novelraw Vol 3. Chapter 687: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (14)
Vol 3. Chapter 687: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (14)
0687 A Fine Inn and Visitors
“The straw bedding was clean, and Andalusia and the others looked comfortable too.”
“Yeah. You can tell whether an inn is good or not just by looking at the stable.”
“Thank you very much.”
Ryo praised it, Abel agreed, and the inn attendant guiding them smiled and bowed.
Ryo, Abel, and their beloved horses had managed to secure lodging in the town of Chuarow.
And not just any lodging.
The finest inn in town.
That was the result of Ryo asking a fruit seller at a street stall as soon as they entered town.
Surely it was only his imagination that the fruit seller’s face had twitched under the invisible pressure radiating from the gigantic
The inn the fruit seller named was called Blossom on the Ridge.
“And about these
“It would be difficult to place them indoors, but would outdoors be acceptable? We could cover them with a large waterproof sheet.”
“Ah, outdoors is fine. There’s no need for a waterproof sheet either, just let us leave them as they are.”
“In that case, to the back yard. This way, please.”
When Ryo asked where he could leave the four
A luxury inn can answer every request a guest may have.
That is precisely why people stay there, even if the price is a bit high.
Even when something is physically or logistically impossible, the response is not “We can’t do that,” but rather, “Would this method work instead?”—a proposed solution through some other means.
A true triumph of staff training!
That night, the two of them went into the inn’s hot spring.
Yes, a hot spring!
“I never imagined there’d be a hot spring here!”
Ryo came back from it excited all by himself.
To be honest, Abel’s calmness—he could not really tell the difference between this and an ordinary bath—stood in sharp contrast to that excitement.
“Come to think of it, I heard there was a hot spring area near Hanlin, the Imperial Capital, but in the end we never went. So getting to try one here was lucky!”
“R-right.”
“And if it’s a hot spring inn, then the food has to be good too!”
“Is that how it works?”
Ryo declared it flatly, and Abel asked the question.
“As far as I know, the odds are high.”
“Well, the fruit seller did say this was the finest inn in town. Let’s look forward to it.”
That night, the two of them could be seen savoring an excellent dinner in the dining hall of the inn Blossom on the Ridge.
“That was good!”
“Yes, it really surprised me. Especially the mapo tofu... or was it called mapotof? It went well past merely spicy and into truly fierce territory, but it was somehow addictive.”
“Yeah, that one. It was like the deliciousness kept coming in waves between the bursts of heat.”
“As expected of you, Abel, that’s a fine way to put it!”
Both Abel and Ryo thoroughly enjoyed the dinner.
And so, after the two of them had finished even dessert and were slowly drinking their after-dinner tea, the inn attendant came over.
“Was dinner to your liking?”
“It was good.”
“It was exquisite.”
Both Abel and Ryo answered with satisfaction to the attendant’s question.
“That is wonderful to hear.”
The attendant said so with a smile, and then spoke words that made very little sense at first.
“Someone from the magistrate’s office has come asking for the two of you.”
“The magistrate’s office?”
“Why would they want us?”
Both Abel and Ryo tilted their heads.
“Sorry, but isn’t there some kind of mistake?”
What Abel asked was only natural.
They knew no one here...
“They confirmed it after seeing the four large pieces of luggage placed in the back yard.”
“Ah... those are definitely our things.”
Ryo admitted it, but still tilted his head.
“Well, let’s meet them.”
“There’s not much else we can do.”
Abel and Ryo followed the attendant out of the dining hall.
They were led to one corner of the lobby, where chairs had been arranged so that guests could pass the time at leisure.
There, about ten people were seated.
When they saw Ryo and Abel arrive, the ten people stood up.
“These are the people from the Chuarow Magistrate’s Office who have come to see you.”
After introducing them like that, the attendant bowed and withdrew.
“I am Hyuran, Deputy Magistrate of Chuarow. But before that... well?”
The Deputy Magistrate Hyuran, who looked to be in his mid-forties, said that and turned to the five who stood behind him, men who were obviously adventurers at a glance.
“No mistake. It’s those two.”
One of the adventurers answered like that.
Ryo and Abel flicked a glance at each other.
Both of them had noticed.
The five adventurers were the same people who had stood there with annoyed expressions during the caravan brawl earlier that day.
In other words, the adventurer guards hired by those caravans.
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran gave a single nod, then spoke.
“I’m sure this is sudden and has taken you by surprise. Let’s sit and talk first.”
And so Deputy Magistrate Hyuran, five men who appeared to be his subordinates, the five adventurers, and the two of them, Ryo and Abel... all twelve sat down in absurdly comfortable chairs.
“These five are Winter Thunder, a Third-rank adventurer party based in Chuarow.”
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran introduced the five adventurers.
The five gave light nods.
“May I ask your names?”
“Sixth-rank adventurer Abel.”
“And likewise, Sixth-rank adventurer Ryo.”
Both Abel and Ryo answered Hyuran’s question plainly.
There was no particular reason to hide it.
For some reason, upon hearing that, the five from Winter Thunder nodded.
“Hm. So, as Winter Thunder said, you really are adventurers. When I saw you transporting those great loads, I thought you were merchants.”
“You saw us transporting them?”
“Yes. We happened to be coming up from behind when you passed the disturbance. Those loads were so enormous that they left an impression.”
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran answered.
At that, Ryo’s eyes widened dramatically.
He was muttering things like, “That’s impossible,” and, “I was trying to keep from standing out.”
In response, Abel... merely gave a small shake of his head, and by now said nothing at all.
“I would like to confirm something. At the time of that disturbance, it was water-attribute magic you used to get past it, correct?”
“Uh...”
At Deputy Magistrate Hyuran’s question, Ryo hesitated just a little before answering.
Questions like this were always bound to drag him into trouble.
But...
“Y-yes, that would be the case.”
He did not think he needed to lie outright to conceal it, so he answered honestly.
“If you are a water-attribute magician and an adventurer, then this is simple.”
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran leaned forward and began to explain.
Put simply, he wanted Ryo to help with the flood-control works that the magistrate’s office was overseeing.
To alter the course of a river that flooded whenever heavy rains came—one of those “common examples” in all times and places where the intentions of the people and the administration largely aligned.
Ryo, being a water-attribute magician, would indeed be useful.
But there was something strange about it too.
“Up until now, haven’t flood-control works been carried out just fine even without any water-attribute magicians?”
Ryo voiced the simple question.
Yes.
Flood-control works were carried out even without water-attribute magicians.
All over the world.
In every age.
Why, even on Earth—where there was no magic... no, according to Michael (temporary name), where magic had ceased to be used—there had still been countless flood-control works without magic.
And now Ryo was necessary for one?
“When you say flood-control works, do you mean a riverworks project? Diverting the river’s flow and such?”
“No, what is being done this time is the relocation of a lake.”
“The relocation... of a lake?”
Ryo was startled by Deputy Magistrate Hyuran’s answer.
Riverworks projects that altered the course of rivers had been carried out often enough in every age and place.
But artificially “relocating a lake” was not something one heard about very often.
Usually, when it came to lakes and ponds, they were not relocated—they were simply filled in.
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran was an experienced administrator.
He naturally understood that a project like “relocating a lake” was almost unheard of.
That was why he seemed to feel he ought to explain in more detail.
“It is an old lake called Sweet Dew Lake, but we absolutely had to cut into it for the flood-control works this time. However, that brought about fierce opposition from the local people... In the end, we were only able to win their understanding by agreeing to relocate it about one kilometer away and run a branch channel for a newly dug irrigation canal through the new site.”
Deputy Magistrate Hyuran explained it with a bitter smile.
In most cases, large-scale public works moved forward while simply ignoring the wishes of the people...
Ryo’s opinion of Deputy Magistrate Hyuran rose at once.
At heart, Ryo was basically a good person, and seeing someone in trouble made him want to help.
“The new Sweet Dew Lake basin has already been prepared. So we tried to stop the inflow into the old Sweet Dew Lake and connect a drainage channel to empty the water from the lake, but...”
“But?”
“For some reason, every time, before work can even begin on the final section of the drainage channel, the tools are broken, and during the night the embankment that blocks the inflow is destroyed.”
“What...?”
Hyuran looked troubled, and Ryo looked astonished.
Abel remained silent, but his brow had tightened.
Ryo was the sort of soft-hearted person who, when he saw someone in trouble, wanted to help.
Even so, this...
“That... doesn’t really seem like it has anything to do with a water-attribute magician...”
“That may be so. But since it is happening around the lake each time... it was decided that we should at least have an excellent water-attribute magician look at it once. However, there is not a single water-attribute magician registered with the Adventurers’ Mutual Aid Association here in Chuarow.”
“Ah...”
Ryo gave a small nod.
He had heard that even the Mutual Aid Association in Hanlin, the Imperial Capital, barely had any water-attribute magicians.
To begin with, water-attribute magicians did not become adventurers...
“To be honest, I don’t really understand it myself, so...”
Ryo said that much, then glanced at Abel.
Abel nodded silently.
Which meant: all right.
“Still, I’d like to take a look at the site tomorrow, if possible.”
“Oh, thank you!”
At Ryo’s words, Hyuran nodded happily.
“Um, whether I accept the request or not would come after that...”
“That is fine. We will arrange for the Adventurers’ Mutual Aid Association to pay a reward just for coming to inspect it. Of course, if you accept it, there will be more.”
“Ah, yes...”
Pressed by Hyuran’s momentum, Ryo nodded.
They made arrangements for someone to come pick them up at eight the next morning, and then Hyuran and the other ten left.
After the ten had gone, Ryo and Abel returned to the dining hall and drank tea once more.
“I have a bad feeling about this request.”
Ryo muttered it with a grave expression.
Abel looked at him sidelong.
But his eyes were flat and dubious.
Apparently, he had seen through something.
“What is that look, Abel?!”
Ryo protested.
“No, you just said that at random, with no basis at all, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
At Abel’s pursuit, Ryo’s eyes darted away.
“It was just one of those convenient lines where you say something like that so you’ll look thoughtful, right?”
“How was I found out...?”
“It just felt like the kind of thing you’d do, Ryo. I’ve started to understand.”
“Damn... one by one, the techniques I’ve polished over time are being seen through. It feels like I’m an onion being peeled layer by layer.”
“What kind of comparison is that?”
Abel shrugged at Ryo’s strange metaphor.
Ryo recovered himself, took a sip of tea, and then opened his mouth again.
“Abel, you are, at least technically, His Majesty the King, right?”
“That’s right. Technically, I am the king.”
“So that means you ought to know a lot about the kind of flood-control works carried out in the Knightley Kingdom too, right?”
“I don’t know whether I’d call it a lot, but... I studied what was necessary.”
In response to Ryo’s slightly barbed way of speaking, Abel answered without feeling the slightest sting from it.
Habit was a terrifying thing.
“Within all that rich experience, have you ever seen a case like this?”
“No. To begin with, no one relocates a lake.”
“Exactly.”
Ryo nodded vigorously in agreement with Abel’s answer.
Yes.
That was the first problem in the first place.
“As for the kinds of trouble that come up around flood-control works... there are land rights issues, I suppose. But those are settled before the project begins, and only then does the construction start.”
“The kind of thing you solve with money, then.”
Ryo nodded at Abel’s explanation.
If you piled up enough money, most problems could be solved.
That was public works...
Apparently, the region of Ryo’s memory concerning public works had become somewhat distorted.
“Still, if the tools are being broken, then it has to be sabotage by someone. The question becomes: who?”
“I think it’s lake bandits.”
“Lake bandits? What is that?”
Ryo answered with total confidence, and Abel frowned.
“The bandits that appear in the mountains are mountain bandits. The ones that appear on the sea are pirates. This time they appear on a lake, so they’re lake bandits.”
“I’ve never heard of such bandits. What kind of people are they?”
“How should I know?”
“Hey...”
“I only just thought of them.”
“I was wrong to expect anything.”
Abel let out a tremendous sigh.
Even with familiarity, it seemed perfection remained out of reach.
“It’s possible they have a secret base... a stronghold... hidden inside the lake.”
“What?”
“And every night, the lake splits apart, and a lake-bandit-exclusive airborne assault battleship rises into the sky.”
“That’s just your imagination, right, Ryo?”
“Yes, of course it is!”
“You really do come up with all kinds of things.”
Ryo puffed out his chest and declared it proudly, while Abel had gone past exasperation and was beginning to feel impressed.
Imagination was a precious thing.
“But if you think about it that way, everything fits together, doesn’t it?”
“It only fits together.”
“Well, whatever. I’ll make them righteous lake bandits and introduce them as Abel’s rivals in the sequel to That Abel, the Hungry Swordsman.”
“What?”
“They might become Abel’s eternal rival!”
“What kind of reaction am I supposed to have to that...?”
Abel gave a small shake of his head.
In the end, it was his usual reaction.
Early the next morning, Ryo and Abel woke up a little sooner than necessary.
Naturally, it was to go into the hot spring.
And when they came back out...
“A morning hot spring really is good!”
“Right?”
At Abel’s lively, invigorated words, Ryo nodded as if Abel had at last understood his heart completely.
The two of them then ate breakfast in high spirits.
After the two men, brimming with energy, returned to their room once, they looked down into the lobby from the top of the stairs at exactly eight o’clock, and saw that their escort had already arrived.
They had arrived, but...
“That’s only the adventurers from yesterday, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Just the five from Winter Thunder. Deputy Magistrate Hyuran isn’t here.”
Though tilting their heads, Abel and Ryo went down the stairs.
The five from Winter Thunder bowed.
The man in the center, who appeared to be the spearman, opened his mouth and explained.
“We’re Winter Thunder, the ones introduced yesterday. I’m the party leader, Kyunrai. This is Ranwu, our scout, Go, our earth-attribute magician, Ma, our fire-attribute curse-arts user, and Feiwei, our healer.”
The spearman, Kyunrai, introduced them briefly.
Ryo and Abel had already given their names yesterday.
But there was still a question to ask, and in situations like this Abel was always the one to speak first.
“The Deputy Magistrate Hyuran who came yesterday isn’t here? From the way he spoke yesterday, I thought he’d be coming to meet us too.”
“Yeah. Apparently some kind of strange occurrence happened at the site, and he’s been over there since the middle of the night. Someone from the magistrate’s office came and told us. So the five of us came to pick you two up on our own.”
“A strange occurrence?”
“We were only told the word ‘strange occurrence’ ourselves, so we weren’t told the details. Sorry.”
Even the spearman Kyunrai had no answer to Abel’s question.
He could do nothing but shrug.
Abel had already noticed the water-attribute magician beside him shifting restlessly.
But since Abel and Kyunrai had been talking, apparently he had dutifully waited for them to finish.
“Ryo, is there something bothering you?”
“You asked exactly what I was hoping you would, Abel. I have a question for Go and Ma!”
“Huh?”
At Ryo’s words, both the magician Go and the curse-arts user Ma answered at the same time.
The two of them looked very much alike.
More than that, they were probably twins.
Go wore ocher-colored clothes, while Ma’s were a dark crimson...
“First, I have a question for you, Ma, as a curse-arts user!”
“Yes?”
“Do curse-arts users also have attributes?”
“Yes, we do.”
“Ohhh...”
Ryo was visibly surprised by Ma’s answer.
He simply could not recall ever having asked about that explicitly before.
Curse-arts users used curse talismans.
And curse talismans could release magic of the four attributes... but viewed at the level of “magic power,” that power itself was not divided into attributes.
For example, just because an ice spear was fired from a curse talisman did not mean water-attribute magic power had been used.
Ryo was certain of that because he himself had tested it previously in battle against curse-arts users.
“It is said that each person’s attribute is something determined from birth. So whether one is a curse-arts user or a magician, the attribute one can use is fixed.”
“Ah, true.”
Ryo nodded vigorously at the curse-arts user Ma’s answer.
As for it being fixed from birth, Ryo remembered hearing that from Michael (temporary name), the administrator-like being of this world, Phi.
Thinking of it that way, perhaps it was only natural that curse-arts users also had fixed attributes.
Rather, the thing that was unusual was ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) probably the curse talisman itself.
“So the curse talismans themselves really are unaligned...”
Only Abel, standing beside him, heard Ryo’s muttered words.
“Ah, right! Just one more thing—this time for both of you, Go and Ma.”
“Yes?”
“If the two of you fought, which one would be stronger?”
“Me.”
The one who answered Ryo’s question without the slightest pause was the magician Go.
“Ohhh!”
As a magician himself, Ryo felt a small surge of delight.
“No. Depending on my condition, I would win, so there is hardly any difference between us.”
That retort came from the curse-arts user Ma.
“Ohhh...”
Ryo was startled by the force of that reply.
“Ma... my win rate is higher than yours, isn’t it?”
“Brother, at best it is only around sixty percent. That is barely a difference.”
The dispute between Go and Ma... was quickly settled.
“You’re both weaker than I am. We’re going to the site.”
The spearman Kyunrai stated it clearly and decisively.
Go and Ma turned resentful eyes toward him.
“So magicians and curse-arts users both have front-line fighters as their eternal enemy.”
Ryo nodded grandly as though he had arrived at a profound understanding, while Abel, himself a front-line fighter, merely shrugged.
All the while, the two women, the scout Ranwu and the healer Feiwei, had remained silent.
But Abel had seen it.
He had seen their lips move soundlessly, forming the words: “Again?”