Water Magician

Vol 4. Chapter 736: Tea Party in Vamos

The battle at the port had driven every last customer from the café.

Thanks to that, the entire group was able to fit inside.

First, Ryo was made to sit.

Kinme sat on his left.

Perhaps intending, in his own way, to rescue him, Abel sat on Ryo’s right.

Patrice and the other three sat across from them.

And the Kingdom’s knight orders sat at a distance around those seven...

“Th-there is a woman I’ve already given my heart to...”

“It’s all right. I don’t intend to keep you all to myself. If I did that, I would burst.”

“I-I see.”

Ryo was visibly relieved.

He had thought it best to say what needed to be said, so he had said it the moment they sat down.

Naturally, Ryo did not understand what she meant by “burst”...

For some reason, Abel seemed to have heard Ryo’s words and was staring wide-eyed in astonishment.

Ryo did not understand the meaning of Abel’s expression, so he was about to ask, but Kinme’s words reached him first.

“As long as you let me touch your cheek again in ten thousand or twenty thousand years, I’ll be fine.”

“...Excuse me?”

Ryo could not understand.

Kinme’s party members also seemed to think it was a joke.

“Oh, Kinme, you’re always joking.”

“In ten thousand years, everyone will be dead.”

They said things like that.

Ryo agreed with them, but then he thought about it a little.

Kinme was probably a Demon Man, so it was possible she might still be alive ten thousand years from now.

But Ryo did not think he would be alive.

True, he did have the feeling he did not age much...

...But surely I won’t still be alive, right?

No, even assuming he did not age at all.

“So many people are after my life that I feel like I probably won’t be alive.”

“After your life...”

Ryo said it, and Guti looked startled.

Startled though she was, she realized something.

“We haven’t introduced ourselves.”

“Ah... we are the escort party Five Refreshing Peaks, belonging to the Bardael Chiefdom of the Dark Continent’s Eastern Nations.”

“I’m Guti. The green-haired one here is Patrice, the yellow-haired one is Toko, the white-haired one is Mau, and the pale-blue-haired one is Kinme.”

“How courteous of you. I am Ryo, a C-rank adventurer belonging to the Knightley Kingdom of the Central Countries.”

After Patrice and Guti introduced them, Ryo introduced himself as well.

“So your name was Ryo.”

Kinme nodded, still smiling.

“Huh? Kinme, you didn’t know his name?”

“No. I only learned it just now.”

“Even though you were acting so close to him...”

“Ryo is my benefactor. The benefactor who freed me from my yoke.”

“Your benefactor...”

The other four members of Five Refreshing Peaks were surprised by Kinme’s explanation.

But one person tilted his head.

The water-attribute magician himself.

“Did I do something?”

Ryo thought back to that time.

Everyone had gone into the shrine, and after a little while, it had shaken and they had escaped... then Kinme had appeared floating in the sky.

Ryo had done nothing.

She had said that the power that revived her—or broke the seal—was something she had taken from the vampire who had visited the shrine several days earlier.

“Yes. I took the vampire’s mana and fully revived myself, but the seal itself had not come undone. But thanks to Ryo coming there, enough droplets overflowed in that place to blast the seal apart.”

“What did you say...”

The seal on the Demon Man sealed in the south had actually been undone because of the fairy factor overflowing from Ryo...

《I did not know.》

《So the Demon Man broke her seal because of you, Ryo.》

《L-like I said, I didn’t know...》

《I merely organized the facts.》

《Could I be charged with aiding and abetting a Demon Man’s escape and thrown in prison?》

《As far as I know, the Kingdom has no such crime, so you should be fine, shouldn’t you?》

《Oh, really?》

Ryo was relieved.

《It might not be something that light. It could be more like treason or preparing to overthrow the state. Something where the only penalties are life imprisonment or capital punishment.》

《Why would it become that serious... Very well. I will show sincerity and aim for extenuating circumstances.》

《Sincerity?》

《You may downgrade my once-a-week cake privilege to a once-a-month cake privilege...》

Ryo made the offer with deep regret.

《And with that... you intend to gain extenuating circumstances for a major crime?》

《Yes. Oh, and I will also promise that the ferocious neighbors in Rondo’s forest will not invade the Kingdom mainland.》

《...That is just a threat.》

《If you execute me, who knows what will happen to the one keeping them in check!》

《...Well, if it comes to that, I’ll issue a pardon in the king’s name.》

《As expected of Abel! I will follow you forever!》

《I see...》

Such a top-secret conversation passed between Ryo and Abel through Soul Echo.

Meanwhile, a separate conversation was taking place at the table.

“I heard Kinme had a hard time before she joined up with us. Were you captured by some bad person?”

Guti asked with a sorrowful expression.

“Hmm. If anything, I asked to be put in there so I could be protected.”

“Excuse me?”

“But I ended up staying in there much longer than I expected... and when I finally thought I should come out, I couldn’t. It was sort of like... the key had broken, I suppose.”

“I see. That must have been painful.”

Guti nodded at Kinme’s explanation.

The other three nodded in silence as well.

“But if you were able to get out thanks to Ryo, then he really is your benefactor.”

“And because you got out, you were able to join our party.”

“Which means...”

“He is our benefactor too.”

Guti nodded, Patrice explained, and Toko and Mau reached the conclusion.

The four members of Five Refreshing Peaks besides Kinme rose and bowed their heads toward Ryo.

“Thank you for saving Kinme.”

“Huh? Um, no, I really didn’t do anything...”

Ryo flustered.

Through Soul Echo, Abel had pointed out the possibility that he might be charged with a major crime; here, he was being thanked.

Perhaps it was proof that even with a single event, everything changed depending on the standpoint and circumstances of the people viewing it.

Dark Continent coffee was brought to everyone.

“As expected, authentic Dark Continent coffee is delicious.”

“Yeah, it’s good. Our country’s Kona is excellent too, but this is good as well.”

Ryo and Abel praised it.

The people at the heart of the Knightley Kingdom loved coffee.

Green-haired Patrice and pink-haired Guti nodded with satisfaction as they listened to the two praise it.

Then Patrice and Guti suddenly realized something.

“Come to think of it... there are quite a few knights, or rather bodyguards, aren’t there?”

“Are they yours, Ryo?”

“Huh? No, they aren’t. They’re not mine. They’re this person’s guards.”

Ryo pointed to Abel, seated on his right.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t believe we’ve heard that gentleman’s name...”

“We heard something about Richard’s descendant, but now that I think about it, no, we haven’t.”

Patrice and Guti looked at Abel as they spoke.

“It feels a little late for this now, but... I’m Abel of the Knightley Kingdom.”

“He may not look it, but he is our country’s king.”

“I see, the king.”

“So that is why there are so many guards...”

“...Huh?”

Abel answered, Ryo added an explanation, Patrice and Guti followed along in the flow, and then Toko and Mau realized.

“His Majesty the King!?”

All four of them were astonished.

“You did it, Abel. They were surprised.”

“Don’t say things like that. It’s embarrassing.”

Ryo said it happily, and Abel, his face reddening, protested.

Among Five Refreshing Peaks, Kinme was the only one who had not been surprised.

“Kinme, did you know?”

Guti asked.

“Yes. Richard was king of the Knightley Kingdom, so I thought his descendant might be a king too.”

“Tell us that...”

“I wish you’d secretly let us know...”

Kinme answered with a smile, and Patrice and Guti looked haggard.

Toko and Mau silently shook their heads a little.

“So, Ryo and Your Majesty Abel, what brought you to Vamos?”

Finally calm again, Guti asked.

“Our ship was blown off course by a storm.”

“Ah...”

“Storms can’t be helped...”

At Abel’s answer, Guti and Patrice nodded again and again.

More than them, Toko and Mau nodded vigorously.

It seemed Five Refreshing Peaks had once had quite an experience with a storm.

“Once, our ship was blown off course by a storm and ended up in the south of this continent.”

“The Dark Continent’s...”

“South?”

Kinme answered with a smile, and Ryo and Abel were startled.

“What is the south of the Dark Continent... like?”

“There was a Kraken nest.”

“What...”

“You did well to come back alive.”

“Of course, the ship collapsed in an instant.”

“If Kinme hadn’t been there...”

“We never would have made it to land...”

“We would have been Kraken food.”

Kinme conveyed the shocking truth, Ryo and Abel were astonished, Patrice described the ship’s fate, and Guti, Toko, and Mau thanked Kinme.

“Even if it is on the surface, fighting a Kraken at sea is rather difficult.”

“Yeah, normally, it isn’t ‘rather difficult.’ You just die easily.”

Kinme said it with a smile, and Guti’s face twitched.

“Ryo, it seems you’ve fought a Kraken too?”

Kinme seemed to have read it from Ryo’s expression.

“Yes... I have many bitter memories.”

“You did defeat one underwater, didn’t you?”

“How amazing! Even I might have trouble underwater.”

Ryo recalled it with a face full of bitterness, Abel summoned the battle involving the submarine Neil Andersen from memory, and Kinme praised him.

“Even using alchemy, I’ve still only managed one... When they come in groups, it’s difficult.”

“My! Ryo, you can use alchemy too?”

“Yes...”

Ryo’s words trailed off.

That was because the alchemy that had sealed Kinme had come to mind.

Of course, Ryo had not been the one to seal her, but he felt a little uncomfortable all the same.

“Can you perhaps use the technique that sealed me too?”

“Eh...”

Ryo was left speechless by her hitting the mark.

Not only Ryo, but everyone except Kinme lost their words.

Naturally, Kinme bore no grudge or anything of the sort. She remained smiling.

“I said this earlier, but I was the one who asked for that. I asked to be locked away.”

“Yes...”

“At first, I asked Haru. But Haru refused. So I asked Richard, who had been Haru’s disciple. Richard seemed to have quite a hard time with it too.”

Kinme explained with a smile.

Surprised, Abel asked her.

“King Richard was a disciple? Who is this master... Haru?”

“Oh? You are Richard’s descendant, but you’ve never heard of him? Has that information not been passed down in the Knightley royal family?”

“No. At least, I’ve never heard it.”

“I see... Then it would not be right for me to say it. It must not have been left behind because, for some reason, they did not want it passed on, correct?”

“...”

Kinme’s words were perfectly reasonable, so Abel could say nothing.

“Richard also said he did not want the technique he used to remain for later generations... so I understand why that has not survived.”

“I see.”

“But Ryo seems to know it somehow.”

“A technique that seals you using your own mana...”

“Correct! Ryo, you really are amazing.”

Kinme nodded happily.

“Ryo, that...”

“It is probably a technique even Kenneth doesn’t know. So yes, I do think it was not preserved among the Kingdom’s alchemists.”

“...Why do you know it?”

“Ah... this is not really the place. I’ll tell you next time, Abel. But I still don’t fully understand it either. So if you ask whether I can make something similar... honestly, I’m not confident.”

Ryo answered Abel’s question honestly.

He had thought that since Abel would not go around telling others, perhaps he could tell him about Hasan and the Black Notebook he had inherited from him.

He had simply forgotten about it all this time...

“If I ever need to be locked away again, I’ll ask you, Ryo.”

“I’m sorry, but please spare me that.”

At Kinme’s joke, Ryo grimaced and shook his head.

In the end... the Knightley Kingdom party, led by Abel, did not have an audience with the King of Vamos.

After Skidbladnir’s crew investigated, they judged that the king’s “condition” made it impossible.

“I have a feeling we’ll meet again very soon.”

Those were Kinme’s parting words to Ryo.

Skidbladnir left Vamos Island.

It headed west, toward the Dark Continent mainland.

On its deck...

“We are gathering insight in order to solve the question that has confronted humanity since the dawn of recorded history: why do people fight?”

“...Huh?”

“This encounter has given us a realization that brings us one step closer to resolving that question.”

“...Has it?”

“Refusing to receive a personal letter is, in other words, a refusal to talk.”

“O-oh...”

“If two forces come into contact without discussion taking place, armed conflict becomes inevitable. That is the clash that occurred in the port.”

“I feel like you’re talking me around in circles... but you’re not wrong.”

Ryo expounded his theory at length, and Abel listened while tilting his head.

“The difficult point about talks ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) is that they cannot be established if either side refuses them.”

“...True.”

“And the only possible result of that is armed conflict.”

“...That is also true.”

“No matter how much we desire a peaceful solution, if the other side has no such will, it becomes armed conflict. Peace is a fragile thing.”

“O-oh...”

“As a logical consequence, before entering talks, one must consider the possibility that the other party may refuse a peaceful resolution, and prepare for the armed conflict that may result.”

“That’s... a sad conclusion.”

“Perhaps humans are foolish creatures.”

Ryo shook his head with a sorrowful expression.

“Well, from the beginning, all the King of Vamos had to do was receive the personal letter.”

“Yes. That was all... It truly was only that, and yet...”

“That one little thing was difficult.”

“Abel, please make sure you receive them properly.”

“Hm? Naturally.”

“Even if it is a personal letter from the Debuhi Empire.”

“Precisely because it is a personal letter from the Empire, I would receive it.”

At Ryo’s words, Abel lifted only one cheek in a sardonic expression.

The Empire possessed greater power than the Kingdom.

It was precisely an opponent he wished to avoid armed conflict with.

“But someday, without fail...”

Abel said that much clearly.

The words that followed were too quiet for even Ryo to catch.

“I will repay the debt for invading the Kingdom.”