Chapter 77

Turan thought of Keorn, that old knight who had lost his entire family and friends to war.

When he learned that the house he had taken immense pride in had betrayed him in such a horrific manner, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

No, if one were to examine it closely, the thousands and tens of thousands of people who had died directly or indirectly due to the war between the two houses were all victims.

While the shepherd dogs and young shepherds fought and bit each other without understanding the full picture, the old shepherds stood behind them, shaking hands and whispering in secret...

In his heart, he wanted to wipe out the entire upper echelons of both houses, but that was impossible.

No matter how powerful a wizard Turan was now, if the heads of the great houses were human, he was no more than a wildcat in comparison.

Even so, compared to the past, when he had been nothing more than an insect or something even lesser, this was an immense improvement.

Suppressing the rage boiling within him, Turan spoke softly to Reto, who was sitting on the ground.

"Alright, if you answer my questions honestly, I'll let you meet Talis nim. Who gave you orders, and in what manner? Whose instructions did you follow in House Aravion?"

At Turan’s words, Reto looked at him in shock.

"No, wait a moment… Did you not understand? I’m telling you, this is the will of those above! Do you dare to interrogate me?"

"Answer the question."

Seeing that Turan ignored her warning, Reto gritted her teeth and glanced around.

The same venomous glare as before flickered in her eyes.

“…Talis nim, let me see Talis nim! In front of him, I can say everyth-”

Turan reached out and covered Reto’s mouth, pinching her forearm lightly with his other hand.

A piece of flesh was torn away, and a horrifying scream erupted from behind his obstructing hand.

"I’ll ask again. In House Zahar-"

"You crazy son of a bitch!"

Instead of reacting to the insult, Turan covered her mouth once more and tore another piece of flesh from her arm.

At the sight, not only Solif but even Meisa, who had been glaring with hatred just moments ago, turned deathly pale.

Both of them, as successors of great houses, had experienced battle and taken lives before. However, it was their first time witnessing someone so thoroughly torment a defenseless person.

Unlike the two, Turan did not feel even the slightest emotional disturbance despite torturing someone for the first time in his life.

To him, Reto was nothing more than a henchwoman of those old shepherds, an evildoer who had manipulated innocent lives.

The moment he labeled his target as an enemy, a wolf beyond the fence, there was no hesitation in his actions.

Of course, unless she were a wizard, Reto, now no different from an ordinary human, could not endure such brutal torture for long.

Before long, she was on the verge of passing out from pain and blood loss, but Turan would not allow even that escape.

The healing magic artifact of Varaha.

It was inefficient for a high-ranking noble’s body, but when three top-class nobles poured their magic power into it, they could compensate for the inefficiency.

Despite her desperate resistance, Turan forcibly fed the medicine into Reto’s mouth, healed her, and then broke her again.

How many times had he repeated this process?

Unable to bear the sight any longer, Solif was the first to excuse himself, saying he would stand watch outside.

Even someone who had slaughtered hundreds of pirates without flinching found the scene too revolting to endure.

As the background noise of Bije hopping around on the dirt ground continued, Turan steadily refined his torture skills on Reto.

With his keen sense of smell and ability to learn, he analyzed the scent of pain emanating from his victim, determining which areas to stimulate and how for maximum agony.

At last, even Meisa, who had merely watched from behind, looked utterly drained.

Then, with hollow eyes, Reto muttered,

"I’ll talk. No, I’ll talk… Please, please stop… Just kill me instead…"

Compared to the dramatic sobbing and pleading she had done when she first came to her senses, her voice was eerily quiet.

Turan brought his nose close to her neck and took a deep breath.

Amid the thick scent of blood, he could smell fear, despair, and resignation.

*

According to the confession of the half-broken Reto, the one who had directly dispatched her to House Aravion was Rahman, one of House Zahar’s successor candidates and the cousin of the head of the house.

The order was to faithfully carry out the directives given by six high-ranking figures in House Aravion, including Cadrum Aravion.

Since it was a secret mission, no one in House Zahar knew about it except for Rahman, and on the Aravion side, only those six individuals and their direct subordinates were aware of Reto’s true identity.

Surprisingly, the head of House Aravion was not among those six, and Reto herself did not know whether he was aware of this internal collusion.

Even those six who knew her identity treated her strictly as a mere maid in the presence of the head, and the head himself showed no particular regard for her.

"Have you ever searched the head’s residence? With your concealment abilities, it wouldn’t have been difficult."

"I never bothered. I figured knowing unnecessary things would only put me in danger..."

Reto admitted that she had simply carried out the missions assigned to her like a machine, without ever trying to investigate those giving her orders in any depth.

To Turan, this level of passivity was absurd, but in reality, the world was full of such people.

After confirming that she wasn’t lying about only performing her assigned duties in the head’s residence, he shifted the topic back to the head himself.

"What kind of person was he?"

"He just seemed like an old man. So exhausted that he had no interest in the affairs of the world..."

Hearing this, Meisa unconsciously nodded beside him.

It seemed she had perceived a similar impression from her own father.

Had the head been secretly pulling all the strings while pretending not to know anything? Or was he truly just an indifferent absolute ruler?

Given Meisa’s background, the former was more likely, but the latter couldn’t be completely ruled out.

As he ran through various hypotheses in his mind, Turan next asked how Reto had managed to operate as a spy for so many years without being exposed.

After all, if a maid never aged, it would naturally raise suspicions that she was a wizard.

However, the solution to this issue was so absurdly simple that it was almost laughable.

When she first infiltrated fifteen years ago, she pretended to be twenty years old. After that, she gradually changed her makeup techniques to make herself appear older.

"And they actually believed that?"

"Yes..."

Turan splashed water onto Reto’s face, which was a mess of tears and blood, to wash away her makeup.

Sure enough, whereas she had previously looked to be in her early to mid-thirties, her bare face now appeared to be in her mid-twenties.

To be able to alter her face without a magic artifact, one could only call it a magical technique in itself.

Momentarily impressed by this revelation, Turan quickly returned to questioning her about the crimes she had carried out.

Though these were already implied in the documents of the middle-aged noble faction, hearing the details directly from the perpetrator was an entirely different matter.

As he pointed out various passages from the documents and had her annotate them one by one, the topic shifted to Meisa’s family.

"Those two - no, to be precise, those three, I poisoned them. When they went on an outing near the city, I secretly laced their food."

"Poison?"

Turan frowned at the unexpected revelation.

It was common knowledge that poison was ineffective against wizards, especially nobles.

For a knight, it might be possible to die if they consumed enough poison to kill hundreds of ordinary people, but for nobles, even drinking poison until their stomach burst would only result in mild diarrhea at most.

Unless, of course, one possessed the bloodline ability of those long-extinct Night Hunters, who were known to wield poisons.

"Yes. I don’t know where it came from, but it was incredibly potent. Even though she was weak, she was still a noblewoman, yet it was strong enough to kill her. And it even put Meisa, who had already accumulated considerable strength, in danger."

Turan furrowed his brows at the revelation that Meisa had also been poisoned.

It seemed highly likely that this was the direct cause of her eating disorder.

What he couldn’t understand was how they had dared to administer poison to her, someone who should have possessed the body of a divine being.

No matter how weak she had been, this was a deadly poison strong enough to kill Meisa’s noble mother.

They must have either known for certain that it wouldn’t be fatal or simply not cared whether she died or was severely injured.

"You’re sure you don’t know where the poison came from?"

"Yes…"

Turan persistently repeated the question, watching for any signs of hesitation, but he didn’t get the impression that she was lying.

After verifying a few more details about her crimes, he finally ran out of things to ask.

"Then, it looks like we’ve extracted everything we can… Meisa, if you want revenge, I’ll step aside for you."

"No, that’s enough."

Surprisingly, Meisa’s face showed little hatred toward Reto as she responded.

"She already looks like nothing more than an empty shell. And… I don’t think I could inflict pain as effectively as you did."

Had watching Turan’s torture already satisfied her desire for vengeance?

Meisa raised her hand, gathered a small amount of electricity, and struck Reto down, ending her life.

A moment later, with Solif now returned, the three of them and the golden eagle absorbed the magic power from her corpse and sent her soul into oblivion.

After erasing all remaining traces, an awkward silence lingered before Solif spoke up.

"That torture… It didn’t bother you?"

"Not really. It was something that had to be done."

Turan replied.

Solif opened his mouth as if to say something, then simply shook his head.

"They say desert nobles are ruthless… I guess that wasn’t a lie. Well, whatever. Being cruel to enemies is a necessary trait. As long as you’re good to your own people, that’s what matters."

The way he muttered it sounded less like he was speaking to someone else and more like he was trying to convince himself.

Truthfully, Turan was well aware that his personality wasn’t exactly normal.

Ordinary people couldn’t become this emotionally detached just by labeling someone as an enemy.

It was the same reason why, when Keorn had once praised him as a good person, he had internally thought otherwise.

After roughly finishing up, Turan turned to Meisa, who still had a slightly dazed expression.

"Looks like it’s time for us to part ways."

"It seems so."

Unlike Meisa, who was fleeing far away, Turan and Solif planned to return to the Berk estate.

They needed to distribute the documents they had obtained to various vassal houses, stirring public outrage and preventing those in power from exerting undue pressure.

And in the worst-case scenario, if things went completely south, they had to at least ensure the Berk family could escape.

"Before you leave, we should arrange a food supply. It’ll be a while before we meet again."

"Ah…"

Hearing Turan’s words, Meisa looked slightly embarrassed as she glanced at Solif.

"Food supply?"

"As I mentioned before, Meisa has difficulty consuming food properly, so we need to help her."

"How?"

Instead of answering immediately, Turan cast a brief look at Meisa.

He considered that the process, knocking her out, inserting a tube into her throat, and feeding her directly, might be humiliating for her.

"Can I explain, Meisa? If I’m not around later, you might have to ask him for help."

Meisa let out a small groan before nodding.

After explaining the process of sedating her and inserting a tube to directly feed her stomach, Solif gaped in shock.

"…I take back what I said earlier. You’re a fucking lunatic."

*

After ensuring her last meal supply, Meisa flew south, riding a sling attached to Bije’s body.

Her destination was the hot spring region of the Siraf Wetland.

If she could establish a friendly relationship with the great monkey king Aikul under Bije’s mediation, there would be no one in the area who would dare touch her.

Besides, Rida, who frequented the region, wasn’t particularly aggressive, so there was little risk of conflict.

After secretly returning to the Berk estate, Turan reported everything that had happened to Ashiz.

Ashiz, as if struggling to withstand the pressure, sank deep into his chair and shook his head vigorously.

"You actually went through with it… So now, it’s just a battle of nerve and resolve, huh?"

"That’s right."

In a matter of days at the shortest, or a few weeks at most, House Aravion would come to learn that an unknown benefactor had helped Meisa escape.

Turan was certain that, among the potential suspects for this act, he would rank somewhere around third or fourth.

The first to third suspects would likely be Reto or other Zahar nobles.

What he needed to do now was to ensure that he was not identified as the benefactor while also protecting House Berk from facing unjust pressure.

In other words, it was a kind of show of force.

With the power Turan currently possessed, this was more than achievable, but considering the necessity of maintaining the illusion that he was of the Barrier Master Bloodline, it wouldn’t be an entirely easy task.

"Can we withstand this?"

"It’s entirely possible."

He had already ensured that the corruption of Aravion nobles was anonymously leaked to various vassal houses through couriers.

If all of them were in a state of fury, would House Aravion dare to impose excessive penalties on House Berk or attempt to destroy them?

Unless the head of House Aravion personally led an invasion, such an attempt would be utterly impossible.

And considering they lacked definitive proof that Turan was the perpetrator, it would be a reckless move to take action against him.

Several days passed, yet surprisingly, the nobles of House Aravion did not make a move, not even by the time Solif’s hand had completely healed.

Meanwhile, through Bije, who had returned, they confirmed that Meisa had safely arrived at the hot spring region.

During this period, Turan also became acquainted with Rua, the woman of the Healer Bloodline who had been treating Solif.

After learning that Turan was the financial backer covering Solif’s medical expenses, Rua proposed several plans to support the lives of commoners, to which Turan readily provided funding.

Not only was he pleased to see a shepherd tending to the flock well, but this was also a way to keep Solif’s treatment under wraps.

About a week later, the effects of the corruption documents he had secretly sent to each house began to surface.

Several vassal houses, enraged, sent a proposal to gather and march together to Morgen City in protest.

Naturally, House Berk was included, as Turan had also sent an anonymous letter to Midella, the head of the house. When the head heard that both Turan and Solif would be joining, she was visibly pleased.

In a situation where a show of force was necessary, having Turan, along with Solif, the wandering noble, even just as additional numbers held significance.

To prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, only Haram and Ashiz’s father remained at the house, while the rest of the Berk family, accompanied by dozens of knights, set out for Morgen City.

By the time they arrived, more than a dozen noble houses had already gathered.

The number of nobles alone was in the dozens, while the number of knights reached the hundreds, an overwhelming force.

The sight of them brought to mind the past dark elf subjugation force.

"The head of House Berk is here as well."

"Of course. I still cannot believe Meisa was forced to live in such a state! Just what were they thinking-"

Midella, the head of House Berk and Meisa’s grandaunt, was seething with anger, just the right presence to set the atmosphere ablaze.

As everyone awaited an official response from House Aravion, dozens of Aravion nobles approached via the main street of Morgen City.

Turan’s expression hardened as he sensed a familiar presence among them, prompting Solif to whisper beside him.

"What is it?"

"He’s here."

Badal Aravion, the head of House Aravion.

Upon hearing this, Solif clicked his tongue.

"If that bastard targets us here, we’re all dead, aren’t we?"

"No way."

Trying to abduct and interrogate Turan without a shred of evidence?

That would be equivalent to House Aravion throwing away the entire power structure it had maintained until now.

Regardless of what the head, the upper echelons, or even the gods were thinking, as long as they intended to preserve the existing order, such an action was impossible.

However, if the head of House Aravion disregarded all of that and attacked him,

'At least once, I should be able to hold him off and escape.'

If he were to face the head of the house one-on-one, there was a high likelihood that he would be killed instantly. However, here, there were dozens of nobles gathered, starting with Solif.

No matter how transcendentally powerful one might be, when faced with such numbers, some level of resistance was inevitable.

If he could withstand the initial attack and blend in with those fleeing, then escape on Bije, not even the head of House Aravion would be able to pursue him.

Bije's speed was far beyond what any human using wind magic for flight could ever hope to match.

Even with that assurance, Turan felt a cold sweat trickling down his back from the sheer tension.

No matter how certain he was of his ability to escape, it was natural to feel anxious and afraid when a predator capable of tearing him apart was right before him.

At that moment, Badal Aravion opened his aged lips and began to speak.

["My brothers, I regret that we have gathered under such unfortunate circumstances."]

Just as before, his voice carried clearly across hundreds of meters, amplified by wind magic.

As the gathered heads of houses listened, Turan subtly inched closer from behind, heightening his sensitivity to the sacred relic as much as possible, attempting to glimpse the head’s emblem.

The closer he got, the more the initially faint symbol began to take clearer shape.

A cloud infused with lightning, a symbol unique to House Aravion, and beneath it, a tightly clenched fist…

Three symbols shone brightly.