Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 77 Turan thought of Keorn—the old knight who had lost his entire family and every friend he had to the war.
A bitter taste filled his mouth as he realized the man had been betrayed in such a horrific manner by the very family he had served with unwavering pride.
No, if one were to truly count the cost, the victims were the tens of thousands who had met their ends, directly or indirectly, because of the shadow war between the two Great Houses.
While the sheepdogs and young shepherds bit and tore at each other in ignorance, the old shepherds whispered and shook hands behind their backs...
Part of him wanted to wipe out the leadership of both families entirely, but he knew his limits. No matter how powerful a mage Turan had become, if the heads of the Great Houses were "humans," he was, at best, a wildcat.
Even so, this was a massive improvement compared to the past, when he had been nothing more than an insect—or something even lesser.
Suppressing the boiling resentment within him, Turan spoke in a low voice to the collapsed Reto.
"Fine. If you answer my questions truthfully, I'll let you see Lord Talis. Who gave you your orders, and how? Who did you follow in Arabion?"
Reto looked at him with a bewildered expression.
"No, wait... did you not hear me? I told you, this is the will of the higher-ups! You dare interrogate me?"
"Answer the question."
Seeing Turan ignore her warning, Reto scanned her surroundings and grit her teeth. Her eyes flickered with the same venom as before.
"...Lord Talis! Let me see Lord Talis! I can tell him everything—"
Turan reached out and muffled Reto's mouth with one hand, while his other hand lightly pinched her forearm.
A chunk of flesh was torn away. A horrific scream echoed, stifled behind his palm.
"I'll ask again. Within the Zahar family—"
"You crazy bastard!"
Instead of reacting to the insult, Turan muffled her mouth again and tore another piece of flesh from her arm.
At the sight, not only Solif but even Meisa—who had been glaring with resentment just moments ago—turned pale. Both were heirs to Great Houses and had seen combat and killed before, but they had never seen someone systematically dismantle a defenseless human like this.
Unlike them, however, Turan felt not a single stir of emotion, even though this was the first time in his life he had performed torture. To him, Reto was a villain who had acted as the hands and feet of those old shepherds, mocking the innocent.
The moment he defined an opponent as an enemy—a wolf outside the fence—he could do anything to them without hesitation.
Of course, Reto, who was now no different from an ordinary human, could not endure such harsh treatment for long. She was soon on the verge of passing out from pain and blood loss, but Turan did not allow her even that escape.
He produced the Baraha recovery magic device.
It was an inefficient tool for the body of a high-ranking noble, but when three top-tier nobles poured their mana into it, they could compensate for that lack of efficiency. He forced medicine down the throat of the resisting, head-shaking Reto to heal her, then broke her again. He repeated this cycle several times.
Unable to watch any longer, Solif was the first to leave, muttering that he would "keep watch outside." It was too nauseating to witness, even for a man who had calmly slaughtered hundreds of pirates.
With the sound of Bije hopping around and playing on the dirt floor as background noise, Turan steadily honed his skill at torture through Reto. Using his keen sense of smell and rapid learning ability, he analyzed the scent of pain she emitted, discovering exactly where and how to stimulate her to cause the most agony.
Finally, just as Meisa began to show visible signs of exhaustion, Reto murmured with hollow eyes.
"I'll talk... No, I'll tell you. Please, please stop... Just kill me instead..."
Compared to her earlier act of wailing and crying when she first regained consciousness, she was now eerily calm. Turan brought his nose close to her throat and took a deep breath.
Amidst the thick scent of blood, he smelled fear, despair, and resignation.
*
According to the confession of the broken Reto, the person who had personally dispatched her to Arabion was Rahman, one of the candidates for the Zahar succession and a cousin of the Family Head.
Her orders were to faithfully carry out the instructions of six Arabion executives, including Kadram Arabion. Because it was a secret mission, no one in the Zahar family besides Rahman knew of it. In Arabion, only those six and their direct subordinates knew her true identity.
Surprisingly, the Head of House Arabion was not among those six, and Reto did not know whether he was aware of the collusion. The six who knew her identity treated her strictly as a maid in front of the Family Head, and the Head himself did not give her any special treatment.
"Did you ever search the Family Head's residence? It shouldn't have been difficult with your stealth abilities."
"I didn't really look. I thought knowing unnecessary things would only make it more dangerous..."
Reto confessed that she had simply performed her assigned tasks mechanically and had never tried to dig deep into those who gave her orders. To Turan, it was an absurdly passive way to live, but the world was full of such people.
After confirming she wasn't lying about only doing her chores in the residence, he turned the subject to the Family Head himself.
"What kind of person was the Family Head?"
"He just... seemed like an old man. Someone so exhausted that he had no interest in the affairs of the world..."
Meisa, listening from the side, nodded unconsciously. She had received a similar impression of her father.
Was the Family Head truly an indifferent absolute power, or was he a mastermind orchestrating everything from behind the scenes while feigning ignorance? Given Meisa's upbringing, the former was more likely, but the latter possibility couldn't be ruled out entirely.
While running various hypotheses through his mind, Turan next asked how she had managed to act as a spy for so long without being caught. A maid who never aged would naturally be suspected of being a mage.
The solution to this problem was absurdly simple.
When she first infiltrated fifteen years ago, she pretended to be twenty, and since then, she had gradually changed her makeup style to fake the aging process.
"And people believed that?"
"Yes..."
Turan splashed water on Reto's face, which was a mess of tears and blood, to wash off the makeup. Indeed, unlike before, when she looked to be in her early to mid-thirties, her face now appeared to be in its mid-twenties. To change one's face without a magic tool—it was a skill that was practically magic itself.
After a brief moment of admiration for this new fact, Turan proceeded to grill her on the crimes she had committed. These were things already hinted at in the documents of the Middle-Aged Faction nobles, but hearing the details from the perpetrator was on a different level.
As he went through the documents and had her annotate each point, the topic of Meisa's family came up.
"Those two... no, to be precise, I used poison on three people. I secretly sprinkled it on their food when they went for a picnic near the city."
"Poison?"
Turan frowned at the unexpected word. It was common knowledge that poison did not work on mages, especially nobles. A knight might die if they consumed enough poison to kill hundreds of ordinary people, but for a noble, drinking poison until their stomach burst would usually result in nothing more than a bout of diarrhea.
Unless, of course, one possessed the bloodline ability to handle poisons derived from the Night Hunters, which were said to have gone extinct in the distant past.
"Yes. I don't know where it came from, but the effect was incredible. It was enough to kill that woman, even though she was a noble, and even Lady Meisa... who already had considerable power, was in danger."
Turan narrowed his eyes at the mention of Meisa being poisoned. It seemed that was the direct cause of her eating disorder.
What he didn't understand was why they would poison someone who was supposed to become a vessel for a divine being. It was a lethal poison that had killed Meisa's mother, a noble, however weak she might have been. Either they knew for certain she wouldn't die, or they simply didn't care if she was destroyed.
"You're sure you don't know the source of the poison?"
"Yes..."
He repeatedly asked the question, checking for any signs of agitation, but he didn't get the feeling she was lying. After confirming a few more criminal acts, he finally ran out of questions.
"I think I've squeezed out everything I can... Meisa, if you wish to take your revenge, I'll step aside."
"No, that's enough."
Surprisingly, the hatred directed at Reto was no longer visible on Meisa's face.
"That woman already looks like nothing but an empty shell. And... I'm not confident I could inflict pain as precisely as you did."
Perhaps just watching Turan's torture had satisfied her desire for retribution. Meisa raised her hand, charged a small amount of electricity, and struck it down, ending Reto's life.
A moment later, Solif returned. The three of them, along with the golden eagle, absorbed the dead woman's mana and sent her soul on its way. After erasing every last trace, Solif spoke up in the somewhat awkward silence.
"About the torture. Didn't it feel... unsettling?"
"Not really. It was something that had to be done anyway."
Solif opened his mouth to respond but then simply shook his head.
"They say the desert nobles are cold-blooded, and I guess it wasn't just talk... Well, fine. Being cruel to enemies is a necessary virtue. As long as you're a good guy to our side, that's all that matters."
His muttering tone sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than speaking to someone else. In truth, Turan knew his personality wasn't exactly normal. An ordinary person couldn't become this desensitized just by defining someone as an enemy. This was why, in the past, when Keorn had praised him as a good person, he had inwardly disagreed.
Once they finished cleaning up, Turan spoke to Meisa, who wore a dazed expression.
"Then, it's time to part ways."
"I suppose 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 families to incite public outrage and prevent them from exerting unfair pressure. At the very least, they had to ensure the Berk family could escape if things took a turn for the absolute worst.
"Before we go, it would be best to supply you with food. It will be a while before we meet again."
"Ah..."
Hearing Turan's words, Meisa looked at Solif with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"Food supply?" Solif asked.
"As I mentioned before, Lady Meisa has difficulty consuming food, so I have to help her."
"How?"
Instead of answering the question directly, Turan glanced at Meisa. He considered that the act of knocking her unconscious and inserting a tube into her throat to inject food might be perceived as shameful.
"May I tell him, Meisa? I might have to ask him for help later if I'm not around."
Meisa let out a small groan at Turan's words, then eventually nodded. When he explained the method of knocking her out and injecting food into her stomach through a tube, Solif's jaw dropped.
"...I take back what I said earlier. You really are a crazy bastard."
*
After the final food supply, Meisa flew south, riding in the swing hanging from Bije's body. Her destination was the hot springs of the Siraf Wetlands. With Bije acting as a mediator, if she could establish a friendly relationship with the Monkey King, Icool, there would be nothing in the vicinity capable of touching her. Lida, who frequented the area, wasn't particularly bellicose anyway, so there was little worry of a fight breaking out.
After secretly returning to the Berk estate, Turan informed Asiz of everything that had happened. Asiz buried himself deep in his chair and shook his head vigorously, as if trying to withstand the pressure.
"You really went and did it... So, from now on, it's a game of chicken?"
"Exactly."
Within a few days, or weeks at most, Arabion would realize there was a mysterious helper who had aided Meisa's escape. Turan guessed he would be the third or fourth most likely suspect. The first through third would likely be Reto or other Zahar nobles.
What he had to do now was signal that he wasn't the helper while simultaneously protecting the Berk family from unfair pressure. In a sense, it was a show of force. With the power Turan currently possessed, it was entirely possible, but considering the restriction that he had to pretend to be of the Barrier Master bloodline, it wasn't exactly easy.
"Can we endure it?"
"It's more than possible."
He had already arranged for the corruption of the Arabion nobles to be anonymously delivered to each vassal family via couriers. With everyone in a state of fury, would they dare to impose excessive disadvantages on the Berk family or try to destroy them? That was impossible unless the Head of House Arabion himself came to attack. Without certainty that Turan was the perpetrator, the cost of such an action would far outweigh the benefits.
A few days passed. Surprisingly, the Arabion nobles did not attack, even by the time Solif's hand was completely healed. While confirming through the returned Bije that Meisa had safely arrived at the hot springs, Turan also became acquainted with Lua, the woman of the Purifier bloodline who had been treating Solif.
Knowing that Turan was the benefactor paying for Solif's treatment, she proposed several plans to support the lives of commoners, and Turan provided the funds without hesitation. He was pleased by the sight of a shepherd taking good care of the lambs, and it also served as hush money for Solif's treatment.
When another week had passed, the effect of the corruption documents sent to each family began to manifest. Several vassal families, incensed by the revelations, sent proposals to head to Morgen City together to protest.
Naturally, Turan had also sent an anonymous letter to House Head Midella, so the Berk family joined the movement. The House Head expressed joy when Turan and Solif announced they would accompany them. In a situation where a show of force was needed, not only Turan but even Solif—who was known as a wandering noble—was meaningful just by adding to their numbers.
Leaving only Haram and Asiz's father behind to guard the estate just in case, the Berk family headed to Morgen City with dozens of knights. Over a dozen noble families had already gathered there. It was a massive force, with dozens of nobles and hundreds of knights. The sight was reminiscent of the previous Dark Elf Subjugation squad.
"The Berk House Head has arrived as well."
"Of course. I couldn't believe Meisa was living in such a state! What on earth were they thinking—"
The fury of Midella, the Berk House Head and Meisa's great-aunt, was perfect for heating up the atmosphere. While everyone waited for Arabion's official response, dozens of Arabion nobles approached through the main street of Morgen City.
As Turan's face hardened at the presence he felt among them, Solif, standing beside him, whispered.
"What is it?"
"He's here."
The Head of House Arabion, Badal Arabion.
When Turan announced his arrival, Solif clicked his tongue. "If that man targets us here, aren't we all dead?"
"Hardly."
Would he try to drag them away for investigation without a single shred of evidence that Turan was the culprit? That would be an act of throwing away the vested interests Arabion had maintained until now. It meant that no matter what the Family Head, the leadership, or the divine being were thinking, as long as they intended to maintain the existing order, they couldn't commit such an act.
Even so, if the Arabion Family Head ignored all this and attacked him—
I should be able to block it once and escape.
If he faced the Family Head one-on-one, there was a high probability he would be killed instantly, but dozens of nobles were gathered here, starting with Solif. No matter how transcendentally powerful one was, a group of this size was bound to have some level of resistance. If he blended in with those fleeing after the attack and flew away on Bije, not even the Arabion Family Head could catch him. Bije's speed was something a human using wind magic could never hope to match.
Despite thinking this, Turan felt cold sweat running down his back from the tension. Even if one is certain they can escape, it is only natural to feel anxious and fearful when a predator capable of tearing them apart stands right before them.
Then, Badal Arabion opened his wrinkled mouth to speak.
["My brothers, I regret that we have gathered under such unfortunate circumstances."]
As before, the Family Head's words were clearly transmitted for hundreds of meters in all directions through wind magic. Turan slowly closed the distance from behind the gathered House Heads, activating the senses of his relic to the maximum, struggling to peer into the Family Head's symbols.
As he drew closer, the symbols that were initially blurry began to grow distinct.
The clouds imbued with Arabion's characteristic lightning, and beneath them, a tightly clenched fist...
Three types of symbols were shining brightly.
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