Water Magician

Chapter 679 : Visit to the Grand Duchy of Atinjo IV

 Chapter 0679 Visit to the Grand Duchy of Atinjo IV

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

The next day.

“This is the day of destiny for the Atinjo Grand Duchy.”

“Isn’t that a little exaggerated?”

Abel asked, eyeing Ryo with a suspicious, dubious expression as Ryo declared that with a strangely determined face.

Of course, Ryo had not been assigned any particular role... he was just giving a determined look on his own, for some reason.

“It is not exaggerated. If a civil war is about to break out in the capital, then it is a grave matter for the entire country.”

“Didn’t Bash-dono say he had no intention of turning the entire capital into a battlefield? That is why he is staying inside the royal palace. The battlefield is the palace and its surroundings.”

“Then... I’ll rephrase it as: the day of destiny for Grand Duke Atinjo.”

“Y-yeah.”

Abel had no choice but to accept Ryo’s wording.

Indeed, for Grand Duke Bash of Atinjo, it may well have been a day of destiny.

“We did experience civil war in Darwei, didn’t we?”

“Ah, the Second Prince, Prince Kouri.”

“And there was civil war in the Kingdom of Knightley in the past, wasn’t there?”

“Yeah, Uncle Raymond.”

“It’s all civil war, here and there.”

“So what you’re saying is that civil war breaks out wherever Ryo goes?”

“Why are you blaming me...”

At Abel’s remark, Ryo was shocked and dumbfounded.

But he immediately countered.

“That sort of thing—that wherever a detective goes, a crime is guaranteed to occur—is just something from novels.”

“Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ryo was talking about the statistical observation that murder cases often occur wherever the great detective Kindaichi Kousuke goes, but naturally, it meant nothing to Abel.

“Ryo, let me say this first...”

“It’s okay, Abel. You don’t need to say any more.”

“Is that so?”

“You were going to say I should eat breakfast properly because I might not be able to eat lunch, weren’t you?”

“That’s not it!”

Ryo’s full-force deduction was denied by Abel.

“This civil war is strictly an internal matter of the Atinjo Grand Duchy, so...”

“Non-interference, you mean?”

“That’s right.”

Abel said it in a firm tone.

Because he understood that Ryo was dissatisfied.

“You’re thinking that if you intervene, the damage would be reduced, aren’t you?”

“Well, yes...”

Ryo, after all, had an ordinary person’s feelings at heart, so he did not like seeing people injured before his eyes.

That was true even if they were soldiers whose role was to fight.

And all the more so if they were innocent civilians.

“I understand how you feel, but...”

“The people must seize it for themselves.”

“Yeah.”

“There shouldn’t be much of anything more important than a human life.”

After saying that, Ryo gave a small shake of his head.

“What is important differs from person to person. I think that the very fact that such differences exist should be respected.”

“Diversity is difficult, isn’t it?”

It was only natural that there would be differences in outlook between Abel, who had been taught from childhood to view things from a high, broad perspective as royalty, and Ryo, who had lived within democracy and liberalism.

Even so, people ought to understand one another...

“As for intervention, I’ll leave that aside, but I will at least witness His Majesty Bash’s resolve.”

That was all Ryo said, clearly and firmly.

At nine in the morning, the attack on the royal palace began from the south gate.

“As expected, from this height we can’t see beyond the wall.”

“Yeah, that figures.”

Ryo and Abel were on the rooftop of the annex where they had stayed.

Since it was a single-story building, they had easily climbed up by setting an ice ladder.

However, the wall surrounding the royal palace was quite high.

Perhaps about five meters from the ground.

From where the two stood, they could more or less see inside the walls, but they could not confirm how many troops the attacking side had deployed beyond the wall.

“Here goes nothing.”

“Hm?”

“”

At Ryo’s chant, a thick—very thick—ice icicle, with a diameter of perhaps four meters, emerged from the rooftop and lifted the two of them upward by about ten meters.

From there, they could see beyond the wall.

“There are quite a lot of enemies too.”

“Just around the southern gate, about two thousand? And beyond the eastern wall... ah, there are people beyond the western wall, too. So altogether, there are about five thousand?”

“More or less. It seems a large force can’t be deployed on the north side of the royal palace because of the cliff, but they’re attacking from the other three directions. I don’t know how much strength the Grand Duke’s side is using to defend it, but this certainly won’t be an easy battle.”

Both Ryo and Abel had experienced their share of battlefields up to this point.

They had not been pleasant experiences at all... and yet, they had gained experience.

Because of that, they could now tell at a glance how much strength the enemy possessed, and they could also understand how much strength their own side had.

Naturally, they could also tell which side had the advantage.

“The attacking side’s magic bombardment... honestly, it’s not that much.”

“Right. And all of it is being deflected by the Grand Duke’s talismans.”

“Yeah... and there’s some archery fire, but mostly they’re moving in for close combat toward the gate...”

“Of course, they’re being shot at from the walls.”

Ryo and Abel were emotionally on the Grand Duke’s side.

That was only natural.

The new Grand Duke, Bash, was trying earnestly and sincerely to do his best as Grand Duke.

Many people would surely want to support him.

On the other hand, the attacking side centered around the Babury family... they did not know anyone there to begin with.

There was no reason to support them.

And yet, even so, this attack...

“It looks unrefined.”

“Crude, you mean.”

Both Ryo and Abel found themselves thinking that.

“Still, siege warfare is difficult in the first place.”

“True. In my hometown, there are sayings like: if you want to attack a castle, prepare four times the defending force; or no, six times is needed; or no, no, no, castle assaults are the height of folly... things like that.”

“I always think your hometown is amazing. There are books on the art of rulership in the city library, and lots of books on military strategy too...”

“Perhaps people in the past understood the historical importance of preserving things in books.”

For some reason, Ryo was puffing out his chest with a smug air.

Of course, the fact that many books remained was not thanks to Ryo.

“In any case, everyone agrees that siege warfare is difficult.”

“Yes, no military strategist would deny that.”

“Then this south gate is just a decoy to draw attention?”

“I see. The attacking side is not aiming to break through the gate and enter. Another unit is supposed to decide the battle.”

“Obviously that would be...”

“Zlurma-san’s clan of origin, the Gyuga clan.”

Abel and Ryo were in full agreement.

Somewhere, the Gyuga clan—assassins of a sort—would infiltrate the main royal palace and assassinate Grand Duke Bash... if that succeeded, it would indeed be a victory for the attacking side.

“Maybe they’ve already gotten in?”

“Yeah, they might already be inside.”

Ryo and Abel looked toward the main palace from atop the Ice Pillar.

The assassins moved forward silently, without a sound.

The structure of the main palace was in everyone’s minds.

The Grand Duke’s personal guard, defending the main palace, was by no means weak.

However, before they could even notice the abnormality, their throats were slit.

In utter silence, the shadows invaded the main palace.

An infiltration by the Gyuga clan.

But...

Clang, clang...

In a world that had known no sound, sound was born.

The battle between shadow and shadow began.

This was truly a secret struggle.

In combat technique, the Gyuga clan was superior.

But this was the Atinjo Grand Duchy’s royal palace.

The shadows that met them in defense had the advantage of home ground.

“Tch.”

The one-eyed man leading the Gyuga clan clicked his tongue without thinking.

“Are these the troops trained by Zlurma? Their technique is rough, but they’re used to fighting inside this building.”

“Of course.”

The moment he heard that voice, the one-eyed man, Rukiya, instinctively twisted his body.

A sword swept through the place where his head had been.

“You have fallen into a trap.”

“Cut the nonsense!”

Zlurma and Rukiya, now revealed, faced each other.

The Gyuga clan’s infiltration was being blocked all around, and fierce swordfights were beginning to erupt.

“Special Guard Unit of the Foreign Ministry’s External Affairs Section. A unit designed to intercept assassins like the Gyuga clan inside the royal palace.”

“Do you really think you can stop us with such half-baked technique? You were once called one of the finest of the Gyuga, so you should understand—our blades cannot be blocked.”

“Because I was one of you, I understand how strong the Gyuga are. At the same time, I know their weaknesses too.”

“What are you...”

Just as Rukiya was about to retort to Zlurma’s words.

A small red light flashed from Zlurma’s hand.

It was not an attack spell.

“A signal?”

Rukiya muttered.

The next instant.

A flash of light illuminated the area.

At the same time, a deafening roar rang out.

Flash and roar inside the building.

By Zlurma’s red signal, the alchemy devices for flash and roar that had been installed inside the palace were activated.

The External Affairs Section’s Special Guard Unit, which had been handling the situation, suffered no damage.

But the Gyuga clan was different.

For those accustomed to darkness and to fighting in places with little light, such as indoors, flash and roar were fatal.

Their vision was stolen, and their hearing was shattered.

They instinctively froze.

Even the more experienced among them immediately backed themselves against the wall... but in the end, they were unable to move for a while.

A one-sided slaughter by the Special Guard Unit began.

The tide had clearly turned in the Grand Duke’s favor.

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