0675 Genius Alchemist Abel?
“All right, it’s done!”
On the deck of Darwei Public Vessel Number Ten, Ryo raised a delighted shout.
“Good work. Alchemy?”
Abel stopped swinging the sword he had been practicing with and acknowledged Ryo’s effort.
“Yes, yes. After ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) people like that... no, after devils like that suddenly showed up, who knows what outrageous thing might happen next. This is so we’ll be fine even if sothing does happen. Better safe than sorry, as they say.”
“Was that magic formula you were working on for the Neil Andersen?”
“...Huh?”
Ryo froze at Abel’s words.
In this case, the Neil Andersen ant the Neil Andersen, the second Rondo-class ship. It was the submarine Ryo created through alchemy.
Of course, Abel had ridden on it before, and more than once it had saved them in a crisis.
So naturally Abel knew it existed.
But still...
“I didn’t say a single word about that, did I?”
Ryo murmured, his eyes still wide open.
That was right. Ryo had never once said what kind of magic formula it was.
Of course, he had not summoned the Neil Andersen either.
True, he knew Abel had occasionally been peeking over his shoulder from behind, but...
“No, I just thought it looked similar to the magic formulas for the Neil Andersen that you showed before.”
“What...?”
At Abel’s words, Ryo was left completely speechless.
He understood now that Abel had not just thrown out a random guess.
Because it looked similar to a magic formula he had seen before?
There was no way anyone should be able to tell from that!
Soone who had never done programming could not look at code and know what it was written for.
Fortran, LISP, C... well, maybe Python would be possible?
No, this was abnormal.
There was only one possible explanation...
“Abel may actually be a genius at alchemy.”
Ryo announced it with his eyes still wide.
“As if.”
But Abel only laughed it off.
“I’ve never studied alchemy a day in my life.”
“That’s exactly why!”
Ryo flared up and shot back at Abel’s words.
“The fact that you can tell without ever having studied it is what’s abnormal.”
“Is it?”
Abel rely shrugged.
“Abel, the mont we get back to the kingdom, you need to apprentice yourself to Kenneth!”
“Huh?”
“They say you should strike while the iron is hot. If you start learning now, then by the ti you reach old age, there’s a chance you could beco an alchemist whose na is known throughout the whole kingdom!”
“What is that supposed to an?”
Ryo spoke with great fervor. Abel, apparently, was not moved in the slightest.
“Besides, I can’t use magic.”
“Ah...”
Ryo fell silent at Abel’s words.
Alchemists could handle magic.
Rather, if you were not a magician, you could not beco an alchemist at all...
Co to think of it, he vaguely rembered having a conversation like this once before.
“A specialist alchemist who only designs magic formulas...”
“Is there even such a thing as an alchemist like that?”
“To my sha, I’ve never heard of one.”
“Thought so. Neither have I.”
It seed the world never quite worked the way one wanted.
“Well, I’m satisfied just knowing I guessed it was related to the Neil Andersen.”
“The fact that you could tell that alone is already incredible.”
Abel said it happily, and Ryo nodded in admiration.
“Of all the areas where we need to be prepared... land, sea, and air, the one where we’re still weakest is the sea. So I put sothing in place to make sure we’ll be all right no matter what happens there.”
“I get land, but aren’t we weak in the air too?”
“Huh? But Abel, you can fly now, can’t you?”
Abel was wearing a Flight Ring.
It was one of Ryo’s improved models. It consud a lot of magic power, but unlike Darwei’s Yellow Center version, it could fly outside Darwei as well.
“Well, I can fly if you want to put it that way, but not exactly with total freedom...”
“So then you can draw the enemy’s attention. While you’re doing that, Andalusia, Feiwan, and I will escape.”
“Hey...”
“What, are you saying you can’t risk your life for the sake of your beloved horse?”
“I’d prefer you co up with a way to save my life too, not just my horse’s...”
Abel let out a sigh and shot back at Ryo’s almost accusatory remark.
“No, more importantly, neither Andalusia nor Feiwan can fly. What exactly are you planning to do?”
“I’ll instantly make a huge and load them onto it. The two of them together weigh around a thousand kilos, so even if I fire onto the , it won’t be able to fly... but I think it should at least be able to land slowly. So I figured that would probably work.”
What Ryo had in mind was the sa sort of thing Abel had once used during the coronation in Rune, when he had made the platform float.
“And if you let ride on it too...”
“If I did that, there’d be nobody left to hold off the enemy.”
“That would make you the right person for the job...”
“I’ll be too busy creating the and protecting Andalusia and Feiwan.”
Ryo declared it with absolute firmness.
Abel shook his head a little.
A few monts later, Abel muttered,
“The mont I get thrown into the air, I should just grab you by the collar.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll use you as a shield. You’d automatically generate ice walls and spears, wouldn’t you? You’re an all-purpose shield.”
“How can you say that! And to begin with, what kind of swordsman hides behind a magician? Don’t you have any pride?”
“Survival cos first. Regretting it cos after that.”
“You changed it...”
Abel said it with a grin, and Ryo grimaced in frustration.
While the two of them talked like that, Andalusia and Feiwan lay on the deck, comfortably sunbathing as they watched them.
Truly beloved horses that required no trouble at all.
The world, today as well, was peaceful.
“By the way, Ryo.”
“What is it?”
“You got rid of all the Golems that were in Rondo Manor, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Other than Friendship Token No. 2, whom I gave to Captain Lu Yao, they’re all in here.”
As he said that, Ryo lightly tapped the small item hanging from the cord of his robe.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a seal case with seasonings in it. You flash this at bad people and say, ‘Stand aside—can’t you see this seal?’”
Ryo answered happily. He was clearly in the mood of so wandering magistrate from an old story.
But Abel gave no reaction.
“Um, Abel?”
“Ah, sorry. I understood that it has seasonings in it. No, that’s not what I ant. I ant the things hanging from the end of that cord...”
The object Ryo called a seal case had a cord attached to it, and at the end of that cord were two blue magic stones tied on.
“In the old days, you’d call this a toggle. Well, these are exactly what they look like—water magic stones.”
“Could those be the ones that were in Rondo Manor?”
“Yes. You rembered that well.”
Ryo was impressed by Abel’s mory.
Those water magic stones had been placed in a room in Rondo Manor, from where magic power had been supplied to the Golems, and their “mories” had also been stored there.
“It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everything from Herald No. 1 and all the little covert guards is inside these two magic stones. Once we get back to the kingdom, I’ll put them back. I’m looking forward to it.”
Ryo was probably imagining all sorts of things, because he nodded happily to himself.
After the ship had sailed on for a while, Abel spoke.
“We’ll reach a port in the Grand Duchy of Atinjo tomorrow, right?”
“That’s right. Let’s review the Grand Duchy of Atinjo once before we arrive.”
“Review?”
Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s words.
“The Grand Duchy of Atinjo annexed the free city of Kubebasa and turned it into the autonomous city of Kubebasa. Then it intervened in the civil war in the southern Gegish-Lu Federation and established a puppet governnt. It brought both of those states completely under its control. The reason it did all that was to counter the rise of the Choouchi Empire, the nation of Phantomkin to the north.”
“But the power of the Choouchi Empire was weakened. In the process, though, the Grand Duke of Atinjo died, and Duke Helbe, who had been one of its most capable n, was taken over by the Phantom King.”
“The reason those two were taken over was because they were both Phantomkin. But the new Grand Duke who inherited the title is human. Duke Helbe was frozen for a while, but now I’ve already released him from the ice.”
“And our public reason for going there this ti is to return the Saint Sword Tattien, which Duke Helbe had been swinging around during that eting in the autonomous city of Kubebasa.”
Ryo and Abel were both fully on the sa page about this matter.
“But I know the hidden purpose in Abel’s heart. Your great secret desire.”
“My hidden purpose? My desire?”
Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s words.
“You want to eat your fill of the delicious food of the Grand Duchy of Atinjo that you missed out on last ti, don’t you? It’s completely obvious.”
“I don’t know about that. That sounds much more like your desire than mine.”
“It’s useless to try to dodge the issue!”
“Then you’re saying you don’t want to eat delicious food in the Grand Duchy of Atinjo?”
“That’s a separate matter. Of course I’m going to eat it.”
“Yeah, I have absolutely no idea how that’s separate.”
At the ti, both of them truly believed this visit would be a peaceful one...
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