*Beep! Beep!*

Inside the small one-man apartment, the alarm clock Nathan had set the previous day went off. Rising groggily from bed, his figure made it to the bathroom. A fresh splash of cold water always worked to drive the sleepiness away and since Nathan was no longer troubled by nightmares, or at least nightmares of a certain kind… The alarm clock’s services were once more heavily needed.

A few minutes later, Nathan walked out of the bathroom, fully awake. Checking his phone screen, it was still a little after seven in the morning. Monday mornings always called for a fresh cup of coffee to start the week and, since he practically raided the mini-market yesterday, Nathan’s instant coffee supply was already sorted for the month.

‘Am I forgetting something?’ He couldn’t help wondering as the cheap coffee’s aroma assaulted his nostrils, driving away any sleepiness he had left remaining in him.

“THE BLOODY IDEOGRAMS!” With eyes wide open, Nathan almost dropped the cup of coffee as he jumped in realization. Ignoring the usual cussing coming from the man next door, Nathan picked an empty piece of paper and got to writing.

Half an hour later, two pages full of scribbles and symbols lay before him. The one on the right was in text format, he basically just copied everything he remembered from the first page of the book. Nathan wasn’t going to lie, the text looked incredibly strange. It was a combination of letters and symbols interweaving in strange ways. Where he thought a sentence was starting to form, a symbol would just randomly pop up, taking enough space to cover two or three lines.

Nathan was really confused. Although he wasn’t an ancient languages expert, he was still a student in the literature department. History classes were part of the curriculum for the first years, meaning Nathan had already gone through a fair share of classes pertaining to ancient civilizations. Looking at the strange combination of letters and symbols, Nathan knew this wasn’t normal.

Throughout history, many civilizations had used hieroglyphs as their way of relaying information, but none of them combined the usage of symbols and letters together. At least, none that Nathan could think of. Lectures on ancient languages were a more specific subject and, if Nathan remembered correctly, it was taught under the University’s history department.

Wondering whether Ayla was trying to play a trick on him or not, Nathan picked up the second page. Besides memorizing the contents of the first page, Nathan had taken the time to memorize any unusual or repeating symbols inside the book. That way, he could use them as reference for future translations.

Satisfied with the results, Nathan stretched his aching shoulders before placing the notes inside his backpack. It was almost eight o’clock and he had to start making preparations if he wished to be in time for class.

‘The University’s library should have some records of ancient languages. I may find some clues there.’ With this thought in mind, Nathan decided to check with the library for anything of use, once he was done with morning classes, that is.

Pleased with his plans, Nathan made quick work of the hearty breakfast and left for the university.

‘Hmm?’ On his way out though, a piece of paper attracted his attention. ‘I have mail? Well, that’s surprising.’ Retrieving the piece of paper from his mailbox, Nathan couldn’t help letting out a small chuckle as he gave it a quick look. ‘Advertisements, figures.’ Flipping the paper around, Nathan was ready to throw it away when a certain ad caught his attention.

“Postman Wanted!”

Read the conspicuous title in big red letters. Intrigued by the job ad, Nathan read the job's requirements just in case.

“One of our postmen left recently and we are searching for the right person to fill in the spot! Will you be that person? Requirements: Bicycling, knowledge of the surrounding area, flexible schedule.”

Reading the requirements section, Nathan was glad he’d learned how to ride a bicycle when he was little. As for the other conditions? He could just use his phone’s GPS when stuck. ‘Even without the job, I already have quite the flexible schedule’ he mused inwardly and continued reading.

“What to expect: Payment will be received daily, a good workout, bicycle provided.”

‘Are they trying to be funny?’ Nathan couldn’t help laughing at the ‘good workout’ as he read the last part of the ad.

“Interested parties may participate in the screening process at Hilden Avenue 21. The date is the 18th of November and the time is 17:30.

-G.D.Service.”

‘G.D.Service? Have I ever used their services before?’ Failing to associate the company’s name with anything else, Nathan decided to drop the matter and move along with his day. ‘Well, that’s good too, I guess? Fewer chances of this being a scam…’

Folding the piece of paper, he placed it in his pocket and hurriedly left the building. Next destination? Oakwell University.

~~~

Having just finished with the morning lecture, Nathan picked up the textbooks lying around on the desk and was prepared to make his way out. He only had a little less than three hours before the next lesson, and he would have to hurry if he wanted to make the best of it.

“Earth calling Nathan, Nathan do you copy?” Roger’s voice echoed from behind him. With an eyebrow raised, Nathan turned to regard his friend. “Loud and clear, what’s up Roger?” He replied and, for the first time in weeks, didn’t sound like a walking corpse. He still looked the part, but, given a few more nights of good sleep, Nathan would slowly return to his normal self.

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“Hmm, I feel like you are somehow different from before.” Taken aback by Nathan’s change in tone, Roger did an up-and-down inspection of his friend before adding, “Something good happened during the weekend?”

Thinking back on the weekend’s events, all that crossed Nathan’s mind was Ayla’s smiling figure. Shaking his head lightly, Nathan was unwilling to bring her up and answered. “No, but I was fired from work on Friday.” Roger’s eyes burst wide open as he hastily asked, “From the mini-market? That fatso must have gone crazy! Tell ya what? Let’s go there after we are done with classes and I’ll give him a piece of my mind!” Roger’s eyes had a fire burning inside them as he lushed out loud.

“Haha,” watching Roger pose like the bodybuilder he was not, Nathan laughed. “No need for that, I’ve already given him a show he will never forget.” With an evil smirk on his face, Nathan recounted yesterday’s events as the two slowly left the classroom. He didn’t hide anything from Roger, for he was one of the few people that Nathan could trust his back with.

“Ahaha! You did what?!” Roger was all over the place when he heard the story. “Man, you are one crazy bastard! Coffee at the cafeteria? My treat,” he asked in passing as the two walked by the university’s cafeteria. Looking at the building from a distance, Nathan shook his head. “Tempting, but I’ll have to refuse. I have some things to check at the library, I’ll see you at Ms. Lexie’s lecture.”

“Suit yourself,” responded Roger before walking off to the cafeteria. “Oh, and Nathan,” he paused in his tracks. “I’m glad you are feeling better, but, if you need any help, just give me a call.”

Feeling lucky to have such a good friend, Nathan smiled and nodded in return, as he headed for the library with a smile on his face. ‘I wish I could, Roger… But, until I have a clear grasp of what the hell is going on, I will be keeping everything to myself…’ Unwilling to involve his best friend in that otherworldly mess, Nathan decided to keep it a secret, at least for the time being.

~~~

‘Oof!’ Half an hour later, Nathan’s thin figure was shaking as he dropped the heavy stack of books on top of a wooden table. The university’s library was massive and, had it not been for the librarian there to point him in the right direction, Nathan would have wasted a lot more time searching for the right material.

‘Let’s see,’ before him lay seven books in total, all of them directly related to ancient civilizations. If he were to find something useful related to the strange symbols, then it had to be in one of them. Sitting down, Nathan cracked his knuckles and fished out the two pages he had scribbled on.

‘Let’s do this…’ Without saying much, Nathan opened one of the books titled ‘Three Thousand Years Worth Of History’ and got down to reading. He didn’t have a lot of spare time, so he skimmed over most of the book’s parts and focused on anything directly related to ancient languages.

Two hours later, Nathan’s free time was almost over and all he’d managed to achieve was put together some superficial knowledge through four of the books. ‘This doesn’t make sense,’ he thought as he compared the ideograms he had scribbled down in the morning with those of ancient civilizations.

‘Sumerian logograms look awfully similar to the symbol part of the text but, without a proper study of the Sumerian language, it will be too hard to use as a standard for translation.’ Looking at another piece of paper, Nathan pondered inwardly. ‘On the other hand, Egyptian hieroglyphs seem like a simplified copy of the language found inside Chayum.’

With a slight sigh, Nathan picked up the last piece of paper and looked at its contents. ‘Right here… This is the problem,’ staring at the archaic Chinese characters he had gathered, he couldn’t help feeling like he was on the brink of a massive discovery, and yet this piece of paper just looked absurd. Most of the characters looked similar to the symbols he had found, but none of them were the exact same. A dot, a line, an arrow, without exception all characters had something different about them.

With all of the pages spread in front of him, Nathan tried to piece together all the possible scenarios behind his discovery. ‘Let’s break this down… Assuming the language inside Chayum existed well before the three ancient civilizations came into existence, then it would make sense to assume all three civilizations had access to Erion through one way or another?’

Feeling confident with his thinking process, Nathan continued, ‘considering all three of them existed either in different timelines or different parts of the world, they shouldn’t be interfering with one another.’ Tapping on the table with one finger stretched, he frowned. ‘Then why didn’t they all just use Erion’s language in the first place? Is that the missing piece of the puzzle? Or was it something entirely different?’

His eyes opened wide as he had a sudden burst of inspiration. ‘Maybe... they couldn’t?’ Looking back at the Sumerian scribbles, he recalled how Sumerians recorded information on clay plates. ‘Forget about letters, even the ideograms inside Chayum would be hard to replicate entirely on clay plates…’

Turning his attention to the Egyptian hieroglyphs Nathan mused, ‘Writing on papyrus must have made it easier to replicate Erion’s language, then again…’ He finally picked the ancient Chinese characters. ‘Their technology at the time wasn’t any worse than the Egyptians… So why do Chinese characters seem to be the most out of place?’

Feeling he was getting nowhere, Nathan let the notes fall on the table and scratched his head. ‘There is another scenario… The scenario where my predecessors each brought part of their languages into Erion, and the spirit world’s residents just merged them to their liking.’

For reasons unbeknownst to Nathan, Ayla’s figure surfaced on his mind. ‘Come to think of it, Ayla spoke in English…’ With more questions than facts, Nathan felt the clues he had on hand to be insufficient. He couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion with just that after all.

“Aghhh… This doesn’t make any sense!” Nathan uttered a little louder than he should, earning him an “Shhh!” from the librarian. Falling flat on the chair, Nathan closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in contemplation, a headache was coming and he had no way of stopping it.

With all that said and done, Nathan failed to realize he was no longer alone. Probably due to his earlier exclamation, an old man was attracted to his little studying corner.

“That’s quite the research you have there, young lad.” Nathan’s ears twitched as he slowly opened his eyelids. There was only one person in the entirety of Oakwell’s University that used the term ‘young lad’, and that was the most grumpy professor of them all.

“Pro- Professor Corwell, what brings you here?” Nathan uttered as he jumped out of his seat. Professor Michael Corwell was a man of small stature. He sported short, grayish-white hair, a well-trimmed beard, and a glare that Nathan would have sworn was enough to kill people.

Currently in his sixties, the professor had worked as the university’s Head of the History Department for the greater part of his career, making him an acclaimed historian. However, he wasn’t really well-liked. He was rumored to be the hardest teacher to please, strict with his grades and even stricter with his lectures. Furthermore, the few students that were part of his department always cautioned fresh blood to be wary of him. If you irked him somehow, then you had better leave the university altogether.

Tapping his cane twice on the ground, Professor Corwell answered. “I haven’t seen your face in my lectures, so I couldn’t help wondering what you were doing with all those books about history.” Taking a quick glance at Nathan’s scribbles, he added, “Ancient languages perhaps?”

Nathan was quite flustered. “Eh, ahh! Would you look at the time! Forgive me, Professor, I got lost in my notes. Ms. Lexie’s lecture is about to start!” Messily putting the new bunch of notes in his backpack, Nathan left the seven tomes behind and apologized hurriedly as he made a rush for the exit.

Professor Corwell’s figure was left standing there in silence. ‘Quite a bold brat,’ he chuckled as his gaze wandered to the floor, where one of Nathan’s notes lay quietly. Knees creaking, he bent down to pick it up and, with a quick glance, his eyes opened wide in surprise.

‘How interesting! Why isn’t he in my department yet?’ With dangerous thoughts in his mind, Professor Corwell slowly limped out of the library.