Chapter 0746 Negotiation
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
By the time the two arrived atop the southern city wall, Crown Prince Zorn, along with those who appeared to be the commanders, were already lined up, looking out beyond the walls.
There did seem to be several hundred of them, but there was a familiar silhouette among them…
“The ones trying to pick a fight aren’t human.”
“That silhouette looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. They are Djinn Garwin and his familiars.”
“This is the Dark Continent, isn’t it? What are they doing in a place like this?”
“Just as we were thrown into the archipelago region, perhaps they were thrown onto the Dark Continent.”
Ryo answered Abel’s question with a supposition.
The cause of the two of them being thrown into the archipelago region was some kind of haywire magic power or magic from Garwin.
In the first place, it appeared that Djinns like Garwin were capable of manipulating gravity.
‘Gravity is a distortion of space,’ as Einstein put it.
If so, there could be no doubt that gravity and space were closely connected.
Therefore, if a Djinn’s magic power or magic ran wild, space could warp and send them flying a great distance… Somehow, it was not difficult to imagine.
“A pitiful Djinn who was sent flying by his own magic.”
“…So, does that mean the Knightley Kingdom has ended up being involved in the situation happening here?”
“I can’t really argue with that when you put it that way…”
Ryo frowned as he answered Abel’s words.
“But there would have been no problem if Garwin hadn’t attacked the Bardael Emirate, and if he hadn’t fought the kingdom, his magic power or magic wouldn’t have gone out of control in the first place… So, I still think all the responsibility lies with Garwin.”
“…Yeah.”
However, the target had no intention of leaving the two of them alone.
He had apparently noticed that they had appeared atop the city wall.
Even though they should have been about four hundred meters away…
“There you are, Ryo, Abel! I’ve got business with you!”
Garwin shouted.
His voice was impossibly loud to be human, and it reached the top of the wall clearly.
“You’ve got the wrong people!”
Ryo instinctively shouted back.
His voice was not particularly loud, but Garwin apparently had excellent hearing.
“I know exactly who you are!”
“I couldn’t fool him.”
“Of course you couldn’t.”
Abel gave a small shake of his head at Ryo’s report.
However, hearing the exchange between Ryo and Garwin seemed to shock the people atop the wall.
Zorn, whose expression was especially astonished, spoke to them.
“Forgive me for asking, but Your Excellency 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 Djinn Garwin, who once rampaged through our Knightley Kingdom as well.”
“A Djinn!”
Abel answered, and Zorn was shocked.
“A Djinn…”
“From the legends?”
“Where just one of them turned half the continent into a wasteland by himself?”
“The one who stopped destroying things after being persuaded by the Sage Ndon and disappeared into the depths of the continent?”
“But his name wasn’t Garwin, was it?”
“Either way, that isn’t something humans can defeat…”
The people atop the wall exchanged words like that.
It seemed that the Dark Continent also had legends about Djinns.
“Your Majesty said earlier that he ‘rampaged through the kingdom as well’. Has that Djinn ever been in the Central Countries?”
“Yes, Your Highness. A year ago, our kingdom mobilized all its forces in an attempt to defeat that Djinn, Garwin. In the end, the magic Garwin unleashed went out of control, and I and Duke Rondo were sent to the archipelago region… To put it simply, the Eastern Countries.”
“What the…”
“At the same time, we received a report that the Djinn and his familiars had also disappeared. They must have been sent to this Dark Continent.”
Abel explained.
Upon hearing that, the people atop the city wall fell silent.
Perhaps they could not keep up with the information in their heads, hearing that they had been sent to the Eastern Countries, a place they knew only by existence… and the other sent all the way to the Dark Continent.
The people atop the city wall were in such a state, but that was irrelevant to those who had come attacking.
“The chieft of this country is here.”
When Garwin said that, Chief Battuzon of the Bardael Emirate was brought forward to the very front.
“Chief!”
At the sight of him, the gazes of everyone atop the city wall focused on him.
It was indeed the chief they had received word had been captured.
“Father…”
Zorn muttered.
Chief Battuzon, who had been brought forward, was not bound with ropes, nor did he appear to have been tortured.
“We’re treating him with the utmost care as a prisoner of war.”
Garwin declared.
“Your Highness.”
“Even if they tell us to open the city gates in exchange for my father’s return, we cannot accept.”
“Yes…”
Such an exchange took place between Zorn and his aide.
Exactly. When an important person from the target of an attack was treated as a prisoner and brought to the front, it was usually because they intended to use that person as a bargaining tool.
Of those possibilities, the most likely one under the present circumstances was a demand to open the city gates, or a call to surrender.
However, Zorn’s thinking as crown prince was clear.
Instead of the life of his father and chief, Battuzon, he would protect the city…
With so many people in the city, it was the logical choice in a sense… but making that decision was not easy.
They would probably torture him in front of them in an attempt to make them accept their demands.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this was precisely why they were keeping him alive.
That was what it meant to use someone as a bargaining tool.
And yet, after taking all of that into consideration, Zorn had firmly told his aide:
‘We cannot accept.’
Then Djinn Garwin opened his mouth again.
“I’ll return this prisoner as is.”
“What?”
Zorn looked suspicious.
“I have only one demand. Ryo, Abel, fight us.”
“…Huh?”
Ryo let out a dumbfounded sound at Garwin’s words.
Abel remained silent, but his expression was grim.
As for the other people atop the city wall… they were staring blankly.
No one seemed to understand what it meant yet.
“If you fight, I’ll return him unconditionally. And if you win, I’ll withdraw my army.”
Garwin’s voice could be heard.
The city wall erupted in commotion.
“Abel, that’s what he’s saying.”
“He certainly is.”
Abel shrugged at Ryo’s words.
“Your Majesty, Your Excellency Duke Rondo, can you defeat that… Djinn?”
Zorn asked with an expectant expression.
“Djinns… at least that Garwin, can come back to life even after being completely annihilated.”
“What?”
“How could we possibly ‘win’ against an opponent like that…?”
Zorn was astonished, while Ryo tilted his head.
Abel also frowned beside him before speaking.
“The familiars too… if Garwin decides to, they can come back as many times as he wants, right?”
“It was a completely unfair fight to begin with.”
Ryo gave a small shake of his head.
Even so, both Ryo and Abel understood that there did not seem to be any choice other than fighting.
They had taken an ‘invaluable’ hostage: effectively laying siege to the city and the country itself.
“There’s no helping it. I’ll try negotiating.”
“Negotiate?”
Ryo muttered, and Abel tilted his head.
“Garwin, there’s something I want to say to you!”
Ryo projected his voice from deep within his core.
It carried quite a long distance.
“Ryo? Go ahead.”
Garwin urged him on.
“You can’t defeat a Djinn. Even if you cut one to pieces and annihilate it, it regenerates, doesn’t it? That’s unfair.”
“Well, even if you say that…”
Ryo pointed this out, and Garwin shrugged.
“You want to fight me, don’t you? If so, we should make the conditions equal.”
“You… Ryo, do you understand what you’re saying? I can attack the city just like this, you know? I’m deliberately stopping that and offering to fight you instead.”
“Even if you attack the city, I don’t feel the slightest bit of pain or concern about it.”
Of course, that was a lie.
While waiting for the chief to return, Ryo had gone into the city many times.
There, he had formed connections with many of the people… There was no way he could now feel nothing if the city were attacked.
But this was a negotiation.
He knew that fighting was unavoidable.
If that was the case, he had to draw out victory conditions that were even slightly more advantageous.
If that was possible through negotiation, Ryo was willing to lie.
“If you want to fight me, then we should make the conditions equal.”
“…Fine. If you cut my head off, we’ll call that your victory.”
Ryo said it again, and Garwin, frowning, presented his condition.
“That alone isn’t enough. Garwin, if you lose, promise that you won’t attack the Bardael Emirate for the next ten years.”
“Well… I suppose that’s fine too.”
“You won’t go back on your word?”
“I won’t.”
“Understood. Then I’ll accept.”
Ryo nodded deeply.
The conditions were in place.
“Ryo, is this really okay?”
“That’s probably the limit of what we can draw out of him. There’s nothing we can do. What about you, Abel? Are you okay?”
“My opponent will be a familiar… probably Oranj. So I’ll manage with this sword.”
Saying that, Abel struck his beloved sword.
During the ‘Djinn War,’ Abel had defeated Oranj once.
“A sword, huh. Right…”
Ryo muttered that and drew Murasame from its sheath.
Then he called out to it.
“Murasame-kun, just like during the previous battle with Garwin, please activate the <Freezing Sword>.”
When Ryo called out to it, Murasame’s hilt glowed faintly for just an instant.
Ryo nodded with a satisfied expression.
In contrast, Abel wore a puzzled expression.
“…What was that just now?”
“I asked it to activate the Secret Sword Technique, Freezing Sword.”
“Secret Sword Technique? You asked?”
Abel did not understand what he meant.
“It’s something like a special effect of Murasame.”
“If you ask a sword to do something, it can do it?”
“Yes.”
Ryo nodded in response to Abel’s question.
Abel tilted his head again and again.
“In my homeland, they say that gods dwell within all things. If that’s the case, then there’s no way my partner, Murasame, especially a sword given to me by my master, would not have a soul dwelling within it.”
“R-right.”
Ryo stated with absolute confidence, overwhelming Abel and forcing his acceptance.
Of course, Abel himself completely trusted his beloved sword.
He entrusted his life to it in battle.
If a swordsman did not trust his sword, then what else could he possibly trust?
That was why Abel could understand Ryo’s feelings about trusting his own sword.
It was not that he could not understand it, but…
“There are all sorts of strange things in this world, huh?”
Abel’s mutter did not reach Ryo.
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