[Intermission] Ants and Useless(?) Rune Magic

"Another ant trail," My mom lamented.

"Seriously?" I looked over her shoulder— ants crawling on the window sill above the sink. The counter was also riddled with ants, someone accidentally left a drop of honey there.

Ah, I remember now. I think Liliath tried something like a new tea mix— adding honey to tea.

"Ants?! Where?! I want to spray, I want to spray!" My sister who heard our conversation called out.

And by spray— let's not get too suggestive here— is the bug spray.

"I'll clean the ones inside with a wet towel. You two can go spray the ones on the outside," my mom delegated the tasks with a serious face.

And so, accompanying the little devil with a sadistic smile— an aerosol spray can in hand— we went out to cull some innocent lives.

"Noel, wasn't there a quest that required us to kill a hundred ants?" Following us on the way out was Liliath who posed such a question.

"You're right."

I had forgotten about that actually. Easy 20 points.

"Really? I'm not giving you the spray though," the little devil said with a reproached look.

I think she should stop hugging the spray— aka poison— so close to her chest.

Anyhow, I managed to persuade the little devil to lend me the spray can just once.

I hit the hundred kill count in no time. I didn't count the number of ants but it has to be more than a hundred right? Right?

"What a nice smelling poison" Liliath commented.

"Don't sniff too much."

"This degree is nothing actually, since I have poison resistance."

"But still.."

"All done!" the little devil who had chased the ants from the window all the way back to the nest cheered in joy.

And just like that, an entire ant colony built in between the cracks of the floor was killed— hopefully.

"How about my share?" Liliath asked the little devil with a frown, to which the devil replied—

"There's more here," the little devil pointed at the other pitiful trail of ants.. we usually don't harass individuals that don't infiltrate our house but…

"There isn't a lot but it should be sufficient."

Liliath then found a shoddy stick on the ground and started drawing on the concrete floor.

Yes, a wooden stick digging into solid concrete. Oh boy, what a sight. Hahaha. I wonder what the engineers would think about this sight. All their drilling tools are bested by a wooden stick.

Even the little devil's eyes were opened wide in shock.

"H-how.."

"Reinforcing it with magic," Liliath murmured.

"Liliath, the ground… mom and father will be mad if they found out," the little devil grimaced.

"I will make sure everything returns to normal later, so please be at ease," Liliath said.

She drew something like a complex rune structure in circlets.. before this, she taught me a little bit about rune activated magic where certain combinations evoked certain spells.

From what she said, rune magic is only limited to elemental magic. And the fundamentals behind how it works is still unknown.

I never really intended to do research on rune magic because Liliath herself said that it's impossible to evoke the effects without channelling mana through it. And since I have no mana— I can't use it.

Speaking of runes, perhaps there's a pattern to it? Not to say the mages from her world are incompetent that they weren't able to decipher the patterns and effects but rather— since her world and my world differ, maybe the gaps of understanding could be filled using different common sense?

"Liliath, can you draw every other rune you know on paper? Maybe there's a pattern to it?"

Liliath who had finished cleaning up the 'mess'— repairing the ground and burying the ants using magic– turned to me.

"Sure," she replied with a satisfied smile.

I question how and why killing ants brought so much joy to her in the first place.

"Me too! I want to know how to draw runes!" The little devil said ecstatically.

Leaving the grave of the ants, Liliath drew out two dozen or so patterns— all of which were complex beyond measure.

Patterns? Heck, I have no idea what I'm even seeing!?

"There are many more kinds, but I only remembered these few."

These few huh? It's so complicated, how did Liliath even memorize it all..

The smaller the size of the rune, the smaller the projectile or effect. Of course, depending on the density of the circlet— whatever that means— you can create a large projectile with a small rune. So the size and degree of the effect can be adjusted.

In a sense, you could set a trap— if only one could activate it. Besides that, you can practically use anything to draw the runes. Water, pencil, blood, marker— as long as there's a small indent or bulge to it that allows mana to flow in a shape, it would function.

And the most commonly known medium used to draw runes wasn't water, ink nor blood— it was air.

Yes, air.

Channeling mana in a fixed pattern in the air was how magic turrets cast basic spells.

Now I understand why her common sense makes sense...

Well.. that's just the basics, as for the rest— I suppose I gave up thinking.

But I'll memorize the light elemental magic just in case, since it's healing magic. It might come in handy if I find a way to solve the mana issue.

On the other hand..

The little devil was giggling incessantly as she copied the runes into single pieces of A4 paper.

"Finished! Big sister Liliath, what's next? How do you activate it?"

"You have to channel mana through the circuits," Liliath said in a sorry voice.

"Huh?"

The little devil stared at the dozen or so copies of her hand-drawn rune talisman in shock. She did all the work just to forget the most important point.

Hah. She fell for it.

"I-I can't use these?"

"You could if you had mana.." I said nonchalantly

The little devil pouted and looked at me. Ah sure, of course, I could've told her about it, but nay… I let her experience all her work crumble to waste… just like what happened to me the very first time Liliath taught me rune magic.

"Noel, did you find any patterns?" Liliath asked as I looked over the runes.

"Not really. Though maybe, just maybe there's a reason why the runes always have a parallel line between each other."

"True, however, it's one of the prerequisites for rune magic to work. The theory behind it is that the mana when moving through the circuit resonant with each other to manifest into certain magic."

"Confusing.. ugh.."

"What are you guys doing.." my father who came down from his office looked at us huddled in the living room.

"We're learning rune magic from Liliath," the little devil said in an oh-so-displeased expression.

"Seriously?" My father looked at us in disbelief. "Looks like something straight from an occult."

Liliath nodded; I shook my head left and right.

"So how do these work?"

"Channeling mana through the circuits causes magic to resonate and create a specific effect.. I guess," I explained in my own words— I'm sure it's only half-right. "Though, it can't be activated without mana."

"Liliath drew these?" He asked.

"The smaller ones are from Liliath, the one on the A4 paper is by Novelle."

"What if we set up a bunch of them? There's an explosion spell among them right?" My father's mouth was raised a little.

Liliath nodded, "It's dangerous, thus it's best I avoid using it here."

"True, it's best if you got rid of these.. I wouldn't want the house to be blown up accidentally" my father laughed.

There's that danger too..

I looked at Liliath and she nodded.

"Uwa… all the effort I put in.." the little devil cried. "You two should've told me about this earlier!"

I smiled wryly.

Liliath started it first.