Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

“Mr. Graham, here are today’s documents.”

“Oh thank you, good work.”

Ryo completed his job successfully today too.

Meaning that, from now on, he’s off-duty.

“Mr. Graham, about yesterday…”

“Yeah, I was actually going to talk to you about it. I especially set aside time this morning so we can go into it.”

Cardinal Graham replied to Ryo’s question and gestured for him to grab a seat at the lounge suite.

Soon after, an aromatic coffee was served.

“I will start with what I have learned. It was Cardinal Adolfito’s men that were spying on you, Ryo-san.”

“Ohh-ho~.”

Graham explained so, but of course, Ryo had no idea what kind of person Cardinal Adolfito was, since he had almost no knowledge of the church.

“Cardinal Adolfito is said to be the most adept at clandestine work of the twelve cardinals.”

“Clandestine work…”

Ryo quickly frowned at Graham’s disdainful explanation.

He seemed to have caught the attention of a troublesome individual.

“As you seemed to already know, they were monitoring you in three shifts of eight hours each, but it didn’t seem like they were particularly trying to do you any harm. More like they were trying to catch a lucky break finding out about your connection with me. Or rather, it seems that the main purpose is to find out, through Ryo-san, whether information within the Papal Palace is being leaked outside… not to the Mission, but to a potential enemy country like the Republic. The fact that Ryo-san recently returned from the Republic seems to have been the reason for this.”

“Oh, so that’s what it is…”

Graham’s explanation made a lot of sense to Ryo.

If a man who had just returned from the Republic, a potential enemy, or rather, a hostile country, was in and out of the Papal Palace every day… it would certainly be natural for someone well-versed in clandestine operations to be suspicious.

“So, this Cardinal Adolfito is a good guy who acts in the best interest of the Church?”

“A good guy… well, I don’t know about that, but I guess you could say that this surveillance itself was carried out for the sake of the Church and the Theocracy… that’s for sure.”

Graham replied with a wry smile to Ryo’s innocent comment.

A country can’t survive if it’s all sunshine and rainbows.

“Of course, it seems that they had orders to eliminate Ryo-san without anyone knowing should they uncover any evidence that you were passing information to the Republic or any other country.”

“I take back what I said before. He’s not a good guy at all!”

With the addition of Graham’s new information, Ryo changed his statement.

From being a good guy, to being a huge~ villain.

Ryo loves his life more than anything else.

As far as Ryo was concerned.

“Just that, he said something that bothered me a bit.”

“Something that bothered you?”

“Yeah. They, Adolfito’s men, are supposed to be in charge of surveilling Ryo-san, but sometimes they come across other groups of observers.”

“Eh?”

“One of them keeps tabs on the Union delegation. The other keep tabs on the civilian officials of the Kingdom.”

“The Union aside, did you say our civilian officials…”

Ryo frowned at Graham’s explanation and inquired with a small shake of his head.

The civilian officials would probably easily lose their lives if they were targeted by those who even perform assassination missions like them.

“Any idea who the surveillance target is among the civilian officials of the Kingdom?”

“I believe it’s Gladys Aldiss, negotiator for the Ministry of Military Affairs.”

“Ah… the most senior civilian official in the military.”

Ryo knew her.

Well, not exactly, but he knew the Ministry of Military Affairs civilian official who was following her as her escort….

And because of that, he also knew Gladys Aldiss.

“So, they’ve got surveillance on Ms. Gladys, to what end…. Oh, so who in the world ordered the surveillance on Ms. Gladys and the Union delegation?”

“Archbishop Goon. I don’t know much about him, but he seems to be a protege of Cardinal Camillo. So it’s very likely that Cardinal Camillo is behind this. Cardinal Camillo is, simply put, second only to Cardinal Adolfito in terms of clandestine work.”

“Are most cardinals skilled in clandestine work…?”

Ryo expressed his impression of Graham’s explanation.

But Graham nodded seriously and continued.

“Absolutely. Otherwise, they would get tripped up by others, unable to move up the ladder. In today’s church.”

“…What a horrible place.”

No such thing as career advancement by virtue of competence… in a large organization.

It’s just a pipe dream.

Unless it’s a combination of an amazing number of coincidences and incredible good fortune.

In any organization above a certain size, whether it be a religious organization, a corporate organization, or a government organization, those who do not have the ‘skills to rise to the top of the organization’ cannot make it to the top.

Some may call it the secret to success, but… it’s not very good for the organization as a whole nor for the future of the organization.

Most people realize how toxic it is.

Despite knowing that, they can’t and won’t stop.

Ryo believes that this is a tragic quality rooted in the fundamental part of human nature.

History is full of examples…

It is a disease that almost every large organization falls prey to.

If so, it’s a universal fate inherent in mankind.

As long as man exists, he cannot escape from it.

Ryo shook his head slightly.

Graham, too, smiled sadly and continued.

“I know for a fact that Founder New-sama never imagined that the church would become the way it is now…. Time has changed it… or maybe it is something else…. Either way, some of us who are here now want to fix it somehow… and that’s a fact.”

Even if it is human nature and fate, it is also human nature to resist….

A place that compels you to… fight one evil with another.

Despite his anguish, Graham may be one of those who are resisting…

TL note:

Apparently, according to the author’s note in this chapter, he just finished writing volume 3 of the light novel, and majority of the light novel is an entirely new 70,000 word arc featuring an adventure with just Ryo and Abel. The light novel and web novel will deviate from volume 3 onward.

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