Chapter 101: Ambush

Chapter 101: Ambush

I’m back! Managed to squeeze out one chapter but will have to see if I can get Thursday’s release done in time.

After Ra entered the tent, Gecko started talking.

“There are people pulling strings behind the scenes in this attack.”

“So it means that they didn’t chance upon and attacked a caravan that was passing by, but was aiming for us.”

Max supplemented Gecko’s explanation.

“That’s right. Although it seems certain that they are aiming for my life, I’m not sure if that’s all. Perhaps the requester had another aim. This time, we are transporting some valuable items ...”

Gecko paused and sipped his tea.

“In other words, there may be attacks in the future, so be careful. It’s okay, we may look like this but we are adventurers from the City of Rune. Ryo and we are used to putting our lives on the line.”

Ra laughed as he said that.

“No ... I was wondering if you would claim that this breaches the contract and would want to withdraw ...”

Gecko laughed slightly and said ambiguously.

“No way, we won’t do that. We took on the responsibility to escort you to the Capital Aberdeen and will see it to completion. Please leave it to us. Right, Ryo?”

“Yes, of course.”

Ryo nodded in response.

He didn’t like abandoning a request once received either.

“I see. Then, I look forward to working with you once again.”

Gecko smiled happily and bowed his head.

“Even so, I wonder who are the ones trying to achieve their goals by destroying the Rho Bridge.”

Ra muttered loudly.

The day after the attack, the caravan had breakfast as usual before setting off.

It had been the third day since they left the city of Kyradea.

“Is Rho Bridge that massive?”

After last night, Ra was surprised to hear that the people involved in the attack might have caused the collapse of Rho Bridge as well.

“Oh, it’s huge. It’s 40 meters wide and 1 kilometer long. The plan itself had been around for over 100 years, and it’s been planned and abandoned, started and canceled, and so on. Finally, it was completed 15 years ago. Furthermore, it took more than five years from the start of construction to the completion.”

“That sounds amazing ... I want to see it once.”

A bridge with a width of 40 meters was quite large.

Ryo was very disappointed to not be able to see it.

“In the report, they mentioned it 『collapsed』, but we don’t know how much of it has become unusable. If you have the chance, why don’t you take a trip? There should be towns on either end of the bridge so you can go sightseeing.”

Ra replied and recommended sightseeing at Rho Bridge.

After lunch, when Ryo was relaxing, five of Gecko’s subordinates came over.

If Ryo’s memory was correct, all five were children who used Water-Attribute Magic.

“Um, Ryo-san, we apologize for disturbing your break ...”

“Yes?”

“Please teach us about Water Magic.”

The eldest young man bowed, and the remaining four bowed accordingly.

“Eh? Ah ... huh?”

Ryo was surprised at the sudden development.

“Yesterday, we were saved by Ryo-san’s magic. This trip is safe because Ryo-san is here, but I think we will have many more trips in the future. Until now, we were satisfied with just generating water, and in fact that is a great asset for a long-distance merchant, but I think it would be even better if we could protect ourselves.”

“Yes, so ... Ice Wall, you want to be able to use yesterday’s Ice Wall?”

“Yes!”

All five of them replied at once.

The young man who initiated the talk was about 18 years old while the youngest was probably still a 10 years old boy...

“Hmm ...”

He didn’t mind teaching, but Ryo had no experience teaching magic to others.

Moreover, he did not have a firm grasp of how much magical power Ice Wall consumed ...

While he was wondering what to do, Ryo’s <Passive Sonar> reacted.

He quickly stood up and said.

“It’s an emergency. We’ll come back to this later.”

Then Ryo looked around and found Max.

“Max-san! Many monsters are coming from the East!”

When Ryo shouted, Max rushed to Ryo. Then, he asked loudly while running.

“What is the number, distance and time?”

“More than a hundred, 500 meters away, one minute later. I will surround the area with an Ice Wall. Everyone, stay within the carriage circle.”

Unlike when they camped at night, the ten carriages were stationed in a circle because it was a lunch break.

“Everyone move within the carriage circle! Hurry!”

Gecko and his subordinates acted swiftly in response to Max’s shout.

Everyone finished evacuating in less than 30 seconds.

“Ryo, you’re good to go.”

“<Ice Wall 10-layer package>”

An Ice Wall was created around the outer perimeter of the carriages.

Almost as soon as it was completed, the front of the monster pack reached the camp.

“At best, we can only tell that they’re completely covered in black clothes?”

Ryo looked back and saw the body they were inspecting.

(Covered in black all over? I remember seeing that somewhere recently ... Oh, Whitnash. The corpse on the ground when Niels and the others were fighting the Fire Magician at the sandpit. I heard from them later that the person was targeting the princess. That corpse and this corpse ... look similar ...? Well, all bad guys are dressed in black, so I can’t tell.)

Ryo came to an awfully lazy conclusion with his own judgment and prejudice.

(Eh? But they still bothered to burn this corpse? If there aren’t any identifiers, why go that far?)

“What’s wrong Ryo?”

While examining the body seriously, Max called out to Ryo, who seemed to be thinking about something.

“No ... I was wondering why they bothered to burn this corpse ...”

“It’s something they can’t leave behind ... the body!”

Then Max began to remove the clothes of the corpse.

“Captain, such a hobby ...”

“Idiot! I think there is something special about the body. Gun give me a hand too.”

Then they began to undress the corpse.

The skin and clothes were scorched and burned in some places.

However, they managed to find a tattoo right above the heart.

“What is this tattoo ...?”

“A bird with two heads ...”

“And a sword is piercing it ...?”

Max, Gun, and Ryo saw it.

(Double-headed eagle emblem? Pierced with a sword? I’ve never heard of that ... well, it’s natural because I have no knowledge of this world of 『Phi』.)

The three looked at the tattoo for a while, but Max took out a knife and began to carve the chest.

“Wha, captain!”

Gun was surprised at the sudden action and raised his voice.

“It can’t be helped. This is the only evidence. Gecko might know something.”

While saying that, he scraped off the tattoo on the chest.

“Hmm, I’ve never seen such an emblem.”

Gecko looked at the extracted tattoo but there was no such emblem in his knowledge.

“More importantly, I question ... if a bird pierced with a sword is really an emblem. But it’s definitely something important to them. I feel like this is an important piece of the puzzle to keep in mind. Max, you did it well. Ryo-san and Gun too.”

Then Gecko gave each of them one large gold coin and went back to his tent with the stripped tattoo.

Ryo was worried about the tattoo, but he couldn’t solve it so he stopped thinking about it and returned to Ra and his friends.

“Ryo, welcome back. It seems that we will leave soon.”

“Okay. By the way, Ra-san, have you heard of this?”

Ryo briefly talked about what happened earlier.

“A double-headed eagle pierced with a sword? I wonder. I wonder if they have a pretty deep grudge against the double-headed eagle.”

Ra replied with his head tilted.

“I see, there is a possibility.”

While thinking about that, they heard a voice from the front.

“Set off.”

In the woods about 5 kilometers away from the caravan.

There were five people in black costumes.

“Sorry, Natalia-sama”

A woman called Natalia, who received reports and apologies from the four who returned, shook her head a little.

“Ice Wall huh ... You mentioned that it was ice that restrained Gae’s limbs.”

“Yes.”

“There seems to be a troublesome Magician. This is a bit of a problem ... and that’s all for the report?”

That question cause a slight stir among the four who returned.

However, they couldn’t refrain from answering.

“Actually ... we failed to dispose of Gae’s body.”

“What!”

For the first time, her voice was mixed with displeasure. Hearing that, the four were frightened.

“I-I’m sorry ...”

“Leave the apology for later, why did the disposal fail?”

The four replied with what had happened.

They tried to burn it but it suddenly rained and the fire was extinguished.

And in an instant, Gae’s body was encased in ice, and the ice wasn’t damaged by any attack.

Therefore, they withdrew.

“Ice again! This is quite troublesome ...”

(I dropped the Rho Bridge and joined up but the other team made a blunder by failing to dispose of the body. Although there were adventurers, I thought that there were many ways to deal with an escort of about 20 people, but a troublesome Water-Attribute Magician was among the adventurers. I don’t think I should stick my hand further into this. The headquarters ordered me to return to report the collapse of Rho Bridge. I thought I could assassinate Gecko along the way, but would I lose everything because I was too greedy?)

“We will return to the headquarters to report of the collapse of Rho Bridge. Contact the headquarters. In addition, tell them that the assassination of Gecko has not been started yet. They would assign the assassination to another team.”

Natalia muttered to her subordinates.

“I thought Water-Attribute Magicians were useless but ... I will have to change my perception.”