“Now that we're done… Let's begin with our explanation again." (Rose)
[🜄 Tinkla Phump p’er]
With the translation skill on, Merlis stare intensely at the written sentences again, as the skill slowly unraveled the meaning to her…
...Then, she looks at it a bit incredulously.
Meanwhile, Marigold also helped write out the sentences above phonetically, allowing the rest of the class to understand it along with her.
"This line has three parts: Water, Fall Into, and Earth; and just in how the sentences are split into, it’s very easy to surmise which word and symbol mean which. However, as I said before, that isn't what all of it means, and that the way the word is used can only be right in the most technical of sense." (Rose)
“In short, and to be blunt, due to the deeper meaning behind each of them, there is a massive problem when combining them together, which overall leads to a massive decrease in efficiency and effectiveness.”
“To explain further, let's take a look at this symbol first."
Tapping her black (sword) teaching stick onto the whiteboard, first, Rose pointed the class's attention at the 🜄 symbol. With how supremely fitting her black-frame glasses adorned her face, some students below reflexively tried to take out their pen and paper, as if they were in cram school.
“This symbol, in the player's world, is the alchemical symbol for Water, signified by the direction in which water follows its natural law, in direct opposite to the Δ symbol for Fire. In this world, however, it's the god symbol for water, for when you want to denote the water element in a holistic and sacred way.”
“God symbol...I knew it, there is no way that wet bitch ever think of anything original.” Merlis’s unmitigated insult spewed out, toward another unknown goddess. “The only thing “fresh” and "unique" ever coming out of her, is her latest boy toy she mind-warp each and every single miserable day of her until that old crone drops the fuck back to earth and dyes the ground in red...Though I swear not even her blood is as muddled as what coming out of her below, every toilet break…"
"Next, it's these words." Ignoring the endless rant, Rose next points to the last word within the above sentences. "Phump p’er, or Phumper...Or “One That Phump When Stepped”. An onomatopoeia spoken by the ancient giant race, it’s their way to speak of the Ground, in the form of an entity that creates a phumping sound each time they get stepped on. For them, Earth is the grandest giant of all, tolling away his back to carry all life, big or small.``
“Interesting, interesting...Said, how the hell did you know all this?" (Merlis)
"Research, inference, listening to the voices of the words and the elements… This is why I need an objective eye to verify what I said, as it can seem to come out of nowhere." (Rose)
“Yeah, and I can confirm it as all true, since the translation skill explains the exact same thing as what you said… Said, are you sure there isn’t any extreme bias going on here?" (Merlis)
"? If that were the case, we wouldn't have invited their supervision in the first place. Haven't we proved their impartiality with the various tests we have done earlier?" (Rose)
"You did prove it, of course...Speaking of, is it really okay to write all that stuff on yourself, even if it’s for validation? The dummy on my screen almost sobbed trying to translate all that…" (Merlis)
"? Of course it's okay, Merli-sis? After all, since it isn't true, it's of no problem!" (Marigold)
"Again, it's not about whether it’s true or not…” (Merlis)
After they confirm the skill, they proceed to test out many more languages and sentences, to probe the extent of the skill, as well as check the veracity of the skill itself, confirming that it's unbiased in its view.
To do so, Marigold then proceeds to write out some...Well, how do you say it…
It was like watching a trainwreck crashing into a river of poo, in the form of the hottest cringe track known to man.
Seriously, the endless variety of ways Marigold can describe how a key can enter a lock would give even the devil a pause, and the most hardened god a gasp, so it was no wonder how painful it was for the dummy in charge to write out all of what is essentially unmitigated literary massacre, in full gory details…
Apparently, Marigold learned all of these words from the Internet, which sure gives the peanut galleries below another 13 reasons why it should have been burned to the ground.
(Moreover, it was an absolute masterpiece, as absolutely cursed as it was… Now I somehow worry about their teaching policy...) (Merlis)
“What happened earlier isn’t part of our education, and we will have a great talking-to after this, I assure you.” Rose glanced at Marigold stoically, who can do nothing but awkwardly scratch her head. “Now, finally, is the middle word. Though the word itself could be taken to mean “Fall Into", it's actually the title of a folk tale about how rain is made, which explains why it can connect the two previous words seamlessly.”
“As for what the tale is...perhaps an illustration is needed here. Marigold, would you please?"
"Aye Aye, Big Sis!"
Along with a rapid series of absolutely stunning children's illustrations, the folk tale from ancient times is once again told…
----------------------------------------
Once upon a time, there was a giant fairy named Tinkla.
They live upon the cloud, floating from sea to mountain, from mountain to plain, and then from plain to sea again, floating freely and carefreely, with the entire sky as their house.
They like drinking water, and a lot of it as well. They like drinking salty water, so they always come to the sea.
They like it so much, that they drink a whooole lot of it. They drank so much, that the clouds bloated to cover them.
However, sometimes they drink so much, that they can’t hold it all within. Sometimes, they have to relieve themselves a little.
So, they come to the mountain, and do a little Tinkla dance, leaking all of it back down. So much that it soaks, so much that it fills.
So much, that their clear tinkle filled rivers, and spilled lakes. So much, that the canyon flows and the canal rises.
And, from all that is flow and all that is clear. All that is pure and all that is clean.
The world prosper and grow, for another day more. Thanks to the dance, of the Tinkla clan.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
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“Wait, that means the meaning would be…" (Headmaster)
"Exactly. For the literal translation, it would mean “God Water gets tinkled on the Phumper”... And yes, that does sound like a recreational bedroom act.” (Rose)
“Kyu (...Bossess, does that last comment need to be said? I mean, our giggling mess over here already conjures up a lot of imagination.)” (Dragon)
With the Headmaster, the Elite Four, and the peanut gallery all piecing together the full meaning, with both surprised and contemplating looks…
The dummy wizard, who has realized the meaning all this time, finally burst out into uncontrollable laughter, and rolled around unable to breathe.
With nerves of steel, Rose proceeds along unfazed, ignoring the commotion, and the sloven strawy pile below her feet.
"As you can see, there is clearly a problem, on not just one, but multiple."
"From wrong composition, using mismatched language systems, disjointed connection, wrong usage of meaning...It's honestly a miracle that this line even works as a magic command, not to mention working seamlessly with others of its kind."
“As a whole, the entire “Grand Unified Form” magic system is filled to the brim with sentences similar to this.”
Immediately, Rose projected the Grand Unified Form system in the palm of her hand, and zoomed it out for all to see. Despite seemingly looking the same though, the globe feels a bit shinier and squeaky-clean for some reason.
'Ah, of course she can do that.’ Everyone thinks this exact thought in mind, as they look at her picking out each sentence and symbol from the globe, and plastering them onto the whiteboard.
"For example, this one, supposed to mean "All Joined Together", is a lyric made by an ancient bard for a holy hymn, in exchange for the hand of a holy maiden." (Rose)
"And this one is a battle shorthand a certain mage circle uses to denote the coordinate of which their Fireball spell is thrown at, which somehow turns into the entire basis of coordination between different parts of the system…" (Marigold)
"Kyu (And this one, acting as the starting point of dragon...Isn’t it just a cringy signature made by a lovestruck idiot newt for his verrry unsuccessful love letters for all the princesses of the land… Well, that idiot managed to strike up big enough in the end though.)" (Dragon)
These are just a few examples they have managed to dig up, and they then proceed to dig up countless more.
Magical instruction for growing elvish vine, the alphabet song of the Felicious Flyer, translation of a love letter made by a certain idiot, per the request of the Orc Princess…
With every piece of poem and song and fervent perverted newt love picked out from bit and pieces, the perfect globe look less like a masterpiece, and more like the grand fresco painting presenting every single bit and piece from everything ever,
Eventually, someone is bound to stop this blatant public humiliation from giving them second-hand embarrassment, no matter how much they slovenly laughed.
“Okayokayokay, I get it! So, long story short, this is a giant spaghetti mess cobbled up and stuck together through duct tape and prayer, and it should not even work at all, right? Geez, I get the point, so spare me the embarrassment…” (Merlis)
“? No? It's the opposite actually. Despite all this, it works flawlessly.” Rose interjected.
“…? Are you pulling my shit?" (Merlis)
"No, I'm not. Despite each part being as mismatched as it was, each of their flaws and shortcomings actually complements each other seamlessly. To give an analogy, it's like countless negatives ended up negating each other into a positive." (Rose)
"Kyu (Or more like, each of the faulty programming practices end up tripping over each other enough that literally none of them can do any sort of damage. It’s like looking at countless pieces of debris thrown together into a flawless Holy Grail somehow, through sheer self-assembly via the law of random motion.)” (Dragon)
“Yeah, it’s practically a miracle to even see it exist and form, not to mention even working as perfectly as it could.” (Marigold)
“...But still, it looks wrong, right?" (Merlis)
“...Mm, unfortunately." (Marigold)
Hearing that, Merlis can only sigh deeply. To be fair, what else can she do against this disappointment, aside from just curling up and hugging your knee.
Tempted to do that, she instead just signed deeper, letting out her unending frustration so visible, one can almost see the very manifestation of her soul leaking away.
"...URGHHH, what’s the point of it working, if it’s basically just pure luck? If this sort of hodgepodge is the result, there is literally no way you can learn and study on it, let alone improve and perfecting it. Might as well just crash it down and build it from the ground up again, and let centuries of effort go to waste...” (Merlis)
"Cheer up, sis…At least you have, like, ten more thesis foundations presenting right before your eyes right? Wouldn’t that at least make up for it?” Marigold said apologetically
"Marigold, appreciate your effort, but Not, Helping. Reminder who is the one that completely breaks the most advanced system of Chanted Magic, again? ” Merlis soulfully glare her back “I really, really, reallly don’t need you three's pity consolation right now, so just leave me wallowing in grief for a while…"
"Um, I wouldn't say it's entirely broken, you know. There is a good overarching reason why the Grand Unified Form works the way it is...or perhaps more accurately, why the elements behind the system want them to work." (Marigold)
"...Wait, what? Elaborate." (Merlis)
"Sure! There is one more thing I want to say, as well." (Marigold)
All too eager to talk, she walks to the whiteboard with glee, under the extremely scrutinizing gaze of Merlis, and the curious eyes of everyone else below. It was astonishment after astonishment, as always, so they all looked forward to what she had to say, to point to the truth of the universe or whatever.
Honestly, some even suspect that they're doing it on purpose as a ploy to make themselves look OP, but after what they have done so far, it would have been way beneath their notice.
Plus, just look at how bright and cheery her eyes are. Surely, she's just as eager to show everyone what she knows as much as they are.
“Earlier, Miss Merlis talked about how the elements like to do four things in total, through the medium of mana: They like to strengthen, they like to transform, they like to move up and about...and finally, that they like to replicate.”
“Well, I have something to talk about that last point. Not that it is wrong, per se, but that it isn’t entirely accurate, in my point of view at least.”
“...Well, perhaps one day it would become true, since these tiniest of pins like to listen."
Popping out each magic symbol and sentence out of the board, Marigold gives them vibrant colors, and a hop with a skip.
Each letter spins and dances freely in the air, each symbol vibrates and sings with whistle and wave, having a great little symphony in the sky...
"Yes, they very much like to listen."
"They like to input, they like to output. They like to receive, they like to give out. They like to listen, and they like to reply."
"For, since long ages past, they like to communicate. They like to be heard, and to be talked to."
Sometimes, they touch each other, lightly colliding, brisking just past.
Each time they touched, they changed shape. Each time they collided, their movement shifted. And for each time they pass by in perfect unison, they sing and dance in perfect harmony.
They talk to each other. Sharing tales after tales
They laugh, with each other. Happy for a story retold.
They harmonize into a chorus, as they form into a line into a curve into a sphere once more.
Of words into sentences.
Of tales into forms.
“And then, of story into miracles."
Sudden, and out of nowhere.
Yet, seamless, and like it is meant to be.
The word she utters, links into the completed picture.
Of a painting made out of countless disparate pieces, yet came together into a perfect whole.
It was messy, it doesn't look right, it can't quite make sense to the naked eye.
Yet, it conveys.
The form of a grand story, from time long past.
“For, there was one fact remaining, after such a long long time, enjoying listening and telling."
"The element comes to enjoy story and tales, and as such, allow them to become magic itself.”