Water Magician - Chapter 401: Fallen

TLN: Please read my translations at tseirptranslations.com, I did not give permission to any site to host my translations. 

“Can you hear me, Sacharias?”

“Yes, Legna-sama. Legna-sama’s faithful servant, Sacharias, is ready and waiting.”

The office of the director of the Western Church Development Bureau located not far from the Papal Palace.

In the center of the room, Cardinal Sacharias was on his knees, face down, as if praying.

Sacharias had no doubt that ‘Legna’ was an angel.

That was because Sacharias was shown many things that were worthy of his belief.

Sacharias recognizes that he is a very wary and distrustful person.

Legna has shown many things that are out of this world, enough to convince even such a person.

In particular, in Sacharias’ field of expertise, alchemy, which is definitely near the top among humans, Legna has shown Sacharias something far beyond that.

Legna showed many parts of the magic circle and magic formula that even Sacharias couldn’t understand.

Truly not the work of humans.

What if not an angel?

“The Magicians in Underground City have been released.”

“What?!”

The words of the being called Legna seemed to be transmitted directly into Sacharias’ head.

Sacharias’ words were coming out of his mouth normally.

Sacharias is rarely surprised, but he was surprised by that news.

That was because the magical power of the magicians they captured had been constantly siphoned, leaving them unable to take any action.

Moreover, one of the ‘Popes’ was placed to guard them…

What exactly happened?

“Was the magical power of the magicians not siphoned enough?”

Sacharias asked the most likely question.

Thirty-two excellent magicians.

Furthermore, four of them were once part of the party with Roman the Hero.

They are definitely top magicians in the Western Countries…

Not people they should let their guard down against.

People who could break their restraints if they are left with even a little bit of their strength.

“No, it’s not that.”

Sacharias was slightly relieved by Legna’s words.

However, the next words that followed made him nervous again.

“The Pope was defeated and they were released by the one who defeated him.”

“Impossible!”

Sacharias couldn’t help but cry out.

Probably no one has ever seen Sacharias shouting.

That’s how rare it is.

“I-I apologize. Please forgive me for being so distraught.”

Sacharias apologized as he rubbed his head on the floor.

“Despite the magical power supply from all 32 wizards being in perfect condition, and the ‘Pope’ exerting his power as expected, he was defeated by only one man.’’

“…”

Legna told him, but Sacharias couldn’t say anything in response.

He literally couldn’t utter a word.

Despite being in perfect condition, one of the Popes was defeated.

And by only one man.

“Don’t worry. The man is from the Central Countries.”

“From the delegation?”

“Through the ‘Inauguration Ceremony’, I will absorb that man as well, and he will become my nourishment. Don’t worry.”

“Ooh…”

Cardinal Sacharias felt relieved from the bottom of his heart after hearing Legna-sama’s words.

Indeed, in that case, it doesn’t matter how strong that man is.

On the contrary, the stronger he is, the better it will be for Legna-sama.

Instead, it’s convenient.

The inauguration of the Pope is three days later.

All preparations are almost complete.

Of course, they’ve been preparing for a year.

All that’s left to do is wait for the time to come.

“I will follow Legna-sama’s will…”

“Nothing beats cake and coffee after a day of work!”

“No, we haven’t done anything yet, have we?”

Ryo happily ate the cake, and Niels, who retorted him, ended up eating cake as well.

The four people from ‘Room 10’ were in the lounge on the first floor of the Kingdom’s delegation quarters.

It’s now ten o’clock in the morning.

“I woke up Niels, who struggled to wake up no matter what I tried, and made him get dressed as he was about to go down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast in his underwear, Niels then said, “Let’s just destroy the Western Countries’’, and I did my utmost to dissuade you, right?”

“Yeah, none of that is true! I woke up myself and came to the cafeteria wearing proper clothes… In the first place, what’s that last thing? Why would I say things like, ‘Let’s just destroy the Western Countries?’ Don’t make me into a dangerous person!”

Ryo narrated his fantasy novel and Niels completely denied it.

It happens often.

“But even Niels has thought about destroying the world at least once, right?”

“No!”

“I don’t believe it! If you were born as a human, you should think about it at least once!”

“Yes, Ryo might be like that. Ryo seems like the kind to think of destroying the world.”

“Could you please stop assigning your strange notions to people?”

“Like you’re one to talk!”

While Ryo and Niels were saying that, Etho and Amon were eating cake while laughing.

Such a peaceful scene was suddenly broken.

On the other side of the lobby, between the entrance and the lobby, some loud voices were going on.

“What’s going on?”

Niels asked something very sensible.

“It looks like someone is trying to enter this quarters, but the adventurers are holding them back.”

Amon reported using his good eyesight.

“Like the other day with the Inquisitor?”

Etho made a guess based on past events.

“The Inquisitors wore black robes, right? The people this time are… knights?”

Ryo answered while tilting his head.

“We are the Knights Templar. I need to speak to Gladys Aldiss, the military negotiator. Let us through.”

“You should go through the formal procedures before meeting with the negotiator. I’m sure you already know that.”

The person who was answering the Templar’s request for a meeting was the leader, Hugh McGrath, who appeared annoyed by their request.

“I told you to get out of the way! If you don’t get out of the way, I’ll force my way through!”

“That’s funny! If you can do it, try it!”

‘Conversations’ between the knights and adventurers were taking place apart from Hugh’s exchange.

Although there were quite some verbal tit-for-tat.

“You louts! Are you making fun of us Templars!”

“There’s nothing to make fun of if I don’t know anything about you!”

Such ‘conversations’ were taking place between multiple people.

As expected, there was quite a bit… of verbal tit-for-tat.

Finally, the four people of Room 10, who had finished their cake and coffee, moved to the rear of the group of adventurers.

“We are the last line of defense!”

“Why does Ryo look so happy?”

Ryo said with a smile and Niels commented with a sigh.

“I see a priest wearing robes coming in from behind the knights.”

“He’s robe is green and white, so he must be an archbishop…”

Amon spotted the priest entering and Etho pointed out that he was an archbishop.

The archbishop who had just entered came to the front of the knights and declared.

“I am Archbishop Goon. One of the Kingdom’s ambassadors, Military Ministry negotiator Gladys Aldiss, is suspected of bringing something disturbing to the Holy City. You will peacefully hand her over.”

“That’s really overbearing.”

“I guess they never had the intention of amicably resolving the issue…”

Ryo said and Niels agreed.

No sane person would say something like that.

“Oi, enough is enough.”

The deep, angry voice of leader Hugh McGrath echoed.

The adventurers behind him who heard that shrunk their heads more than the knights and archbishop who were told.

“Leave now. If you don’t leave, I’ll force you out.”

“I am an archbishop of the church. You have no authority to push us out.”

Archbishop Goon said even more calmly.

At that moment, all of the Templars, including Archbishop Goon, were pushed out of the quarters by an invisible wall.

Because it happened so quickly, not only the archbishop and the knights but also many of the adventurers had no idea what had happened.

Naturally, only a handful of people were able to understand that the floor under the knights’ feet became ice and that they were pushed out by a wall of transparent ice…

The knights were pushed out and the door was closed without a moment’s hesitation.

The knights quickly regained their senses and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open at all.

The door itself had been covered with a wall of transparent ice, preventing it from moving.

The knights tried to push the door open for about ten minutes, but finally gave up and left.

Seeing that, Hugh McGrath also turned away from the door and walked toward the back of the lobby.

He tapped the water attribute magician who was there on the shoulder.

He didn’t say anything out loud but gave a big nod.

Ryo, who was tapped on the shoulder, smiled slightly without saying a word.

That’s all that was exchanged.

But that was fine.

If they were going to kick them out, the adventurer present might have been able to force them out.

However, doing so would affect the position of the Kingdom Delegation.

At that point, negotiations were unlikely to break down unless something extraordinary happened.

There probably won’t be any issues, but joint seafaring exploration was about to begin.

There was a high possibility that there would be civilian officials stationed in the Holy Capital in the future.

They would feel pressured.

At least the other party wouldn’t be overly domineering either, right?

If they were going to have some kind of non-violent relationship going forward, it was better to resolve the issue as peacefully as possible.

This is a truth that does not change in any era or any world.

It’s less complicated to solve problems all at once with force, and sometimes it feels good to show off your power.

Alternatively, it could be used as intimidation for future negotiations.

But…

Once someone has been shown violence, they will never open up to them again.

They won’t trust them from the bottom of their hearts.

Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t.

That’s human psychology.

Machiavelli also said this.

“If anyone thinks that a recent favor will erase old grudges, he has made an irreparable mistake.’’

The human heart must be handled with care…

TLN: Please read my translations at tseirptranslations.com, I did not give permission to any site to host my translations. 

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