Okay, this is very unscientific.
After getting a basic understanding of the book, La Luna followed its instructions and cast a levitation spell on it. To La Luna’s surprise, the book gently floated up right before its eyes.
La Luna stared at the floating book, the magic runes in its mind glowing faintly. To test a theory, it reached beneath the book and felt around, confirming that it wasn’t being held up by some invisible object or blown aloft by the wind. The spell had simply applied the concept of floating to the book, and in this world, the book floated as a matter of course.
But to do this, it first had to imprint the magic rune for the concept of floating in its mind, then use its mental energy to activate the rune. The strength of that energy determined how strongly the concept of floating was applied.
La Luna watched the book hovering in the air and realized that it had barely used any mental energy.
“Meow…?”
(Does this spell just not use much energy? Or is the target not heavy enough?)
After all, it had only lifted a book. La Luna glanced over at the heavy desk nearby.
“Meow!”
(Float!)
The magic rune in La Luna’s mind flashed. At last, it felt its mental energy dip ever so slightly. The big, black, heavy desk was now slowly floating in midair. La Luna could even see the thick layer of dust in the corners beneath it, where no one could reach to sweep.
La Luna marveled at the spell’s power, then carefully canceled it and gently lowered the desk back down. After all, this was the sixth floor, and the place was supposed to be unoccupied. If such a heavy desk hit the floor with a loud crash, someone might think burglars had broken in.
Besides, disturbing the neighbors was bad. What if it woke whoever lived downstairs?
(Then let’s try another spell.)
“Meow, meow.”
(Move.)
The book hovering in midair suddenly began circling around La Luna. The feeling was just… incredible!
As if it had remembered something, La Luna set the book aside, ran out of the study and into the kitchen, used magic to open the cupboard where the utensils were kept, then bounced up and down a few times.
“Meow, meow, meow…”
(I can’t reach…)」
La Luna anxiously paced beneath the open cupboard, then suddenly thought of a way.
(Float.)
La Luna changed the target of the spell to itself. Sure enough, all four paws gradually lifted off the ground. But what shocked it was that, although moving the big desk earlier had taken so little mental energy, it could now clearly feel that energy steadily running out. It hurriedly set itself down on the table. In just that short time, it had used almost as much mental energy as it had spent moving the desk and the book in the room combined.
(Am I really that heavy??)
La Luna thought in shock. Its fur wasn’t orange, either! It eyed the white fur and black stripes on its body suspiciously.
(Could this spell take fifty percent more energy when I use it on myself?)
La Luna couldn’t understand why moving itself took so much energy. The book had clearly noted that the spell’s cost was calculated according to the target’s bulk.
La Luna didn’t understand what the book meant by “bulk,” so it had roughly guessed that it meant something like volume or weight. But clearly, the energy cost was way off. That meant its guess was wrong. There was no way a small, slender white cat like itself weighed more than that huge black desk in the study, right?
Impossible!
(Well, I’ll put that aside for now.)
Right now, La Luna most wanted to make one of the greatest ideas it had ever had in its previous life come true.
Meow!
(Sword, come forth!)
A kitchen knife flew out of the open cupboard, then circled around La Luna.
Ah! This is awesome!
Back when I was young, I loved stories about martial artists and the jianghu. When I got older, I started enjoying cultivation novels instead. I’d even drawn plenty of works with those themes. Whenever I saw men and women flying on swords in a picture, I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like. And now, I actually had the chance to make it happen.
Even if all that was flying was a kitchen knife.
(Again! Myriad Swords, Return to One!)
Every knife, fork, and other utensil in the cupboard flew out. For a while they formed a ring, pretending to be a sword formation; then they scattered and whirled through the air. It was a good thing the kitchen was big enough, or they’d definitely have broken something. If someone had walked in just then, the sight would probably have scared them to death: a white cat with tiger-like stripes directing a swarm of knives and forks as they flew around overhead. If La Luna told anyone about it, they’d probably think it was crazy.
But after playing around for a while, La Luna started to get bored. No matter how much fun it was, it was still just putting on a show for itself. Besides, this world didn’t seem to have any particular romance attached to flying on swords—and, more importantly, La Luna was just a cat now. A cat with this kind of power would surely seem pretty strange, wouldn’t it?
La Luna put all the utensils back in the cupboard in neat order, closed it, then leaped down from the table.
(Ah, if only I could fly. Why does this spell take so much energy when I use it on myself…?)
Its mind was full of questions. It had already had its fill of the whole flying-on-swords thing, and it didn’t suit who it was now anyway. It might as well focus on studying those spells instead.
La Luna yawned and watched as the sky outside the window gradually darkened. The owner of the house still hadn’t come back.
“Meow, meow…”
(Where did that girl Itefeil run off to…? If she doesn’t come back soon, I’m going to starve, meow!)
