“Ichiban Island? Ichiban Port?”

Ryo tilted his head.

As a former Japanese person, the sequence of sounds was very familiar.

“Does Ichiban mean number one?”

There was no one to answer that question.

No, there was!

“Abel, did that report on the Banban Kingdom you were reading earlier mention the island names?”

“It had the names of the three large islands.”

“What were the names besides Ichiban Island?”

“I believe they were Niban Island and Sanban Island.”

“What...”

Ryo was shocked.

No matter how he looked at it, that was number one, number two, number three...

“I sense the shadow of a reincarnator.”

Ryo’s mutter was too quiet for Abel to hear.

But Abel could tell that Ryo was mumbling something.

“Ryo, is there something bothering you?”

“Huh? No, it’s nothing. There’s just something that bothers me a little.”

“So there is something bothering you. What is it?”

“No, I’ll report once I investigate and confirm it...”

“Investigate?”

Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s answer.

Investigate, in a country they were visiting for the first time?

How?

Abel had those questions, but he pushed them to the corner of his mind, figuring there would be no point in trying to solve them anyway.

Skidbladnir put into port at Ichiban Island.

Abel would now descend the gangway.

At the port, soldiers of the Banban Kingdom were lined up in formation.

“Our information is leaking straight through.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s as though they knew we were arriving.”

“They did know, I imagine. For the Banban Kingdom, the only country they have regular relations with is Pishkan. In that case, they would naturally have built a system for obtaining information from the core of Pishkan’s government, wouldn’t they?”

“Spies...”

“Naturally.”

Abel shrugged at Ryo’s word.

About twenty knights of the Knightley Kingdom were also lined up below the gangway.

They were there so the Kingdom’s knight orders could guard Abel and prevent a disturbance like the one in Pishkan.

Abel had said it was too much, but the two company commanders... Zack and Scotty, had argued back.

Then Captain Paulina had also gently implied the same ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) thing, and at that point he had no choice but to accept the knight order’s formation.

Incidentally, just like last time, Ryo followed immediately behind Abel while carrying Abel’s beloved sword in both hands.

But the two company commanders had also appealed to Ryo, saying, “Please protect him no matter what!” and under the force of their intensity, he had nodded.

Protecting His Majesty the King was difficult in all sorts of ways.

Abel descended the gangway.

When he stepped down onto the port, a person from the Banban Kingdom approached.

Of course, there was no attack this time.

“Your Majesty Abel, we have been waiting for you. I am Rakkan the Twentieth, King of the Banban Kingdom.”

“Your Majesty Rakkan, it is an honor to meet you. I am Abel the First, King of the Knightley Kingdom.”

In this way, the meeting between the two kings was accomplished without issue.

Then the Knightley Kingdom’s party was guided to a place called the Government First Auditorium.

“I mentioned this earlier, but our country has no facility for receiving state guests. No, we once did, but for the past hundred years, our only dealings have been with our neighbor Pishkan, so we have not maintained it.”

“I see.”

King Rakkan explained as he guided Abel.

“If your guards are also to stay overnight, this auditorium is the only place available.”

“That is no problem. We are the ones who asked to keep the guards with us. Please do not concern yourself over the location.”

King Rakkan spoke apologetically, and Abel nodded magnanimously.

“A gymnasium...”

Ryo’s mutter reached no one’s ears.

The First Auditorium they had been guided to was truly a gymnasium.

It was a broad space without pillars.

Most likely, everyone was meant to sleep there together.

Skidbladnir’s crew, the twenty-five Kingdom knights led by Zack, and the civil officials remained aboard Skidbladnir.

They had been told in advance that there was no place where a large number of people could stay together.

Because of that, only Abel, Ryo, and twenty-five knights led by Scotty had disembarked.

They would not be holding formal negotiations in the Banban Kingdom either.

This was nothing more than Abel establishing a connection.

He only had to tell them the same thing he had told Chief Matar in Pishkan.

That said, because they arrived in the evening, they could not avoid staying one night.

Moreover, the Banban Kingdom side wanted to hold a garden party to welcome King Abel.

That sort of thing was part of diplomacy.

It could not be refused.

However, at Abel’s request to keep the number of participants small, it became a dinner at the royal palace rather than a garden party.

From the Knightley Kingdom side, two people would attend: King Abel and Scotty Cobuck, company commander of the Kingdom’s knight orders.

Yes, Ryo, the Premier Duke, would not attend.

Naturally, Abel had asked Ryo.

But...

“M-my stomach and head and hands and feet hurt...”

Ryo threw a tantrum along those lines.

Normally, Abel would have dragged him along by force, but he noticed that something was different about Ryo this time.

Even as Ryo complained, his mind did not seem to be there... or rather, it was as though he were doing something else inside his head.

So Abel did not force him, and Scotty accompanied him instead.

Ryo remained in the First Auditorium with the other members of the Kingdom’s knight orders.

Then he closed his eyes and sat down alone in a corner.

Nine at night.

The dinner ended, and Abel and Scotty returned to the First Auditorium.

Many candles were lit in the auditorium, but it was not exactly bright.

Amid that dimness, Abel looked around.

Ryo, who had been sitting in the corner, abruptly stood.

Then he walked toward Abel.

Something about him was not normal.

“What happened?”

“To be honest, I don’t understand what is going on, but...”

“Hmm?”

“Armed people are coming to this island.”

“...What?”

Abel let out a wildly strange sound at Ryo’s explanation.

But that voice made the talking knights fall silent.

In that stillness, Ryo’s words rang out.

“Armed people from Niban Island and Sanban Island are boarding small boats and heading toward this island.”

Naturally, Abel wondered why Ryo had that information.

But that was not what he needed to think about right now.

“You don’t know what those armed people are after, do you?”

“No, I don’t. I think they’re probably regular soldiers. Their equipment looks similar to the soldiers of this country who were lined up at the port...”

“Are they attacking us, or is it a rebellion against the government on this island...?”

Abel muttered.

That mutter sent tension running through the knights who were listening carefully.

Some put their removed armor back on.

Some drew their beloved swords closer.

Others listened even more intently to Ryo and Abel’s conversation.

“Scotty, what do you think we should do?”

Abel asked Company Commander Scotty.

It was a question asking him, as a guard, to state what he wanted to do.

“We should all move to Skidbladnir, anchor outside the port, and observe the situation.”

Scotty answered without hesitation.

His highest priority was ensuring King Abel’s safety.

If that was the case, there was no other answer.

“Understood. We move immediately.”

Abel made an instant decision.

There was nothing to be gained by spending time.

First, they had to break out of this situation where their allies were divided.

After that, they had to secure freedom of action.

If they cleared those two conditions, the rest could be handled somehow.

Abel hurriedly wrote a note.

Scotty placed the note he received into an envelope and handed it to a subordinate.

The subordinate who received it ran off.

“What was that?”

“I wrote that, due to circumstances, we will sleep aboard Skidbladnir tonight. There are soldiers from this country outside, so I’ll have them pass it to King Rakkan.”

Abel answered Ryo’s question.

As he answered, everyone began moving.

While they moved on foot, the knight who had carried the letter returned as well.

Scotty confirmed it.

“Your Majesty, everyone is assembled.”

“Good. We’ll quicken our pace a little.”

When Abel said that, everyone moved at a speed just short of running.

Actually running would look bad... but they wanted to return to the ship before anything happened.

Of course, one knight had already returned to the ship ahead of them and explained the circumstances.

So that once they boarded, the ship would be able to depart immediately.

Ryo walked beside Abel as usual.

But Abel had noticed.

Ryo was still concentrating on something else.

That was why he did not ask anything.

The party moved quietly to the port.

They climbed the gangway and boarded Skidbladnir without incident.

“Everyone has boarded.”

Scotty reported to Captain Paulina.

Receiving that, Paulina gave one nod and signaled silently.

Skidbladnir began moving almost without a sound.

Without spreading her square sails, Skidbladnir slipped out of the port using only a small number of fore-and-aft sails.

After confirming that, Abel looked at Ryo.

Ryo had kept his eyes completely closed since coming up onto the deck, but when he sensed Abel approaching, he opened them.

“The people who landed on Ichiban Island surrounded the auditorium where we were staying and the royal palace.”

“So moving early was the right decision.”

Abel nodded at Ryo’s report.

Then he asked a question.

“Ryo, have you been... probing with magic this whole time?”

Abel had also noticed that Ryo was doing something.

He understood that Ryo had declined the dinner invitation because he had been doing that “something” the entire time.

“Ah... they are just about within sonar range now. I’ll recover them.”

“...Recover?”

“Niban Island and Sanban Island are fairly far away. There’s a stretch of sea between them, narrow though it may be. So even my sonar can’t reach.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s why I had them go.”

Tap.

As Ryo spoke, something landed on the deck.

It had landed, but it could not be seen... then it reflected with a faint glint.

To Abel, they were beings he had grown rather used to seeing.

“Covert guards?”

“Yes. The Covert Guard First Unit, exactly.”

When Ryo answered, the transparent Ice Golems gained color.

“When the ice is transparent, you really can’t see them at night.”

“That’s right. Even in the evening, if they stay in shadow, human eyes have a hard time recognizing them.”

In other words, Ryo had sent the Covert Guard First Unit to Niban Island and Sanban Island.

“You were controlling them the whole way to those islands?”

“Yes. I sent three to each island... but controlling six at once was quite difficult.”

Ryo’s expression was filled with satisfaction.

It had been difficult, but precisely because he had obtained information early, they had been able to retreat from the auditorium without a scratch.

Had he learned the information later, there was a high chance the party would have been caught up in the clash that was about to happen.

“You didn’t originally send the golems because you thought this attack might happen, did you?”

“Of course not. Remember, I said, ‘I’ll report once I investigate and confirm it,’ didn’t I?”

“I see. So this was how you intended to investigate.”

“I investigated a little, and the soldiers on both Niban Island and Sanban Island seemed unusually tense, so I began looking into that... and then came the attack.”

Ryo shrugged as if to say it was a troublesome situation.

“In the end, I couldn’t investigate what I actually wanted to investigate.”

Ryo was convinced that a reincarnator had been involved in the Banban Kingdom’s past, and he had wanted to look for evidence.

But before he could search for it, things had turned into this.

“Ah...” 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

“What is it?”

Ryo let out a sound without thinking, and Abel questioned him.

“A large-scale clash has begun near the royal palace entrance.”

Ryo conveyed the information he had read with <Passive Sonar>.

After thinking for a short while, Abel turned and asked.

“Zack, Scotty, you oppose intervention, correct?”

“Yes. I strongly oppose it.”

“Yes. We should stand by and observe.”

In response to Abel’s question, both Zack and Scotty advised nonintervention.

Abel then called out to a person beyond the two of them.

“Captain Paulina.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“I read the report on the Banban Kingdom that you and the others compiled. Is there any supplementary information beyond what was written there?”

“Most of it is already in the report, but...”

Paulina said so while looking slightly upward.

She seemed to be recalling the contents.

“If I were to add something in light of this incident, it would be that Niban Island and Sanban Island are currently ruled by the younger brothers of the present king, Rakkan the Twentieth, as island lords.”

“Island lords?”

“We could not determine the precise details, but they seem to be the rulers of those islands. Compared to the king... viceroy would be the closest term, I believe.”

“I see. Then there is a high chance this attack was led by those younger-brother viceroys.”

Abel nodded at Paulina’s explanation.

“We will not interfere in the Banban Kingdom’s internal affairs. We do not have the information needed to determine which side we should support. We will watch the situation from here.”

Abel stated their policy.

The two company commanders and Captain Paulina nodded silently.

And so Skidbladnir spent the night outside Ichiban Port.