Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 689: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (17)

0689 Where Abel Returns

Ten days after Ryo and Abel left the residence of Count Soupun of Vivi.

“Abel, aren’t you a king?”

“I am. A king, yes.”

“And kings sometimes use state power to oppress the people, don’t they?”

“I don’t recall ever doing that, but I suppose there may be kings who do.”

Abel deftly sidestepped the argument Ryo was trying to pick and turned it into a discussion of generalities.

“So kings are often bad people. Which means Abel is a bad person too, right?”

“Mm. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.”

Apparently this was the kind of argument that had absolutely nothing to do with logic.

“Come to think of it, Ryo, aren’t you the Premier Duke?”

“Hm? Well, yes, I suppose that’s... a possibility...”

Something in Abel’s words carried an ominous note, and Ryo tried to dodge.

“A duke is on the side of power too. Near the top of the people who wield state power.”

“S-some people might think that, and some people might not...”

“So in the end, you must be a bad guy too.”

“I strive every day to be a duke who stands close to the people.”

Faced with Abel’s conclusion, Ryo countered with his daily principles.

There was no lie in that feeling.

...Probably.

Trading that sort of idle banter, the party went on.

Naturally, each of them rode his beloved horse, and behind them followed five enormous ice s.

Yes, somehow, they had increased from four to five.

It was the result of Ryo buying more and more supplies while saying things like, “Once we leave Darwei, there’s no telling when or where we’ll be able to restock.”

Ryo was not the sort of traveler who wandered about with no plan at all.

He was, in fact, extremely methodical.

“When it was just you and me, you were sloppy as hell...”

“Of course. I can ask you to put up with things, Abel, but I can’t make Andalusia suffer.”

At Ryo’s words, Andalusia neighed happily.

Ryo had arbitrarily decided that Andalusia understood human speech perfectly.

Then—

“Hm?”

The word slipped out of Ryo’s mouth before he realized it.

Abel, riding alongside him on Feiwan, heard it too.

“What is it?”

Still tilting his head, Ryo rode on for a little while longer, then said:

“.”

Transparent walls of ice sprang up around the party.

It was Ryo’s defensive ice wall, meant for situations where he expected an attack.

That was why it was “ten-layer.”

“An ambush?”

“I think it’s still just surveillance for now... but I’m guessing they’re probably bandits, or brigands, or that sort of people.”

“This would be considered frontier territory for Darwei, after all.”

“For the last two or three days, it’s been nothing but small villages. But even if it’s the frontier, that’s no reason public order should be allowed to go bad.”

“You’re right. But reality tends to work out that way, doesn’t it?”

Ryo fumed as he thought of the people who lived in the frontier, while Abel, as a king, merely shrugged at the realities of ruling a state.

No one liked bad public order.

To live in peace and safety... for the people and for the nation alike, that was one of the most important and wonderful things of all.

It was hard to imagine there could be anything worth gaining at the cost of public order.

“Peaceful, safe, secure—that’s best.”

“It is.”

Ryo and Abel were adventurers who knew the value of peace.

“Hm?”

A minute later, Ryo tilted his head again.

“What is it?”

“There are more watchers now.”

Ryo answered Abel’s question, but he still sounded unconvinced.

“Does that mean the attack is close?”

“No, that’s the thing... I think the people who just joined the surveillance are from a different group.”

“Hm? So you mean two separate organizations are watching us?”

“Yes, yes. That’s what it amounts to.”

Ryo nodded.

“We were planning to camp tonight, weren’t we?”

“That’s right. At least, the map they gave us didn’t show any large town. And if it’s just a village, they won’t let us stay inside a house. Realistically, we’d only be borrowing an empty patch of ground at the edge of the village, right? So in the end, it’s camping.”

Both Abel and Ryo were adventurers, so they were used to camping out.

Though really, even if they called it camping...

“I just surround us with , so it’s no hardship at all.”

“You really are convenient, Ryo.”

“Heh heh heh. This is the true value of water-attribute magic.”

“That sounds less like water-attribute magic and more like the fact that you’re not normal...”

Ryo puffed out his chest proudly, and Abel made a minor correction.

Either way, they certainly would not be spending the night at some luxury inn with open-air baths attached to the rooms.

That much was settled.

They went on farther.

“Hmm...”

“What is it? Something again?”

Once more, Ryo tilted his head, and Abel asked.

“The two groups that were watching us seem to have started fighting.”

“Ah, so that’s it.”

Abel nodded at Ryo’s report.

He seemed to have some idea what was going on.

“In other words, those two organizations were probably already fighting over this region to begin with. Then we wandered into the middle of it. Each side started watching us because they thought we might be new reinforcements for the other...”

“That would explain it. More or less.”

“More or less? Is there something even more likely?”

Ryo’s meaningful tone made Abel tilt his head this time.

“In fact, one side is the bandit gang you used to lead, Abel.”

“What?”

“Before you became king... no, maybe even before you formed Red Sword. That bandit gang was a vicious, ruthless lot who committed every kind of evil imaginable. And naturally, it was all Abel’s fault as their leader.”

“...”

“The people who were watching us were delighted and astonished that cruel old chieftain Abel had returned. But they weren’t the only ones to spot you. The people from the local Magistrate’s Office—who suffered terribly at the hands of you and your men back then—spotted you too.”

“...”

“They attacked the bandits’ lookouts. Because if the surviving bandits and their former chief Abel joined forces again, misery might descend on this land once more. That is the true story behind the battle happening right now.”

“...”

“Of course, Abel later turned over a new leaf and succeeded as an adventurer. He even became king. But even so, the bandits he left behind never forgot him. They must have spent all these years believing that one day, that ruthless and merciless Abel would return and lead them once more...”

Ryo finished his tale.

For some reason, he looked extremely satisfied.

Abel, on ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the other hand, said nothing.

Naturally, he was not satisfied in the slightest.

“I always think this, but I really don’t understand how you keep coming up with one delusion after another like that.”

Abel said it with a sigh.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really.”

“That wasn’t praise.”

For some reason, Ryo looked bashful, while Abel shook his head.

Naturally, the whole thing was nothing but one of Ryo’s delusions.

After a while, the fighting seemed to end.

Then, five minutes later, three men were standing in the road ahead, waiting for them.

Ryo already understood that they were some of the bandits or brigands who had been watching them first.

As the two riders approached, the three men dropped to one knee in salute.

Then they spoke.

“Welcome back, Lord Abel.”