Arc 2 - Chapter 18: Distribution of Duties (2/2)

"Around noon the forester we spoke to will be here, I hired him to guide me through the forest."

The forester he told about was a man who had spent most of his life in the forest, he would be a good guide in the forest.

"It's not clear how many days your research trip will last, so you'd better take a few days' worth of food and drink with you. You can arrange that, I'll move on to the next topic."

"The other thing? Is there something else?"

"Of course, Lylphia. You have to plan ahead where to look in the forest."

From the map the forester had given him and from what he had told him, Yu thought that the killer could live no more than a few hours away from the river.

"As we just mentioned, the killer has to be close to the river to meet its water needs. I think it would be right to search a three-hour radius from the river, taking into account the travel time and the return time. You have to search both west and east of the river, so your mission will probably take a few days."

Was six hours of water travel a day acceptable for a person living in the medieval? Yu didn't know, but it must have been acceptable for a fugitive.

"There's one little thing that throws a wrench in our assumption here, and that's the magical abilities of our targets. We don't have any information that William Berry can use magic, but if Sony is with him, things would change."

"What do you mean?" Sivina asked.

"Sony is a mage, isn't he?" Maron Martin told Yu he was. "If he can do water magic, can he create drinking water for himself, or is water magic like bending existing water?"

Perhaps the water created was naturally salty and therefore undrinkable. It was necessary to learn how magic works.

"Creating drinking water..." Lylphia thought about Yu's idea for a while. "Honestly, I never thought of it, but it might be possible. But I don't think Sony can do something like that."

"Why?"

"I don't really know Sony, I've only seen him a few times, but our headmaster can only use light and earth spells. I don't know his mother was a mage or not, but if his mother is not a water mage, Sony can probably only use light and earth magic like his father."

"There are different theories about magic from different quarters, but the most common one is that it is hereditary. If everyone in the family uses fire magic, it is unlikely that the next member of the family will use earth magic. It is quite exceptional to be predisposed to a different type of magic in a family."

Yurine made a statement about magic after Lylphia. If magic was hereditary, Yu would never be able to use magic.

"What a pity..."

The little hope he had that he could use magic was now completely gone.

"It might even raise suspicion of deception, it's that exceptional. If Sony's mother or any of his ancestors didn't use water magic, if Sony doesn't have this type of magic in his blood, he can't use it, and as far as we know he doesn't."

"So my children may not be able to use magic either..."

Yu could start a generation without core.

"I have a question."

"What are you going to ask?" Lylphia turned to Ana.

"Why are you putting Mr. Sony and the Redchapel Killer on the same side?"

"They could be on the same side, Sony could have been killed," Yu answered Ana and continued. "All we know is that William Berry mentioned Sony and a few others. Maybe he killed them, but if so, why would he mention their names out of nowhere? We can't rule out the possibility that Sony helped William."

"Why would the son of a successful man and a powerful mage do such a thing? I don't understand."

"I don't understand it either, Lylphia." What could be his motivation for stealing and living on the run when he could have had a good life? "But the killer's face is known, so when he needs to get supplies from town, he can't do that. He knows he stole money from the houses he broke into, so he has to dispose of it in town somehow. Since he's stealing money, he needs someone to shop in town, and it could be Sony or someone else."

"What was that bastard thinking when he did that?" Yurine had asked a legitimate question, and Yu was curious about it too.

"I'm curious too, but we won't know why or if our idea is right until we find him." Maron Martin must have had an idea, but the information he gave Yu was limited. "But one thing I do know is that if something has a chance of going wrong, it will go wrong. I think it's wrong for Sony to be with the Redchapel killer. That's why I think it's possible that they're collaborating with the Redchapel killer. There is still the possibility that he might die, but let's not think about that."

If Sony was dead, they couldn't fulfill Maron's mission. So Sony had to be alive for Yu to succeed.

"If they live together and there is no water mage among them who can produce drinking water, they should be in the area I mentioned. Of course, since the river stretches for kilometers, we can't pinpoint where it is, but I have a guess."

The forester had told Yu about the caves. There was a cave to the east of the stream, two hours from the stream, and not many people went there.

"The chances of finding him on the first try are slim, but there is a cave two hours east of the stream. There are many caves in the forest, but the area where this cave is located is densely wooded, making it a natural precaution against intruders, and its location to the stream is ideal. This will be the first place to investigate."

"I think the killer moves around a lot, I don't think we'll find him there," Raul said knowingly.

"Yes, but I think there is a high probability that he stayed there, and if he stayed there, he must have left a trace. That's your job."

Raul was a tracker, and if Yu gave him a starting point, he would be better at finding tracks.

"I can say that I grew up without fighting."

There had been fights when he was a little boy, but they were child's fights, compared to the adventurers of this world, Yu had never been in a fantastic fight.

"So I don't know how strong the warriors of this world are. How strong do you think the Redchapel Killer is in a fight? Sivina, can you take him one on one?"

"Only the best can become knights," Sivina said. "I trust in my fighting strength."

"I want to rely on your fighting strength."

But he could not trust blindly. William Berry had killed three knights, two of them old, and this was simple proof that knights were not immortal.

Of course, the killer's fighting style was not the same as that of the knights, and he attacked them when they were not holding swords. Still, it would have been a mistake to underestimate his fighting strength.

"How many people can you fight at the same time?"

"Two or three, if my opponents are average warriors from Rolderhelm or El." El was the island where Sivina's country, Elhaven, was located.

"I expected to hear a better answer."

He had imagined Sivina as someone who could fight five men at once. After all, she had made a bold statement with saying 'only the best can become knight.'

"One person against multiple opponents, it is the mages who can fight against such disadvantageous situations. They can fight with more than one person because they can put distance between themselves and their opponents."

"Yurine is right," Sivina supported Yurine's idea. "No matter how good I am, if three people swing swords at me, one of them will hit me, whether I jump or leap. After all, I am not a Morning Knight."

"When you said the best, I thought you were very powerful."

"She is." Ana, who had only been listening for a while, spoke up in defense of her friend, as Sivina had just done. "The people in Rolderhelm and Sivina's hometown El are way above the average of this world, so Sivina tries not to talk big. But I saw her fighting ten men at once. She killed them all."

Yu had thought the whole world was full of crazy powers, Ana's words now intrigued him.

Ana continued. "So if theye are not overpowered brats, Sivina can crush dozens of enemies under her feet, just like a Morning Knight!" She said the last sentence with such fervor that even Yu could have admired Sivina.

Sivina's face flushed as the tips of her pink lips curled up slightly, sweetly averting her sea-green eyes from Ana.

"I've heard that shy people are more trustworthy. Let's see if it's true."

After drinking another glass of water, he got up from the table and Yurine joined him.

"Well, there's nothing more to talk about." He touched Lylphia's shoulder, who was still eating. "Lylphia, come to me after dinner, I need something from you."