Zero no Tsukaima:Volume11 Chapter6

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Chapter Six: Private Lesson

Now, in the middle of the huge uproar, Saito managed to slip away and found himself in front of a library. Library was located in a tower. At the entrance, the librarian who wore glasses sat, and checking the students and teacher who went in and out. Books were severely-guarded in here, because those books had the components of the magic potions were written in them, and could not be handled out to a simple commoner.

A young librarian girl glimpsed at Saito and confirmed his mantle mantle, then returned her eyes back to reading a book.

Uum, the knighthood is useful after all – thinking so, Saito entered the library.

“Wow. It’s amazing.”

The library bookcases size was overwhelming.

Some were as much thirty mails in height. It was an incredible height. Apparently, the library occupied the bigger part of this tower. Anyway, facing such huge amount of books, Saito hesitated.

It was somewhere around 8 PM. Whole eternity – thinking so, Saito took one book in his hands. The characters of Halkeginia’s alphabet were written there.

Though he stared at them for a while, he was not able to understand any of them.

“Dang, pretty tough…”

Saito came to look at the books in order to memorize what characters mean. There is a new enemy - the king of the large country. It is absurd to only swing a sword. Being a knight one cannot just rely on talking but need to write as well - he thought.

“I wonder if they have a Japanese dictionary.”

Of course, there was no such thing.

But how can he talk?

When he asked Derflinger some time ago he answered ‘Though I do not understand it well, I guess it’s something you gain when you pass the gate to this world.’

Well, seems like magic anyhow. And thanks to this magic everyone can communicate by speech.

Flying and jumping, putting out the fire, healing the injuries, making strong love potions – considering all that, Saito was not surprised by such magic.

Possibly, it may be related to Louise's ‘Void’.

Being in charge of Louise, he did not understood what the magic exactly was, but it was not hard to assume that there was some kind of translating magic as well.

However, I want learn the characters in any case - Saito thought.

Wondering what to do, he turned his head, and at a distant table saw a familiar face.

“Tabitha.”

It was the girls with the short blue hair. After the rescuing they hardly talked. She had that atmosphere of not being an easy to talk to, then, going to Louise's family thus it was too hectic.

However, why after leaving her mother in Germania, she returned back to the Academy of Magic again? - Saito approached Tabitha and said.

“Yo.”

He thought he will be disregarded as usual, but this time it was different. Tabitha shut the book she was reading and looked up at Saito.

“Yes?”

Tabitha answered looking at Saito with round, puppy-like eyes. Saito was somewhat at a loss by such surprising attitude.

“No, that… it’s not like it’s my business, but are you alright?..”

“I’m alright.”

“I-I see…Aah, I have something to say. Seems like Guiche, well, blurted out who you really are. You are Gallian princess…r-right? That was stupid. “

Tabitha shook her head.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s the truth anyway.”

“I-I see. But didn’t you want to hide that? You were using a false name…”

“It does not matter now. I do not mind.”

Tabitha said matter off factly.

“Is your mother alright?”

To this question, Tabitha hesitated a little bit.

“Her mind is at peace in Germania.”

Weather it meant what it meant, he hesitated to ask any further. Surely, Tabitha’s thoughts are Tabitha’s after all.

Besides that she was a reticent girl to start with, Saito thought the flood of questions would be pitiable. Even now it may still be impossible to answer.

“I see, understood. Sorry for disturbing your reading.”

He turned to leave while laughing.

“Do you read as well?”

She asked.

Because it was the first time that Tabitha asked about something, Saito was confused.

“Eh?”

He instinctively asked back.

“Did you also came to read?”

“Aah, it’s different, different. Far from reading, it would be difficult as I am not even able to read letters of this world…”

“This world?”

When being asked back, Saito panicked.

Tabitha does not know he is not a human from this world. It is Henrietta, Louise, Siesta, Cattleya, Tiffania, Osman and Colbert… who know. That’s pretty much it.

Even the colleagues from The Undine Knight Corps do not know.

“Hey, because I am a former commoner, I cannot read the characters. However, because it became a knight, I thought that I could learn a little. However… it is impossible after all. It’s just gobbledygook.”

Then, Tabitha abruptly stood up and left the book she was holding.

“Ah, oi.”

Though he called her to stop, Tabitha flew up to the high to the bookshelf using the spell. Not being able to fly and her being about twenty mails off the ground Saito could not stop her.

And just when he started to think that they may disturb the readers and that he should get out of the library, Tabitha suddenly landed right in front of him.

“Uwaa!”

Tabitha abruptly thrust out the book to the surprised Saito.

“… Eh?”

“If it’s this book - it should be easy.”

Apparently, this book was for learning the letters – just the book he was searching for. However, the really surprising thing was the usually indifferent to others Tabitha. He took it while thinking what on earth was the matter with Tabitha, when Tabitha said surprising words.

“I’ll teach the characters.”

“Yes?”

“If you just stare at the book you won’t learn anything.”

“No, well, that is right, however… is it alright? It would be pretty difficult I think. I am not the brightest student.

“I don't care.”

Then Tabitha took Saito's hand and walked him down to sit at the table.

The characters of Halkeginia are a little bit different when looking at the alphabet. Slowly Tabitha taught him the pronunciation of the characters.

“A, B, C.”

Though he heard the sounds somewhere, it was not possible to recall them well. Maybe it was because he only heard them.

Tabitha continued to point at each one of the characters, patiently teaching him the meaning.

But somehow mysteriously the words started to turn into… ‘Prologue’ and ‘August’ and ‘I’.

Once he heard them they were converted to Japanese again.

Probably, Tabitha pronounced them in Halkeginian. However, when they reached his ears, they turned back to Japanese.

But, as Tabitha continued to teach the meaning of the words little by little, sentences that he have seen only as a random mess of characters up till now, slowly gained an understandable meaning just from his watching alone. As if they were translated inside his head.

Once he took a grip it started to run more smoothly.

And after one hour, he could already read basic sentences. So Saito using easy book as textbook was able to read out.

“What does it mean?”

Not changing her usual tone, Tabitha asked.

“Eh?”

Tabitha pointed at one sentence.

“Here it’s written ‘Milk on the plate has been spilt.’ However, you read it as ‘An irreparable event happened’.”

“No, that’s just the way I read. Sorry, is it a bad thing?”

Tabitha shook her head.

“No. You are not wrong. Sentences like ‘Milk on the plate has been spilt’ are idiomatic expressions. Their meaning is certainly an ‘irreparable event happened’.”

Tabitha continued to speak.

“It is subtly different the way you read written sentences. But it is not wrong. It is often summarized instead, to give an expression adequate to the context. Entire sentences can be grasped by just a few words. Indeed, it is like dog or cat familiar being able to speak human language. However the summary does not explain the reason. In such cases you cannot read like you did just now.”

Tabitha looked at Saito with clear blue eyes.

In these cold-looking eyes, Saito felt a faint glimmer of curiosity. Tabitha wanted to learn the truth. On who am I…

“… That’s how it is. No, I mean, what I am doing is not exactly ‘reading’. The reason why I learn Tabitha’s thought words… is because I understand the ‘meaning’ of the written thing directly.”

“Why?”

“I think it’s because I am not a human from this world. Maybe it’s because my words are different from Tabitha’s and others. In other words, a word is already directly translated in my head… maybe that’s why there are those subtle changes? Aah, that’s how it is!”

Unnoticed to Saito he started to shout.

“For the book – it is translated in my head at once, just like the words of this world are translated after they leave the mouth.”

Just like when sentences written in Japanese are translated to English. And when that English sentence is translated back to Japanese again, there are some subtle changes from the first sentence. I that’s what happens when I read a book, Saito thought.

Indeed, it must be so, yes, he realized, and then was asked by Tabitha.

“This world?”

“Damn!”