Chapter 121

The unexpected appearance of the heir of House Ruvan, Calais.

With his arrival, everyone in the colosseum bowed their heads without exception.

Thanks to that, the figures of Turan’s group, who kept their heads stiffly raised, stood out even more.

“Could you perhaps introduce the others as well?”

“These are my parents. Beside them are close friends.”

Despite the vague and half-hearted introduction, Calais expressed an exaggerated bow without losing his smile.

When the giant, who stood over two meters tall, swung one arm wide and bent at the waist, it felt as though the surrounding space itself was being swallowed up.

“Close friends and parents, huh? I can’t help but show my respects. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Calais Ruvan.”

Unlike the casual tone he used with Solif, his tone toward the others was nothing but polite.

Following the atmosphere of exchanging names, Godis and Romi, as well as Turan and Meisa, introduced themselves.

Of course, Meisa used the alias 'Misha' that she used publicly, and Turan used the newly created name 'Gosan'.

Once again, it was the name of a resident who had lived in the village below Hisaril Hill.

“Miss Misha and Mr. Gosan… Mr. Gosan?”

“Yes.”

“I heard you claimed to be the illegitimate child of the head of House Varaha.”

“You’re well-informed.”

“Well, what happened recently was quite the incident, after all.”

From the way he spoke, it was clear that he already knew in detail about the incident that occurred in Helio, the capital of House Varaha.

Considering that the capital of House Ruvan is more than a month’s journey from there by ordinary travel, it’s unlikely the news was delivered through ordinary letters.

Especially since, because of the disturbance they caused, a large-scale checkpoint operation was ongoing.

If the news had still reached him this fast, then either they used birds capable of carrying messages, or they had recruited some of the wizards who operated the Light Tower.

For people who claimed to uphold isolationism, they seemed to be paying considerable attention to the outside world.

After exchanging brief greetings, they left the noisy colosseum and sat facing each other in a nearby open area.

The wizards who had come to the colosseum pushed the duels aside they had been watching and instead watched them from a distance.

“So, what brings you here? Don’t tell me you actually came to thank me for spending a lot of money.”

“Your tone has changed quite a bit since last time. Back then, you were even more old-fashioned and polite than I was.”

“Well, you know…”

Unable to explain the 'shell' process of modifying the personality of the vessel for the gods' possession, Solif brushed it off.

Calais, who had been watching quietly, stroked his bushy beard and spoke.

“Well, I do prefer the current version. Anyway, I came to deliver a bit of news. House Varaha is starting to suspect that you’ve crossed into Frostwind Forest.”

It had already been more than fifteen days since they left the Land of Five Lakes, so it was not entirely unexpected.

It was a great noble house after all, unless they were blind, they couldn’t possibly fail to notice that.

Of course, even if House Varaha realized their presence, there was nothing they could do immediately.

To capture Turan’s group, either the head of the house would have to take action personally, or they would need to mobilize the power of the entire house, but doing that within House Ruvan’s territory would be an act of war.

Unless, of course, House Ruvan chose to turn a blind eye, in which case the story would be different.

“By the way, have they placed a bounty on us or anything like that? Like saying they’d give a reward if someone caught us?”

"Did they perhaps put a bounty on us? Something like offering a reward for capturing us?"

The Garam Region is one of the border areas between Varaha and Ruvan, and is famously rich in high-quality iron mines.

Considering there are as many as four cities in that area, it was an incredible offer.

Hearing this, Solif let out a small exclamation.

“Wow.”

“Of course, we’ve decided to refuse. We’re not on such good terms that we’d accept that kind of request, and honestly, the reward isn’t worth the risk of capturing wizards powerful enough to stir up the heart of a great noble house by themselves. Unless they offered a third of the Land of Five Lakes or something.”

Despite his bear-like large frame, Calais’s demeanor revealed glimpses of a shrewd merchant-like aspect.

“Well then, enough of that. Let’s get to the real business now. You must’ve come here because you wanted something from us.”

“Aren’t you going to thank me?”

“What?”

“I told you that House Varaha found out your location and that they put out a request. That’s pretty significant information, and I gave it to you without asking for anything in return. I think I at least deserve a thank-you.”

“That’s... yeah, thanks. Of course.”

It was a reluctant expression of gratitude, almost forced out of him, but that alone seemed to satisfy Calais, whose face showed a warm smile.

“Then I ought to receive compensation for that gratitude.”

“With what?”

“A match. Over there.”

Naturally, what Calais pointed to was the colosseum.

Solif spoke in a reluctant tone.

“That won’t be possible.”

“Why not?”

“Because I already died once today. If you want to fight, it’ll have to be tomorrow.”

At his words, Calais turned to look at Turan’s group with a surprised expression.

“No way you lost to some random small fry... I see. A tiger wouldn’t associate with wolves or wildcats. These are people worthy of being called close friends.”

Watching the laughing Calais, Turan felt a swirl of complex emotions.

No doubt, this person too had probably been raised as a vessel for the gods to transfer into, just like Meisa and Solif.

It would be great if he could reveal that fact and bring him into their group, but persuading him wouldn’t be easy.

The only reason he had been able to convince the two of them and bring them out of their houses was because they had been oppressed within their families.

As he quietly observed, a soft voice flowed into Turan’s ear.

It was Meisa, secretly sending her voice through wind magic.

[What do you think he’s up to?]

[Not sure. But from what I can sense, he doesn’t seem to have any hostility.]

Given the relatively close distance, Turan could sense that Calais’s scent carried no aggression or wariness.

No, if anything, what he felt each time Calais looked at Solif was more like...

“This is quite unfortunate, then. Anyway, let’s get to the real reason I came. Great-grandfather... that is, the family head wishes to meet you.”

“The head of House Ruvan? Wait, the family head?”

For Turan’s group, who knew that the leader of House Ruvan was also a fallen god, it was a difficult request to accept.

Especially if it meant going to the capital of Ruvan.

Though their group had become quite powerful, they were not at the level where they could stand against a great noble house’s head and hundreds of wizards wielding divine power.

And hadn’t they just heard that a request had been made to capture them?

Turan quietly stepped in between the two and said,

“Thank you for the offer, but we were actually just about to leave this place, so it would be difficult for us to visit. We feel it would be an inconvenience. Please do let him know we won’t forget the kindness of the invitation.”

“Is that your opinion too, hyung?”

Without even looking at Turan, Calais kept his eyes on Solif as he asked the question.

Just from that alone, it was clear who he considered more important in the group.

“Well, yeah… that’s right. Please do tell him I’m truly sorry.”

“Hmm, is that so.”

Even though they had just refused a request from a family head who was as good as a god, Calais showed no sign of anger.

Shaking his head with a regretful expression, he stood up from his seat.

“Forcing someone who said no isn’t the right thing to do. I probably wouldn’t be able to, anyway.”

For a great noble house’s heir, it was an impressively self-aware remark.

When Calais lightly flicked his hand, the knights who had followed him cleared away the table and other items they had brought from somewhere.

“Ah, and there was something he told me to say in case you refused the invitation. ‘Keep the clothes-changing a secret’.”

At Calais’s words, all their faces stiffened.

The meaning behind those words was clear.

It was a warning not to spread the fact that they had discovered the secret of the fallen gods...

Of course, none of Turan’s group had any intention of spreading that information around.

If they did such a thing, they'd instantly become targets of all the fallen gods scattered around the world, no one would be crazy enough to do that.

If they tried, even Hisaril Hill wouldn’t be a sufficient hiding place.

Because the ones truly in opposition right now, House Aravion, House Zahar, House Carmine, would all band together to eliminate them.

“And this is something I’m telling you personally, but the head of House Varaha arrived in Helio last night. Just so you know."

“You’re telling us that out of kindness too?”

“Let’s just say I’m putting it on your tab, hyung. If you’re grateful, you can come back to the colosseum later and have a match with me.”

Calais winked at Solif with one eye and then walked off just like that.

Seeing a few wolves and horse-type magical beasts nearby, it looked like he had ridden them to get here.

Solif, watching them depart into the distance, suddenly swept his arm and spoke.

“Something about that guy just gives me a weird feeling.”

“Why?”

“It’s like... his gaze is kinda sticky, you know? From the first time we met, he asked how I trained my body and then later suggested we ‘communicate with our bodies’ when no one was around. It’s creepy being near him.”

Turan thought he understood why Calais had said those things, but he chose not to mention it.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed better if Solif remained unaware of the truth.

*

After finishing the meeting with Calais, Turan’s group decided to leave the colosseum immediately.

They were already planning to leave soon since rumors had started to spread, but now that they knew the head of House Varaha had returned to his base, there was no reason to stay.

After collecting their things from the inn, they immediately moved west at high speed, riding on Bije.

Without taking it easy, their serious travel pace was on a completely different level compared to their previous relaxed journey.

In just five hours, Turan’s group had moved nearly a thousand kilometers from the colosseum and reached the shores of the North Sea in an instant.

“...This is really the North Sea? Already?”

“She might be annoying, but her speed is insane. Ow! Hey!”

Romi murmured in astonishment as she looked at the sea.

Solif, speaking boastfully to his mother, patted Bije’s head but let out a scream when she bit his fingers.

After resting briefly, they immediately began securing a boat in a nearby fishing village and small coastal town.

Since there were five of them, using a small fishing boat like before would be inconvenient, so they bought a larger one.

“Can five people even operate something like this?”

“There’s no need to worry. It’s more than doable.”

Godis’s concern proved unnecessary through the voyage that followed shortly after.

Turan, Solif, and Meisa used their previous fishing boat experience to get the new vessel up and running in no time.

From rigging the sails, to cutting through the water, to summoning wind to increase speed, to steering the rudder, everything flowed smoothly like water.

“Wow...”

“If we could’ve sailed like this when we went south last time, we wouldn’t have suffered so much.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed the voyage to Siraf Wetland during their past attempt to find Solif hadn’t been a pleasant memory.

The voyage proceeded smoothly.

After the death of the Great Sea Serpent, the weather of the North Sea had calmed considerably, and the merfolk, especially the commoner-class ones who used to riot, had gone quiet as if wiped out.

Thanks to the Varaha couple awkwardly but effectively steering the ship using telekinesis magic and wind magic, Turan and the other two were able to focus their remaining time on training soul magic.

"Inhale... exhale..."

In the cabin beneath the deck.

Even as the floor swayed from the waves, the meditating trio’s consciousnesses remained completely undisturbed.

What they had gained through repeatedly dying and dying again at the colosseum over the past few days was not just battle experience.

Through continued near-death experiences, all of them had become accustomed to maintaining an extreme meditative state, a mental state that shut out external interference.

Considering how they used to chatter because they couldn’t focus at all when they first tried, it was a remarkable leap in progress.

‘True self...’

With his eyes closed, Turan imagined.

The four symbols that resided within him.

Just like the head of House Aravion once did, what would it be like if those symbols intermingled and interacted with one another?

No, this was thinking too far ahead.

What he needed to do right now was to first refine the soul, the mind separated from the body, into another form and awaken his spiritual perception.

If one intends to run, shouldn’t they at least be able to walk or crawl first?

Fortunately, perhaps due to the several recent deaths, Turan’s spiritual perception seemed to have awakened quite a bit.

If there were a shell between the mind and body, it felt like there were at least some cracks in it.

A faint sensation persisted, one that seemed like it could break through with a single clear trigger, yet strangely felt as if it kept spinning its wheels in place.

‘To overcome this state, near-death experiences alone might not be enough. I need something else...’

On a hunch, he even tried asking the Librarian to assist in making contact with his spiritual body, but that, too, hadn’t worked.

Should he really consider trying some kind of drug?

His thoughts wandered briefly, and realizing that his meditation had been half-broken due to distractions, Turan tried once more to immerse himself in a state of no-self.

At that moment, a loud thumping came from above the deck.

“Everyone, I think you should come up for a moment!”

Turan woke Meisa and Solif, who were in deep meditation, and headed up to the deck.

There, the Varaha couple and Bije stood, the latter wearing a strangely uneasy expression.

“According to Bije, there seems to be something strange happening ahead.”

“Something strange?”

“She said the seawater is getting sucked downward...”

Bije, standing beside them, pointed to one side of the deck with her toe.

There, clearly scratched into the surface, were the words: ‘The seawater is being sucked downward!’

"What could it be?"

"I have no idea..."

"Did the merfolk do something again?"

After they had hunted the Great Sea Serpent, the merfolk royalty had gone into hiding.

They had repeatedly driven sea magical beasts toward coastal areas and threatened humans, committing quite a few hostile acts.

It was likely an overreach to assume everything happening in the sea was their doing, but they were naturally the first suspects to come to mind.

“Not sure what it is, but we should avoid it for now.”

“That would be best. I’ll go closer with Bije to check it out and come back.”

“Don’t get too close.”

Leaving behind Meisa’s concerned words, Turan grabbed onto Bije’s leg and took to the air.

Flying west for about a kilometer, he could see the phenomenon Bije had mentioned.

“This must be it.”

Bije chirped in agreement, as if to say, "Yes, that's it."

Seeing it in person, the phrase “the seawater is being sucked downward” was quite an understatement.

As if a massive hole had been punched in the ocean floor, a deafening roar echoed, and a giant whirlpool formed, sucking everything around it inward.

It seemed even most nobles would find it difficult to escape once caught in that current.

Turan, approaching to a safe distance, was able to sense the presence emanating from the core of the whirlpool far away.

‘No way... a Great Sea Serpent?’

It wasn’t quite as big as the one they had hunted before, but compared to ordinary creatures, its elongated and massive form was dizzyingly huge.

The creature was down below, jaws wide open, inhaling vast amounts of water and generating the whirlpool.

‘Should I just leave it alone? It feels like it’s up to something bad...’

But attacking in this situation wasn’t easy either.

Most of his specialty attacks were ineffective against targets hiding underwater.

If he had to pick something, perhaps he could designate the Sun Bloodline and attack with light magic...

Just as he was deep in thought, the Great Sea Serpent that had been sucking in the seawater suddenly closed its mouth.

It looked like the whirlpool would naturally vanish, then the creature began rapidly rising upward.

“Bije, up!”

At the same moment Turan shouted urgently, the rising figure of the Great Sea Serpent transformed.

It became shorter, blunter, resembling a shark and then into the form of a humanoid, beast-like race.

Then, from beneath the sea, a boy burst forth and pointed at Turan, shouting,

“I wasn’t seeing things after all! It’s been a while, Kind Devil!”

***