novelraw Vol 4. Chapter 727: Behind the Scenes
Vol 4. Chapter 727: Behind the Scenes
On the deck of Skidbladnir after leaving Ichiban Port and turning west once more.
There were those who had departed the chaos of the Banban Kingdom and finally found a chance to settle down.
“I never imagined the retaking would happen that quickly. Do you think King Rakkan knew from the start?”
“Hard to say. Perhaps he didn’t know. If he did... then it would mean he used himself as bait to draw out Mafredi’s rebellion.”
“That’s impressive too.”
Ryo was surprised by Abel’s hypothesis.
Honestly, Rakkan had not looked like a king bold enough to do something that daring.
If anything, Mafredi, the man who had usurped the throne, had looked like the more troublesome figure.
“Well, Ryo, that was your ‘sonar,’ wasn’t it? The magic that checks the situation around you. That was how you noticed this morning’s retaking.”
“Yes, yes. Have you finally understood the greatness of water-attribute magic?”
Ryo said it happily.
The information Ryo had gathered had been passed to Abel.
Yes, without anyone around them noticing.
《Soul Echo really is convenient, isn’t it!》
《Yes. Kenneth did tell us mass production would be difficult, but it is certainly convenient.》
Through Soul Echo—Ryo’s earring on his left ear and the ring on Abel’s finger—the two of them had exchanged information.
“Mafredi seemed strong, and I’m sure he really was a powerful leader... but I feel like he was arrogant. It’s true that he defeated King Rakkan once, but...”
“There is something arrogant people have in common. The possibility that they themselves may one day become the weak and be struck down never exists in their thoughts.”
“The law that those who flourish must decline...”
Abel pointed it out, and Ryo recalled the opening of The Tale of the Heike.
Yes. The proud Heike do not endure.
Grow proud and overbearing, and you will be struck down.
In this case, the situation had reversed not in a single night, but in a matter of hours, so it felt a little too fast...
Apparently, Abel had the same thought.
“Still... didn’t it go far too smoothly?”
“The retaking of the throne?”
“Yes. There wasn’t that much difference in military strength, was there?”
“No. Not in numbers either... nothing like the more-than-tenfold difference when Niban Island and Sanban Island first seized the royal palace.”
“Then why did it succeed so well?”
“That was because of that person... no, that Demon Man.”
Ryo turned his face toward the red-clad Demon Man on the deck, happily eating a late breakfast together with the crew.
“Merlin?”
“Yes. Merlin secretly slowed the movements of the Niban Island and Sanban Island soldiers.”
“Slowed their movements?”
Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s explanation.
“He was manipulating gravity... though saying that probably won’t explain it.”
“That force that affects everything in this world, right?”
“Huh? Why do you know that? Well, yes, that’s what gravity is. As long as something has mass, it is affected by it, but...”
“You and old Ilarion once talked about it, didn’t you?”
“...Was that four years ago, before the Liberation War, back when we were still in Rune? You remembered that well.”
“I thought it was very interesting.”
Ryo was surprised. Abel smiled.
Ryo had explained it to Ilarion before.
However, even Ilarion’s complete understanding of it was, frankly, uncertain.
Because Ryo knew the concept of “gravity,” he could learn that those called Demon Men manipulated gravity and understand what that meant.
Or rather, to be precise, he only knew that they could produce such phenomena. He did not know why they could manipulate gravity.
In the first place, manipulating gravity had not been possible even on twenty-first-century Earth.
More accurately, there had been no one who understood gravity in the strictest sense.
In physics, gravity truly, truly stood at the very end, like the final boss.
Why was it so weak?
Why was it so different from the other three forces?
Why did it exist at all...?
Leaving aside those final-gate questions of theoretical physics.
As Ryo and Abel were talking, Merlin himself came over.
“White fish karaage is quite the delicacy too.”
Apparently, karaage had been made using the fish provisions received in Pishkan or the Banban Kingdom.
“Merlin, I have something to ask you.”
“Mm. What is it, King Abel?”
Abel asked, and Merlin answered with a smile still on his face.
“Why... did you help the soldiers of Ichiban Island in the Banban Kingdom?”
“Hm? Was there a problem? I did it without letting anyone notice, at least.”
“No, there was no problem. Even if something had happened, Merlin, you are not a citizen of the Knightley Kingdom, so I could still force the argument that it did not count as interference in domestic affairs.”
“Indeed. As expected of King Abel.”
Apparently pleased with Abel’s answer, Merlin laughed loudly.
“The truth is, something was bothering me a little, so while you were invited to the dinner party, I walked around the island.”
“What...”
Ryo was surprised by Merlin’s words.
He had not noticed Merlin leaving the ship and walking around the island.
“If even the darling of the Fairy King did not notice, then my magic is not so worthless yet.”
“Yes, I didn’t notice at all. Did you... bend space or something?”
“Oh? As expected. You grasped it well.”
Merlin was surprised by Ryo’s guess.
“So I walked around and checked, and there was a shrine.”
“A shrine?”
“You know, the ones in the Knightley Kingdom too. The things called ‘hidden shrines’ or ‘hidden temples.’”
“Ah, yes, we have those.”
Abel nodded.
They were things the temples of the Central Countries had long been searching for.
In an age when not only the Goddess of Light, as now, but other gods as well had been worshipped... it was said that rites had been conducted in those places.
Now, because no records of their locations remained, whenever a rumor spread that one had been found, temple forces would issue an investigation request to the adventurers’ guild to confirm it.
Abel had taken such requests in his adventurer days.
Ryo, of course, knew about them as well.
He had once found one with the three from Room Ten, and in the first place, he and Abel had even been invited into a hidden temple used by a dark-attribute magician.
Yes, though at the end of that, the devil Leonor had put them through something terrible...
“Those things, before humans used them... yes, the first ones who built them were us Spermelno.”
“What...”
Ryo and Abel were left speechless.
“Originally, they were built on places where the power of the land gathered—ley lines, or dragon veins, so to speak. They were for us Spermelno to obtain power from those places. Because we can obtain that power, we can revive even after being reduced to ash.”
“Yes... Demon Man Garwin ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) revived even though I sliced him so finely he couldn’t be seen.”
Ryo remembered and nodded at Merlin’s explanation.
He had carved Demon Man Garwin apart with
If energy existed, the creation of matter was possible.
It was that familiar equation that always came up: E = mc².
However, even creating a small amount of matter required an enormous amount of energy... and the problem was how to prepare energy that vast.
Demon Man Garwin had regenerated from a state like ash or dust.
That should have required a considerable amount of energy.
But if there was a place where the energy of the land gathered, and if that energy could be used...
“This Ichiban Island had one of those shrines too. A place close to the royal palace. There was no orb, so humans likely do not conduct rites there. Without that, humans cannot draw out the power of the land.”
“An orb?”
“No, do not concern yourself with it. In any case, no rites were being conducted, but it had been swept clean. I could tell the people living here cleaned it every day. Soldiers protected it too. The soldiers even picked up the fallen leaves...”
Merlin shook his head slightly.
“The soldiers who came from the other islands killed even the soldiers who had been guarding the shrine.”
“...”
“It was a conflict between humans. The strong survive and the weak die... something repeated everywhere since ancient times. It is hardly something to trouble myself over now. But... the dead soldiers had been left abandoned at the shrine.”
“...”
“That displeased me.”
The instant Merlin spoke those last words, his eyes narrowed sharply.
Ryo and Abel both caught their breath.
For one true instant, they felt Merlin’s anger.
“Of course, what happens to the shrine now has nothing to do with me. I have no intention of telling them to return it to us, and as I live in the Western Countries, I have no need of it. But... the moment I saw soldiers cast aside there, I felt anger. So when the soldiers of this island rose up, I helped them a little... that is all.”
“I see. I understand.”
Abel nodded.
The emotion Merlin had felt was, in some sense, understandable.
It even felt natural that he had sympathized with the soldiers of Ichiban Island.
Something they had once held dear... was still being treated with respect now.
“Did my actions cause you trouble?”
“No, no problem. No one but Ryo noticed.”
At Merlin’s words, Abel answered with a laugh.
Ryo nodded many times, silently and with a smile.
A little away from the three of them, on the deck, a piece of white fish karaage lifted from a large platter into the air, was carried over to the coffin-shaped box... and suddenly vanished.
The uncanny phenomenon repeated over and over.
“The fallen being inside the box... seems to have taken a liking to karaage.”
“Mm. They are eating it while saying the chicken version was good, but the white fish is good too.”
“I know I’m the one who modified the magic formulas, so maybe I shouldn’t be saying this... but that box was supposed to be a seal.”
“Yes, it was.”
“But no matter how I look at it, that being isn’t sealed at all.”
“Well... perhaps it depends on how one defines a seal?”
“As long as the occupant doesn’t come outside and rampage, isn’t it fine?”
Ryo was bewildered, Merlin shrugged, and Abel presented the compromise.
“They did say the inside of that box was comfortable... Well, yes. If everything is fitting together without issue, then I suppose that’s good enough.”
And that was the conclusion Ryo reached.