Chapter 66: Chapter 66

Celia immediately delivered the sad news.

“But the rest will be difficult to read.”

“By that, you mean…?”

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 become quite familiar with many professors in a short period of time.

But that was not what Celia meant 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, some traces of it remained. The same 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 assumed it didn’t exist yet. However, it was possible that among the undeciphered contents, there might be something about ancient magic.

“You can examine copies if you want. Some of the documents 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 me.

“Then let me take a look.”

Celia looked at me for a moment and then nodded and said, “Alright. Follow me. 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 comes here unless they’re a professor who’s dedicated to deciphering ancient documents. 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 documents 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 documents. Even the title was in ancient language.

I could see the ancient Sekreit that Ernest spoke of as well as some 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 time?”

“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 named 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 name.”

But it seemed like that didn’t apply to me. There were only two words, but I could recognize them.

‘Summon’ and ‘creature’.

It was a simple title. This made me 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 came at that moment.

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 remember the precautions I mentioned earlier. And of course, you can’t borrow books, so please remember that.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Very well. I hope you have a good time.” 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 moment, 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 moment.

“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 some 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 fragmentary, 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 some additional information from the fragmentary 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 some 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 documents. It made her wonder what he knew and what he was reading.

‘It’s really bothering me.’

As he was a child of House Sogres, he would have been well-educated, and since few people visited the ancient document 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 documents 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 came to the library and stayed for several days.

The academy was a dreamlike place, at least for freshmen. 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 semester.

But Dane Sogres seemed a little different.

‘Because he’s a genius.’

Should she say that because he was a genius, he seemed 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 something?”

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 extremely 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 document, 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 time, then continued to come back to the library after attending classes.

Then finally the next day came.

“Done.” Dane grinned as if he had figured something 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 become that kind of creature later on?”

“Kikreuk!”

Karnas nodded vigorously, as if he were certain.