Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

Ryo visited the room where King Abel was recuperating away from the royal castle.

“Oh, Ryo. I’m feeling great. Can’t thank you…”

“Abel.”

“Hmm? What’s with the scary face?”

Ryo called out to Abel, interrupting Abel’s attempt to express his gratitude.

Abel wondered why.

“Abel, is there something you’re not telling me?”

“Whoa, where’s that coming from…?”

When Ryo questioned him, Abel looked away.

“See! You looked away! Now come on, out with it.”

“Well, there are so many of them, so I’m not quite sure which one exactly you’re referring…”

“Argh…”

Ryo landed on his hands and knees on the floor, in a pose of despair.

“The Kingdom of Knightley, a rift between the king and the premier duke!”

“Come on, would you please don’t say something that could stir up a national crisis.”

Ryo said something that sounded like a headline in a newspaper or weekly magazine, and Abel chuckled as he rebuked him.

Incidentally, there were no newspapers of any kind in the central nations.

“So, really, which one are you talking about?”

“In that case, why not everything?”

“If I were to tell you everything, you will end up being buried in documents…in a way that could be fun too, I suppose.”

“My bad, but should it come to that, the Rondo Dukedom will be breaking away from the Kingdom.”

“Yeah, that won’t do.”

The negotiations between the King and the premier duke were like sparks flying from a violent clash of swords….

“Marquis Heinlein told me. One of the reasons you summoned me here is because delegates from the Empire are coming down here in a month.”

“Oh, that…?”

Abel nodded back and forth a few times.

“By the way, I didn’t expect you to be able to come right away after I called you. Since if you were in the Rondo Forest, I figured it would take about a month, right? So I sent for you early. As a matter of fact, in a month, an envoy will be arriving from the Empire. And not just any ordinary envoy, the chief delegate is Duchess Rubin. Sister to the current Emperor.”

“So, a bigshot.”

Ryo was somewhat in the mood to give a riposte.

“Uh-huh. When receiving such a bigshot, the Kingdom can’t afford to send any random person to receive them. It has to be the King or someone of similar status…”

“Ah…in other words, the envoy is sent to assess the extent of King Abel’s illness.”

“Exactly. Or to confirm if maybe I already bit the dust.”

Abel chuckled as he said this.

In fact, until a few days ago, he had already made peace with the fact that he might be dead before the imperial envoy arrived.

“The actual negotiations will be handled by Marquis Heinlein, and if Ryo is to be present…with the Prime Minister and the Premier Duke handling things, it will look good even if I don’t make an appearance.”

“But in the end, they will still get the confirmation that you’re seriously ill, won’t they?”

“Because it’s true. It’s going to be discovered soon anyway, so it can’t be helped…”

Abel was not at all good at maneuvering as a King.

But even so, Ryo’s summon to the castle was the result of his consideration for the survival of the country….

Having listened to this point, Ryo could not but cooperate.

“All right. I will be at that negotiation table with the delegation.”

Ryo nodded vigorously, Abel smiled, and they shook hands firmly.

Well, now that his itinerary in a month has been decided, what’s he going to do until then….?

A lot!

Discovering good restaurants.

Reading books on alchemy.

….

And so on, Ryo wasn’t short of things to do.

“So you don’t have anything else besides eating and alchemy…?”

“Oh please, I don’t want to hear that from a King who does nothing but sleep all day!”

“That’s because I’m sick, what’s your excuse…?”

Such a conversation between the King and the premier duke was taking place in a remote part of the royal castle.

Then they heard a knock, and the King’s attendants entered with a stack of papers.

“Your Majesty, are you sure about this? You can rest a little longer…”

“No, it’s fine. Leave it here…”

“Abel? What exactly is the meaning of this?”

The attendant asked, Abel replied, and Ryo questioned his actions.

“Nothing much, just thought I’d do a little work…”

“Of course not! I believe I told you to rest for a month!”

Ryo, as the attending physician, had strictly confined his patient to absolute bed rest.

“I mean, even you just said that, ‘I don’t want to hear that from a King that does nothing but sleep all day’…”

“That has got nothing to do with this. As your doctor, I can’t allow you to do this. Attendants, please take them straight to Marquis Heinlein. Tell him that Duke Rondo, the Premier Duke, asked you to deliver them to him.”

“Y-Yes sir! Got it!”

With that, the attendants carried the documents and left the room.

Abel was like, “Wait…”, as he held out his hand.

He’s a total workaholic.

A King who does not work is a problem, but a King who is anxious if not surrounded by documents isn’t exactly normal as well, Ryo thought….

“Hey, Ryo…”

“What now? Is it money?”

“Didn’t you say that three years ago?”

“I’m surprised you remember. Reusing a good gag material over and over again is inevitable.”

“Yea, you mentioned gag, too, back then…”

“Gag king…sleepyhead king…sleepyhead Abel…”

“Yeah, one thing I know for sure is that you’re making fun of me.”

Abel was reading some book brought from the royal library, and Ryo was reading a book on alchemy from the ‘Forbidden Section’ of the royal library, while they were having the conversation.

“I’m bored out of my mind…”

“But you’re reading a book.”

“Yeah, I am, but…I may as well be going through paperwork…”

Hearing this, Ryo sighed deeply and tried to come up with a rebuttal.

But then they were informed of the arrival of a visitor.

“Your Majesty, the Grand Master of the Royal Capital Adventurers’ Guild is here to see you.”

“Send him in.”

The man who entered the room was Hugh McGrath, a big, burly, man with a fierce look.

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