Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 696: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (24)

0696 Beyond the Eastern Countries

Two travelers, two beloved horses, and five ice s—extremely enormous ones.

No matter how anyone looked at it, they would have called the group a very unusual traveling party.

“Abel may be a wonderful king and an exceptionally skilled swordsman.”

“Huh?”

“But out here on the frontier, such privileged status and positions are irrelevant. Everyone is equal.”

“R-right?”

“You have been glancing back at the s for a while now, but I know exactly what you’re plotting!”

“Plotting?”

Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s denunciation.

He had only been looking back now and then because the enormous s following behind them were still bothering him. There really was no plotting involved, so tilting his head was only natural.

“You were thinking of outwitting me and keeping everything inside for yourself, weren’t you? I see straight through you!”

“I had absolutely no intention of doing that.”

“Lies! They say the net of justice is vast and misses nothing. Evil deeds never succeed.”

“I don’t know what that net thing is supposed to be, but... yes, I suppose evil deeds not succeeding is true enough.”

“Exactly. Exactly.”

For some reason, Ryo nodded pompously.

“The supplies inside that enormous ice are...”

“These are all supplies for Andalusia.”

“Right... At least make it Andalusia and the others.”

“Very well. Supplies for Andalusia and the others, including Feiwan.”

When Ryo said that, Andalusia and Feiwan neighed happily.

Hearing them, Ryo once again nodded pompously.

“You have it rough too, Ryo.”

“Huh? Why would I have it rough?”

“If those supplies are for the horses, then your food won’t come out of them, right?”

“T-that may be true.”

“There’s still forest right now, so hunting is easy enough, but wasn’t the area around the Corridor supposed to have wasteland and deserts?”

Abel presented the information they had heard before leaving the Imperial Capital.

Ryo’s eyes widened.

“I-I think Andalusia and the others would be in trouble if we starved to death, so as an emergency measure, our share of food could come from...”

“You’re going to steal Andalusia and Feiwan’s food?”

“Gnn...”

Ryo was left with nothing to say.

It was not as if Abel was saying it to bully Ryo.

He was simply asking, out of pure concern, what Ryo thought they would do about securing food from here on.

But apparently, Ryo had not thought that far ahead...

“It can’t be helped. Today and tomorrow, I’ll have you show me what you can really do, Abel.”

“...What?”

Two days later, the enormous ice s following behind the two men and two horses had increased to twenty.

That was the result of the two of them hunting, gathering fruit, and in any case obtaining food.

“There are more of them...”

“It’s so we’ll be ready no matter what happens. Besides, the s follow on their own. It doesn’t matter how many there are, does it?”

At Abel’s honest impression, Ryo shrugged.

“As long as we’re going overland, no. But what if we travel by ship, like when we went upstream on the South River? They won’t fit aboard, so are we staying on land the whole way?”

“If we take a ship, then only we and Andalusia and the others will get on.”

“What about these supplies?”

“They’ll be in the river.”

“What?”

Abel was at a loss for words.

In his mind, he could see twenty ice s advancing along the riverbed.

“These are ice. Abel, do you know what happens when ice goes into water?”

“Uh... oh, right. It floats.”

“Exactly. These s will float on the river surface and follow us... hm?”

“What is it?”

Ryo’s words suddenly cut off, and Abel asked him what was wrong.

“On land, the wheels turn and they move forward, but on water or underwater, turning the wheels won’t make them advance...”

After saying that, Ryo covered his eyes with one hand.

If put into words, it would probably have been, “Oh no...”

“I need to think of another method.”

After a while, he raised his face and declared as much.

“No, we might not even get on a ship, right? For that matter, aren’t there no more great rivers like the South River?”

“That may be true, and it may not. I don’t want to reach that moment and say, ‘I didn’t think about it.’”

“R-right.”

Overwhelmed by Ryo’s resolve, Abel nodded.

It was not a bad thing to consider possibilities in advance...

As Ryo muttered this and that to himself, the party continued onward.

That was possible only because he was swaying atop Andalusia’s back, trusting him completely.

Beside him, Abel gave a small shrug and continued onward, swaying atop Feiwan.

Night.

The two men and two horses were camping outdoors.

For the last several days, they had not passed through any town or village where the party could stay.

Leaving the two horses aside, taking turns on watch with only two people was quite difficult.

After all, each of them would only be able to sleep half the time.

But with Ryo around, none of that mattered.

Inside a safe place enclosed by ice walls, Ryo and Abel—and of course Andalusia and Feiwan as well—could sleep peacefully.

“In that respect, I do think your magic is convenient, Ryo.”

“Exactly. Exactly.”

As expected, Ryo nodded pompously.

Abel shrugged and looked at the map.

“According to the plan, it should be tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. The place where the invisible wall that blocked the Corridor between here ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ and the Central Countries used to be. Marie... opened it a few months ago, I suppose, but I wonder what it looks like now.”

“Marie... that Phantomkin.”

Ryo spoke with a sense of excitement, and Abel recalled the female Phantomkin who had tormented Ryo with her astonishing sword technique.

“The wall that separated the Central Countries and the Eastern Countries for so long has disappeared. I expect quite a lot must have changed.”

“Probably. There’s even a possibility we won’t be able to advance.”

“Do you mean the ground collapsing... that sort of thing?”

“Yes. Of course, it’s only a possibility.”

“Abel said something ominous again.”

Ryo grimaced and shook his head slightly.

The next day, the party reached the point in question.

“It’s around here... right?”

“It should be... around here.”

Ryo and Abel advanced while swaying atop their respective beloved horses.

Yes. They could advance without issue.

“There isn’t anything strange, is there?”

“No. Well, we don’t even know what that Phantomkin actually did in concrete terms.”

“I’m glad Abel’s strange prophecy didn’t come true.”

“Prophecy...”

“If there had been an enormous cataclysm, the earth split open, magma erupted, and every living creature died out... I would hate for the world to have turned into something like that.”

“That reflects Ryo’s imagination much more strongly than any prophecy of mine.”

Abel shook his head slightly.

The party advanced without anything happening after all.

“Surely we’ve passed the invisible wall by now, haven’t we?”

“Yes. In the end, nothing happened.”

Abel let out a sigh of relief.

“Which means we’ve passed out of the Eastern Countries, right?”

“That would be the case.”

“Which means we’ve entered the Central Countries, right?”

Ryo asked happily.

But Abel tilted his head.

“I wonder about that.”

“Huh?”

“It’s true that we’ve left the Eastern Countries... but we’re still in that Corridor or whatever they call it, aren’t we? I’ve never heard of this Corridor. Which means calling a place the king of a Central Country doesn’t even know about part of the Central Countries is...”

“...So because Abel hasn’t studied enough, this place can’t be certified as part of the Central Countries?”

Ryo looked at him dubiously.

“That’s not what I said. I’m saying this area belongs neither to the Eastern Countries nor the Central Countries.”

“It can’t be helped. I’ll preserve Abel’s dignity and accept that for now.”

“Hey...”

Abel nearly snapped at Ryo’s words.

But Abel, who had learned patience as a king, did not snap over something of this level.

“Even if this isn’t the Central Countries, we’ll reach the Central Countries if we keep heading west, right?”

“Yes, probably.”

“Which country in the Central Countries will we arrive in?”

“Most likely... the Federation, or one of the small countries around it.”

“When you say a small country around it, do you mean somewhere like the Jue Kingdom?”

Ryo asked.

The Jue Kingdom was the homeland of Prince Willie, Ryo’s disciple.

Before Ryo departed for the Western Countries, Willie had still been staying in the Jue Kingdom, but what about now?

“Yes, the Jue Kingdom is what you’d call a small country... but among the countries around the Federation, it’s on the larger side.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. There should be several countries far smaller than the Jue Kingdom. To begin with, the Federation’s official name is the Handaru Federation. As the name ‘federation of nations’ implies, it’s a federal state formed from many small countries.”

“So there are likely to be many small states that haven’t joined that federation on the eastern side of the Federation... beyond this Corridor.”

“That’s right.”

Abel nodded.

Abel was the king of the Knightley Kingdom, one of the leading powers of the Central Countries.

Before becoming king, he had been an adventurer, but from birth until the age of eighteen, he had received a proper education as royalty.

That included education on the Central Countries as a whole.

Whatever Ryo might say, Abel was a serious and capable king.

The two men, two horses, and twenty s continued farther west.

In truth, they had once eaten through one ’s worth of food.

However, immediately afterward, they had been attacked by a Wyvern that appeared from nowhere.

As usual, Ryo pinned the Wyvern to the ground, and Abel delivered the finishing blow, resolving the matter without incident.

As a bonus, they obtained a magic stone and Wyvern meat.

That meat filled one , so... they were back to twenty.

“There really are Wyverns everywhere, aren’t there?”

“And this one was an adult. Ordinary Wyvern hunts usually target juveniles.”

“I can see mountain ranges to the north and south. Do you think it came from around there?”

“Maybe. This place is called the Corridor, and the mountains do close in quite a bit. But those mountains are fairly high, aren’t they?”

“The mountain north of Rondo’s forest... the one called the Demon Mountain, was it? They may be as high as that, or even higher.”

“Yes. Calling this place the Corridor, sandwiched between two mountain ranges, is very apt.”

Ryo and Abel continued chatting leisurely as they swayed atop their beloved horses.

Andalusia and Feiwan were both intelligent, so there was nothing for the two of them to do.

At most, they simply looked at the scenery and made idle conversation.

That said, Ryo did at least keep on.

For example, it would be a serious problem if they were suddenly attacked by an invisible monster.

However...

“Huh?”

“What is it?”

Abel reacted to Ryo’s mutter.

“About one kilometer ahead, I think there are people... no, a village, or something like a settlement.”

“Oh.”

“What is that reaction? Is King Abel planning to order us to attack a village without even issuing a demand for surrender?”

“Right, I have no idea what you mean. Why would we attack a village?”

“In my homeland, there’s a saying: the first move wins. Personally, I would feel reluctant to attack a village that hasn’t done anything wrong, but if Abel orders it as king, I have no choice but to obey.”

For some reason, Ryo said this while making a show of wiping tears with his hand.

Naturally, it was fake crying.

In the first place, Abel had given no such order. Nor would he ever.

“Do not attack the village. Do not issue a demand for surrender. We want to build peaceful relations. Is that good enough?”

“What will we do if they launch a preemptive attack? What if the villagers say, ‘Those are fine horses. Leave all your supplies and the horses behind’?”

“People don’t normally say that.”

“What if they do? Abel, you are a king, so you should assume the worst and hope for the best... That is the proper form of a ruler.”

“I see. If that happens, then you protect us, Ryo. With your usual ice wall.”

“A strictly defensive posture, then. It can’t be helped. Let us pray the enemy’s attack power is low.”

“No human could pierce Ryo’s ice anyway.”

Ryo did not hear Abel’s final mutter.

They advanced for a while.

“Stop! Get down from the horses!”

Five men who had run out of the village in a panic held up spear-like objects and shouted.

“See? It’s the ‘get off the horses and leave everything behind’ pattern!”

“Is it?”

Ryo declared it as fact, and Abel expressed doubt.

The things the five men held were long, like spears... but there was no metal attached to their tips.

They were nothing more than sharpened wood.

Those people were going to do something like highway robbery?

Abel found it a little difficult to imagine.

“Well, I suppose we can get off the horses.”

“We won’t be able to flee at speed, you know?”

“We weren’t going to do that in the first place. I can’t see it, but we’re surrounded by your ice wall, right?”

“Well spotted. As expected of a former A-rank swordsman.”

Ryo praised him pompously.

Abel silently shook his head slightly.

The two of them dismounted.

Ryo handed Andalusia’s reins to Abel and stepped forward.

“Hello. We’re not suspicious people. We’re just traveling adventurers.”

Ryo greeted them with a bright smile.

A greeting offered with a smile certainly did not make him look suspicious.

It was the smile Abel often called his people-charming smile.

“Th-this is Bondrin Village! What did you come here for?”

The man in the center of the five asked.

He was probably the leader among them, at least for the moment.

He had been the only one speaking since the beginning.

The other four kept holding their spear-like objects ready...

But Abel had noticed.

Every one of them was trembling slightly.

“We’re on our way west, to the Central Countries. If you don’t want us to stop by the village, we won’t.”

When Ryo said that with the same friendly smile, the five men looked at one another.

Then a voice came from behind the men.

“Stop this at once!”

The clear, carrying voice belonged to an old man who had come from the village.

Judging by the many people following behind him, he was probably someone with authority in the village.

“V-village chief...”

The man in the center of the five squeezed out the words.

“Guests, I apologize for startling you. I heard the word adventurers just now. I heard of them long ago. People who receive money and solve the problems of those in need, I believe.”

“Yes, well, that’s broadly correct.”

Ryo nodded at the words of the old man called the village chief.

At the very least, it was not wrong.

The two of them were guided into the village.

On the road to the village, Ryo saw something strange.

“A green pond?”

For an instant, that was what it looked like to Ryo.

But he quickly understood that it was something else.

“Ocean-green glass? Don’t tell me it’s trinitite?”

Trinitite, an artificial mineral produced by the world’s first nuclear test.

Sand had been blown upward, instantly melted into liquid, then cooled again and hardened, creating trinitite.

If that was here, it meant that something with ultra-high heat had occurred.

As he thought about that, the party was invited into the village.