Chapter 31: Wall
Extra chapter as thanks for my Patreons support 🙂
If it was one-on-one, and if it wasn’t a wetland, even the Lizard King wasn’t Abel’s match.
However, naturally, they couldn’t take a break in a place where the corpses of Lizardmen were piled up, so they decided to move a little to the north for the time being.
While moisturizing their throats.
“<O Water, come out> < O Cup, appear>”
Since he felt it was cool, Ryo said chants in front of Abel as he prepared the water.
Abel stared at it happen before drinking the water while walking.
“Hey, Ryo.”
“What’s wrong, Abel?”“Wasn’t the chant when you prepared the water in the jug last night, <O Water, form and come out>?”
“Eh ……”
Ryo’s eyes swam involuntarily.
“Wa-was that so? Perhaps Abel misheard it?”
With Ryo’s suspicious behavior, no matter what he said, there was no persuasive power.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. And what were those ice spears?”
“Even if you ask me that … it’s the Water-Attribute Magic <Icicle Lance>?”
“Not that, you shot four at the same time?”
“Yes, I shot four. It is such a spell, so even if you asked me what it was … I don’t know how to answer?”
Abel pondered on how he should phrase it.
And he decided to convey the facts he knew.
“I have a Wind-Attribute Magician among my companions, but she said that magic is activated once with one chant. But that Icicle Lance you mentioned, you shot out four? I think that’s abnormal.”
But Ryo confidently answered.
“I don’t know about Wind-Attribute Magic, but for Water-Attribute Magic, that just now was normal. No problem.”
“I-I see …”
Abel had no choice but to say so to Ryo’s overly confident expression.
After they walked about 30 minutes from the place where they defeated the Lizardmen, there was a small clearing in the forest.
From experience, they thought that an Assassin Hawk would be in such a location so they waited for a while, but none appeared, so they decided to camp there tonight.
“For dinner … Lizardmen isn’t delicious, right?”
“Yeah, it’s really bad. That’s why I left all the corpses.”
“I knew it … Then, I’ll hunt something so Abel please prepare dead branches and start a fire.”
Abel, who no longer doubted Ryo’s magical abilities, accepted the proposal.
Undoubtedly, a wizard was better suited for this kind of hunting compared to a swordsman.
“All right. Thanks in advance.”
With that said, Abel began collecting dead branches.
Ryo entered a small opening into the forest.
(Fu … Let’s unify the chant into <O Water, come out>)
On his mind was something that didn’t matter at all.
Ryo found a Normal Rabbit without much trouble and killed it with Water Jet.
Moreover, he found a loquat tree at the place where he killed it.
“Ohh, I found some fruits to add as dessert too.”
Ryo returned to the camp with the Normal Rabbit and loquat fruits in his hands.
Abel, who was picking up dead branches, had just returned.
“Abel, I have fruits for dessert today.”
“Hoho. But that fruit … I’ve never seen it before …”
“Huh? I guess you can only find it around here. In my hometown, it is called loquat and we eat it.”
“That’s the first time I heard of the name too. It appears sweet from the scent. I’ll look forward to it.”
Abel began to set up a bonfire, placing the dead branches he had in his arms.
“<O Jug, appear> <O Cup, appear> <O Water, come out>”
After chanting, Ryo poured water into the cup and handed it to Abel, who was lighting the bonfire.
“Now, Abel. The chant was <O Water, come out>. Did you hear that? That’s the correct chant.”
“Eh? What are you talking about …”
“The chant is <O Water, come out>. Okay?”
“Ah, yes ……”
Ryo strongly insisted.
The next day, they were heading north smoothly.
It was before noon that they ran into a difficult problem.
“It’s a … wall.”
“It’s a … wall all right.”
A series of rocks that could only be described as a wall, with no gaps from east to west, and a height of 100 meters, blocked their path.
“It seems impossible to climb this.”
“Yes, the upper part is a reverse bank, so at the very least, I can’t.”
A reverse bank is a rock face in which it protrudes more than 90 degrees or beyond the vertical rock face.
It’s also called an overhang, but in either case …
Fairly advanced rock climbing skills were needed to climb that bare-handed.
“Ku. It would be so easy for a Wind-Attribute Magician to climb!”
“No, it’s impossible even for a Wind-Attribute Magician?”
In Abel’s mind, he imagined Rin, the Wind-Attribute Magician, and imagined her climbing this wall.
Yeah, it’s impossible.
“I guess we have to go east or west and find a bypath.”
“Somehow … I just have a bad feeling no matter which way we choose …”
There was no basis, but Ryo said what he thought.
“Is that so? Then let’s decide with a coin.”
With that said, Abel took out a bronze coin from his wallet.
“If heads come out, it’s east, if tails come out, it’s west.”
After he said that, he flipped it with his thumb.
Then he caught the coin that fell and opened his hand.
“Heads. East.”
“Okay, let’s head east.”
Ryo nodded, but his gaze remained drawn to the coin on Abel’s left hand.
“Ryo, what’s wrong with this coin?”
“No, I’m seeing currency for the first time.”
Yes, that was the first time Ryo encountered currency since coming to 『Phi』.
Because he was reincarnated and lived alone all the time, he didn’t have the opportunity or need to touch money.
“Ah……”
But Abel pitied him because he didn’t even get to touch money due to his poverty.
He remembered Ryo’s appearance of only a loincloth and sandals when he first met Ryo and misunderstood that he was dressed that way due to poverty.
“Abel, could you show me that coin for a moment?”
The coin that Abel gave Ryo was the lowest-value bronze coin in the kingdom’s currency.
The currency unit in the central countries was Florin.
Money was, of course, issued by each country, but the currency unit was the same.
There used to be several currencies, but now one Florin was equivalent to one bronze coin and was used for various transactions and trades.
Abel explained.
(It is similar to a currency unit widely used in medieval to early modern Europe on Earth, the Ducat.)
With that interpretation, Ryo was able to easily accept Abel’s explanation.
The bronze coin that Abel gave him had a man’s profile on the front and some flower sculpture on the back.
“That is a one Florin bronze coin from the Kingdom of Knightley where I live.”
“Knightley! Sounds cool!”
Ryo remembered that there was an actress with that name on Earth. She was an amazing beauty!
Ryo’s tension was skyrocketing.
“Ye-yeah. And the profile of the bronze coin is the current King Stafford IV, the lily flower on the back is the royal flower.”
“Stafford Knightley … that’s definitely the name for a protagonist, isn’t it?
“Well, there are various middle names and so on …”
The last of Abel’s mutterings never reached Ryo’s ears.
A man will have chuunibyou forever.
…… It does seem disrespectful to call His Majesty the King’s name chuunibyou.
Ryo was excited to hear that the name of the country where Abel lived and the country they were heading to was 『The Kingdom of Knightley』.
Abel was, of course, happy that others had a good feeling for his country, but it was unavoidable that his eyes toward Ryo were the eyes of looking at a slightly pitiful person.
Ryo walked east along the wall while looking at the coin happily. Abel walked next to him.
“By the way, Abel said that this Florin is used in the central countries, but the Kingdom of Knightley is just one of those central countries, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is one of the three great powers.”
Abel replied, nodding.
“Three major powers … What are the other two major powers?”
“It is the Debuhi Empire and the Handal Union.”
“Fat …” (TLN: Debu = Fat in Japanese)
Ryo muttered, frowning.
“Hmm? Do you have any unpleasant memories of the empire?”
“No, the name is just uncool …”
Ryo replied, frowning even more.
“A-ah … I see that’s important when it comes to Ryo’s values …”
Abel’s look of seeing a pitiful person when he looked at Ryo was even more pronounced now.
“The name of the country is important to the people! I don’t want to say that I’m a fat (Debuhi) citizen … Don’t tell me … the name of the emperor is something along the lines of fat and has a plump body …….”
Abel shook his head and replied.
“No, the family name of the imperial family is Bornemisza. The Bornemisza family. His Majesty the Emperor Rupert VI of the Bornemisza family of the Debuhi Empire, is over fifty years old but has not a single excess flesh, and has a steel-like body.”
“If so, why don’t you change the name of the country!?”
Ryo shouted.
He wasn’t shouting for something based on his sense of aesthetics.
He shouted for the imperial subjects who carried a sad name.
Debuhi … At least make an anagram … No, 『Hidebu』 was also … there’s no other name?