Chapter 81: A Great Disaster

"Old Language?"

"Yes. I was wondering if you could help me with that, or teach it to me."

In the end, I resulted to asking for Layla's help.

"Ancient Language? Why would you want to learn something like that?" Don crossed his arms and bobed his head with a confused expression.

Then Layla replied to my earlier comment with a small smile.

"What has got you suddenly interested in this, Reo?" 

I thought for a while then shrugged.

"I happened to come across something like that when Father and I were out of the village. It caught my attention." Then I turned to the kids and interjected.

"Seems interesting."

But Trise quickly followed up with a snappy retort.

"Only you would think old is interesting."

Managing to suppress the pain from the remark reflecting against my expression, I turned back to face Layla, awaiting a response.

Layla was paused in a short thoughtful position before parting her lips to say to me.

"I'm not sure. I don't particularly have an expertise in linguistics. There are all kinds and sorts of it after all. You'll also have to be specific."

I replied shortly, suppressing a sigh.

" I see. Well it was something like this..." I reached for a small quill and dipped it lightly in ink before writing down a few characters on a piece of paper as the five kids stared curiously at my actions.

Those were some of the words I was able to vaguely make out and understand from the old book.

Layla reached out for the piece of paper by the time I was done and began to read it's content. The following second she smiled and looked back at me.

"If you're talking about this, then I can help you out."

Sharply, I rose to my feet.

"Really?" I beamed.

Seemingly amused at my reaction, Layla chuckled and nodded.

"Yes. The words you've written down are a bit wrong but belong to our old way of speaking which has evolved over the past centuries to what it is now. It's not exactly a different language as I thought you meant." 

It was just as I had speculated.

The language of the book was indeed the same to the one I've become familiar with...it was merely an older version which had evolved over time.

Similar to Old English and Modern English on earth.

"That's incredible. So you can teach me?" It seemed I'd be able to decipher the book much faster than I thought.

"Yes. I could, it's pretty simple. I'm more amused by the fact you were able to already write a few words on the Old language, albeit a little roughly." Her gaze was warm as she smiled.

Then she added.

"The more funny thing is...this was like a variant of the actual Old language we used." 

"A variant?" I asked, bewildered.

Layla nodded and continued her explanation as she placed a finger against one of the written characters on the piece of paper.

"Yes. You see, there was a period in our history where the whole world was recovering from what happened to be a... worldwide disaster. And during that time, humanity lost a vast portion of our territories and complete territorial shift and reform, and this also caused a mass displacement of the masses and populace. Countries merged and continents rose; that was how the Notos Empire came to be," she paused, evenly watching all of our expressions as we listened.

And we god-damned did.

Layla continued.

"Then came the issue of language barrier. So variant languages of the Old were created to get by one way or another." 

"I see."

I didn't really get it.

But at the same time did.

If anything, I was more interested in the "great disaster" that plagued the world and forced such a massive cataclysm that literally displaced the territories of the world.

I also realized Layla was careful not to give us a date or what exactly that "disaster" was. At the same time I was certain she omitted a lot more of other information as a form of censorship for us.

'Wait. The book said Magic was discovered about four hundred years ago... according to legends and folklore, that was the end of the reign of the Demon Lord of Carnage...' suddenly a realization dawned on me like an anvil on my shoulders.

...Could it be that the "great disaster" was the "war" that ensued against humanity is the Hero and the Demon Lord? After all, as Layla disclosed, the variant of the Old language was created after the "disaster", just about the same time magic was discovered by this world's populace.

'Wait, is that whole story even real?' I still had troubles believing in the stories about the Hero.

'But I might still be wrong.'

I didn't believe in the kids story so the "disaster" Layla mentioned was most likely something else. Maybe it was from that "disaster" did they discover magic.

'Well...not like it matters. Ugh! Why am I even overthinking all this! It's none of my business.'

"And this particular style was mostly used by true scholars of that time. High status Mages and renowned professors used this to write outstanding books and records. So you can say it was kind of a big deal...well, back then at least." While I was rolling around in my head Layla added another piece of information to the group.

"Is that what had been bothering you, Reo?" within all of it, Lia reached out to the hem of my shirt and asked.

Then Don's voice resounded in what seemed like understanding. 

"I see. Sounds complicated. Why would you want to learn something this complicated, Reo?!" He rose up and pointed accusingly at me.

I glanced at Don, thought for a moment then shrugged with a small grin.

"Sounds interesting."

***

I had Layla give me a quick rundown on the Old variant language before rounding up today's lesson then moved on with the kids to the rest of our schedule for the day.

The hours seemed slow from my perspective but eventually, it was sunset and I returned home from sword practice with Mr. Ridge and got right back to deciphering the old book.

All the while, I still couldn't fully get what Layla said earlier in the day out of my head.

That was the most I had learned of this world in the matter of a short moment. 

And a bit of its history.

I learned there was a disaster...and a mass displacement of worlds' populace and territories.

...Still doesn't beat wiping an entire species of dinosaurs in a cataclysmic meteor shower.

With the references I received from Layla earlier in the day, i slowly began to widen my understanding of the Old language.

However...the archaic language still persisted to be wholly intangible for me.

Turned out I couldn't just master an entire language from just a few references. It was just so wide and and complicated. My only saving grace probably was...the modern language still had various similarities with the Old.

Even despite all the similarities I managed to realize, I had still come nowhere close to deciphering the next paragraph and following page.

So I took another all nighter.

.

.

.

.

It took three days. Three whole days of constant studying and research, side by side private lessons with Layla.

That and sacrificed three nights worth of sleep.

Then slowly the Old language began to unravel before my understanding. The references between the modern language and the old variant became more obvious with each passion character I came to comprehend.

Three days weren't enough to learn a language entirely...not that this was an entirely different language to begin with...but I soon gained a decent level of comprehension on the language.

Then I conquered the next page.

The meaning behind the foreign characters became clear to me.

"~[...There are five publicly accepted major types of Attributes ranked by rarity... various forms of Mana ranked by purity... hundreds of thousands of Spells ranked by superiority...and millions of spells ranked by diversity...all of this the world recognized as Magic. 

And in this book will I disclose to you who reads all of my Discover

ies, Theories, Techniques, and Achievements of this mysterious force...]~"