The Water Magician

“Ryo, let’s heal first.”

Eto said, drinking the magic potion that Ryo had, and then cast a spell.

“[Extra Heal]”

With that, Ryo’s missing left arm regenerated, and the wound on his side was also repaired.

“It’s truly terrifying how effective your healing is.”

Eto smiled wryly at Ryo’s mutter.

Once the healing was complete, Ryo turned to Marlin and bowed his head.

“Thank you, Ms. Marlin.”

“Hmm?”

However, Marlin didn’t quite understand.

“Thanks to you buying time, I was able to make it in time.”

“I see, that’s what you meant. They said that if you left, the demon could meddle with the other six people again. As expected, it showed up right away. And again, between the West Dungeon and the Holy Capital.”

“This place means…?”

“The West Dungeon is safe because I’m here. And demons have avoided the Holy Capital since ancient times.”

(Does the Holy Capital have something sacred? No… with those who have fallen from grace being in the Pope's position and behind him, I can’t believe there’s anything sacred. Or maybe even after falling from grace, there’s still something that demons wouldn’t want to approach?)

Ryo pondered such things.

“Indeed… that demon, Jean-Jacques, always appears when Ryo is absent…”

Eto nodded as he recalled.

“Perhaps Leonor told him not to lay a hand on me.”

“A different demon, then.”

Ryo speculated, and Amon nodded.

“That Leonor… she’s not protecting Ryo or anything, right?”

“Of course not. She wants me dead. Well, it’s more like she wants to fight with all her might, defeat me, and then enjoy the moment of killing me.”

“O-Oh… That’s an emotion I can’t comprehend.”

Nils replied, shaking his head at Ryo’s explanation.

Not just Nils, but the other six… even Marlin shook his head.

Of course, Ryo couldn’t understand it either.

“Jean-Jacques provided us with a lot of valuable information.”

Zeek brought the topic back.

“I didn’t expect the reason we were summoned as a delegation was such.”

Harold muttered.

That said, for Harold, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Having fallen victim to the ‘spirit curse of explosion’ due to his own inexperience, he was facing a situation where he could only die, and was allowed to join the delegation to the Western Nations.

The Western Church had the demon king's blood that could lift the curse, and that had become Harold's hope.

In the end, since all the stored demon king's blood was lost, they had to go find the demon king themselves, track him down, and obtain his blood to lift the curse…

The reason for the delegation from the Central Nations being summoned was to gather fragments of God…

Because if those who came from afar were killed, the ‘regional balance’ wouldn’t be disrupted.

What an unreasonable reason.

“However, there are still several mysteries that remain unsolved even after all this.”

When Ryo said this, the other seven looked at him in unison.

“First of all, the demon king's blood that was supposed to be dripped on Harold’s forehead. I heard it was stored in the first storage vault, yet all four storage vaults were attacked. What was the reason?”

“Ah, true.”

Eto nodded at Ryo's words.

“Why were negotiations between the Central Nations and France being conducted so seriously, considering they were going to kill all of us anyway?”

“A plot to gather fragments of God? I doubt very few know about it.”

Nils responded, crossing his arms.

“And lastly, Ms. Marlin.”

“Hmm? Me?”

Ryo turned to Marlin, who looked surprised and questioned back.

“The reason why Ms. Marlin isn’t sleeping.”

“Ah… true.”

Ryo said, and Nils nodded as well.

“I think it means something different from how we humans ‘sleep.’ After all, Demon Leonor was mentioned to be weak because she just woke up, which Jean-Jacques also said earlier… so it must be related?”

“Well, that’s right.”

Marlin answered with a small nod in response to Ryo’s question.

“We Spelno… humans call us demons, but we refer to our race as Spelno. Spelno should sleep at least once every thousand years. If we don’t, our power dramatically decreases.”