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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 2 Part 5

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

And yet, Arjuna did the unthinkable and uttered those words without hesitation. Noticing that he has done something that he should not have done, he hurriedly waved his hands apologetically.

「I-I am terribly sorry about what I said just now. I realize that in the current times your world is a place where slavery has been abolished, and I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable bringing that up. Forgive me.」

「No no no, it is okay, it is fine! We are also partially at fault here for overreacting like that. We also forgot that during the ancient times when you lived it was perfectly normal to have slaves and that people back then were not all equal because of how the Caste system was constructed, meaning that not everyone would possess the same level of knowledge and education. Haha, hahaha!」

「Yes. As much as it pains me to admit it, that is how it was when I was alive and precisely because of that one of my acquaintances was unable to receive proper education that he very much deserved. I only realize that now after the fact, but keeping the ability to learn to only a select few groups has been unspeakably narrow minded of my people. That is why I think that the person who first came up with the idea of creating 『Libraries』 must have been someone who wanted all human beings to expand their horizons regardless of their social standing.」

From the deadly serious expression on his face, Homura immediately understood who that 『acquaintance who could not receive proper education』 of his was. Whenever Arjuna talked with such a solemn look, it was always about his brother, Karna.

「Well, we cannot do anything about how things were back then, but it remains a fact that nowadays libraries are a great thing if you want to study various subjects all in one place. Come to think of it, the first library ever created was the Great Library of Alexandria, right? When exactly was it build again?」

「In 300 B.C, so it was well after your and your 『acquaintance』 lives came to pass. . . oh yeah, that’s right. Supposedly the first ever book to mention The Lost Continent of Atlantis, the location where the next stage of the war is supposed to take place, was being held there.」

「「Hou?」」

Suzuka and Arjuna looked at Homura with a glint of curiosity in their eyes.

The Lost Continent of Atlantis, the stage of the first proper round of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority is one of the mythical lands that was supposed to exist in the kingdom of Greece in the ancient times. According to the folklore that surrounded it, it was supposed to be a highly advanced civilization that could not be defeated by any of its neighboring nations, said to possess the type of military power that allowed them to be a threat to the entire known world of ancient times. The general consensus is that it has been sunk to the bottom of the sea by Zeus, the Chief God of the Greek mythology, because he was afraid that it might pose a threat to his reign as the King of the Gods. In the world of the occult, it was one of the three great mythical lands along with Mu and Lemuria that were frequently investigated by those interested in the occultic angle of geopolitics. While Everything Company was discussing about the possible locations for the Environmental Control Tower, one of the experts they hired was someone like that, but Homura only heard a little about what he said without getting too deep into the details.

「Suzuka, did you happen to come across any information about Atlantis while you were doing your 『homework』?」

「Coincidentally, and not strictly by reading about it. It was on the news sometime ago, remember? That the Roman Catholic church has recently published a document about The Lost Continent of Atlantis.」

The Secret Archives of the Roman Catholic Church is the largest library that houses within its walls even the recording media like stone tablets and books from the B.C era. It is said that a single bookshelf there is like eighty-four normal ones stacked together, and that this is the place that holds the information about many urban legends even today. However, with the technological advancement in recent years, it became possible to convert many of the books into digital format, allowing people across the world to view their contents online. The material that Suzuka saw was probably a part of that. And if it was a document that has been revealed to the public only recently, then it is possible that it might contain the information that Homura could monopolize to give them some kind of an edge over the other Players in the upcoming Gift Game.

「Ahh, I feel like I know what you are talking about. It was in that special German news coverage along with the latest information about the situation with the pathogens on the island of Crete, right?」

「Yup. If memory serves me correctly, it was something written by Plato, the philosopher of the Ancient Greece between 400 and 300 B.C. by the looks of it, it was a stone tablet with Plato’s original handwriting etched into it.」

At that moment, Suzuka failed to properly notice just how big of a bombshell of an announcement she just made, and when she did, it was already too late to stop what was inevitably about to follow it.

When she revealed such an unexpected piece of information out of the blue like that, the eyes of everyone around her focused on her, while unexpectedly, Arjuna and Asterios raised their voices almost at the same time.

「When you say 『original handwriting etched onto it』. . . then, could it by any chance be that this might actually be. . . 」

「. . . the original copy of a written document preserved from mythological times? The genuine article?!」

「W-Well, if that is indeed the case, then it might be a great source of information! If we combine the information that this stone tablet contains with Suzuka’s amazing wit and then apply them to whatever the contents of the next Gift Game are going to be, then it might be quite possible that we will manage to score ourselves a win before it even begins. Would it not be great?」

Even though it might have been because of nothing but a sheer coincidence, this might just turn out to be the best kind of coincidence in the history of humanity. Since that stone tablet, which was supposedly handwritten by Plato himself was supposed to be a real-deal document from between 400 and 300 B.C, then it really might be the genuine article from the mythological times, and since there was supposedly something about Atlantis in it, then reading through it would be the same as reading the answer to anything that the next stage of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority might be throwing at them!

With the expectations for her suddenly raised quite a bit, Suzuka shook her hands in a hurry.

「N-No, I am afraid that it will not be anything remotely as helpful as you make it out to be, because I think that the original document is still in the middle of being translated at this point? And let me be clear before you even ask about it, because I already know what you are going to ask me about! Yes, maybe I could give it a try and translate the untranslated portions of that stone tablet myself, but I am not going to do it, and there is no way in hell for you to convince me to do it, so do not even try!」

「But why? If you happen to posses the skills that might be used to help us gain the upper hand over our competitors and maybe even secure a victory, then why not make use of those skills?」

Arjuna asked, not understanding what exactly was the problem here.

「Because of the second thing I was going to tell you about before you interrupted me: subjectivity!」

「Subjectivity? What is that?」

This time it was Asterios’ turn to express his concerns.

「First of all, while I do have some skills as a translator, they are not nearly at the level where I could translate literal mythological texts accurately, and secondly, there is the issue of subjectivity, the thing you just asked about, Asterios. To make the long story short, it is something that is an integral part of any translation process, and something that no translator can escape even if they tried. It is something that will always have an impact on the quality of the translated text, regardless of its difficulty.」