Chapter 94

Traces (3)

Human bones are relatively easy to distinguish from those of other animals.

You can even tell them apart from those of apes, which resemble humans. They’re simply easy to distinguish.

The back of the skull is rounded, while the jaw is squared.

This is definitely a human skull. I was certain of it.

Title) Found human bones

Wild Grylls

(Photo of a human skull)

Found a skull in what I think used to be an owlbear’s cave. This is a human skull, right?

└ Heavenly Demon: It does appear to be a human skull. Are there no other bones?

└ Wild Grylls: There are too many bones around here, so it’s hard to find them.

└ SwordMaster: Looks like one to me.

└ Yeah, definitely.

└ If that’s not a human skull, what the hell is it?

└ Judging by how it’s been reduced to bare bones, it must have been there for a long time.

└ There were humans in the Forest of Four Seasons??

└ There probably were. They’re all dead like that guy, that’s all.

└ Don’t tell me that’s Grylls’s future?

└ The odds are fuuuuucking high lol.

└ That’s your great senior right there. What are you doing? Hurry up and pay your respects.

└ Are you fucking insane? Lmaoooo.

└ Fuck. Is that really something you should say to the guy? Lmaoooo.

└ Man, way to completely kill his motivation lol.

└ Starlight Princess: You people are truly awful. How can you call yourselves human beings and say something like that?

└ Be honest. You snickered too, didn’t you?

└ Starlight Princess: My emotions have dried up, so I didn’t even laugh.

└ Come on. It was just a joke. Why are you taking it so seriously?

└ For real, what a boring way to live.

I asked the gallery just in case, and they agreed that it was indeed a human skull.

And an old one at that. The fact that nothing but bare bone remained made that obvious.

’It’s not like they suffered a head injury.’

The skull was remarkably clean. It was intact, without a single broken spot.

I began searching to see if there were any other human bones.

But I soon had no choice but to give up.

I wasn’t an archaeologist. How was I supposed to distinguish human bones buried among countless others?

Just confirming that a human had once been here was enough.

’Was this person dragged here by the owlbear?’

I needed to explore the surroundings a little more. I put down the skull and began looking around the cave.

The cave itself was enormous, so there were plenty of places to investigate.

"Here..."

Eventually, I found a place I couldn’t simply pass by.

It was a space right beside the nest.

"..."

Two tall walls rose up, with a fairly large space beyond the gap between them.

I poked my head through and cautiously looked inside.

"..."

Bones.

Human bones lay quietly against the wall.

Unlike the bones that had been eaten by the owlbear, this skeleton had retained its complete form.

I slipped through the gap and thoroughly examined the interior.

"Oh..."

The space beyond the walls was larger than I’d expected.

And cozy.

A great deal of time seemed to have passed, judging by the thick cobwebs and accumulated dust, but even taking that into account, the place still felt cozy.

More than anything else, what caught my eye were the pieces of furniture and equipment scattered around.

Most had been made of wood and had largely rotted away, but a few had barely managed to retain their original shapes.

’Is this a stone axe?’

It was a tool made by binding together a piece of wood that was on the verge of crumbling and a stone.

The front of the stone seemed to have been ground down as much as possible to form a sharp edge.

Judging by how it had been secured to the wooden handle, the person must have made the cordage from fibers themselves.

Unlike me, who had access to the gallery, traces of someone who had started with absolutely nothing were everywhere.

’But these marks...’

I brushed my hand over the marks carved into the ground.

They were extremely familiar.

Because they were identical to the marks I carved into the wall every time another day passed.

Marks recording the number of days survived.

But normally, you’d make marks like these on a wall, not the floor.

Puzzled, I looked around.

’That wall’s full too... and that one...’

The space was enclosed by walls on every side.

And all of them were covered in marks.

It seemed the person had run out of room on the walls and had started carving them into the floor instead.

It was enough to tell me just how long this person had survived.

"..."

An indescribable emotion crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Even after surviving for so long, this person had eventually been reduced to a skeleton.

I had the gallery, but...

Could I really hold out as long as this person had?

They had survived far longer than I had. Judging by that alone, they must have been far stronger than me.

And yet they died.

Alone, with no one even knowing what had happened to them, leaving behind nothing but countless marks recording the days they’d survived.

This person could be my future.

That thought crossed my mind.

"Haa..."

I couldn’t put the feeling into words.

Was it despair?

Or resignation?

If I’d never known any of this, I might have clung to hope until the very end...

But seeing this left me feeling lost.

Could I really get out of here?

No.

Before that, could I even survive?

’...I just have to keep trying.’

The survival marks covered not only the walls but even the floor.

It looked like they had survived for well over two or three years at the very least.

I didn’t know why this person had died.

I searched around, wondering if I could find the cause of their death.

The Forest of Four Seasons was a place that had made even someone as clueless as me stronger.

There was no way someone who had survived here for two or three years had died for no reason.

"Hm?"

As I searched every corner of the space, something suddenly caught my eye.

A chest sitting off to one side.

Despite the passage of time, it had retained its shape.

Judging by the thick layer of dust covering it, there weren’t even any signs of spiders or other insects having gone inside.

’Still, just in case...’

I gently prodded it with the tip of my sword.

Something could leap out of there for all I knew.

Fortunately, my worries proved unfounded. The chest merely rattled a few times, with no sign of anything happening.

’What’s inside? Did this person store bottles in it like I do?’

With a faint sense of anticipation, I slowly opened the chest.

Dust billowed into the air, making me cough, but it wasn’t long before I could see what was inside.

"...Books?"

There wasn’t much inside.

Just a few books.

Surprisingly, they seemed to have been stored well, because they were in fairly good condition.

Careful not to make the cover fall apart, I picked up one of the books.

There was some kind of writing on its worn-out cover.

’As expected, I can’t read it.’

I don’t know a single language from this world. Judging by the script, though, it looked vaguely similar to a European language.

In situations like this, the gallery was the best option.

I carefully took pictures of everything inside the space.

Title) Found a place where a survivor used to live

Wild Grylls

(Photo of a space between the walls)

(Photo of a skeleton leaning against the wall)

(Photo of survival-day marks carved all over the place)

(Stones and pieces of wood presumed to have belonged to the survivor)

(Photo of a book with writing in it)

(Photo of the chest where the books were stored)

Found a secluded spot next to the owlbear’s nest and went inside.

There was a skeleton in here, along with survival-day marks carved all over the place.

But the strangest thing is the book. What country’s script is this?

└ Heavenly Demon: It is not from the Central Plains.

└ SwordMaster: It’s not the script of the Messiah Empire either. I’ve never seen it before.

└ Cheonggu Princess: It’s not from our country either.

└ Praise the Sun: It’s not Setan’s either. Nor is it from Alvenheim.

└ That looks like some ancient language.

└ That’s not enough to tell. Upload more.

Everyone’s reaction was the same—they didn’t recognize it.

Given how few countries there were, there should also be relatively few languages, so this was strange.

For now, it seemed best to follow the anon’s suggestion.

I flipped through the pages.

The distinctive musty smell of an old book wafted out, but the pages were still easy enough to turn.

’They’re yellowed with age, but they’re still perfectly readable.’

Now I just had to upload them to the gallery.

Hopefully someone would recognize the writing.

└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: I’ve never learned writing like that!

└ Suspiciously: It’s not a language used by beastfolk either.

└ If nobody recognizes it, couldn’t it be the script of a country that was destroyed a long time ago?

└ That’s pretty likely, isn’t it? At the very least, it’s definitely from a country that existed more than fifty years ago. No countries have fallen in the past fifty years.

└ Grylls, you seriously found something incredible.

└ Wild Grylls: What good does that do me if nobody can translate it? This is important to me too.

└ Why is it important?

└ Because it’s a survival journal?

└ Wild Grylls: Yeah. Since it’s a survival journal, it could be a huge help to me. I absolutely need it.

Title) Showing more of the book

Wild Grylls

(Photo of a page densely covered in writing)

This should be enough, right?

└ Heavenly Demon: This makes it even clearer that it is not from the Central Plains.

└ SwordMaster: Not from the Messiah Empire either. Could it be the script of the Iris Kingdom?

└ Allfather: It is not the script of the Iris Kingdom either. However, I feel as though I have seen it somewhere before. Please wait a moment.

└ Starlight Princess: Could it be the script of the Holy Kingdom?

Books can serve as bridges connecting the past to the present.

If that bridge collapses somewhere along the way, countless records and technologies can be lost.

There’s a reason people who want to erase records start by burning books.

’If it’s an ancient script, I guess it’ll be even harder to identify.’

No matter the country, many things change as time passes.

Language is no exception.

Languages of the past can differ greatly from their modern forms.

That’s only natural. No one knows what kind of history might unfold in the intervening years.

Even the Republic of Korea had some of its language altered under the influence of the Japanese colonial period.

And if you compared the Hunminjeongeum created by King Sejong the Great to the Korean language of today, the differences were obvious.

’There are quite a few books here.’

As I flipped through the pages, I checked the other books.

They were similarly well preserved and packed with writing I couldn’t understand.

If only I could decipher all of them.

They could be an enormous help to me.

’I’ll just upload all of them.’

The gallery was my only option for translation anyway.

In that case, it would be better to upload the whole thing.

Careful not to damage the books, I placed them back inside the chest.

Then I put the entire chest into my subspace bag.

Afterward, I searched around for anything else useful, but there wasn’t much.

’I guess the only other thing is the necklace on the skeleton.’

A necklace hung around the skeleton’s neck.

More precisely, it was a pendant.

A pendant set with a red gemstone that looked quite expensive.

But I doubted it would be useful even if I took it.

So I left it where it was, letting the skeleton continue wearing it.

’This person must’ve missed other people too.’

I looked at the skeleton leaning forlornly against the wall.

It went beyond loneliness. There was something downright pitiful about the sight, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.

This person must have wanted to escape too, but they’d never managed to fulfill that wish.

’They say prisoners arrive with both eyes gouged out, but this person could write.’

They must have been stranded here, or there had been some other circumstance.

I stared silently at the skeleton for a moment before entering the gallery.

Then I bought a suitable sack and carefully gathered the skeleton’s bones into it.

’Bear with me until I move you.’

Maybe it was because I’d always faithfully observed the anniversaries of my parents’ deaths.

Or maybe it was simply my personality.

Either way, leaving the dead like this didn’t feel respectful.

There was nothing I could do about the scattered bones that appeared to have belonged to people eaten by the owlbear, but this skeleton had been preserved intact.

After placing all the bones into the sack, I left the hidden space.

When I came out, Wonmo was playing with a butterfly near the nest.

"Wonmo. Let’s go."

"Kyuu!"

That was enough exploring for today.

I’d return to the cave and start photographing the books.

The sooner I figured out what they contained, the sooner I’d be able to obtain all kinds of information.

’And I should hold a memorial rite while I’m at it.’

I didn’t know whether this world even had the concept of ancestral rites, but I was going to do it anyway.

This person might be a glimpse of my own future, but as someone in the gallery had said, they were also my great senior.

The legacy my senior had left behind could become an invaluable resource for me.

Some time later, after returning to the cave, I unpacked everything and began looking around the surrounding area.

I needed to find a suitable place for a grave.

’I’ll bury them over there.’

Of course, I wasn’t going to do it immediately.

Uploading the books to the gallery came first.

I took out the chest containing the books and pushed it off to one side.

’Did the gallery figure anything out?’

Some time had passed since I’d uploaded the picture of the book’s pages.

By now, maybe they’d managed to identify the writing to some extent.

With that hope, I logged into the gallery.

└ Allfather: Could you please hurry and photograph the next page for me? This old man’s lower half refuses to calm down from all the excitement.

└ Sir...;;

└ This guy gets vulgar as hell whenever he finds something interesting;;

└ What the hell is that thing to get him so worked up?

└ Apparently they think it was written by the Immortal King’s brother? He was probably from the Balkan Kingdom?

└ What the hell is that doing there?

└ Fuck, if that’s genuine, scholars all over the world are going to lose their minds.

└ Historians are getting excited while academy students are crying lmaooo.

It seemed Allfather had successfully deciphered it.