Water Magician

Vol 4. Chapter 714: The Laws of the World

714. The Laws of the World

At the Elven Self-Government Office, a carriage had been prepared, and travel arrangements were underway.

“Next week, Abel is taking me to Witnash....”

“Yes, I heard.”

“Rune takes seven days by carriage even one way, right?”

“Yes. Normally, about that long.”

“Normally?”

Ryo tilted his head as he looked at the carriage being prepared.

It seemed to have a mechanism that reduced jolts, so the ride would probably be comfortable... but otherwise, it looked like an ordinary carriage.

As long as horses were pulling it, there should not be much difference in speed.

“Two days there, one day at the destination, two days back. If we have five days total, we can return in time. That will make it before your trip to Witnash, yes?”

“Yes, it will, but... eh? Two days one way?”

“Ryo, do you know guild carriages?”

“I’ve used one before. They’re fast because you can exchange horses at guild branches along the way.”

He had once used one to travel from the royal capital to the city of Rune.

“We will use the royal version of that.”

“The royal version?”

“At government offices and magistrate’s offices in various places, they exchange horses for us.”

“There was a system like that....”

Ryo had never heard of it before.

Of course, he had never used it either.

“I am special, you see.”

Sera puffed out her chest and looked slightly proud.

Ryo thought even that gesture was cute.

But special meant...?

“I am the Premier Knight of the Knightley Kingdom.”

“Right, the Premier Knight.... That’s so cool.”

“Heh heh. It is, isn’t it?”

Commander-in-chief of all knight orders of the Knightley Kingdom and Premier Knight.

That was the position Sera had taken in Queen Rihya’s name after Ryo and Abel vanished from the battlefield where they fought the Demon Man Garwin.

It was a position no one had held since King Richard.

It granted command authority over every knight order belonging to the royal family, and at the same time marked her as the greatest knight in the Knightley Kingdom.

Because of that, Sera’s name, which had risen to sudden fame during the defense of the western forest in the Kingdom Liberation War, spread even farther throughout the Central Countries.

As the guardian of the Kingdom.

Ryo, who had been sent to the Eastern Countries, simply had not known it.

“So it is the combination of the Premier Duke and the Premier Knight.”

“Any ordinary bandit group would be wiped out in an instant....”

“We could defeat a knight order too, given five minutes, couldn’t we?”

“How terrifying.”

Sera said it with a laugh, and Ryo with a shrug... but the content of what they said was almost entirely true.

They were, without a doubt, a powerful pair.

“Right, right. That thing you started mentioning earlier, Sera... the royal version of a guild carriage? Can it be used between the royal capital and Rune too?”

“I usually use it to go back and forth between the royal capital and the western forest, but I was told I may use it anywhere within the Kingdom. I have Rihya’s endorsement.”

“To think that happened while I was gone.”

“It is quite convenient.”

“I’m the Premier Duke, though.... I wonder if there is a system like that for the Premier Duke.”

“Hmm.... Why not ask Abel?”

“...He will definitely refuse.”

At Sera’s suggestion, Ryo shook his head again and again.

Yes, he knew exactly what Abel would say.

He was sure Abel would tell him that he was a noble and should pay for it himself!

“One day, I will win it as a Premier Duke privilege!”

“I-I see.”

Ryo declared it forcefully, and Sera decided it was best not to say anything more and accepted it.

Apparently, even with the same word “Premier,” there were many differences between the Premier Duke and the Premier Knight.

Two days later.

The two arrived in the city of Rune.

They went straight to the area near the east gate that could be called the workshop district.

It was an area both Ryo and Sera knew well.

Ryo’s house was just outside the east gate.

And this area also had many places with good food, so the two of them had often gone around eating together here.

The shop Sera entered was... one Ryo knew as well.

“Hello, Master.”

Sera said that as she entered.

“Yeah, give me a moment.”

A low male voice answered from the back of the shop.

Within a few seconds, a bearded man of around fifty, broad horizontally and short vertically, emerged from the back.

“Little Sera, is that you? Been a while.”

The one who came out was the dwarf blacksmith, Master Doran.

Yes, this was Master Doran’s shop.

“Hm? And that’s Ryo, isn’t it? Been a while for you too.”

“It has been a long time.”

They had met at the Margrave of Rune’s manor before the Kingdom Liberation War began.

Yes, in connection with the Golden Hind.

“You’re both in the royal capital, aren’t you? It’s unusual for you to come back to Rune.”

“There is something I wanted to confirm. Master, you were Ilmatar’s disciple, weren’t you?”

“Hm? Yes, I was Master Ilmatar’s disciple. You know that, don’t you?”

“There you have it, Ryo.”

At Master Doran’s answer, Sera told Ryo.

“To think you were the disciple of one of Sera’s party members, Master.”

“Of course, I’m not the only one. Almost every dwarf blacksmith swinging a hammer in the southern part of the Kingdom was Master Ilmatar’s disciple. That’s why we’re good.”

After saying that, Master Doran burst out laughing.

“Ilmatar’s belongings and keepsakes were divided among the disciples, weren’t they? I came to ask whether there was any Mitrilo ore among them.”

“Mitrilo ore? Ah... you mean leftovers from the sword Master forged for you before dying, that sort of thing.”

“Yes.”

Looking at Sera’s sword, Doran seemed to understand what she meant.

“Unfortunately, none was left at all. Every bit we had was put into that sword.”

“Ah....”

“Still, that time was terrifying.... Even remembering it now....”

“Yes. Ilmatar scolded me terribly.”

Doran said it while shaking his head, and Sera said it with a laugh.

“Scolded you?”

Ryo asked.

“The truth is, I broke the sword Ilmatar had forged for me in a small martial tournament. So when I returned to Rune and reported it to Ilmatar, I was scolded.”

“No, little Sera, you’re skipping over the most important part.”

Doran grimaced.

“At the time, Master was already on his deathbed. We disciples had gathered around the bed to see Master off to the next world... but then the little lady came back and said she had broken her sword, and the moment she did... Master’s eyes snapped open and Master sat up.”

“Eh....”

“And then Master gave the little lady a smack on the head... stood up, and began forging a sword....”

“Goodness....”

Ryo was left speechless.

When imagining someone on their deathbed rising and beginning to forge a sword... of course words would fail him.

“That time... Ilmatar kept forging the sword for three days and three nights.”

“Yes. The result is the sword the little lady wears. Without question, it is Master’s finest masterpiece.”

Sera said it as she remembered, and Doran said it while looking at Sera’s sword.

Yes, anyone could tell it was a masterpiece.

It was not a demonic sword or a Saint Sword.

It transcended such things—a sword that deserved to be carved into history.

“If he could leave behind something so extraordinary, then Ilmatar must have been satisfied.”

“Yes. As soon as Master finished forging it, Master returned to bed and breathed the last.”

“It was an ending very much like Ilmatar.”

Doran nodded at Ryo’s words, and Sera nodded as well.

The two of them left Master Doran’s smithy.

Then a fragrance drifted toward them.

This was Rune’s workshop district.

Near the east gate.

“This scent is....”

“That place....”

Neither Sera nor Ryo needed words.

Without another exchange, they headed toward the source of the scent.

It was a place both of them knew.

Thus, they arrived at the House of Plenty.

It went without saying that afterward, the two thoroughly enjoyed the House of Plenty’s curry.

After the two enjoyed the House of Plenty for the first time in a long while, they stepped outside the shop.

It was a coincidence that three people were walking past at that moment.

“Huh? Mr. Ryo?”

He recognized that voice.

And the woman beside the owner of that voice.

And the old man in red beside her.

Even the box like a coffin that was following behind the old man.

“Roman? Nadia? Merlin? ...And the coffin too.”

Ryo was surprised.

Certainly, Abel had told him that Roman and Nadia had moved in next door to Ryo’s house.

So it was not unreasonable to run into the two of them in the city of Rune.

The Demon Man Merlin was, so to speak, the two’s grandfather figure, so it was not unreasonable for him to be nearby either.

As for the coffin... Ryo had no idea why it was following behind Merlin.

Everyone looked equally surprised, but there was one person tilting her head.

Yes, Ryo was the only one who knew everyone here, so introducing them to Sera, who was tilting her head, was Ryo’s role.

“This is Roman the Hero, Nadia the Demon King, Merlin the Demon Man... and this is, um, a coffin containing a fallen being.”

Then he introduced Sera to the three plus one box.

“And this is Sera, commander-in-chief of all knight orders and Premier Knight of the Knightley Kingdom, and the next representative of the western forest.”

Only then could everyone be surprised.

“I heard from Rihya that a Hero and a Demon King had moved in next to Ryo’s house... but to meet you here. I see, long ago, did Ryo and I mediate when you were fighting Abel? But Demon Man Merlin? If my memory is correct, are you not the person once called the Red Mediator? The staff officer of the Demon King’s army?”

“You know quite an old alias.... That was more than a thousand years ago.”

The Demon Man gave a wry smile at Sera’s words.

The Demon Man Merlin always wore red clothes and a red hat.

“The Red Mediator.... What is that? So cool.”

Ryo’s murmur reached no one.

“I have heard of Premier Knight Sera.”

“The bards all sing about you, don’t they?”

Roman and Nadia seemed to know Sera’s name.

“The Premier Knight... is cool too, as expected.”

Ryo’s second murmur also reached no one.

Ryo’s gaze turned toward the coffin.

And then he realized something.

“Come to think of it, just now, the coffin was following behind Merlin, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. It follows. Remember when we used its mana before and teleported from the western dungeon?”

“Yes.”

“At that time, we opened a ‘hole’ to let this one’s mana pass through the dungeon, did we not?”

“Now that you mention it....”

Ryo nodded several times, as if remembering.

It was not a “physical hole,” but an “alchemical hole.”

So there should have been no change in its outer appearance.

“It releases mana from there, floats, and follows from behind.”

“What a....”

Ryo was stunned.

They had opened the hole because it had been necessary... but they had indeed not sealed it afterward.

Without ever finding out whether that hole would cause any trouble, he had been sent away with Abel.

“Ryo.”

A low voice echoed.

It came from inside the coffin.

“That voice just now came from inside the coffin... Regna, was it?”

“It is a provisional name, but it will do. Zacharias called me that.”

“Ah... the alchemist who was a cardinal of the Church.”

Ryo remembered.

Cardinal Zacharias had prepared this coffin.

Ryo had modified it slightly so that it could seal Regna.

Come to think of it, the magic-nullification cylinder Kenneth had been analyzing should also have been something Cardinal Zacharias made.

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

“You captured me. Ask.”

“Didn’t you teach Cardinal Zacharias the magic formulas for this coffin and for the magic-nullification alchemy tool?”

“Correct. Though not all of them.”

“I thought so.”

Ryo nodded at Regna’s answer.

When he had modified it, he had read the magic formulas written on this coffin.

They were astonishingly complex... and not only that, there had been quite a few places that were completely incomprehensible.

Ryo could tell that they were not only magic formulas he did not know, but also from a system entirely different from anything written in the alchemy-related books he had read in the Western Countries.

Yes, it was as if Chinese characters, hiragana, katakana, Arabic letters, or hieroglyphs suddenly appeared in the middle of an English sentence....

As if something that had been written from left to right suddenly shifted to vertical writing, or became diagonal.

Something alien.

They were likely magic formulas backed by knowledge °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° that touched on the laws of the world that humans had not yet understood....

For example, magic formulas constructed based on what would be called a theory of everything on Earth.

Incidentally, though “theory of everything” sounded like fantasy, it was a proper term in theoretical physics.

In the first place, this “coffin” was something that stored people’s mana and God fragments.

Ryo had modified it so that it could seal a being like Regna.

He had only modified the necessary parts, so he was far from fully understanding it.

In the first place, he had also opened an alchemical “hole,” so he suspected that if Regna, who was trapped inside, truly tried, escaping the coffin would be possible....

“There’s something else I just thought of.... Regna, why do you stay inside the coffin all this time? If you felt like it, you could actually undo that seal, couldn’t you?”

“I know not why, but this place is comfortable.”

“Ah. I see....”

Regna’s answer gave Ryo a reason he could not understand.

Incidentally, everyone else was also staring blankly.

Merlin in particular even had his mouth hanging half open.

“Ryo, do you want to know about the magic formulas written on this box?”

“Yes, I want to know. But... first, I want to try solving them myself.”

He understood that it was a difficult problem.

Even so... during the year in which he had been sent to the Eastern Countries, he felt that his knowledge of alchemy had increased considerably.

Even if full understanding was impossible, he wanted to challenge it on his own first... that was what Ryo thought.

“Do as you like. The attitude of a human trying to approach the truth of the world, or trying to decipher it, is a precious thing.”

Ryo generated a plate of ice.

“.”

He transcribed the coffin’s magic formulas, which were complex and difficult to memorize, onto his own ice.

If he preserved them this way, he could take them out and study them at any time.

“One day, I will decipher the laws of the world!”

With that resolve in his heart, Ryo stood firm.

Sera watched over him gently.

Ryo and Sera parted from the three plus one box, then boarded the carriage again and returned to the royal capital.