Inside the tent, Kapak frowned slightly as he looked at the abrupt appearance of words at the blank end of the illustrated book. Though he didn’t understand the meaning of the word, he felt that it didn’t belong there.
All the other text in the illustrated book was in black, appearing neat and standardized, as if it had been printed. However, this word was in blue, and its letters weren’t as uniform as the rest, suggesting that it had been handwritten.
“A word written separately on the blank page? Does it have some special meaning? What does it mean?”
Staring at the word on the paper, Kapak pondered this. Then, he rummaged through his wooden chest for a while and retrieved a small notebook filled with writing.
The notebook contained a list of words, with each word accompanied by stamp-like clusters of other symbols, serving as translations.
Kapak had once been a slave in a city established by the invaders from across the sea. In order for him to understand what tasks he needed to perform, the factory owners had hired people to teach these foreign slaves basic vocabulary. Though this was meant to facilitate their exploitation, Kapak took the learning seriously and even kept detailed notes. This notebook in his hands was the very same one he had brought back with him.
One side of the notebook contained phonetic words written in letters—what the invaders called Pritt Common—while the other side had the stamp-like symbols known as Spirit Glyph, a written language shared by many tribes across the continent.
Kapak’s homeland was vast and home to numerous tribes, each with distinct languages and customs. However, their written language was the same. According to the priests of his tribe, long ago, all the tribes of this land had once been united under a great king. At that time, warriors who fought under the king’s divine power had even launched expeditions to the lands across the sea.
But when the king perished in war, countless disasters struck, shattering the unity of the tribes. Over countless years, the great legacy of the king faded, leaving only this written language behind. Even so, it was now only known to a select few, primarily priests. Kapak, having served as a priest’s assistant in his youth, had learned this writing system.
At this moment, Kapak held a simple vocabulary reference book, comparing Spirit Glyph with Pritt Common. He flipped through its pages, trying to find the meaning of the word written on the blank page, but after searching for a long time, he found nothing.Kapak’s vocabulary book contained only a limited number of words—mostly those he had needed as a slave, such as “work,” “eat,” “keep working,” “carry this,” “shovel coal,” “no rest allowed,” “work all night,” and “work all day.”
Finally, after much searching, he found a word in his notebook that closely resembled the one on the blank page—only a few letters were missing. Based on the Spirit Glyph translation beside it, Kapak understood its meaning.
It meant “ignorant,” “idiot,” or “fool”—an insult commonly used by factory owners. Having been called this often, Kapak had made sure to learn how it was written and pronounced. When he killed the factory owner, he had shouted this very word at his corpse ten times in front of all the workers, who had then joined him in cursing the dead man.
“Oh... so it means ‘ignorant’, huh? It’s just missing a few letters. Aside from that, it looks almost identical. Hmm... the owner of this book must have made a mistake and left out a few letters.”
Satisfied with his findings, Kapak concluded that the word in the illustrated book meant “ignorant” or “fool”—just with some missing letters.
“Perfect. I can use this chance to correct it and reinforce my memory. That way, I won’t have to check my notebook next time I see it.”
With that in mind, the diligent Kapak decided to correct the misspelled word. He rummaged through his wooden chest again, pulling out a bottle of ink and a fountain pen. After filling the pen with ink, he placed the illustrated book on the ground and began writing—his time in the city had given him practice in using a fountain pen.
Beneath the original word, Kapak wrote what he believed was the correct version. Below that, he also wrote its Spirit Glyph equivalent. Satisfied with his work, he nodded.
But then, something astonishing happened. The words he had just written—both the Pritt Common word and the Spirit Glyph—sank into the white paper and vanished.
Kapak’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the scene before him.
…
Pritt Kingdom, East Coast of the Main Island, Tivian, Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
Inside the library’s washroom, Dorothy stared in bewilderment at the words that had surfaced in her Literary Sea Logbook. She didn’t recognize the strange, stamp-like symbols, but she did recognize the Pritt Common words.
“Ignorant? Fool?”
“Why is someone insulting me? I sent knowledge over, and this is the response I get? What’s that supposed to mean?!”
Annoyed, Dorothy frowned at the book. In Pritt Common, the word for “knowledge” was the same as the word for “wisdom.” Adding a few more letters to it would turn it into “ignorance”, making it an insult.
“The person connected to The Literary Sea Logbook—whoever they are—sent back some incomprehensible symbols and the Pritt Common word for ‘ignorant’. What does that mean?”
As she studied the words, Dorothy came to a realization and consulted her system.
“System, check if I’ve gained any new language knowledge.”
“Response: One new Spirit Glyph word detected—‘ignorant.’”
Hearing this, Dorothy nodded in understanding.
“As I thought, these strange symbols belong to a new language, and they correspond to the Pritt Common word for ‘ignorant.’ This means that whoever is connected to The Literary Sea Logbook is someone who knows this language—maybe even a scholar of it.”
“Maybe this scholar was just using their linked book for rough notes, and I happened to see it. This is great!”
Realizing that the person on the other end had knowledge of a new language, Dorothy’s eyes lit up. She retrieved her pen from her magic box and wrote a new word in Pritt Common on the Logbook ’s page.
“Prayer.”
As the word slowly sank into the paper, Dorothy watched intently.
Through The Literary Sea Logbook, her system could extend its ability to detect anonymous prayers. As long as she remained connected through the book, she would be able to sense any prayers from the other side.
Of course, whether or not the person on the other end would subconsciously pray after seeing the word was uncertain. If not, she would simply communicate with them more and gradually guide them into it.
…
Back in the tent, Kapak, still stunned by the disappearance of the words he had written, immediately grabbed his nearby battle axe.
“What’s happening?! Why did my writing vanish? What’s going on? Evil spirits? Sorcery? Or something else entirely?!”
His nerves on edge, he considered taking the book to the priest for inspection. But just as he was debating this, new words suddenly appeared on the page.
“The words disappeared just now... and now new ones have appeared out of thin air. And it’s that lettered writing again... What does this one mean?”
Curious, Kapak leaned in closer to examine the new word. Unable to understand it, he picked up his translation book and searched through it. After flipping through several pages, he found the matching word.
It was “prayer.” The white men—both workers and factory owners—placed great importance on this. Whenever they had time, they would go to their churches and pray to their god. Because it was so common, Kapak had memorized the word.
“Prayer... Who am I supposed to pray to? This book? Could it be... that a powerful spirit dwells within it?”
Muttering in his own language, Kapak recalled the rituals of praying to the Wild Spirits. Having witnessed objects inhabited by guardian spirits before, he suddenly felt a sense of reverence. For a moment, he truly believed that this book contained a powerful spirit—after all, only objects inhabited by souls possessed wisdom.
Regardless of whether it was an evil spirit or a guardian spirit, tribal tradition dictated that it must be worshiped.
At that very moment, on the distant other side, Dorothy’s system finally responded.
She immediately consumed the Revelation spirituality, establishing an information channel with Kapak.
======================
T/N: It jumping between this spirit and that spirit, idk. I will keep it as it is.