Chapter 162
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 162
Turan was momentarily speechless. The revelation that the old man before him was the one who had attempted to resurrect the Night Hunter was staggering.
He had prepared for many scenarios before this meeting, but a truth this profound had never crossed his mind. To think the head of the Zahar family was the one who had tried to bring back the Night Hunter.
Did that mean Turan himself was a being born from a scheme concocted by this old man? His parents' meeting, his very existence—was it all part of a grand design?
He felt a dizzying sensation, as if the floor were dropping out from under him, but Turan quickly fought to regain his composure. Harun, however, seemed to have noticed his agitation; a faint, knowing smile played on the old man's lips.
"You seem quite shocked. Here, have a glass of water."
"……Thank you."
Turan made a show of taking the water Harun offered, but he set it down immediately.
As an Alchemist—one of the four bloodlines of the Night Hunter—Harun possessed the power to manipulate poisons. Drinking a liquid he had touched, even briefly, was too great a risk. Knowing exactly why Turan hesitated, Harun showed no sign of offense.
"Heh, cautious, aren't we? Well, now that we’ve each answered one question, I believe it’s my turn again. Where did you find the Mimic Relic?"
"……I found it on an island in the Southern Sea. It was a place where old legends of those who served Him still remained."
"That is a lie. I can tell that much."
It wasn't a mere guess; Harun's voice was thick with certainty.
But how?
The Mimic God had been active in the Southern Sea, and almost no one knew he had been in the North Sea at the moment of his death. Even as Turan’s mind raced, he couldn't find a reason why the old man would recognize the lie so instantly.
Was it not prior knowledge, then, but some physiological trace he had detected? Turan was certain he had suppressed the typical reactions of a liar.
As he puzzled over it, a flash of insight struck him. The combination of Night Hunter symbols Harun had shown him so abruptly moments ago…
Just as the Zahar bloodline’s hypersensitive sense of smell could detect emotions, Harun was undoubtedly using the Night Hunter’s abilities to read Turan’s heart. It was likely a power specifically designed to discern lies.
Instead of apologizing for the falsehood, Turan voiced a complaint.
"This is unfair. You can tell when I’m lying, Great-uncle, but I have no way of knowing if you are."
"Haven't you been enjoying that same unfairness all this time? A sense of smell capable of detecting hormones is a gift only a few in the Zahar family are born with. Most people wouldn't even know to prepare for it."
Turan couldn't argue with Harun’s mild-mannered response. It was the truth.
Thus, he decided to change his approach. If it was impossible to stop the other person from seeing through him, he would simply have to see through them as well.
With that thought, the symbols residing within him surged.
It had been about a year since he mastered soul magic, and he had attempted thousands of combinations with the Hunter and the Pursuer. Now that he knew the answer, fusing the two was laughably simple.
He felt the eyes permeating the black mist split into thousands of branches, and dozens of 'handles' manifested within his inner self. It was just like when he had first combined the two symbols of the Storm bloodline.
Let’s see—
When he had first attempted symbol combination, Turan had been woefully inexperienced, forced to pull at random handles to trigger techniques. But now, with his Spiritual Awareness far more developed, he could use a much more refined method.
As he extended his Spiritual Awareness to touch the handles, he could vaguely gauge what functions they would provide.
This one is for discharging something, and this one is for self-enhancement? No… not that one either.
About thirty seconds passed. It was a short time in the grand scheme of things, but a rather long silence to occur suddenly in the middle of a conversation. Harun merely watched the pensive Turan, neither interrupting nor interfering.
Thanks to that, Turan was able to check over a dozen abilities before finding his target. As he activated the power, he felt the colors of his surroundings distort and shift.
"May I ask a question first? It’s a simple one, and you can answer however you like."
"Go ahead."
"Did it rain on your way here yesterday?"
Considering the Zahar army had come from the Enril Desert to the east, the answer wasn't even worth considering. However, as if understanding the intent behind the question, Harun replied with a smile.
"It did. I was soaked to the bone."
As he spoke, a red light flickered once in Harun’s eyes and mouth. Turan realized this ability allowed him to perceive truth and falsehood in another's words.
"I see."
"So, how does it feel to use the Eye of Truth? It’s more convenient than relying on smell, isn't it?"
"Yes, certainly."
What was difficult to understand, however, was Harun’s cooperative attitude—acting almost as if he were tutoring Turan on how to use the ability. Compared to the sinister and persistent Talis, this old man felt like a real grandfather, to the point where Turan almost felt a sense of kinship.
Of course, even in the midst of this, Harun was still weaving his dark schemes.
"However, be careful, as it isn't entirely infallible. Hmm, for example… ask me if I am a woman."
"Are you a woman?"
"I am."
As he answered, a green light flickered in Harun’s eyes and mouth. Turan could instinctively tell that this reaction, different from the previous one, indicated the truth.
As if he already knew what Turan had seen, the old man gave a faint smile.
"I may look like an old man now, but I have lived as a woman before. Several times, in fact. In such a situation, can I define myself as a man simply because this body I currently inhabit, Harun Zahar, is male? The 'me' who was a woman back then is still me, after all."
Some might think so, while others might not, Harun murmured softly.
Hearing that, Turan understood why the Eye of Truth wasn't absolute. Truth and falsehood were ultimately dependent on what the person thought; just because they believed it didn't make it an objective truth. It was a similar caution he had to exercise when reading emotions through scent, so it was easy to grasp.
"Now, I believe that’s enough of a tuition fee. Where did you get the Mimic Relic?"
"I obtained it from a corpse inside an underwater cave on a deserted island in the North Sea. The person had lost their life fighting a Great Sea Serpent."
At Turan’s honest answer, a strange light flickered in Harun’s eyes.
In truth, after hearing the shocking story earlier, Turan had even suspected that Harun might have arranged for him to find the Mimic Relic, but based on the reaction, that didn't seem to be the case. Then again, if someone had such a treasure, why would they give it to Turan instead of using it themselves? Especially since it was practically the natural enemy of all Zahar nobles.
"A Great Sea Serpent… they have been quite a nuisance lately. I see, so that’s what happened. That weak fellow always did have too much pride. If he had just stayed with us, that never would have happened."
His tone sounded mocking, but the emotion behind it was closer to regret and pity.
"Was he a weak god?"
"He was quite skilled in personal combat because he could copy the abilities of others, but he was vulnerable when fighting monsters. In that regard, Night Hunters like Otas and myself were far superior… Ah, Otas is the name of the Night Hunter. Though I'm sure you already knew that."
"So you were a Night Hunter as well, Great-uncle."
"Didn't you know already? Well, it’s a bit silly to treat us as equals just because we share the same profession."
Harun let out a hearty laugh and then suddenly threw out a question.
"Do you happen to know the legend of the Enril Desert?"
"Yes. I heard that in the distant past, when the land of Enril was a meadow, it turned into a desert due to the tyranny of giants, and the Night Hunter shot them all down."
"The part about the meadows turning into desert because of giants is nonsense, but those things were indeed monsters. There were over a hundred of them, each no different from a Great Sea Serpent walking on land. Even among us, except for a few elites, it was difficult to handle more than one or two at a time."
At Harun’s words, Turan recalled the spirit of the Great Sea Serpent he had faced two years ago. An opponent that even he, as he was now, would find troublesome to fight one-on-one—an enemy he couldn't be certain of defeating.
And even that spirit had been weakened compared to when it was alive. A living Great Sea Serpent was truly a monster worthy of being called a divine being. By today's standards, it would likely take three or four heads of the Great Families working together to stand a chance.
And there were over a hundred such monsters?
The mere thought was suffocating, but Harun’s next words made even that seem trivial.
"Otas shot and killed all hundreds of giants by himself. All we did in that battle was guard him against any potential ambushes. In the end, even the Queen of Beasts—the giant queen—lost her life to a single arrow fired from a distance of over a hundred kilometers."
A being who harvested the lives of god-like monsters with arrows fired from a vast distance…
Just imagining it gave Turan a sense of how monstrous the ancient Frea Divine Clan had been, and how uniquely powerful the Night Hunter was even among them. He finally understood why Ymir had said that if Otas ever returned, the gods of Zahar, including the old man before him, would fall to their knees and beg for mercy.
"The corpses of the giants created back then were taken by a friend of mine who lives in the northwest, and he played a little prank with them. He claimed he was recreating a Night Hunter dungeon in the basement of an old museum we built. I expect you’ve seen it?"
At the sudden question, Turan habitually opened his mouth to weave a lie, but then closed it. With both of them using the Eye of Truth, a lie would be exposed instantly. After a moment, he let out a soft sigh and nodded. Since silence itself would be an answer in this situation, he calculated that it was better to simply admit it.
"Yes, I saw it. It was a gruesome sight."
"So it was you who killed Perga after all. I had my suspicions."
"I didn't kill him."
Perga had simply died while in a weakened state, fighting a creature that was likely a recycled version of the ancient giant queen. Though Turan himself had been the one to cause that weakened state.
Reading the truth in those words, Harun spoke with an amused expression.
"Is that so? Huh, that’s a bit different from what I thought. Well, either way is fine. Personally, I had high hopes for Perga as well… but with you here, it doesn't matter what becomes of him."
Technically, Perga was also their descendant, yet Harun’s attitude was beyond cold—it was utterly heartless, no different from the other gods. Seeing that, Turan tightened his resolve. Even if the being before him occasionally looked like a kindly grandfather, his essence was that of a heartless god.
"I heard a rumor in Arabion that Zahar was unaware of the experiments to recreate the Night Hunter. Did you know about them all along?"
"Only I knew. That friend in the northwest probably didn't know I knew, either. I found out by sheer luck."
The 'friend in the northwest' he kept mentioning was likely the Life Scholar. There was no one else capable of molding the corpses and souls of dead giants to create such creatures.
"Then… we’ve strayed from the topic a bit, so let’s return to the original story. What do you mean when you say you tried to reincarnate the Night Hunter? Does that mean my very birth was part of a Zahar plot?"
"Not quite. To be honest, your birth was a series of quite interesting coincidences. Though, considering it took thousands of years for such a thing to happen, perhaps it was inevitable."
With those meaningful words, Harun took a drink of the water he had offered Turan earlier, as if his throat were dry.
"How much do you know about using soul magic to develop talent?"
"I know it involves manipulating an immature spirit body that hasn't fully settled—from the time in the womb until a year or two after birth."
"You know almost nothing, then. To explain a bit, the core is delicately sculpting the vessel and form of the soul. Depending on how you balance the three, it affects mana aptitude, bloodline abilities, and magical talent."
Turan didn't let it show, but he etched Harun’s words deep into his mind. As someone who couldn't use Spirit-Calling like the half-elves, he needed to supplement his knowledge of high-level soul magic. If only for the sake of his future children.
"For your information, the one born from honing this field to its absolute limit is your companion."
At the word 'companion,' Turan felt his heart skip a beat. He had been so careful; had the old man already noticed that he was expecting a child? But after a moment of panic, Turan realized he was getting ahead of himself. The old man was likely just mocking him for taking Berit and then doing nothing with her.
Fortunately, Harun didn't seem to notice Turan’s emotional shift at all. Perhaps it was because he had combined the Zahar bloodline symbols—specifically, because he had the Eye of Truth open—that he wasn't paying attention to his opponent's scent.
"I suspect all the souls of the mages who died in the Zahar-Arabion War went into creating Meisa. Dozens of nobles, hundreds of knights… or was it a thousand? Even for us, it was an unprecedented scale."
"So the reason that war happened was to create Meisa."
"As far as I know, yes. To be precise, that was what my friend in the northwest wanted. I don't know what he hoped to achieve by creating such a powerful body, though."
As Harun chuckled, Turan voiced a question that suddenly occurred to him.
"Then what did Zahar gain?"
"Hmm?"
"If all the souls of the mages sacrificed in the war went toward awakening Meisa’s talent, Zahar gains nothing. You don't seem to be that man's subordinate, Great-uncle, so there’s no reason you would let him take all the profit."
"True. I gained something as well. Did you know? A mage’s soul is far more valuable than a human’s soul, but… a vast number of human souls can substitute for a single mage. And no one ever truly counted how many civilians died during that war."
The Zahar-Arabion War was known as a conflict between mages, with minimal civilian casualties, but that was merely the official story. In a situation where the mage families situated between the two Great Houses were thrown into chaos and even basic security vanished, who could say how many had died in silence?
Harun spoke cruel words with a perfectly pleasant face.
"Was it five hundred thousand? Six hundred thousand? Once we harvested about that many, it became quite useful."
"Did you… use that on my mother?"
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. The sacrifice of so many mages was sickening enough, but this was on another level entirely. Even though he must have read Turan’s look of contempt, Harun’s smiling face didn't change.
"No, I didn't use it on your mother. This is a technical matter, so it’s a bit hard to explain… but you don't necessarily have to have a specific target in mind to use it."
Generally, it was used on a child who seemed to have some potential, but he explained that it was also possible to specify a broad target, similar to the principles of tracking magic. By setting constraints like 'people within a certain region' or 'a specific gender.'
"The target was a child of the Zahar bloodline to be born somewhere in this world. We discarded things like magical talent or mana aptitude and simply expanded the vessel of the soul, over and over. Do you know what happens then?"
"What happens?"
"They miscarry. An ordinary soul cannot withstand such a bloated spirit body. That is why there isn't a single child around your age, roughly twenty years old, in the Zahar family today."
Through those words, Turan realized that talent awakening using soul magic had unexpected side effects. Miscarriage? Since he had never heard such a thing from the half-elves, it seemed the side effect didn't exist in Spirit-Calling, or they had intentionally omitted it. He felt he needed to discuss this separately when he returned.
"I waited for about three years after the ritual, searching the family over and over, but when no exceptional child appeared, I thought I had failed again and was disappointed. Since we had bound the bloodline to the family for cases like this, the possibility of a Zahar noble being born outside was almost zero."
He could guess that the tradition of mage families forming based on bloodline was for reasons like this. Of course, there were other reasons as well.
"But… you appeared out of nowhere, like a miracle. The only Zahar noble to survive that ritual. Possessing genius talent, immense mana aptitude, and multiple bloodline abilities. It’s impossible unless you accepted the soul of the most powerful god floating somewhere in the Sea of Spirits. As I said, we only grew the vessel of the soul; we didn't touch any other part."
"But my soul wasn't that large, as you say."
"That’s impossible. If it seems that way, it’s only because you haven't learned to properly handle the power of your soul."
Turan started to respond to the old man’s certainty—despite Harun never having seen his spirit body—but then held his tongue. Harun’s explanation sounded plausible at first, but several doubts remained unexplained. However, those weren't doubts that would be resolved by asking here.
So, instead of digging deeper, Turan decided to ask the thing he was most curious about.
"Fine. For now, what you’ve said seems to be the truth… then, may I ask just one thing? Since I’ve already told you that my soul isn't that large."
"What are relatives for? Go ahead."
"Why did you try to resurrect the Night Hunter?"
Based on how Harun had spoken of the Night Hunter’s power with pride earlier, it was clear he held some affection for him. But was that enough of a reason to bring back someone who had disappeared thousands of years ago? He was already reigning as one of the strongest beings in the world as the head of Zahar.
Knowing this was a vital issue for Turan. If he truly was the reincarnation of the Night Hunter, the old man before him could be an ally or an enemy depending on his reasons. Though Harun had done far too many disgusting things to be considered an ally…
To Turan’s surprise, Harun chose silence.
For the first time, the talkative old man remained quiet for over a minute. Turan didn't press him, instead gazing at him calmly. He could sense that the question was incredibly important to Harun, and that he was choosing his words carefully.
For the first time since the dialogue began, Turan held the initiative.
"Yes, the reason… right. You would want to know. Whether you are truly Otas’s reincarnation or not."
"Yes."
"You might think an old man thousands of years old is being sentimental, but… it was love. The emotion that makes a human, human."