novelraw Vol 4. Chapter 715: Associate Researcher at the Royal Alchemy Workshop
Vol 4. Chapter 715: Associate Researcher at the Royal Alchemy Workshop
After returning to the royal capital, Ryo had himself dropped off at the Royal Alchemy Workshop.
“D-Duke Rondo!”
“Excuse me, guard, I came to see Kenneth.”
“Ah... the chief researcher stepped out a short while ago...”
“What was that?”
Ryo sagged at the guard’s words.
But he recovered almost immediately.
“In that case, I’ll at least have them let me transcribe the magic formulas from the magic-nullification cylinder.”
Apparently, the magic-nullification alchemy tool had somehow acquired that name...
Of course, in reality, Ryo had simply decided to call it that on his own.
*****
“Huh? Ryo?”
“Ah, Raden, perfect timing!”
Ryo entered the workshop and looked into Kenneth’s laboratory. There he found Raden, the deputy chief researcher.
“I’d like to take a quick look at the magic-nullification alchemy tool. The cylindrical one. I do have the right to see it, don’t I?”
“Yes, of course. You are registered as a researcher here, Ryo.”
Yes. Ryo was also a researcher at the Royal Alchemy Workshop.
Strictly speaking, he was an associate researcher... but there was no need to fuss over details!
Raden brought three tools from the back.
The magic-nullification cylinder.
The bracelet of concealment.
The fusion-magic brooch.
Perhaps these three had been conceived as a set.
“I hardly need ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) to say this, but use of them is prohibited.”
“Yes, of course, I understand. I’m only going to copy the magic formulas for a moment.”
“Copy?”
Raden tilted his head at Ryo’s words.
Apparently, the word “copy” did not get through.
Even though “transcribe” would have.
Just as he had with the coffin, Ryo used water-attribute magic to transcribe each magic formula.
For good measure, he transcribed all three.
The bracelet and brooch had also been created by Cardinal Zacharias.
If Ryo was going to decipher his way of thinking as an alchemist, the more objects he had for comparison, the better.
“Heh heh heh. With this, I have taken another step closer to the truth of the world.”
“The truth of the world...?”
“Ah, no, don’t mind me.”
Leaving Raden still tilting his head behind him, Ryo departed the Royal Alchemy Workshop.
*****
His next destination was the royal castle.
As a place to conduct alchemy research, the royal castle was one of the finest options available.
The royal castle library held a wealth of books related to alchemy.
And Ryo, being the Premier Duke, could even enter the forbidden stacks and read the secret volumes kept there!
Splendid!
What was more, the royal castle also had a sofa perfectly suited for reading the books he borrowed.
In the same room, some important person happened to be signing documents, but...
“Ah, Ryo. You finally came back?”
The master of the room called out to Ryo as he entered the king’s office with three books on Western Countries alchemy borrowed from the royal castle library.
“You were worried because I hadn’t appeared for a while, weren’t you?”
“No... you went to the city of Rune with Sera, didn’t you?”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I received a report saying so.”
“What a surveillance state!”
Ryo shuddered at a world where he was constantly being watched.
“If the Premier Duke and Premier Knight use a royal carriage to go to the city of Rune, of course a report is going to come in, isn’t it?”
Abel shrugged as if it were obvious.
“My freedom of movement...”
“You’re free to move. Reports simply come in afterward. That’s what it means to hold a high position.”
“I can’t understand people who want to become important.”
“You’re always seen, always reported on, and always turned into gossip. That’s all.”
“I can’t relax. I want to be a duke like an ordinary citizen...”
“Give up.”
Abel laughed as he said it.
The king was, in a sense, the highest of all positions, constantly watched by everyone.
Seeing Abel handle such a position so lightly, Ryo respected him from the bottom of his heart.
“Abel, please keep working hard as king. I’ll be cheering you on.”
“R-right?”
Abel did not seem to understand what had brought that on.
But then he appeared to remember something.
“I told you before, but we leave for Witnash tomorrow.”
“Ah, you did say that. Then I’ll have to hurry and read these by tomorrow.”
As Ryo said that, he lightly patted the three books he had brought from the royal castle library.
“Alchemy? You’re diligent.”
“Diligent? I’m only doing it because it’s fun.”
“Ah. That’s the best reason.”
“It’s the same as you signing document after document, Abel.”
“Mm... I understand that it’s an important duty, but it is absolutely not fun.”
Apparently, His Majesty the King had it hard.
And yet...
“Abel, I’d like some coffee. And if there’s cake, I’ll have Mont Blanc today.”
“...Why are you telling me?”
“This is the king’s office, isn’t it? Which means you’re the master here, aren’t you? It really would be bad if I ordered on my own, wouldn’t it?”
“At first glance, that sounds almost reasonable... but your fundamental, monumental mistake is thinking of the king’s office as a place to drink coffee.”
“You can’t become king if you fuss over tiny details.”
“I’m already the king, though.”
In the end, cake and coffee for two were delivered.
*****
The next day.
With the carriage carrying His Majesty the King and the Premier Duke at the center, a party escorted by the First Royal Guard Regiment and the Kingdom’s knight orders left the royal capital for the port town of Witnash.
Even inside the carriage, His Majesty the King was naturally reading documents and signing them.
In another carriage, a mountain of documents waiting for his signature had been prepared.
Even so, the volume was far smaller than before.
Incidentally, the Premier Duke riding with him was also naturally reading... not documents, but an ice plate.
Magic formulas were written on it... and to ordinary people, they would be complete gibberish.
They were still complete gibberish to the Premier Duke too.
Yet he did not look as if he were bracing himself under some firm resolve to master them someday.
He looked delighted.
He looked as if he were having fun.
So much so that, even from Abel’s perspective, it made him envious...
“Ryo, you look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“Hm? Does it look that way?”
“Yes, it does.”
“That is exactly right. I don’t understand any of it, but it’s fun.”
Ryo answered with a completely open expression.
The things one loved were enjoyable even when one did not understand them.
No—perhaps they felt enjoyable precisely because one did not understand them.
When something incomprehensible blocked the path ahead, did one become irritated, or did one think, There it is, and feel excited?
Ryo even thought that might be the boundary separating the things one disliked from the things one loved.
“The summit of alchemy is far, far away. No matter how much I study, I can’t even see it yet.”
“And that’s fun?”
“Yes. Because it means I can keep growing as much as I want until the day I die. It’s fun to feel yourself improving at anything, isn’t it? And if that thing is something you love, all the more so, right? I get to keep doing that until I die.”
“When you put it that way, true.”
Ryo spoke passionately, and Abel nodded.
Because if he replaced alchemy with the sword, Abel could understand.
Feeling one’s own growth...
Perhaps that was one of the greatest motivations a person could have.
“Is what you’re looking at that magic-nullification thing?”
“No, what I’m looking at now is the coffin.”
“...The coffin?”
Abel did not understand at all.
Naturally.
Ryo had not explained anything.
“You know, Abel, haven’t you heard about the box that stays near Demon Man Merlin?”
“I’ve had reports. Apparently it’s always following Merlin, so I’d just assumed it was something like your
“That is the coffin. Inside it is a fallen... something like an angel.”
“Right. I don’t understand.”
“Well, originally, an energy body that wasn’t supposed to exist in this world took on flesh... hmm, how should I explain this?”
“In any case, it’s something that shouldn’t normally exist in this world. That’s enough.”
Abel forced himself to accept that.
“That coffin is a box meant to capture... to seal such a being, and I rewrote a small part of its magic formulas.”
“Mm.”
“The original magic formulas were largely created by the angel-like person inside that box, who then taught them to a man from the Western Church named Cardinal Zacharias.”
“Mm?”
“So written into it are all sorts of magic formulas related to things the people of this world still don’t understand... things like the truth of the world. Those are the parts even Kenneth couldn’t understand. But that’s natural. It isn’t a matter of Kenneth’s ability. It’s simply that approaching the truth of the world is not easy.”
“Mm... I still don’t understand.”
“I thought not.”
From Abel’s expression, Ryo had already read that he had stopped following partway through.
Well, it could not be helped.
“Someday, when I reveal the truth of the world, I’ll explain it to you too, Abel.”
“I see. I look forward to it.”
“It might take about five hundred years, though.”
“I’m fairly sure I’ll be dead by then...”
The pursuit of truth was not simple.
“Come to think of it, how many days are we staying in Witnash?”
“One night.”
“...What?”
“We arrive in the morning, handle the ceremonies and so forth, and depart the next morning. That’s the plan.”
“We spend two days getting there and another two days coming back, but only stay one night?”
“Yes. A royal visit is like that. The longer the stay, the greater the burden on those receiving us. Security and all sorts of other matters.”
“Ah...”
Ryo nodded, though his face twisted.
If anything happened to the king during his stay, it would become a serious matter.
As long as the king was present, not only the local security commander, but also the lord or magistrate would be unable to rest easy.
“But compared to before, that’s progress, isn’t it?”
“Before? What do you mean, progress?”
“Before we were sent to the Eastern Countries. You went on inspection to the north and other places, Abel, but that only happened after an incredible amount of schedule adjustment, right? This time, the adjustment wasn’t as difficult, was it?”
“That’s true. It’s the result of the Kingdom government redistributing approval procedures and clarifying where responsibility lies while we were away. I have fewer approval documents this time too.”
“And you still have enough to fill one carriage.”
“Only one carriage.”
Abel answered with a shrug.
There was no point saying anything to a person whose senses had become numb.
So Ryo changed the subject.
“I heard Sera became Premier Knight.”
“While we were away, by Rihya’s authority as queen. ‘Commander-in-Chief of All Knight Orders of the Knightley Kingdom and Premier Knight’... a position no one has held since King Richard. Apparently, to restrain the movements of surrounding countries—frankly, the Empire and the Federation—Rihya persuaded Sera to accept it.”
“So that’s why she can freely use that thing you call the royal carriage?”
“She needs it to travel between the royal capital and the western forest.”
“I want one too.”
“Impossible. Give up.”
“...I thought you’d say that.”
It was exactly as he had expected.
He had known Abel would say that.
“Sera’s position is simply that special.”
“Position?”
“The commander-in-chief of all knight orders and Premier Knight.”
“It is?”
“She has command authority over every knight order related to the royal family. In wartime, she can even be granted command authority over the knight orders of each noble’s domain.”
“What is that...?”
Ryo was shocked by the sheer scale of the command authority.
Because that meant...
“Isn’t that stronger than you as king, Abel? Even you don’t have command authority over the domain knight orders, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Even if it’s only during wartime, legally speaking, that position is granted that much command authority. That is what commander-in-chief of all knight orders and Premier Knight means. That’s precisely why, for several hundred years since King Richard, no one held it... no one could be appointed to it.”
“And they put Sera in a position like that...”
“When I asked afterward, I heard it was Rihya’s idea. Of course, Marquis Heinlein supported it, and she obtained permission from my father as well, though he still couldn’t rise from bed at the time.”
Abel shrugged.
Of course, as king, Abel could strip Sera of the position.
But he had no intention whatsoever of doing such a thing.
“The relationship between the western forest and the Kingdom government has never been bad. But the two have also never been as close as they are now. Well, the final step only happened because we were sent away.”
“True.”
“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it would be a difficult position to give to an ordinary Kingdom subject, or even a Kingdom noble. That may be precisely why an elf in Sera’s position is, in a sense, ideal.”
“I see.”
Ryo nodded at Abel’s explanation.
Indeed, there was no one more suitable than Sera.
“If it were anyone other than Sera, there would only be one person we could appoint.”
“There is? Someone like that?”
“Yes. But that person has already become Premier Duke.”
“That means...”
“Yes. You, Ryo.”
Ryo grimaced with all his might, and Abel stated it clearly while looking at his face.
“I refuse.”
“I thought you would.”
When Ryo had heard that Sera had become Premier Knight, he had thought it sounded impressive, but the more he heard, the clearer it became that the position was an exceptionally troublesome one.
If he held a post like that, peace would never visit Ryo.
“Assassins attacking night after night, the constant fear of poisoning, demonic hands creeping in from every direction... I wouldn’t have enough lives.”
“I don’t think it’s quite that bad. You wouldn’t be royalty.”