Chapter 182
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 182
Turan stood still, asking himself a single question.
How on earth had he realized that woman was Harun Zahar?
No matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, no clear reason surfaced. He had simply known by instinct the moment their eyes met. He knew she was the same old man he had met not long ago at the border of the Gray Zone and the desert—the one who had calmly shared the story of his life.
Perhaps noticing that their eyes had met for a second, the old man of Arabion, who had been sitting quietly, looked at Turan. His wrinkled lips twisted as he uttered something startling.
"Do you want her?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked if you wanted that woman. You were staring quite intensely."
Badal muttered lowly that he didn't care what was done to her as long as she wasn't killed. His eyes and expression were steeped in deep malice, as if he were itching to find any way possible to torment the woman further.
Just what...
What could have happened between those two to breed such animosity? Looking at Badal’s face, filled with a twisted sense of elation, not a trace of his past easygoing self remained. Now, he was nothing more than a villain desperate to bully a helpless woman.
No, more than that, his newfound vitality was unsettling. Considering several years had passed, his lifespan should have been nearly at its end. Why had he suddenly become so healthy?
Turan pushed those thoughts aside for a moment and resumed his role as Paol, responding bluntly to Badal’s question.
"The stench is far too foul for that."
"True, they say the noses of Zahar nobles are quite sensitive, don't they? It’s not quite that bad for me, but it’s still a bit of an ordeal. Go on, give her a wash."
Turan was about to reflexively answer "Yes" to the unexpected order, but he caught himself. He remained silent for a moment before offering a different response. He calculated that as Talis’s subordinate, acting too compliant might actually arouse suspicion. Above all, was he not a noble of Zahar, far too high-born to take on such a lowly task without complaint?
"That is not my job."
"Isn't serving the Family Head exactly what you lot are supposed to do? Even if he is in such a wretched body."
Badal spoke mockingly, lightly prodding the woman’s head with his booted foot. Judging by his words, it seemed Paol—the identity Turan had assumed—was also aware that the woman was Harun. Perhaps he even knew the truth about the gods and soul possession.
Then again, it made sense. If that weren't the case, there was no way he would have been allowed into the Family Head’s quarters so easily. Who would let an ignorant fool inside, knowing they might overhear something from Badal or Harun? Furthermore, it would have been inconvenient for Talis to handle matters without telling his confidant anything. He couldn't use possessed vessels for every minor errand, like delivering food to Badal or performing simple tasks like this.
"...Understood."
When Turan openly displayed a look of displeasure, Badal chuckled and waved his hand as if telling him to get lost. Despite their cooperation, the rift between the two factions clearly hadn't narrowed. Judging by his behavior, the Monarch’s side likely held the upper hand.
As for how they managed that, it was time to start finding out.
Turan unfastened Harun’s restraints and lifted her by the scruff of her neck, as if handling something filthy. Even so, she couldn't overcome her physiological instincts; she let out a series of choked gasps as the collar of her clothes tightened around her throat.
"Excuse me."
"Good work. Clean up this area as well when you bring her back."
*
Carrying Harun with one hand, Turan ascended to the first floor and immediately scanned the area for a bathroom. Befitting the Zahar Family Head, a massive bathhouse sat to one side, its floor covered in the finest blue marble.
Entering the room, Turan first stripped Harun of her clothes, sat her in a chair, and activated a magic device to start the water. Even as she was stripped naked, she remained swaying like a doll, her eyes vacant.
As Turan washed away the blood and filth with the flowing water, he used wind magic to carefully construct a Wind Path between her ear and his mouth, and between his ear and her mouth. He was as cautious as possible, mindful of the Arabion nobles' ability to read the flow of the wind.
[“Harun.”]
He called out softly, but no immediate answer came. It was only natural. To her, he looked like Paol Zahar—a subordinate of Talis, the man who had reduced her to this state. Why would she respond to a member of the bastard crew that had been torturing her until moments ago?
Thus, Turan brought up a story only he and Harun knew.
[“Love does not always require a reward. One can find joy simply in the act of giving.”]
When he recited the words Harun had spoken during their past meeting, focus returned to her vacant eyes. The moment Harun tried to turn around with a look of shock, Turan deliberately gripped her neck to keep her head forward.
[“Badal is still downstairs. Do not move. Only speak.”]
[“How... did you get in? Talis wouldn't have been lax with the security.”]
Through the Wind Path, Harun’s voice—and even her manner of speech—had become similar to that of a young woman. Had her personality shifted to some degree because her body had changed?
[“As you said, it certainly wasn't easy to get in.”]
It could be said that a fair amount of luck had been involved in getting this far and meeting Harun. If Talis had implemented something as simple as a password, like Turan himself had, he would have been caught long ago.
But that would have been difficult for him.
Unlike the Parsha family, the Zahar family was so fractured that such measures were hard to enforce. When even the guards at the entrance of the Family Head’s manor weren't from Talis’s faction, who could he trust to keep a password? The moment a guard leaked it, security would actually become even more vulnerable.
After a brief silence following Turan’s answer, Harun spoke.
[“Surely, you didn't come to rescue me?”]
[“I did. Though I haven't figured out how to get you out yet.”]
The problem was that no good method of taking her with him came to mind. Snatch her and run right now? They would likely be caught by Badal before they had gone a few kilometers. Turan and Bije might make it, but they couldn't maintain such high speeds while carrying Harun, who was now a mere commoner. If he accelerated too suddenly, the resulting G-force could easily crush her body and kill her.
Killing her on the spot and extracting only her soul was also difficult. Both of them were still within the range of Badal’s senses downstairs. If he killed Harun and pulled out her spirit body, Badal would attack instantly. Harun’s spirit, defenseless while being transferred to a Soul Prison, could suffer massive damage. Unlike an ordinary mage, Badal had awakened his spiritual senses and could interfere with her soul.
[“If you haven't come with allies, don't overextend yourself. Just go back.”]
Harun, sensing this as well, told him to abandon her. She did so despite knowing exactly what her fate would be if she remained. Ironically, those words became the shackles that made it impossible for Turan to easily leave her behind. Perhaps, knowing the Night Hunter Otas so well, she had said it on purpose...
[“If there truly is no other way, I will do so.”]
[“Yes, you should.”]
For some reason, the face of the woman looking at Turan through the mirror felt like a grandmother looking at her grandson. Why was that, when she appeared to be a woman in her twenties, much like himself?
Once the conversation had settled to some degree, Turan immediately asked the question he was most curious about.
[“How did things end up like this?”]
[“Everyone on our side was persuaded by the Monarch. They fell hook, line, and sinker for the bait that stalker... Badal brought.”]
Harun muttered lowly that the cause was her near-total loss of control over the family due to her hostility toward the Parsha family. Her tone was dry, as if she were merely listing facts rather than expressing regret.
[“Bait, you say?”]
Turan recalled the proposals the Monarch and his recruits, like Kalais, had been spreading through their factions—stories about using soul magic to ascend to the same divine status as them. Naturally, such methods wouldn't work on the gods of Zahar. Had they offered some incredible holy relic, like the proposal made to the Carmine side?
However, Harun’s subsequent answer was something Turan hadn't even imagined.
[“Return.”]
[“Surely you don't mean...?”]
[“You're thinking correctly. They said they found a way to return to where we came from—to our home.”]
[“How is that even possible?”]
At Turan’s question, she let out a bloody cough and laughed.
[“I don't know the exact method! When my subordinates brought it up, I told them I wasn't interested and refused, so they attacked me immediately and left me in this state.”]
However, judging by the fact that every single god under her had defected, she said there must be at least some physical proof. Badal must have secretly shown it to them, which was why they had been so proactive in their betrayal.
Turan mechanically washed Harun’s body as he reflected on what he had just heard. The gods were trying to return to their homeland...
[“Even if we don't know how, I don't quite understand why they want to return.”]
[“Is that so?”]
[“Yes. It might be rude to say, but weren't the gods of the past rather unremarkable compared to what they are now?”]
The fallen gods—the ones who were supposedly players of some game—were all just ordinary humans by the standards of this world. Their world had no one with mana. From the information he’d gathered from the gods trapped in the jewelry box and the visions he’d seen while absorbing Kadram’s soul, he had a rough idea of what that world was like.
A world where magic did not exist, but instead, technology that manipulated natural laws was extremely advanced. Was that place so good that those who reigned as gods in this world wanted to return to being mere cogs in the machine of their original world?
Recalling Kadram’s memories, that didn't seem to be the case at all. Turan still remembered the dissatisfaction and anger toward the world that the Kadram of his time—the boy called Junseo—had harbored within him.
[“Indeed, it would be difficult for you, born and raised here, to understand. Thousands of years have passed since the civilization here began to develop, but compared to that world, this place is still far too boring. Everything about it.”]
Harun explained patiently to Turan, who still wore a look of incomprehension. Even after the fall of the Old Empire, the gods had tried to develop culture and technology in their own way by hopping between vessels, but it was no easy task. Starting with several physical laws that were warped differently from their world, the majority of the common people, who should have been striving for invention, had had their creativity stifled.
Thanks to that, even after all this time, they still had to spend their leisure time eating tasteless food and watching plays, dancing, or reading boring novels that were nothing but predictable stories lacking any real stimulation. If there was anything enjoyable, it was perhaps gambling, sexual pleasure, and playing at power. But even those things became tiresome after repeating them day after day.
In the end, the gods had become so steeped in lethargy and decadence that they treated even the act of donning more beautiful and powerful bodies as a mere pastime. In such a situation, the proposal to once again enjoy the advanced civilization of the old world they had freely enjoyed long ago was bound to be a welcome one.
[“They even said we wouldn't be returning to the helpless bodies of those days. Apparently, we can cross over while keeping these powerful bodies we enjoy now.”]
The power held by the mages of this world was incredibly threatening, even by the standards of the gods' homeland—a world where scientific civilization was immensely developed. Furthermore, the magic they wielded worked even more easily on ordinary people who possessed no mana. It was an extreme example, but if a high-ranking noble of the Ruler bloodline commanded "Death" with all their might, every human within a radius of dozens of kilometers would commit suicide.
[“Isn't it a sweet thing just to imagine? To reign as god-like beings on Earth with these superhuman bodies, to breed and give birth to descendants with strong mana as we did before, and then to seize those bodies to live forever.”]
If they did that, only one thing would change from their current situation. They could reign over real humans, rather than livestock whose creativity had been neutered and who looked only toward a tomorrow that was the same as today. They could enjoy the countless cultural media, the gourmet food, the music, and all the other pleasures those humans created...
Turan, who had been listening quietly, asked in a low voice.
[“If that is truly the case, why didn't you want it, Lady Harun?”]
The leader of the Zahar faction, possessing the body of the Family Head, and the only god in the modern era with the aptitude of a Night Hunter. If such a being had agreed to join, they wouldn't have opposed her. So why had she refused?
[“Because Otas wouldn't have made such a choice.”]
Hearing the name of the Night Hunter for the first time in a while, Turan bit his lip, not knowing how to respond. Having answered that much, Harun leaned her head against Turan’s chest as if exhausted.
[“Thinking that I'm bathing like this with him makes me feel a bit better. Though my current state is quite embarrassing.”]
[“I am not him.”]
[“I know that, so be quiet. I just want to feel that way for a moment.”]
For someone who claimed to be embarrassed, Harun was calmly entrusting her body to Turan’s hands. Seeing that Lida had been similar, he wondered if resistance to such shame grew stronger with age.
Pushing the thought aside, Turan voiced a question that had subtly surfaced.
[“What kind of bad blood do you have with Badal? He seemed to dislike my great-granduncle quite a bit.”]
Strictly speaking, Badal wasn't using the body of that great-granduncle, but Turan stuck to the same title. Upon hearing this, Harun wore a mocking expression.
[“He once courted me and was rejected. Back in the days when we lived in that world, before we ended up like this.”]
She expressed blatant contempt, saying that because she hated the way men swarmed around her the moment she revealed she was a woman, she had kept her identity strictly hidden, yet he had somehow found out and clung to her relentlessly.
[“That was a long time ago. Is that still a reason to hate someone?”]
[“It’s a feeling you’ll likely never know in your life, but when people like that become certain they can't be loved by someone, they often turn hostile. That way, the thing they craved becomes worthless.”]
After her biting remark, Harun quickly added that those weren't her own words.
[“This was also something Otas told me before. He said he’d seen it in some novel a long time ago.”]
Hearing that, Turan realized with every conversation just how much of a presence the Night Hunter Otas occupied in Harun’s heart. Even though thousands of years had passed, only one person still existed in her soul. He was curious what kind of person he had been, and what he had done, to be engraved so deeply in her heart.
Just then, Turan detected Badal glancing up from below. It seemed he felt something was off, as too much time had passed for a simple washing. Even though he had said Turan could sexually toy with Harun’s body, he likely didn't think he was actually doing so.
[“Then, I must attempt an escape now.”]
[“I told you before, stop. I don't want you to be in danger because of someone as worthless as me.”]
At Harun’s still-firm attitude, Turan smiled for the first time since entering the fortress.
[“I’m sorry, but that is for me to decide.”]
Turan answered and immediately snatched up Harun’s body, soaring into the sky.