Water Magician

Chapter 693 : The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult III

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Chapter 0693 The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult III

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

In front of the castle gate of Farafao Village, a black-haired girl and a blue-haired man appeared.

“Hey, that blue hair...”

“It’s him! Go get the chief and Ronja!”

The sentries on the gate lookout became flustered.

Before a minute had passed, the current chief, Anju, and Ronja came up to the watch platform.

Then they sighted the girl and the man.

“Blue hair... father’s sworn enemy!”

“Calm down, Chief.”

Ronja soothed Anju, whose body trembled with rage.

Ronja was wondering why, all of a sudden, the blue-haired man who was the former chief’s enemy had shown up in front of the village gate.

He was not accompanied by any of his cultist subordinates... and more than that, he was not alone, either, but had an unfamiliar black-haired girl at his side.

Ronja had never received any report about such a girl, nor had he ever seen her himself.

“Both of you, do not come any closer!”

Ronja shouted.

The blue-haired man and the black-haired girl stopped without needing to be told, keeping a certain distance.

“What did you come here for?”

Ronja asked.

“Before telling you the reason I came, I’ll introduce myself. My name is Dainan, and this black-haired one here is Raja. We’ve been fighting you for quite a while, but we never introduced ourselves.”

The blue-haired Dainan answered with a smile.

Beside him, Raja shrugged in a bored manner.

Then Dainan continued.

“One of your group has a Magic Sword wielder now, right? I want to fight him.”

“What?”

Ronja replied despite himself, his voice filled with suspicion at Dainan’s words.

That was only natural.

If the leader of an opposing force suddenly appeared and said he wanted to fight a newcomer, anyone would wonder what the hell was going on.

As if they had heard that voice, Ryo and Abel came up onto the watch platform.

Then they showed their faces.

“You said you wanted to fight me?”

“Yeah, you. Magic Sword wielder. Fight me.”

“A contest? What is it? A footrace, just the two of us?”

“As if...”

“Then shall we play chess? I’m not boasting, but I’m not that good at it.”

“It’s swordfight, swords! What are you talking about, running and chess? We’re not doing anything but swordfight.”

Dainan replied with anger seeping into his voice.

Beside Abel, Ryo nodded while muttering, “Disrupting the opponent’s composure is the most basic of one-on-one combat”.

“If you want a sword fight, then say so from the start. Don’t Djinn’s retainers get taught that kind of thing by their Djinn masters?”

“...What?”

At Abel’s sudden, sharp remark, Dainan’s gaze turned piercing.

“What? Did I say something strange?”

“You said retainers.”

“Well, I mean, you’re a Djinn’s retainer, right?”

“Interesting, Magic Sword wielder.”

Dainan nodded a few times in small motions.

Ryo, who had been staring intently at the black-haired girl beside Dainan, nodded once with a certain conviction and whispered into Abel’s ear,

“That black-haired girl is a Djinn.”

“No way! So they had been revived?”

Abel was astonished.

Then he turned to Ronja and asked.

“Ronja, have you ever seen that black-haired girl before?”

“No, I haven’t. I was wondering the same thing myself. What is that, the retainer’s... what?”

“Looks like she’s the master of the retainer.”

“What? So that means she’s a Djinn?”

At Abel’s words, Ronja was astonished.

Anju, who had heard the two of them talking, also widened her eyes.

“The Djinn herself, who hadn’t shown up until now, came out this time. I want to know why. Shall we talk a little more?”

After muttering that, Abel once again called out to the two in front of the gate.

“Hey, retainer. No, was it Dainan? And the girl over there is Raja? Is Raja your name as a Djinn?”

That one line from Abel was a bombshell.

“Hey...”

That was all Dainan could get out.

His expression change drastically.

Not a trace of composure remained, and his face was a very complicated mix of surprise, anger, and confusion.

Abel pressed on.

“So you only attacked the garrison troops, huh? Not the common folk who’ve never experienced battle, but by defeating those with plenty of battlefield experience, the Djinn awakens... in other words, this is the final stage?”

“You... just who... what are you?”

Dainan’s surprise deepened as he threw back the words, though even Abel himself was not completely certain.

That was proof that Abel’s inference was correct.

(Extracting information while also stripping away the opponent’s composure. As expected of Abel. Even though he’s a muscle-brained swordsman, when it comes to the give-and-take of battle and these subtle nuances, there’s no way someone like me could ever compare.)

Ryo praised Abel in his heart, glancing sideways at him.

Yes, in his heart only.

If he praised him out loud, he might get carried away.

Dainan’s whole body trembled.

But the clear reaction came from beside him.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Raja burst into laughter.

“Raja-sama?”

Dainan said in surprise.

“Interesting! Dainan, the man you found is very interesting.”

Raja nodded over and over.

Then she continued.

“You should have realized it sooner. Look, Dainan, at that man’s red hair.”

“Huh?”

“In these Eastern Countries, there is no one with hair like that. Which means he’s from the Central Countries or the Western Countries.”

“So then...”

“That means he had connections with other Djinns or their retainers over there.”

Raja looked at Abel as if to say, isn’t that so?

Abel shrugged without saying anything.

It was his way of saying he would not deny it.

“Who... who did you meet? No, rather, the fact that you were told about such fine details is strange. Surely you were not cooperating with us Djinns over there?”

“Oh come on, even if the world were turned upside down, that would be impossible. Many knights, myself included, fought with everything they had. I wouldn’t call it hatred, but we were clearly enemies.”

“And yet you’re alive, which means...”

“Obviously, because we defeated the Djinn and their retainers.”

Abel stated it clearly.

In the Djinn War, the kingdom had gathered all its strength.

One could even say they had won with everything they had.

“Humans won? Unbelievable.”

“Nah, you guys were cut off too, right? Because the ‘Corridor’ was sealed by the ‘Wall,’ reinforcements from the Djinns stopped coming, and at the same time, the things that helped strengthen you were cut off. Now that it’s opened again, you’re able to regain your power. In other words, you must have been sealed once by some alchemist or something.”

Raja gave a small shake of her head, but Abel refuted her decisively.

That was right. Someone, hundreds of years ago, had sealed the ‘Corridor’.

Most likely through alchemy.

Because of that, Raja, left behind in the Eastern Countries, had lost her power...

But three months ago, that ‘Corridor’ was opened.

So Raja regained her power.

“Enough!”

A single voice cut off the conversation between Raja and Abel.

It came from beside Raja.

“Aha, Dainan’s lost his patience.”

Raja frowned and shook her head.

A sudden eruption of emotion, rare though it was, from Dainan.

“Magic Sword wielder, come down here and fight!”

Dainan shouted.

“Even if we fight, though... I don’t get anything out of it.”

“I’ll answer whatever you want to know!”

“Oh...?”

Dainan answered with a roar, and Abel was drawn in by the content of the offer.

“Right, Raja-sama! Please do not interfere.”

“Understood, understood. I’ll watch from here.”

At Dainan’s words, Raja waved a hand lightly, walked off to a little distance, created a stone chair, and sat down there.

“Abel-sama...”

Anju called out to Abel, who was about to climb down.

“Anju-dono, I’ll avenge your father.”

Saying that, Abel smiled brightly.

But after walking a while and coming alongside Ryo, he said in a low voice,

“If anything happens, I’m counting on you to cover for me afterward.”

“You were making such a big show of it to Anju-san, though?”

“I had no choice but to say that.”

Abel gave a wry smile.

“Those Djinn retainers are terrifying. You can’t see the depth of their strength.”

“I believe in you, Abel.”

“Yeah. Still, those guys... they don’t die, you know.”

“Huh?”

“As long as the Djinn is alive, they just revive normally.”

“How dreadful...”

“You know if Ryo takes down the Djinn instead, that’d be fine.”

“Abel just needs to cut down the two at once.”

“Give me a break.”

Ryo’s right fist and Abel’s right fist touched lightly.

And so Abel threw himself into a second battle against the Djinn’s retainer.  

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