Even a Tenth Was Enough
Just as Erena had said, once Messi finished breakfast he would make his way to Frox's private laboratory and devote a stretch of hours to the work of translation.
At last, Frox received from Messi an interpreted copy with a mere tenth of the rendering complete.
The decoding was sparse throughout — like tapping each stepping-stone before committing one's weight — so that meaning had to be pieced together from keywords, stray sentences, and whatever context bound them. It was the work of a blind man crossing a stream by feel. And yet Frox's face was extraordinarily bright.
"Excellent! With this much, there shouldn't be any great difficulty working out the rest!"
Frox — who had agreed they would speak casually whenever they were alone — clapped Messi on the shoulder and let out a burst of admiration.
It was still an unexpected reaction.
"...Is that so?"
"It is indeed. When you unearth old materials and start studying them, you often run into situations far more serious than this. Since you've laid down a framework like this, you could say we've already passed the hardest hurdle. Haha!"
That actually works?
Even Messi was bewildered. Common sense asked a simple question: if only a tenth of a novel were sparsely translated, could you read that and grasp the entire contents of the book?
By any reasonable measure, that's hard...
Kkyu, too, was flustered by a turn neither of them had expected.
Messi's plan had been simple. At the translation stage — the step immediately before research — he would firmly establish his own contribution. He would not hand over a complete rendering. He would sit beside Frox, offer advice a little at a time, and thereby increase his own share. It was petty, but it couldn't be helped.
My magical ability is lacking, so I won't be of much help in the actual research. I have to raise my weight here.
When Viscount Ahental had asked how much he could interpret, the reason Messi had deliberately emphasized a tenth was precisely this.
What he had overlooked was that Frox was an even greater genius than expected — and an expert who had weathered many such difficulties before.
"Ohh... ohh... remarkable..."
Frox kept exclaiming as he read through the two documents Messi had translated — on Genesis Sorcery and alchemy. Anyone watching would have thought he was reading a fully interpreted copy.
At last, having finished, Frox organized his thoughts and spoke.
"Fascinating, as expected. I already knew that ancient civilization surpassed our present one, but..."
"You can tell that just from reading this much?"
"I've read a great many of these, that's why. Whether ancient or modern, when magicians leave records of their research, they tend to follow a similar format. Even with a sparse interpretation, if you follow the format you can roughly guess at the skeleton. And from there, the overall picture comes into view."
Hearing that, Messi let out a sigh of relief.
Good... if that's the case, my role is still sufficient.
All the same, he was made to realize once again just how formidable Frox's abilities were. No wonder the man was a Great Magician.
How much experience and knowledge would you have to accumulate to be capable of something like that?
Messi suddenly felt curious. How closely did Frox's conjectures match the actual contents? And from what perspective was he looking at them?
When Messi asked, Frox answered readily.
"There are many reasons. First: it was the civilization closest to the gods. The gods are the beings closest to 'perfection' that constitute this world, and the mere fact that they touched the gods' domain means the civilization had reached a high degree of sophistication."
It was easy to understand if one thought of twenty-first-century life science, which had been making clones. A civilization that had drawn close to the gods through science.
"In this Genesis Sorcery as well, the process of imitating the principles of creation held by the ancient gods is repeated. That would only be possible with a corresponding foundation of theological knowledge and magical groundwork. In particular, this Genesis Sorcery, as a work of creating life, is making the greatest effort to imitate the gods."
"They tried to imitate the gods?"
In this world, the gods were beings that symbolized the Absolute, Truth, and Perfection. To follow in their footsteps meant that a corresponding degree of civilizational development stood behind it. Frox, as a person of this world, could not help but think that way.
Humans following the path laid down by the gods — those perfect seekers of the Way.
That was the direction of development the present civilization thought of and pursued. But to Messi, it was puzzling.
The end product of Genesis Sorcery is ultimately Enzo Muete... in what way is that the result of imitating the gods' art of creation?
Knowing what the ancient magic had actually produced, Messi showed wariness rather than Frox's admiration. Moreover, from the perspective of Lee Eunho — a modern man — the meaning of "imitating the gods" did not read as particularly wholesome. Thinking of the stories he had learned in a modern education, there were many humans who had been ruined by entanglement with the gods, and few who had come out well.
Imitating the gods isn't necessarily a good thing.
It was also an act of challenging the gods' own role. A creation of the Creator reaching even for the Creator's function. Having already met the goddess in Benedict's mental world, Messi knew that the gods of this world were special beings who reasoned like humans. They were by no means the perfect spiritual entities or seekers of the Way that the people of this world imagined. To put it harshly, they were something like component parts of this world.
But I don't have the confidence to explain this to Frox and make him understand. Meeting the goddess was ultimately my personal experience, and this way of thinking is only possible because I had Lee Eunho's life.
Messi kept his mouth shut.
"Second: they're freely procuring and using monster materials that are difficult to obtain in the present day. That's only possible in an era densely populated with powerful hunters."
"This alchemist was quite a meticulous fellow — he even attached receipts to his research journal, didn't he? He purchased Drake's Spine and Terona's Eye in bulk, and the price, converted to current market rates, is about one gold. A price that low means they were correspondingly common materials."
A Drake was a giant flying lizard, and a Terona was a mountain goat that incinerated anything that met its gaze. Both were high-rank monsters that appeared only in the Outer Forest.
Such monster byproducts had been cheap and common in ancient times. That meant hunting had been easy — which in turn meant they had possessed advanced combat techniques. In the present era, obtaining those materials would require incomparably more gold.
Hm?
Thanks to that, a good idea occurred to him.
There will be people gathering those materials even in this era, for research. They're expensive and rare now, so demand won't be high... they'll be easy to track. I should mention this to Uncle Leto.
Those who had taken the incomplete Genesis Sorcery would need those materials for their research as well. If the work hadn't been halted over the years, he could surely catch their trail.
If they're still buying them, that's both a good thing and a bad thing... it means they have enough economic power to pour huge sums into this research for decades.
If that were the case, the shadowy figure who had formed a grudge with his master was certainly an organization of foremost economic capability. That also meant their power and influence were considerable.
I'll have to prepare even more thoroughly going forward.
Just as Messi was steeling his resolve, the conversation he had been hoping for continued.
"Third: these refined formulas used in the alchemy. One might call them characteristic of ancient civilization... several magics to which I could apply these formulas immediately come to mind, and doing so would dramatically increase magical efficiency and casting speed. I'll only know the precise degree once the interpretation is fully complete, but..."
This was why, whenever ancient magic was discovered, new schools and magic towers were established — the fact that applying ancient magical formulas to existing magic could further enhance its performance. It was also the part Messi and Viscount Ahental were looking forward to most.
A territory where a magic tower was raised naturally rose in fame and influence. Capital would inevitably flow in, so development was a given.
I'm glad I told Uncle Leto to purchase the rights certificates for the districts destroyed by the great fire, and the surrounding areas.
A rights certificate was a document recognized by the lord, permitting commercial activity within the corresponding land. Viscount Ahental planned to secure the lots lost to the fire and raise a magic tower there. Accordingly, a premium would be added to those certificates by way of compensation. On top of that, the areas surrounding the planned site would see prices skyrocket. It was a fitting investment for Leto, who needed capital to grow his organization.
While Messi was painting the big picture in his head, Frox's explanation continued. When it ended, Kkyu's exclamations came in a flurry.
His vision — grasping the whole from a part — was remarkable. Messi had to acknowledge it. Frox was the finest magician there was when it came to researching ancient magic.
"You truly are a Great Magician."
"Heh heh, you flatter me. Well then? At this point, can you tell me about your relationship with Madri....."
"We still have a long way to go. Let's get to interpreting the remaining portions."
"Urgh."
When Messi cut him off coldly and moved on, Frox swallowed a sound of disappointment.
From that day on, once Messi finished breakfast he would make his way to Frox's private laboratory whenever he pleased. What he saw each time was Frox, buried in a mountain of materials, spending his days.
So this is a magician's life...
To Messi's eyes, it was a life that had nothing whatsoever to do with happiness. He thought he understood why his master, whenever asked about magicians, would curse them and yet pity them. But though people other than magicians might not understand — this was a magician's happiness. Their joy.
"Yes, this was it!"
When he figured something out, Frox writhed with a sense of accomplishment.
"I simply cannot make this out..."
And he would clutch his head, sighing in frustration.
Over the course of a few days, Frox had gathered as much help as he could from those around him and hastily pulled together materials related to the Yagran Language. Then the interpretation work continued.
Watching a man in his fifties, growing old, clutching a single sheet of paper and groaning over it, Messi felt a twinge of guilt and pity, and even considered handing over the complete translation.....
"I'm stuck here... how should this be interpreted? There isn't a matching character in any of the other materials, you see."
Frox, who had displayed such keen insight with only a tenth of the interpretation, was hitting a wall now that he had begun the work in earnest. It was going just as Messi had hoped.
"I'll give it some thought as well."
Kkyu, what's that?
Even after hearing Kkyu's answer, Messi put on an innocent face, took the paper, pretended to ponder it together — and then, about five minutes later:
"Could it perhaps mean distilled water? Doesn't this shape look like a form of boiling water?"
He couldn't understand why the ancient alchemists had made their secret script into pictographs, but thanks to that, Messi found it easy to talk around.
"Distilled? Good heavens... am I an idiot? Why couldn't I figure that out until I heard it?"
Frox hurriedly substituted the character across all the materials, realized there was nothing awkward about it, and clapped his hands in satisfaction, rapid as a seal.
"I think you're right! Yes, it makes sense if distilled water goes in. After all, they'd use the cleanest water possible, with impurities reduced to a minimum, for their experiments!"
Frox took Messi's hint and hurried back to work.
As this process repeated several times, Frox gradually called for Messi more and more frequently. With an answer key that offered hints sitting right beside him, even a Great Magician couldn't help but cling to it.
"H-hey. Messi. Good timing! What do you think this means?"
Now he asked the moment Messi arrived.
Messi laughed to himself. Soon Frox would be in a state where he couldn't do research without him.
I might end up splitting the research shares later. If we keep repeating this, Frox will never be able to mention my contribution as a small one.
Messi was also planning to make use of the magic tower that would be established in Ahental Territory. The ancient magic that would serve as the foundation for founding it — he would make sure they did not forget that he had contributed greatly to interpreting it. If that happened, Messi's voice within the magic tower would not be small.
Rather than giving it all at once from the start, I drip it out little by little, growing my shadow...
Once the interpretation was complete, the role Messi could play would shrink dramatically. Before that happened, it was important to secure as much of his own share as possible.
"This should do it."
Messi said so with confidence.
One week later, Messi entered Frox's laboratory as usual.
But that day, the atmosphere inside was a little different. Things like hazy smoke hung thick in the air of the room.
"What in the world..."
"Ah, you're here?"
Frox was boiling a pot at a rolling boil, making something.
"What... are you doing?"
"Ah, I think I've more or less got the alchemy side figured out, so I'm giving it a try."
"...?"
It was a day when the translation work had not even progressed to three-tenths.