novelraw Vol 3. Chapter 706: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (34)
Vol 3. Chapter 706: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (34)
706. Abel the Captive I
“Abel, I feel like we are heading south.”
“Ryo, what a coincidence. I think so too.”
“Abel, I believe the kingdom is to the west.”
“Ryo, what a coincidence. I think so too.”
“Abel, there is no doubt we are being taken away as slaves.”
“Ryo, I think you are wrong about that.”
The two of them were riding in a carriage.
It was a carriage Marquis Nyusha had arranged, and the marquis’s knights were guarding it on all four sides.
“Marquis Nyusha invited us to his estate, so that is where we are going, correct?”
“Right. He said it was two days from Zarash Fortress... no, from the free city of Zarash.”
Both Ryo and Abel were talking while looking out the window at the scenery.
This was the second day of travel by carriage, so apparently they would arrive today.
“The marquis went back ahead of us to make arrangements for our welcome...”
“I would rather not be displayed too grandly.”
“This is because you charged into the meeting, Abel.”
“No, that could not be helped, could it?”
Abel objected to Ryo’s words.
Of course, Ryo understood as well.
In that place, under those circumstances, Abel’s action had been the most correct one.
“What will you do if the Federation army is lined up in front of the estate and you end up being taken prisoner, Abel?”
“That is not going to happen.”
“There is a possibility they might take you prisoner and demand ransom from the kingdom, you know?”
“If that happened, they would cut [N O V E L I G H T] me loose.”
“...What?”
Abel answered with a shrug, and Ryo was startled.
“The kingdom’s government would abandon you?”
“Naturally. While they were at it, they would probably cut loose the Premier Duke who was captured with me too.”
“That would be a problem! Leaving you aside, they need to pay my ransom!”
“What a selfish Premier Duke.”
That evening, Abel’s party arrived at Nansha, the capital of the marquis’s domain.
There, more than ten thousand fully armed soldiers were waiting...
“See!”
“No, surely not...”
Ryo pointed it out, and Abel was taken aback.
The flags lined up there were the flags of the Handaru Federation.
Of course, Marquis Nyusha was not a Federation noble.
Nor was his territory part of the Federation.
It was true that, geopolitically, the region was heavily influenced by the Federation, but...
“We have absolutely been handed over to the Federation!”
“I don’t think that is the case...”
“Marquis Nyusha is going to hand us over and use us to conclude a favorable treaty with the Federation.”
“I really do not think that is the case...”
Ryo spoke as though it were a certainty, while Abel thought he must be wrong, though the force in his words was weakening compared to the beginning.
From the entrance of the capital, the carriage carrying Ryo and Abel slowly proceeded deeper into the city between Federation knights lined up along both sides of the road.
After they had gone on for a while, they arrived in front of the marquis’s estate.
“Your Majesty Abel, we have arrived.”
The carriage door opened, and a soldier of Marquis Nyusha’s domain forces who had escorted the two spoke to them.
The two stepped down from the carriage and were guided into the estate.
《We have not been disarmed.》
《Disarmed?》
《Our weapons have not been taken from us.》
《Ah, so that is what you mean. I am a king, after all. If they tried to take a sword from a king, relations would fall apart then and there, wouldn’t they?》
At Ryo’s observation, Abel answered as though it were obvious.
《But, but, you are also known as a dangerous swordsman, are you not, Abel? You are a former A-rank swordsman.》
《Compared to me, that would be you, Ryo.》
《I am a water-attribute magician with a peaceful disposition, acknowledged by myself and others alike.》
《I believe the “myself” part may be true, but not the “others.”》
It seemed perceptions differed from person to person.
The room the two were shown into was a rather spacious reception room.
Two men were seated on the sofa placed in the center of the room, but both stood the moment Ryo and Abel entered.
One was the master of the estate and the man who had invited the two of them, Marquis Nyusha.
His face seemed slightly stiff.
The reason was probably the other man...
As for who that other man was, he was someone Abel also knew.
They had met four years earlier... before the decisive battle against the Demon Man Garwin.
“Surely not...”
But there was no way he could have expected the man to be here.
“It has been some time, Your Majesty Abel.”
“I did not expect to find the Federation Regent, Lord Aubrey, here.”
The one waiting for Ryo and Abel was Lord Aubrey, regent of the Handaru Federation.