Chapter 66: Can You Read This? (2)
Celia imdiately delivered the sad news.
“But the rest will be difficult to read.”
“By that, you an…?”
Were there any restrictions on obtaining information? For example, were they in a place that could only be accessed by professors?
Well, that wasn’t a problem since I was lucky enough to have beco quite familiar with many professors in a short period of ti.
But that was not what Celia ant by ‘difficult’.
“No one can read it. It’s written in an ancient language.”
“Oh.”
“As you know, the languages of lost civilizations are still being deciphered, but it is quite difficult as there is no ‘key’. This is especially true for the Magic Kingdom of Archana.”
No matter how lost a civilization or a kingdom was, so traces of it remained. The sa went for the Magic Kingdom of Archana. There was little information about ancient magic, but a few books and relics were occasionally unearthed.
Of course, since it was undecipherable, we assud it didn’t exist yet. However, it was possible that among the undeciphered contents, there might be sothing about ancient magic.
“You can examine copies if you want. So of the docunts require permission, but most are open to the public. But since they are nearly impossible to decipher… it won’t be easy,” Celia said quite negatively.
It was only natural.
Of course, this didn’t apply to .
“Then let take a look.”
Celia looked at for a mont and then nodded and said, “Alright. Follow . The archives section is on the other side. Oh, and leave the book here.”
Celia walked away again, and I put the book down where she pointed and followed her. Unlike before, the distance to the archives section was quite far.
As we headed there, the number of people gradually decreased. When we finally arrived, there were hardly any people in sight. The reason was simple.
“Almost no one cos here unless they’re a professor who’s dedicated to deciphering ancient docunts. Anyone else takes out a book, looks at it, and then runs away.”
Celia then pointed to the section where the manuscripts—or, rather copies of the manuscripts—were stored. It was quite large.
“This is a place where only copies of ancient docunts that have not been deciphered are stored. Of course, if a copy is damaged you will receive a greater fine than a normal book, so be careful. Naturally, information leaks are also prohibited. These books have their own tracking magic and information leakage prevention devices.”
“For example?”
Celia smiled at my question and said, “If you try to take it out or leak information, you’ll find out, won’t you?”
Wow, how vicious.
Anyway, amidst such dire warnings, I approached the copies of ancient docunts. Even the title was in ancient language.
I could see the ancient Sekreit that Ernest spoke of as well as so that I had never seen before. I wondered whether I should have brought Ernest, but I soon thought better of it.
“Most people get stuck just from the title. How about coming with a professor or a specialist next ti?”
“No, it’s okay.”
Because there were letters I could read. It was the language I gained knowledge of after I absorbed the condensed Ancient Magic.
“That is the ancient Archana language. It was nad as such because it was discovered on the site where the ancient Kingdom of Archana once existed.”
Ancient Archana language.
When I picked up a book, Celia said with a puzzled expression on her face, “Just so you know, the ancient language of Archana is a language that has not been deciphered at all up to this point, despite its na.”
But it seed like that didn’t apply to . There were only two words, but I could recognize them.
‘Summon’ and ‘creature’.
It was a simple title. This made wonder if there might be a story about beings that existed Beyond the Horizon.
Perhaps it would be possible to decipher it further after I obtained more condensed Ancient Magic like the one obtained from the fountain?
Well, I couldn’t get any more information right now, so I’d have to settle for this.
It was really strange. Just by seeing it, it was automatically interpreted and entered my head.
“But can you read that?” Celia’s question ca at that mont.
I shook my head and replied, “Of course not. I’m just looking at it. Even that much is interesting.”
“You’re a student who is sincere in your search for knowledge.”
Of course, Celia didn’t know I could understand it. She probably thought that I was just looking at it without being able to read it.
“Geniuses really are different. Well, maybe you’ll get a clue. I’ll cheer for you.”
As expected.
Celia then checked her watch and said, “You just need to rember the precautions I ntioned earlier. And of course, you can’t borrow books, so please rember that.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Very well. I hope you have a good ti.” With that, Celia left.
Right after she left, I picked out any books that caught my eye, stacked them up, and settled down.
First of all, I started with the ancient Archana language. As for other decipherable languages, I could just call Ernest and ask him.
First, among the sections with decipherable titles, I collected all those related to Karnas or the Summons from Beyond the Horizon.
“Kikreuk?”
At that mont, Karnas popped his head out. Judging by the way he stuck his head out as soon as Celia left, he was definitely smart. Now I needed to figure out how to handle and raise him.
Maybe I could also find out what he was.
After all, there might be information about the little one in this ancient Archana text that only I could read at the mont.
“Hmm…”
Well, for now… When I opened the book, I found that there were very few words I could recognize. At most, there were only one or two per page. In so cases, none at all.
I decided to write down the words I could understand while also trying to figure out the structure of the letters.
Since the words that could be deciphered were fragntary, understanding the character structure was essential to understanding other words.
Well, I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but… If I could get so additional information from the fragntary words, my deciphering skills would improve and I could get more information about Karnas.
“Don’t you think so?”
“Kikreuk?”
Now then.
Shall we start reading?
Celia, the head librarian at the Imperial Academy Library, thought that Dane Sogres would soon give up and leave the library.
Even though he was a crazy genius who showed talent in swordsmanship as well as spearmanship, magic, and summoning, she thought that ancient languages were a completely different area.
While so languages, such as ancient Sekreit, had been largely deciphered, most texts were in languages, such as ancient Archana, which remained unfathomable.
In fact, Dane was only reading such old docunts. It made her wonder what he knew and what he was reading.
‘It’s really bothering .’
As he was a child of House Sogres, he would have been well-educated, and since few people visited the ancient docunt section on their own, there was no need to worry about the texts being damaged or leaked.
However, she was curious.
It was a librarian’s instinct. It could be called a curiosity librarians had for people who loved books.
‘I can’t just approach him and ask.’
He was so focused that it was hard to even approach him.
“Chief Librarian.”
“Oh, Tony. What is it?”
“It’s nothing. But you’ve been staring at that place for the past three days. The ancient docunts section.”
“Oh.”
Celia was a little surprised, but she didn’t deny that she had been spying on Dane.
“Because it’s fascinating.”
“Fascinating? Well, that’s true. It’s not common for a freshman to be stuck in the archives section for three days straight.”
To begin with, it was strange that a freshman ca to the library and stayed for several days.
The academy was a dreamlike place, at least for freshn. There were a lot of fun things to do and even just talking to seniors could bring happiness. Additionally, it was currently at the beginning of the first sester.
But Dane Sogres seed a little different.
‘Because he’s a genius.’
Should she say that because he was a genius, he seed different? That was why one’s image and rumors were important.
“By the way, I just happened to pass by and saw, but it looks like most of what he is reading are ancient Archana texts.”
“That’s why it’s so amazing. It’s not a language that’s been deciphered like Sekreit.”
“Do you think he knows sothing?”
Celia almost burst out laughing at her junior’s words. “No way. For a thousand years, scholars have tried to decipher it. That’d be ridiculous.”
“Well, that’s true…”
“It’s impossible. I think it’s a challenge taken on by a passionate genius. But all the discoveries in the world started with that kind of courage, so I want to give him a round of applause. It’s a bit difficult because we’re in a library though.”
Celia was sincere. No matter how indecipherable a language might be, all ancient languages had a starting point from which they could be deciphered, so nothing was saying that it couldn’t be Dane.
The problem, of course, was that the likelihood of that happening was extrely low.
‘It’d be great if he could find at least a bit of a clue.’
Celia looked at Dane with a half-pitying, half-curious look.
The boy genius’ challenge would end in failure. Probably. Soon he’d kick the seat, throw down that boring and maddening docunt, and go out and play.
Celia finished her ‘Dane Observation’ for that day with that thought.
But the next day, Dane didn’t leave his seat. He returned to his dormitory only when it was the library’s closing ti, then continued to co back to the library after attending classes.
Then finally the next day ca.
“Done.” Dane grinned as if he had figured sothing out.
Then he looked at Karnas with a surprised expression.
“No matter how much I look at it, I can’t believe it…”
“Kikreuk?”
“Are you really going to beco that kind of creature later on?”
“Kikreuk!”
Karnas nodded vigorously, as if he were certain.
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