Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 17: Deciphering the Activation Circle
Upon returning to the mansion, Isamu had lunch with Annemarie and immediately began the work of deciphering the magic circles.
The room assigned to Isamu came with not only a bedroom but also a living room, a mini kitchen, and a small study.
He initially started in the living room, but he found it too spacious to work alone, so he had now confined himself to the study.
Annemarie was tasked with searching for other magic circles that could be found elsewhere.
Isamu laid out the activation circle and the functional circle he had received from Eto and compared them once again.
"Hmm, I still have no clue what the functional circle means... I can tell that something is written, but I can't understand the meaning. Magic gets activated when mana flows similarly to these, but I have no idea what the difference is..."
Just like when he saw them in Eto's workshop, he still couldn't understand what was written in the functional circle. Therefore, he decided to focus on deciphering the activation circle for now.
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"I mean, no matter how you look at it, this is a script, isn't it? It's more like symbols than letters, so could it be a flowchart?"
After about two hours of intense concentration, Isamu concluded that the "activation circle is a script."
"Looking at this, the magic device is already in standby mode from the moment the magic stone is inserted. This seems to be a decision formula that determines the state when the magic stone touches it, and this is an order to draw magic power from the magic stone. Then it transfers the drawn power to the functional circle. I don't know how the functional circle utilizes it, but is it like an argument? Well, functionally, it's a terribly simple program. There are too few instructions, so it might be hard to make it work by itself..."
He realized that without comparative material or a few more examples of magic circles, further deciphering would be impossible.
Taking a break and as a status update and to check on the acquisition of other magic circles, Isamu left the study. In the living room, he found Annemarie talking to Orihime in baby talk.
"Aw, there, there, Orihime-chan is so cute."
“…”
Annemarie was so engrossed in talking to Orihime that she didn't notice Isamu leaving the study. Orihime had noticed when he left the room, but being a clever cat, she turned her ears briefly toward him and then went back to what she was doing.
"Is it comfortable for you, Your neck is so fluffy.”
She was in high spirits.
Feeling it might be time to call it a day, Orihime got up, shook herself free of her curled-up posture, and meowed toward Isamu.
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"Oh my, what's going on?”
Annemarie, who still didn't notice, turned back to where Orihime was watching and was speechless.
“I-I-Isamu-sama, when did you get here?"
With a flurry of repeated "i"s.
"Just a moment ago."
"S-S-S-So, I see. S-So, what are you doing?"
Now there were plenty of "so"s.
"Oh, I just finished decoding the activation circle. I thought I'd like to see other magic circles for comparison."
Isamu replied while looking at Annemarie, who was in a panic, thinking that he had declared that he was going to decipher the magic circle in his own room.
"Oh, I see!? Or rather, I had a copy of the other activation circles that you had asked for, so I brought it with you so you could look at it..."
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"Oh, is that so? That's helpful."
It seemed that Annemarie had fulfilled her request properly but fell into an Orihime trap right at the end. It was like a cruel trap right before the finish line with a "skip a turn ten times."
"Shall we have some tea then? I was about to make a report while taking a break."
"Sounds good. Karina, please prepare tea."
"Understood."
Karina, who had been waiting in the corner of the room, lightly bowed before proceeding to prepare tea in the mini kitchen.
"I see, so this activation circle has such a meaning..."
"Yes, but I think this is the most basic activation circle. I haven't adjusted any conditions. That's why I want to compare it to others."
"I see. I found two copies of the activation circle in the mansion's library. I think we can find more if we keep searching, so I'll go looking again later."
"Thank you. I'll start deciphering the activation circle I received right away."
After a 30-minute break, they each returned to their respective tasks.
Isamu had been working on deciphering the two new activation circles provided by Annemarie for about three hours.
Isamu snapped back to reality when his stomach growled. He had been so engrossed in his work that he forgot about his hunger.
"Hmm... when it comes to activation circles, there seem to be various patterns. In that case, maybe it was a good thing I got to see the simplest one first. It's like starting with a 'Hello World' program."
Isamu muttered to himself as he stretched slightly.
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The activation circles brought by Annemarie were considerably more complex compared to the one he received from Eto. They included conditional and control statements, and even the amount of magic power was quantified.
Isamu’s initial impression was somewhat overturned, and he began to think it resembled a more robust programming language, somewhat like a Gothic programming language.
"There seem to be more reserved words than I expected... I initially thought it was a script language, but it's more like a proper programming language. It might not be object-oriented, but it has conditionals. There could be variables and something resembling a GOTO statement, at the very least. Even without functions, if I can find those two, my perspective will expand greatly."
Isamu was reminded of the time when he first learned to program. He recalled those days when he was learning new instructions and gaining more capabilities one after another. It was so much fun that he would forget to eat and sleep, and his parents scolded him multiple times during those days.
"Hehehe, I think I'll start thoroughly tinkering with the activation circle. Even with just the instructions I understand now, there should be room for improvement."