Chapter 126

Before leaving the hideout, he took one last moment to check the surrounding perimeter.

A few light orbs prepared in case of an intrusion by House Zahar nobles, and even alarm magic artifacts that activated upon detecting human movement.

It was a setup arranged by Turan himself, placing them in positions that would be most troublesome even for him to infiltrate.

Of course, even this wasn’t nearly enough to stop a high-ranking noble or above from breaking in, but if it came to that, it would already be a situation beyond what the Varaha couple could handle.

One could only hope that no one would bother to deploy fighters of that level all the way out here.

"I'll be going now."

"Please take care of yourself. And make sure to wash your clothes regularly during your travels."

“Ah, Mom.......”

Still getting nagged to the very end, Solif gave the hideout a weary look as if he’d had enough, then quickly hardened his expression.

For a couple with magic power at the level of mid-tier nobles, there usually wasn’t much need to worry about their personal safety, but they weren’t going up against ordinary enemies.

A short while later, the three of them mounted the enlarged Bije and took off to the northeast.

Just her body length alone was five meters.

If you added the length of both wings, she easily exceeded ten meters. The appearance of such a giant bird of prey was enough to throw all nearby cities into panic, but no one noticed.

Because Bije always flew while maintaining concealment magic.

Given the urgency of the situation, they moved even faster than during their previous forced marches.

During the day, Bije flew with all three of them on her back, and at night, while she slept inside Turan's body, the others flew on their own.

Thanks to that, it took only two and a half days for the three of them to return from the hideout near the western edge of the world, by the Sky Mountain Range, to the Takein Plains.

Considering it had taken Turan a full month and a half to walk that distance in the past, and even with the Varaha couple accompanying him it had taken five days this time, the speed was truly astounding.

*

“Ashiz.”

Early evening.

Ashiz, pacing the mansion garden with a worried look, was startled and turned his head at the sudden voice.

There stood Turan, who had appeared out of nowhere.

“It’s been a while. Uh, the other two?”

“They’re waiting outside the city. The kidnappers might have people watching nearby.”

“I see.......”

Ashiz had wanted to meet Meisa in person, but he kept his mouth shut instead of voicing his disappointment.

Now wasn’t the time for such leisurely talk.

“More importantly, I’m sorry. For calling you over for something like this.”

“No need to apologize between friends. More than that, can you explain in more detail? The letter didn’t tell me much.”

At Turan’s words, Ashiz glanced around, let out a light sigh, and organized his thoughts.

Soon, the story of what had happened not long ago began to flow from his lips.

“A week ago, my brother went to Morgen City to deliver some magic artifacts.”

Ashiz’s older brother, Melo, was the heir of House Berk.

Naturally, since he was transporting a large batch of magic artifacts for the main house, not only knights but even some of the house’s retainers accompanied him for protection.

However, a few days ago, even though the time they were supposed to return had long passed, Melo’s group had not shown up, so House Berk sent Haram, the most skilled among them, to go meet them.

As a result, they discovered, to their shock, that Melo’s group had been massacred in a valley two days to the north.

Those who retrieved the bodies confirmed two things: Melo was not among the dead, and a single note had been left behind.

“There was a note at the scene. It said, ‘If House Aravion learns of this, the heir’s life is forfeit.’ That’s how we knew it wasn’t murder but a kidnapping.”

“Any ransom demands?”

"Nothing yet."

Currently, the Berk couple were conflicted over how to handle it.

His father wanted to inform the Aravion main house and request reinforcements, while his mother, Midella, who was also the head of the family, did not want to gamble with her son’s life.

Above all, distrust toward House Aravion still lingered due to the situation with Meisa.

Turan silently listened to the story, organizing his thoughts.

A moment later, he reached a conclusion.

"It seems like a trap."

“A trap?”

"Yes. A rather obvious one at that."

Looking at the composition of the forces Melo took with him, the attackers must have been nobles of at least upper-tier level.

At this point, the possibility of it being a petty robbery by some wandering noble was close to none.

But after committing such a dangerous crime, instead of destroying the evidence, they blatantly declared it a kidnapping and didn’t even mention a ransom?

That was practically saying, “Come find us yourselves.”

‘What they want is for a noble from House Zahar to come looking for them personally. The target is probably... me.’

Turan didn’t know which group the culprit belonged to, but one thing was certain, they were convinced that Turan, a friend of House Berk, was of Zahar bloodline.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have left behind so few clues that no one else could possibly track.

Were the culprits from the House Aravion-Nagin group? Or the House Carmine? Or House Zahar?

Judging by the message to not inform House Aravion, it was likely someone else, but then again, it could have been a deliberate mislead.

After a brief moment of thought, Turan sighed softly and spoke.

“Could I take a look at your brother’s room?”

“...Do you think you can track him?”

“I may not look it, but I’m from House Zahar. It’s definitely possible.”

Of course, even for him, there was no guarantee he could find Melo’s trail.

If the culprit had done what Turan often did, burning the body completely to scatter the remains, then even he wouldn’t be able to track it.

He could only hope that Melo was still alive, at least for the purpose of using him.

A short while later, Turan moved with Ashiz and managed to find a few strands of hair in Melo’s workshop.

Since Turan was disguised as a servant Ashiz had sent away on personal business, no one was suspicious.

"That's fortunate. My brother's room is cleaned daily by the maids, so nothing remained there..."

In contrast, Melo’s workshop couldn’t be entered without his permission, so it was relatively messier and easier to find a medium.

Receiving the hair, Turan immediately activated tracking magic using it as a medium.

With all surrounding scents suppressed, he took a deep breath, and from far away, he began to sense Melo’s scent.

“Northwest, the distance is around eighty kilometers. What’s over there?”

“Eighty... I think there’s a small forest around there. I can’t remember the name, but my uncle recently went there to subjugate a wolf-type magical beast.”

“So, a sparsely populated area. Makes sense to hide there after a kidnapping.”

Now that they knew the location, there was no need to delay.

As Turan showed signs of leaving, Ashiz hurriedly called out.

“H-how about telling Uncle Haram and asking him to go with you?”

Turan’s martial arts teacher, Haram Berk, was the strongest wizard in House Berk.

With upper-tier magic power nearing the limit for a single-bloodline noble, an extremely trained body, expert combat skills, and multiple battle-use magic artifacts, he was a master of combat.

Even Turan would struggle if forced to fight him using the same amount of magic power, so he would certainly be helpful.

But Turan shook his head, rejecting Ashiz’s suggestion.

“Master needs to stay here and protect everyone else.”

Melo was a good friend who had made a guardian magic artifact for Turan, but the most important person in House Berk was, above all else, Ashiz.

He couldn’t risk letting someone more important get hurt just to save one person.

“I see...”

“So you should also stay close to Master, just in case.”

Leaving that advice with Ashiz, Turan flew up into the sky under concealment.

Riding Bije, he quickly left the city, and before long, he spotted Solif and Meisa waiting nearby.

“How did it go?”

"It seems they've set a trap targeting us, or more specifically, me."

“You?”

Turan explained the situation to the two surprised companions.

After listening, Solif clicked his tongue with a 'tch'.

“Yeah, that does sound like it. Damn, is it because you helped my parents escape?”

“We won’t know for sure until we go.”

“You’re going?”

“Yeah.”

With a hostage taken, they couldn’t just back off.

More importantly, he needed to clearly identify who his enemy was.

House Aravion? Zahar? Or perhaps a coalition of them, or a third force?

If the opponent was too strong, they would have to retreat, but at the very least, not going at all wasn't an option.

*

A small forest about two hundred kilometers northwest of Zavilin City, the base of House Berk.

Turan entered the edge of the forest on foot alone, furrowing his brow.

'They've prepared quite thoroughly.'

The presence of wizards sensed through the Sacred Relic was truly immense.

Three top-tier, seventeen upper-tier, and forty-four mid-tier. About eighty knights.

Even most great noble houses would struggle to mobilize a force of this scale, yet these people were camped here, waiting for someone who might not even show up.

The likelihood that the kidnappers were a coalition of several great houses had grown significantly.

'I'm tempted to let them wait longer.'

Of course, doing so might lead to Melo being killed and them moving on to a new victim, so that wasn’t an option.

As he quietly observed, a few nobles with orbs of light floating beside them began approaching him from afar.

Despite using Concealment Magic, they seemed to have detected Turan’s presence and shouted out.

“Turan of Kalamaf! Cancel your concealment and come out! If you don’t, Melo is going to die!”

They clearly knew who Turan was and had prepared top-tier detection magic artifacts capable of sensing Zahar nobles.

In response, Turan immediately released his concealment and revealed himself before them.

“Ugh.”

"St-stay right where you are!"

Upon getting closer, Turan saw that the ones who had called out were wizards from House Aravion.

Specifically, they belonged to the middle-aged faction under Cadrum's faction, Meisa’s uncle, those who had tormented her.

During his previous infiltration, Turan had mostly targeted their mansions, so he had seen each of their faces at least once.

They, however, had likely never faced Turan in person.

"Is this what proud House Aravion nobles do, kidnapping the heir of a vassal house?"

"Hmph, vassal? You mean traitors who cooperated in kidnapping a great house's heir!"

It seemed the Aravion nobles were already convinced that Melo and the rest of House Berk were in cahoots with Turan.

Turan didn’t bother to respond and instead took a few steps toward them.

Remaining on guard, they immediately assumed battle stances.

"Enough, guide me inside. You must have something you want from me?"

“First, you’ll need to disarm.”

“And if I refuse?”

At Turan’s question, the nobles looked flustered.

They hadn’t expected that kind of response.

“Then Melo will...”

“If it’s a choice between disarming and going in, I’d rather fight a guerrilla war out here. You don’t want that, do you? You must already be prepared to take down someone like me inside anyway, right?”

At Turan’s counteroffer, the nobles glanced at each other and exchanged eye signals, but didn’t respond right away.

After a moment, one of them stepped forward with a growl, pointing a finger.

“Follow quietly. And I’ll say it again, if you try anything, Melo is good as dead.”

Following the three Aravion nobles, Turan once again surveyed the presence around him.

Perhaps aware of his approach, the scattered forces were beginning to close in, forming a wide encirclement.

Soon, Melo appeared before Turan, tightly bound, with Cardrum sitting beside him on a tree stump.

“It’s been a while, Turan.”

Unlike last time, Cardrum now addressed Turan without formality.

It wasn’t a sign of familiarity, but of condescension, an attitude one would show to an enemy.

Turan, in turn, discarded any pretense of courtesy.

“I won’t say it’s good to see you.”

“Where is Meisa?”

As expected, what they were after was Meisa.

One way or another, they had discovered Turan’s Zahar bloodline and figured out that he was involved in Meisa’s disappearance.

“She’s somewhere in this world, I suppose."

“Don’t be childish. We’re prepared to capture her even if she shows up herself.”

As if to boast that no matter what Turan tried, he wouldn’t escape from here, Cardrum spoke with arrogance.

Turan ignored his words and subtly shifted his gaze to scan the area.

‘Two of the top-tier nobles are Aravion elders... the other is of the Nagin bloodline. So they did bring reinforcements from that side.’

Among the surrounding mages, quite a few were nobles of the Nagin bloodline.

Some of them seemed to have been conscripted from vassal houses.

At that moment, Cardrum lightly tapped a young Nagin noble beside him and asked in a low voice.

“What do you think? Does it seem like him?”

“Can’t say just by looking. Didn't you say he could disguise himself? For starters, his voice is completely different from what I heard back then...”

A young noble of ordinary mid-tier level speaking informally to Cardrum, one of the power holders of House Aravion?

Turan found it strange only for a moment before quickly realizing the identity of the other.

That flippant tone was oddly familiar in his ears.

‘Ymir...’

It was clear that Ymir, the fallen god he had once killed, had possessed a new body once again.

And they were suspecting that one of the nobles who had attacked and killed members of the Nagin family’s forces back then was Turan.

Turan immediately activated his Spiritual Perception but suppressed the impulse to look directly at Ymir.

The moment he looked at the other, Ymir would notice as well and realize that Turan had begun studying Soul Magic.

At that moment, Cardrum suddenly turned his gaze to Turan and threw a surprise question.

“Turan, have you ever heard the name Otas?”

“Who knows. Maybe I’ve heard it somewhere.”

Rather than answering outright that he hadn’t, Turan responded vaguely.

He figured that claiming ignorance too directly might look more suspicious if he really didn’t know.

Cardrum watched him for a moment, then conversed with the young noble presumed to be Ymir.

"Well, if it's unclear, let's just capture him and find out slowly. We have plenty of time anyway."

“I can’t help. I possessed this body too hastily.”

Even from that exchange alone, it was beyond doubt that Cardrum was one of the possessed.

Glancing at Turan as if looking at a bug, he lightly gestured, and the Aravion nobles began to show open hostility toward him.

Dozens to one, no, more than a hundred to one disadvantage.

Yet Turan showed not the slightest sign of agitation, calmly scanning the surroundings before letting out a small sigh.

“What, are you starting to feel scared now?”

“No. I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to clean this up after killing all of you.”

What kind of baseless confidence was that in a situation like this?

Ignoring the way everyone looked at him like he was insane, Turan casually flicked his finger once.

Dozens of bolts of lightning rained down from the distant sky, bombarding the clearing.

*****