Published: July 3, 2025
Chapter Nine: Kona Village
After returning from the royal capital, Ryo's life was relatively regular.
In the mornings, he immersed himself in alchemy and magic, in the afternoons he would engage in mock battles with Sera at the knight order's training grounds, and after taking a bath and having dinner in the evening, he would spend time on alchemy and magic until bedtime.
Sometimes, Sera would come over in the morning and read books in the living room. In the afternoons, they would have meals together at places like the Feast Pavilion and then head straight to the knight order's training grounds.
These days continued on.
After seeking guidance from the genius alchemist Kenneth in the royal capital, Ryo earnestly worked on mastering alchemy upon returning to the City of Run...
“Hehe, I finally got it!”
Ryo couldn't help but let out a suspicious laugh.
“What’s wrong, Ryo?”
Seeing this, Sera looked puzzled.
“Sera, come outside for a moment and take a look.”
Ryo said, inviting Sera outside.
“[Phantom Image 8]”
As Ryo cast the spell, eight figures resembling him appeared about thirty meters away.
“Oh! There are eight Ryo's!”
“I used water vapor and ice particles in the air to project myself. But that’s not the main thing...”
As he said that, Ryo conjured an image in his mind.
“[Floating Magic Circle]”
Then, eight magic circles floated around him, standing vertically and opposing the phantoms.
“[Icicle Lance]”
From each magic circle, icicle lances were launched, piercing through the phantoms.
“Oh!”
The sight was incredibly fantastical.
Sera was amazed by the spectacle she was seeing for the first time, while Ryo felt satisfied with the fruit of his efforts.
“Ryo, that’s beautiful magic!”
“Right? Huh...? Magic? Is that... alchemy?”
“Alchemy? Was it alchemy...? Hmm, it's something I don’t know. But it was truly wonderful.”
Sera praised Ryo’s efforts with a beaming smile.
Whether it was magic or alchemy, it didn’t matter much... either way, Sera praised him with a smile, so it was all good.
That’s just how Ryo was.
By the way, he had finally managed to float the magic circles... but he could only manage to float the one that could shoot an icicle lance.
Naturally, he could have done what he was doing before without floating the magic circles... there was no increase in combat capability whatsoever.
Not even by a millimeter.
However, looking cool or beautiful was very important.
That evening, Ryo headed to the adventurers' guild for the first time in a while.
On the day he returned to the City of Run, he had gone straight to see Abel, so it had been about a month.
Unfortunately, there were no crepe stalls along the way.
It seemed they had disappeared before he returned to Run. What a shame.
“The reason I called you here is very simple.”
As Nina brewed some tea and brought it over, Hugh immediately spoke up.
“The magic stones have all been sold.”
He announced in a quieter voice than usual.
His face bore an unsettling grin that, even to Ryo, who was somewhat used to it, seemed eerie.
“It took some time to sell them without revealing the source, but this is the final amount that will be transferred to you.”
With that, Hugh handed over a piece of paper.
It contained the amount...
“T-ten digits...”
An amount easily exceeding one hundred billion was noted.
“Ah, of course, that’s after deducting taxes, commissions, and of course Abel's share. Quite a sum, isn’t it?”
Hugh said, wearing a smug smile as he settled deeper into his chair.
“I didn’t expect it to be this much... I could live lavishly for about a year.”
“Seriously, how much do you plan to spend?”
Hugh appropriately retorted to Ryo’s joke.
“Well... unless I build a ship, it seems like I could live comfortably.”
“A ship?”
“I saw one in Whitnash...”
“That’s... a whole order of magnitude higher, you know.”
Hugh sighed and shook his head in response.
“Ehh...”
“The construction cost for that is three hundred seventy billion florins...”