Chapter 701 : At the Frontier III

Chapter 0701 At the Frontier III

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

Ryo nodded again and again at the sight of Andalusia happily enjoying the clean stable and the fresh bedding straw.

In such a satisfied mood, the lodging procedures were completed, and the two of them went into their room.

Unfortunately, there was no private open-air bath attached to the room...

“We had a big communal bath, though! That water was great.”

“It really is strange, being able to take a bath in the middle of this wild desert.”

That was their conversation after getting out of the bath.

In the towns where they had stayed after leaving the Eastern Countries, there had, of course, been no baths.

That said, Ryo was a water-attribute magician.

And, on top of that, he had been Japanese in his former life.

Naturally, he filled an ice tub with hot water and took a bath every night... and Abel got to enjoy it along with him.

“Well, the bath itself isn’t a problem with Ryo’s water-attribute magic...”

“Yes, yes. I’ve shown off the wonders of water-attribute magic every single night. But an inn’s big communal bath is different in its own way, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Just having a wide bath changes the mood a lot.”

As they said that, the two of them entered the dining place next to the ‘Sleeping Sand Inn’.

The Sleeping Sand Inn did not have anything like a dining hall, so meals were to be taken at the neighboring eatery, the ‘Dining Sand’.

“From the names, it sounds like the inn and the restaurant are run by the same company.”

“Probably. Still, ‘Sleeping Sand’ is one thing, but ‘Dining Sand’...”

“Let’s just pray they don’t serve sand dishes.”

Their concern was unfounded.

It was a wonderful meal.

As expected, it was worthy of the merchant guild’s exchange chief recommending it as “the best inn around”.

Naturally, that included the food.

“Being able to eat as much as you like of whatever you like is incredible.”

“This meat seasoning is addictively spicy.”

Both Ryo and Abel were thoroughly enjoying the delicious food.

The Dining Sand Inn had the atmosphere of a somewhat upscale restaurant, and its clientele was mostly refined people, but it did not seem likely to become one of those places where you ended up thinking, ‘I still haven’t eaten enough...’.

That is, if they could finish eating to the end...

Just as the two of them were starting on the main meat dish... no, to be precise, the second serving of the meat dish, the outer door opened and six men came into the restaurant.

Of course, customers had been coming and going all along, so the two of them kept eating without paying much attention.

“There they are, those two.”

That voice came from the men.

The six men quickly came to the two of them and surrounded their table.

Abel looked at them with a suspicious expression.

Ryo, incidentally, seemed to be completely ignoring them, not paying them the slightest attention.

“You’re C-rank adventurer Ryo and the porter, right? Come with us.”

“No.”

The brown-haired man who seemed to be the leader of the six said it as if it were only natural, and Ryo refused without a second’s hesitation.

After saying just that, Ryo continued eating the meat dish in front of him.

Seeing that, Abel let out a small sigh and also resumed eating.

The six men blanked.

At first, they had been too surprised by the two men’s attitude to get angry, but... as time passed, their anger was clearly building.

“Don’t screw with us!”

The brown-haired man shouted.

All the customers in the restaurant started glancing over at the six men.

“This is a place to eat. I think people who can’t keep quiet should leave.”

Ryo’s calm voice flowed out.

Even after hearing that, the six men still had no intention of backing down.

On the contrary, there was one person who trembled a little at hearing such an uncharacteristically sharp voice.

Abel.

(Ryo is angry...)

Understandably so.

They had been enjoying their meal, and anyone would be angry if that was interrupted.

Of course.

“Hey!”

Thunk.

At last, the brown-haired man who tried to lay hands on Ryo struck something invisible.

“What?”

“<Physical Barrier>?”

Bounced back by something invisible, the six recognized it as a physical barrier.

Before they knew it, Ryo had apparently surrounded the two of them with an <Ice Wall> to protect them.

However, seeing that, Abel thought:

(The dessert after this will probably be brought by the staff, so how is that going to work?)

Yes, if one were to ask whether that was a thought appropriate to the situation, it was extremely debatable.

It was rather more like a Ryo-style thought.

After long association, Abel may even have been infected by Ryo-style thinking himself.

Until the two of them finished eating the main meat dish, the six men literally could not lay a hand on them.

They seemed to have concluded that they were being protected by a <Physical Barrier>, and all they could do was glare silently at the two.

Naturally, they did not try to swing swords around inside the restaurant and destroy the <Physical Barrier>.

When Ryo and Abel finished the meat dish, they raised a hand toward the female floor attendant, who was watching them anxiously from the corner of the restaurant.

Seeing that, the woman cautiously approached.

“Excuse me, could we have dessert? I’ll have the Mont Blanc cake.”

“I’ll take the mille-feuille.”

“Certainly.”

Ryo and Abel placed their order, and the woman gave the six men only a quick glance before heading off to the kitchen.

When she had come over, she had seemed nervous, but since the two of them had ordered normally and the six men had not said or done anything in response, she seemed a little more relaxed as she returned to the kitchen.

Then they saw the female floor attendant carrying the two cakes and the coffee toward them.

The next instant.

“Huh?”

“Eh...”

“My body just...”

“I can’t stop.”

Part of the six men who had been surrounding Ryo and Abel ‘moved’, leaving no one between the woman and the two men’s table.

(It must be a combination of <Ice Wall> and <Ice Bahn>)

Looking at Ryo’s composed face as he said nothing, Abel thought.

He must have frozen the floor with Ice Bahn so they could not get any footing, then moved the Ice Wall to shift them aside...

Only Abel, who had known him so long, could precisely decipher the technique.

Naturally, the men who had been forcibly moved tried to get in the way of the floor attendant, but they could not move because there was an invisible wall.

“Mont Blanc cake and mille-feuille.”

The woman reached the two men’s table without issue and delivered the two cakes and the coffee.

The two of them ate the cake deliciously, and drank the coffee merrily.

But at last, the brown-haired man lost his temper.

“Hey!”

“Silence.”

Ryo said it immediately.

In contrast to the brown-haired man, he spoke quietly, calmly.

Yet those words seemed to carry physical pressure, silencing the men and forcing an oppressive weight upon them.

(So this is Ryo’s ‘pressure’. I’d seen it through ‘Soul Resonance’, but... amazing stuff.)

Abel thought as he ate his cake with a straight face.

When Abel had seen it before, it had been a ‘pressure’ slammed down head-on.

If he remembered correctly, it had been against the inquisitors who had barged into the inn.

(If that bears down on you head-on, of course you’d get scared.)

Even now, when Ryo did not seem to be putting that much force into it, the six men surrounding them were flinching.

So much so that even Abel could clearly tell they were flinching.

After that, the six men silently watched the two of them eat cake and drink coffee.

Once Ryo and Abel had slowly finished their coffee, they left the Dining Sand.

The Sleeping Sand Inn where they were staying was right next door.

The six men also came out after them.

“We are staying at the neighboring Sleeping Sand Inn. If you have something to say, then tomorrow, have the person in charge come to us directly. We will listen then.”

“What did you say!”

The six men bristled at Ryo’s words.

“We are not saying we will not meet with you. Or do you intend to pick a fight with us here, worsen our relations, and then take responsibility if it ends with us leaving the fortress?”

“Ugh...”

“Understood? Then please take your leave.”

Ryo gave them no opening whatsoever.

The memory of being pushed back by that pressure was already engraved into the six men.

There was no way such men could stand against Ryo.

Ryo and Abel went into the Sleeping Sand Inn.

“Ryo is scary when he gets angry.”

Abel said this with a laugh.

“If they had not come during a pleasant meal, none of this would have happened. That was rude. It is a classic setup to have some trouble during a meal, though...”

“Oh, one of Ryo’s favorite classic tropes, huh. So why did you get angry then?”

Abel tilted his head.

He knew that Ryo dearly loved such classic setups.

“Classic tropes are important, but I do not need classic tropes that make me feel unpleasant.”

“R-Right...”

“If they had waited until I finished eating before speaking to us, or spoken after we left the dining hall, I might have gone to see them tonight.”

“Well, timing is important in anything.”

In a tense situation, one might understand not being able to care about such things.

But that was the other party’s circumstances.

If that was truly the case, then they should not have barged in and spoken to them from the start.

Timing was important.

And so was the way you said it.

“If it was an important matter, they would come again tomorrow.”

Abel also shrugged.

A national crisis, an organizational crisis... just because something was important did not mean one could ignore the other side’s situation... Abel, who was a king, did not think that way.

If it was truly that urgent, then they should not send someone who would anger the other party... it was as simple as that.

The next morning.

The two of them, having thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful sleep, entered the Dining Sand with smiles on their faces to eat breakfast.

Then, after breakfast, when they returned to the Sleeping Sand Inn, four men were waiting there.

Two of them were, in fact, familiar faces.

“Ryo-dono, and Porter-dono, yesterday our man said something rude. I apologize.”

One of the familiar faces bowed first.

Seeing that, the other three hurriedly bowed as well.

Among them was another familiar person... the brown-haired man from yesterday.

He looked extremely uncomfortable.

Apparently, he had been thoroughly scolded.

Abel gave the brown-haired man only one glance, then spoke to the man who had bowed first.

“You were standing guard at the gate yesterday, right?”

“Are you the man in charge?”

Ryo asked in surprise.

Yes, the man who had bowed first was the leader of the guards who had checked their identity papers at the gate to the fortress, and the man they had spoken with.

“My name is Molga. I am the commander of the guard corps and the military administrator of this fortress.”

He was in his late thirties, with black eyes, dark brown hair, brown skin, and a height of around 175 cm, about the same as Ryo’s.

He had a lean, well-conditioned body.

“Is it some kind of tradition here for the person in charge to stand at the gate himself?”

“No, it’s simply that we are short on personnel.”

Molga, the guard commander, answered with a laugh at Abel’s question.

“To be precise, we do have people, but many of them are in training. If they stand guard, they cannot do sword practice and the like during that time, can they? Right now, we have nothing but people whom we want to grow stronger through as much training as possible. We do not have the luxury of letting them stand guard and rest.”

“So the guards get no breaks...”

Abel shrugged at Molga’s words.

But he could understand that what the man said made sense.

Conversely, it meant that this fortress was in a situation where it had to subject inexperienced people to nonstop training.

“I understand that you are busy, but you should choose your messengers better.”

“Ah... quite so. I have no excuse.”

At Abel’s words, Molga gave a wry smile and looked at the brown-haired man.

He seemed to understand completely what was being referred to.

The brown-haired man also bowed deeply again.

He understood that his behavior had complicated the matter.

“If I may excuse myself, at the time I was also going around checking the other inns.”

“You were looking for us?”

“Yes. I told him that if he found you, he should make a polite request... I am sorry for causing offense.”

Molga bowed again, and the other three bowed once more as well.

At this point, they were making themselves so humble that even Ryo and Abel began to feel, well, perhaps it was fine.

Sensing that the two of them were no longer feeling quite so hostile.

Molga looked at Ryo and Abel once each before asking.

“I have one question.”

“Yes?”

“Hmm?”

Ryo and Abel responded.

“I would like to hear the name of the porter.”

“Yeah...”

Abel glanced at Ryo.

Ryo caught that look and shrugged. It was a gesture that said, I’ll leave it to you.

“My name is Abel.”

“Hmm, Abel-dono, then. You do not look like a mere porter to me. In fact, ever since earlier, Abel-dono has been the one answering on behalf of Ryo-dono, who is a C-rank adventurer.”

“That is because I am often entrusted with negotiation as well. Do not mind it.”

“I-is that so? I am certain you are a famous swordsman.”

Molga said that while glancing at Abel’s sword, but did not press the matter further.

“We came here this time because we have a request for Ryo-dono, the adventurer.”

“If you have a request for an adventurer, wouldn’t it be better to go through the Adventurers’ Guild?”

“Normally, yes. But there is no Adventurers’ Guild in this fortress.”

“Figured as much.”

At Molga’s words, Abel nodded as though that was exactly what he had expected.

“Yesterday, while walking through the streets looking for the Merchant Guild, I did not see any sign for the Adventurers’ Guild.”

“I heard that the two of you spoke with Myfa, the exchange chief of the Merchant Guild.”

“Myfa-dono asked us if we would like to do work involving training.”

“Exactly. But you said you would be leaving the fortress soon, so it would not be possible.”

“That is correct.”

Abel replied.

Ryo also nodded silently.

When Abel was doing the speaking and negotiating, Ryo was often silent.

A negotiation rule of thumb was to narrow the point of contact down to one person.

In this case, the point of contact was Abel.

“I heard that Marquis Nyusha overthrew the former royal family, and that this fortress is resisting him.”

“That is right.”

“Is it likely to turn into a war with that Marquis Nyusha person? Is that why you are training?”

“I cannot say the possibility is zero, but we want to avoid war at all costs.”

“Is that your personal view, Commander Molga?”

“No, not just mine... the merchants who run the self-governance of this fortress feel the same way.”

“Ooh.”

Abel looked a little surprised.

“I thought this had a very dangerous smell to it... I was sure you were preparing to go to war.”

“On the Marquis’s side, they also seem to wish to avoid war.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. This Zaarash fortress has proudly been considered impregnable since the era of the Go Royal Family. There was even a time when two hundred soldiers repelled an attack by two thousand regular troops.”

“That’s impressive.”

Abel admired that.

As a general rule for fortresss and castles, the upper limit of defenders who can hold out is said to be five times the attacking force.

To have repelled an enemy ten times their number was proof of Zaarash fortress’s excellence.

“However, the people defending the fortress right now have very few veteran soldiers.”

“Why is that? The civil war itself has been going on for nearly five years, hasn’t it? If they have been fighting all that time, wouldn’t they have gained experience?”

“Yes, that was the case until two months ago... There’s a town called Bond a little way from here. Together with this Zaarash fortress, it is fair to say that it is the center of the anti-Nyusha camp. In Bond, an epidemic broke out... and tragically, at that time the priest had left the town, so many people died.”

“I see. The veteran soldiers of this fortress were reassigned to fill that gap.”

“Yes. The other side is not as sturdy as this fortress. If it’s attacked, they will be driven into a difficult situation, so it couldn’t be helped.”

Molga answered with a grimace.

“In fact, the first meeting between both camps will be held the day after tomorrow.”

“Ooh...”

“I will attend as the military administrator as well, but... privately, the Marquis’s camp has also indicated that they wish to avoid military conflict. If a large-scale armed clash breaks out, it could invite intervention from neighboring countries. That is something neither side wants. Not us, and not the Marquis’s camp either.”

“I think that’s a sensible judgment.”

Abel nodded.

That’s right. The troublesome part of a civil war was intervention by neighboring countries.

That had not changed in any era, in any country.

To end a civil war without armed conflict, or by avoiding large-scale violence... that ought to be good for everyone...

“Is there an intermediary, or someone in the middle, for that meeting?”

“There is. The Handal Union will serve as the intermediary.”

“I see.”

When it came to a meeting between camps that had been in conflict for a long time, there was always a need for an organization to mediate.

In most cases, it was a country with power.

Because if, at the meeting, one side used an underhanded assassination attempt or something similar, it would be a problem.

If a powerful country acted as mediator, then if it felt its dignity had been insulted, it could turn against the offender... so underhanded attacks would be avoided.

That was why it mattered who served as the intermediary.

If it was the Union, that should be more than enough power.

“But I have heard that the Marquis’s camp is not satisfied with that part.”

“Is that so?”

“They say the Union is not neutral, because in the end it plans to absorb all of us.”

“Yeah...”

At Molga’s explanation, Abel gave a small nod.

“What you wanted from us... or rather, from Ryo, was help with training?”

“Not just Ryo-dono. We would like Abel-dono to help as well.”

“The request fee will double, you know?”

“Ugh... I will somehow persuade the merchants about that...”

Molga grimaced.

“Still, that is fine. How many people and at what level are we talking about training?”

“Thirty who had never even held a sword until a month ago, and twenty who have learned the basics but are still too shaky to send onto the battlefield.”

“Hmm.”

“In any case, this fortress does have a sword master.”

“Oh?”

“He is already over sixty, but he is stronger than any of the guards. He is called Old Master Masuda. He has been in this fortress since the era of the Go Royal Family, and in fact, he once trained me as well.”

Molga smiled wryly.

“But even he is complaining that, with twenty young people already being trained and then another fifty all at once...well, I should say there have already been nearly twenty people under training from before. He has his hands full just with those. He says there is no way he can handle fifty more. And then a ‘C-rank adventurer’ comes along, right? Well, Ryo-dono does wear a robe and looks like a magician... but still, I thought it might be good to have the two of you help with the training.”

“Yes, I am a magician.”

Only then did Ryo finally speak.

He was proud of being a water-attribute magician.

But Abel glanced at him sideways.

He did not say anything out loud, but his eyes were saying it for him... Weren’t you the sword instructor for the Rune Knights?

Ryo noticed Abel’s gaze too, but ignored it with a refined expression.

That was that; this was this.

“May I think about it a little?”

“Of course.”

At Abel’s words, Molga widened his eyes and nodded.

He had probably assumed, even before coming here, that the answer would be no.

And even while talking, he likely had not expected to get a favorable answer at all.

“There is a training ground for the Fortress Training Association, so please come there. It’s right by the west gate. As for the exact location, the front desk at the Sleeping Sand Inn will know, and so will anyone in town.”

Having said that, Molga left.

“Abel, let us cooperate.”

Ryo, in complete contrast to the previous night, agreed more positively than usual.

“That’s rare.”

Abel was surprised by that.

“I felt that Molga-san’s wish to avoid war was genuine. So I want to help with that. I will also forgive last night’s rude and violent behavior.”

“Violent behavior...”

Abel shook his head slightly.

“I do not want war to happen.”

“Yes. If only one side was warmongering, that would be one thing, but if both sides want to avoid it, then helping with that is the way of people.”

“Ryo is a battle maniac, but he hates war, huh.”

“How rude! Individual combat and war, where the lives and deaths of many people are at stake, are completely different things.”

Ryo made the distinction very clearly.

Of course, the history-loving Ryo knew that human history was inseparable from war.

And yet, even so, he did not think war was something absolutely necessary for people.

When it came to countries, they were so large that unavoidable clashes could occur... it would be difficult to prevent conflict through individual effort alone.

And as a result, nobody becomes happy... that is what war is.

Well, he was forgetting to deny the point that Ryo himself was, on a personal level, a battle maniac... but still.

“The contradiction of training people so that war will not occur...”

“Yes. Ultimately, mutually assured destruction becomes a strong deterrent... While it may not be omnipotent, it does contain a certain truth. It is hard to start a war against an opponent you know will counterattack strongly and without hesitation. It’s the same as how a bully does not choose someone tough, violent, and scary as the target of their bullying.”

“I don’t really understand it... but if there is a way to solve problems without war, then that is obviously better.”

At Abel’s words, Ryo nodded silently.