Water Magician Chapter 197: Showken

Editor: Tseirp

Showken, C-rank adventurer, was troubled.

He was the leader of the group of adventurers escorting the diplomatic mission.

At 33 years old, he was the oldest of the group, and because of his long and extensive experience as an adventurer, he had been appointed by the Grand Master to lead the group.

The four parties of twenty adventurer escorts had no issues to speak of.

No discord or uncooperative behavior between the parties.

On the contrary, they were able to work well together with the mbers of the Kingdom’s Knight Order, with whom they were usually at odds, to carry out their duties as escorts.

So why’s Showken troubled?

It had to do with the adventurers in the carriage.

One of them was Abel, an A-rank adventurer.

Of course, there was no problem with his character as an individual, nor was he lacking in ability, or have difficulties with communication.

As one would expect from an A-rank adventurer, he has deep insight, charisma that attracts all kinds of people, and unrivaled skill with a sword.

When he saw him swinging his sword in the courtyard of the inn in the morning, or the ti he engaged in a light spar with a knight he seed to be acquainted with, he was overwheld by his skill with the sword.

And the other was a magician nad Ryo, a C-rank adventurer.

Although he is a C-rank adventurer, he was chosen as Abel’s partner and didn’t seem like a bad person either. He looked sowhere between 16 and 17 years old, but that seed to be due to his Oriental features.

However, at the banquet back at the inn in Acre, he was pampered by female adventurers who kept calling him “cutie”.

He was a little envious of him.

Neither Abel nor Ryo had any lacking aspect with regards to their skills as adventurers or their personalities.

So what was bothering him was their position.

Of course, he was aware of the fact that they would not be involved in the escort mission.

He also knew that they were going to Twilight Land as guests.

That’s why they were provided a carriage.

But, should a situation arise where he would like to hear their, especially Abel, the A-rank adventurer’s, opinion regarding their escort duty, should he go and ask them or not?

That’s what he’s been struggling with.

The monsters had been attacking them every day since they passed Birdon Braine, the city after Acre.

He would like to hear their thoughts on this.

Although, Showken already had his own idea.

But it may not necessarily be the only answer.

There may be so things that he and his companions weren’t aware of, or hadn’t thought of.

Assuming there was no one else to ask, he wouldn’t mind, but there were, right there in the carriage.

They drank together at the inn back in Acre and were no longer strangers.

It was killing him….

It was noon on the sixth day after leaving Birdon Braine.

On this day, the diplomatic mission was taking a lunch break after fighting off the usual morning monster raid.

Since passing Birdon Braine, they stayed the night in villages or town, albeit small ones.

There was, of course, no inn that could accommodate the entire mission, so so were forced to camp out.

But at least food procurent wasn’t a problem, and cooking was done by the squires, so civil servants, and adventurers, providing als both day and night with no complaints.

After lunch was over.

“Excuse , Abel, may I have a mont of your ti?”

Abel and Ryo had just finished eating their lunch outside the carriage, enjoying the scenery, when Showken, the leader of the adventurers, called out.

“Showken. Sure, we just finished eating, so what’s up.”

Abel said patting the ground next to him gesturing he should co over.

On the other side, Ryo was beginning to grind the beans in the ice coffee mill for their after-al coffee.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the daily monster raids.”

“Oh, if I can be of any help, please by all ans.”

Showken was older than Abel, but Abel was an A-rank adventurer. It’s only natural that he addressed him politely.

Showken summarized what the adventurers had discussed.

Since they attack so regularly, they suspected that soone was manipulating the monsters artificially.

It was certain that they were after the mission, but they were not quite sure who or what they were after.

“Yeah, it’s definitely artificial, that’s for sure. Although I’ve never heard of a tool or sothing that can control monsters…could be an alchemy tool? What do you think, Ryo?”

Abel turned to Ryo, who was sitting next to him and asked.

Ryo had made a small desk out of ice, on which he placed coffee powder, the coffee press containing hot water, and the ice hourglass, and was waiting for the ti to pass.

“I’ve asked Kenneth a similar question before. Kenneth told that it cannot be made with the alchemy of the Kingdom. The reason, according to him, is that the magic to control monsters is way too special.”

“Magic to control monsters…to think that, such a thing actually exists.”

Showken reacted involuntarily to Ryo’s answer.

“It’s a kind of dark-attribute magic.”

Abel replied and continued.

“So dark-attribute magic interferes with the mind. Ordinarily, it is assud to only interfere with the human psyche, but it seems that so dark-attribute magicians were able to affect the psyche of monsters and manipulate them. I read about this in a book a long ti ago. I think that’s probably what Kenneth was referring to.”

“I see…”

“Currently, there are no magicians who can conjure dark-attribute magic…to my knowledge. To be able to operate it with alchemy tools, soone with in-depth knowledge of the magic to be activated would have to cooperate in its production. So, in other words, it’s impossible.”

Abel said.

But in his mind, he thought of the dark-attribute priest he once t in the ‘Hidden Temple’ that was eventually taken away by Akuma Leonor.

(Yeah, they say they don’t exist, but they in fact do.)

“But perhaps that very magician may be among the attackers this ti. Because then, they would be able to instigate the monsters however they like.”

“Good point…”

Showken nodded broadly at Abel’s words.

And just in ti, Ryo called out.

“The coffee is ready. Showken too, you can have so.”

With that, he brewed coffee in an ice cup that had no hint of coldness and handed it to Showken.

“Oh, thank you. This is a beautiful cup. And it slls so good…never would I have expected to chance upon this kind of coffee in the middle of an escort request.”

He said, taking a little sip, and his eyes widened.

“Wow, this is too good! This has to be top-quality coffee, right?”

“We received it from the lord’s manor in Acre. It’s good, isn’t it?”

Ryo replied to Showken’s words of praise as he continued to empty his cup as well.

Sitting in between the two of them, Abel nodded his head and continued to sip his coffee in silence.

Good coffee makes people smile.

“Wow. That was very pleasing to the mouth. Thanks for the coffee.”

Showken said and returned the cup to Ryo.

“Now then, going forward…”

“Right. What do you think, Abel? The others believe that eventually, when we’ve beco totally worn out with fatigue, the real attack will co.”

“Yup, that’s what they’re aiming for no doubt about it. They’re coming at us now in a steady rhythm, but when we get used to it…the next one, we’ll be like “Oh no, not again”, and that’s when they will strike with their full might while catching us off guard. It’s pretty standard, but…the fact that we stress ourselves out by keeping it in mind and getting nervous because we don’t know when it will happen also accelerates the accumulation of fatigue. Honestly, it’s utterly troubling.”

“I know, right. It’s troubling…”

With that, both Abel and Showken fell silent and beca lost in thought.

Ryo, on the side, was trying not to interject because it was not his jurisdiction, but he took pity on the two of them watching them so distressed and decided to speak up.

“Um…I know a water-attribute magic that’s just right for the situation.”

“What?”

“Seriously?”

Both Showken and Abel snapped their heads up as they looked at Ryo.

“Since …is uh, well anyway, I have an improved version of it called . I can detect foreign monsters from the usual, or groups of people entering within a radius of 400 ters. If you want I can alert everyone to it when that happens?”

“Whoa! That’d be perfect! So if we don’t hear from Ryo, that ans it’s the usual monster attack. And if you detect sothing different from the usual, you’ll alert us to it. By all ans, please!”

The principle was no different from the usual .

He was just trying to make the na sound a bit cooler.

If it had been the Dynamic Steam Mine, it would have been sothing completely different…seeing as he dropped it halfway into it, he felt it was indeed overkill.

Abel asked Ryo after Showken had returned to his party.

“Hey, what kind of magic is that Dynamic Steam Mine you ntioned then?”

Abel seed to sense sothing disturbing in the magic Ryo ntioned halfway.

“Oh… It is magic that automatically freezes any unusual group of monsters or people that enter within a radius of 400 ters. Since it would be unfortunate if it were an ally, so I tried modifying it following the usual Passive Sonar.”

“Whoa, all right, that’s dangerous, so definitely don’t do it.”

“Don’t do it? Definitely don’t do it? That ans I should do the opposite and do it! That’s how it goes.”

“Hell no!”

Ryo’s lighthearted words always made Abel feel uneasy.