Fushi no Kami - Volume 1, Chapter 5

After farming ends, I run to where Priest Folke is while my father is swearing on my back. 

"Priest Folke! I have a thought about what we talked about before!"

It seems that Priest Folke is taken aback by me who rushed to his room all the sudden. Perhaps it’s because I look too excited even though I’m actually composed. 

"There is something called a curse that was being used during farm work!"

"Wait, wait! What's this all the sudden? First, calm yourself!"

I'm calm. Rather than that, please listen to me carefully, Priest Folke. What are you doing? Give me a pen. Quick.

"This mark is called a curse. It looks complicated, but doesn’t it look like a letter?”

"Oh, oh. But, it doesn't look like that."

"We don't use these characters, and I thought it might be an ancient word. But if it is truly an ancient word, I can’t think of what it meant."

Buhaa! I talked too much in one breath and thought I would die. However, it seems that Priest Folke has listened properly. I hold my mouth and keep silent. I take a deep breath and talk about the most important part.

"The ancient language that we can't read at all is probably a picture, not a letter."

"Hmm? Wait, what are you saying suddenly? It's not a letter?"

Priest Folke begins to think of the meaning of my words with the face of a man who has been enlightened.

"What does it mean to be a picture, not a letter? A picture usually doesn't have that shape and isn't sandwiched between letters. Isn’t that usually so?"

"Well, that's right. I think it's a picture-like character."

"Hmm ... I can't imagine picture-like characters ... I'm sorry."

It's not that difficult in theory, but without the concept of ideographs, someone like Priest Folke would find it very foreign.

"It's easier to understand if you don't think too hard. Let's try to have a conversation with pictures-like letters."

Signaling that I will start, I first point to Priest Folke.

"Hmm? Me?"

"Yes!"

"..?" (Fast update at https://silver-slime.blogspot.com/)

Then I point to myself.

"Ash?"

"And."

"And..?"

It's kind of stupid, but for the time being, I open my mouth and make a talking gesture.

"Open and close mouth ... Oh, talking? Is it talking?"

"Yes!"

I nod, and explain what my gesture means.

"Just now, a sentence,'I speak with Priest Folke,' has been made. If I try to write it, it looks like this."

I take a piece of paper that I 'borrowed' from Priest Folke earlier and write picture-like letters based on our previous action. However, "Priest Folke", "Ash", and "Talking" are expressed as deformed humanoids. It is a form in which the so-called particles will be written in conventional letters in the future.

"Do you understand what is written here?"

"Oh, I understand. No, in this case, I should say that I can read it. I see, I've heard this kind of play."

After discovering the meaning of the strange exchange, Priest Folke looks impressed at the paper.

"Somehow I can understand what you mean. What you expressed before are drawn in this picture-like character?"

"Yes, that's right. A single letter could mean 'Priest Folke' alone. It's an amount of information that can't be written in the letters we know."

"Hmm, this is a rather... it's an interesting story, and I think something similar to this was used in the early ancient times."

When I nod, Priest Folke begins to test the validity of this hypothesis in his mind. Each time he digests and understands, he would nod alone.

"Interesting. I think it's a really interesting idea. When I talked to you before, you told me there were too many types of letters."

"Yes. It's an unnatural amount considering that it's just the letters that represent the sound. There is a certain amount of sound humans can make and it exceeds that possibility."

"Therefore, won't the characters represented in this picture express its unnaturalness? If we think that this is a picture-like character that fills the difference of the unnatural amount, then everything just fits right."

"That's right."

What do Priest Folke think? Personally, I'm getting excited that it seems more and more plausible. On the other hand, Priest Folke is thinking seriously.

"This is bad."

"Is it bad?"

"Really bad."

"Is it that bad?"

Priest Folke shakes his head many times in response to the answer.

"Somehow..."

He softly murmurs and I can't read his expression at all.

"This is just an intuition, but I think this is going to be a big thing."

Priest Folke said with a big, big smile.

"This is amazing! It's going to turn everything upside down! How do we prove this! Damn, I want to confirm and prove it soon!"

"Wait, calm down, Priest Folke!"

Don't shake the body of a delicate child!

"Hahaha! You're great, Ash!"

What is truly bad right now is not because we're getting closer to the truth, but how excited Priest Folke appears to be now seeing from how he keeps shaking me. Well, it's fine that he looks very pleased now.  Let's do our best to understand the early ancient civilization.

The real deal starts after we truly read the book.

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