Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

“King Abel controls the south and west. Raymond holds the north and central. So far, so good, as for the east…”

“Didn’t think that the Explosive Blaze Magician would advance to the east…”

Marquis Alexis Heinlein and King Abel were having a conversation with a map of the Kingdom in front of them.

Ryo sat on a chair in the corner of the room, reading an alchemy-related book he brought from the library, since his usual sofa was currently occupied for the meeting.

“And to have captured not only Stonelake but also Wingston city in such a short time.”

When Abel said this, Ryo turned his head up from his book and looked at them.

It wasn’t from of a spark of inspiration or anything like that, but because he heard a familiar name and got a little curious.

Then he stood up, put the book down on the chair, went closer to the two of them and looked at the map.

From the eastern border city of Red Post, Barsham, Wingston, Stonelake, and the royal capital.

The second highway connected those cities.

It was the road and the cities where Ryo had served His Highness Willy of the Kingdom of Ju, as his bodyguard.

Just taking a trip down memory lane, where he experienced quite an adventure, like how he froze the village of the Order of Assassins, his meeting and parting with ‘Hassan’, all while on the job.

Ryo was immersed in such memories as he stared at the map.

That was all, and he was by no means pondering the serious issues of the state.

“What is it, Ryo?”

Abel didn’t call out to him expecting anything in particular.

He was simply thinking, Ryo probably heard the name of a familiar city and decided to come to take a look at the map…since it was typical of him.

He was right.

“Any ideas?”

Marquis Heinlein asked, as he seemed to have a misunderstanding about Ryo, and for some reason held him in high regard.

Misunderstandings are a terrible thing.

That being said, Ryo has a good head on his shoulders.

There are times when he has a flash of inspiration.

“The Empire will want to advance as far south as Slanzewi, which is further south than the Second Highway.”

“Wha……”

Abel and Marquis Heinlein were at a loss for words.

Slanzewi is south of the Second Highway, along the road that connects the eastern part of the Kingdom to the south.

“Ryo, what makes you think that?”

“Hm? If they’re pushing east, then their objective is gunpowder…um, I believe you call it ‘black powder’. That’s what they are after, right? I can’t say for sure if it will become a variable in the war if put to practical use…or not, since there’s magic…. Either way, if that’s the case, Gecko once told me that they are found in the eastern part of the Kingdom in Slanzewi, if I recall correctly…oh, and apparently this is classified information.”

“How come you and a merchant from another country know such classified information…”

Abel blurted out.

“It did cross my mind, but if black powder really is their objective…”

Marquis Heinlein seemed to have considered the possibility.

“Have you forgotten, Abel. Slanzewi was the first place Sharfi attacked, remember?”

“The Order of Assassins huh…. Since it was a request from the Empire, it could only mean that the Empire’s target has always been the eastern part of the Kingdom and the ‘black powder’ right from the beginning.”

“It’s useless securing only the eastern part of the Kingdom…the other places it connects to, in other words, some parts of the north, will eventually end up with the Empire, not Raymond…”

Abel was startled by the Marquis Heinlein’s mutterings.

“That’s not good.”

The northern part of the Kingdom borders the Empire. If there’s even a hint of such a move, then they must take action at the earliest opportunity, but first of all, they are severely lacking intel….

“My…no not quite, to be precise, Phelps’ subordinates are over there. He said he sent the most elite of his party members over there, so how about we get in touch with them.”

Marquis Heinlein gave a small nod as he said this.

(I would expect no less…)

Ryo was honestly impressed. Both Marquis Heinlein and his son Phelps.

He looked at him with respect…wondering how many moves ahead of time they had read and made.

“That reminds me, apparently the advisor of the court magician order, Sir Arthur Verasis, made it to Acre and is training the magic corps there.

“I see. That’s reassuring! Speaking of which, where is Phelps now?”

“Since I am here in Rune, I left Phelps in charge of Acre.”

The Marquis said casually.

Phelps has apparennntly been trained well enough to be entrusted with the territory.

He is a B-rank adventurer, and moreover, a decent successor to the Marquis.

While Ryo was feeling impressed, he heard Abel’s really tiny murmur.

“Wow.”

“Hey, this ain’t good, we’re really going to die if we keep going like this.”

Normally, Wyatt, an Earth-Attribute Magician, would retort to Blair’s complaints, but he said nothing as he builds an earthen wall to block the enemy’s attack.

It was literally raining magic and arrows…and Wyatt’s earthen wall was their last line of defense.

Carlisle, the capital of Prince Raymond and the Flitwick Dukedom.

The four were trapped in a corner of that city.

Blair, Wyatt, Gideon, and Lorenzo…These four are the executives of the White Brigade, an adventurer party from Rune city.

By order of their leader, Phelps A. Heinlein, they had infiltrated the Flitwick Dukedom and had sent several pieces of intel to Acre until yesterday.

But today….

“Goddammit, fuckin’ monsters…. Why are these freaks here?”

“Just our luck to be dealing with these monsters.”

Blair, the dual swordsman, blurted out, and Gideon, the priest, chimed in.

All four of them were B-rank adventurers.

Of course, with Phelps, the leader, and Sheena, the deputy leader, together, they make a complete party, but they often have to do things without the two of them.

In particular, they have had several experiences infiltrating cities.

Occasionally, they were chased by city guards and garrisons, but since they were stronger, they were never in any tight spot that could put them in danger.

After all, they are B-rank adventurers!

This time, however, their opponent was an order of magnitude different from their previous encounters.

“What in god’s name are the ‘Five Dragons’ doing here…?”

Priest Gideon muttered.

“Little~kiddies~~~, come out and play~~~”

Such words came from across the other side, tinged with derision.

“Shit, it’s definitely that swordsman from earlier! ”

“That would be their leader, San.”

The ‘Five Dragons’ are the pride of the Kingdom, all five of them are A-rank.

The leader, swordsman San…hasn’t had any good things said about him.

Blair, the dual swordsman, babbled, and Gideon, the priest, frowned and said his name.

“Hate to say it , but I’m no match for him. He’s likely even more troublesome a swordsman than Abel.”

Blair said regretfully.

He was blunt and certainly don’t look intelligent by any means, but he was adept at accurately gauging the difference in strength between himself and his adversary.

“Although…”

There were walls on both sides and behind them, and they knew that there were guards waiting in ambush beyond each of those walls.

So they could either defeat the ‘Five Dragons’ in front of them…grow wings and fly away…or….

“Okay, it’s done.”

Wyatt, who was doing something with his left hand on the ground while maintaining the earthen wall with his right, announced in a low voice.

“Everyone brace yourselves for the impact of the fall.”

“What…”

The ground collapsed as soon as he said that.

And the collapsed ground quickly closed up.

The four of them fell into the ground.

“Here I come~~~”

With that, San plunged into the earthen wall and tore it open in one fell swoop.

He was prepared for some kind of counterattack, but there was none.

In fact, there was no one on the other side of the wall.

“Huh?”

He looked closely at the ground and saw that it was in the process of solidifying.

Following San, Connor the spear-wielder and Bruno the magician rushed in.

Then they saw that the space was empty.

“They got away?”

Connor, the spear-wielder muttered with a furrowed brow.

“Underground, apparently. Bruno, can’t you do something?”

“Yeah, as if, I possess the fire-attribute. I guess those guys have someone with an earth-attribute among them. But underground is…”

“The sewers.”

Calvin, the archer and scout who arrived last, muttered a whisper.

“Aw, that’s too~ bad~”

Swordsman San said in a tone that clearly shows he feels no disappointment at all.

Then he turned around and shouted in a slightly different tone.

“Guard Captain, the enemy has fled into the underground sewers. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Got it!”

The guard captain, whom he had relayed the message to, hastily split up his men and began to move to take control of the surface exits of the sewers.

“We just received word from the royal capital.”

Calvin, the scout, handed San a piece of paper.

“What do we have here…oh, finally, we can go back to the royal capital.”

San said happily.

That made both Bruno the magician and Connor the spear-wielder smile.

Originally, they were adventurers from the royal capital.

For several reasons, they had left the royal capital to hide out in the north, but they still preferred the royal capital!

Their expressions said it all.

In the sewers of Carlisle.

“Oh god it stinks…though it stinks to high heavens, I’m so glad we got away. This one time, I’m grateful to you, Wyatt.”

“How unusual.”

The magician Wyatt looked somewhat quizzical at twin swordsman Blair’s unusual appreciation.

“Going forward we’ll need to dig a lot more side holes if we’re going to get outside the castle walls. So, on that note, I’m counting on you, earth-attribute magician Wyatt! ”

“…Ugh?”

After that, the guards searched every corner of the city, but they couldn’t find the whereabouts of the four people….

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