By the ti the two of them reached the top of the southern wall, Crown Prince Zorn was already there, of course, and the people who seed to be commanders were lined up as well, looking outside the wall.
There certainly appeared to be several hundred of them, but among them was a familiar silhouette....
“What we are about to face is not human.”
“That looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. It is Demon Man Garwin and his servants.”
“This is the Dark Continent. What are they doing here?”
“Just as we were thrown into the archipelago region, perhaps they were thrown to the Dark Continent.”
Ryo answered Abel’s question with speculation.
What had caused the two of them to be thrown into the archipelago region was Garwin’s mana, or magic, going out of control.
To begin with, the Demon n such as Garwin seed capable of manipulating gravity.
Gravity was the distortion of space, according to Einstein.
If that was true, then there was no doubt gravity and space were closely related.
Therefore, if a Demon Man’s mana or magic went out of control, space could warp and send him flying a long distance away... It was not entirely impossible to understand.
“A pitiable Demon Man, hurled away by his own magic.”
“...In other words, the Knightley Kingdom is involved in the situation currently unfolding?”
“When you put it that way, I cannot refute it, but...”
Ryo grimaced as he answered Abel’s words.
“But if Garwin had not attacked the Bardael Chiefdom, there would have been no problem, and if he had not fought the Kingdom, his mana or magic would not have gone out of control... so I still think all responsibility lies with Garwin.”
“...True.”
But the target did not leave the two of them alone.
He must have noticed the two of them appearing on top of the wall.
Even though he should have been roughly four hundred ters away....
“You finally ca out, Ryo, Abel! I’ve got business with you two!”
Garwin roared.
His voice was impossible for a human, and it reached the top of the wall clearly.
“You have the wrong people!”
Ryo reflexively shouted back.
His voice was not all that loud, but apparently Garwin’s ears were good.
“No, I don’t!”
“I could not deceive him.”
“Obviously.”
Abel shook his head slightly at Ryo’s report.
However, the people on the wall seed shocked after hearing the exchange between Ryo and Garwin.
Among them, Zorn looked especially startled as he spoke.
“Forgive , but Your Grace Duke Rondo, are you acquainted with that invader?”
“Ah, well...”
Ryo hesitated over how to answer and looked at Abel.
“Your Highness Zorn, that is Demon Man Garwin, who once rampaged through our Knightley Kingdom as well.”
“A Demon Man!”
Abel answered, and Zorn was shocked.
“A Demon Man...”
“The one from the legends?”
“The one that turned half the continent into scorched earth alone?”
“The one who stopped destroying things after Sage Ndon persuaded him, then departed into the depths of the continent?”
“But that one’s na wasn’t Garwin, was it?”
“Either way, it isn’t an opponent humans can defeat...”
The people on the wall exchanged those words.
Apparently, the Dark Continent had legends of Demon n too.
“Your Majesty said just now that he rampaged through the Kingdom as well. Has that Demon Man been in the Central Countries?”
“Yes, Your Highness. One year ago, our Kingdom mobilized all its power in an attempt to subjugate that Demon Man, Garwin. In the end, Garwin’s own magic went out of control, and Duke Rondo and I were thrown into the archipelago region... or to put it in simpler terms, the Eastern Nations.”
“How extraordinary...”
“At the sa ti, we received reports that the Demon Man and his servants had vanished as well. They must have been thrown here to the Dark Continent.”
Abel explained.
After hearing that, the people on the wall fell silent.
Being thrown to the Eastern Nations, whose existence they only knew of in theory, or being thrown here to the Dark Continent... perhaps their minds simply could not keep up.
That was the state of the wall, but none of it mattered to the ones who had advanced on the city.
“The chief of your country is here.”
When Garwin said that, Chief Battuzon of the Bardael Chiefdom was dragged out to the front line.
“My lord chief!”
At the sight of him, every gaze on the wall converged.
It was certainly the chief they had received information had been captured.
“Father...”
Zorn murmured.
Chief Battuzon, who had been brought out, was not tied with ropes, nor did he show any signs of having been tortured.
“We’ve been treating him courteously as a prisoner.”
Garwin announced.
“Your Highness.”
“Even if they demand we open the gate in exchange for Father’s return, I cannot accept it.”
“Yes...”
That exchange took place between Zorn and one of his close aides.
Yes. When an important person from the target of conquest was held as a prisoner and pushed to the front, in most cases it was to use him as a tool in negotiations.
And among those, the most likely demand in the current situation was the opening of the city—or a recomndation to surrender.
But Zorn’s thinking as crown prince was clear.
He would protect the city, even over the life of Battuzon, his father and chief.
In a sense, that was only natural so long as many people were inside the city... but making that decision was not easy.
In all likelihood, they would torture him before their eyes in order to force the demand through.
It would not even be an exaggeration to say that was why they had kept him alive.
That was what using soone as a negotiating tool ant.
And yet, after considering all of that, Zorn had stated it plainly to his close aide.
“I cannot accept it.”
Then Demon Man Garwin opened his mouth again.
“You can have this prisoner back just as he is.”
“What?”
Zorn frowned in suspicion.
“I have one demand. Ryo, Abel—fight us.”
“...Excuse ?”
Garwin’s words drew a strangely off-key response from Ryo.
Abel remained silent, but his face had twisted into a grimace.
As for the others on the wall... they were staring blankly.
It seed no one had yet understood what he ant.
“If you fight, I’ll return him unconditionally. Then, if your side wins, I’ll withdraw my army.”
Garwin’s voice reached them.
A stir ran across the wall.
“Abel, he is saying sothing like that.”
“He is.”
Abel shrugged at Ryo’s words.
“Your Majesty, Your Grace... can you defeat him? Can you defeat a Demon Man?”
Zorn asked, his expression filled with hope.
“A Demon Man... or at least that Garwin, revived even after we completely annihilated him.”
“What?”
“How does one define ‘victory’ against an opponent like that...?”
Zorn was shocked, while Ryo tilted his head.
Beside him, Abel also grimaced before opening his mouth.
“And his servants... if Garwin feels like it, he can revive them as many tis as he wants too, can’t he?”
“It is an incredibly unfair fight from the start.”
Ryo shook his head slightly.
That said, both Ryo and Abel understood that they did not seem to have the option of refusing to fight.
After all, Garwin had taken an enormous “hostage”—the threat of attacking the city, of attacking the country.
“It cannot be helped. I will try negotiating.”
“Negotiating?”
Ryo murmured, and Abel tilted his head.
“Garwin, I have sothing to say to you!”
Ryo called out from deep in his stomach.
His voice carried quite far.
“Ryo, is it? Go ahead.”
Garwin prompted him.
“Demon n cannot be defeated. Even if you are cut apart and annihilated, you regenerate. That is unfair.”
“Even if you say that...”
Ryo accused him, and Garwin shrugged.
“Do you not want to fight ? If so, then the conditions should be equal.”
“You... Ryo, do you understand? I could attack that city right now if I wanted. I’m going out of my way to stop and fight you instead.”
“Even if the city were attacked, I would not feel the slightest pain over it.”
That was a lie, of course.
While waiting for the chief’s return, Ryo had gone out into the city many tis.
There, he had interacted with many of its people... At this point, there was no way he would feel nothing if the city were attacked.
But this was a negotiation.
He understood that the fight could not be avoided.
If so, he had to draw out victory conditions even a little more favorable to their side.
If negotiation could make that possible, Ryo would even lie.
“If you want to fight , then the conditions should be equal.”
“...Fine. If you cut off my head, your side wins.”
Ryo repeated himself, and Garwin, grimacing, offered a condition.
“That alone is insufficient. Garwin, if you lose, promise that you will not invade the Bardael Chiefdom for the next ten years.”
“Well... that is fine too.”
“You will not go back on your word?”
“I won’t.”
“Understood. In that case, we accept.”
Ryo nodded firmly.
The conditions were set.
“Ryo, are you sure?”
“That is probably the limit of what we could draw from him. It cannot be helped. Are you all right, Abel?”
“My opponent will be one of his servants... probably Orenju. I’ll manage sohow with this sword.”
As he said that, Abel tapped his beloved sword.
During the war against the Demon n, Abel had once defeated Orenju.
“A sword. Yes, that is true...”
Ryo murmured that, then drew Murasa from its sheath.
Then he called out to it.
“Murasa, please activate , just like during the previous battle with Garwin.”
When Ryo called out, Murasa’s hilt glowed faintly for just an instant.
Ryo nodded with a satisfied expression.
By contrast, Abel looked dubious.
“...What was that just now?”
“I asked it to activate the secret sword, .”
“Secret sword? Asked it?”
Abel did not understand what he ant.
“It is sothing like Murasa’s special effect.”
“If you ask the sword, it can do that?”
“Yes.”
Ryo nodded at Abel’s question.
Abel tilted his head again and again.
“In my holand, it is said that gods dwell in all things. If so, there is no way my partner Murasa, especially a sword I received from my master, would not possess a soul.”
“O-oh.”
Ryo declared it with absolute confidence, and Abel, overwheld by that pressure, accepted it.
Of course, Abel too fully trusted his own beloved sword.
He entrusted his life to it in battle.
If a swordsman did not trust his sword, what was he supposed to trust?
So he could understand Ryo’s feelings in trusting his sword.
He could understand them, but....
“The world is full of strange things.”
That murmur from Abel never reached Ryo.
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