Volume 1 - CH 246

Chapter 0246 The Capture of the Royal Capital

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

Three days after the Battle of Gold Hill.

The Southern Army had surrounded the royal capital.

Through the annihilation at Gold Hill, the main forces of Raymond’s army were finally surrounded, and most of them surrendered.

Therefore, few forces were able to return to the royal capital, and the defensive forces originally stationed there were not sizeable…but though not sizeable….

“Conquering the royal capital won’t be easy.”

In the Southern Army command tent, the leaders of the Southern Army gathered together to discuss the strategy for capturing the royal capital.

In the midst of all this, Abel reiterated this.

Marquis Heinlein, Ilarion Baraha, Arthur Verasis, Landenvia, Rin, and Rihya nodded to his words.

Except for Marquis Heinlein, all of them were magicians representing their generation.

However, Ryo, a magician who made his name through the Battle of Gold Hill, was tilting his head because of his lack of knowledge of the royal capital.

“The walls and gates of the royal capital can repel all magic attacks.”

“Whoa…”

Ryo was truly surprised at Abel’s explanation.

Is that even possible…the castle walls and gates, that meant, it had to do with alchemy.

Somehow, that made him want to know how the mechanism worked….

Regardless of whether or not he’s able to digest it, Ryo’s curiosity began to pique.

“Ryo, just to let you know, no one understands the details of how the mechanism works.”

“Okay…”

“You’re already dead set on finding out how it works, aren’t you?”

“How~did~you~know~that~”

Ryo went on his knees while holding his head after Abel called him out so spot on.

“I heard that Kenneth and Frank de Verde, two of the leading alchemists in the Central Nations today, did an analysis previously, but they couldn’t quite figure it out in the end.”

“Kenneth did…. And Frank de Verde is the one who created the artificial golem, right? I can’t believe even those two couldn’t figure it out…”

As far as Ryo knows, those two are among the top five alchemists.

The others would be ‘Hassan’ and the Lord Progenitor?

Anyway, he couldn’t believe that even two such amazing people couldn’t figure it out….

“Does that mean the one who created that mechanism is the founder of the Kingdom…”

“Yes. It was King Richard.”

The founder of the Kingdom of Knightley, said to have mastered magic of all attributes and reached the pinnacle of alchemy.

He created the ‘Hall of Heroes’ in the depths of the royal castle treasury, and also seemed to have left behind something that far surpasses the capability of modern alchemists with the walls and gates of the royal capital.

“I-I would like to give it a try…”

“No!”

Ryo’s wish was immediately rejected by Abel.

“I know how you feel, Ryo, but you shouldn’t do it.”

Ilarion Baraha understood Ryo’s feelings.

“Lord Ilarion? Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, obviously, I also gave it a try a long time ago.”

“Hey!”

Ryo probed him, and Ilarion came out clean. And Abel involuntarily reacted.

“The air slash bounced back beautifully and cut off my left arm.”

Ilarion laughed hilariously as he said that.

“I moved as soon as I released the shot, but it ricocheted back to where I moved… that enchantment is dangerous.”

“Lord Ilarion left arm too … it hurts to have your arm cut off, doesn’t it?”

“Wait, you’ve lost an arm before too?”

“Yes, I was forced to sacrifice my left arm to protect my neck…”

For some reason, they started talking about the defense mechanism of the castle wall and then got into a lively conversation about how they both got their left arm cut off….

The other leaders watched on in a daze.

Pang-pang.

Abel clapped his hands, and the atmosphere changed.

The conversation of the two about their left arms was over, and those who had been staring blankly came back to their senses.

“For now, let’s get back to discussing the capture of the royal capital.”

“Oh, my bad.”

Ryo bowed his head.

“Magic gets bounced back and physical attacks like using bows and arrows are also warded off. It’s as if the walls themselves are covered with some kind of layer, so we can’t hit the castle walls directly. As such, it’s impractical to try conquering the royal capital head-on.”

“That explains why the Imperial Army had the gates opened from the inside.”

“That’s right, using the betrayer Harold Lawrence to do so.”

Rin said, and Ilarion Baraha answered with a bitter look on his face.

So the slightest suspicion he had previously was right, but for Ilarion, it was only a bitter memory.

“There are several underground passages from outside the royal capital that could have been used before…”

“Well, if you’re talking about the royal underground passages, Duke Flitwick knows all about them and has probably sealed them off by now. He’s a former prince after all.”

Abel said, and Marquis Heinlein nodded and added.

“New underground passages that pass under the walls, that is, those connecting into the royal capital from the outside will collapse on their own after a certain time.”

“Please don’t tell me that’s also the work of King Richard…”

“You said it.”

What an extraordinary mechanism…Ryo was stunned.

Just the fact that it is a mechanism that continues to operate even after hundreds of years is amazing, but to automatically detect and destroy even new underground passageways….

“But it doesn’t destroy underground passages related to the royal family. Due to a magic formula incorporated into the special alchemy. Apart from the king and the crown prince, only the elves of the Western Forest, who were said to have developed alchemy together with King Richard, know this magic formula.”

“The Elves of the Western Forest…”

Ryo muttered involuntarily at Abel’s explanation.

Needless to say, what was going through his mind was the image of Sera who had gone to the rescue of the Western Forest.

“And a letter arrived a few days ago from the western forest. Long story short, it says there’s an underground passage that won’t be crushed by the walls.”

“Whoa…”

Marquis Heinlein and Ilarion Baraha were the first to express their surprise.

The others, however, were equally astonished.

“I suppose they’re telling us to use it, but frankly, it doesn’t look good…”

Marquis Heinlein, while understanding the usefulness of that underground passageway at the moment, pointed out that it would be bad to have an underground passageway connecting inside the royal capital from the outside that was unknown to the members of the royal family.

Abel nodded and handed the letter from the western forest to Marquis Heinlein.

Marquis Heinlein received the letter and quickly looked it over.

“Is this…”

“Yeah. It’s the underground passage the elves of the Autonomous Authority used to evacuate the royal capital before the royal capital fell. However, it is now sealed and no one can pass through it from inside or outside. Not even the elves can pass through. Except one person.”

Saying that, Abel took a silver key out of his pocket.

“Only one person can use this key to pass through. I have to say elven alchemy is impressive. Their technology is still way ahead of ours.”

Ilarion Baraha and Arthur Verasis, who had probably seen elven alchemy before, nodded repeatedly.

Ryo, who had been taught alchemy by Sera, nodded in the same way.

Abel looked at Ryo nodding like that and said.

“Ryo is the only one who can use this key.”

“Pardon?”

Abel’s words drew everyone’s attention to Ryo, who let out a frantic voice as he himself didn’t understand what was going on.

“The letter says ‘Only Ryo, who can activate the fairy elements’, can activate this key.”

“Oh…”

One of the most important of the various ‘mystery words’ surrounding Ryo, ‘fairy elements’.

Something that they still don’t have any clue about whatsoever….

“That thing that offers absolutely no benefit to humans or me personally…”

“Yeah, you were told so…”

Ryo said in a slightly depressed tone, and Abel agreed with him trying to console him.

The Southern Army leaders around them judged from their moods that it was not a very good thing.

“Well, for now, just try holding it.”

Abel said and handed the key to Ryo.

The moment it touched Ryo’s hand, it began to emit a faint glow.

“Ryo, did you do something?”

“No, I haven’t done anything. Is this what happens when it’s activated?”

Ryo answered Ilarion’s question, shaking his head.

“That settles it, I guess you’ll be joining us for the raid this time too, Ryo.”

Ryo could not refuse Abel’s decision.

“Got it.”