Chapter 251.
After finishing today’s work, while waiting for the time to get off from work, I used my spare time to analyze the difference between the Holy Tribe’s magic and divine magic.
“Oh, what are you looking at?”
“What, is there something interesting?”
As always, Flam and Demuir, who had finished their work, clung to me and became interested in what I was doing.
"It’s nothing. I got a new magic book and was reading it."
Precisely, it was a magic book obtained through Arietta’s commentary and Hillis. What was quite interesting was that there were many similarities between the magic of the Holy Tribe and divine magic because they both seemed to be magic based on divine power.
After seeing my magic book, Flam and Demuir were disgusted and pretended to retch.
"Uwack! Studying during this precious break, I don’t understand,” said Demuir.
Flam nodded furiously. "I agree. They say there is no end to learning, but rest is also important.”
Actually, for breaks, I would finish the work I received in a few minutes, and take a break while pretending to be working.
In terms of ratio, it felt like I was working for 10 minutes and taking 50 minutes of break, so I felt like I was taking too many breaks.
I shrugged at their reaction. "This is also fun if you try it. If you don’t do even this much in the first place, you couldn’t be called a magician."
Demuir asked exasperatedly, "Are all magicians weirdos like that?”
I nodded lightly. "Of course, and Flam said it, too. There’s no end to learning."
Flam had a complex expression. "Is Arwen such a weirdo?”
Because I visited Flam’s house several times to teach Arwen, he found out that I was teaching her magic. Of course, he didn’t know anything about what and how I was teaching.
"Well, you can say that.”
He looked shocked at my affirmation. "It’s shocking that my sister was such a freak!"
"That’s a pretty strong reaction.”
His gaze as if looking at a weirdo was too much.
Then Demuir smirked. "By the way, Den, you’re similar to your predecessor, the one that retired before the two of you were assigned here."
"Oh, the former owner of that bookshelf?” I asked, pointing to the bookcase that was now mine.
Demuir nodded. "The former owner of that bookshelf was quite eccentric. Did you know that he knew how to speak the Fairy Tribe and ancient languages?”
Honestly, isn’t that basic?
My predecessor was quite pitiful to be treated as eccentric because he knew how to do something anyone could do.
"By the way, what was the predecessor like?” I asked again.
Fiona answered as she came this way. "He was quite an interesting person. He was quick at calculations, so he was in charge of the entire accounting before Demuir, so he’d be more of Demuir’s predecessor than Den’s."
"Ahaha, is that how it works?” Demuir made a slightly reminiscent laugh.
Fiona approached my bookshelf with a grin. "Den, do you mind if I borrow your book for a while?"
"No, what would you like to borrow?"
I got up from my seat and stood in front of the bookshelf. There were some books that would be difficult for Fiona to reach given her height as the shelf was tall.
"I’d like a Fairy Tribe language dictionary, please. I’ve always felt this bookcase, sure is full of strange languages."
"Hahaha, I agree with that."
If you look at the commonalities of the old books on the bookshelf, it was that they were of various languages. Presumably, the predecessor was also a linguist.
I smiled and pulled out three Fairy Tribe dictionaries on top of the bookshelf.
"Here you go."
"Ugh!"
Fiona, receiving the books, wavered from the weight. One dictionary was as thick as a large dictionary, so three dictionaries would weigh quite a bit.
"But why do you suddenly want a Fairy Tribe language dictionary?"
"Oh, Den, you know that we’re having a Fairy Tribe delegation this time, right? In fact, their envoy sent a letter to the predecessor prior to attending the imperial court."
Fiona put the dictionary down on her desk and pulled a sealed letter out of her pocket.
"The Guild Director-nim asked me to interpret what this letter was talking about, so I’ll be borrowing the dictionary for a little bit."
"Interpret the letter? If you’re trying to interpret with a dictionary, you won’t be able to finish interpreting even by the time the Fairy Tribe delegation has visited and left.”
Fairy Tribe language was not phonetic characters, but ideograms, so it had more than 500,000 characters.[1]
The thick dictionary on the bookshelf was like a children’s dictionary.
Fiona made a difficult face at my certainty. "That puts me in a tough spot. I was told to find out what it says no matter what.”
“Then would you like me to interpret it for you?’”
Fiona was startled by my words. “What?! You can speak the Fairy Tribe language?”
“I can read just a little.”
Fiona rejoiced and clapped her hands. "Then could you read it for me?”
I took the letter and opened it. Its contents were not very long.
"Let’s see. Dear my close old eccentric friend, have you been well?"
Everyone looked dumbfounded at my first line of interpretation.
"Eccentric?"
"Have you been well?"
"You’re interpreting it properly, right?"
I shrugged at the looks of doubt.
"I read it right. This character is strange, which means eccentric, and this ending of the words for informal speech tones. Shall I keep reading?"
"Oh, yes! Please."
Fiona looked at Demuir and Flam, told them to keep quiet, and asked me to keep reading.
"It’s already been 20 years since I was guided by my old eccentric friend. How time flies by so quickly. No, perhaps it’s not that fast? People not from the Fairy Tribe age quickly, so I don’t know if that’s fast or slow.”
Demuir snorted at the content of the letter.
"Do the Fairy Tribe age slowly?"
"Yes, they age slowly. I heard they look young at least until they are 100 years old. Starting then, aging progresses slowly, and on average, they live to be 150 years old."
Demuir was mortified by my piece of common sense. "Really?"
"Yes, I heard that the current Fairy Tribe’s Great Khan is 150 years old. Guardian Knight Marsen is nearly 200 years old.”
At 150 years old, it would not be strange to slowly start the succession. Considering that the Khan, who was coming as the head of the delegation, was the grandson of the Great Khan, he may become the next Great Khan. If so, then was this delegation mission a part of some sort of way to accumulate achievements?
"Please keep reading."
"Uh, yes."
I read the rest of the letter at Fiona’s urging.
"Anyway, I don’t like to write too long, so I’ll get down to the main point. I want you to be the interpreter for the delegation, old eccentric friend. Considering the skills of the civil servants last time I visited, communication itself seems like it would be difficult. Then I’ll ask you for a favor, eccentric friend. Your friend, Marsen.”
The Fairy Tribe language was certainly difficult to learn and become fluent in. There were 12 basic intonations, and one had to be proficient in 24 intonations to use some more complex vocabulary. In addition, it was not like the tribe was active in trading with other countries, so compared to the languages of the other countries, the importance of the Fairy Tribe language was much lower.
"Marsen? Isn’t he famous for being the Guardian Knight of the Fairy Tribe!?"
"Right! The noble knight of the Fairy Tribe! I read a children’s tale of warriors when I was a child, and it was cool!"
Flam and Demuir made a fuss.
By children’s tales of warriors, do you mean the children’s tales full of lies for commercial purposes?
It was a children’s tale that my big sister read to me quite often before going to bed when I was young, but Hestia noona always pointed out what was wrong.
"Then can we see the famous guardian knight?" Demuir got excited.
"It would be wise to leave a children’s tale as a children’s tale,” I advised with a wry smile.
At least as far as I knew, my great-grandfather, the main protagonist of the children’s tale, was neither as virtuous nor just. There was a strong tendency of being selfish and liking to play pranks on the eccentric oldie with a screw loose.
Despite my warning, Demuir seemed to have not come to his senses and said some nonsense.
"Is that so? But if we meet, it’d be good to get an autograph, right?"
The children’s tale had been deceiving many people, and even the great elder of the Butterfly Tribe came out as a wise man who was detached from worldly desires.
The old man, who had been coming from time to time for the past two years and had been half-forcibly robbing me of my Holy Tribe magic research, was a wise man? All the passing dogs would laugh at it.
Well, it wasn’t so bad for me to be able to learn Arpen’s latest research and the arcane magic of the Butterfly Tribe in return.
"Hmm, I see. Thank you for reading it. I will report it as it is."
She appeared to have some misgivings because my interpretation seemed a little frivolous. But what was I supposed to do when it really was written like that.
Fiona grinned at the translated letter and said, "I’ll buy you a meal later."
Still, she seemed relieved when the interpretation that she would have had to cling to and do for a few days had ended quickly. Well, it was natural since I had saved her from endless overtime work.
"Then I’ll expect an expensive one."
"Hoho, I don’t have much money."
Fiona smiled lightly and went upstairs.
-o-
"Ohhh! Godfather! This thing called the train is very interesting! There’s a reason why the empire is called the supreme ruler of the North. How about introducing a train like this in our country?" Palamut asked while enjoying the fluffiness of the first-class compartment.
Marsen looked around inside the train, also finding it amazing. "Yes, it would be nice if there was one. There wasn’t a train like this before. How amazing!"
The aide-de-camp gave a small sigh and said, "Our state coffers are not rich like the empire. Besides, there’s a shortage of those talented in magic. We would need technical assistance from the empire to bring in these trains, and there are more than just a single mountain to climb to get that assistance."[2]
Marsen was embarrassed by the aide-de-camp’s comments.
"But still, isn’t it amazing.”
"Mmm, no, Godfather. Godfather’s aide-de-camp is right." Palamut spoke to the aide-de-camp with a serious face. "Yes, you are right. It is foolish to introduce such a valuable thing without caring about the state of the country because it is interesting and we covet it."
The aide-de-camp bowed at Palamut’s words. "This humble official is moved that my forthright words are being taken into account, Khan Palamut."
The aide-de-camp was moved by Palamut’s acceptance of her blunt remarks that could have been taken as rude. She could understand why the Great Khan cared about Palamut.
"Ahahaha! No. This Khan still lacks a lot. Are you not the subordinate that Godfather trusts and cherishes? I will continue to ask for your advice in the future.”
"Yes!"
Looking at Marsen’s roaring aide-de-camp, Palamut nodded and asked, "By the way, how long did they say it takes to get to the capital?”
"Yes, according to the train engineer, we will be there by noon tomorrow."
As the aide-de-camp, she could speak a little of the imperial language thanks to Marsen.
"That quick? This precious thing is impressive.”
Palamut touched his seat in admiration.
1. An example of an ideogram language would be Chinese, which has unique characters for each word.
2. By mountain, I assume it refers to obstacles here.
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