Back at the mansion, Abel has just returned from his meeting with the Lord — only to walk straight into total chaos. It’s the classic “leave for five minutes and everything’s on fire” situation.
He eventually spots Conrad, rushes over, and gets the full rundown of what happened. Conrad, clearly exhausted, tells him to check on Fiona to make sure she’s okay.
Meanwhile, down on the beach, a massive misunderstanding is brewing — the kind that could’ve been solved in ten seconds if Oscar had just asked, “Hey guys, what’s going on here?” But no, he skips the talking part and goes straight for the boom.
Oscar fires a blast at the ground, forcing Eto to throw up his Sanctuary Shield to block it. The blast is way stronger than anything Eto’s dealt with before, and it nearly knocks the wind out of him.
But Oscar’s not done yet. He demands that everyone step away from Fiona immediately. The group, however, now sees him as a trigger-happy maniac with too much magic power and not enough chill. So naturally, they refuse to hand her over.
Oscar responds with another explosive attack. Eto, running on fumes, tries to protect everyone again, but the shield breaks — and all three of them are injured. Eto is down for the count, while Amon and Nils are still standing, ready to fight to the death for Fiona.
Oscar, apparently taking that as a challenge, charges up what looks like a kill shot… but before things go full tragedy mode, Ryou Mihara (our cool-headed water magician) makes his grand entrance! He blocks Oscar’s attack with a massive ice wall, instantly cooling down the situation — literally. ❄️
Seeing his battered friends, Ryou actually tries to talk first (a rare moment of patience for an anime protagonist). He asks Oscar if there’s any reasonable explanation for what just happened. But Oscar, still in “blast first, ask later” mode, fires again. Ryou quickly counters it — and that’s all the confirmation he needs.
If Oscar won’t talk, Ryou’s perfectly fine letting his magic do the talking instead.
Oscar launches several blazing fire arrows straight at Ryou, who coolly responds by conjuring a dozen ice walls around himself like he’s building a personal igloo fortress. ❄️
Oscar is left stunned — no one has ever countered his magic so easily before. He’s starting to realize this “ice guy” might actually be a serious problem. Still, Oscar isn’t ready to admit defeat just yet. So, he pulls out one of his flashy tricks — summoning a massive fire tornado to engulf Ryou in a swirling inferno.
It’s an impressive sight… for about five seconds. Because Ryou simply shields himself inside an ice sphere, shrugs it off, and descends sword in hand, ready to end this fiery tantrum.
Before the two mages can go full anime finale on each other, Abel suddenly appears and yells for them to stop. Ryou, still radiating frostbite-level attitude, tells him to stay out of it unless he wants to end up frozen solid too.
But Abel, unshaken, pleads for a moment to talk to Oscar. He calmly introduces himself as the man acting on behalf of Loom’s Guild Master and explains that the four people Oscar just roasted were adventurers from Loom — not enemies, not assassins, just innocent bystanders with terrible luck.
Oscar finally pauses, starting to piece things together. But Ryou? Yeah, he’s not in a forgiving mood. He turns to Abel and asks flatly, “Are you done talking? Because I still plan on turning this guy into ice cubes.” 🧊
Abel looks at him like he just heard the dumbest thing ever. He reminds Ryou that this entire mess was just a misunderstanding — but Ryou couldn’t care less. In his mind, Oscar nearly killed his friends, and that’s reason enough to send him to the afterlife chilled and stylish. He even jokes that freezing the princess too wouldn’t be off the table if it counts as payback — though that immediately sets Oscar off again.
Infuriated, Oscar unleashes his ultimate spell — a hailstorm of flames raining down from the sky, powerful enough to wipe out an entire army. It’s dramatic, it’s fiery, it’s apocalyptic… and it does absolutely nothing.
Without even looking up, Ryou summons hundreds of water jets, extinguishing the flames before they can even touch him. Oscar is now sweating bullets (partly from the heat, mostly from panic). Even his best move couldn’t scratch this guy.
Ryou, on the other hand, actually looks a bit impressed. He admits that Oscar’s power is above the average mage, but if that’s the best he can do, then this fight’s already over. He raises his sword and declares that he’s going to finish this.
Abel shouts for him to stop, warning that killing a high-ranking Imperial Mage could start an international incident — and nobody wants that paperwork. He turns to Oscar and reminds him that he was sent here by Conrad (not “Comrade,” thankfully) to ensure Princess Fiona’s safety, which should be his top priority — not picking fights on beaches.
Oscar finally admits that, yeah, maybe he overreacted just a little. But that doesn’t change the fact that Ryou still looks ready to stab him through his fancy robes.
So, Abel desperately tries to reason with him, saying he understands Ryou’s anger, but revenge won’t solve anything right now. “Please,” he begs, “just put your sword away.”
Ryou looks at him coldly and asks, “Would you back down if someone tried to kill Sera?”
And with that one line, Abel realizes… this argument might just turn into a snowstorm.
Rio listens to Abel’s words but completely ignores them and fires several icicles straight at him — not to kill, but to scare him off. However, Abel doesn’t flinch and calmly says he’s willing to die if that’s what it takes to stop Rio from starting a war. Realizing Abel’s resolve, Rio lowers his sword and decides to let it go, telling Abel to take Fiona and Oscar away because he doesn’t want to see them again. As he leaves, Oscar can only think about how close he came to dying if Abel hadn’t interfered.
The next morning, Rio and his group gather at the port, fully healed thanks to Ria. Abel joins them after spending the night handling the fallout from the fight. He tells them that once he explained the misunderstanding to Fiona and Conrad, they both agreed that Nils’ group wasn’t at fault. Even Oscar sincerely apologized for his actions, which surprises Rio, making him think maybe Oscar isn’t as bad as he thought. Fiona also offers them a reward as compensation, which is a huge relief since they’re nearly broke. With the festival over, Nils says their escort mission is complete, but Rio reminds him that it’s not over until they’re safely back home.
A few days later in Lon, Sarah is growing restless because she hasn’t seen Rio in a week. She doesn’t understand why she feels so attached to him after knowing him for only a month, but the emptiness she feels is unbearable. She decides to eat at her favorite curry shop to cheer herself up — and to her surprise, finds Rio there enjoying a meal. Overjoyed, she joins him, and the two happily catch up.
After eating, Sarah takes Rio to the library, sneaking him into the forbidden section under special permission. She shows him a rare book on advanced alchemy, believing it will help him. Rio starts copying notes by hand, and Sarah laughs when he admits he didn’t even know about the “transcribed spell,” a basic magic that automatically copies text. She teases him for being such a genius in magic yet clueless about common things.
Once Rio finishes copying the important parts, he asks Sarah how she manages the costly daily library fees. Embarrassed, she admits that because she works for the local lord, she no longer has to pay — though it wasn’t by her choice. The lord found out that most of her salary went to library visits, so he exempted her from fees. With that, Sarah suggests they visit a local transcriber to learn the spell. Rio agrees, eager to expand his knowledge beyond water magic. Sarah also tags along, thinking it’ll be a good chance for her to learn more about human magic as well.
When Sarah mentions the transcriber, Rio suddenly remembers that elves have extremely long lifespans. Curious, he asks how old she actually is. Sarah teases him, saying it’s rude to ask a lady her age so directly—but eventually admits she’s around 200 years old. Rio is stunned, saying she still looks beautiful for someone who’s lived two centuries. Hearing him call her pretty makes Sarah blush softly.
The two then head to the transcriber shop Sarah mentioned earlier, but as they’re about to enter, Abel walks out and is surprised to see them together. When he asks what they’re up to, Rio and Sarah explain they’re just spending the day together for fun. Abel smiles but says he can’t stay long since he has documents to deliver. Before leaving, Rio stops him and asks if they can meet later because there’s something he wants to discuss. Abel agrees to meet at the tavern in a few hours and leaves.
As Rio turns to enter the shop, Sarah stops him—there’s something she wants to talk about too. She tells him she doesn’t like how he always talks to her so formally. At first, she thought it was just respect because she’s a B-rank mage, but after seeing him speak so casually with Abel, she started feeling a little jealous. Her possessive side slips through as she pouts, saying it’s unfair. She makes him promise to treat her like a proper friend from now on, and Rio agrees with a smile.
Later, Rio meets Abel at the tavern as planned. He reminds Abel about the promise he made long ago—to treat him to lunch for a week after he saved him from the Demon Prince—but Abel completely forgot. Rio says he’s not mad, but he’d like a small favor instead. His roommates are moving out of the guild lodging to live together, so he’s planning to get a place of his own. Abel is surprised and asks if he’s sure he doesn’t want to stay with his friends, but Rio explains that he has several magical experiments in mind and would prefer somewhere private with a large yard.
Rio asks Abel to help him find a suitable property. Thanks to the money he earned from selling wyvern stones, budget isn’t an issue. Ideally, he wants an old noble-style estate—preferably haunted—since he wouldn’t mind fighting some ghosts for fun. Abel laughs and says ghosts probably don’t exist, and besides, commoners like Rio can’t buy noble estates even if they can afford them. Still, he takes Rio to see a farmhouse just outside the city. Though it’s a bit far from the center, it has everything Rio could want—space, peace, and privacy. Rio immediately decides to buy it, officially beginning his new life in Lon.
