Chapter 261: Ryo backed against the Wall

Editor: Tseirp

“Hey, King Abel, I heard from the Marquis that you can now receive visitors…hmm, Ryo? Sorry, I mean, the Premier Duke of Rondo is here as well?”

Hugh somehow used honorifics that didn’t not suit his appearance at all.

“Ah, Mr. Hugh, it’s been a while. I’m still a C-rank adventurer, so please call me Ryo, as you normally do.”

“Really? Then don’t mind if I do…”

While talking about this, Hugh’s coffee arrived as well.

Abel’s bed had a built-in table, but Ryo and Hugh’s bedside chairs each had an improvised desk made of ice.

The coffee was placed on it.

“So, I’m guessing the Grand Master didn’t come all this way just to visit, right?”

Abel took a sip of coffee, took a deep breath, and cut to the chase.

“You could say that. The expansion of the Adventurers’ Guild in the royal capital has finally been completed with various facilities now available. There is a second training area, a second dormitory, and an affiliated school.”

“An affiliated school?”

Ryo muttered and tilted his head slightly.

Then, he thought in his mind.

(Is this perhaps the beginning of the academy chapter?! )

“It’s an extension of Rune’s dungeon training course. It’s a three-month beginner’s school for new adventurers of F-rank. We’ll hire retired adventurers as instructors, so they can find new employment.”

“Uh…what about me, for instance…”

“You’re already a C-ranker, right, Ryo? Besides, ain’t no way we can hire an unparalleled talent like you as an instructor now, can we?”

“B-But the academy chapter…”

Ryo nodded in disappointment as he muttered this.

Seeing this, Abel muttered.

“You’re probably up to no good again, as usual…”

Ryo, who was sinking into a pit of disappointment after the academy chapter fell apart, cheered up after eating this month’s new cake ‘Improved Mille Crepe’ from ‘Cafe de Chocolat’.

“I will not succumb to the persecution of Abel and Mr. Hugh!”

For some reason, while spreading rumors about His Majesty the King and the Grand Master, he left Cafe de Chocolat and returned to the Royal Castle.

But, he returned to the royal castle library….

Ryo was looking for a new alchemy-related book to read when a voice called out to him from behind.

“Y-Your Excellency, Duke Rondo…”

“Yes? Oh, hello Chief Librarian.”

Ryo greeted him with a smile.

Gasparnini, the elderly chief librarian, was in charge of the Royal Castle Library.

He’s a very good person whom Ryo was always indebted to, answering his questions accurately and giving him book recommendations.

However, Mr. Gasparnini, the chief librarian, was sweating profusely.

At first glance, one could tell that he wasn’t being himself.

“Uh, what’s wrong?”

“P-Please don’t be offended, but it seems that your Excellency has yet to return the book you borrowed two years ago, ‘Alchemy: Its Future and Prospects – Alchemy in Our Daily Lives’…”

“Eh…”

“In fact, yesterday, Viscount Kenneth Hayward of the Royal Alchemy Workshop dropped by and asked to borrow the book…. But, of course, there is no deadline for returning a book, but the Viscount, in his position, wanted to check something in it, so he stopped by to have a look, but…”

“Oh…”

This time, cold sweat began to run through Ryo’s back.

He certainly remembered borrowing it.

He certainly remembered reading it.

And he certainly…remembered not returning it.

Viscount Kenneth Hayward, whom Ryo thinks of as his alchemy master, is a genius alchemist who represents not only the Kingdom of Knightley but also the central nations.

Although he is still only twenty-five years old, he is a rare talent who is already at the pinnacle of the alchemists of the central nations and has even more potential for the future.

He didn’t get angry, so he probably just laughed it off this time…still, Ryo, who failed to return what he borrowed, was explicitly responsible.

Moreover, the chief librarian told Ryo with a seemingly cornered expression…like his life was riding on it.

Which isn’t surprising.

Seeing as Ryo is the premier duke, even though he looks the way he does.

He is the next in power after the king…even if only in name.

To ask such a person to ‘return a book’…might have been the first time in the long career of chief librarian Gasparnini.

That was the reason why cold sweats were running like a river down Ryo’s back.

“My apologies, chief librarian. I definitely should have returned it sooner. I’ll look for it and return it immediately…wait, or should I deliver it directly to Kenneth?”

“N-No, it’s fine, even the Viscount said, ‘If Ryo has it, then I guess it can’t be helped. So, I’ll just ask him about it next time I see him’, so I think it will be alright if you can return it when you have the chance.”

“A-Ahahaha…”

The amount of cold sweat increased even more with the chief librarian’s kind words.

He was ashamed of his actions, causing trouble to such a good person….

I shall return it immediately!

He firmly vowed so in the back of his mind.

Ryo left the royal castle and hurried back to the Duke of Rondo’s mansion.

The Duke of Rondo’s mansion in the royal capital was prepared by Abel and was located close to the royal castle.

It was the highest-class area in the royal capital where the mansions of dukes and marquises stand in a row…Ryo, of course, had only heard about it and had no idea who his neighbors were.

Since Abel’s surgery, Ryo had basically been staying at the royal castle and had only used this Duke of Rondo’s mansion a handful of times.

Naturally, there was no way he could find a borrowed book in such a place.

“Ah…”

That occurred to Ryo as he passed through the door.

Before he could get down on his hands and knees in a pose of despair…he remembered.

“My Rune house!”

He recalled that he borrowed the book… to have something to read inside the carriage on the way to Rune.

And that he didn’t bring it with him when he returned from the Rune house.

“Rune…that’s a little far…”

In the end, he still dropped to the floor of the mansion in a pose of despair.

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