Chapter 56: An Unexpected Matter (3)
After parting ways with Cecilia, I headed to the library as always.
Truthfully, until now I had never gained anything worth calling a harvest from the library….
Even so, I never stopped visiting whenever I had free time.
‘The Wolpen Knights, huh.’
The Wolpen Knights.
They were the order that had once stood by the Great Emperor centuries ago, and by now they could be called legends in their own right.
It was unthinkable for any citizen of the Empire not to know their name. Not just within the Empire—other nations, other races, even demons, and even those beyond the Thornspike Mountains in Garusol knew of them.
The members themselves were enough to speak of their glory—the founders of the three houses, also called the Three Dukes of the Empire.
The first chieftain who had united the divided clans of dwarves.
A High Elf who had arrived carrying the bow known as the treasure of the elves.
Saintess Anastasia Mayblin of the Holy Sun Church, and the Holy Knight who had stood by her side.
And the Great Sage Arpentia, who had founded this very Arpentia Academy….
Each and every one of them carried their own legends and heroic tales.
And of course, all of them had long since passed away.
If any had been of another race or had mixed blood of the long-lived, they might still have survived to this day.
But unfortunately, there was no such person.
They were all too famous, and so the manner of their deaths had been recorded clearly in history.
‘The last survivor was the Great Sage Arpentia… but even he died about 150 years ago.’
In short, the only way to encounter them now was by sifting through old records, or gazing upon statues or paintings that captured their likeness.
‘But surely, someone called an Archmage wouldn’t have meant it that way.’
If he had spoken so confidently of letting me meet the Wolpen Knights, then he must have had something concrete.
The simplest guess would be necromancy—or perhaps some bizarre magic that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
That was what I lightly assumed at first.
But then, when the word ‘time’ suddenly popped into my head, I found myself halting mid-step.
‘…No, that’s too much of a stretch.’
I gave a small shake of my head.
‘Besides, if he could use such magic, he wouldn’t have died such a futile death.’
Shaking my head to brush away the idle thought, I stepped into the ever-quiet yet neatly maintained library.
“Hello, Amaruah.”
“Oh my, hello, Lian.”
I greeted Amaruah, the middle-aged librarian who always kept watch over the lobby of the library.
Perhaps because we had grown used to seeing each other often, we had grown close enough to exchange warm greetings, and even chat idly at times.
The first time I met her, she had said students rarely came here, and indeed, whenever she saw me she seemed glad, even granting me small favors.
And in front of her now, someone was filling out a loan request form.
“Hm? Lian Gwendil?”
“Yuran?”
That someone was none other than Yuran.
The moment she saw me, she looked a little flustered and quickly tried to hide the book she was holding behind her back.
Pretending not to notice, I greeted her warmly.
“It has been a while.”
“Mm. A while indeed. I am glad. Has thou been well in the meantime?”
“Yes, thanks to your concern, I have been well.”
“Good words to mine ears.”
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you around for some time. You must have been busy.”
She furrowed her brow briefly, then nodded as though she understood.
“Indeed. I had pressing matters and was away. Only today have I finally returned.”
“I’m glad to hear you’ve settled what you had to.”
“Rightly so, truly.”
While speaking with her, I quietly touched my inner pocket.
Inside was a slip of paper where I had transcribed a portion of the book I had obtained earlier.
“Speaking of which, Yuran, there is something I wanted to ask you….”
“Ahem, hem.”
Amaruah let out a polite cough, giving us a gentle smile.
“If you two wish to continue your conversation, how about using the terrace outside?”
Her voice was soft, but it carried an unyielding tone of dismissal.
In the end, we went to the terrace, which was even more peaceful than the library itself, and found a spot to sit.
Carefully setting her bag with the book inside down beside her, Yuran quietly asked me,
“So then, what is it thou wish to ask me?”
Instead of answering, I pulled the slip of paper from my pocket and handed it to her.
“Do you know what this is?”
“This is….”
After glancing at it briefly, Yuran murmured in surprise.
“The tongue of Garusol, and quite ancient at that.”
She nodded, adding,
“It is the language used by the Sky Guides.”
“Can you read it?”
“Of course. I too am a Sky Guide.”
She scanned the slip once more before looking at me and asking,
“Where didst thou obtain this?”
Then she shook her head.
“No. Forget I asked. A foolish question it was.”
Shaking her head, she murmured softly, almost like singing.
“The how, the where, the when—these matter not. The very fact that thou hast obtained it is what matters. That itself is destiny, or fate, whichever division of convenience thou choosest….”
“……”
Yuran, murmuring faintly, soon fell silent, staring intently at the slip of paper.
Not long after, she gave a small nod and turned her head back to me.
“Thou hast waited long. I finished the interpretation already, but the conversion to the Imperial tongue… change? Alter? Trans….”
“Translation?”
“Translation! Yes, translation. It took some time to translate.”
She laid the slip of paper down on the table for me to see as well.
“For now, what is written here is merely a string of meaningless words. If anything, one might call it a poem.”
“A poem?”
“Yes, a poem.”
She pointed at each word on the slip with her finger, translating as she went.
“In order: the water of a waterfall. A blue bud in a bowl. A dragon and a flower at night…? Hm, most likely it means the dragon and the flower bloom at night. It seems thou didst make a mistake while transcribing. Depending on where one places a dot, the meaning can change. It is easy to err. And this part here….”
Thus Yuran translated the phrases written on the slip for me.
As she said, the words on the slip were nothing more than a list of unrelated or meaningless phrases.
Yes, as she said, it could be expressed as a poem.
But even after looking over the slip several times, Yuran wore a somewhat suspicious expression.
“This cannot be all, can it?”
“……”
“Silence is assent. If so, then Lian Gwendil, thou art wise indeed.”
She suddenly praised me while nodding.
“I did not realize it when only reading silently, but upon voicing it aloud, I see. This is a part of a Magic Tome.”
“A Magic Tome?”
“Yes, a Magic Tome. A ma…do… is that right? In thy tongue. That is, a book of spells and incantations….”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Indeed, then it is a Magic Tome.”
Yuran gave a small cough.
“I do not know the Empire’s magic. But our ancient magic… hm. What was it.”
Fumbling, she pulled a notebook from her pocket and gave a small nod.
“It takes the form of verse with resonance, rhythm, and harmony. In other words, not much different from the poem I spoke of.”
“Wait, then you’re saying this is ancient magic?”
I had somewhat expected it to be a Magic Tome, but ancient magic?
The completely unexpected revelation left me astonished, but Yuran waved her hand as if to dispel any misunderstanding.
Her face held a playful smile.
“I only said it was possible. But no need for concern, for as thou knowest, ancient magic vanished from this continent long ago.”
She added quietly,
“Those who had it became prey for that alone, and by now they must all be long dead.”
“……”
“In any case, the full truth can only be known by seeing the complete original. Until then, we cannot even be sure whether this truly is a Magic Tome. It might only be scribbles.”
Yuran pressed her lips together for a moment, then asked me,
“Didst thou intend to ask me to translate this?”
“Yes, that was my thought.”
“I do not recommend it.”
She looked straight at me, her gaze unwavering.
“For if this be a precious item, there is no guarantee I will not be tempted by greed. In truth, showing me this at all might already be a mistake.”
“……”
“…What trust do you place in me, to reveal such a thing? The Lian Gwendil I have seen is one most cautious.”
At her words, I was once more reminded of the hardships of one who had come back from the past.
Even for things I already knew and was certain of, I had to prepare excuses one by one.
I myself knew very well that Yuran would never attempt to seize the Magic Tome from me—on the contrary, should such a situation arise, she would step in to protect me instead….
But indeed, from another’s eyes, my actions might look reckless and unguarded.
Blind trust was among the most dangerous of things.
“If Yuran truly had such intentions, you would not be giving me this warning now.”
“Mm….”
“To be honest, as you said, I did wrestle with it. But I simply thought, if it is you, Yuran, then I could trust you.”
“Oh, really now.”
She shook her head in disbelief, letting out a sigh.
“Did you forget? I am of Garusol.”
“I know. And I am of the Empire.”
I gave her a look as if to say, what of it?
It was not an act or a lie, but my true feeling.
“But I don’t think that changes the fact that we are friends. Don’t you agree?”
“……”
At that, she fell silent.
She stared at me wordlessly for a time, then finally sighed again as if giving in.
“…Then I shall teach thee the script.”
“The script?”
“Yes, the ancient language of Garusol. The tongue of the Sky Guides.”
Reaching into her bag beside her, she rummaged as she spoke.
“Do not mistake this. It is not a bother.”
“Of course. I don’t mistake it.”
If anything, teaching the script would be several times more troublesome.
And from what I knew, the language of Garusol was vastly different from the Imperial tongue in sentence structure and grammar, making it far harder to learn than other languages.
“For me to translate it is easy, but that would change the meaning. If this truly be a Magic Tome, then it must be read in the language in which it was written. Dost thou understand?”
“Yes, I know that as well.”
Her words were correct.
It was not for nothing that mages, despite their busy lives, studied the tongues of many lands, even the ancient ones no longer in use.
“The same with incantations. The first tongue of an incantation is always strongest. Thus, even if the content is the same, when the tongue differs, its resonance, rhythm, and harmony distort, and its power breaks. In the end, thou must learn and translate for thyself. Even if I tell thee the meaning, what I grasp by reading and what thou grasp by hearing will differ inevitably.”
“I see….”
“And there is a more fundamental problem.”
She pulled a small notebook and pen from her bag.
She wrote something down and showed it to me: first the Imperial script, then Garusol script, and finally the characters I had copied on the slip.
“Imperial and Garusol characters have no power or meaning on their own. But when grouped, they form sounds, and those sounds carry meaning. In short, they represent human speech and sound.”
But.
She tapped the last character she had written with her pen and said,
“Ancient Garusol is different. Each character carries its own meaning by itself. To know and use it properly, thou must know at least… hm, let’s see….”
She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Perhaps it was my imagination, but her ears seemed tinged faintly red.
“One hundred times one hundred, and then multiplied by ten.”
“A hundred thousand.”
“Ah, yes. A hundred thousand. Thou must know about that many.”
I understood what she meant.
Most likely, ancient Garusol script was not phonetic like Imperial or Garusol, but ideographic.
Which meant, just as she said, that learning it properly required a tremendous effort.
‘I came here to resolve things, and somehow my work only keeps growing….’
I could only let out a hollow laugh now.
Yuran tore a page from her notebook and handed it to me.
“I would help directly, but I too have matters that keep me busy. Take this to the librarian. It will guide thee in choosing.”
“What is this?”
“Books that will aid thy study.”
She put the notebook and pen back into her bag and rose from her seat.
“I was glad to meet again after so long. Another time, let us make time for a longer talk….”
Thud.
Just then, something slipped out of her bag and fell to the ground.
It was a book.
“Ah.”
[Ssok Ssok! Easy and Fast Language Learning for Children!]
The cover had those words written in big, cute letters.
And on it was even a drawing of children studying.
“……”
“……”
Yuran said nothing.
Her face alone turned so red it looked as though it might burst at any moment.