Water Magician

Chapter 690 : Encounter

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Chapter 0690 Encounter

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

“...”

Abel was too stunned to say anything.

“I knew it.”

Ryo murmured, nodding with a knowing look.

“Abel’s past, which should have been buried away, has now been brought to light.”

“No...”

Abel was so confused that he could not even refute Ryo’s words.

But one thing still slipped out of his mouth.

“This has to be a mistake.”

“Criminals always say that.”

Ryo condemned him.

“They clearly said it, didn’t they? ‘Abel-sama.’ ”

“Well... that is... true, they did say that...”

“Abel, you should admit it.”

“First of all, the story you just told is nothing but your own imagination, Ryo. Isn’t it strange that there would be a situation that overlaps with that?”

Abel resisted with plain common sense.

“The story that came to mind must have pierced through to the truth. I have seen Abel many times up to now. I remember everything you have said and done. The story imagined from that must have brought to light Abel’s past, which you yourself had not been conscious of and had not been aware of.”

“No friggin’ way that is true!”

“There is a saying: ‘Truth is stranger than fiction.’ No matter how unbelievable it is, facts are facts. No matter how much you try to hide the truth, it is impossible. Heaven sees all!”

Ryo deliberately mixed up ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ as he pressed the matter.

Abel, unusually, was thrown off balance and cornered.

Of course, even if Ryo tried to accuse Abel, it would not lead to anything constructive.

Yes, this was a futile line of questioning.

At that moment, they noticed the three men’s gaze as they watched the two of them with puzzled expressions.

“Look, Abel, they are waiting for your word.”

“No, even if you say that...”

Ryo urged Abel on.

Abel looked at the three men kneeling on one knee and opened his mouth.

“Hey, aren’t you mistaking me for someone else?”

“And even now, you’re still saying that, Abel...”

“No, I mean, you say that, but...”

Ryo shrugged in exasperation, while Abel, still confused, replied.

The man in the center of the three spoke.

“Your red hair, your well-known appearance, and the sword on your back—is that not a magic sword?”

“Well, yes, it is a magic sword, but...”

“See?!”

Ryo goaded him.

But Abel had begun to doubt the man’s words.

“You said ‘well-known appearance’, did you not?”

“Yes.”

“You do not know me personally, but heard what I looked like from someone else?”

“Yes. We heard it from the previous boss, who died a year ago.”

“I see.”

At the man’s answer, Abel nodded deeply.

The confusion vanished from his face.

Then he turned to Ryo and said,

“You heard him? That is what it means.”

“What a disappointment. It was so close.”

“What do you mean, so close?!”

Thus, the suspicion that Abel had once been the leader of a bandit group was cleared away.

“I would like to hear in detail what that boss supposedly said.”

When Abel said that, the man in the center began to speak.

“The previous boss sometimes saw the future.”

“Precognition?”

At the man’s words, Ryo muttered without thinking.

Abel gave Ryo a quick glance, then silently returned his gaze to the man.

“The previous boss spoke about Abel-sama... no, King Abel, at the very end of his life.”

“You mean... a dying declaration?”

“Yes... We, the survivors, interpret it that way.”

When the central man said that, the two men kneeling on either side both began to cry silently, without making a sound.

“We have long been fighting against a certain... faction.”

The man in the center chose his words carefully as he began.

“The previous boss led us for many years, but he lost his life in a large-scale battle one year ago. At the very end, he told everyone about King Abel before he passed away.”

“So the... opposing faction you are talking about is the one you were fighting just now?”

“As expected! To think you could even figure that out.”

The three men were astonished, since Abel’s offhand guess had been correct.

Of course, this was because Ryo had informed Abel of what he had detected with sonar.

Because of that, Abel could glimpse Ryo standing behind him with his arms folded, nodding along with a “yes, yes”, and he could not quite put his feelings into words.

After letting out one big sigh, Abel continued.

“Well, if you drove them off, that is a good thing, isn’t it?”

“Because the other side were cultists... humans.”

The man in the center answered with a grimace.

“Because they were cultists? That means... the real enemy isn’t human, right?”

Abel pressed him on the meaning behind those words.

“Yes. The former boss said that it was that thing...”

“That thing... no, first of all, who are the people you’re fighting?”

Abel asked.

But the man in the center slowly shook his head.

“I am sorry. I do not know the details. Only...”

“Only?”

“The former boss said this: ‘The Djinn cultists’.”

“Djinn?”

“Cultists?”

At the man’s answer, both Abel and Ryo tilted their heads.

“By Djinn, do they mean that Djinn?”

“I don’t know. Though, as Ryo said before. The Djinn... back then it was Spellno, I think. That the Spellno had invaded from the Central Countries and were a nuisance...”

“Yes, I asked the Phantom King about it. From his reaction, I think that was the case. This is just my guess, but maybe they closed the ‘Corridor’ to keep them from coming in.”

“And since there are no Djinns left in the Central Countries anymore, it would be fine to open the Corridor again.”

Ryo and Abel developed their inference.

“If that is the case, then it is strange, isn’t it?”

“Right. The fact that there are people in these Eastern Countries called ‘Djinn cultists’ is strange.”

That’s right—Djinn should not currently be in the Eastern Countries, and yet there are people who seem to revere them... wouldn’t that be logically odd?

“It seems like they do appear in legends and such, so maybe they are using that to gather followers?”

“That sounds most likely.”

Abel also nodded at Ryo’s reasoning.

There are religions like that, after all.

“But if that is the case, the person leading the believers, the sort of cult leader, is pretty capable, isn’t he?”

“...Is that so?”

“Just forming an organization is already pretty hard, you know. Raising money, gathering people. And on top of that, they apparently have an armed group willing to fight these people?”

“Isn’t this more something Darwei should be dealing with as a nation?”

Abel shook his head slightly.

But then, the next moment—

“”

Clang.

Ryo and Abel reacted at the same time.

Ryo constructed an ice wall, and Abel drew his sword and charged out... and intercepted the opponent’s sword.

The man had suddenly appeared there.

He had light-blue hair and red eyes, and though he was as tall as Abel, he was far more heavily muscled.

Abel stopped the man’s downward strike with his usual magic sword.

“Ohhh.”

The light-blue-haired man grinned, lifting one cheek.

“I had not heard any report that there was a magic sword user among them. So, you must have joined recently.”

“Ryo, take care of the defense. I’ll handle this guy.”

“Don’t worry. I am already defending!”

Ignoring the light-blue-haired man’s words, Abel and Ryo continued their conversation.

“Magic sword user, did you say you would take me on?”

“Light-blue hair, if you did not hear me the first time, should I say it again? I will take you on.”

“Interesting!”

The light-blue-haired man shouted that with a vicious expression.

Clang, clang, clang...

The flurry of attacks began.

The force and speed were tremendous.

A human would have a hard time taking it head-on.

But...

“You are deflecting everything?”

“What is the matter, light-blue hair? Is that all you got?”

“Magic sword user!”

In response to Abel’s taunt, the light-blue-haired man increased his sword speed.

But Abel’s defense could not be broken.

“Tch.”

The light-blue-haired man clicked his tongue and leapt backward.

He had created distance in an attempt to change the rhythm of the fight.

But then he tilted his head slightly, as though someone somewhere had called out to him, and he frowned.

And then...

“Seriously?”

After muttering that, he sheathed his sword.

Though Abel kept his sword ready, he sent the man a suspicious look without letting his guard down.

“We’ll pick this up later.”

“Hey, hey, are you running away?”

Abel taunted him.

He understood that the man was a formidable enemy, but he still had not gathered much information.

If he exchanged a few more blows, he could get more information... so he taunted him.

“Hmph. In time, you will end up fighting me until you are sick of it. See ya.”

After saying that, the light-blue-haired man vanished in an instant.

Yes, at a speed even Ryo’s sonar could not follow.

It had not been able to track him when he appeared, and it could not track him when he left either.

“That is unbelievable.”

Ryo said bitterly.

“It seems the former boss was right.”

“Abel?”

“I know because I have fought them before. That light-blue-haired man just now is a minion of a Djinn.”

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