Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

The vaults had been beautifully restored with no traces of the theft left behind.

So the party left the vault without being able to obtain much information….

“Hold it! Who are you people?”

Outside the vault, a group of knights stopped them for questioning.

“Captain Bachelet, these are the adventurers from the Papal Palace.”

The priest introduced the party to the knights.

“Hmm. Adventurers from the Papal Palace? I don’t quite understand. I am Andre de Bachelet, commander of the Third Detachment of the Knights Templar.”

The most distinguished of the knights introduced himself.

“Pardon me. You must be a priest if you are the commander of a detachment. We are adventurers commissioned by Cardinal Graham of the Papal Palace for an investigation.”

Etho handed him the Holy Seal and Cardinal Graham’s letter of authorization.

“Confirmed. We are also searching for the items that were stolen from the vault. I will have to ask you to hand over the information you have obtained.”

In a commanding tone.

The commanding tone reminded Ryo of something.

“Niels, these are the people who were in the Onge Church when we returned from the Centaurs.”

“Onge? Oh. They couldn’t get up because of Ryo’s ice floor magic…”

Ryo whispered to Niels next to him, and Niels seemed to recollect the events.

And at about the same time Ryo remembered…

“Commander, these are the same guys we encountered back in the Onge Church.”

A knight beside Commander Bachelet said.

Hearing that, Commander Bacelet thought for a moment but then recollected immediately.

“The bunch who returned from the centaurs?”

“Did the Bishop lift the curse after that?”

Etho asked with a smile.

The knights were convinced that they had fallen under an incomprehensible curse, a curse that prevented them from getting up from the slippery ground, that they had to summon the bishop from the neighboring town.

By taking advantage of the chaos, the party was able to leave.

Of course, it was all due to Ryo’s ….

“H-Hmm. Of course.”

For Commander Bachelet, it must be a bad memory.

He looked a little pale.

Then, Etho turned to Niels and whispered to him.

“We don’t have much information anyway, so why don’t we ask them?”

“I don’t think they will readily share what they have, but… I’ll leave it to Etho.”

Niels also replied in a whisper.

“Then I’ll turn it over to Ryo.”

“Eh…”

Ryo was absolutely stunned by the sudden and reckless move made by Etho.

Unlike Abel, Etho doesn’t do such things very often, so why now…

“The information that we’ve got. Of course, we would be happy to share it with you.”

“Hmm. Very good.”

“But there’s some measure of magic involved, so I’ll direct you to our magician. Come on, Ryo.”

Etho introduced Ryo to Commander Bachelet.

Niels urged Ryo to take his place.

“Oh, yes, now, if you’ll excuse me. Uh~, the door was breached using fire-attribute magic.”

“Mm, we heard about that too.”

“It seems there was quite a commotion when they did that, but no one in the church noticed.”

“So it seems.”

Ryo’s explanation seemed to be all that Commander Bachelet already knew.

Since he had no choice, he presented an appropriate inference.

“It’s possible that the robbers may have a wind-attribute magician in their ranks.”

“What? I haven’t heard such a report.”

“Yeah. The reason they didn’t hear the sound of the door being destroyed, even though it must have been quite loud, is because they used wind-attribute magic to block the air… well, wind, so that the sound wouldn’t travel through.”

“Hmm… is that possible?”

“Yes, in theory. That’s probably the most likely explanation for not hearing the sound.”

Again, of course, that was Ryo’s reasoning.

But he was probably not wrong, since sound propagation can be prevented by blocking the air…

As for whether or not that can be done with wind-attribute magic, is an entirely different story.

But science fiction writer Jules Verne said.

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.

Since this is true even in a world without magic, it should be even easier to realize in this magical ‘Phi’ world!

Ryo believed so.

“In other words, among the robbers, are both fire and wind-attribute magicians. This suggests that the robbers are most likely from a rather powerful organization.”

Ryo concluded.

“I see.”

Commander Bachelet muttered as he nodded repeatedly.

“And that’s all we’ve got so far… but I’m sure the famous Knights Templar would have found some more promising clues that would lead us closer to the robbers…”

Ryo said, modestly.

Niels thought he was on to another one of his tricks.

“Well, of course. First of all, the Papacy’s storage department was thoroughly investigated, but no one was involved in this case. However, the head of the storage department had been sent on a foreign business trip by Archbishop Goon before that, so he could not be questioned.”

“I see. The head of the department has not returned yet…”

“Unfortunately, he passed away while on the business trip. The inn where he was staying caught fire.”

“Oh my…”

Then it occurred to Ryo. As he remembered the name Archbishop Goon.

It was the archbishop who had previously ordered the surveillance of Gladys Aldiss, the negotiator for the Ministry of Military Affairs.

According to the information he got from Graham.

(I believe he is the Archbishop who is Cardinal Camillo’s protégé…)

Ryo boldly asked the Templars, who were about to enter the vault guided by the priest.

“If I may, Commander Bachelet.”

“Mm? What is it? Ask away.”

“Thank you very much. Um, could you tell me who gave the order to the commander this time?”

It wasn’t the Knights Templar who were stunned by Ryo’s question, but Niels.

His eyes practically screamed, “Do you ask such a thing directly?”.

“The one who sent us was His Eminence, Cardinal Oskar.”

“I see. Perhaps, when you were in Onge Church before, it was on the orders of Cardinal Oskar?”

“No, that’s different. At that time, it was by order of the headquarters of the Knights Templar, in other words, the Captain of the Knights Gaster.”

“Understood. Thank you very much for your candor.”

Ryo bowed politely.

Not many people would feel bad about being politely bowed to.

It was Ryo’s personal rule.

And so, the third detachment of the Knights Templar entered the vault.

“It was Cardinal Oskar who sent them.”

“As I recall, he was in charge of receiving the envoys before Mr. Graham.”

Ryo said, and Etho replied, remembering.

“Oh, right.”

Ryo turned to Etho, his cheeks puffed out a little.

“Etho, why did you suddenly dump that on me earlier…?”

“Oh. Ryo is quick-witted, so I thought you could handle it.”

“Eh? No, that’s not true.”

Ryo was embarrassed by Etho’s words.

“That’s amazing, Etho…”

“Nah, Ryo is just too easy…”

Amon was impressed and Niels shook his head slightly.

Etho laughed innocently, while Ryo remained embarrassed.

Everyone was cheerful, so ultimately all’s well that ends well.

The party then looked around the second vault in the eastern city of Euros and the third vault in the southern city of Notos.

There was nothing new to be found, but those two vaults were much smaller than the first one.

However, it was about the size of a school gymnasium…

As it was getting late in the evening, they decided to visit the fourth vault in the western city of Zephyrus on the morrow and took up lodging in the southern city of Notos for the day.

Thus they decided to discuss over dinner at the inn’s cafeteria.

All four of them were seriously looking at the menu list and making their selections.

While they were choosing… Ryo’s eyes stopped on a particular item and couldn’t take his eyes off there.

“Karaage…”

After muttering that one word, he couldn’t even move his mouth.

“Ryo-san? What’s wrong?”

Amon asked curiously.

It was very rare to see Ryo stop to look at a menu.

“A-Amon… have you ever heard of Karaage?”

“Karaage? No, never heard of it.”

“It’s chicken covered with wheat and deep-fried in oil… sometimes with seasoning.”

“It doesn’t sound complicated, but I’ve never heard of it in the central countries. Is it good?”

Ryo has eaten a good many dishes since he came to ‘Phi’.

There were quite a few dishes based on recipes that may have been brought from Earth by reincarnators or transferees.

Curry, hamburgers, crepes, Mont Blanc cakes… and the Ramen in Twilight Land!

But he’d never had Karaage*. (TLN: Fried Chicken)

As Amon said, it’s not a difficult dish to make.

There’s usually chicken, and flour is also common. And of course, there is oil. Whether it be rapeseed oil or olive oil, it is available in the central countries.

But he’d never had Karaage!

“I’ll have the Karaage set meal.”

Ryo solemnly announced.

Yup, it is a ‘set meal’ that is being served at the inn’s cafeteria.

Not the Karaage alone…

Ryo waited, feeling a little anxious.

Meanwhile, the other three were reviewing the day’s events and discussing plans for tomorrow.

However, Ryo could not hear them.

It was inevitable.

As he was curious about the ‘Karaage Set Meal’!

And then, ten minutes later.

“Here you are! Karaage Set Meal.”

Saying that, the waitress brought the dish….

Eight bite-sized pieces of fried chicken!

And white rice.

With… soup?

But it was, without a doubt, the Karaage set meal!

“Ooh…”

Ryo involuntarily excliamed.

“Wow, that looks delicious.”

“Is that chicken?”

“Is this the karaage you were talking about earlier?”

Niels tried to extend his finger, Etho asked about the meat, and Amon recalled the name, karaage.

Ryo stuck a piece of karaage with a fork.

Gravy overflowed.

Then he put it in his mouth…

No mistaking it!

It had a little seasoning with vinegar or something, but it was definitely fried.

And.

“So good…”

He couldn’t help but let out an honest comment.

“I-I’d like to try one…”

Niels looked at the karaage and Ryo’s face alternately unable to contain himself.

“Help yourself. Etho and Amon too.”

Ryo said, and all three of them stuck a fork in each one and ate it.

“Damn!”

“This is…”

“So delicious!”

Niels, Etho, and of course, Amon, smiled!

Yup, the taste of karaage transcends the world!

Needless to say, ‘karaage’ was then ordered additionally as a stand-alone order…

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