Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 679: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (6)

0679 Visit to the Grand Duchy of Atinjo IV

The next day.

“This is the Grand Duchy of Atinjo’s fateful day.”

“Isn’t that a little dramatic?”

Ryo declared it for some reason with a look of firm resolve, and Abel looked at him dubiously.

Of course, Ryo had not actually been given any role in all this...

He was simply making a face like he had steeled himself for something.

“It is not dramatic at all. A civil war is about to break out in the capital. That is a major event for the entire country.”

“Lord Bashu said it too, didn’t he? He has no intention of turning the whole capital into a battlefield. That’s why he’s shutting himself up inside the palace. The battlefield is the palace and the surrounding area.”

“Then... I’ll rephrase it. This is the Grand Duke of Atinjo’s fateful day.”

“R-right.”

Abel reluctantly accepted Ryo’s revision.

Certainly, for Grand Duke Bashu of Atinjo, it may well have been a fateful day.

“Didn’t Darwei go through a civil war too?”

“Yeah. Prince Kouri, the Second Prince.”

“And the Knightley Kingdom had a civil war too, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. Uncle Raymond.”

“No matter where we go, it’s civil wars everywhere.”

“You mean civil wars keep breaking out everywhere Ryo goes, don’t you?”

“Why is this my fault...?”

At Abel’s point, Ryo was aghast.

But he immediately argued back.

“That sort of thing where a crime always happens wherever a great detective goes is only something that happens in novels.”

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

Ryo was talking about that statistical idea where murder cases always seem to happen wherever a famous detective appears, but naturally it meant nothing to Abel.

“Ryo, let me say this first...”

“It’s fine, Abel. No need to say the rest.”

“Is that so?”

“You mean we might not get to eat lunch, so I should make sure to eat a solid breakfast, right?”

“That’s not it!”

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

“This civil ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) war is, at the end of the day, an internal matter of the Grand Duchy of Atinjo...”

“So this is about non-interference in domestic affairs.”

“That’s right.”

Abel spoke in a firm tone.

Because he understood that Ryo was unhappy about it.

“You’re thinking casualties would be lower if you intervened, aren’t you?”

“Yes, well...”

Ryo still had the emotions of an ordinary person, so he did not like seeing people get hurt right in front of him.

Even if they were soldiers whose role was to fight.

If they were innocent civilians, all the more so.

“I understand how you feel, but...”

“The people have to seize it for themselves.”

“Yeah.”

“And yet there shouldn’t be that many things more important than human life.”

With that, Ryo gave a small shake of his head.

“What matters most differs from person to person. I think we ought to respect the very fact that those differences exist.”

“Diversity is difficult.”

It may have been only natural that there was a difference in outlook between Abel, who had been taught since childhood to look from on high and view the larger picture as royalty, and Ryo, who had lived within democracy and liberalism.

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

“Setting intervention aside, I will see Lord Bashu’s resolve through to the end.”

That much, at least, Ryo stated clearly.

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

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

“Yeah, figures.”

Ryo and Abel were standing on the roof of the detached building where they had stayed.

Since it was a one-story structure, getting up there had been easy once they set up an ice ladder.

However, the wall surrounding the palace was fairly high.

It was probably around five meters from the ground.

From where the two of them were, they could vaguely see inside the wall, but they could not confirm how many troops the attackers had deployed beyond it.

“It can’t be helped.”

“Hm?”

“.”

When Ryo cast it, a thick, truly massive pillar of ice—one that looked to be around four meters in diameter—rose from the rooftop and lifted the two of them to a height of around ten meters.

From there, they could see beyond the wall too.

“There are quite a lot of enemies too.”

“There are around two thousand just near the south gate, aren’t there? Beyond the eastern wall... ah, there are troops beyond the western wall too. All together, aren’t there around five thousand?”

“There are. The north side of the palace is a cliff, so it seems they can’t deploy a large army there, but they’re attacking from the other three directions. I don’t know how much force the Grand Duke’s side has defending it, but one thing is certain—this won’t be an easy fight.”

Both Ryo and Abel had seen their share of battlefields by now.

They had not been pleasant experiences in the slightest... but they were still experience.

Because of that, they had grown able to understand at a glance how much strength the enemy had, and how much strength their own side had.

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

“The attackers’ magical bombardment... honestly, there’s not that much of it.”

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

“Ah... and with only so much arrow fire, they’re pushing toward the gate with close-quarters combat...”

“And naturally, they’re being shot from above the wall.”

Emotionally speaking, both Ryo and Abel leaned toward the Grand Duke’s side.

That could not be helped.

The new Grand Duke, Bashu, was earnestly and sincerely trying his best to serve as Grand Duke.

There had to be many people who wanted to root for him.

By contrast, the attackers centered around House Bubly...

To begin with, Ryo and Abel knew no one on that side.

They had no reason to support them.

And even so, this attack...

“It doesn’t look refined.”

“It’s crude.”

That was what both Ryo and Abel could not help but think.

“That said, siege warfare is difficult to begin with.”

“That’s true. In my homeland, there are sayings like: if you want to attack a castle, prepare four times the strength of the defenders—or no, six times—or no, no, no, assaulting a castle at all is the height of folly... things like that.”

“I always think this, but your homeland is incredible. It has books on how to educate rulers in city libraries, and all sorts of books on military strategy...”

“The people of the past must have understood how important it was, from the perspective of historical study, to preserve things in books.”

For some reason, Ryo puffed out his chest proudly.

Of course, the fact that so many books remained had nothing to do with Ryo.

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

“Indeed. No military strategist would deny that.”

“Then this south gate is just bait to draw attention.”

“I see. The attackers aren’t aiming to break through the gate and get inside. Another unit is supposed to decide the battle.”

“And naturally, that would be...”

“Mr. Zuruma’s original clan. The Gyuga clan.”

Abel and Ryo were in complete agreement.

The Gyuga clan—assassins like them—would slip into the main palace from somewhere and assassinate Grand Duke Bashu... if that succeeded, the attackers would win.

“Maybe they’ve already...?”

“Yeah. They may already be inside.”

From atop the , Ryo and Abel turned their eyes toward the main palace.

The assassins advanced in silence.

Every one of them had the layout of the main palace memorized.

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

But before they could even notice anything was wrong, their throats were slit.

In silence, shadows encroached on the main palace.

The Gyuga clan had infiltrated it.

But...

Clang, clang...

Sound was born in a world that had been soundless.

A battle between shadows and shadows began.

A true dark struggle.

In combat skill, the Gyuga clan held the advantage.

But this was the royal palace of the Grand Duchy of Atinjo.

It was the home ground of the shadows who met them here... and they had the terrain on their side.

“Tch.”

The eyepatched man leading the Gyuga clan clicked his tongue before he could stop himself.

“Zuruma’s trained force, is it? Their technique is crude, but they’re used to fighting inside this building.”

“Of course they are.”

The instant he heard that voice, the eyepatched man, Lukiya, reflexively twisted his body.

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

“You walked right into a trap.”

“Shut up!”

Zuruma appeared and faced Lukiya.

All around them, the Gyuga clan’s infiltration had been halted, and violent clashes of blades were beginning to erupt.

“Special Protection Unit, Foreign Affairs Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A unit meant to meet assassins like the Gyuga clan here in the palace.”

“And you think such slapdash technique can stop us? You of all people were once called one of the Gyuga clan’s finest. Then you should know—Gyuga blades cannot be stopped.”

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

“What are you—”

Just as Lukiya tried to fire back at Zuruma’s words—

a small red light shot out from Zuruma’s hand.

It was not attack magic.

“A signal?”

Lukiya muttered.

The next instant,

a flash lit up the area.

At the same time, a deafening roar erupted.

A flash and a thunderous blast inside an enclosed interior.

At Zuruma’s red signal, alchemy devices set throughout the palace that produced blinding light and explosive sound had activated.

The Special Protection Unit that had prepared for it took no damage.

But the Gyuga clan was a different story.

For those accustomed to darkness and to fighting indoors where there was little light, a flash and a thunderous blast were fatal.

Their sight was stolen, and their hearing was shattered.

They stopped moving on reflex.

Even the experienced ones immediately put their backs to the wall, but in the end, they still could not move for a while.

And so began a one-sided slaughter by the Special Protection Unit.

The tide had clearly tilted toward the Grand Duke’s side.