The process of inscribing a core was much more difficult than I had imagined. Each stroke of a runic letter had to hold the same amount of mana as the last. And each runic letter had to be absolutely perfect without any defects, or it could cause the core’s effects to weaken. I guess this was the reason Sei went into a state of concentration when she inscribed the core at the slums. It is indeed a delicate job. Just to write all the information and instructions about the magic circles, I was going to be connecting to the core took almost an hour and a half.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, and I looked at my inscription with a satisfied nod. “Very well done, but…. Faith, why a metal washbasin? Why pitfalls? Why a tree trunk that swings in and hits people!? What is this banana peel thing!? And seriously, what is a Truck-kun!?”

“Hmmm? Well, besides having explosive magic runes and the riddle maze, I was thinking of adding in a few extras. Also, do not look down on Truck-kun!” Yes, please do not look down on him, he can send people to other worlds. I have personally experienced it!

“I do not even know what a Truck-kun is!” Sei yelled out. She looked exhausted. I don’t know why, though. At any rate, the Truck-kun thing was just a joke as it is impossible for me to make a truck appear out of thin air that is real.-.Basically, I have the core set up to do two major things. The first is setting a barrier around the entire house that is basically an added layer to it. The people living here will be able to move around freely in and out of it without hindrance. I did not make a huge barrier as I did before because I wanted those nobles to try to sneak their way in. It would be counterproductive to have the entire property covered in a barrier because then no one could get in and actually allow us to catch them. Also, they would not be able to take on the second major thing.

The Riddle Maze! They will be placed into an infinite maze when they enter the property. Not only will they need to make it through the maze and answer riddles that they will never understand, but they will also need to deal with explosive traps, tree trunks, banana peels, pitfalls, and walls that will close in on them. Even the wonderful washbasin. The entire thing will be a real life illusion. In order to make everything a surprise so that things can just appear out of nowhere, I will use spatial magic and have all the objects randomly pop out and do their job.

Well, the banana peel will be an illusion since this world does not have such a fruit, and I have yet to see any replacement for it. So I will be doing a little trick. While the illusion will show a banana peel, I will use some slippery slime goo to make the ground slippery under their foot. Now that my brain is turning, I can actually make the truck kun thing works as well, but I will hide a giant boulder in the illusion of the truck….

“Faith, you have this strange smile on your face, and it is scary.” Sei snapped me out of my thoughts, causing me to purse my lips.

“Since you will be home all day, I want you to go out and get me everything I need for the traps.” Humph! Call my face scary. I will put you to work!“What!? No, I wanted to sleep most of the day since I will not get a chance to anymore!” Sei immediately complained, which I knew she would.

“You will go get the items I need….”

“Faith, I wanted to sleep in….”

“You will go get the items I need….”

“I…”

“You will go get the items I need….”

“Fine, I will go get them! Stop repeating yourself. It is annoying!” Sei stomped her feet and gave me an aggrieved expression. I chuckled and patted her shoulder.

“I will go make a list now and also grab a few gold coins to pay for everything. Also, bring Sophie with you since she can use spatial magic. It will make things easier. But please protect her.” I know that Sei would not let her guard down, but I still had to remind her to protect Sophie as Sophie could be a target for kidnapping as well.

“If I let anything happen to Sophie, I am willing to take any punishment you see fit.” Sei replied with a knightly bow. Sometimes I forget she is a knight.

“I thank you. I will also give you an extra gold so you can get some food while you’re out and keep whatever is left over for the trouble. Hopefully, by the time I get back, you two will have returned then I can quickly finish the defense system.” The last part, now that the runic equation was already written, was to fill my spatial space with the items. Everything was connected to me, including the barrier. I was providing it with a small stream of mana. This little function I mixed into the equation so that it wouldn’t be easily found. Otherwise, I am sure Sei would have picked up on it.

Now that the core was set up, I called everyone in the hose over to inject their mana into it. Only then would they be able to move around freely. This took another half hour to do because Adel was taking too long to get up, even with Sophie trying to drag her out of bed by her ankles. When everyone was finished registering with the core, we had breakfast and then got ready to leave. I was now off set up a magic contract with Sally so she could be my guard. I just hope she will find her new life fulfilling and will not regret her decision.