The Deciphered Truth

“Just as I said. There is no lord here. Usually, if a land has no lord, there is at least an acting lord, or at the very least, a village chief or a representative. But there is nothing of the sort here.”

“As if the person who restored this place didn’t want such a presence,” I blurted out a guess.

“Maybe the person who made this place is the one who runs the village?”

However, I realized the lack of persuasion in my words the moment I spoke them.

“……If that were the case, the villagers would have noticed that person while they were atop the clock tower. They wouldn’t have been completely oblivious to their existence like they are now.”

Judas nodded.

“Is it possible that this town originally didn’t have a ruler?” I offered another hypothesis.

But Judas shook his head.

“There is no way a village could exist with no one to enforce the rules.”

“Unless they lived in a way we cannot imagine, it doesn’t look much different from the present. If a village this size, with such a large market, had no administrator, it would have become a lawless land in an instant.”

He spoke with rare certainty. Raphael added a few words to support his opinion. Hearing it, it sounded quite plausible.

“I believe there was a reason why a ruler was not restored. Either the person intentionally omitted them, or there was no administrator in this village at the point of time being restored, or they simply haven’t been restored yet.”

Judas spoke calmly. However, his voice trembled slightly when he said, ‘there was no administrator in this village at the point of time being restored.’ The people around him pretended not to notice his reaction. It was a form of consideration. Instead of checking our reactions, Judas finished his report.

“This is the extent of what we felt.”

“Mm-hmm, thanks.”

Behind him, Raphael opened his mouth as if to say something more. But he closed it instead. He seemed to decide it wasn’t important enough to interject now that Judas had finished.

“Then next are Saul and Levi.”

“Most of it overlaps with what was said, but would you like to hear it anyway?”

“I don’t need the overlapping parts. Only the parts that are different.”

Saul and Levi exchanged glances. It was Saul who spoke.

“At the final moment, there was a person who said, –It’s happening like this again–.”

“Wow.”

I let out a genuine exclamation.

“This is just a guess, but it seems a few people here realize that something is wrong with this place.”

“……That sounds like hell.”

“One could see it from that perspective.”

“Got it for now.”

A sigh escaped me naturally. I fell into thought, rubbing my chin. Unless I heard it directly from the person who created this place, everything would be speculation, but I could roughly guess the setting behind this village.

“The Prince and I were talking about how this town is a bit too ideal. It was suspicious how it’s so peaceful, has no slums, and is overflowing with food from both the water and the land. No matter how you look at it, this place doesn’t look like a capital or a major city.”

“True.”

“So I thought it was strange. If someone went through the trouble of summoning a Demon King to restore a village, wouldn’t they try to make it as close to the ‘original’ as possible?”

“And hearing Andrealphus’s words, I suggested, –Perhaps the one who restored this place is someone who has lost most of their memories of it–.”

Wait, come to think of it, didn’t Azrael say ‘memories of their hometown’ when he said that? I glanced at Azrael. Feeling my gaze, he blinked and tilted his head as if wondering if he had said something wrong. Well, whatever. If it’s a place someone wants to restore this badly, they might subconsciously think of it as their hometown. Especially with someone like Judas around. Thinking that, I simply shook my head at him.

“That is a plausible story.”

“Right? So, my theory is that the person who restored this village spent a long time preparing with an obsession to bring it back, but they failed. Maybe the Demon King wasn’t as capable as they thought, or more likely, they lacked sufficient mana and couldn’t remember it properly. So……. Ah, wait. The decoding is done.”

I cut my words short there. A notification window appeared, announcing the completion of the decoding magic.

[Decoding magic is complete. Would you like to check the decoded contents? Confirm / Postpone]

“Sorry, but can I check the magic circles first?”

The people who were focused on the conversation looked annoyed. But I brazenly opened the door to the clock tower and stepped inside.

The moment I pressed the button to confirm the decoded magic circles, they all began to glow brilliantly. Soon, they were decomposed into individual strokes and rearranged based on some set of rules. Hundreds of magic circles mixed chaotically as if stirred by a giant’s hand, then repeatedly aligned themselves according to a logic I couldn’t grasp. It felt like catching a glimpse of the history of the universe.

I had used decoding magic more times than I could count, but seeing it on such a grand scale was a fresh experience. It was a moment that made me feel sorry for having cursed at it in the past, calling it a waste of time with useless effects. It was a spell created with an incredible amount of physics calculations.

“……Incredible.”

Someone marveled. I felt a bit embarrassed at the sound. To think they were so impressed by a very simple skill that can be learned from level 15. I’d often seen NPCs reacting dramatically to a player’s magic, but this was like the reaction to seeing a Great Mage’s ultimate secret technique. Hearing NPCs heap praise on a player is always a bit…… you know. Some people love it, but for me, it’s a bit much. Yeah. I mean, the praise you get when you actually think you did something cool is different from the praise you get for just blowing your nose.

After an ambiguous amount of time—neither long nor short—the effects vanished along with a substantial amount of experience points. In their place, only three or four magic circles remained. Among them, red circles visible only to me appeared on the parts that needed to be attacked to break the magic. The joints connecting the spells were clearly marked for easy viewing.

I was trying to focus on the magic circles when John poked me in the side and asked.

“…Didn’t you say it was decoding magic?”

“It is decoding magic.”

“Then what was decoded?”

“It’s right there.”

I pointed at the magic circles. John looked at them, then looked at me as if I were a strange creature.

“Wasn’t it supposed to come out as a written document?”

“This is easier to see, so why bother?”

He looked at me like I was a monster again. Okay, I take back what I said about the praise being burdensome. This ‘monster’ look is worse. Should I explain more? Or not? There wouldn’t be much of a penalty for ignoring him, but I decided to be generous and explain. Not that I think Azrael is curious or anything.

“Think about it. Magic circles are written in a circle. If you write this as a document, what happens? It starts with the basic circle constant 3.14159265358…… and if all the incantations and character coordinates are written in text on a flat surface…….”

“Ugh.”

“Exactly. So this visual display is much easier. Those who use magic write it using their own rules so others can’t easily dispel it, but when you use decoding magic, it appears translated into the common magic script used by all mages.”

It feels like coding, but it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t know that word. John, looking impressed, followed up.

“Do mages know all those magic characters?”

“Yep.”

There are people who live without memorizing them, but for someone like me whose life is the game, you naturally memorize them while playing. Like a fan who masters a fictional language from a novel. That’s how you realize you’ve become a crazed gamer. Sometimes a guide window pops up, but often it doesn’t, so it’s practically essential for hardcore players.

“How do you understand that just by looking at it?”

“Want me to give you a lecture on magic script?”

At my question, John shook his head rapidly. I shrugged and looked back at the magic circles. Just as I was about to read them, info windows popped up.

[Magic Circle of Resurrection (Area) Race Restriction: Demon ※ Note: This magic circle is incomplete. Incomplete magic cannot be learned.]

[Magic Circle of Phantom Illusions (Area) Race Restriction: Demon]

[Magic Circle of Mana Support (Limited) Race Restriction: Demon]

[Magic Circle of Stealth (Limited) Race Restriction: Demon]

Tsk. I clicked my tongue. I thought I might get some free skills, but they all had racial restrictions. I guess I have to be satisfied with the free experience. It was quite a lot, but human greed knows no bounds, and seeing magic I hadn’t acquired yet made me feel regretful. Since they were exclusive to non-playable races, I guess they were story-only spells……. What a waste…….

“Anyway, it’s as I thought.”

“……?”

“First off, there’s no doubt this place was made by the Demon King’s summoner. And I’ll continue what I was saying earlier. So…….”

I spoke while waving my wand like a conductor’s baton.