Water Magician

Volume 1, Part 6, Niel’s curious village

Ryo had a punishment imposed on him by the Adventurer’s Guild.

『Complete three requests in two months.』

The first was the request to escort a trading company to Whitnash with the three others from 『Room 10』 alongside 『Coffee Maker』.

In actual fact, a round-trip escort request was treated as separate requests for the outbound route and the inbound route, which meant that he had already completed two requests.

Since that was just how the guild processed such requests internally, the clients were not aware of it but do not suffer any disadvantages either.

That said, it was certainly a very enticing request for adventurers who had to fulfill a quota for a variety of reasons.

And Ryo was such an adventurer.

In other words, there was no problem as long as he completed one request within the next month and a half.

As such, Ryo wasn’t impatient at all and he went in and out of the North Library, Houshoku-tei, or the Knights’ Training Ground for practice.

“Ryo, I need your help with something.”

“Hmm?”

That day, after finishing mock combat with Sera at the Knights’ Training Ground in the afternoon, when he returned to the dormitory, Niels, who was in the room, bowed deeply and requested.

“You need my help?”

The following is a summary of Niels’ explanation.

The village where Niels was born and raised had sent a subjugation request to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Since the request rank was C-rank / D-rank, they could not accept it on their own as an E-rank party.

If Ryo, a D-rank adventurer, forms a temporary party with them, it would be possible to accept D-rank requests.

The targets for subjugation were goblins and skeletons that appeared near the village.

“Goblins and skeletons?”

(Finally, the mainstay of fantasy worlds alongside goblins! … is this where skeletons enter the story?)

“But … why goblins and skeletons? That’s a weird combination, right?”

“Yes. The two species have fundamentally different habitats. Well, I don’t know if skeletons have a particular habitat.”

Etho answered his question.

To Etho, a Priest, the undead skeletons should be his mortal enemies … that was what Ryo concluded on his own.

Therefore, he was probably the most knowledgeable regarding skeletons.

“The places where skeletons appear are graveyards, abandoned temples and shrines, abandoned buildings, or at most abandoned mines. Niels, is there a place in the village that corresponds to these?”

“There is a graveyard. Maybe it’s there … The request didn’t give a detailed explanation of the area. In the first place, this subjugation request was originally sent to the City of Kyradea. Since Kyradea was the closest to the village. But the request wasn’t completed and it flowed to the City of Rune …”

“It’s only a goblin and skeleton subjugation but it could not be completed by Kyradea …”

Etho was also perplexed.

It was a well-known fact that goblins were weak. Apart from those appearing from a Great Tidal Bore.

Similarly, skeletons were not strong at all, and if it was one-on-one, even an F-rank adventurer could defeat them without problems, and if there was a priest capable of wide-area purification magic <Turn Undead> etc., it would be possible to win even if there were more than dozens of skeletons.

For that reason, it was unclear why the request had not been fulfilled.

“Well, that’s why I think we should first stop by the Kyradea Guild to get to know more about the situation.”

“How long would the request take?”

“I think it’s about seven days in total, with one day to Kyradea, one day to the village, and three days for the request.”

After saying that, Niels looked at Ryo with a face wondering if he would accept it.

“I don’t mind accepting it.”

“Really!? Thank you!”

“However, I promised a person for a mock battle tomorrow, so I have to find that person to cancel. So, I will only go to the guild to apply for the temporary party and accept the request after that is done, but you’re okay with that, right?”

It didn’t mean much to Ryo, but the three were surprised to hear about his plans tomorrow that had to be canceled.

“Mock combat with Ryo …”

“Does such a person exist in the City of Rune?”

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be human …”

Niels, Etho, and Amon were so surprised that they muttered very rude remarks.

“Well then, I’ll be off.”

Ryo was back at the entrance of the lord’s building, which he had just came out from an hour ago.

The knight on guard was surprised.

“Is something wrong, Ryo-dono?”

Before he knew it, the knights were calling Ryo with ‘-dono’ honorifics.

For the past few days, he had been having mock battles with Sera at the Knights’ Training Ground every afternoon, and he heard the rumors of the battles spreading within the Knights … and it ended up with them referring to him with ‘-dono’ honorifics.

“Sorry, I promised Sera to have a mock combat tomorrow, but a request came in so I have to cancel the mock combat, so could you let her know …”

At that point, the guard looked very disappointed.

“That’s a shame, I was thinking of attending to watch tomorrow.”

“We-well, sorry about that …”

“Ah, no … Sera-sama should be training the Knights at the training ground now.”

He replied, gestured for Ryo to enter, and pointed towards the training ground.

“Eh? Are you sure I can enter without permission?”

“Yes. Ryo-dono has permission to enter the training ground at any time. Please go ahead.”

That was the first time Ryo heard about that … when did that happen!?

At the training ground … most of the knights were lying on the ground.

Everyone was getting along well with sleep learning … of course not.

Only Sera was standing there without problems.

Apparently, she had beaten them up by herself.

Ryo arrived at the training ground in such a situation.

“This ……”

He only muttered in a really soft voice, but Sera spiritedly turned to Ryo in response.

And she moved to Ryo instantly without a moment’s delay.

“Ryo, you were here just a while ago. Did you forget something?”

“No, I actually have to apologize to Sera …”

Then, Ryo briefly talked to Sera about the request.

“… So, I came to tell you that tomorrow’s mock combat would not be possible and I’ll be away from the city for a while …”

Earlier, when Ryo and his friends went to Whitnash for an escort request, he heard that Sera was looking for him, so this time he thought he’d inform her properly in advance.

Sera seemed a little depressed after listening to him.

(She always seemed to enjoy our mock combats … it seems that she’s depressed that she can’t do it for a while …)

With that in mind, Ryo suggested something for after he comes back.

“When I’m back, let’s have plenty of mock combats. Also, let’s go to Houshoku-tei for curry together.”

After he said that, Sera became visibly brighter.

“Re-really? It’s a promise, okay? An unbreakable promise, okay?”

“Ye-yeah. I promise.”

Ryo nodded many times, pressured by Sera’s enthusiasm.

“Okay. Then have a safe trip and do your best for your roommates.”

Sera said and sent Ryo off with a big smile.

I’m glad she didn’t get in a bad mood … Ryo was relieved from the bottom of his heart.

When Ryo returned to the guild dormitory, three people from Room 10 were waiting in the room.

It seemed that Niels drew a simple map of the village and explained various things.

“Sorry I made you wait.”

“Ryo, welcome back.”

“Welcome back.”

“Did your opponent for the mock combat get angry …?”

Niels asked the last question gingerly.

“Oh, it was okay. Let’s go to the guild and go through the procedure. I’m hungry, so we can have dinner as well.”

The procedure at the guild was done without any hiccups.

However, after accepting the request, they were invited to the reception room, which was different from usual.

Then, after two minutes of waiting, Hugh, the guildmaster, came in.

“Oh, I’m sorry to have you all gather here. Oh, you don’t have to greet me. You can sit down.”

He instructed the four, who tried to stand up in a hurry, to sit.

“I asked you to gather here to explain the sequence of events that caused this request to come from Kyradea. I believe you guys are curious?”

“Yes, we’re curious.”

Niels was the first to answer.

Naturally. It was a request from his home village.

“Adventurer parties were sent twice from Kyradea. The first was an E-rank party and the second was a D-rank party.”

“Did the D-rank party also fail the request?”

Subjugation of Goblins and Skeletons … they didn’t know how many, but it would be unimaginable for a D-rank party to fail.

“No … the report of the D-rank party stated ‘We couldn’t get the cooperation of the villagers’ or ‘The villagers were hostile’…”

“……Ha?”

Niels was also the one who made that sound.

“It’s not such a withdrawn village … well, it’s not that open-minded either.”

“Well~, I can’t conclude anything from the report alone. However, members from the first E-rank party were seriously injured. It appeared that they were attacked by Skeletons. They wrote that they encountered more than 20 skeletons at that time so be careful. Well, you have Etho as a Priest so you should be fine as long as you don’t let your guard down.”

When he heard that, Etho nodded firmly.

“Honestly, I’m grateful that Niels and you guys took over. It’s definitely better for it to be someone from the village … I know because I was born in a small village too. I was wondering what would happen because the request rank I received was 『C-rank / D-rank』 … but it’s fine since Ryo joined you guys. Yeah, I’m glad.”

Hugh was happy with himself and nodded many times.

“Also, I wrote a letter of introduction for this request to the Adventurer’s Guild of Kyradea, so take it with you. It also says that Niels is from the requesting village and to provide informational cooperation. Well, they won’t treat you badly.”

“Thank you, Guildmaster, for everything.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. You guys are youngsters I have high expectations for. Come back safely.”

Then Hugh left the reception room while laughing loudly.

“I’m hungry. Let’s have dinner.”

Ryo declared at his own pace and Niels nodded while still lost in thought, while Etho started laughing and Amon smiled bitterly.

You can’t work with an empty stomach.