abcnovels
Chapter 57: [The Voynich Manuscript]
Chapter 57: [The Voynich Manuscript]
Chapter 57: [The Voynich Manuscript]
>Iroha-chan, you can read ancient languages?
>You can even decode codes?
>Iroha-chan can do it
"Of course. I can't! What do you think I am? You know it's impossible! Who do you think I am!? Well, for example … here it is. This is called the Rosetta Stone."
It's a huge stone monument with ancient Egyptian laws written on it.
It's divided into three tiers, with the same content written in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek letters, in order from top to bottom.
"It's Greek, and I'm learning Greek, but I don't think I can read it yet, because it's ‘ancient' Greek."
>Didn't you just say "yet"?
>I think it's Greek Koinei, right?
>The same Greek word
"It is an ancestor of Greek and has many etymological roots. But people can understand Japanese, but it's hard to read ancient Japanese without studying it, right?"
Even Japanese is almost unintelligible before the Warring States period.
If I get reincarnated in the past instead of the present, I would have had to start by learning the Japanese of that era.
Even the Warring States period was only 500 years ago.
And the Rosetta Stone created 2,000 years ago.
That's four times as long as the Warring States period.
You can see how far away the language is.
"So it's impossible to decipher it. But there are so many interesting exhibits. Chinese gold artifacts, a clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia! A question for everyone. What does it say?"
>I know this one www
>What is it, another law?
>Love letters?
"Wroong. The correct answer is, "Bastard! I want my money back!", That was it. The copper ingots they bought were inferior. I guess what humans have been doing hasn't changed much since 4000 years ago."
>LOL
>Humans are stupid
>Linguistics is interesting www
"Yes! Linguistics is interesting! I have only recently discovered how interesting it is."
I learned the language to watch VTubers from abroad.
And I was learning languages for a "secondary purpose".
But recently, I've been finding the language itself a bit more interesting.
Well, with some lip service to my sponsors.
"When you know the language, you know the history. On the other hand, some patterns are interesting precisely because you don't understand them. For example, the Voynich Manuscript."
I display a page from the Voynich Manuscript.
There is an illustration of a woman soaking in a hot spring and the words.
>I heard it was just a prank
>Wasn't it in old Turkish?
>Can you read all the pages on the Internet?
"Yes, yes. The real one donated to the library at Yale University, and they're making the full text available online. As for the language. It's still undeciphered! It's a mixture of the two, but it's in Latin."
The book is 240 pages, albeit with some missing parts.
The text is still not deciphered.
Even the hieroglyphs, which have now been deciphered, were like that in the past.
Despite finding a large number of them, they couldn't decipher them until they found a correspondence table called the Rosetta Stone.
The "key" to decipherment is the text rule, which is so important.
I thought to myself. Could this be my cheat-like translation ability itself?
By that logic, could it be…?
I scrolled through all the pages of the Voynich Manuscript again.
"…. Ah."
Instantly, I felt my brain begin to boil.
Oh no, no, no, no, no! I hurriedly closed my eyes and minimized the image with a shortcut key.
"Ugh ……………!"
But it was too late. My brain had begun to process the image at high speed, ignoring my will.
Damn, my head is burning hot.
Why don't humans have cooling fans!
We are too imperfect as living organisms! No, I'm just irregular.
>What's wrong, Iroha-chan?
>Did something happen?
>Are you sick?
"I'm fine. It's my first time streaming a project, so I'm just nervous and thirsty. I'll get something to drink."
>Got it
>Do it
>500 Yen. Now is the time to throw it
I leave my seat, feeling dizzy.
I manage to make it to the kitchen and get a cold shower on my head.
"Oh no, maybe."
Then I take out all the cold packs I have from the freezer and go back to my room.
I press it against my head and wrap it in a towel.
This should buy me some time.
"But …… What do I do with this?"
I've read something I shouldn't have.
At the same time, I have a pretty good idea of what this manuscript is all about.
Should I publish it?
……"Something like this"?
Who else would believe it but me?
Or is it just fate that I got to read it?