Water Magician

Ryo was curious about something.

It was the relationship between the Great Tidal Bore and the Akuma.

Two days before the Great Tidal Bore reached the surface, a solar eclipse occurred in the City of Rune and Ryo fought with the Akuma Leonor in a place that seemed to be a subspace.

Leonor called it the 『Corridor』.

These two events were too much of a coincidence.

He didn’t know if the Akuma caused the Great Tidal Bore.

Maybe she came knowing that the Great Tidal Bore would occur.

Or perhaps the 『Solar eclipse』 was more relevant compared to the Akuma.

Of course, he didn’t know if that was the case.

It was natural that he didn’t know, but … he was curious.

(I wonder if I can look it up in the library …)

He thought about that while having lunch at the guild cafeteria.

Of course, not alone, but as four people from Room 10.

“Ryo-san, you seem to be thinking about something …”

“Are you thinking about alchemy using the magic copper ore …”

“A-at this point, I can’t return the money anymore. Even if it’s Ryo, I can’t!”

Amon, Etho, and Niles said in that order, but … Niles, the oldest at 20-years-old, was the most … pitiful.

“I won’t ask you to do that.”

Ryo shook his head with a bitter smile.

Niles had an overtly relieved expression.

Ryo suddenly noticed a gold chain coming out of Niles’s tunic pocket.

“Niles, what’s in your pocket …”

“O-oh, well this is required as an adventurer.”

He replied and took out a pocket watch.

Clocks already existed in this world.

A big clock was installed on the tower of the square and the bell rang every three hours.

Many citizens relied on it, but a good proportion of adventurers had pocket watches.

That was because it would not good to be late for an interview with the client or a meeting.

In any world, no matter what kind of work, a person who could not be on time would be rated badly.

The clocks measure time by using something that moved at a constant speed, such as a water clock or an hourglass.

They were not complicated in nature.

The only problem was that it would be troublesome when you try to make it a portable size and with a portable mechanism.

On Earth, the issue was cleared by the invention of a ‘spring’.

That happened in the 16th century.

However, on 『Phi』, there was something not present on Earth.

That would be magic and alchemy.

In particular, the mechanism of using alchemy to keep track of time at regular intervals was not difficult.

With such technology, it was not so difficult to create a portable watch.

Still, each pocket watch costs more than 10,000 Florin.

For ordinary citizens, 10,000 Florin was by no means a cheap price.

If a person lived a very thrifty lifestyle … that was an amount that might be sufficient for about half a month.

But that’s assuming they are not an adventurer that struck it rich … although Niles didn’t strike it rich, he did purchase one.

Probably using the 300,000 Florin paid by Ryo.

Of course, 10,000 Florin was the cheapest model and there were also fully mechanical pocket watches that do not use magic or alchemy at all.

Those cost an eye-opening amount of at least millions of Florin.

Furthermore, at the upper end, there were pocket watches that cost more than 100 million with functions such as perpetual calendar, minute repeater, tourbillon, split seconds, equation of time display, and self-winding watches … there may be a watch-making genius like Breguet in this world.

“Is that a pocket watch? Niles will not be late anymore.”

“No, I’ve never been late …”

At that moment, the receptionist Nina came over there.

“I’m sorry to bother you during your meal, Niles-san, Etho-san.”

“Y-yes! Wh-wh-wh-what is it!?”

Niles’ tension was raise to the max … or could be said to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown after he was called by Nina, who he had a crush on.

(At first, when I was guided to the dormitory, I don’t recall he was so stiff … Niles’s longing for Nina is progressing intensely.)

Ryo’s thoughts were terrible.

“Niles-san and Etho-san have become E-rank adventurers due to your achievements during the Great Tidal Bore the other day. Congratulations.”

She said with a sweet smile.

“E-E-rank …”

“Woohoo! Thank you very much.”

“Congratulations, Niles-san, Etho-san.”

“Congratulations to the both of you!”

Niles words were stuck in his throat, Etho expressed his joy ordinarily, and Amon and Ryo congratulated them.

“Therefore, we will have to update your guild cards, so please come to the reception later. At that time, you will be able to register your party, so please decide the party name when you register.”

Then, Nina went back to the guild reception.

“Party name?”

Ryo asked Etho.

That was because Niles, of course, was still frozen and wasn’t of use.

“Yeah. From E-rank, we can register as a party. Until now, all three of us were F-rank, so we weren’t registered, but if there is even one E-rank, the party will be considered an E-rank party. And beginning from E-rank parties, it is possible to register the party name with the guild. Well, it is meant to be a graduation rite for beginners.”

Etho replied with a smile. And fell into thought of what name would be good.

“I-I have to do my best to become E-rank too.”

Of course, Amon also participated in the Great Tidal Bore, so his evaluation should have risen, but since he had just registered as an adventurer, it may take a little more time to move up to E-rank.

(Amon is in a party with Niles and Etho. In the future, Amon will be able to receive requests for E-rank, so he would rise to E-rank soon.)

Ryo wasn’t worried at all.

In the afternoon, the three from Room 10 were training at the guild outdoor training ground.

Because they were gathered in the lecture room in the morning, the timing wasn’t right to accept requests now.

There were quite a few E-rank and F-rank adventurers in a similar situation, and the training ground was more packed than usual.

Of course, Ryo was not there.

He split up with the three and went to the North Library.

In the morning, he was thinking of performing alchemy using the magic copper ore that the three of them collected, but he was really concerned about the timing of the Great Tidal Bore, the Akuma, and the solar eclipse.

The receptionist at the North Library was a different person than when he came yesterday.

After paying 2,000 Florin and hanging the adventurer’s black admission card around his neck, Ryo entered the large reading room.

The seat where the elf Sera was sitting and reading a book yesterday … was empty.

Ryo was a little disappointed.

Of course, he didn’t come to see Sera, but everyone liked to interact with beautiful individuals.

And Sera’s image when reading a book was definitely beautiful.

Looking around the large reading room, there was no one other than Ryo.

That was when Ryo realized.

(There isn’t a librarian and I don’t have Sera who helped look for books with me yesterday … How can I look up past records of solar eclipses and Great Tidal Bores …?)

Yeah, he didn’t consider that aspect at all.

Moreover, he realized it too late since he had paid the 2000 Florin.

When he was considering how to look for information, he heard a voice from behind.

“Hmm? Ryo. We met yesterday.”

The goddess of salvation appeared.

When Ryo turned around, there stood a beautiful woman, as though a goddess from heaven.

Elven adventurer Sera.

“Sera-san!”

Probably because Ryo’s words were mixed with joy.

Sera was surprised.

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

Thereafter, Ryo explained his circumstance.

Including the fact that he forgot that there was no librarian and came to the North Library.

Including how he was feeling a little hopeless.

Sera laughed softly when she heard that. It was a library after all. She kept her voice down.

“I’ll be glad to help. Records of past solar eclipses and records of Great Tidal Bores?”

There Sera meaningfully emphasized the solar eclipse and Great Tidal Bore.

“Ryo thinks that the solar eclipse and the tidal bore are related.”

Ryo was astonished to hear that.

(Sera-san is sharp. Too sharp.)

“There certainly was a major solar eclipse about two days before the monsters appeared in the Great Tidal Bore this time.”

The major solar eclipse probably referred to a total solar eclipse.

“In fact, in the case of Rune’s dungeon, my conclusion is that there is a high possibility that the solar eclipse and the Great Tidal Bores are related.”

Sera replied easily.

Ryo was surprised and couldn’t follow up with more questions.

“To be exact, there was always a solar eclipse before a Great Tidal Bore. However, they were not major solar eclipses like this time, but partial solar eclipses.”

Depending on the location, a total solar eclipse or an annular eclipse, in which most of the sun was hidden by the moon, occurred once every few decades.

However, in the case of partial solar eclipses, they occurred once every few years, up to once in two years at its shortest.

With that frequency, it was possible that the solar eclipse and the Great Tidal Bore would overlap by chance.

“Why did you conclude that they were related …?”

“That, of course, is because I looked it up before.”

Sera’s burst into a smile. A very destructive smile.

(Wow, beautiful …)

“But I’m curious why Ryo would focus on the relationship between the two.”

“Oh, no, I somehow thought of it …”

As expected, he couldn’t say that he fought an Akuma …

Maybe as an elf, she would have some information on Akuma … but he still didn’t want to reveal that incident to anyone else.

“Hmm …”

Ryo didn’t have much experience of being stared at by a pretty woman.

“Se-Sera, do you know the reason for the darkness of the color of a magic stone?”

He desperately changed the topic to try to distract her.

“Well, I’ll tag along with your change in topic.”

Sera said with a smile.

“Of course I know. The magic stones of monsters that lived for a long time are darker in color.”

“What was the color of the magic stones from the monster of the Great Tidal Bore this time …?”

“Perhaps … they were lightly-colored?”

“Yes. They were light. Why …”

Sera replied, nodding.

“You want to know why I know they were light? That’s because I’ve seen records that the magic stones of the monsters that were subdued in the past Great Tidal Bores were also lightly colored. Moreover, since it is recorded on parchment, most librarians don’t even know it. Do you want to see Ryo?”

“Yes, by all means!”

“Then let’s go. Follow me.”

Then, Sera started leading the way.