Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 697: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (25)

0697 The Name Was...

“The villagers are on edge right now. I apologize for that.”

The village chief bowed his head.

“On edge?”

In situations like this, Abel was the one who handled negotiations.

“Tomorrow, every man in the village is planning to go out on a hunt.”

“A hunt? Is the target troublesome?”

“Yes. After all, the target is a Salamander.”

“A Salamander!”

Abel and Ryo raised their voices in unison.

Abel in astonishment.

Ryo in delight.

Of course, Ryo did not know the monster called a Salamander in detail.

It had not been listed in the Encyclopedia of Monsters: Beginner Edition that Michael (alias) had prepared for him.

However, according to fantasy knowledge from Earth, Salamanders breathed fire or lived inside magma.

They were extremely famous fantasy creatures.

And in this world, Fai, it was probably a fire-attribute monster.

Until now, he had never seen a fire-attribute monster itself.

No, come to think of it, he had seen a red bear in the Western Countries.

That said, that had probably been a mutation or some special individual.

But Salamanders were supposed to be fire-attribute monsters as a species.

There was no way Ryo would not rejoice at hearing about such a monster!

After that, the village chief was called away by a villager and left his seat.

Naturally, it became time for the two of them to confer.

“Abel, it’s a Salamander. A Salamander!”

Ryo was excited.

“Ryo, do you know Salamanders?”

“Of course. They’re fire-attribute monsters, aren’t they?”

“They are, but... where did you see one? They don’t exist in the Central Countries.”

“Huh? Is that right? Oh, so that’s why I’ve never seen one until now.”

“How can you say you know them when you’ve never seen one...?”

Ryo had insisted that he knew.

Abel had no idea why.

“Then do you know them, Abel?”

“No. I don’t know anything except the name.”

Abel declared his own ignorance.

The sight was almost refreshing.

“You said you were a former A-rank adventurer, Abel, but did you actually buy that A-rank class with money?”

“Of course I didn’t!”

Ryo looked at Abel dubiously, and Abel shot back in a quiet but sharp voice.

“But you don’t know the famous Salamander, do you?”

“Famous? I think most adventurers from the Central Countries only know the name.”

“Just because you don’t know it...”

“Then how much do you know about Salamanders, Ryo?”

Abel asked.

“I’m glad you asked. Salamanders are fire-attribute monsters, and they should live near lava and things like that.”

“...Should?”

“As for their appearance, I think they’re either Wyvern-like creatures or giant newts or salamanders.”

“...You think?”

“They use ultra-high-temperature fire-attribute magic. That much is certain.”

“So that’s the only certain part.”

“What is with that tone? I gave you more detailed information than you had, Abel!”

“It’s all guesswork, isn’t it?”

“Gnn...”

Abel shrugged, and Ryo grimaced.

In conclusion, neither Ryo nor Abel possessed any definite information about Salamanders.

While they were having that conversation, the village chief returned.

Ryo decided to show the difference between himself and Abel.

“There is something I would like to ask you, village chief.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Are the villagers trying to hunt the Salamander because the Salamander attacked the village?”

“H-how did you know that...?”

The village chief was surprised by Ryo’s question.

In response, Ryo looked at Abel with a smug little “hmph.”

Perhaps this was what one would call a triumphant face.

“...Why are you looking at me there?”

“I showed you the difference between us.”

The fact that he said such a thing outright showed that Ryo was an honest man.

“The truth is, a Salamander came here the other day... The southern fields were burned.”

“Oh dear...”

“The southern fields had only just been planted, so the damage was [N O V E L I G H T] small. But the grains in the northern fields will be ready for harvest in another month. If it comes again before then and burns everything... the village is finished.”

The village chief explained the current situation with a grimace.

“Are there no other villages or towns around here?”

“No. The nearest town... Kokori to the west, takes about three days by wagon. Long ago, there was a conflict in the town... and we, the losers, moved here thirty years ago.”

The village chief explained with a bitter smile in response to Abel’s question.

“So you can’t ask the town for help?”

“No. Merchant caravans come here, so I suppose you could say we do trade. But in these thirty years, no one from the village has set foot in the town. The people we fought may already be dead now, or perhaps they might let bygones be bygones, but...”

“I see.”

After saying that, Abel glanced at Ryo.

Ryo nodded silently.

Receiving that, Abel continued.

“Depending on the conditions, we can take down the Salamander for you.”

“What!”

The village chief was shocked by Abel’s words.

“The five men who greeted us earlier didn’t look accustomed to fighting. Their weapons were only sharpened wooden poles too. If you can’t hope for reinforcements either... you’ll probably be wiped out.”

The village chief asked with his eyes still wide.

“Those... conditions would be? As you can see, this is not a very wealthy village...”

“No, I’m not asking for money or anything like that. If we hunt the Salamander, we take all of it, including the magic stone, skin, and meat. How does that sound?”

“Th-that is enough?”

The village chief was shocked by Abel’s proposal.

In practical terms, the village would be giving up nothing.

They would defeat a troublesome monster and take the defeated monster away... and he was saying that was all they needed.

“Neither my companion nor I have ever seen a Salamander. As adventurers, gaining experience with one isn’t a bad deal.”

When Abel said that, Ryo nodded with a smile as well.

They could help people and satisfy their intellectual curiosity.

There was nothing more wonderful than that.

“Then we will be in your care.”

And so the contract was formed.

“There are a few things I want to know before we actually hunt it.”

“Yes, ask whatever you wish.”

The village chief nodded in response to Abel’s words.

“Did the Salamander originally live nearby?”

“Yes. South of the village... about two kilometers away, there is a cave. Ever since shortly after we moved here, there were stories that a monster lived in the depths of that cave.”

“And you still built a village here?”

“Yes. That monster... after some time, it was confirmed to be a Salamander, but that Salamander never came out of the cave. More importantly, this place has a large colony of medicinal herbs spreading to the north.”

“Useful for trade through the caravans.”

“Exactly. We can produce much of what we need ourselves, including food, but salt and the like are another matter.”

There was always a reason a village formed somewhere far from a town.

There was also a reason that particular place was chosen.

This time, however, that balance had collapsed.

“So this is the first time the Salamander came out of the cave.”

“To be precise, the second. The first was about three or four months ago, I believe. That was the first time it came out of the cave.”

“What happened then?”

“It stayed near the cave entrance the whole time... but actually, a few weeks after that, a traveling woman came from the east. The instant it saw her, it attacked.”

“A traveling woman...”

“From the east...”

Abel and Ryo murmured at the village chief’s explanation.

In both their minds, they pictured a woman named Marie.

And at the same time, they also had an idea why the Salamander, which had not left the cave for thirty years, had emerged from it, and why it had attacked that woman.

Did opening the invisible wall make the Salamander more active? Or did it anger it? Either way, that must be the cause.

Ryo shook his head slightly in his mind.

“And then... what happened to the woman who was attacked?”

“Yes. I actually saw it from a distance, but when the Salamander leapt at her, she cut it down with a single stroke of her sword... The Salamander seemed to suffer a fairly deep wound. The woman then left to the west.”

“...She wounded the Salamander? And left without finishing it off?”

“Yes.”

Abel asked with a grimace, and the village chief nodded.

“A wounded monster becomes ferocious.”

Abel squeezed out the words with a sigh.

“It bears hatred toward the species that wounded it... toward things that look human. If it’s come out again now, then its wound must have healed. But its hatred hasn’t disappeared. If she had been an adventurer, she would have made sure to finish it off...”

“She wasn’t an adventurer.”

Ryo shook his head slightly at Abel’s words.

That was right. Marie was a Phantomkin general.

“Do the two of you know that woman?”

“We know her, but...”

“She’s someone I fought a little the other day.”

Abel affirmed the village chief’s question, and Ryo made it clear she was no companion of theirs.

“I understand the first attack. What about the second?”

“Four days ago. Ever since the first time, we had been watching the cave entrance, and it came out. Slowly, but in a straight line toward the village... We had no choice but to meet it outside the southern fields. But we could not stop it... In the end, three villagers died.”

“How did you drive it back?”

“We did not drive it back. But when rain started falling, it ran back to the cave.”

“Rain...”

Abel nodded slightly.

If it was a fire-attribute monster, it was not hard to understand that it might dislike water.

Thinking of it that way, Ryo, a water-attribute magician, might be well suited to this request.

“It was shortly before the second attack. A merchant caravan arrived, and they brought a concerning story.”

“A concerning story?”

“Yes. Around Kokori as well, monsters have become more active... or rather, more ferocious. Monsters that never used to leave the depths of the forest have started appearing near the town and attacking people more often.”

“Over the last three or four months?”

“Yes. Just like the Salamander.”

After saying that, the village chief sighed.

Perhaps even without the matter with Marie, the Salamander and the village had been destined to clash sooner or later.

It was true that Marie had also opened the invisible wall, but it had been said to be considerably close to breaking already.

Once it eventually broke, the same kind of thing would have...

“In a sense, it was lucky that we passed through at this exact time?”

“That’s the only way to think of it.”

Abel shrugged as if resigning himself to many things, and Ryo likewise shrugged and agreed.

Things made by human hands eventually broke.

That might be unavoidable, even with alchemy.