"Haaa…" Nemesio exhaled, easing himself deeper into the warmth of the spring as the tension in his shoulders loosened slightly.
"No place like Swan Spring."
Jurgen followed without comment. He lowered himself into the water and settled near the far edge, where the stone wall met the surface.
The heat wrapped around him, but his posture did not change. His head remained slightly bowed, gaze unfocused, still caught in his thoughts.
Nemesio noticed.
Between them, the surface of the water shifted subtly at first. A faint distortion spread across it before it suddenly surged upward. A swell formed without warning and crashed toward Jurgen like a rising wave, abrupt and controlled rather than natural.
"…What the—?!"
The water hit him directly, swallowing him in a single motion.
A loud, unrestrained laugh echoed across the spring as the surface quickly settled again, ripples spreading outward in widening circles.
"Don't think too much, kid," Nemesio said lightly, leaning back as if nothing had happened. "Advice is only useful in moderation."
Jurgen resurfaced slowly, wiping water from his face. His wet hair was pushed back as his eyes narrowed with restrained annoyance.
"You control water?" he asked, reluctantly.
Nemesio tilted his head slightly. His expression remained mild, almost indifferent.
"Is that a problem?"
"Not really…" Jurgen replied, leaning back against the stone edge. His arms rested loosely as he exhaled, gaze drifting upward. "Just didn't expect an emperor of your status to rely on something so… basic, I guess."
A brief pause followed.
"…Besides, that's not what you showed back at the ridge," he added, recalling the ray of energy that had descended then.
Nemesio gave another quiet laugh, softer this time, as if entertained by the comparison.
"Basic?"
The air around him shifted subtly.
"There are elemental users so overwhelming," he said calmly, his voice steady and unhurried, "you wouldn't even be able to remain conscious in their presence."
A short silence followed, broken only by a controlled breath.
"I wouldn't underestimate them."
The water around Nemesio shifted again, subtle and deliberate, responding not to movement but to intent. His gaze stayed forward, unbothered, as though the surface itself was reacting to thought.
"And no… I'm not an elemental user."
His voice lowered slightly as his hand lifted in a faint, almost absent gesture.
"How do I put it… I have the ability of absolute control over anything within my domain."
A quiet ripple spread outward from him, smooth and contained, moving across the spring without disrupting it — more demonstration than force.
"And even with that…" he exhaled lightly, something restrained beneath his tone, "I'm nowhere near defeating old man Jova."
A soft, unforced laugh followed.
"He's in a league of his own."
"Absolute control, huh?" Jurgen said after a moment, his voice low and deliberate. He drew the words out slightly, as if weighing them rather than simply repeating them.
"Sounds ridiculously broken… an ability worthy of an emperor."
Nemesio glanced at him briefly, expression still composed, though faintly amused.
"Broken is one way to describe it," he replied evenly. "But a broken power as you say — without limits often turns its greatest strength into its greatest flaw. What looks like total control can easily become indiscriminate rather than precise."
The water around him shifted again, subtle, deliberate, almost loquacious in the way it responded, as though it were participating in thought rather than obeying it.
Jurgen observed it in silence, his earlier irritation now tempered by reluctant attention.
"Speaking of abilities…" Jurgen shifted slightly, his tone steady but probing.
"Who exactly is this 'old man Jova'?" A brief pause lingered before he continued, his voice sharpening just a little. "And how the hell does he beat something like that?"
He exhaled slowly after speaking, as if weighing the logic of it himself.
"I don't see you losing to anyone."
The statement carried a quiet conviction, not as praise, but as a firm assumption that resisted contradiction.
"Mhm. JOVATIS TRUEMANN."
Nemesio exhaled the name like something drawn from memory rather than simply spoken. At the same time, the air behind him subtly shifted.
From that distortion, a pair of hands manifested from nothingness — extending from the elbows downward and settled calmly onto his shoulders. They began a gentle massage, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Jurgen jolted with a startled sound, recoiling with a small jump. A hand appearing out of nowhere was not something he could easily ignore.
Nemesio, however, remained composed, a faint smile still present.
"Technically, you've already met him," he said evenly.
"He was that old man outside the hall yesterday."
Jurgen blinked. There was no immediate recognition, as expected.
"The one with the rough beard."
"Who?"
Nemesio's brow twitched faintly, a controlled irritation surfacing.
"The one with that absurd laugh, the one that carried through the entire area."
Jurgen tilted his head, thinking. His hand rose to his jaw, stroking it slowly, a habit he seemed to rely on when trying to retrieve memory.
"Hmmm… yeah, I remember the laugh. What was he wearing?"
A brief silence followed.
A vein pulsed faintly at Nemesio's temple, his frustration contained but visible. In that moment, he seemed to understand Leonidas' reaction far more clearly.
He exhaled, regaining composure with deliberate restraint. For all his authority, there was no reason to lose it here.
Over the next few minutes, Nemesio described the man in precise, painstaking detail.
Jurgen listened, gradually assembling the memory piece by piece.
"Ohhh…"
He snapped his fingers once, recognition finally settling in. He had remembered the old man with that laugh just before he had passed out.
"That cheeky old man."
A soft chuckle escaped him.
"Mhm… yes, that's the one," Nemesio replied, his expression flat, almost exhausted, as though the level of detail required had drained something more than patience.
"Anyway, he's known as the strongest man in the entire Northern region… an absolute monster."
"What… I thought you were the strongest?" Jurgen asked, eyebrows lifting slightly.
"Yeah… well, he's stronger. I told you that a minute ago," Nemesio replied, his tone calm, though carrying a faint sense of pride rather than discomfort.
"He's one of the four pillars that stabilize and maintain the world's power structure."
Jurgen blinked slowly. "Four pillars… huh?" His gaze drifted for a moment as he processed that.
"And he just… casually sits among everyone else?" He paused, hand resting against his jaw in thought.
Logically, someone stronger than Nemesio should have been something far removed from ordinary presence, something distinctly exceptional.
Even without fully knowing Nemesio's limits, what he had seen at the ridge was enough to label him as overwhelmingly powerful. And yet, there was someone above that.
"I mean…"
"You mean he's too powerful to be among us? Exactly," Nemesio said with a slight smirk, cutting in before the thought fully formed.
"You already look at him like some sort of god, but he doesn't see himself that way. He has a purpose for which he wields that power."