Chapter 603: Farewell
Editor: Tseirp
“Ah, doing something good really makes you feel great!”
After the group from the Censorate— including the newly joined adventurers—and Inspector Li Wu, who still truly did not understand why he had been brought along, left Rondo Manor, Ryo said this in the garden as he stretched his back.
“Well, it wasn’t a bad thing, so I don’t see a problem.”
Abel shrugged as he answered.
“Abel is always like that! Always so sarcastic and dismissive in your replies. That kind of ‘cool’ act is out of fashion! Since you are His Majesty the King, you should try to understand the flow of society a little better.”
“Dismissive? I don’t mean to be.”
“I’ll throw down a challenge at you then!”
“A challenge?”
Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s inexplicable line of logic.
Well, that was par for the course, so he didn’t really mind…
But he was curious about this ‘challenge’.
“Abel, you can already fly the sky fairly well with the Flight Ring.”
“That’s true.”
Abel answered and then floated up smoothly, performing a backflip in midair.
“But! Are you prepared to challenge the Flight Ring’s full-power capability?”
“Full-power capability?”
Ryo asked with an exaggerated grin.
Abel, not understanding, tilted his head again.
“That Flight Ring isn’t that fast at its normal setting, is it?”
“Well, yeah.”
Its top speed was at most about forty kilometers per hour.
About the speed of a slow car, perhaps.
“But that’s because a limiter is set to intentionally slow it down.”
“…Ah, the thing you mentioned before?”
“Yes. If you remove that limiter, you can push it to about five times that speed.”
“…”
Abel imagined what hitting a wall at five times the speed would look like and gave a small shake of his head.
“For ordinary people the current speed is plenty fun. Abel, you enjoy it, right?”
“Yeah, it’s fun.”
“But… it would be hard to use in battle, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed. It’s not something for close-quarters combat.”
Abel nodded in response to Ryo’s question.
There’s really no need to use Flight Rings in close combat, after all.
“But what if you could fly at five times the current speed? Wouldn’t that broaden your horizons?”
“My horizons would broaden, but…”
“How about it, swordsman Abel! Abel, former A-rank adventurer! Would you be willing to challenge the Flight Ring’s limits?!”
“Can we try that right away?”
“Takes like five minutes.”
“Do it.”
Abel took off his Flight Ring and handed it to Ryo.
Instant decision, instant action… perhaps the true quality of King Abel.
Five minutes later.
Abel put the Flight Ring back on after Ryo had removed the limiter.
“All right, here we go!”
Thud.
With a dull sound, Abel crashed into a wall and crumpled.
“Abel—!!”
Records say that afterwards Abel, lying in Rondo Manor’s garden, was made to drink Ryo’s special potion as if being soaked in it…
“That five-times jump was reckless from the start.”
“…I thought I was going to die.”
Abel said this in a dazed tone.
Ryo had never before heard such a genuine “I thought I was going to die”.
“Hey, Ryo. Instead of jumping straight to five times, can’t we start with two times… something like that?”
“You can…”
“I think it’s better to go gradually from something like that.”
“That might indeed be wise. I think that’s a very reasonable opinion.”
“Well, I nearly died, after all.”
Having the experience of hitting a wall at two hundred kilometers per hour, it’s understandable.
But Ryo suddenly thought.
If a bare human hits a wall at two hundred kilometers per hour, they’d normally die.
Yet Abel survived.
Probably, at the moment of impact or just before it, Abel gave the Flight Ring a command with reflexes no ordinary person could muster—’stop’.
So surely the speed at the instant of collision was reduced below two hundred kilometers per hour… or so Ryo guessed.
Even Ryo couldn’t follow the whole motion with his eyes and could only speculate.
Ryo took Abel’s Flight Ring again and adjusted the limiter.
Specifically, he just entered numbers into the relevant slot of the magic formula.
In other words, the magic formula was designed so that once it’s incorporated, someone with aptitude could draw out the maximum speed.
Of course, an ordinary person can’t directly tinker with the magic formula.
Perhaps the creator intended to warn ordinary people not to tamper with the Flight Ring’s magic.
Abel put on the Flight Ring adjusted to run at twice the purchase speed and flew again.
“Oh, this is great!”
“It’s always better to advance step by step. If you aim straight for the top all at once…”
“Yeah, you die.”
Ryo and Abel nodded ruefully.
That afternoon.
Rondo Manor received an unusual visitor.
Kabui Somal, Lord Protector, arrived with Captain Gorick Dew of the Suje Kingdom Navy’s First Fleet, aboard the ocean cruiser Lone Dark, and with Vice-Captain Lena.
They were making the rounds to pay their respects because they would depart the imperial capital for their home country the day after tomorrow.
The Lone Dark was the ship that had taken Ryo and Abel from the Suje Kingdom to the autonomous city of Kwebasa.
They had been well looked after in Kwebasa as well.
They had gone to the blue island together with the fleet of the Atinjo Grand Duchy…
“Welcome, Kabui Somal-san. Long time no see, Captain Gorick, Vice-Captain Lena.”
Ryo greeted them with a beaming smile.
But among the three, one was clearly odd…
Both Ryo and Abel saw Captain Gorick step forward with his right hand and right foot moving at the same time.
Neither Kabui Somal nor Vice-Captain Lena displayed that.
After the formal greetings, Ryo asked Kabui Somal.
“Is Captain Gorick… unwell?”
They had never seen the captain like that during the voyage or even in Kwebasa.
“No, he’s simply nervous.”
Kabui Somal answered with a laugh.
Vice-Captain Lena smiled wryly beside him.
Captain Gorick flashed a strained smile.
Ryo and Abel were people he knew well.
There was no reason for them to make him nervous.
Even when entering the room and sitting down, Captain Gorick remained twitchy.
“After arriving in Darwei, when he learned that the familiar Ryo was Duke Rondo…this isn’t widely known in Darwei, but—and when he discovered that Abel was King Abel, the captain became nervous.”
“I see…”
Ryo and Abel both nodded at Kabui Somal’s explanation.
But Ryo tilted his head.
“Anyway, how did he find out Abel’s true identity?”
“It was the Queen who told him.”
“Queen Iliaja?”
Ryo tilted his head at Kabui Somal’s explanation.
He didn’t understand how Queen Iliaja would know.
“Actually, Her Majesty the Queen realized your identities while you were still in the Suje Kingdom.”
“Really?”
“She sang me ‘The Ballad of Duke Rondo’ that the bards sing… and she also solved the riddle.”
“I had my suspicions.”
Abel gave a small nod.
“Eh? Abel, you knew?”
“No, I didn’t have any certainty.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me…?”
“I wasn’t certain, and besides, it’s not something to announce. I am me, Ryo is Ryo.”
“Well, that’s true…”
Ryo puffed his cheeks in displeasure.
But then he suddenly looked thoughtful and brightened.
“When you return to the Suje Kingdom, I’d like you to take this with you if possible.”
Ryo brought a bundle of papers from the back of the room.
“To Queen Iliaja… ah, but it’s written in the Central Countries’ language, so I’d be glad if you could have it translated there and deliver it.”
“That is…?”
“It’s the sequel to my work, ‘The Hungry Swordsman Abel’.”
“What?!”
All three raised their voices.
Even Captain Gorick’s tension eased for the moment.
“Eh, Captain and Vice-Captain, you know it too?”
Ryo and Abel had left the Suje Kingdom on the Lone Dark after the first edition of ‘The Hungry Swordsman Abel’ had already been published there.
Captain Gorick and Vice-Captain Lena shouldn’t have read it…
“Of course.”
Vice-Captain Lena said, producing something from her pocket.
A small paperback-like volume—the handy edition.
“It’s my favorite!”
Vice-Captain Lena, who usually maintained a calm image, nodded with some excitement.
“Ah, thank you.”
Ryo was the one surprised.
“On this trip to Darwei I brought this portable edition.”
Kabui Somal said with a laugh.
It turned out he’d given Eastern-language editions as souvenirs to several people.
“I-I see…”
A work spreading without the author’s knowledge.
With the full backing not of a publisher but of a publishing country… formidable.
“If it’s the sequel… about giving it to Her Majesty the Queen, may I publish it back home if Her Majesty permits?”
“Yes, of course.”
Ryo nodded cheerfully at Kabui Somal’s confirmation.
Knowing readers eagerly awaited a sequel is the greatest honor for an author.
There was only one person…
“I haven’t read it yet… that’s inconvenient.”
Apparently the hungry swordsman muttered that line.
After the Lord Protector and his party, carrying the new manuscript, departed Rondo Manor.
They were not the only guests that afternoon.
“Long time no see, Chairman. Welcome as well, Banhu.”
Ryo and Abel greeted Bandelsh, the head of the Blue Jade Trading Company from the merchant guild in Manyamya of the Komakyuta Principality, and his youngest son, Banhu.
“Duke Rondo… no, allow us to call you Ryo-sama and Abel-sama. It’s been some time.”
Bandelsh smiled warmly as Banhu joined the greeting.
Of course, Bandelsh and Banhu were visiting ‘Rondo Manor’ to pay respects, so they fully understood Ryo’s position.
Still, they deliberately addressed them with the old honorifics used when they first met: “Ryo-sama”, “Abel-sama”.
That was first-rate commercial diplomacy typical of merchants.
Not too distant, not too close.
In negotiations, the greatest weapon is the trust you receive from the other party.
Or rather, being trusted by the other party is the most important—and most difficult—thing when building a relationship.
If you earn someone’s trust… barring any extremely strange requests, things will go through.
If you had been making strange requests all along, you wouldn’t be trusted in the first place…
“In fact, the day after tomorrow, we’ll be leaving the Imperial Capital and returning to our home country. So we came to pay our respects.”
“The day after tomorrow? Could it be that you’re returning with the Suje Kingdom…?”
“Yes. I believe Lord Protector Kabui Somal is also here. His detached fleet and our merchant fleet will return together. That’s safer for both parties.”
Bandelsh explained with a smile.
Ryo nodded along with a smile.
But inside, he was surprised.
(What the head of the trading company says makes sense…but these are rival countries in the archipelago region, both maritime powers. I would have thought ship operations were a state secret…even so, who benefits from deciding to return together?)
Of course, it was understandable that both sides would gain.
Because there were mutual advantages, the leaders decided to return together.
There must be various unstated calculations behind the scenes between Bandelsh and Lord Protector Kabui Somal…
“By any chance… is the Blue Jade Trading Company considering a regular trading presence in the Imperial Capital in the future?”
Ryo spoke on a mere impulse, and Bandelsh showed a slightly surprised expression.
He answered with a small laugh.
“We do intend to, eventually… but we’ll need more time to become familiar with the sea lanes between the autonomous city of Kwebasa and this Imperial Capital. For now, we’ll travel back and forth irregularly.”
“I see.”
Their visit today had been planned with that business prospect in mind.
Moreover, by traveling alongside the rival Suje Kingdom navy, perhaps they hope to compensate for something they currently lack.
Merchants instinctively look for ways to gain multiple advantages with a single move.
“Isn’t it a voyage with no guaranteed safety…? For the head of the company to personally lead the convoy is impressive.”
“If the highest-ranking person doesn’t take the lead, others won’t follow.”
Bandelsh smiled in response to Ryo’s words.
After answering, Bandelsh looked toward Abel.
Abel returned the look with a nod.
Naturally, Bandelsh understood that Abel was the Abel sung by bards—Abel the First—who had led the Liberation War and personally taken the helm to lead his people.
That unspoken understanding carried meaning.
What’s unsaid often contains the most information.
Understanding that requires experience on the receiver’s part.
“At home, we’re building ships that prioritize speed and range. Once they’re finished, the archipelago region and Darwei will grow closer.”
“Ooh!”
Ryo and Abel exclaimed at Bandelsh’s words.
Both had seen the evolution of ships in both the Central Countries and the Western Countries.
They understood that as ships evolve, distance over the sea shrinks…in other words, travel becomes easier.
That evolution was happening even in the Eastern Countries.
Hearing that made them quietly happy.
“Also, my sons or I may visit Darwei again. Please take care of us then.”
“I’d like to come back.”
“Please stop by when you do.”
“Take care.”
Bandelsh and Banhu said their goodbyes as Ryo and Abel saw them off.
The merchants’ farewell was full of smiles.
TLN: Please read my translations at , I did not give permission to any site to host my translations.
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