Volume 4 Chapter 8 Part 2 (2/2)

As he talked he gradually got excited again, but I can’t understand his words at all. I put don the package I was carrying and like the boy observed the surroundings. Yes, I didn’t understand at all.

「Edi, about what you said, just what is so amazing about that? To me it seems like something anyone could come up with.」

「Even if one could come up with it, whether they could really do it is a different matter. You know how delicate magical language is right? If you make even one mistake while choosing the word you layer, everything collapses in an instant. It is made based on those kind of detailed calculations.」

「I see.」

I said, however I couldn’t understand it at all after all. Not minding my perfunctory response at all, the boy with unchangingly sparkling eyes was crouching down and following the magic square, running up to the walls to observe the carved magic words.

I forgave the last night as「The soul of a child at 3 is the same as at 100」but today it was literally that. It was without question that being a wizard was his true vocation. At this rate, maybe we would solve the mystery of the ruins easily… As if he heard my inner thoughts, the boy added with a clouded face.

「But, as I am now, I don’t have enough skill.」

I nodded at the boy who seemed to be bitterly saying, that if it had been the “me” whom you knew, then maybe I could have done it. I ruminated over the boy’s words over in my head.

「Um, would it be enough if the magical language was broken down into pieces?」

「It’d be good if it could be done, but I don’t have the skill to break it down and decipher…」

「If it’s that, then could I help you?」

「Eh?」

The boy blinked at my words. I laughed as the boy looked up at me.」

「Have you forgotten what my family does for a living?」

As soon as I said that, the boy guessed what I wanted to say.

「Adina family’s technique for transcribing magical language?」

「Yes. It might be the most basic of the basics, ut I also possess the knowledge. I’m confident that there is noone better at understanding of magical language than the Adina family. Even if it’s layered in many layers I can break it down. However, I can’t decipher it. That will be your job.」

That’s right. My family, the Adina family has held the title of Governor of Magical Books for generations. We hold a special technique that is slightly different from magic. Our role is to take the magical language in whose letters themselves resides magical power and transcribe and reorganize them on a new piece of paper.

As a person born into the Adina family I was taught the technique by my father, the current head and Governor of Magical Books himself. Although it was only until my younger brother was born and it was decided that he would succeed the family. That said, as I told the boy before, the basics of the basics had been drilled into my body and although I couldn’t understand it, I could break the language down. Until the princess takes action, we should try to solve the problem ourselves and doing nothing is the exact opposite of solving the problem.

The boy silently thought about my proposal. After a while he nodded once. It was good that I had taken a bundle of clean paper. I thought we could use it to make notes, but it seemed it’d be more useful that I thought. ell the, where should I start from. As I was looking around restlessly, the boy standing in the center of the magic square pointed 「There.」.

「Edi?」

「The beginning of the ritual is the same for any kind of magic. The beginning of this magic square is here.」

「Got it. Then I’ll start from there.」

I walked up to the boy and crouched down. At the moment I didn’t worry about getting my dress dirty at all. I felt the boy staring at me intently as I took a piece of paper and spread it on the ground. I put one hand on the paper and the other on the magical language which boy pointed out as the beginning. I took in a deep breath and let it out. It was a task I hadn’t done in a long time. Not to mention, this was a practical problem not a theoretical one. I might fail, but if I worried about that I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Good, I got pumped on the inside. Inside of me a familiar technique started assembling. I felt warmth being transmitted through the palm of my hand. Slowly the magical language of the magic square turns into letters made of light and rises into the air. As I started working on the magical language which I wasn’t able to understand at all, the magical language floating in the aire flutters and as if it was falling apart, breaks into several other languages. I chose the one that was closest to the surface, and after a deep breath I absorbed the language for a second. Then I inscribed it on the paper with my finger.

I repeated the same thing over and over, and when I noticed the paper was densely packed with magical language. Somehow it went well. I let out a sigh of relief and passed the paper to the boy who had been observing me the whole time.

「Now it’s your turn. Can I leave it to you? … Edi? What’s…」

「It’s nothing. I’ll read and decipher it.」

「I’ll leave it to you. Leave the breaking down to me.」

I smiled at the nodding boy and prepared a fresh piece of paper.

I remembered that man saying「You don’t have to worry about it.」. I wondered what face would that man, who obviously didn’t want my help, make if he learnt that now he was cooperating with me on the investigation. To be honest I was happy to be of help but if man’s memory worked like the boy’s, then I was sure that that man wouldn’t remember me helping him.

When I thought so my feelings became somehow complicated. Like that the days of our cooperation began.