Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

stuonga

I was a little surprised.
Because rather than a national flag, the illustration looked more like some kind of written pattern or language.

Then I asked again.

“Al, does this country have music or anything like that?”

Then Al replied,

“What is that? ‘Mu…sic?’ Is there such a thing?”

“So there’s no such thing as music in this country? Hmm… like songs where people sing along to a rhythm?”

“Ahhhhhh… songs, huh. We do have songs here. But we can’t sing them.”

“Why not?”

“We can sing, too. But our national anthem is made up entirely of rhythm. The anthem of this country has only rhythm. Still, there are things that humans can sing with their voices. Those are the writings contained in the book made specifically for you. Carrying those books, you ‘Bookbinders’ come into this world.

Once, Rei showed me one of them, too. But we can’t understand that language. No matter who we ask, nobody has ever seen those letters before. And my guess is that only people like you can decipher them.

That’s why there should also be a book meant only for you. In the protagonist’s storybook you’re holding right now, there aren’t any writings like that, are there? So somewhere, there must be a book made specifically for you.”

“I see… Then what do you call the word ‘song’ in this country?”

“This.”

“That’s how you say it. The pronunciation is ‘stuonga’.

“I see. I’ll remember that.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Lumia.”