Chapter 89

Back when Turan was aboard the Blue Marlin and encountered a storm, he had to exhaust himself to save the ship from danger.

He had to take care of the sailors who were being tossed around by the wind and waves, warm their bodies with heat, and control the balance of the massive sailing ship.

Compared to that time, the conditions were much better now.

First, the size and weight of the ship he had to protect were only a fraction of what it had been before, and his magic power had increased several times over.

Above all, unlike before, where he had to protect the sailors, this time he had two wizards of equal or greater ability onboard, making a storm like this nothing to fear.

The problem was that this storm was far more intense than the one back then.

“Wow, I thought I was going to die…”

“Stop exaggerating."

After the storm had passed, Turan and his companions lay sprawled across the deck, groaning without exception.

Whenever waves several meters high crashed in, they had to use Telekinesis Magic to hold the ship steady and prevent it from capsizing.

When waves over ten meters tall approached, they had to split them with the ship’s bow and sail through.

When the wind became too strong and tilted the ship, they had to continuously counter it with Wind Magic to keep balance.

After doing this nonstop all day, not only was their magic power drained, but the excessive focus had also left their heads throbbing.

Turan was certain that if the Blue Marlin had faced this storm, it would have sunk long ago.

He would have been left floating in the sea, waiting for someone to rescue him or swimming to the nearest shore himself.

[Are you exhausted?]

“Quite… What about you? You were flying all day.”

[Yep! I’m perfectly fine!]

Bije, who had stayed in the air to avoid the storm, looked just as energetic as the way she wrote.

Carrying multiple people and flying long distances was exhausting, but spending time gliding at high altitudes seemed to be nothing for this Golden Eagle magical beast.

Bije pecked at the deck with her talons as she wrote.

[Should I carry this ship?]

“That’s impossible, no matter what. But I appreciate the thought.”

No matter how powerful Bije was, carrying a ship that was thousands of times her weight would make flying impossible.

After chatting with Bije and recovering some energy, Turan got up, only to burst into laughter at the sight of the other two.

“What?”

“You two look terrible… I probably look the same.”

Having spent the entire storm on deck adjusting the ship with magic, they were all drenched and looked like soaked rats.

To make it worse, both of them were sprawled out on the deck, utterly drained, making the sight all the more amusing.

While Solif, as if saying so what, simply rested his head back on the deck, Meisa quickly sat up and fixed her hair upon hearing Turan’s comment.

After regaining their strength, they took turns washing up below deck, eating, and taking care of necessities before checking if there were any nearby islands.

It was hard to tell how far they had drifted from their intended destination during the storm.

After scouting the surroundings, Bije reported that there was a fairly large island to the east, so they immediately steered the ship in that direction.

However, when the island finally came into view, Turan let out a short laugh.

“What is it?”

“I just can’t believe we ended up right where we needed to be.”

Of course, since they had originally been headed in this direction before encountering the storm, it wasn’t entirely a coincidence, but it was still a stroke of luck.

The place where Turan and his companions arrived was Migel Island, their first intended destination.

*

The scenery of Migel Island, which he was visiting again after several months, remained unchanged.

The spacious harbor was packed with merchant ships, drunken sailors brawled in the streets, and prostitutes flirted with them, trying to entice potential customers.

The only difference was that, unlike before when it was winter, it was now the height of summer, so people’s clothing had become much lighter.

As they docked the ship and spoke with the harbor official, he let out an exclamation upon seeing the fishing boat they had arrived on.

“You came all the way from the continent on that? Ha, for ordinary folks like us, even with ten lives, we wouldn’t dare attempt such a thing… Truly impressive.”

At a glance, their appearance was undeniably refined, and the fact that they had reached an island in the middle of the North Sea on such a small boat gave the harbor official a rough idea of Turan’s group’s status. Because of this, he remained excessively deferential.

Turan nodded and asked what he had been curious about.

“I figured the storm this time was no joke. It’s not usually this bad, is it?”

“There’s been a lot of talk lately about the weather worsening. On top of that, the mermaids have been more aggressive than before, so fewer ships are choosing to take routes through this area.”

Hearing this, Turan looked around the harbor again and indeed felt that it seemed slightly less lively than before.

It was still bustling, but there was an unmistakable sense of emptiness.

After completing the entry procedures, Turan’s group decided to rest for a while at an inn within the island.

As they walked through the streets, a sailor with a flushed face spotted Meisa and called out to her.

“Hey there, beauty. How much for a night? I can pay up to five silver coi-ugh!”

The hand that had been reaching out toward her chest with ease suddenly made a loud cracking sound as it bent at an unnatural angle.

Meisa had only reacted instinctively with a flick of her hand, but she briefly looked surprised before her face hardened, and she coldly snapped at him.

“Go to hell!”

“Th-this crazy bitch hit meeee-!”

Turan sighed lightly as he saw the sailor’s comrades rushing toward them with angry faces. Just like before, he casually flicked his fingers, igniting a small flame.

Naturally, upon seeing this, the sailors froze in place as if they had turned to stone.

“S-sorry! We were wrong!”

As the sailors turned and fled in a panic, Turan let out a quiet scoff and glanced around. He quickly noticed that quite a few people had been watching the scene.

Thanks to this, the rumor that wizards had arrived on the island was sure to spread quickly.

Turan turned to Meisa, who was still staring at the hand she had used to strike the sailor.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… It just feels way worse than I expected to be looked at like that.”

Of course, Meisa had never experienced such vulgar advances before.

Not only was she the heir to House Aravion, but her appearance had also never been particularly considered attractive.

The closest thing might have been when House Baltas had proposed marriage, but even that had been handled far more respectfully than this.

After briefly consoling her as she processed her discomfort and confusion, Turan’s group secured a good inn and spent the next day and a half idling around, recovering from the exhaustion of their intense voyage.

The next day, Turan led his companions to the best tavern on Migel Island, a place he had visited on a previous trip.

While the inn’s restaurant was decent, he knew from experience that the food and drinks at the tavern were much better.

In particular, since Meisa could still only eat about a handful of food per meal, he wanted to make sure she had something delicious.

“Welcome, guests. Is there anything you’re looking for?”

Because the gatekeeper from last time had failed to recognize him and had needed a firm lesson, the server’s attitude was now nothing but polite.

Turan ordered the same as before, ham, dates, and other side dishes, along with a distilled liquor made from wheat.

As they eased their fatigue from the voyage with good food and drinks, they casually discussed their next steps.

“Still, the Magical Beast hunt hasn’t been going as well as expected.”

“Honestly, I thought we’d find at least one pretty quickly.”

Turan shook his head at their comments.

“Well, we just have to be patient and keep looking. We might even need to stay here for a few years. Otherwise, we’ll have to explore other regions.”

“Honestly, I think that place would’ve been fine too. You know, Sky Mountain Range? The western side of it.”

Back when they had left House Nagin’s territory, one of Solif’s suggestions had been to travel beyond the Sky Mountain Range, which marked the world’s western boundary.

With Bije on their side, the high mountains wouldn’t have been an obstacle at all.

Even though it had been a tempting option, Turan had ultimately rejected it and chosen to head east for two major reasons.

The first was that even scholars had no idea what lay beyond that range, as no one who had ventured there had ever returned.

They were an exceptionally powerful group of wizards, but for a place to be so utterly unknown, it was easy to assume that it harbored unforeseen dangers.

And the second reason was,

“You were the one who wanted to see the remains of a god here in the first place.”

"Ah, right."

“We came all this way partly because of that, and now you’ve forgotten?”

At Turan’s remark, Solif let out a foolish chuckle and nodded absentmindedly.

At that moment, someone approached their table and bowed respectfully.

“Pardon me, esteemed guests. The master of this island wishes to meet with you. Would you be willing to spare a moment of your time?”

Surprisingly, the one who spoke so politely was a middle-aged man who appeared to be the tavern’s manager.

Meisa and Solif turned to Turan and asked,

“The master of the island?”

“Do you know who it is?”

“No.”

From what Pires, the captain of the Blue Marlin, had mentioned before, Migel Island’s owner was a fairly skilled wizard.

Turan recalled hearing the name once, but it didn’t stick in his memory.

However, even when he expanded his Sacred Relic’s detection range, he didn’t sense the presence of any particularly powerful wizard.

The only notable presences he detected were a few knights who were likely employed as guards for the island’s owner.

Of course, considering the island was several kilometers wide, it was more likely that the wizard was simply beyond his detection range…

“I’d prefer if they came to us instead.”

At Turan’s words, the manager’s brow twitched slightly, but he quickly bowed his head slightly.

“Understood.”

After the man left, Solif immediately asked,

“Did something happen last time you were here?”

“Nothing comes to mind. I just sold off a pirate ship here.”

“You sold a pirate ship?”

“I never told you?”

As Turan casually recounted the story of taking down pirates and seizing their ship over drinks, he suddenly stopped speaking, sensing something approaching from nearby.

He immediately stood up.

“Let’s go.”

The other two didn’t bother asking why. From experience, they knew that when Turan acted like this, there was always a reason.

They tossed a few coins on the table to cover their food and drinks before heading out of the tavern, making their way toward a more secluded part of town.

By the time they reached a deserted alleyway, two hooded figures stood in their path.

"What's this?"

Solif looked at them with an expression of disbelief.

It was understandable, given that it was already early summer, wearing a deep hood like that only made them look suspicious.

Most sailors were walking around shirtless in this heat, yet here were these two, completely covered up.

Turan observed them for a moment before pointing at the smaller figure.

“Armania?”

“…How did you recognize me?”

The Merfolk Prince, Armania, looked startled as he threw back his hood and exclaimed.

Turan answered simply.

“Just a feeling.”

Of course, the real reason he had recognized him so quickly was due to his Sacred Relic’s sensory ability.

The webbed ears, the faint blue glow spreading along his gills, it was the same distinct presence he had sensed before when encountering a merfolk.

At first, he had been startled to sense a merfolk’s presence right in the middle of the island, but Armania’s height and build were almost identical to what he remembered. That made it easy to guess it was him.

The only difference was the energy within his body, their equivalent of Magic Power, which had grown significantly stronger since last time.

It seemed that merfolk, too, became more powerful with age.

“O-oh, it’s been a while, kind-hearted devil.”

“That damn kind-hearted devil again… Yeah, good to see you too.”

However, the real reason Turan had hurried his companions outside wasn’t because of Armania.

Rather, it was because of the person standing beside the young merfolk.

Or more accurately, it was because of the merfolk standing next to him.

“So, is this your brother? Or your sister?”

“You must be the one who saved my little brother… and the one who took the devils’ treasure.”

She answered his question with another question, removing her hood to reveal a mermaid woman who appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties.

Within her body, a much fiercer glow burned compared to Armania’s.

It was clear she was a member of the merfolk royal family, one of considerable rank.

Turan responded to her question with another of his own.

“So, removing your hood was your answer?”

“Let’s say it was.”

“Then I suppose my answer was already given in my conversation with that kid just now.”

Though the conversation was far too tense for one between someone and their younger sibling’s benefactor, this degree of distance was appropriate between different species.

After all, merfolk had a long-standing reputation as a notorious species that had hunted and devoured humans along the coast for centuries.

Perhaps aware of this, the mermaid princess did not criticize him for his words.

“Rowena.”

“Turan. More importantly, the tavern manager earlier mentioned the master of this island. Is the ruler of this place perhaps a subordinate of the merfolk?"

“Something like that. Do you really think a place like this could exist without our permission? It would have quickly become a feeding ground for the lower-class ones.”

By lower-class ones, she was clearly referring to the common merfolk who attacked and ate humans.

Turan nodded slightly and asked in a quiet voice,

“Thanks for the useful information. So, why did you call us here?”

“The item you took.”

Unexpectedly, Rowena pointed precisely at the Mimic Relic hanging around Turan’s neck.

There was no way it was visible under his clothes, yet she had identified it without hesitation.

“I have come to reclaim it.”

At her words, a chilling silence fell over the alley.

Naturally, the Mimic Relic was one of Turan’s most valuable assets, so demanding its return was out of the question.

Moreover, she hadn’t even offered any compensation, she was simply declaring that she would reclaim it, as if it were a matter of course.

Sensing the battle-ready tension in their eyes, Rowena, too, shifted into a stance prepared for combat.

Just then, Armania hurriedly spread his arms and stepped between them.

“W-wait! Sister! You’re stating only the demand! Let me explain properly!”

“There’s no need for further explanation.”

“Turan is a kind-hearted devil! That relic was my life’s reward! If you want to take it back, you should explain the reason properly!”

Rowena looked displeased, but after a short snort, she gave a small nod.

Armania quickly bowed his head toward Turan’s group.

“I’m sorry…”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for. At least not yet. So, what’s going on?”

Rowena seemed to believe she could simply take the relic by force, but in reality, Turan’s group held the overwhelming advantage in terms of strength.

The Magic Power emanating from the mermaid was high-tier even among noble-class beings, but it was still a step below Turan’s level.

In that sense, the fact that they were even entertaining a conversation could be seen as an act of mercy on their part.

The only potential variable was that merfolk tended to be significantly stronger than wizards of equivalent power.

Completely unaware of this consideration, Armania seemed rather proud of himself, as if he had just prevented a major fight.

Then, he dropped a shocking statement.

“Well… after the item you took disappeared, the Great Sea Serpent came back to life.”

“…What? You mean the one that was there?”

“That’s right.”

Turan still remembered the overwhelming presence of that mythically colossal creature slumbering in the depths of the sea.

A massive serpent, easily a hundred meters long…

If that monster, which had once stood on equal footing with the Preah God Tribe in ancient times, were to come back to life, nothing in the modern era would be able to oppose it.

Hadn’t Ymir said that even the gods of today would be powerless the moment a true ancient god returned?

When Turan glanced at Meisa and Solif, he saw that they, too, were wearing expressions of shock, clearly thinking the same thing.

Seeing this, Armania hurriedly added,

“No, not completely revived! I mean… it’s more like it became something between an Undead Spirit and nature spirit, something that died and came back to life.”

"Between undead and nature spirits?"

“Yes.”

Armania continued explaining.

Not long after Turan took the Sacred Relic, the body of the Great Sea Serpent, which had been nothing but a corpse, began to move again.

It had turned into something akin to an Undead Spirit and started rampaging through the ocean.

And amidst its rampage, it fused with a Storm Spirit, gaining the power to disrupt the weather across the North Sea.

“A Storm Spirit?”

“Yes. In any case, we merfolk have a duty to subdue any being that throws the sea into chaos. And according to my father, the king, the only way to put it to rest is with the item you took.”

However, the only one who had seen Turan’s face was Armania, and no one knew where he had gone.

So for months, the merfolk royal family had been secretly infiltrating various islands in the North Sea, waiting for someone who matched Turan’s description to appear.

Then, when news of the commotion Turan’s group caused spread, they had immediately rushed over.

“So that’s what happened.”

“Yes! So please, return that item. It is essential for restoring peace to the sea! If it causes you any loss, I will personally ask my father to compensate you with a similar relic!”

At Armania’s desperate plea, Turan exchanged glances with his companions, silently discussing their thoughts.

Then, he firmly declared,

“That’s not happening.”