Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79 After the embrace ended, an awkward silence lingered between the three of them for a moment before they decided to wash away the fatigue of their long journey.
While Meisa looked after Bije, Turan soaked in the hot springs with Solif.
"Ah, this is incredible… though it would've been even better if it were just a bit hotter."
They were in the hottest pool in the entire district—the same one Turan had visited with Lida in the past—but even this didn't seem to satisfy Solif. Then again, one of the two bloodlines latent in his body commanded the power of fire. Just as Turan was born with exceptional reflexes and a supernatural sense of smell, Solif possessed the ability to perceive various spectrums of light and a natural resistance to heat.
Of course, it wasn't absolute immunity, as evidenced by the fact that the Baraha nobles had been injured by the explosion back in the city.
As Turan sat with his eyes closed, savoring the warmth, Solif spoke up in a low voice.
"Hey, Turan."
"What?"
"That lady… isn't she completely head-over-heels for you?"
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"You can tell just by her attitude earlier! Then again, if a man turned an entire Great Family upside down just to save me, I'd probably fall for him too, even if I were a woman."
"I doubt that's the case."
According to Turan's experience, the body of someone feeling so-called 'love' gave off a scent similar to a beast in heat. However, Turan had never once caught that kind of scent from Meisa. Even during their embrace, he had only sensed a complex mixture of joy and sorrow.
Unaware of this, Solif gave a sly, knowing grin.
"Come on, don't be so stiff. You took that risk because you were interested in her too, didn't you?"
"I took the risk of offending the Baraha family to save you, too. You're not suggesting I did that because I'm interested in you, are you?"
"No, well, that's hardly the same thing…."
Solif clicked his tongue at Turan's retort, looking exasperated, before quickly changing the subject.
"At the very least, you should speak more comfortably with her. All three of us are similar in status, skill, and even age. It's awkward for me when you two keep using formal honorifics."
"I don't know about the rest, but saying we're similar in age seems a bit shameless."
Turan was nineteen and Meisa was twenty-two, whereas Solif was fifty-eight—nearly three times their age. Of course, considering that high-ranking nobles could live for nearly four hundred years, they weren't so far apart that they couldn't be considered part of the same generation.
Faced with this valid point, Solif suddenly flared up.
"If you're going to treat me like an old man, then at least show me the respect due to an elder!"
*
After finishing their bath, the two men dried off and went their separate ways to attend to their respective tasks. Turan gave Solif one last piece of advice as he departed.
"As I've already said, you must never hunt the monkeys here. They are all Icool's family."
"I get it, I get it. I'll even save any monkeys I see in trouble, so stop worrying."
Watching Solif wave his hand dismissively and walk away, Turan sharpened his senses and headed off to find Meisa. He planned to administer her "meal" while Solif was busy finding a catch for their dinner. He suspected she felt embarrassed about having others witness the nutritional infusion process.
Before long, Turan reached Meisa's location but stopped in his tracks at the unexpected sight. She was sitting with Bije on her lap, meticulously massaging the bird's wing joints.
"How's this? Does it feel good?"
Bije chirped and stretched out one leg, scratching words into the dirt: 'Good' and 'A bit more to the right.'
Because Bije lacked developed facial muscles, the bird couldn't make rich expressions like a human, but the half-lidded, blissful look in its eyes made it clear how much it was enjoying the treatment. After massaging for a few more minutes, Meisa patted Bije's wing and stood up.
"Alright, that's enough for now!"
[More!]
"Later, I'll do it later. Or ask Icool to do it."
[He's an idiot, he can't do it! He's too strong and his fingers are too thick!]
Bije stomped its feet, demanding she look at the writing on the ground. Usually, Bije only acted this whiny in front of Turan, but it seemed the bird had grown much closer to Meisa in the meantime.
Then again, wasn't she also someone who "fit" the bloodline, just like Turan? Judging by the immediate favor Bije had shown Turan when they first met, there was clearly a special bond between a magical beast and a person connected by bloodline.
As he watched them, a thought occurred to Turan.
If Meisa were to take over my soul contract, would she be able to use wind magic?
He had no intention of abandoning Bije, but there was no guarantee that circumstances wouldn't force such a situation. For instance, if he found a magical beast that "fit" the Zahar bloodline but his soul lacked the capacity to hold both at once, or if he were to meet with an untimely accident….
While he was lost in these idle thoughts, Meisa finished coaxing the pouting Bije and sent the bird flying toward Icool before greeting him.
"You must be finished washing."
"Ah, yes."
After replying, Turan remembered his conversation with Solif and spoke up immediately.
"Let's speak more comfortably with each other from now on. We're companions, after all. I already speak without formalities with Solif."
It hadn't felt this way when he started speaking casually with Asiz, but for some reason, suggesting he and Meisa drop the formalities felt awkward.
"Pardon? Oh, yes… right. I understand. Turan."
Meisa seemed to feel the same way, accepting the suggestion with a strangely hesitant expression. Turan forced himself to ignore the atmosphere and got straight to the point.
"Solif will be preparing dinner soon, so I thought it would be best to infuse your nourishment before then. You haven't been able to eat anything since we left, right?"
"…Yeah. I tried, but it's still not working."
Turan could read the self-loathing on Meisa's face. He guessed it was likely anger at her own perceived weakness—an inability to overcome her psychological trauma. Instead of telling her to start the infusion right away, Turan placed a hand on Meisa's shoulder and spoke calmly.
"I don't know exactly how you feel. I've never experienced the agony of being unable to swallow food. But Reto is dead, and as long as I'm by your side, no Zahar noble can ever approach you in secret."
During his interrogation of Reto, Turan had managed to piece together the reason for Meisa's eating disorder. It was likely because the memory of being poisoned alongside her mother and younger brother remained a vivid trauma. Turan tried to reassure her by telling her that the one who had poisoned her was dead, and that he could prevent anyone else from attempting something similar.
However, instead of thanking him, Meisa let out a low groan and shook her head.
"It's… actually, it's not because I'm afraid of being poisoned."
"Then why?"
Turan asked instinctively, though he didn't expect an answer. Meisa had always been reluctant to speak about that day. But perhaps because the distance between them had narrowed slightly, she hesitated for a moment before blurting it out.
"Because… I feel so cowardly."
Turan didn't press her; he simply remained silent. He had a feeling she would explain the reason herself. As expected, Meisa immediately began to recount the events of the past.
Ten years ago, the three of them had gone on a picnic to a scenic hill near Morgen City. However, while eating their lunch, they were suddenly struck by abdominal pain. Her younger brother, who had not yet awakened his mana, was the first to deteriorate.
What saved him was a recovery magic tool possessed by Meisa, who was already considered the heir despite her young age. Though it lacked the function to remove poison—making it like pouring water into a broken jar—it was enough to keep him from dying immediately even as he bled from his entire body.
The problem was that in the meantime, her mother, who only had the mana of a low-ranking noble, and Meisa herself were succumbing to the poison. While her mother and brother pleaded with Meisa to save them, all she could do was weep tears of blood as she desperately alternated the healing tool between them to delay their deaths.
To make matters worse, the knights who should have been nearby for protection had vanished. Meisa was unable to call for help, forced to cling to the magic tool. Her mother and brother crying out for her to save them through their bloody tears, the agonizing pain of the poison burning through her body, her mana slowly running dry….
"In the end, I used the last of my mana to heal myself. I was scared. I thought if I kept healing them, I would die too. If I had just pushed a little harder, I might have been able to save everyone."
Meisa hung her head as if she were a criminal, her reddish-brown hair veiling her face.
Having heard the whole story, Turan realized he had completely misjudged the cause of her eating disorder. The wound deep within her wasn't a fear of death, but the guilt of having survived by abandoning her family.
What would be the right thing to say? After briefly considering several responses, Turan comforted Meisa by revealing his honest, uncalculated thoughts.
"I don't know if my words will be any comfort, but you did nothing wrong. No one can demand a twelve-year-old child sacrifice themselves to save their family. No one can blame you. Not even the family members who were lost."
Coincidentally, Turan had also been exactly twelve years old when he lost his mother and went to war with the village. Remembering how young and easily frightened he had been back then, he couldn't dare to call her actions cowardly.
Upon hearing this, Meisa remained hidden behind her hair and sobbed.
*
After a brief period of mourning, Meisa gathered her courage and tried to eat a piece of bread on her own, but she ended up vomiting it back up. She was eventually infused with nourishment while unconscious, just as before.
Later, after finishing a meal of roasted rabbit prepared by Solif, Turan suggested they gather to analyze their current situation and discuss their future course of action. The first topic was the four symbols they had seen on the body of Badal, the Head of House Arabion, back in Morgen City.
"Four bloodline abilities…."
"It's likely wind, lightning, physical strength, and enchantment."
"Then does that mean the Thunder Lord is dwelling within the Head of House Arabion? Oh, wait a minute." Solif glanced at Meisa as he spoke. "I don't know their god very well, but the Thunder Lord was definitely a man, right?"
"That's right. I mean… yeah, he was." She had agreed to speak comfortably with Solif as well, but she still didn't seem quite used to it.
"Then that means he was planning to switch to a woman's body later? Just imagining myself becoming a woman is terrifying, but he's quite something. In many ways."
"Maybe after living so long, he stopped caring about such things. It's not like House Arabion hasn't had female heads before. Or maybe it's not the Thunder Lord himself at all."
The two of them widened their eyes at Turan's hypothesis.
"Not himself?"
"I mean, because the body he's wearing belongs to the Arabion bloodline, he might just be using the abilities of the Thunder Lord, which are relatively close, while the soul itself could be a different god. After all, the Enchanter bloodline has a much more famous ancestor."
"The Lame Goddess…." The name of the goddess who had created the Library of Orem, the roads of the Old Empire, and various other relics escaped Meisa's lips.
"It's also suspicious that the fourth bloodline added when he finally stepped forward was enchantment. It's possible that the Head's own ego is usually on the surface, and the god's ego only manifests when using power. He felt different when he was standing back compared to when he stepped forward."
"True. He did seem like a completely different person. Wait, then does that mean a woman was wearing a man's body? This is, in its own way…."
Solif, who had been agreeing, seemed to get stuck on a strange point and spent a long time muttering about whether it would be weirder for a god dwelling in the Arabion Head's body to be a man or a woman.
Turan lightly tapped a rock to regain their attention and drew a conclusion.
"The silver lining is that the Head can't wield his power freely. If he could, he wouldn't have sent a proxy in the first place."
This meant that even if the three of them couldn't become as strong as Badal, they could still win if they secured enough skill to simply hold their own. Then, Meisa turned to Solif and asked.
"The ancestor of Baraha was the Silver Sun, right?"
"That's right. So, what would the four bloodlines on this side be?"
"Can't we guess from the scriptures or legends?"
At Meisa's words, Solif hummed in thought before speaking as if he had remembered something. "I suspect one of the four on this side would also be a physical combat bloodline. There are quite a few stories about him slaughtering Dokkaebi with a sword of light."
Dokkaebi were an alien race from the East, notorious for having jagged teeth like sharks and a fondness for eating children. Of course, in the modern era, they were just another race driven into the wilderness by humanity, like most other non-human species.
"I'd love to go back and ask. Or dig through the family archives."
Of course, as Solif said, if they actually returned to the Baraha family, they would have to fight a war immediately. Turan looked at Meisa as a thought occurred to him.
"Perhaps Meisa also has the Enchanter bloodline latent within her."
"Me?"
"I only had two originally, as well."
It was possible that Meisa's potential was simply greater than Turan's, and her third bloodline might awaken once she reached her limit. Perhaps then, she would be able to truly contend with Badal. Turan thought that Solif might also possess that kind of potential.
When he shared this, Meisa and Solif looked at themselves, then at each other, and tilted their heads.
"A third bloodline ability… I wonder if such a thing really exists…."
"Is there any way to find out?"
"There is one. We could go to the Library of Orem."
Solif, who had heard the stories related to it, nodded at Turan's suggestion. "Ah, the one to the west?"
"It's not that far from here, anyway."
Even if the two of them couldn't communicate with the Librarian, Turan could act as a mediator to at least get their bloodlines identified. Of course, whether the Librarian would grant the favor was something they'd have to try and see.
And so, the group's first goal was set: to check their bloodlines at the Library of Orem. However, they didn't set out immediately, as they felt it would be better to move once Meisa had recovered more of her health. As she gained noticeable weight with each day of nutritional supply, she would eventually become unrecognizable. Later, she would be able to walk the world proudly without the Arabion family easily realizing her identity. What they were looking for was a woman as gaunt as a skeleton; no one would associate the transformed Meisa with her former self.
Over the next few days, they spent their time exchanging various magical secrets passed down through their respective families. Starting with the thought acceleration magic Meisa had taught Turan, Solif also shared several Baraha secrets. However, since Turan had already learned most of them while practicing magic with the two of them, there wasn't much left for him to learn. If anything, he was more in a position to teach them when one of the others was busy.
"So, like this… damn it, it's not working."
One thing they discovered during this time was that, unfortunately, Solif's magical aptitude was a step behind Turan's and Meisa's. Of course, even then, he was talented enough to be called a genius by the standards of ordinary mages.
Turan calmly demonstrated the magic in front of Solif, who was getting angry at his inability to immediately succeed at the spell Meisa had taught them.
"I'll show you again, so follow along. Like this… hm?"
While demonstrating the magic, Turan's face hardened as he sensed two presences at the foot of the mountain. Judging by the curves of the body and the amount of mana, one of them was definitely Lida, the noble of House Lavitas.
Considering this was originally a place she frequently visited for hot spring baths, it wasn't particularly surprising. If anything, he had been wondering if something had happened to her since she hadn't visited in the past few months. From what he had heard during their past chats, she usually stopped by once every few months.
What startled Turan was the noble following behind her. Someone with two to two-and-a-half times the mana of Meisa. A monster possessing a staggering amount of mana, second only to Badal, the Head of House Arabion….
Seeing his visible tension, Solif asked curiously.
"What's wrong?"
"I think… we have a very distinguished guest."
The identity of someone visiting with Lida while possessing that much mana was obvious.
The Head of the Great Family Lavitas was coming this way.
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