Chapter 82
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 82
When Meisa finally regained consciousness after being poisoned, Anietta Nagin, the first wife of the family head, paid her a visit. Her voice was thick with mockery as she delivered her threat.
"This 'accident' is entirely the fault of your mother. She grew arrogant just because she birthed one strong daughter. You’d best be careful from now on. If you let your tongue wag carelessly, you and your maternal relatives will end up just like her. You understand what I mean, don't you?"
After witnessing the deaths of those two people being buried as mere "accidents," Meisa had harbored a deep-seated hostility toward the women of the Nagin family and the upper echelons of the main house. Of course, the only thing she could actually do was pour out curses in letters and messages to her two half-brothers.
Since hearing this story, Turan had been pondering the true nature of the Nagin family's involvement. Was it merely an excuse used by the Middle-Aged Faction of Arabion to torment Meisa, or did a deeper bond exist between the two?
But at this moment, the mystery of the vanished Librarian and the existence of Renod Nagin were becoming inextricably intertwined. Turan cleared his throat lightly to suppress the tremor in his voice before asking again.
"Did he happen to mention where he was going? He is close with an acquaintance of mine, so if he hasn't gone too far, I’d like to at least say hello."
"Oh, is that so?"
A look of pure skepticism crossed the man's face, as if to say: A wandering noble like you, connected to a mage from a Great Family?
"Yes. Renod Nagin was originally the son of the Arabion family head, but because he manifested the bloodline of his mother's side, the Nagin family, he was adopted into it. I happen to be close with his half-sister, Lady Meisa."
"You mean the Skull Princess—the successor of Arabion! I’ve heard the name. You have a connection with someone quite remarkable."
Whether it was because Turan showed he was well-versed in the internal affairs of the Great Families, the Gillon family head nodded in agreement, his previous suspicion vanishing. Perhaps it was because he had heard a similar story from Renod when he visited earlier.
In truth, what was more remarkable was the fact that Meisa's reputation—specifically her appearance—was famous enough to have spread even to this distant place. Then again, wasn't she known even as far as the Enril Desert?
Just then, Marvin Baltas, who had been quietly eating, chimed in.
"Is she really that gaunt? I heard she’s such a hideous woman that you’d be afraid she might appear in your dreams."
"Shut your mouth, Marvin! She is not someone you should speak of so carelessly!"
Marvin, who had been flapping his lips recklessly, flinched at the Gillon family head's shout and lowered his head. Turan had just stated he was close with Meisa, and here Marvin was, slandering her! What if those words reached her through Turan? There were protocols between nobles, but it was simply foolish to invite the resentment of the powerful for no reason.
Of course, despite this damage control, Meisa herself was currently struggling to maintain her composure after being called hideous to her face. Naturally, none of them suspected that Meisa’s true identity was that very Skull Princess.
"Ahem, my apologies. Please pretend you didn't hear what was just said..."
"Of course. I see no need to pass on unpleasant stories to a friend. So, regarding the question I asked earlier?"
In any case, thanks to Marvin's indiscretion, Turan was able to take more control over the conversation.
"Ah, you asked where he was going? He said he planned to return to the main house for the time being. He might have arrived by now."
"I see."
Turan clicked his tongue lightly, showing a hint of regret, and then proceeded to ask how many attendants Renod Nagin had brought, how much he had used the library, and how long he had stayed here in Orem. Perhaps trying to make up for his earlier slip of the tongue, Gillon answered sincerely, allowing Turan to gather a significant amount of information.
*
After the banquet ended, Turan summoned Meisa and Solif to his quarters and dismissed all the maids. The agenda was simple: the link between Renod Nagin and the Librarian's disappearance.
"For the past few months, because of the war, no one besides Renod has visited the library at all. Therefore, he’s the only viable suspect. Unless there was someone else who sneaked in secretly like I did."
"His actions, based on what we heard, are completely nonsensical," Solif muttered with an exasperated expression. "He marched in with three nobles, forty knights, and even magical beasts, demanding to use the library, only to stay for a few minutes before leaving immediately? He used the excuse that staying long in a city at war was impolite... but if that were the case, he shouldn't have come in the first place."
As Solif said, if Renod had other business at the library, he should have stayed for at least an hour or two. Even if he were just scanning the covers to see if a specific book was there, it would have taken more than a few dozen minutes.
"Meisa, was he originally the type to like books?"
"I don't really know. I haven't met that bastard since he was adopted into the Nagin family when I was nine. But I don't recall him ever reading books."
Turan nodded slowly. If someone who didn't particularly like books visited a library with a retinue of nobles, it was clearly an official family matter. Circumstantially, the possibility that Renod was involved in the Librarian's disappearance was very high.
The problem was that they didn't know how he had detected the Librarian's presence and managed to eliminate or capture him, nor why he had suddenly done such a thing now.
"If Renod could do something to the Old Man, it means he has at least three bloodline abilities. Otherwise, the mages from the Great Families who visited the library before would have been able to see the Librarian."
"Or maybe he used some kind of tool?" Solif suggested. "For example, the moment he entered the library, he opened a gourd and sucked the spirit inside to trap it, or something like that."
"Is there a magic tool like that?"
"There are stories of such holy relics in the East. I don't know if they actually exist, though."
While Solif answered seriously to Meisa's surprised question, Turan tapped the desk, lost in thought.
"The Nagin family's bloodlines were Ruler and Tamer, right?"
"I know about Tamer, but I've never heard of Ruler. Is it only in the West?" Solif asked.
"It's rare even here. In fact, there might not be anyone outside the Nagin family who possesses that bloodline," Meisa answered calmly.
The Ruler bloodline, as the name suggested, was a power to dominate living beings, but despite the grand name, it wasn't very practical. As Turan had learned firsthand in the past, magic that dominated living creatures rarely worked on magical creatures. Of course, its ability to control living beings was exceptional, so a powerful noble could lead hundreds of thousands of humans with a single gesture—but where would one use that? If a noble of that caliber used other bloodline abilities, they could easily wipe out hundreds of thousands of people anyway.
Bloodlines that weren't widespread usually remained that way for a reason. Either they were so powerful they were strictly controlled and eradicated, or they were so useless they failed to spread.
After hearing the explanation, Solif spoke up, puzzled. "But do spirits have mana? I know spirits of the dead do, but..."
"Of course they... don't."
Turan realized that when he met the Librarian last time, he hadn't felt any flow of mana from his body. In other words, even if he was a spirit born from a magically constructed building, the Librarian himself was not a magical creature.
"Then he might have dominated the spirit with the Ruler bloodline ability, or he's trying to."
"If he just eliminated him, that's one thing, but the other possibility is troubling. I've told the Librarian so much. If they kidnapped and interrogated him..."
"We should assume they know almost everything about you, right?"
"Exactly."
Turan groaned softly, feeling the weight of the situation. From information about the Night Hunters he saw in the Underground Labyrinth to his own bloodline, the secret information the Librarian possessed was vast.
"I'll have to check for myself. I'm also curious why they suddenly raided the library at this point."
Even if there was a divine being in the Nagin family who found the Librarian's existence bothersome, it was strange to suddenly do this after leaving him alone for thousands of years. The only special event recently was his meeting with Turan, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't see why that would be a reason to remove the Librarian.
Changing his perspective: could it be that they didn't know of the Librarian's existence until now? The only trigger would be when Turan thoughtlessly mentioned the Librarian to the Baltas nobles. No, no matter how he looked at it, the idea that such information traveled all the way to the Nagin family was too strange. Even if it was just one region over, the Western Forest Zone and the snowfields ruled by Nagin were practically different cultural spheres.
At Turan's words, Solif spoke with a half-doubting expression. "You're not planning to face Nagin head-on, are you? Well, they're a backwater Great Family, so they might be lesser than Arabion or Zahar... but for some reason, I feel like if you say you'll do it, you actually will."
Normally, a Great Family was an object of reverence for ordinary mage families, but even among them, there was a hierarchy. The most superior were the ancient families established by the direct descendants of the Frea Divine Clan, whose power hadn't fully waned after the fall of the Old Empire. Arabion and Zahar belonged to this category, with histories spanning at least two to three thousand years.
Compared to them, the Great Families established by obtaining a new progenitor through bloodline fusion were considered a step below. Baraha, Lavitas, and Carmine belonged here, usually with histories between one and two thousand years. Nagin was a rising Great Family that appeared even later, with a history of less than five hundred years. From the perspective of an ordinary human, it was a vast amount of time, but by the standards of nobles who considered a century or two as a single generation, they were merely upstarts. That was the reason why, despite being a Great Family, they were settled in the barren snowfields.
However, a Great Family was still a Great Family, and there was a high possibility that some divine being was backing them. A direct confrontation was not just dangerous; it was reckless.
"Attacking them directly would be insane. For now, I'll just track Renod. If we're lucky, we can catch up to him before he returns to the Nagin family. If not, I'll try to infiltrate like before."
"You said it's been a month? Wouldn't he have returned to his family by now?"
"If a single noble were running back alone, yes. But he brought dozens of knights, didn't he? We don't feel it because we travel on Bije, but the world is actually wider and harder to move through than you think. Especially when the number of companions increases."
"True, now that I think about it... it took me several months to get from Baraha to the Southern Sea. Even though I was traveling alone."
Although nobles and knights were faster than ordinary people, if they weren't on a proper road, they had to detour according to the terrain. Furthermore, they had to rest for meals and sleep, so they couldn't move as fast as if they were flying. Moreover, the northwestern snowfields where the Nagin family resided and this Western Forest Zone weren't even connected by the roads of the Old Empire, so they would have to take a long way around.
Meisa, who had been listening quietly, asked softly, "Then are we leaving tomorrow? I don't think the lord here will like it."
"We have to leave right now. I'm sorry, but we're in too much of a hurry to worry about his feelings."
*
Since honestly saying they were leaving in a hurry would likely only waste time in an argument, Turan left Orem City with his companions, leaving only a note behind. The three of them, riding in the swing pulled by Bije, flew north immediately.
Pushing for maximum speed, they fed Bije recovery potions and flew without rest for a day and a half. A distance that would have taken Turan over fifteen days to cover on foot was narrowed in an instant. The problem was that since it was their first time here, they didn't know Renod's travel route, let alone where the Nagin family's base was. This had to be solved through direct legwork.
"Did you find them?"
"Yeah. They passed by three days ago. Heading northwest."
"I'm glad we found them. Let's get back on."
"Ugh, I'm so sick of this."
Whenever they saw a village or city nearby, they landed secretly and checked if the mages of the Nagin family led by Renod had passed through, then moved again in the direction they were said to have gone. Of course, in the process, Turan didn't forget to constantly change his face with the transformation mask. If a conflict occurred, people would surely investigate who had pursued them.
After another full day of investigation, Turan's group finally caught up with Renod.
"Found them."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Three nobles and thirty-eight knights... two of them probably died or were separated for some other reason. I see three magical beasts too. They're probably bonded with the nobles."
"I heard earlier that it's a four-day journey to the Nagin capital, so they would have arrived at the main house by tomorrow or the day after. We were lucky."
In the dark of night, Turan used his relic's sense to look into the Nagin mages' camp hundreds of meters away as if it were in the palm of his hand. Since Renod was the representative of the Nagin nobles at the time, the most powerful mage among them would likely be Renod. Indeed, among the three, there was one with mana at the level of a high-ranking noble.
"You said Renod isn't considered a successor in the Nagin family, right?"
"Right. They said he's just quite skilled."
"He certainly looks to be about that level."
Turan had Meisa, Solif, and Bije wait to one side, then used stealth magic to enter the Nagin family's camp. There was a barrier around the camp, likely set up by a barrier master among the nobles, but thanks to his sense that could see through it and his flight ability, he was able to bypass it without much difficulty.
"Ugh, it's getting chilly. It finally feels like I'm back home."
"The south was nice and warm since it's summer there."
"Was it warm for you, brother? I felt like I was dying from the heat."
"Stop whining, you're a knight!"
Turan ignored the knights' chatter and approached Renod while avoiding the bright campfire. In the process, he saw a huge beast pass by with a growling sound.
A wolf... no, is it a dog?
A dog, whose head was as high as a person's even while standing on all fours, wandered around, looking toward where Turan was. There was also a bear and an elk, both even larger than the dog. It was a composition truly worthy of a Great Family with the Tamer bloodline.
A moment later, Turan arrived in front of the largest tent where Renod was staying. Before entering, he heightened his relic's sense and saw the symbols of the person inside. The one reaching out to a beast-like creature would be the Tamer, and the one controlling a human figure with strings from above would be the Ruler. Fortunately, no other symbols were visible besides those two.
For now, he has two bloodline abilities. But just in case—
Turan activated all the defensive magic tools he had and entered the tent, lifting the entrance while feeling tense. The moment Renod revealed his power as a possessed vessel of the Frea Divine Clan, Turan would explode the Soul of Fire, and Meisa and Solif would come running immediately.
However, contrary to his caution, Renod was leaning back in his chair looking bored and didn't show any particular reaction. After waiting for nearly a minute, Turan let out a small sigh of relief.
What, so it wasn't Renod?
He had suspected him because of his ability to harm the Librarian, but surprisingly, Renod only had two bloodlines and didn't even notice Turan's approach. Of course, the stealth of a Zahar noble was something that even top-tier nobles usually couldn't detect without a special method. Or perhaps, like Badal Arabion before, the third bloodline wouldn't appear unless he activated his mana.
Turan calmly analyzed the magic tools Renod possessed and those placed inside the tent. If he had suppressed the spirit, he would have surely put it in something imbued with magical power.
The cloak probably isn't it... the staff is suspicious, should I take it? Let's hold off on that. He's wearing the ring, so I can't take it secretly. And this—
Turan's gaze finally landed on a chest in the corner of the tent, specifically the jewelry box inside it. It was slightly larger than a palm. Not only did it have an unusually strong mana flow compared to other magic tools, but he could also see something gray shimmering inside.
Could it be this?
From its appearance to the characteristics felt by his relic's sense, everything was telling him: this was the magic tool sealing the spirit. Turan glanced at Renod, tucked the jewelry box into his robe, left the tent, and returned to where Meisa and Solif were. Naturally, none of the Nagin family mages noticed a thing.
Turan, having deactivated his stealth, let out a deep breath. "Whew."
"Did you find it? Was it Renod?"
"You weren't caught?"
Meisa and Solif, who had been waiting with anxious expressions, spoke up hurriedly. Both of them seemed to have been feeling the pressure of potentially having to fight a divine being while waiting nearby.
"I found this without being caught. I'm not sure, but I think what we're looking for is inside."
"Is it a magic tool? We don't have an enchanter with us, so we can't check it right away. Is it okay to just open it?"
"We don't have time to go find Asiz. If this isn't it, we'll have to ambush those guys, subdue them, and interrogate them. Bije, we might have to run away immediately, so could you keep the swing on?"
[Got it!]
Smiling slightly at Bije, who wrote as if telling him to trust her, Turan carefully opened the jewelry box. Since he had to consider the possibility of a trap, he stood a little apart from the other two with his defensive magic tools activated.
With a hissing sound, thick smoke poured out from inside, and then a voice could be heard muttering from within.
"Hmm, where is this now?"
"It's been a while, Old Man."
Turan greeted him with a smile, recognizing the Librarian's voice he had heard not long ago.