102 The Still City (2/2)
Behind him, the darkness shifted and a menacing figure appeared slowly. The Butcher had returned. He held a broken bone saw in his left hand, but his right hand was empty. According to the agreement, he should have brought back the Eastern kid. But he returned alone, empty-handed. The eyes behind the donkey mask were still wild, but no longer red, like a tired beast.
”You actually failed?” The Professor studied him. His gaze full of contempt and mockery.
”Everyone has their firsts,” came the hoarse reply.
”Really?” the Professor stated coolly. ”I always thought that you were a beast.”
”Don’t beasts exist because humans need them?” The Butcher stared deep into the Professor's eyes, threw the wad of prepayment back at him and left.
--
Two days later, in Abraham’s library, Abraham was giving a lecture. ”According to current explanations of the Voynich Manuscript, we have some knowledge of events from before the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, the astrology and geography recorded in the manuscript is starkly different from what we can observe today.” Abraham wrote on the blackboard as he spoke, ”According to the Voynich Manuscript, the stars were entirely different.
”Rather than the Star Ring, it mentioned a belt created by many stars. It was known as the Milky Way. Of the celestial objects closest to the Earth mentioned, there is only the ‘moon.’ There is no mention of the Indigo Moon.
”Most importantly, there are many stars that we cannot observe, such as Mercury, which represents mystery, and Mars, which represents war. These discontinued phenomenons are common in Eastern astrology. For example, a part of the star field passed down from the prehistoric times—the Three Yuan and Twenty-eight Su can no longer be observed.
”The ‘South Star’ which represents life, and ‘North Star’ which represents death have disappeared. Maybe these mysteries are part of the undeciphered portion of the Voynich Manuscript. To this day, inconsistencies between records and reality have confused many archeologists. Many ‘star-seers’ and ‘astrologers’ have even started doubting life and committing suicide. For those who analyze ancient texts, this is something that must be avoided. We must…Yezi? Yezi, are you listening?” Abraham turned back to see his blank student and raised his voice. ”Yezi? Yezi!”
The youth snapped awake and scrambled to sit up, rubbing his face. ”I’m sorry, Professor. I spaced out. Where are we now?”
”Analyzing the Voynich Manuscript.”
”Uh, sorry,” Ye Qingxuan said awkwardly. ”I don’t think I heard that part clearly. Can you repeat it? Just start from the last part.”
Abraham sighed. Putting down his chalk, he sat down before Ye Qingxuan. ”You’ve been out of it recently. Did something happen?”
”Uh, nothing.” Ye Qingxuan chuckled, ”Maybe I’m just tired.”
”Have you been staying up to read again?” Abraham suddenly felt helpless. For the past half month, Ye Qingxuan had eased up on his studies on runes, and had officially began learning about the analysis and deciphering of ancient texts. The youth’s progression was pleasantly surprising. He had sped through everything.
After learning the Translation Method, Ye Qingxuan could decipher and translate some more recent texts. After some more training, he could become Abraham’s assistant and help with current work. In a few weeks, Ye Qingxuan had learned what most people needed two years to grasp. It was partly due to Ye Qingxuan’s talent, and partly due to prior knowledge. There were not many abnormal people who could memorize the Church’s entire archive, but this guy had also read through most of Abraham’s library too.
Abraham also did not need to worry about spending time on practicing different languages. Ye Qingxuan had become familiar with most languages during his time as a scribe. Other than the lingua franca, and the Latin language used by the Church, he had even learned the Asgardian language, known as the living fossil, from Father Bann. He had learned ancient Eastern language as a child too. Ye Qingxuan could read most research texts without much difficulty. Having a student like that would have been a dream come true for any ancient text researcher, but Abraham was starting to get a little worried.
Ye Qingxuan had been off these past few days. When Charles had brought him back two days ago, he had been covered with blood and running a high fever. The fever had finally broken, but he refused to say what had happened. And now, no one knew what he was thinking about. He constantly spaced out and locked himself in his room.
Everyone was worried, but when Charles had snuck a glance through the window, he had seen that Ye Qingxuan had just been reading in his room. He had flipped through the pages as if he spent day and night looking for something.
Abraham shook his head, ”We’ll end here. Go rest.” He rose and began tidying his things, but when he turned around, he saw that the youth was still sitting there.
”Professor, is what we’re learning really useful?” Ye Qingxuan suddenly asked.