Chapter 881： Fragments of ancient books (1/2)

Since the coronation of His Majesty Gao Wen, the entire country has become a whole again, and the Office of Government has issued an order:

Complete a comprehensive arrangement of all book files in the country, and carry out protective restoration of all knowledge.

The significance of this work is to sort out the technical information that has been scattered in the human world since the beginning of the era, in order to contain the impact of human civilization and technological dysfunction; it is to protect historical evidence and various regional records of the old kingdom to end the past. The chaotic, mixed history and legends are recorded; it is to collect and organize all the scriptures of all churches, further collect and transform the religious forces in the empire, and weaken and eliminate the knowledge monopoly of the missionary class.

Countless scholars, priests, and clerical staff have devoted themselves to this cause that may affect the empire in the next hundred years. Unlike the vigorous engineering projects that have attracted countless attention, their work seems low-key and boring:

Endless entanglement with obsolete ancient books, sorting out files in a large number of repetitive, fragmentary and even contradictory texts, some of the moldy ancient books and long dusty scrolls are recorded from ancient Gangduo The powerful technology of the time, some are just rough words written by a lame aristocratic poet, and all these things are drowned in the pile of old papers all over the country, and have been beaten in court battles, church struggles and lord wars. The wear and tear are totally unrecognizable and almost forgotten.

The centuries-old civilized decline and chaotic medieval noble system has destroyed too many things, and too many treasures have been dusted in the process.

As one of the participants in this business, Seven Terry actually started his work earlier: as soon as Luan was taken over by the Cecil family, he had been here and these times for centuries Have dealt with the books.

Luan City, as the former headquarters of the Holy Light Church in the south, was the largest cultural center and "knowledge hub" in the southern border at that time. The priests who monopolized the theocracy and a large amount of knowledge constantly collected books from all over the southern border into the large and small books in this church city. In the museum, they have been doing this for a hundred years since the second dynasty. In the era when books were equal to treasures, this is something almost every noble and church would do.

The tireless "grabbing" of the missionaries of the old times led to the decline of other parts of the southern border, but on the other hand, Seven Terry had to admit that it was this greedy looting and gathering behavior that was In the chaotic and declining environment of the southern border, many precious classics were preserved.

Seven Terry stopped in front of a towering bookshelf. He looked up and glanced over the large books with deep covers, and gradually moved upwards to the solemn and thick stone dome. .

This is the last library in Luan City that has not yet been archived. Most of the books stored here are transcripts of books collected from various eras and "unbelievable books" not related to the teachings of the Holy Light. Similar books are in this city. It is not valued, so the preservation conditions are also relatively poor. The ancient magic circle used to filter the air in the library is as difficult as a windbreaker. The blessing effect on each shelf to delay the mildewing of books is also incomplete, many The precious materials that could have been retained were gradually turned into wreckage in the invisible environment. In order to rescue these precious books, the best book repairers, scribes, and grammar scholars in Luan were all gathered together, even As such, the work here is still the slowest.

Fortunately, progress is made every day, and more and more precious materials have been discovered and repaired, or copied, copied, or stored in new media before they are completely destroyed.

At this moment, a church attendant wearing a short gray robe walked quickly from the side and bowed his head respectfully in front of Seven. "Master, we found a book, which looks strange."

Archbishop, this is the new name after the reorganization of the church. It is used to replace the previous cardinal or parish archbishop. Seven Terry never thought he would take this position one day, but considering the bishopric of St. Sunil In one day, all the martyrdom, the majority of bishops in various regions were expelled, and the priests above the middle level in the southern parish encountered a major reshuffle. The head teacher is also a matter of no help.

"Some strange book?" Seven frowned, "Take me a look."

A book was spread out on the workbench between the bookshelves. The dust and mildew on the surface had been cleaned again. The smell of a kind of alchemy agent was floating in the air. There were neat medicine bottles and copybooks on the side. Utensils and scrapers, dental boards, parchment paper and other tools for repairing ancient books make the books on the table look as if a body to be dissected is surrounded by autopsy tools, and tinkers and scribes are waiting for this The corpse revealed its secret.

Seven Terry shook his head and shook his head out of boundless crankiness. After confirming the condition of the book with the tinker next to him, he sat down, carefully turned the pages of the book, and asked the person next to him: "What's the matter?" Find?"

"This is a piece of a book collector who seems to be unclear about the complex and deep origin behind it, but treats it roughly as a country biography, rudely merging several irrelevant fragments," one The grey-haired scholar stood beside him and said, "At first we only noticed some of the country's strange talks at the beginning and the annotations made by a certain noble aristocrat on the page of the book, and almost missed the things behind it ..."

The rudely concatenated book Seven Terry is no stranger to such situations. The aristocratic nobles in remote places will do this. They are not much smarter than the farmer in the field, but they must maintain their decent aristocracy and "wisdom image". They collect and organize the broken books and fragments into a book. One of the means of one ’s own knowledge and aristocratic heritage. However, the real restorative work is something that only profound scholars can do. Those who do not learn and do nothing can only do something that they do not understand. The tattered books are pieced together.

The head teacher shook his head, skipped the uninteresting stories, turned the pages back, and the scholars on the side moved closer, pointing to the corners of some of the pages or the inconspicuous positions between the pages: "You pay attention to these, Here ... and here, these patterns ... "

"It looks like a kind of coat of arms ... Shield-shaped borders, thorns, frost symbols ..." Seven Terry's brow gradually wrinkled. "It's the noble coat of arms, the upper noble, but the recorder deliberately transformed , Does not seem to intend to disclose his identity. We need a heraldic scholar, or an expert in noble genealogy. "

"Mr. Berkron has just identified these patterns just now, and you are your lord," the scholar said. "After reversely restoring the patterns in accordance with the heraldic rules, we confirmed that this was the emblem of the Northern Wilde family."

"Duke of the North?" Seven's expression suddenly became serious. "This part of the book was left by a member of the Wild family?"

"Still core members are very professional in heraldry and qualified to use family coats of arms at random. In addition, we have also checked the pages of faint magic marks on these pages. These parchments have a history of six hundred years. The magic has not completely dissipated, which means that it may be left behind by one of the earliest Dukes of the North! "

Seven Terry could not help but screamed, "Six hundred years ?!"

"Yes, the results of the alchemy reaction appraisal also surprised us that their ability to survive under poor storage conditions is still a miracle, but I think this is related to the magic that has not been completely dissipated in the pages of the book. The scholar nodded. "But although the pages are generally complete, the writing inside is worn and stained more seriously. We are trying to find a way to repair this."