CH 110

Chapter 110 : The Night of Touching The Knowledge

“Now then, if you’ll excuse me!”

I exclaimed while the sound of clattering keyboards were still audible all around me. 

Fuhahahaha! I’ve decided! I’m going home on time today!

I said that but I actually had flexible working hours so I actually already fulfilled my hours for today. Many people in my department came at a later time than me so they rarely get to go home at this hour. 

I took a look at the working progress but because the death march had just finished last week, there shouldn’t be any problem. 

After my talk with Aoki during break, I felt like I could sort of imagine what Velke was looking for. It was something very important and precious to him. Something he’d find, no matter how great the price was. 

―― The soul of Maou that I held. 

At first I thought he wanted to bring me to that other world but somehow, after spending a few days together with him, I had a feeling that wasn’t what he was trying to do. Maybe he was trying to gather some knowledge or something instead? He did say he wanted to know more about this world and about me. 

Yeah… I should go home and ask him about it once again. 

On my way home, I kept on thinking about the things Velke had said and my conversation with Aoki during lunch break so the trip back home felt like it had ended in the blink of an eye. 

“I’m home.”

I said that while opening the door with an audible clank. It turned out the foyer light was already on. 

『Welcome home.』

Velke came to greet me. I was a little surprised because he suddenly appeared out of the blue. 

“Whoa, how did you know I was coming back home?”

『I heard Mahiro’s footsteps.』

Is his hearing that good he can hear my footsteps from outside?? He also welcomed me home like a loyal dog?!

『The dinner is already ready. The bath is about to be ready soon. Which one would you like first? 』

“E-erm.. What should I do…. It’s been a while since someone welcomed me home so I’m kind of basking in the emotions for a moment….”

Uwah… Uwahhhh… I felt a little bit touched when he welcomed me like this… 

『Would you like for me to add another options for you to choose?』

“How did you know about that kind of basic template someone used when welcoming others at home?!”

『Because I’ve studied about it.』

Velke replied, looking a little smug. It made me wonder what kind of things he had been studying…. 

『However, yes. How about if you have a bath first? 』

“Umm.. It’s winter so I don’t think I’ve been sweating that much… Or maybe I smell….?”

I said, sniffing my own clothes. If Velke said I had the same smell as a tired old man…. I think I’d cry…….. I was still in my 20s so hearing that would really hurt me…….

『No. Mahiro’s scent smells very good but there’s a disgusting scent stuck onto you. 』

“Huh? Oh, maybe the smell of cigarettes got stuck on my clothes?”

I sniffed my clothes again but I couldn’t smell any cigarettes on me. 

『…………….. I can smell the scent of the man that lent me his clothes yesterday. 』

“Huh? Aoki??? I mean, I did see him during lunch today but I only talked with him for a few minutes though??”

『He was close enough to Mahiro’s personal space for his scent to stuck…. Well, it’s nothing. Please do not worry about it. 』

Somehow Velke gave me the impression of a pet cat that felt threatened because he found out his owner had gone to a cat cafe. He said it was nothing to worry about but he already gave me my bathing supplies and ushered me to take a bath. 

『I will heat up the dinner so please take your time there. 』

“Huh? Ye-Yeah.”

『For today’s bath, I’ve added beppu onsen bath salt. 』

“Isn’t your service too perfect?!”

This isekai man was getting accustomed to our world a tad bit too fast. 

After washing my hair and body in the shower, I took my time to relax in the tub since Velke had taken the trouble to add beppu onsen bath salt to it. 

“Phew~ I feel so refreshed. Thanks, Velke.”

『Dinner is ready too. Please take a seat over there. 』

There were a lot of dishes, more than could be placed on the small folding table. 

“Th-This… Could it be that this is a handmade hamburger?!”

『Yes. It seems there’s no change in the things you like so I made them in smaller sizes but added more in quantity.  Also, I tried making chocolate pudding for dessert. Let’s have them for later.』

He’s really way too perfect………..

“Was the 10.000 yen I left you this morning enough?”

『Yes, more than enough. Besides, I still have some left from yesterday’s remuneration. I went shopping for a little bit in the evening so I was able to purchase a lot of things, including the onsen bath salt.』

That’s good, that’s good…. But I mean, he can go run an errand on his own… He’s really getting accustomed to this world at tremendous speed….

『For some reason, when I was shopping in the supermarket, the items I laid my eyes on would kept having half-price sticker plastered on them almost immediately. It was really strange because the price would go down when I only stared at them.』

……………. It must be thanks to the power of ikemen….. I’m sure the ladies working at the store must be looking at Velke with heart-tinted eyes and they immediately plastered half-price stickers while looking all excited….. The power of ikemen is way too incredible….

“Mmmhhmm!! Delicious! This hamburger, how come this hamburger is overflowing with juice?!”

『I’m glad to hear that. I read on cookpad, a recipe site, that the quality of the meat is very important. I followed the guide on that site. This slightly smaller hamburger has cheese in it. Go on and have a bite.』

“Uuuuuh… Uuuuuuuh…. This is so much better than the food you can normally get in a restaurant…. The sandwiches you prepared for my lunch were very delicious too… Really, thank you so much….”

『…………. No, the pleasure is mine. I shall etch your words deeply in my heart. 』

I was touched by how good it was. I kept on commenting it was so incredibly good to Velke. Velke also looked touched when I complimented him. It was so good that I ended up having second. The freshly cooked rice also tasted so incredibly good that made me wonder, maybe he had changed the rice?! But when I asked him about it, Velke said the key to making the rice delicious was by soaking the rice with water for half a day and then cooking it in an earthenware pot in accordance with the time you wanted to eat it. This was basically the skill of a masterchef. 

We ate chocolate pudding together for dessert. After filling our stomach to the brim and feeling so happy from how good the meal was, we cleaned the table together. (Velke insisted he wanted to do it alone but after I said to him we could finish tidying faster if we do it together and then we could have a longer time drinking tea, Velke reluctantly gave me the dish cloth.) After tidying up, we decided to relax together with a cup of japanese tea. 

“By the way Velke, how did you spend your day today?”

I knew he went shopping in the evening but I was curious to know what he did for the rest of the day so I asked him that. 

『That’s right. I actually wanted to stay together with Mahiro but because that’s not possible, I spent the rest of the day studying things. Every moment felt like eternity as I waited for Mahiro to come home but I’ve learned about a lot of interesting things.』

“Oh? What kind of thing did you study about?”

『Even though I already received some knowledge from Mahiro, I still didn’t know about the basic principle of this world so I first started by studying about the history and culture of this world. The tablet Mahiro lent to me had a package that allowed me to read as many books as I wanted to so using that, I started reading about history, religion, biography, war and agriculture technology, science and general information . All in that order. Typing letters into the tablet is like…. Having the wisdom of crowds in your hand. I found a encyclopedia that contained a lot of information but there were a lot of one-sided opinion and inconsistency so I only used it as a way to support the information I gathered from other books.』

“Velke’s level of information literacy is higher than I expected. I’m honestly surprised….”

I think… He reminds me of the time when I had to write my thesis during university. I couldn’t cite any citations from the internet or wikipedia so I had to properly cite my source from the books… 

『The tablet Mahiro lent to me today must’ve contain the writings of the wise man I suppose? I didn’t expect I’d get so much information just from this one apparatus. 』

“Anyone can buy it if they have 100.000 yen with them though….”

『After that I went to reading japanese classic literature, modern literature and contemporary literature before I continued on to try my hand at world literature……….. 』

“Wait! Wait! Wait!!! Huh?! You’ve read that many books??? No, did you only read the summary of the series instead?!”

『I read it from aozora bunko… In that site there are books that’s published there for a certain period of time after the author’s death…. I read the books in alphabetical order there…. ・』

“Wait wait!! Aren’t you getting used to using the tablet a little bit too much?!”

『The author of The Tale of Princess Kaguya remained unknown but we can assume the author came from a well-known noble family due to the depth of the story writing.』

“Classical literature!!!”

『I also think the short folktale of  The Crab and The Monkey was very interesting because the story sent the message about retributive justice.』

“You’ve read Akutagawa-san’s work too?!”

Velke…. He’s really incredible…. Just researching about the history of the world alone would take a considerable amount of time and yet he also managed to read literature books…

Huh????

Huhhh?????

No, wait. Isn’t there something weird here?!

“Velke, wait a minute. I lent you the tablet ‘just this morning’, didn’t I? In addition, you also went shopping in the evening and prepared meals for us! Even if you had more than half a day to read, how were you able to read that much in such a short period of time?!”

Velke quickly averted his eyes. 

“Velke?”

『It was… A little…… Trick…………』

“Velke……..-san?”

I kept on staring at me. Unable to bear my gaze, Velke raised both of his hands to his chest, indicating he had given up. 

“Velke-san?”

『I….. Understand. I will tell you about it so please don’t add -san to my name. I’m not really sure how to explain it but… That’s right. If I were to use the terminology of this world… It’s like I have intentionally create a state of ‘zone’ in me.』

“Zone… I know the general idea of it. It’s a state where you can raise your ability to its limit by increasing your concentration…. Or something like that… But why did you suddenly use a sport terminology? Oh… Right… In between the manga I lent you, there’s a series of sports manga in it…”

『Yes. It was refreshing to see the protagonist play the role of supporting the attacker. Well in a sense, it’s like an application of mental training in sports science. 』

“Ah, right. So that kind of concept doesn’t… Exist on the other side?”

『I was really shocked to learn that there’s some kind of stopper in our brain from the perspective of neuroscience. By targeting my magic power inward toward my body, I’ve created a magic that can raise my ability to concentrate tremendously. This magic basically makes me able to get into the zone and release the limiter of my brain. 』

“Huh?! You can just create a magic like that on your own?!”

『In the first place, Velluclesis tribe is known for their expertise in magic. We are also known as the fountain of magic power. Usually, I’d be able to use the magic power around me to create physical magic but….  There’s not much magic power left in this world. I had to use my own magic power just to enhance my physical abilities and to exceed the limit of my abilities.』

He said that like it’s something so simple but isn’t that already an extremely incredible thing to do?!

“Umm… So how many minutes does it take you to finish reading one book….?”

『I was using a technique that allowed me to burn the transcription from the screen directly into my brain… I guess in this world’s terminology it’s similar to speed reading so… About a few thousand books every minute…..』

“Burn it into your brain?!”

『Though it’s extremely rare, there are some people in this world who has the instantaneous memory ability or highly superior autobiographical memory. I’m merely reproducing a similar concept with magic. Besides, I find that memorizing the dictionaries helps immensely at understanding multiple languages… 』

“Multilinguals…. Aren’t you too amazing……”

『Yes… Truly… There was more knowledge condensed into one book here than any of the other books I’ve ever read before.』

Velke talked about the book he had read, it seemed the book had left such a deep impression on him. 

『There were so many books containing high density of knowledge in just from one country, Japan. When I realized how much knowledge had been contained in the books on a global scale, I was simply at a loss for words! 』

“Ah, right. Velke came from a medieval European kind of world after all so books must be extremely valuable there.”

I remembered that before Johannes Gutenberd introduced the printing press method, all books had to be handwritten when you wanted to produce a copy. That was why books were extremely valuable at that time. I heard that some books were so expensive that they had to lock the book in chains to prevent it from being stolen. I knew about it because Aoki had excitedly blurted out the trivial knowledge he had learned while reading the doujinshi he had bought on our way home from the doujinshi event… 

『That’s one of the reason but… It’s also because this was my first time learning the value of books since human was the only one that written down the knowledge they had to pass it to other person.』

“Huh?! Only humans you said… So in Velke’s world, only humans leave behind a transcription?!”

『Demons tribe vampire who blends into the human society also use the same writing method as human. Before Maou-sama appeared, the number of demons had already decreased considerably. There were only few of us left and although there were some demons who use human’s letter in order to avoid any suspicion from human, there weren’t many demons who pass on the knowledge of their tribe in writing.』

“Oh… Is that so….?”

『Many of us can use human letter so we wouldn’t be at disadvantage when trading with the humans but… Ah, that’s right. Now I finally understand why our Maou was so focused on constructing our library room.』

“Oh, so Maou had made one? A library.”

『Yes. He also put so much effort into the Hot Spring Paradise Project and the dining room along with its operation.  』

Not bad, Maou. Along with the bath, the working environment in Maou’s Castle must be incredibly good. 

『Maou-sama, when he first started constructing the library, almost every collection in the library was written by the human. At first we thought he wanted to save the record of humanity since we thought he’d eventually destroy humanity in the future but when he said he wanted to collect the books written by the demon, we were all greatly confused at his decision… 』

“Was it that confusing….?”

『Yes. There weren’t many books written by demons in the first place and Maou-sama looked visibly dejected at the small number of books we managed to gather but now I finally understand. He must be feeling disappointed to be able to gather such a meager amount of books when he already knew there was such an extremely huge number of books for each language and letters…. 』

“So demons don’t really use letter in writing and such?”

Since the demons could use magic, I had imagined they must’ve written a lot of magic books and other kinds of writing.

『No, we don’t but…. How should I explain it…. The most important difference between us and human is the way we transfer the knowledge we have. 』

“The way you transfer knowledge….?”

『In the first place, demonkind…Or in the case of my tribe, the Velluclesis, things like the history of our tribe, our traditions and our magic, everything is inherited from our ancestor. Since we mainly pass down our knowledge through oral messages and songs, we don’t really pass down the knowledge through writing. 』

“What?!”

I was really surprised when I knew Velke had mastered reading completely from scratch. 

“No, I mean, so the demon doesn’t have the culture of writing?”

『It’s not that we don’t have it… For example the dog tribe, Kobold, they will leave behind note with the combination of grass and stone for the other party. Werewolf tribe use claw marks on trees to tell other werewolf the location of their prey. Dragon tribes carve lore relics on their old scales and dark elves have elvish scripts to prevent other tribes from knowing the secret of their magic. Also my tribe, the Velluclesis, we used to have our tribe-specific letter that resembled the hieroglyph of this world.』

“So you mean each tribe has their own specific letter. Does the demons doesn’t have a common letter that every demon can use?”

『We don’t. We even had to resort to using human’s letter as a common letter for us to use in Maou’s Castle. 』

“The demons are pretty individualistic, huh….”

『Many demons adhere to their tribe rules and do not have the desire to merge with other tribe.Though the demon work and fight together in the presence of Maou-sama, other than that we generally don’t interact with other tribe and even if we do, we will follow the strong and have no interest in the weak.』

“T-That sounds pretty harsh….”

『Yes. By nature, demons are that kind of creature after all. 』

Because Velke would sometimes tell me a story about other demons, I had thought all demons lived in harmony…. 

“If that is the case then… Umm… If, for example, the parents or the demon in charge of shouldering the inheritance were to suddenly die, does that mean the knowledge and the history of that tribe would be gone too?”

『That’s how it works within the demon tribe.』

“Huh?! Then if for example the last surviving member of that tribe were to die, all the history and knowledge of that tribe would cease to exist too…..?!”

Velke closed his eyes, he looked like he was trying to think about his next answer. 

『I’m struggling how to convey the answer correctly but… Yes. Maybe this is the difference in between the norm of Mahiro’s world and that world? If one’s family or tribe were to die, all of their traditions and history will also disappear… That’s just how that world works… How do I explain it in a better term… Mahiro, what do you think is the ‘right’ history? 』

“Huh? The right history… It’s the history that has been verified… The actual truth… That’s accumulated for generations…?”

The things we learned in school and from history books had been passed down through generations as folklore or traditions and written down by someone who had lived during that time.

『In our world, it’s not the ‘right’ history that is passed down but it’s the history that’s left by the strong. That history will be regarded as the actual fact. The history of the weak, they will cease to exist the moment they are defeated. Just like how the history of the human became the actual fact in a world where demonkind and demons are going extinct.』

“So… The history belonging to the strong… Becomes the ‘right’ history?”

『Yes. The lore of the weak will not be passed down. That’s why… I was surprised when I realized the culture belonging to a tribe that had already gone extinct still exists in this world in the form of a book. From that kind of book, I can truly feel the effort of those who were trying their hardest to preserve the lore and the language so that they wouldn’t be forgotten by future generations.』

“You’re right… There’s a movement in Hokkaido to preserve the culture of Ainu people…”

When I was in a bookstore, I skimmed through a book that listed the language that was about to disappear from this world. I was surprised to know that only a few people in this world could speak the Ainu language…

『I was also shocked to know that the strong of this world… They do not destroy the culture of the side that lost the war. If they were to destroy it, only the history of the winner will remain at this point. 』

“I know that in olden times… They used to burn books and such but right now… We’re trying our utmost best to preserve history…”

『When Maou-sama learned of this fact, his mouth immediately hanging open. He said it’d be a shame if the history, culture and the proof of someone’s existence were to disappear… Then he decided to write a new book, in order to preserve the history and culture of the remaining demons. 』

“So he wrote a new book?”

『Yes. At first the demons were confused at having to write down the knowledge they inherited in a book but… Even the tribe that was illiterate started using the human’s letter to write down their book and the tribe that had their own letter, wrote it in their own letter. We cast automatic translation magic in all documents so even if one tribe were to cease to exist one day, their history would still remain. 』

“But from what you said earlier, the demons should be pretty individualistic or very tribe-oriented, right? They didn’t show any opposition in letting other tribes read the secret of their tribe…?”

『They didn’t agree to it on the spot but during Houyou no Maou’s reign, the demonkind were in the verge of extinction. We found other demon little by little and we were focusing on nurturing and increasing our number. So all demons had to coexist together… We implemented a policy where every children would be raised by several adult demons together so though the demons didn’t all jump into the idea at first, they also didn’t have much opposition regarding it. The children that were raised together, some of them started having interest in other tribe traditions too. They started to learn about other tribe out of their own volition.』

“Amazing. So they started a brand new study on their own?”

『In the first place… The demon who showed reluctance in writing their tribe’s secret, after Maou-sama had said ‘please’ to them, they were also the first one who spilled their tribe secret to the whereabouts of the senior in their tribe’s secret stash to the scribe. From necessary information to unnecessary information like the gossip about the neighboring uncle, , they started spilling all the beans with great excitement after Maou-sama’s said ‘please’…… 』

Huh…. Scary… The response from the demon toward Maou…. It’s like they’re being brainwashed….

『As for the role of the librarian… The reclusive but sly dragon, he was attracted to the smell of trees and old books of the library so he quickly volunteered for the position. I was ordered by Maou-sama to become this reclusive dragon’s scribe and… The dragon’s extreme anxiety toward other people was so severe that I had trouble communicating or hearing whatever he was saying… 』

Trouble at communicating…. He’s really the perfect stereotype…. That Dragon-san… Or rather, Velke is really bad mouthing this Dragon-san without any reservation, huh… 

『As for me, if it’s for sake of Maou-sama’s happiness, I’d do anything be that becoming a scribe for someone else but the thought of taking even one second of my time from aiding Maou-sama to listen to the story about some demon I have absolutely no interest in for who knows how long, it was too painful for me so… I gave up on that reclusive dragon.』

Huh… So Velke is one of Maou’s devoted followers too…? Scary….

“S-So… That new library you mentioned… Starting to have more books written by demons or to be precise… Started to have more books about the history of demons?”

『Yes. Though their numbers are small, they’re steadily increasing….Since a lot of demons have long lifespans, history that had happened over 100 or 200 years ago felt just like yesterday for them. Rather than writing it all down in a book, it was faster to just tell their descendant directly about all of that. But… In this world, everything is changing rapidly in such a short period of time…. I recently learned that the books that were written by the wise man were only written several decades ago but… A few decades were more than enough for this world to completely change. The books we have now will become the basic knowledge for the next book and then we will also pass on the new information in books. When I was living in the other world, I thought writing books was only for the sake of pleasing Maou-sama but it turned out a book could also be used to pass on the knowledge of the current demon to the future demon… I’ve only just realized it now.』

“I see….”

『I’ve learned so much about this world. From their history, philosophy, literature and people… I’ve learned about the war and conflicts of this world too… Which brought me to another question…. 』

Velke stared at me with a strong gaze. 

『I… When I first came to this world… I thought this world didn’t have any war. I thought this world was the so-called utopia. A world without war where people deliberately choose to coexist together…  However even after I unravel the history from thousand years ago to modern time history….Conflict never disappeared from this world. No matter where you are…  Even now… Even though there’s only human left in this world, conflict and war still exist everywhere. Then… Since the soul of that person hailed from this world, why did he refuse to fight? Why did he continued to wish for everyone to coexist? Why did he embrace and share his love to not only to demon but to human too?』

A strong and deep emotion was hidden beneath Velke’s eyes. It left me at a loss for words for a moment.