Chapter 754: Aftermath of the Death Match

Editor: Tseirp

Leonor came over to Ryo with a pleased look on her face.

“So, it seems things have finished on your side too, Ryo.”

“Yes. Leonor, thank you very much for your cooperation.”

Ryo bowed politely.

Of course, he knew that Leonor had not helped him out of the goodness of her heart.

She had only helped because she wanted to defeat Ryo and kill him with her own hands.

Leonor was still smiling as she was about to challenge Ryo to a rematch, but then her eyes stopped on his arms.

That was right, both of his arms had been sliced off, and now he had arms made of ice attached in their place.

That reminded her.

“I suppose fighting me now would be impossible, after all.”

She said it rather sadly.

The drop from her delighted expression to her lonely one was considerable, enough that even Ryo felt a little sorry for her despite knowing that she was trying to take his life.

That said, he was in no mood to fight her now.

His arms needed to be treated, after all…

Then he looked down at the ground.

The body of Marie, the Phantomkin whose head had been severed, rose to its feet and placed its head back on top of its body.

“It’s unreasonable no matter how many times I see it. It really makes me feel how fleeting human life is.”

“Well, Phantomkin are formidable foes for humans too.”

Leonor nodded as she spoke in response to Ryo’s mutter.

“Leonor, you know Marie… an Phantomkin?”

“Yes. They are a species native to the East… what did you call them, the Eastern Countries? Their compatibility with the Spellno is extremely poor, and when they fought in the past, their numbers should have been greatly reduced.”

“A native species? No, more importantly, there’s such a thing as compatibility? You mean compatibility between species?”

“Yes. For example, the Spellno I fought earlier, those fellows have the worst possible compatibility with dragons. That is one of the reasons their numbers have dwindled so much.”

Leonor explained.

This was something Ryo had absolutely no knowledge of, so his face was filled with surprise.

“What about humans? How compatible are they with other species?”

“Humans don’t have any species with which they have the worst possible compatibility.”

“Oh!”

“They are simply too weak for it to even become a matter of compatibility.”

“A-ah… I see.”

Leonor said it so plainly that Ryo, who had taken it upon himself to represent humanity, let out a sigh.

The two of them were engaged in such idle conversation when Abel approached them.

At the same time, another pitch-black square appeared in the sky.

A man descended from it.

“Hey, Leonor, get back here already! Even I get tired of opening the door over and over again!”

The Akuma Jean-Jacques complained to Leonor as soon as he came out.

“Jean-Jacques, because you didn’t open it quickly enough, it was a close call getting here in time to save Ryo!”

“After I went to all the trouble of opening the door, I don’t even get a word of thanks…?”

“Of course I’m grateful for that… no, wait.”

Leonor turned toward Ryo as though she had just remembered something.

“Ryo. You fought this Jean-Jacques while you were in the Western Countries, didn’t you? Wasn’t it Jean-Jacques who started that fight?”

“Yes, of course. That Jean-Jacques was the one who picked the fight with me. I was the completely one-sided victim.”

“Hey!”

Leonor asked, Ryo answered, and Jean-Jacques protested.

It was because she was bringing up that old incident again.

“Ryo, Leonor was able to come here and save you because I opened the door! Don’t you have any gratitude for what I did?!”

“I am grateful for that. Jean-Jacques, thank you.”

“Y-yeah. As long as you understand.”

“But this has nothing to do with the incident in the Western Countries.”

“Hey!”

Ryo stated it in an unequivocal tone, and Jean-Jacques protested again.

“Well, that makes it clear, Jean-Jacques.”

“Leonor, don’t…”

“Let me punch you once.”

“W-wait! We can talk this out…”

“I don’t understand!”

Leonor’s fist, moving at an extraordinary speed, cut through the air.

Jean-Jacques had dodged it with all his might.

“That looks like it would hurt if it connected.”

“Hurt? Wouldn’t he die?”

Ryo and Abel whispered to each other.

“What did I do to deserve things ending up like this…?”

Jean-Jacques muttered those words after dodging every one of Leonor’s punches.

Even Ryo felt sorry for him.

“Jean-Jacques, come to the Kingdom someday. As thanks for today, I’ll treat you to some cake… courtesy of Abel.”

“Me?”

Ryo said it, and Abel grimaced.

“Seriously? Ryo and Abel both have a good side after all.”

Jean-Jacques’ expression brightened just from the prospect of being treated to cake.

“Ryo, I’m the one who saved you.”

“You too, Leonor. Please join us. It’s my thanks for today.”

“Indeed, indeed.”

Seeing Leonor nod in satisfaction, Ryo felt relieved inside.

He had been absolutely certain that she would ask him to fight her as her reward for helping him this time.

If treating her to cake was enough to get around that, it was an incredibly low price to pay.

“I’ll treat you to some delicious Kona coffee too.”

“Indeed, indeed. I’ll look forward to it.”

Leonor nodded several times before returning with Jean-Jacques.

“We solved the problem with cake and coffee.”

“Indeed, the key to world peace is delicious food and drink.”

Sending a helper home without giving them any substantial commitment they can hold you to… the pinnacle of diplomacy.

If Ryo and Leonor ended up having to fight, and Ryo lost… that would be a very serious problem.

If it could be avoided with cake and coffee, then it was quite the bargain.

A Phantomkin approached the two of them.

“I lost. Ryo won.”

“Marie-san. From now on, please fight me one-on-one.”

“I lost to your quick-draw technique, didn’t I? Let’s have our rematch after I train some more.”

“Th-that would certainly be appreciated, but…”

Ryo stopped there, remembering something.

“The layered magic circle!”

“Hmm?”

“You said you’d show it to me later…”

“You remembered.”

Marie laughed.

Marie sat down on the ground, took out something that looked like a sheet of paper from inside her clothes, and unfolded it.

“That isn’t paper, is it? It’s not cloth either…”

“It’s thin metal, something like gold leaf. Maybe a little thicker than gold leaf, though.”

There was nothing drawn on its surface.

Marie held both ends of the metal foil and channeled her magic through it.

Then… an image appeared floating in midair.

“A hologram…”

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it? This is the layered magic circle.”

Ryo was astonished, and Marie agreed.

“A really complicated… magic circle?”

Ryo loved alchemy so much that he openly declared it to be his hobby.

Yet even to Ryo, the magic circle floating in the air was so intricate that he could not tell at a glance what it was supposed to do.

And there were two layers.

As Ryo stared in amazement, Marie gave him an even more shocking statement.

“Apparently, in theory, you can layer magic circles infinitely.”

“…What?”

He did not understand what she meant.

“Apparently, in theory, you can connect magic circles infinitely.”

“…What?”

He did not understand what she meant.

“Apparently, in theory, it’s possible to produce magical phenomena of every attribute.”

“…What?”

He understood the words, but… no, he still did not understand what she meant.

“Does that layered magic circle thing have any disadvantages?”

“Just the fact that it consumes a tremendous amount of magic power.”

“A tremendous amount of magic power? Enough that an ordinary person couldn’t use it?”

“An ordinary person? For humans… if you squeezed the magic power out of around ten thousand people until they ran dry, they might be able to use it once.”

“…It’s not very practical.”

Ryo frowned.

Ryo himself might be able to manage it, but if nobody except Ryo could use it, that was not particularly good.

It did not seem likely to contribute to the development of alchemy itself.

“I don’t think it was meant for humans in the first place. Even this one has been customized so that only I can use it.”

“Hmm.”

Marie answered while looking at the metal foil, and Ryo pursed his lips in dissatisfaction.

That one sentence alone had practically amounted to being told that he could not use it.

“I wanted you to know that technology like this exists. Even just knowing that might be useful somehow in the future.”

“That’s true.”

“Seeing the real thing and knowing that it can actually be done, then proceeding from there, is quite different from proceeding with only the understanding that it might be possible, don’t you think?”

Marie said it with a smile.

Apparently, Marie had shown it to him out of goodwill.

She wanted him to know that something called a layered magic circle could exist.

“You didn’t make this yourself, did you, Marie-san?”

“No. I’m completely hopeless at alchemy.”

“Could you tell me who made it…?”

“Hal. A vampire named Hal.”

“A vampire…”

Ryo nodded.

Vampires seemed to possess more magic power than humans… he thought.

Though the only serious battles he had ever fought had been in a magic nullification field.

“Hal seems to have built the layered magic circles without giving any thought to practicality, simply because they were cool or beautiful.”

“…What?”

“That’s the sort of person he is.”

Marie shrugged.

“That sort of person… or rather, isn’t he a vampire?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. Hal is a reincarnator like us.”

“What?”

“He said he was a reincarnator from modern-day Japan too. So I think ‘that sort of person’ is probably the correct description.”

Ryo stood frozen in surprise while Marie explained with a laugh.

Ryo eventually recovered from his surprise.

But something else caught his attention.

“Marie-san and I… and this Hal-san too… were originally Japanese.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“The other reincarnator I know… no, the reincarnator I used to know, was Japanese too.”

The person who came to Ryo’s mind was Hassan, the leader of the Order of Assassins.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the person who showed Ryo the path his alchemy should take.

“Yes, all the reincarnators in this world seem to be former Japanese people.”

“The place where Japan exists on Earth may be some kind of singularity.”

“A singularity?”

“In other words, there may be some kind of factor that makes it easier to connect to other worlds… I think it may be a place like that.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting hypothesis.”

It was merely one of Ryo’s offhand hypotheses, but Marie nodded as though it sounded plausible.

Of course, it was a hypothesis that could never be verified.

“That Hal-san… if he’s a vampire, then he has a long lifespan, right?”

“In theory, apparently he’s ageless and immortal.”

“Where would I have to go to meet him?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know that either. The last time I met him was here on the Dark Continent.”

“What?”

Ryo was astonished.

“He’s also an amazing swordsman.”

“Did you come to the Dark Continent to learn swordsmanship from Hal-san?”

“Yes, that was part of it too.”

Marie nodded honestly.

“Once I become stronger, I’ll defeat you next time, Ryo. I’ll cut your head off nice and clean.”

“Do you know something, Marie-san? Humans die when their heads are cut off.”

“Don’t worry. Maybe Ryo won’t die.”

“I will die!”

“You’ve never tried it, have you?”

“I don’t have to try it to know!”

Apparently, there were a lot of dangerous people… dangerous Phantomkin and Akuma in this world.

For some reason, these women were after Ryo’s life.

Ryo could only shed tears at how pitiful his situation was.

“Why not stop being human altogether, Ryo?”

“…What?”

“If you were an Phantomkin like me, you wouldn’t die even if your head were cut off, you know?”

“…Can humans become Phantomkin?”

“Who knows? I don’t know.”

“Ah… Abel and Marie, why are there so many swordsmen who are this flippant?”

“Don’t drag me into this.”

Abel, who had been listening beside them, protested.

“Oh, that swordsman was there in the East too, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, he’s our king.”

“I’m Abel, King of the Knightley Kingdom.”

Marie remembered, Ryo gave a rather casual explanation, and Abel introduced himself.

When Ryo and Marie fought in the Eastern Countries, Abel had watched from inside a building together with Emperor Tsuin.

“Hmm, you have an interesting sword.”

Marie commented as she looked at Abel’s sword.

Ryo had thought that Marie must like swords, since she had even named her own sword ‘Kotetsu’, and it seemed he had been right.

“Ryo’s sword is an unusual ice sword too, but the king’s sword… at first glance, it looks like a magic sword, but it’s something else.”

Marie spoke while nodding several times.

“Hmm? It is a magic sword, isn’t it? Something else?”

Abel tilted his head.

“Right, it’s disguised as a magic sword… or perhaps that’s not the right way to put it. In a broad sense, is it a magic sword? It also has the sort of feel to it that makes me think it’s something Hal might make.”

“Hal, the one you mentioned earlier?”

“Yes… but no. Hal forges swords himself, but his are more clearly ‘blades,’ Japanese swords. The king’s sword is a double-edged straight sword, right?”

“Yes, Abel’s sword is a double-edged straight sword.”

Ryo answered Marie’s question.

Abel picked up his own sword and looked it over from every angle.

All while muttering, “It’s an ordinary magic sword no matter how you look at it”.

Of course, magic swords themselves were hardly ordinary in the first place.

“What are you going to do now, Marie-san?”

“If Ryo allows it, I think I’ll walk around the Dark Continent for a while.”

“I allow it?”

“I sliced off your arms, and I also lost the quick-draw contest. The right over life and death belongs to the victor, doesn’t it?”

“Ah… I already got to see the layered magic circle, so… and that metal foil can only be used by you anyway, right?”

“Right. Even if you ask for it, I won’t give you this.”

“I won, though…”

“Then I’ll just cut Ryo’s head off and run.”

“Please don’t.”

Marie deliberately rested her hand on the hilt as she spoke, and Ryo frowned and shook his head.

People died when their heads were cut off.

“Marie, have you ever been to the central part of the Dark Continent?”

“No, only the coastal areas. Hmm, maybe I’ll go this time.”

Marie answered Ryo’s question before nodding several times.

She seemed happy to have found a purpose besides searching for Hal.

“Then I’m going.”

“Until we meet again somewhere, someday.”

Marie left, and Ryo waved.

Only Ryo and Abel remained.

As someone approached them, they noticed that one person nearby seemed to be hesitating.

A man with a gentle air who looked at first glance like either a priest or a healer seemed to want to speak to Ryo.

He had come close, but perhaps could not decide what to do.

“Ah, are you here for <Extra Heal> or something?”

“Yes. His Highness the Crown Prince instructed me to regenerate your arms…”

That was right, Ryo still had no arms.

Because he had been so excited about the layered magic circle, he had completely forgotten.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Please regenerate them.”

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