Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

That day, Ryo had been struggling with water jets since morning.

It was not an offensive water jet, but a type of water jet that shoots out from the body to aid in mobility.

Ryo named it ‘Water Jet Thruster’ for convenience.

Because that’s more or less what it looks like.

The testing ground was his courtyard.

The yard is 400 meters long and 400 meters wide, and can easily fit three soccer fields.

The whole place was now covered with ‘water’.

A makeshift pool per se.

However, it was not a pool dug out of the ground, but a pool built ‘above’ ground.

Seen from outside the courtyard, it was a bizarre sight, with a five-meter wall of water rising all the way up.

Of course, Ryo prepared it in case the flight experiment of the ‘Water Jet Thruster’ failed.

It truly is exactly, what one would expect of a Water-Attribute Magician!

Ryo was already soaking wet.

Of course, he could also choose to control the wetness and dry up in an instant.

And he had done so in the beginning, but…it had become a hassle, and now he no longer bothered.

The sight of it while hearing him utter sounds like ‘byuu~n’ and ‘zabaa~n’ would make one think if he was probably just playing by himself jumping into the pool….

But then, it would have been okay.

The fun part cannot be left out after all.

One learns best when they’re having fun!

Getting all worked up and doing the same thing with a grim face won’t necessarily get you anywhere…whatsoever.

A carriage bearing the Adventurers Guild crest came to Ryo, and from inside, a fierce-looking man with a frown got out.

He was frowning when he got out, but his expression changed to one of blank amazement when he saw the towering wall of water in front of him.

“Oh, Mr. Hugh! ”

Jumping up in his ‘Water Jet Thruster’ for the hundredth time, Ryo saw that a carriage had arrived and Guildmaster Hugh McGrath had alighted from inside.

Instantly, Ryo extinguished the giant pool and descended in front of Hugh.

“It’s very unusual for you to visit my house.”

Exactly, when there is something to do, Ryo is summoned to the guild.

“Well, come on in. I’ll make you some coffee.”

“S-Sure…”

Having said all he had to say, Ryo went ahead toward his house, not even bothering to listen to Hugh’s reply.

Using the Water Jet Thruster.

He still couldn’t control it as well as Sera’s Wind-Attribute Magic, but he could manage it quite well.

From a distance, Ryo might have appeared to be bouncing and hopping his way to the house.

Hugh came to his senses, got back into the carriage, and told the coachman to head towards Ryo’s house.

After all, it was still a good four hundred meters away.

It would take more than five minutes to walk there…that’s how large farmhouses are with their yards.

The carriage was waiting in front of the house, and Hugh politely entered through the double doors at the front of the house.

Which is right, on a normal day.

Those who have become accustomed to the house, such as ‘Room 10’, Abel, or Sera enter through the back door though.

There was a nice aroma of coffee wafting through the house.

“Mr. Hugh, over here.”

Ryo’s voice calling Hugh came from the far right side of the room, and Hugh headed that way.

There was a lounge suite, and in the corner of the table was a coffee press with ground coffee beans and hot water, and an hourglass.

The aroma of coffee was wafting from there.

But strangely enough, the coffee press appears to be made of ice.

“Right, makes sense, since Ryo is a Water-Attribute Magician.”

Hugh muttered quietly, but then he realized the contradiction in his own words.

The container is made of ice…but it has hot water in it, and there is steam coming out of it.

“Isn’t that odd?”

He went ahead and touched it without thinking, but it wasn’t hot.

There’s no mistaking the steam coming out, so the water must be hot, but the coffee press was not hot.

No, not only that…it’s made of ice, but it’s not cold either.

Then Ryo came over with two cups on a tray.

“Oh, please take a seat on the couch over there.”

He said and placed the tray on the table.

The hourglass was just about run out, and Ryo pressed the plunger down.

The powder in the container sank to the bottom, leaving a clear layer of coffee.

Pouring it into a cup, the aroma of coffee spread further into the room.

“Mr. Hugh, here you go.”

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

Hugh took the cup, smelled the aroma for a moment, and then put it in his mouth.

The aroma of coffee spread from his mouth to his nostrils.

“Oh, so good.”

Coffee brewed in an ice container.

Yet it didn’t feel cold, and tasted as good as always.

No, it tasted even better than the coffee served back in the guild.

“This one just arrived from Mr. Goro, the magistrate of Kona Village. I heard that it was roasted by the best roaster in the village…. Even the roaster’s skill changes the taste quite a bit.”

Ryo explained happily as he sipped his Kona coffee.

Hugh gulped down his cup of coffee and cut to the chase.

“I’ve made the trip here for only one reason. I have a request I need you to take on, Ryo.”

“Er well, Mr. Hugh, I’m very busy right now…”

“You mean busy playing with water, the one I saw you doing earlier?”

Ryo’s eyes shifted as Hugh said that.

“Er, that was, uh, combat training using Water-Attribute Magic. Yeah, that’s right, it’s combat training.”

Hugh said nothing.

He said nothing, but kept looking at Ryo’s face.

“It may have looked like I was playing around, but it was a full-fledged combat drill.”

Ryo was unable to bear it and continued.

Well, he started having fun along the way, and he was aware that, to those around him, it would have looked like he was fooling around.

Well, he had planned to have fun in the first place.

Of course, he knew there was nothing wrong with playing.

However, he was well aware that… it was a pretty weak reason to dismiss the request.

“Well…it’s fine. Everyone has their own way of training, I guess.”

Hugh gave in, and Ryo became relieved.

But…

“Still, I want you to take on the request.”

“Ugh…”

Ryo’s face turned sour as he looked at him.

It’s a world of difference from his expression earlier when he was happily sipping his coffee.

“I’m sorry, but I can only turn to you for this.”

“Why only me?”

To Ryo’s knowledge, he can’t think of any client who would make a request specifically to him.

An A or B-rank is understandable, but to a Magician who just made C-rank?

“In ten days, the kingdom will send a delegation to Twilight Land. Two adventurers are supposed to join them, but the adventurers who were originally scheduled have yet to return.”

“It is not in the spirit of an adventurer to be late for a deadline, is it?”

For some reason, Ryo was condescendingly wagging his finger while clicking his tongue like, tsk tsk tsk.

A byproduct of having watched too many dramas perhaps.

“Right. Totally unbefitting of an A-rank adventurer.”

“What, A-rank…”

Ryo was shaken by Hugh’s words.

Talking about A-rank in the Kingdom….

“I see, Abel finally made a break for it huh…”

“Like hell he would. I’m talking about the A-rank party in the Royal Capital, ‘Five Dragons’.”

Hugh was about to bring the cup to his mouth when it occurred to him that it was already empty.

“Oh, my bad, here you go.”

Ryo poured the coffee left in the coffee press into Hugh’s cup and poured the rest into his cup.

“Thanks. So, Abel is going instead of ‘Five Dragons’, but the adventurers communicated to Land are a Swordsman and a Magician. So we need another Magician to fill that slot.”

“Sounds like you should be talking to Rin, no?”

Ryo tilted his head as he voiced out the obvious.

“Normally, yeah. But right now, Rin is assisting Sir Ilarion and she’s on her way to Kona Village…”

“Oh, Mr. Ilarion…”

Ryo had no direct acquaintance with Ilarion.

However, he had heard rumors of Ilarion’s obsession with magic, mainly from Rin and Abel.

And that when it comes to magic, he would be unyielding.

The fact that Ilarion went to Kona village meant that it was about the Majin and Vampire incident, and naturally, he would most definitely be absorbed in investigating the magic of the Majin.

Meaning, Rin would not be able to come back for a while.

“Poor Rin…”

“Yeah…”

Ryo said, and Hugh agreed.

“Anyway, that’s how your name came up, Ryo, as a Magician worthy of pairing with Abel.”

“I see…”

A Magician worthy of pairing with Abel…that assessment wasn’t unjustified.

(Just a little more push.)

Hugh was encouraging himself inwardly.

“Of course, the compensation will be one of A-rank. It should be quite a lot because of the duration of time you’ll be away. Besides, since this is a national delegation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to make provisions for escorts, so Ryo and Abel won’t have to take up any escort tasks. As guests, you will also be transported in horse-drawn carriages.”

“That’s cool.”

When adventurers take on requests, transportation is usually on foot.

Ryo, too, was no stranger to this…the only exception was the request of His Highness Prince Willy of the Kingdom of Ju.

(Now for the final push.)

Hugh was all fired up in his mind.

“Also, the Grand Master of the Royal Capital has prepared a special reward for you, Ryo.”

“Grand Master? Oh, the father of Mr. Hugh’s ex-fiancée.”

“Y-Yeah. That’s the one…. Um, anyway. The reward is the right to observe the Union golem that was captured.”

The impact that that word had was quite dramatic.

“What do you mean!?”

Ryo sprung up literally, his face practically coming to stop within inches of Hugh’s at a speed Hugh could not follow.

Such rapid movement that not even a former A-rank Swordsman could track….

“T-Too close, your face is too close. Uh, so here’s the gist, after the last expedition to the Inbury Duchy, the Kingdom’s intelligence unit or something like that recovered a broken Union golem from the battlefield. And now, they are investigating it at the Royal Alchemy Workshop, and he’s going to give you the privilege to observe it. I mean, you were pretty interested in that golem, right?”

“Wonderful! In that case, let’s set off for the royal capital immediately. Come on!”

Ryo said and was about to leave the house with nothing in hand.

“Hold your horses! The guild will provide the carriage that will bring you to the capital, so you and Abel will ride in it. Be at the guild by eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow…that’s too long.”

Ryo was dejected, his hands and knees on the ground in a pose of despair.

“Come on now, you’re going to be out of town for a long time okay, don’t you have someone or things to straighten out?”

As Hugh spoke some sense to him, Ryo looked up.

“You’re right. I need to inform Sera, and also ask the contractor to look after the house while I’m gone.”

“T-That’s it…? Wow, in a way, you’re the very embodiment of a true adventurer.”

Basically, Ryo holes up at home without taking requests, which means, less chances of creating unnecessary bonds.

At that time, the thought of contacting Room 10 guys came to his mind briefly, but…

(They’ll probably hear it from the guild.)

Basically, it was a typical Ryo.

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