NCCnovel Chapter 691 : The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult I
Chapter 691 : The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult I
If you like my work, please support me by joining my Patreon here.
This series is only possible thanks to my Patreons, paying for the professional translator and keeping this passion project feasible.
Chapter 0691 The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult I
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
“That light-blue-haired man... defeated the former chief.”
The three men muttered with faces full of anger.
“That light-blue-haired guy was definitely one of the Djinn’s retainers. Did he and that former chief fight each other?”
“Yes, for many years... No one other than the former chief could fight him on equal terms.”
The man in the center answered Abel’s question.
“Wow, that’s amazing. That thing is definitely a monster. Yet to have been able to fight it...”
“No...”
Abel praised the former chief, but the three men did not sound convinced.
“Compared to when he fought the former chief...”
“He’s become absurdly stronger...”
“To be honest, he wasn’t that strong before.”
The three said it plainly.
Their faces had gone pale.
It was because they had witnessed the enemy become unimaginably stronger.
He had, of course, been strong before.
In the end, the former chief was defeated, after all.
But his current strength...
No, his current speed...
“It was unbelievably fast.”
Ryo nodded as well.
“His sword flashes were certainly sharp too... but was it as bad as you said, Ryo?”
“Yes. His body movement... how should I put it? When he appeared and when he left, my sonar couldn’t catch him.”
Ryo frowned.
“Did he... just move here normally?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, wasn’t that
“No way...”
Ryo was startled by Abel’s words.
It was true that it would make more sense if he had suddenly appeared by
“Come to think of it, the red-robed Djinn from the Western Countries, Merlin-san, was good at
Ryo muttered as if remembering something.
“That’s right, the Akuma Jean-Jacques is good at
Thoughts spilled from his mouth.
“They can use six attributes... or at least the four attributes of wind, fire, earth, and water, like the attribute magic we use. My hypothesis that those may have branched off from gravity into the other four attributes isn’t necessarily wrong, right? Gravity-type magic would fall under the category of ‘attribute-less magic’—that is, from attribute-less magic, the other four attributes branched off? Of course, that also connects to my hypothesis that ‘magic power is gravity from the extra dimensions’ but... Djinns who can directly handle gravity would be better at using the four attributes than we are? No, that would be too much of a leap.”
Though he did not speak loudly, Abel and the three men could only listen to Ryo in silence.
“In physics, all the ‘forces’ in this world can be classified into four types: The strong force, the weak force, electromagnetism, and gravity. The four attribute magics can all be considered to be based on electromagnetism. In other words, they are caused by the motion of electrons orbiting the nucleus. The strong force and weak force are forces that act only within an extremely narrow range— at the level not just of atoms, but even of the atomic nucleus that forms atoms. They barely interfere except over a microscopic distance... Including magic, they are not something we recognize in daily life, nor something we need. It was said that these three forces—the strong force, weak force, and electromagnetism—would eventually be expressible in a unified equation. Yes, the so-called unified field theory. But even after comprehending that far, gravity alone is still... incomprehensible. Even the physicists who left their names in history—geniuses among geniuses among geniuses—still have no prospect of creating an equation that expresses all four forces, including gravity... And creating an equation is synonymous with ‘understanding it’. In other words, if you cannot make an equation, that means you do not understand it.”
The fusion of theoretical physics, magic, and magic power.
It was a special act that only Ryo could perform.
“I think gravity alone should be regarded as something different in kind. Compared to the other three forces, it is far too small... so weak that you could almost call it negligible. And yet no one can ignore it, and although the other three forces seem likely to be explainable in a unified way, there is absolutely no prospect of doing that with gravity alone.”
Ideas kept overflowing one after another.
“The four forces, including gravity, were originally one force at the birth of the universe. Then, as temperature and pressure dropped, gravity separated first, then the strong force, then the weak force, and they split into four forces. Really? Is it heretical to center one’s thinking on gravity? Is it strange to think that gravity is the main current, and that the strong force, weak force, and electromagnetism branched off from it? No, I need to return to theoretical physics properly and study it again... Ah, if only I had come to this world while remembering all those beautiful equations...”
Ryo closed his eyes and recalled the equations lying at the bottom of his hazy memory.
His expression was calm, yet it gave off an atmosphere that could even be called delight.
“Hey, Ryo.”
“Eh?”
At Abel’s call, Ryo opened his eyes in surprise.
Abel and the three men were looking at him.
Only then did he realize that he had been speaking his thoughts out loud nonstop.
That was a little embarrassing.
“Ah—um... the one just now was a retainer, but is the Djinn itself present as well?”
A question to cover up his embarrassment.
“It probably isn’t.”
But Abel answered Ryo’s question immediately.
“Eh? Why are you so sure?”
“If it were, I’d have been crushed easily.”
“I see.”
The Djinn’s retainers are strong.
Extremely strong.
So strong that it is difficult for ordinary people to resist them.
However, the Djinn themselves are even stronger.
So strong that they make everyone recognize that resisting them at all is pointless.
“Either way, I’d like to hear a little more detail.”
“Please, come to our village.”
In response to Abel’s words, the man in the center called out.
The men on both sides nodded as well.
Abel glanced at Ryo.
Ryo gave a small nod.
Of course, Ryo had no objection.
They would need to rest somewhere anyway.
No, even if Ryo and Abel had to endure any amount of hardship and suffering, that would not be a problem—but he did not want Andalusia to have to suffer.
Then Ryo realized something.
“Um... I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?”
“Huh...”
Abel was startled by Ryo’s words.
That was right. The two of them had not given their names.
“I’m Abel, and this is Ryo.”
“I’m Ryo. Nice to meet you.”
Abel and Ryo introduced themselves.
Though Abel was apparently already known, so it was really only Ryo.
“My name is Ronja. These two are Batta and Hatta.”
The man who had been answering their questions and seemed to be the leader introduced himself as Ronja, then introduced the other two.
“Good, then let us visit the village. The big ice cargo can stay outside the village, but it would help if you could let the two horses in.”
“Of course. That ice... baggage is also fine to bring into the village.”
Ronja nodded at Abel’s question.
And so, it was decided that Ryo and Abel would stay in a frontier village that was at odds with the Djinn cult.
After thirty minutes of travel,
The village came into view.
“That is our village, Farafao.”
Ronja’s guiding voice sounded a little happy.
“A village...?”
“Wouldn’t towering castle walls be more appropriate...?”
Abel and Ryo were shocked by the exterior of ‘Farafao Village’.
Yes, they were honestly shocked.
Since they had been told it was a village, what Ryo and Abel had imagined was a peaceful little settlement.
A village that would fit the description of rustic and pastoral perfectly.
Since there were hostile forces nearby, they had thought there might be a fence of some kind.
But even then, at most, something like a rough palisade... made of logs.
Reality was different.
What their eyes could see was only the wall.
And unmistakably, it was stonework.
What came to Ryo’s mind was the stone walls of Japanese castles.
Among them, it was the kirikomihagi style, with stones neatly cut into square shapes and stacked together.
It described a gentle curve and became steeper toward the top.
The so-called fan slope.
Beautiful.
“It’s truly art.”
After his surprise, Ryo let out a sigh of admiration at its beauty.
“Well, I do think it’s impressive, but...”
Abel did not seem as moved.
“Honestly, how can you see such a beautiful castle wall, or rather stone wall, and not be impressed? As a king, I really think that is questionable.”
“Even if you say that... it’s completely different from the walls of the royal capital...”
“That’s only natural. With that kind of mindset, I’d like to lecture you for about an hour on Lord Kato Kiyomasa’s Kiyomasa style.”
For some reason, Ryo seemed full of indignation.
Kiyomasa style was a method of building stone walls in which the lower part was made gentle for stability and the upper part was given an inward curve.
Ryo, who was from Kyushu, still remembered being deeply impressed by the stonework of Kumamoto Castle, built by Kato Kiyomasa.
The village’s castle wall called that to mind.
Such an artistic castle wall... but even so, questions arose.
This wall was probably more than five meters high.
As a ‘fence’ protecting a ‘village,’ it was far too enormous and far too strange.
“Originally, something like this should not be possible.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of it... but there’s no harm in a village having huge castle walls, is there?”
“It’s not harmful. But economically, it is impossible.”
“Is it?”
“To put it simply, it’s the same logic as poor people not living in mansions.”
“I kind of get it, and kind of don’t...”
Ryo’s analogy seemed to be only barely acceptable even to Abel.
“Well, in any case, this stonework is wonderful.”
Ryo nodded in satisfaction.
“The one who directed the construction was the former chief.”
“Oh!”
“The chief said he wanted to build a ‘yagura’ at the corner of the castle wall, but he passed away before that could be done.”
“What!”
Ryo was surprised by Ronja’s explanation.
That surprise was, of course, because he wondered whether the former chief had been a reincarnated person.
“Was the design also done by that former chief?”
“No, the design was based on a design document.”
“A design document?”
“In this region, there was a castle called Kumamo Castle. It had a very unusual shape... From what I hear, it was a truly special castle with a shape not seen even in other regions of Darwei. Using that castle’s design documents as a reference, he planned to stack the stones and then build a yagura on top of it.”
“Kumamo... Castle...”
What came to Ryo’s mind, naturally, was Kumamoto Castle...
“P-please, I absolutely have to see this Kumamo Castle...”
At Ryo’s words, Ronja put on an apologetic expression and replied,
“Kumamo Castle is no longer there.”
At that moment, Ryo’s face... if one were to give that scene a title, it could be nothing other than ‘Despair’.
“No way...”
“Yes. It was attacked by the Djinn cult and destroyed five years ago.”
“What a tragedy!”
At Ronja’s explanation, Ryo frowned deeply, clearly showing his frustration.
But after a while, he lifted his head.
“Kumamo Castle may have been destroyed once. But it will definitely be revived someday! I will prophesy it here: it will certainly come back to life.”
Ryo declared this firmly.
“Actually, there was a village near Kumamo Castle. Four years ago, rich iron ore deposits were discovered there, and in recent years, it has become a town and achieved quite remarkable development.”
“Oh! So the will of Kumamo Castle was not extinguished after all. What is truly valuable is inherited.”
“Why is Ryo so attached to Kumamo Castle?”
Abel did not understand as he watched Ryo fervently celebrate its revival.
Of course, he had no way of knowing that Ryo was overlapping Kumamo Castle with Kumamoto Castle.
“Even Kumamoto Castle, which collapsed in an earthquake, was restored by human hands. Kumamo Castle, destroyed by the Djinn cult, had its will inherited by people as well! ”
For some reason, Ryo thrust his right fist high into the air.
Abel watched him coldly, as always.
But Ronja, Batta, and Hatta all looked somewhat awkward.
Noticing that, Ryo asked,
“Um, why do the three of you have those expressions?”
“The town... now called the town of Juraju. Juraju has developed very much. But they have absolutely no intention of restoring Kumamo Castle...”
“What did you say?”
“The former chief reached out to them. Asking them to restore Kumamo Castle. But the people of Juraju refused. That was exactly four years ago, and I think it was because the ore deposits were discovered and they became busy developing that instead...”
“Oh...”
Ryo slowly shook his head sadly.
Of course, he had no intention of condemning the people of Juraju.
He understood that it was one choice among many.
And yet...
“There’s no going around it, Abel!”
“Me?”
Abel was startled by the sudden turn of the conversation.
“Let’s restore Kumamo Castle with our own hands!”
“No, wait. Things like that should depend on how the local people feel, right? If they are not up for it and we push ahead, it will not produce a good result.”
“Grrr...”
Ryo was silenced by Abel’s perfectly reasonable point.
Then Ronja added,
“In place of the people of Juraju, who do not want restoration, the former chief tried to restore Kumamo Castle here in this village.”
“I see!”
Ryo came back to life.
“In other words, this towering castle wall is the manifestation of having inherited Kumamo Castle’s will. How wonderful.”
“Well, when you think of it that way, it does seem amazing.”
Ryo trembled with joy, and Abel once again nodded as he looked at the huge castle wall.
Seeing the two of them, Ronja and the other two men looked happy as well.
The five of them, along with two horses and five
“It’s wonderful! This curve is indescribable.”
Ryo lavished praise on the curve drawn by the stone wall.
“It feels like a wall thrusting up into the sky.”
Abel admired its height.
“Open the gate!”
When Ronja shouted that, the gate swung open to both sides.
It was basically a wooden gate, but iron plates had been attached to its surface.
“A countermeasure against fire arrows, perhaps.”
“Probably. A wooden gate could burn down.”
Abel nodded at Ryo’s words.
Of course, the castle gate Ryo knew at Kumamoto Castle was made of wood.
When the party entered the gate...
“Ronja, you made it back!”
A woman who appeared to have only just reached adulthood said that happily.
“Chief, we had a wonderful encounter outside.”
That young woman seemed to be the current chief.
Ronja turned back and introduced her.
“As you can probably tell at a glance, this is King Abel.”
“Oh...”
People gathered around them.
Every one of them wore a shocked expression.
Standing in front of Abel, the chief bowed her head.
“I am Anju, the one entrusted with Farafao Village. King Abel, please allow me to make your acquaintance.”
“I’m Abel. I heard about the former chief from Ronja-dono. Well, we were immediately attacked by the Djinn’s retainer.”
Abel said with a smile.
The villagers seemed shocked to hear that.
They began talking to the people next to them.
“The Djinn’s retainer, could it be...?”
“Yeah. That light-blue-haired one.”
“The enemy who killed my father!”
At Abel’s answer, Anju frowned and forced out the words.
“I see. So the former chief was Anju-dono’s father.”
“Yes...”
“That bastard told me that we would meet again someday.”
“What!”
“That caught my attention a little. I’d be grateful if you let us stay in this village for a while.”
“Of course! ”
Even with her eyes wide open, Anju answered immediately to Abel’s proposal.
Ryo, Abel, and their two beloved horses were welcomed into Farafao Village.
“I am Ryo Mihara, Duke of Rondo, and I am the first vassal of King Abel.”
“Ooh...”
“Let us work together to support King Abel!”
“Ooh! ”
The villagers of Farafao grew excited by Ryo’s speech.
“Come, come, Ryo-san, have a drink first!”
“Whoa... whoa, whoa, whoa!”
“Come on, drink it down! ”
Ryo downed it in one go.
“Ooooh!”
“Nice drinking!”
“As expected of King Abel’s first vassal!”
“Nah, it’s nothing impressive.”
Ryo and the villagers grew lively over the banquet.
Abel watched them from a little distance away.
He shrugged slightly.
Standing beside him was Ronja, explaining various things.
“Sorry, my old man is...”
“No, Banjo-dono was it? Well, fundamentally, Ryo is a natural people-charmer.”
Ronja apologized because his father had poured alcohol into Ryo’s mug, and Abel laughed, saying it was no problem since it was Ryo.
But Abel’s gaze then drifted to a woman sitting further away, quietly tipping back her cup alone.
“Anju-dono is...”
“Yes, the chief has been like that all year.”
Ronja answered Abel’s words.
His expression mixed sadness with loneliness.
“Unless we settle matters with the Djinn cult somehow, she may not be able to move forward.”
“That’s a troublesome situation.”
Abel frowned at Ronja’s words.
If they were only dealing with the ‘cultists’, it might be manageable.
But the enemy had ‘retainers’.
Monsters who, by themselves, could stand against thousands or tens of thousands of humans.
Abel shook his head slightly and turned his attention back to the map spread out before him.
“That town that formed near that Kumamo Castle... was it the town of Juraju? Is it really that big?”
“Yes. This village is fairly large for a village, but even so, the population is only about five hundred people at most. But Juraju Town’s population is approaching one hundred thousand.”
“One hundred thousand? That’s pretty huge.”
Abel was surprised.
But at the same time, he tilted his head.
Along the road they had traveled, there had not been any town that large.
“I heard that the road you two came along headed north on the north bank of the Southern River... and then changed direction to the northwest partway through, so I imagine you came this way.”
Ronja said this while tracing the spread-out map with his finger.
“This Farafao Village is around here on the map.”
The place he pointed to was at the upper left of the map, right at the very edge.
“So this really is Darwei’s frontier.”
“Yes. To be honest, you could almost say this is right at the limit of where the authority of central Darwei reaches.”
“Authority?”
“Yes. The town of Juraju that I mentioned earlier grew large thanks to the iron ore deposits, but a garrison of the Northwestern Border Guard is stationed outside the town. There are about four thousand soldiers there. This area is the frontier, after all, so there are bandits and highwaymen and the like. They are there to eliminate them.”
“I see.”
Abel nodded at Ronja’s explanation.
Once a country reaches a certain scale, there will always be frontier regions in any nation.
And frontier regions tend to have worse public order than places where the central government is located.
That is why one of the barometers of a nation’s governing ability is how secure its frontier is...
To stabilize public order, you inevitably need ‘force’ in the form of an army or police.
Of course, it must be a force that can be controlled.
And it also has to be a certain degree of strong force.
The two of them did not know it.
That night, the Northwestern Border Guard garrison was attacked.
Join my Patreon and continue to the next chapter early here on Patreon!