Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 690: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (18)

0690 Encounter

“...”

Abel was so stunned he could not say a word.

“Just as I thought.”

Muttering that, Ryo nodded with a smug look.

“What was supposed to be Abel’s buried past has now come to light.”

“No, that’s...”

Abel was so confused he could not even properly retort to what Ryo was saying.

But one thing slipped from his mouth anyway.

“This has to be some kind of mistake.”

“That’s what criminals always say.”

Ryo leveled the accusation.

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

“They... did, in fact... say that...”

“Abel, you should admit it.”

“To begin with, that whole story you were just telling was nothing but one of your delusions, wasn’t it? The fact that a situation matching it even exists is ridiculous.”

Abel resisted with pure common sense.

“The story that came into my head must have pierced straight through to the truth. I’ve seen countless sides of you by now, Abel. I remember everything you say and do. A story imagined from all that must have brought into the light the part of your past you never consciously revealed, and never told anyone about.”

“As if that were possible!”

“There’s a saying: truth is stranger than fiction. Whether you can believe it or not, facts are facts. No matter how hard someone tries to hide the truth, it can’t be done. Heaven sees everything!”

Deliberately mixing up “fact” and “truth,” Ryo pressed his case.

Even Abel was thrown off by that and, unusually, found himself on the back foot.

Of course, nothing productive would come from Ryo pressing Abel like this.

That was right—this was a completely fruitless line of attack.

It was then that they noticed the puzzled looks the three men were giving them.

“Come on, Abel. They’re waiting to hear your voice.”

“No, even if you say that...”

Ryo urged him on.

Abel looked at the three men kneeling on one knee and spoke.

“Hey. Aren’t you mistaking me for someone else?”

“Even at this point, Abel is still saying that...”

“No, but...”

Ryo shrugged as if in exasperation, and Abel, still thoroughly bewildered, argued back.

The man in the center of the three opened his mouth.

“That red hair, the appearance we were told about, and the sword on your back—it is a demonic sword, is it not?”

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

“See!”

Ryo crowed.

But something about the man’s words struck Abel as odd.

“You just said ‘the appearance we were told about’?”

“Yes.”

“So you don’t know me personally. You only heard what I looked like from someone else?”

“Yes. I heard it from our previous chief, who died a year ago.”

“I see.”

At the man’s answer, Abel gave a large nod.

The confusion vanished from his face.

Then he turned to Ryo and said:

“See? That’s what this is.”

“What a shame. I was so close.”

“How were you ‘so close’?!”

And with that, the suspicion that Abel had once been a bandit chief was cleared away.

“Tell me in detail about what that chief said.”

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

“Our previous chief could sometimes see the future.”

“Precognition?”

The word slipped out of Ryo’s mouth.

Abel glanced briefly at him, then, still silent, returned his gaze to the man.

“It was at the very end, just before he died, that the previous chief spoke of Lord Abel... no, of King Abel.”

“So it was a dying message?”

“Yes... that is how those of us left behind understand it.”

When the man in the center said that, the two men kneeling on either side of him both began to cry soundlessly.

“We have been fighting a certain... force for a long time.”

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

“The previous chief led us for many years, but he lost his life in a large battle a year ago. And at the very edge of death, he told everyone about King Abel before passing away.”

“That force you’re fighting... was that the group you were battling just now?”

“As expected! You understood even that?”

All three men were startled that Abel had guessed correctly.

Of course, that was only because Ryo had told Abel what he had detected with sonar.

Which was why, out of the corner of his eye, Abel could see Ryo standing behind him with his arms folded, nodding away, and it left him with no idea what expression he was supposed to make.

After letting out one long sigh, Abel went on:

“Well, you managed to beat them back, didn’t you? So that’s good, isn’t it?”

“Their followers... were human.”

The man in the center answered with a grimace.

“Because they were followers? That means... your real enemy isn’t human, doesn’t it?”

Abel pressed him on the implication behind those words.

“Yes. The previous chief was killed by that thing...”

“That thing... no, wait. Who exactly are the people you’ve been fighting?”

Abel asked.

But the man in the center gave a small shake of his head.

“My apologies. We do not know for certain. However...”

“However?”

“The previous chief called them Demon Men cultists.”

“Demon Men?”

“Cultists?”

At that answer, both Abel and Ryo tilted their heads.

“You mean Demon Men as in those Demon Men?”

“I don’t know. More importantly, you said this before, didn’t you, Ryo? Demon Men... or at the time, Spermelno. You said Spermelno came in from the Central Countries and caused all kinds of trouble...”

“Yes, and we asked the Phantom King about it. Judging from his reaction, I think we were right. This is just my guess, but maybe the Corridor was closed to keep them from coming in.”

“And once the Central Countries no longer had any Demon Men left, it was safe to open the Corridor again.”

Ryo and Abel worked through the logic together.

“If that’s true, then this is strange.”

“The strange part would be that there are people called ‘Demon Men cultists’ here in the Eastern Countries, right?”

Exactly. If there were no Demon Men in the present-day Eastern Countries, then the existence of people who seemed to worship them was... logically strange, was it not?

“They do apparently show up in legends and old tales. So maybe someone’s using that to gather followers?”

“That seems the most likely explanation.”

Abel nodded at Ryo’s theory.

Some religions worked that way.

“But if that’s the case, then the person leading those followers—their prophet or founder or whatever—is pretty capable, isn’t he?”

“...Is he?”

“Just building an organization is hard enough. Gathering money, gathering people. And on top of that, if they also have a fighting force strong enough to be waging war against these people...”

“This is starting to sound like something Darwei should be dealing with as a state.”

Abel gave a small shake of his head.

But then, the next instant—

“”

Gakin!

Ryo and Abel reacted at the same time.

Ryo threw up an ice wall, while Abel drew his sword and launched forward—

and caught the other man’s blade.

The man had appeared there without warning.

Light blue hair, red eyes, as tall as Abel, but with far more muscle packed onto his frame.

Abel caught the downward strike of that man’s sword with his usual demonic sword.

“Ohhh?”

The light-blue-haired man raised one cheek in a grin.

“I hadn’t heard there was a demonic sword wielder among them. So you joined them recently, did you?”

“Ryo, handle the defense. I’ll take this one.”

“No problem. I’m already doing it!”

Abel and Ryo spoke as though ignoring the light-blue-haired man completely.

“Demonic sword wielder, did you just say you’d take me?”

“Light-blue hair, if you didn’t hear me, I’ll say it again. I’m the one who’ll take you.”

“Now that’s interesting!”

With a vicious expression, the light-blue-haired man shouted back.

Gakin! Gakin! Gakin!...

A furious barrage began.

The power and speed behind it were terrifying.

It would be hard for any ordinary person to take that head-on.

And yet—

“You’re deflecting every blow?”

“What’s wrong, light-blue hair? Is this all you’ve got?”

“Demonic sword wielder!”

Provoked by Abel, the light-blue-haired man’s sword grew even faster.

But Abel’s defense did not break.

“Tch.”

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

He had taken distance to change the rhythm of the fight.

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

And then—

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Muttering that, he sheathed his sword.

Abel kept his sword up, still wary, even as he fixed the man with a suspicious stare.

“We’ll do this over.”

“Oh? Running ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) away now?”

Abel taunted him.

He understood the man was a formidable opponent, but he had not gotten much information out of him yet.

A few more clashes, and he might have learned more—

that was why he provoked him.

“Hmph. One day, you’ll get more fighting than you can stand. Later.”

The light-blue-haired man said that, then vanished in an instant.

Yes—at a speed even Ryo’s sonar could not track.

It had failed to catch him when he appeared, and it failed to catch him when he left.

“This is bad.”

Ryo spoke bitterly.

“It seems the previous chief was right.”

“Abel?”

“I’ve fought one before, so I know. That light-blue-haired man is a servant of the Demon Men.”