In the morning, eight days after leaving Acre.
The diplomatic mission finally reached the border.
After having only their documents checked, they exited the border office on the Kingdom of Knightley side.
Then, a hundred meters away, they went through the procedures at the border office on the Twilight Land side.
It seemed that the Land side was also informed of the arrival of the diplomatic mission today, and they were allowed to pass through with only a simple check of their documents.
Thus, eighteen days after leaving the royal capital, the diplomatic mission finally entered Twilight Land.
“Finally, we’re now in Twilight Land! But the sun is still up as usual.”
Ryo had an image from the name that it must be a place where it was always dusk.
However, on 『Phi』, twilight does not mean dusk.
Once again, Ryo began to wonder about the person who named the place ‘Twilight Land’.
“Of course the sun is out…. it’s not the ‘Land of Eternal Night’ in the legends …”
“Land of Eternal Night… there is a place like that for real?!”
There were still so much that Ryo didn’t know.
Pressured by Ryo’s menacing look, Abel answered.
“Uh, yeah…it is a legend from the western countries. Arthur Verasis, who used to be an adventurer over there, once told me about it.”
Arthur Verasis was the advisor to the Court Magician Order who had once fought alongside Abel against a horde of devils in a dungeon in Rune city.
Ryo was no stranger to him, having asked him for some personal favors.
“Arthur huh… I’ll have to ask him next time I see him.”
Ryo nodded repeatedly and made a mental note.
The unusual event occurred that afternoon.
Ryo’s …or rather, the usual , detected something different from the previous monster raids.
“Abel, a big one is coming, different from the monsters we have seen so far.”
“I knew it! I was thinking it should be about time. All right, I’m going to inform Showken and the others.”
Abel was about to inform Showken and the others of the anomaly, but Ryo for some reason stopped him.
“This reaction I’m sensing seems familiar. If I’m right, then it’s a wyvern…”
Ryo’s words left Abel speechless.
Wyverns are such difficult monsters that it takes more than 20 C-rank adventurers to hunt one.
And even at that, they end up usually suffering a few casualties.
Such a monster was now approaching the diplomatic mission, it stands to reason that the casualties would be considerable….
“For now, I’ll ground it, so get ready to hunt it.”
“Eh…oh, yes, got it…”
That’s right, wyverns are usually difficult to hunt, but Ryo and Abel had the experience of overhunting dozens of them on their way back from Rondo forest.
For some reason, Ryo can penetrate the ‘wind protection membrane’, which is said to be impervious to magic, that covers the body of the wyverns and shoot them down.
“Showken! A wyvern is coming from the left!”
Abel shouted loudly to Showken outside the carriage.
“Say what? A wyvern?”
Showken looked toward the left, having obviously heard the word ‘wyvern’, it just hadn’t sunk in yet.
Eventually, it sunk in and that’s when he realized it was the ‘difficult wyvern monster’.
“Wh, W-Why is this monster here…?”
Of course, as with the previous monsters, it was manipulated.
From inside the carriage, Ryo also saw the approaching wyvern.
At that moment, two transparent and extremely thick ice lances were generated above the wyvern, piercing through the wyvern’s wings and sewing the wyvern’s body to the ground.
“Showken, command the spear team to pierce the grounded wyvern! “
“O-Okay. Men, move in!”
At Abel’s command, Showken and the adventurers with spears approached the wyvern and stabbed it in the head.
However, they were unable to pierce through.
The adventurers struggled for a while, and…finally one of them succeeded in inflicting a fatal wound that pierced through the eye and reached the brain, and the wyvern stopped moving.
Although it was a bit tricky, compared to past wyvern subjugations, it was a great success, as no casualties were incurred.
Meanwhile, the knights protecting the carriage…remained stunned.
“The reaction has disappeared…no way, they defeated it…”
“The diplomatic mission seems to be more capable than I thought. But they won’t go unscathed fighting a wyvern. We will use this opportunity to attack them.”
The order from a woman resonated among the black-robed group.
It was Natalia, a senior member of the ‘Order of Assassins’.
She was commanding thirty skilled assassins.
On a good day with the right conditions, they could win a complete victory against a hundred knights.
As such, it was a mission they couldn’t afford to fail, and Natalia, of course, had no intention of failing.
“I will dedicate this victory to Master ‘Black’.”
Natalia muttered quietly.
For ‘Black’, whom she adored so much.
The diplomatic mission had halted their advance.
The adventurers were extracting the magic stone from the wyvern they had defeated, and the civil servants were resting at the same time.
The knights and negotiator Ignis were watching the wyvern from a distance.
“I have never seen a wyvern before, can’t believe it’s this huge. It is amazing that something this big can fly in the sky.”
Next to Ignis, the water-attribute magician Ryo, was nodding his head with a triumphant look on his face for some reason.
A little further away was Abel, who was being questioned by knights Zack and Scotty.
“Abel, what the hell happened? We saw the wyvern approaching but then it suddenly crashed. Well, it’s a good thing the adventurers were able to take it down quickly, but all the knights are confused. Please explain it so that they may understand as well.”
“Even if you ask me to explain, how am I supposed to…”
Abel was slurring from Zack’s pursuit, as he was desperately trying to swindle his way out.
His gaze occasionally fell on Ryo, who had quickly escaped and fled to a safe place next to Ignis, the negotiator who holds the highest authority in the entire group.
Of course, it was a resentful gaze.
He felt bitter toward Ryo for escaping to safety on his own, but he didn’t go running his mouth saying ‘Ryo did it’.
If he did, all hell would break loose, and it would be impossible to conceal such information.
It was obvious that the information would eventually reach the nobles in the royal capital and cause problems that would involve the nobles as well.
He could imagine what would happen as a consequence.
He couldn’t imagine Ryo going along with the selfishness of the nobles…though he seemed kind, Abel knew best how scary he could be when someone pisses him off.
Yeah, the incident at Whitnash was clearly burned into his brain, whether he liked it or not.
That being the case, he had no choice but to act as a bulwark to protect him.
That is what Abel thought.
Abel is such a nice guy.
As Abel was coming up with excuses…the situation escalated.
Ryo, who was standing next to Ignis, suddenly shouted.
“Incoming, thirty people approaching from the north! Five hundred meters away!”
The adventurers and knights responded immediately.
“Hurry up and get into the carriages!”
The civilian officials, who were slow to react, were led to the carriages.
At the same time, knights with shields formed a wall on the north side of the carriage, and the squires positioned themselves with bows inside the wall.
The adventurers too followed, magicians and priests prepared themselves to attack from inside the wall, while the swordsmen, lancers, and others in close quarters took up positions at either end of the shield wall.
The knights and adventurers had devised this formation for intercepting anti-personnel raids.
The fact that the formation was devised so smoothly despite little training was a testament to the high level of skill of both the knights and adventurers, as well as the efforts of the captains and leaders, who emphasized regular communication.
Abel ran up to Ryo, while watching from the side.
“Yeah, it’s not monsters. I can’t say for sure it’s an attack, but the timing is meticulous. And from the way they’re moving, I have a feeling they are assassins from the ‘Order’.”
“You can even tell that much…”
“Now you know I’m improving everyday too?”
Before, he couldn’t tell much with , but now, perhaps because he has become more proficient in water attribute magic itself, he seems to be able to understand much more.
After all, hard work really does pay off!
Then Ryo entered the carriage, sticking only his face out of the window.
“Ryo…why are you inside the carriage?”
“Huh? Because we are guests…”
Ryo shouted only because he promised Showken that he would inform him if something other than the usual monsters intruded, and he never intended to invade their authority.
Besides, if Ryo and Abel, who were not apprised of the plan, clumsily intrude upon such brilliant coordination, they were likely to become a liability with their incoherent actions.
“At any rate, I can provide support from inside the carriage. You, on the other hand, are better off staying outside, Abel!”
“This is not fair at all, not one bit…”
Despite complaining, Abel decided to watch from outside the carriage.
In fact, in an emergency, it would certainly be easier for Abel, a swordsman, to move if he were outside.
It is completely different from a magician who can activate magic even from inside a carriage.
It’s the so-called difference in job characteristics.
The world is an unfair place….
Read the in advance on Ko-fi and !