Chapter 833: Lunar Language

The methods employed by the knights to investigate the indigenous tribe were far more brutal than Liszt had imagined.

They acted directly at night, surrounding the indigenous tribe and capturing every last one of them. This was followed by relentless interrogations. When language barriers arose, they resorted to gestures. Through relentless attempts, they finally began to grasp a basic understanding of the tribe's general situation.

This was a small tribe of 186 people.

Most of the indigenous people lacked magical aptitude and fought and hunted like savages. Those with magical aptitude, however, were closely guarded by the tribe and sent to larger tribes to learn magic. The few elders who seemed like tribal priests were all ancient wizards who had returned after completing their studies.

"Your Highness, these indigenous tribes are likely the legacy of ancient wizards. Their magic techniques are extremely archaic and differ significantly from current magical practices," a wizard explained to Liszt. "Their use of magical runes is also very primitive."

Times change, and so does magic.

Although the magical energy has dwindled, wizards have optimized many spells in order to reduce magic power usage. The wizards of the indigenous tribes, however, still use spells that consume vast amounts of magic power yet yield minimal effects.

Thus, the frontier wizards deduced that this was an inheritance from ancient wizards, preserved generation after generation on the isolated Fire Island.

Finally, the wizard boldly speculated, "Your Highness, I've carefully recorded the speech patterns of these indigenous people and found that their language is likely the ancient Lunar Language."

"Lunar Language?" Liszt raised an eyebrow, fixing the wizard with a stern look.

Feeling immense pressure, the wizard hastily added, "It's just speculation, Your Highness." He dared not guarantee the accuracy of his discovery, as the Lunar Language had been lost for ages.

Due to their fascination with the Moon Empire, many wizards studied the Lunar Language, believing that although it had been lost, it had blended into the many languages of the Legendary Continent. Languages such as Wind Speech and Serpent Tongue contained numerous words linked to the ancient Lunar Language, but no one could definitively say what the Lunar Language truly looked like.

"Then continue the research. Work to fully decipher the language of the indigenous tribe. I will send more wizards from the Magic Guild to assist," Liszt ordered.

Regardless, the indigenous language had to be studied to facilitate their conversion into productive serfs in the future.

Of course, Liszt hoped their language was indeed the legendary Lunar Language. Perhaps these remnants of the Moon Empire still preserved information about that era—an age of magical prosperity and wizards ruling the world, holding countless magnificent secrets.

The Fish Ugly Temple in the sea, the Jade Dragon's hind leg on Heart Island, the Fire Dragon remains on Black Horse Island, the Moon Empire descendants on Fire Island, and the lost Sky Ship and Children of the Sun—all these strange clues intertwined.

The force of fate represented by the Smoke Dragon behind the Smoke Mission seemed to be vividly revealing an incredible past to Liszt.

"What exactly happened in these seas during ancient times?" He couldn't be certain, but he suspected a colossal battle had taken place here—one that might have determined the course of the world.

The decline of the Children of the Sun, the fall of the Moon Empire, and the extinction of the Sacred Dragons might all be connected to this great war.

...

Even a lion goes all out to catch a rabbit.

Liszt approached the investigation of the indigenous tribe with caution. Apart from capturing the entire "Lake Horn" tribe, he refrained from expanding the operation. Instead, he dispatched another knight order and ten wizards from Ember Town to join the research efforts.

After ten days of intensive study, they finally unraveled everything about the indigenous tribe.

The tribe referred to themselves as "Moon Killers," so Liszt named them accordingly. As for why they wanted to kill the moon, it was impossible to verify—they had called themselves that since birth, with no one questioning the reason.

The Moon Killers were divided into large and small tribes, usually splitting off when food in a certain forest became insufficient, with smaller tribes seeking survival in neighboring forests.

The Lake Horn tribe was a recently separated small tribe. Most of their former members belonged to the "Mountain Horn" tribe, living in the corner of a mountain range. The Lake Horn tribe's structure consisted mainly of warriors and "wizards"—the latter term, in their language, simply meant "those who use magic."

Warriors were adult males responsible for hunting and gathering to provide food for the tribe.

The Ancient Wizards were the few elderly individuals who mastered magic, using it to defend against monster attacks. For ease of distinction, Liszt referred to them as "Ancient Wizards."

"Curve, bend, hook, and curve again..."

When the eldest Ancient Wizard, at the researchers' request, wrote the characters representing "wizard" in their language, the mages from the Magic Guild who had studied the Lunar Language shouted in unison, stunned: "This is the Lunar Language! In the Lunar Language, 'wizard' is written exactly like this!" They even produced several magic books containing ancient inscriptions of the Lunar Language.

Liszt examined them and confirmed that the characters for "wizard" in the magic books matched those written by the Ancient Wizard of the Lake Horn Tribe. The structure of the script, especially its looping, coiled strokes, bore the unmistakable characteristics of the Lunar Language—like overlapping crescent moons.

The Lunar Language was a complex pictographic script, using varying numbers and shapes of moons to represent changes in meaning. Due to its abstract nature, modern wizards had studied it for millennia without fully deciphering it.

Now, the Lake Horn Tribe used the Lunar Language for communication.

There was no doubt—they were descendants of the Moon Empire, marooned on Flame Island, where they survived. Unfortunately, the flourishing magical civilization of the Moon Empire had not been passed down. The lives of these indigenous tribes were hardly more advanced than primitive tribes, far behind the knightly civilization.

"Descendants of the Moon Empire..." Liszt murmured, shaking his head.

He ordered deeper research into the Moon Killers, hoping to unveil the mysteries of the Moon Empire. However, the Lake Horn Tribe provided too little information—it was only a small Moon Killer tribe, with just one Ancient Wizard who could write in the Lunar Language, and even then, only a small portion of it.

This portion of the Lunar Language pertained solely to magic, with no relevance to daily life.

"Your Highness, we need more Moon Killer tribes for research," the wizards urged, unable to contain their excitement, baying for more Moon Killers to hunt down.

Even Acheronides, knee-deep in experiments in Ember Town, inquired several times about the Moon Killers.

The wizards' feelings toward the Moon Empire were complex. They yearned for the era when wizards ruled the world, romanticizing the Moon Empire as a golden age. Yet everyone knew the Moon Empire was merely one of the ancient human kingdoms. Time had warped their legacy beyond recognition.

Liszt was equally curious.

He flicked his wrist and ordered, "Then, Duert Hongxingguo and Cross Shaji, prepare yourselves. Without alerting the larger Moon Killer tribes, capture the Lake Horn Tribe’s larger kin, the Mountain Horn Tribe."

The two counts swept into synchronized bows. "By your command, Your Highness!"