. I need to create the code for the “condition” fast so I can control its power.

What I mean by the condition is the thing that will stop the fireball from casting infinitely.

The two of us stood.

“H-Hiiro, what happened here?” Emily softly spoke while distancing herself and held her scepter with both of her hands.

“I...”

Should I tell her?

“I was trying to experiment a certain magic.”

After that, I explained the concept of loop magic to her.

“Please, Hiiro. Let me watch,” she spoke. “I want to see this magic.”

“You can’t, Emily. It’s too dangerous---”

“Please let me help you complete this magic,” she interrupted while looking in my eyes then quickly looked down to avoid eye contact. “Y-you’ve been helping me a lot these past few days and… And I want to help you too.”

“But...”

“Please, Hiiro,” she pleaded as she grabbed my hand. “I can help you with my knowledge about magic.”

She’s right. With her knowledge, I can probably master loop magic faster. She can also point out my mistakes and suggest things the book didn’t tackle.

“Okay, Emily. But you need to keep your distance as much as possible when I’m using this magic.”

“O-okay,” she replied.

***

Days passed by, Emily and I started working together. With her help, I was able to answer some questions I have that the book didn’t answer.

Seems like experience is still the best teacher after all.

“Emily, keep your distance. I’m going to cast it again.”

“O-okay,” she replied, softly.

After I wrote the rune I shouted, “Execute Loop Program: Fireball!” The rune in front of me soon glowed. “Set X to 10.” After that, the rune multiplied to 10. “FIRE!!!”

The ten runes soon shot a fireball each at the same place. With the smoke subsiding, what appeared before us was a tree completely charred down to its root.

“H-Hiiro. You finally did it!” Emily shouted while running towards me.

“Yes. Finally.” Looking at her I said, “thank you, Emily. This is all because of your help.”

“N-no,” she blushed. “I-it's because of hardwork that you did it.”

“Then… Let’s just say it's because of the two of us.”

“Y-yes,” she replied. After that, we decided to go home.

***

As we were nearing the house, we noticed someone familiar standing in front of the door. It was Aria.

“Emily,” Aria shouted while running towards us. “We need… to get away... quickly.”

“A-Aria?” Emily asked. “W-what are you doing here?”

“You look exhausted. Did you run going here?”

“There’s no time... to explain. We’re in danger... right now,” Aria spoke while catching her breath. “We have to move away as fast as possible.”

“Where are we going?”

“The Castle of Vladik,” she replied. “Home of the previous King of Veter, King Arthur.”

After that, we quickly packed our things and like a deer escaping from lions we couldn’t even see, we ran.

***

Night came, we decided to take a break from all that running. Aria then explained to us that the Village of the Necromancers was attacked once again by humans. Her father then instructed her to go to Emily and escape to the Castle of Vladik with us. Resting through the night, Aria and I stayed awake to act as a guard while Emily slept. Since I didn’t really need to sleep, I asked Aria to take a rest as well since I can already manage it alone but she insisted otherwise.

“Hiiro, thank you for always being there with Emily,” Aria spoke, still emotionless.

“N-no. You don’t have to thank me.”

“Hiiro… Did Emily tell you? Emily actually met you longer ago than you realized,” Aria answered.

What?

“Longer ago? What do you mean?”

She then told me the story of Emily and me before I was reanimated.

After Emily found the book about reanimation, she went to the forest to look for a corpse to use for practice; she found mine. She treated it as if it was alive and created an imaginary friend with my remains. Talking with it helped ease her depression. That’s how a dead person has saved a lonely girl.

Loneliness, huh. I too had also experienced it. However, we followed a different approach. While she sought to escape from it by being friends with an inanimate object, I embraced it by distancing myself from other people. Getting attached to someone will only bring you pain. At least that was what I believed before meeting Haruka.

“After your reanimation, Emily must’ve wanted to continue being friends with you,” Aria said.

“I see… That’s why she shows me all those kinds of emotions.”

Wait, a minute… If Emily found and befriended my remains before, then how long was I dead? Emily said that my reanimation stopped midway that’s why it didn’t restore my body. If that is true, then does that mean I was already a skeleton when she found me? That’d mean I was already at the dry decay state when she took me in.

“Hiiro?” Aria asked. “Is there something wrong?”

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.” Looking at Aria, I asked, “by the way, can I ask you a question? When you saved us from Thea, you were using ice magic, right? Do necromancers also know magic aside from necromancy?”

“That… that was not ice magic," she replied while looking down. Her aura seemed to have changed. "That was a curse."

A curse?

“Among the necromancers I know, except the five original necromancers, only me and Emily knows a different ability other than necromancy,” she added, still looking down. “That is because both Emily and I are not full-blooded necromancers.”

“Then… You’re also a human?”

“No… I’m neither a human nor a demon. I’m a monster,” Aria replied.

She remained silent afterward. Even though I had a lot of question I didn’t ask any further. It seemed Aria had secrets she didn’t want to talk about.

A monster, huh. How many years has it been since I last heard that word...

Morning came, and we continued our travel. Fortunately, we didn’t meet any trouble along the way. We have reached our destination safe and clear.

“We are here,” Aria spoke stopping us in front of a huge castle. “The home of the previous King of North Western Demon Country, the Castle of Vladik.”