Chapter 69 (1/2)
… 30 minutes ago.
Symposium evaluator’s waiting room.
“Louina unnie. Is this answer real?” The Ethereal-ranked wizard, Rose Rio, asked out of suspicion.
Louina shrugged. “What do you mean?”
“Did Deculein really write this answer?”
Rose Rio was an Ethereal-level mage with impressive short pink hair, but she was actually younger than her, hence why she called Louina unnie.
She was a support and healing genius who only stayed in the Magic Tower for six months, climbed up to the Isle of Wizard’s Wealth afterward, and reached the Ethereal rank at 25 years old.
“Yeah. Deculain wrote it himself.”
“…”
Rose Rio still couldn’t believe it. Gindalf, sitting quietly in another chair, asked, “Really? I’m suspicious of Deculein’s nature. I know his situation, after all.”
Gindalf, who was now in his 70s, was the personification of old wizards in fairy tales. He wore round glasses and had long grey hair and a beard.
“No, this bothers me more than that.” Rose Rio pointed to the last part of Deculein’s Theorem.
[… In addition, 48 runes were successfully interpreted and organized, but they were not published since they didn’t fit the topic.]
“Is this for real? He said he interpreted several runes? That’s got to be a lie.”
Louina laughed bitterly. “I already took a look at his interpretation paper. I even saw it recited.”
Deculein had shown her some of the rune interpretation paper.
Of course, they might think he was wrong, but it was surprisingly easy to tell whether it was correct or not.
He had to memorize the pronunciation. The runic language itself was imbued with magic, so just speaking it correctly would consume mana.
“That guy, Deculein, has linguistic talent. I heard he speaks ten languages.”
“Huh, really? I can’t bring myself to believe that.”
Rose Rio’s eyes remained squinted as Gindalf chuckled, stroking his beard.
“Rose, feel free to think about it as you deem fitting~”
In fact, runes weren’t even her current priority.
The five-year period Deculein demanded was still stuck in her head.
‘It can’t be, right? There isn’t a disease that can’t be cured even with Yukline’s financial and political power.’
Even after repeating that in her mind, she couldn’t think of any other way to explain it.
‘… I promised, didn’t I? Five years. You will not be my stumbling block, and I will not be your stumbling block.’
Why did he promise five years?
‘Aren’t you four years younger than me? You still can grow a lot, so time is definitely on your side.’
Why did he say that?
“… It doesn’t make sense.”
Time was definitely on his side.
If it were the usual arrogant Deculein, no, even if it weren’t, he wouldn’t say things like ‘time is on your side’ while solving the Symposium problem.
The honor and feat of interpreting the runes would shine brighter as time went by.
Louina soon shook her head, however.
“Phew. What does it matter?”
Whenever she remembered all that Deculein did to her in the past, her body still trembled. Deep inside, her hatred for him continued to burn like embers.
However, no matter if she liked it or not, Louina was a thorough wizard. She was accustomed to the law of the jungle and was an extremely rational animal.
Therefore, rather than burning with passion, she calmly set herself up to achieve her true goal.
The McQueens’ magic vision.
The title of head professor.
She didn’t care about anything else other than that. She would willingly bury the humiliation, personal feelings, and family resentment she suffered from him for those objectives.
Besides, as Deculein, she’d be free in 5 years anyway…
“Is he going to release this ’48 Runes Interpretations’ today as well?” Rose Rio asked. Before Louina could answer, she continued with a sigh. “In any case, let’s head out now.”
She created wind and rolled the curtains in the waiting room.
Behind it stood the short chairman like a statue.
“… Ahaha.” Receiving Rose Rio and Gindalf’s gazes, she laughed and, clenching her fists, asked, “Deculein has the interpretation of 48 runes?! Did he really interpret 48 runes?! Is he going to reveal it today?! It’ll be a mess!”
“You’ll have to ask him since he’s the only one who can answer that, Chairman.”
“No! This is not the time!”
The chairman’s eyes filled up with mischief, her expression screaming, ‘I’m going to spread the word right away.’
Watching the chairman run away, Rose Rio burst out laughing.
“That unnie doesn’t change~”
“Your accent is still noticeable.”
“… Me? What do you mean? I’m speaking using the standard accent.”
Rose Rio’s hometown was Rococo, which was on the outskirts of the empire. It was a rural area famous for its strong accent.
“Actually, yours isn’t that strong. When I first went to Rococo, I thought I was in a different country~”
“What? Wow, your regionalism is too strong. I didn’t think you were this type. For your information, it’s not that different.”
“Say ‘bullfight.’ ‘Bullfight.'”
“…”
Rose Rio stayed quiet.
*
The capacity of the Grand Hall was 400 people. Although it was small for its awe-inspiring name, it was still more than good enough to prove the solution of the Symposium.
Actually, the word ‘Grand’ in its name itself wasn’t wrong.
About 300 years ago, when the designer and archmage of the Isle of Wizard’s Wealth, Loplan, built the Megiseon, this was the widest hall.
It had become the place of culture and tradition since the beginning of the floating island.
“How… H-h-how…”
Perhaps that was why Allen was now showing symptoms of anxiety disorder.
“Calm down.”
“Yes, yes. Yes.”
He couldn’t stay still even while in his seat.
He clenched his left hand around his trembling right hand, causing the tremor to spread throughout his body.
Like some kind of gym nerd.
“…”
“…”
Seeing him like that, I felt like Allen was impressive.
His original personality was nothing like that.
His acting was very natural.
“Whew. Whew. Whew… Hic! No— hic! This is going to be a problem. Why am I getting hiccups now?!”
I silently looked at my [Rune Interpretation Summary], a compilation of the 48 different rune interpretations in addition to the 14 runes that had been interpreted in the magical world.
I thought about making it public, but I decided against it since it was impossible to predict what kind of impact that would make. It would be better to keep it in my head for now.
Misuse of it could lead to an atomic-bomb-level disaster like the Manhattan Project, after all.
“Pfff.”
But it was really weird.
When I looked at this font, I smiled involuntarily.
Maybe it was because it reminded me of a voice, almost like I was experiencing a hallucination.
‘Kim Woo-jin! Look at this.’
Memories of the past played back like a faded film.
‘It’s a rune that is being conceived by the setting team. Did they mix Hebrew and Latin?’ She put her hands together under her chin as she acted as cute as usual.
‘Now, Woojin, you just need to clean it up. Try other fonts too. Make it look a little old.’ While talking about its setting, her gaze on me felt sincere and clear.
‘Woojin, you look handsome when you are concentrating.’
Her name was Yuli.
‘Hmmm.’
Kim Woojin’s memories remained in me.
‘What? If that’s the case, I’m way out of your league…’
However, her voice gradually faded.
‘…’
Was it because time had passed?
It felt like I could forget about her now.
… Brrrr.
Allen’s vibrating sound brought me to reality. What was he, an alarm clock?
“Allen. What about the slab of stone?”
“H-here! it’s here!”
Allen handed me the slate. It was a type of intermediary in which a large mana stone was processed into a slab and then engraved with runes.
—Knock, knock.
Finally, the knock came, indicating that the time had come.
“Let’s go.”
Allen got up, trembling, and went out of the waiting room with me.
“Follow me.”
We followed the guide and stood on the stage of the hall with the curtains lowered.
“It will start soon. There’s only two of you?”
“Yes.”
“Y-Y-Yes.”
Behind me was a large blackboard and chalk. The hall was 30 years old, so its fixtures had a classic feel to them.
—Professor Deculein of the Imperial University Magic Tower will now defend his answer to Symposium Question Number 6.
The voice of the moderator resonated in the hall.
As expected from the Isle of Wizard’s Wealth, not a single noise could be heard.
Swooosh—
Beyond the opening curtains was the Grand Hall’s audience area, which had been filled to maximum capacity. Nevertheless, I immediately noticed one person.
… Julie.
I could find her instantly, no matter where she was or what kind of crowd she was buried in.
It was due to the affection that became part of my nature.
The judges for today’s proof were Ethereal-ranked Rose Rio and Gindalf, Monarch-ranked Louina, and Astal, an addict.
I wasn’t nervous at all. As I once said, the attention and stares that were pouring on me felt rather proper.
Such was the effect of very natural elitism.
“Nice to meet you,” I said calmly. “I’m Head Professor Deculein. I will now begin discussing my answer for Symposium Problem 6, Proof of Runes.”
* * *
… Deculein’s theorem was carried out step by step, and the Grand Hall watched him in a quiet atmosphere.
A document titled ‘Deculein’s Theorem’ was distributed to all attendees.
“If I were to interpret the inscription in question 6, that is, the runes, the following sentences are revealed.”
[Where there is light and will, there is God.]
[God hid out of fear of human worship.]
About half of the interpretation of this inscription had already been achieved by ‘Routen,’ a Monarch-ranked wizard, along with the linguist’ Frange,’ leaving nothing special about my discussion regarding it.
However, past that was where my main point began.
“Get rid of the second sentence here. It’s useless.”
Deculein boldly deleted the second sentence.
“Only the three runes corresponding to ‘light,’ ‘will,’ and ‘god’ in the first sentence serve as a magic circuit, and the rest are just materials for combination.”
[Where there is light and will, there is God.]
[איΘ פה שיφש אור ומל ח ζ, יש]
The first sentence hovered in the air.
Although the runic language seemed to reject the interpretation itself, I insisted on it.
“The first step in deciphering these runes is ‘segmentation.'”
Deculein shredded the runes. The entire sentence scattered in the air, forming several pieces.
“The first sentence has a total of 13 syllables, but there are 45 segments in those 13 syllables as well.”
It was similar to how the syllable ‘hib’ was segmented into three phonemes: ‘h,’ ‘i’, and ‘b.’
Runes were still languages , after all.
“But the number of combinations of these 45 segments is nearly innumerable, reaching at least 3,923,023,104,000, possibly more.”
Three trillion nine hundred and twenty-three billion twenty-three million and one hundred and four thousand or more.
“But there is a second process in that number. It’s about ‘discovering’ and identifying the most meaningful rune combinations among them. The process is as follows…”
From then on, Deculein’s theorem entered a field that ordinary people couldn’t understand.
For almost two hours, countless combinations of runes unfolded like waves, which then turned into a certain shape, forming a magic formula.
It was a job that required a lot of effort and time.
That was the result of breaking through a certain limit after combining [Understanding] with the “setting knowledge” in the head of game designer Kim Woojin.
“…Now, take a close look at this.”
If he summarized all of the above in two sentences…
“The runes were disassembled, and a magic circle was created from that combination. However, it’s very different from the standard magic circle of modern times.”