This language is a prayer directed at some being," the girl, interrupted by Klein's astonishment, nodded calmly without showing much emotion. "I know."
You know and you still dare to say it aloud?
Out of goodwill, Klein suppressed the almost-spoken retort and instead explained to the witch from another world—she might be powerful enough, but ultimately her understanding of the mystical common sense of the world before her was limited. She didn't know that reciting the name of an unknown being in Hermes might lead to unexpected consequences.
And what those consequences would be truly entirely a matter of luck: if she was lucky, perhaps many people were praying to Him, and Alice's voice would be ignored; or perhaps He was a benevolent being and would respond kindly to the request directed at Him. But if she was unlucky, and the call reached the ears of some chaotic and evil being, that would be disastrous…
Judging from the opening phrase "ruler of the end and nothingness," the complete name should also evoke feelings of destruction and annihilation, and it didn't seem to be directed at any gentle and friendly being.
Of course, if it were "a fool who doesn't belong to this era," Klein could absolutely guarantee the safety of invoking the name.
Yes, he'd vouch for it with his own integrity!
"Hmm, I know… similar knowledge is considered common sense in our summoning school," Alice pointed out from her perspective. "So as long as you don't recite the entire name, that high-ranking being won't hear it, right?"
"That should be it…" Klein nodded hesitantly, thinking it was probably similar to dialing a number halfway through without entering the full number; theoretically, it wouldn't point to the being corresponding to that name.
"So, you just silently recite the full name in your mind? Normally, you wouldn't be able to hear it, would you?" She winked mischievously and smiled. "Klein, you understand this language called Hermes, so you should be able to think of the same thing as me."
Silently recite in his mind… she meant to tell him the prayer containing the name through telepathy?
Klein was taken aback for a moment, then quickly realized what she meant. He quickly drafted the prayer, silently reciting the name of "The Fool" several times in his mind. Confirming that no whispers were heard in his ears and that four black dots forming a square hadn't appeared on the back of his hand, he relaxed, letting his curiosity run wild, and nodded excitedly in affirmation:
"I think just reciting it silently in my mind should be fine."
Come to think of it, Alice hadn't mentioned the return of those two magical items, including those potions, since she returned… Could this mean she had originally planned to give them to him?
This… this couldn't be… He couldn't accept such a gift…
Just as Klein's thoughts were wandering, Alice suddenly stopped smiling, as if recalling something extremely important.
"Hmm—wait a minute, I've changed my mind. I received this prayer in a dream last night, and the dream creator recited it twice. This morning I received an unsigned black letter… These might not be unrelated events. Perhaps the prayer in the dream was indeed answered, so reciting it silently could also be heard."
"In a dream? You can enter other people's dreams?" Klein extracted this information from her words and was surprised.
Similar to Captain Dunn's abilities as a "Nightmare"? To be able to do this using magic, what is this witch incapable of?
No, strictly speaking, the magic she possesses far exceeds the capabilities of the witch pathway…
at least from what he knows: indiscriminate charm, illusions, influencing the mind and cognition, rapid teleportation based on mirrors, creation of "substitute" fragments, and now, dream entry.
Hmm,
charm and mirror magic can still be considered witch-specific abilities; dream entry is the signature of the "Nightmare" pathway of the Sleepless Ones; illusions and mind magic… I wonder if there are pathways related to the mind. Judging from the potion names alone, the subsequent Sequence 8 "Mind Reader" and Sequence 7 "Psychoanalyst" of "The Audience" might be related to this field, but at lower sequences, they didn't seem to be able to achieve the level she's currently displaying. To summarize, her abilities can actually be considered a combination of three different extraordinary pathways?
Considering her language proficiency, which he so envies, perhaps there's more to it than that.
Perhaps the admiration in his eyes was too obvious, for Alice responded with a light and confident smile.
"A few techniques taught by the Nightmare, hardly magic, just a little trick."
Nightmare… a true nightmare, a demon belonging to a supernatural species? She'd dealt with such creatures before…
In her world, communicating with supernatural beings wasn't uncommon, but clearly, the two worlds couldn't be conflated.
"Anyway, knowing the language is called Hermes is enough. I'll find some materials later, study it a bit, and translate the prayers directly into the continent's common language… um, no, Rune language, that should be fine."
Although Klein was quite curious about the complete name of the unknown being, since Alice had said so, he respected her choice, nodding and saying nothing more.
Just before he was about to leave the room, he suddenly remembered something and turned to look at the girl behind him.
"If you're planning to learn Hermes, would you like to see my old textbooks and study notes? I may not have mentioned it, but my major in university was history, and I actually studied Hermes quite diligently on my own to study historical documents…" Although, to be precise, it was the original owner who was very diligent.
With readily available materials, saving her the trouble of collecting them, Alice readily agreed, following Klein as he turned to the desk. She watched him pull out two or three thick notebooks from the bottom right drawer. Judging from the yellowing of the pages and the creases, they were clearly written over two or three years ago.These are the notes I took back then. As for textbooks, you should be able to choose from the ones on the second shelf…" Klein said, pointing to the Hermes textbooks, ranging from beginner to advanced levels.
Alice blinked, then nodded and smiled. "Okay, I understand, thank you."
"...You're welcome." For some reason, he felt a strange, almost embarrassed joy at her frank thanks.
To shake off this feeling, Klein took out his pocket watch, glanced at the time, and immediately realized he should be leaving. After a brief farewell to the girl, he practically fled the house, hurrying towards the public carriage stop.
Meanwhile, Alice, still in her room, slowly flipped through a textbook comparing Hermes and Rune, a look of deep thought on her face. She shook her head, amused and somewhat helpless.
"Just a simple thank you and I'm like this, how can I possibly joke around anymore? Besides..."
Perhaps she should consider leaving.