Chapter 26: Functioning Runes

As Isamu stares at the third magic rune, he’s completely motionless, his eyes scanning every detail.

The shopkeeper notices Isamu’s inaction and speaks up.

“What’s wrong? Oh, do you like that one? You have quite the discerning eye, my friend. You notice it has a different atmosphere compared to the others, right? It’s like, the density is moderate, but it feels ordered and solid. I call it the ‘Beehives Series.’ You see how they have the same shapes in a row, like honeycombs?”

“I see… A series, you say? Does that mean there are more with a similar feeling?”

“That’s right. I’ve divided them by size for now, so they’re mixed together… Hmm, let’s see, for example, these ones and these ones are part of the Honeycomb Series.”

It seems that, just like a true collector, he knows everything about the magic circles he owns. Isamu who was looking at the mountains of circles, is amazed once again.

“Th-this is…”

“What do you think? Aren’t they quite beautiful?”

Seeing Isamu frozen in place, the shopkeeper attempts to make a sales pitch.

“Y-yes, I’m quite fond of this series as well. How much for all the ones you’ve shown me today?”

“Oh? You want to buy them? And six of them at that? Well, I’m delighted to meet a kindred spirit. Yes, the larger ones are 300 ruins each, the medium-sized ones are 200 ruins, and the small ones are 100 ruins. Today, you got three large ones, two medium-sized ones, and one small one…So that’s 1,400 ruins in total, but since you’re buying in bulk, how about I throw in the small one, and we make it 1,300 ruins?”

Isamu realizes he unconsciously asked about the price, but now, as a lodger without any money on hand, he finally realizes his situation.

By the way, ruins are the currency of this country. From the food and goods he’s seen so far, one ruin would be worth around 100 yen, more or less. Of course, you can’t generalize because priorities and prices are different here, but in terms of value, there shouldn’t be a huge gap.

At that rate, his purchase would be worth around 130,000 yen. Considering he’s just a stray person who’s been eating for free, it’s not like he’s in a good position to negotiate, is he?

Isamu reached the obvious conclusion and hurried to decline. However, Annemarie, who had been silently observing, promptly settled the payment and said.

“It’s 1,300 ruins, isn’t it? Understood. Rudolf, handle the payment.” 

“Certainly, Young lady.”

This whole time, Annamarie had been silently observing, and promptly pays the shopkeeper.

Isamu couldn’t help but look at Annemarie, and a smile returned to him.

“I’m glad you were able to get a nice souvenir, Isamu-sama.”

“A souvenir? You mean he’s from another country?”

“Yes. I won’t disclose the country’s name, but they’ve come to inspect the zero-attribute magic stone mine from the western region. Since they don’t have our country’s currency, we cover their expenses while they’re here, and they settle the bill when they return home.”‘

“I see, that’s what you meant. So, he’s a guest from another country, huh? Well, I’m delighted that someone from another country can appreciate the beauty of these magic circles. Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Willem . Please visit anytime if you want to see magic circles.”

“You’re very courteous. I’m Isamu. I’ll definitely come visit again.”

“Isamu-san would be most welcome. I’ll keep the Beehive series and not sell it until you return.”

After exchanging farewells with Willem who hands over the magic circles, Annemarie asked him.

“Isamu-sama, you were able to read those magic circles, weren’t you?”

“Haha, you figured it out, huh?”

“Of course, I did. You had the same look on your face as when we first saw the activation circles at Eto-san’s place.”

Annemarie chuckles while answering.

“Was I too obvious?”

“No, from an outsider’s perspective, it did seem like you were admiring the beauty of the magic circles, just as Willem mentioned. By the way, what kind of magic circles are those?”

“First of all, out of the six he brought out, four of them turned out to be winners, readable ones. I’m sorry; I thought it would be odd to only select the ones I could read, so I ended up purchasing them all.”

“No, I don’t mind.”

“Thank you. I haven’t examined them closely yet, so I’m not sure about the specific effects of these magic circles. However, it seems that multiple languages are combined within them. Some of the characters used in the activation circles are similar to those in the spell books. There’s a mix of different magic languages.”

“Multiple languages, you say…”

“Yes. Thanks to the Ability Skill, the meanings come to me directly, but there are some characters I’ve never seen before. When you think about it, Willem-san must have quite an eye… even with no prior knowledge, he’s able to distinguish and read about 70% of these magic circles based on his design sensibilities.”

“…Indeed…. In the future, we might be able to source more readable magic circles through him, so it might be a good idea to employ him at our household.”

“That’s true.”

“Well, first, we need to decipher these magic circles and determine if they can truly be used as magic tools.”

“Hehe, you seem to have a face that says you’re looking forward to investigating, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes. To be honest, I’m looking forward to it way too much.”

“Hehehe, that’s great. You’ve seemed a bit down lately, so I was worried. But now it seems you’re back to your usual self!”

“I apologize for making you worry… I’m completely fine now! I’ll start researching these right away!”

Annemarie breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that Isamu was fully recovered.

They returned to the mansion around 3:00 in the afternoon.

As soon as they got home, Isamu held the purchased magic runes to his chest and headed excitedly to his laboratory. Annemarie, after informing her parents about the situation, went to Selfer’s bedroom.

“Look, Orihime, see this. These are functioning circles.”

“Nyaaa.”

Holding Orihime on his lap, Isamu happily arranged the magic circles and spoke to her.

“Now, let’s start by examining this one with minimal damage.”

Saying that, he first picked up a large rune that was about 70 centimeters square. This was the one Isamu had first noticed; while there was a small 5-centimeter chip in the upper right corner, it was almost a complete circle, filled with intricate inscriptions.

He began by quickly picking out the meanings of words, similar to skimming. As confirmed at the store, it was divided into sections: parts written in the same grammar as activation circles, parts using a language similar to the magic language in spell books, and parts written in a third, unknown language.

After getting an overview, Isamu, following the same grammar as activation circles, delved into the part written in a familiar style.

“Hmm, it seems like this section isn’t meant to create specific magic but to prepare magic power for it.”

As he continued to decipher the runes one by one, it appeared that this part, just like activation runes, extracted magic power from magic stones, transformed it in some way, and stored it for future use.

“So, it transforms magic power from magic stones into a form that can activate magic, and it seems like it reserves the amount needed for activation. Is this the function that controls the final adjustment of magic power?”

Assuming this function for this section, Isamu then moved on to decipher the part written in the language similar to magic words.

“Um, summarizing this, it seems to say, ‘Use the magic power of flames to warm objects without igniting them.’ It’s a bit convoluted, or rather, overly detailed. Incantations usually have a more intuitive style, but this feels meticulously defined. I wonder if it means that you can’t be too intuitive when casting magic? Well, since this will be doing everything automatically, it would be a defective item if its effectiveness varies depending on the user…”

The part written in the language similar to magic words made up a significant portion of the magic circle. As Isamu mentioned, it was quite lengthy and considerably different from the spell incantations that were used for imagery.

For instance, here is a summary of what was written in the magic circle Isamu was deciphering:

“The magic power of flames creates fire, but fire is merely the result of an increase in temperature. If that’s the case, it can be said that the magic power of flames can raise temperature. In other words, the magic power of flames can be used to increase the temperature of the targeted object. Using magic power means that the temperature can be changed according to the amount of magic power used. Here, this phenomenon is defined as the ‘Heat Enchantment.'”

Even this is a summary, and the actual text was much longer. It appeared to reflect a strong intention not to allow any exceptions.

“Well, I won’t know how precisely this needs to be written until I experiment with it. But I’ve only seen the words that I’ve deciphered so far, so I’ll mostly have to copy and paste for now… I need to expand my vocabulary urgently. Nevertheless, it seems I can activate the Heat Enchantment with this.”

The part written in the language similar to magic words seemed to be defining the effects. Isamu began deciphering the last part, written in an unknown language.

“I see. Here, they seem to control what has been prepared up to this point to use it. This is the start, and this is the end… Ah, this is probably the final adjustment for the amount of magic power and output. Here, it’s also performing stability and control… So this part is written in a more mathematical language, like a formula. Well, there’s no reason for it to be in a different language without meaning, right? Hm? This part seems a bit different… Oh, this might be a safety feature? Even though this is thousands of years ago, it’s quite something.”

The final part seemed to be about controlling and using the magic power and magic that had been prepared. Since only the necessary details were written clearly in this section, decoding it was relatively quick.

This marked the completion of deciphering the rules, and it seemed like non-object-oriented classical programming, as Isamu commented. The instructions were written in order of processing, like a non-object-oriented program, making it quite straightforward. This readability was a significant advantage for Isamu, and, with the help of his Skill, he was able to grasp it even on his first try.

“However, even though they’re both functioning Circles, their sizes are completely different. As for the level of the resulting phenomenon, I don’t think it’s much different from a magic lantern, but why are they so different in size? There might be hints around here that lead to whether they’re readable or not.” 

The previously unreadable function circles were more compact. While it’s understandable that magic circles can become more complex with more intricate processes, comparing the function of the heating element that was just deciphered and the function of the magic lantern, they seem to have a similar level of complexity. 

So why is there such a stark difference in size? The secret of these unreadable magic circles is likely hidden in this aspect, but even thinking about it now won’t yield answers. Isamu decided to set this problem aside for the moment and begin deciphering the second magic circle.

…However, just a moment ago, the evening bells (19:30) had rung, indicating that it was time for dinner. Just as he was about to wrap up his work, the laboratory door was predictably knocked on.

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