War was hardly unfamiliar to the people of this land. The wizard houses enjoyed every kind of abundance, yet always wanted more, and war was the easiest, simplest way to acquire it.

But a war led directly by a great house was another matter. Those who already had much tended to fear what they might lose more than they coveted what they might gain. Even the recent war between Arabion and Zahar had been the first war between great houses in three hundred years.

And now, barely twenty years later, before its lingering effects had even faded, another war?

"Don't tell me it's against Zahar?"

"I'll bet they're staging it again."

Naturally, their first thought was that Arabion intended to stage another sham war with Zahar. But Turan pointed to the bottom of the letter and corrected their assumption.

"No. Apparently, the target is Karmine."

"... Out of nowhere?"

The rulers of the North Sea, east of Arabion, who commanded water and frost. Bisen's house, which Turan's party had encountered on their recent journey to the North Sea, was the target of this war.

"I wouldn't call it out of nowhere. Other people might not know, but we do, don't we? The two aren't actually on good terms."

"We were told the god ruling House Karmine was on bad terms with the ones in Arabion and Zahar. Karmine was borrowing the merfolk's strength to stand against them..."

"Oh, the merfolk!"

Maysa exclaimed as though something had dawned on her.

"That's right. We gave the merfolk the great sea serpent. Still, I thought it would probably take until the next generation for anything to come of it. That was faster than I expected."

Presumably, the merfolk had used the great sea serpent's corpse somehow over the past few months to break free of House Karmine's control. Arabion had realized the balance of power was broken and begun moving against Karmine in earnest.

Perhaps they had learned of it so quickly because they already had spies planted inside. Solif's and Maysa's faces hardened at the theory that their actions might have sparked a war between two great houses.

"According to Asiz's letter, the dispute apparently began when Arabion raised suspicions about the recent death of one of their nobles who'd married into Karmine."

"That's a rather weak pretext for war."

"Well, they'll get their way in the end. Though Arabion's control over the house is much weaker now..."

Common sense said it was madness to make another enemy house while Zahar, with whom they had recently fought a bloody war, still stood. But if they were cooperating behind the scenes, it wasn't especially dangerous. Indeed, Zahar's nobles might even help them in secret.

"Are they planning to wipe House Karmine out entirely this time?"

"They might be. If the gods are enemies, there's a good chance this won't be a sham war like the last one."

They might even get to see gods clash in earnest—not small fry like Ymir, whom they had met before, but a duel between the House Heads of Arabion and Karmine.

"Either way, I can't just ignore this."

"You're going to get involved?"

"For now, I want to find out more about what's happening."

Turan looked at Maysa and Solif as he spoke. Maysa had changed beyond recognition, but he was still reluctant to expose her to anyone from Arabion's main house.

Likewise, plenty of people in Arabion already knew Solif's face. But if he wore the disguise mask, Turan would have no way to hide his own.

"I'll go alone and have a look this time. You two keep working on the reclamation here."

"That's dangerous!"

"He's right. You're stronger now, but if the real gods catch you, you're still dead."

Turan quietly shook his head at their objections and offered a sound reason.

"There's no other choice. We only have one disguise tool, and we can't simply abandon the work here."

Reclaiming this southern region was, after all, payment for the Head of Ravista's healing magic. Dropping it because something urgent had come up would mean throwing away their trust. Given how few Healers could quickly and completely heal nobles as powerful as Turan and his companions, abandoning the work was unthinkable.

After several rounds of argument and persuasion, both finally agreed to let Turan investigate the conflict between the two houses alone.

"I'll say it again: you really have to be careful. If it looks dangerous, just run. All right?"

"All right. I value my life too, so don't worry."

Waving off Solif's concern, Turan stole a glance at Maysa. Surprisingly, unlike the worry written all over Solif's face, she looked fairly detached.

"It's all right. Be reckless if you want. If you die, I'll avenge you, no matter who killed you."

"Ah, so that's how you're playing it..."

It was a threat: if he carelessly caught the attention of someone powerful and got himself killed, she would follow him to his death, so he'd better not. Her expression was too earnest to laugh off as a joke, and Turan had to promise repeatedly that he would stay out of danger.

Afterward, he went to Yoz, the Ravista knight handling all the settlement's administration, and informed him that he would be away for a few months. Turan was officially working to pay for treatment, after all, and Yoz was his supervisor.

"Understood. That will slow the reclamation down a little."

That was Yoz's only response to the news of his months-long absence. Had they made no progress at all, it might have been different, but it would have been absurd to think they would suddenly run away after completing more than half the work. Besides, they weren't all leaving; his two friends would continue working.

What concerned Yoz more was the stranger standing beside Turan with a broad grin.

"Um, the gentleman beside you wouldn't happen to be...?"

"Oh, this is my friend Sol. He'll take over Phil's reclamation work for a while. Say hello."

"Hello."

Having removed the mask to reveal his true face, Solif greeted him with utter shamelessness.

"But surely that's the heir to Baraha—"

Seeing their expressions, Yoz hastily swallowed the rest of his words. As one of Ravista's important administrators, he had apparently seen Solif's portrait too.

"Let's just say we happened to run into him. You understand what I mean, don't you?"

"Y-yes, understood."

There was little chance of word spreading far even if Solif removed his mask here. This was the southern fringe of Koloa, itself the southernmost region of Ravista's territory.

He had only kept wearing the mask as a precaution against the unexpected. It would be far more useful on Turan.

After spending about a week putting things in order, Turan visited Maysa just before his departure. Ever since the letter arrived, she had stopped even her reclamation work to devote herself to making magic tools.

"I should be leaving soon. How's it coming along?"

"I just finished. Here."

Turan gave a small exclamation as he accepted the object she offered: a little hand mirror with a silver-plated handle and rim. The workmanship was nothing exceptional, but astonishingly powerful mana resided within it—enough to rival his guardian magic tool.

"It's paired with my hand mirror. We can only communicate when we're both feeding mana into them at the same time."

"What's the range?"

"The farther apart we are, the more mana it'll consume. At the distance between here and Arabion or House Karmine's territory, even we won't be able to keep it up for long."

"I see. Communication magic tools really are inefficient."

Given that no great noble of the Enchanter bloodline had existed before now, Maysa was likely the most powerful Enchanter in history.

Even allowing for the relatively short week she had spent making it, that something made by such an Enchanter should be this inefficient was a problem. Wouldn't ordinary nobles be unable to communicate the moment they moved more than a few hundred kilometers apart?

Clearly, there was a reason wizard houses seldom made magic tools of this kind.

"It's probably partly because I'm not used to enchanting yet. Once I make a better one, I'll send it with Vije."

"Don't push yourself too hard."

The reclamation still had to continue, even if it would be slower without Turan. It wouldn't do for this to take up too much of her time.

They talked a while longer, and when it was nearly time to leave, Maysa suddenly embraced him. Unlike before, when all he had felt were hard bones, her embrace was now warm and soft, like his mother's hugs long ago.

"Maysa."

"Don't die."

Instead of answering, Turan gently patted her back.

* * *

With every preparation complete, Turan took to the sky gripping Vije's legs directly for the first time in a while. Riding a swing tied beneath her was comfortable, but it kept the black eagle from reaching her full speed.

Delighted to be flying alone with Turan again after so long, Vije blasted a tremendous wind behind her and flew north. Looking down, Turan marveled at the landscape racing past.

"It really strikes me all over again... You've gotten so fast."

He had marveled at her speed the first time he rode her, but she was on an entirely different level now.

Back then, after all, she had only been a monster equivalent to a lower-middle- or middle-tier noble. Turan's weight of a little over seventy kilograms had been enough to slow her down and tire her quickly.

Now, with mana equal to a top-ranking noble's, every beat of Vije's wings split the surrounding clouds and sent its effects all the way to the distant ground. Had she flown at a lower altitude, her flight alone might have stirred winds strong enough to send people flying.

Apparently pleased by Turan's praise, Vije beat her wings even harder.

After two days of flying and landing in uninhabited places to rest, Turan reached the Dakayn Plains, having covered nearly seven thousand kilometers.

"You've worked so hard, Vije."

[This is nothing! I'm even faster by myself! Not that you're heavy, Turan...]

In the midst of boasting, Vije realized her words treated her friend like a piece of luggage and hastily scratched at the dirt with her talons. Turan laughed heartily and stroked her feathered head.

"If I'd flown here myself, it would've taken ten days even without stopping. You saved me a lot of time. Thank you."

[I want to keep traveling with you, Turan!]

"Thank you, but help Maysa and Solif for now. I have to do this alone."

It would be difficult to move about properly disguised with Vije in tow. Anyone traveling with a black eagle was bound to stand out. If he truly needed her, he would have to contact Maysa and ask her to send Vije here.

"Have a safe trip back, then. You know where to go, right?"

[I know better than you do!]

Apparently upset that they would have to spend quite some time apart, Vije wrote that sulky reply and took flight.

After seeing his friend off, Turan headed toward Zavillin, the city visible nearby. Naturally, he wore the mask, disguised as an ordinary-looking young man.

"Keep up the good work."

"Hm? Oh, yes. Good to see you, young man."

Entering the city with genial greetings even for passing police officers, Turan extended his senses to check how many wizards were nearby.

'Is that another Berg knight over there...? It looks like they haven't stationed anyone here specifically to keep watch.'

He had expected them to plant at least a few spies after he rescued Maysa, but surprisingly, they seemed not to have gone to that much trouble. Perhaps they had planted spies immediately after the incident, only to give up after months without news.

'Well, even if they read the letters I sent Asiz... I didn't put anything important in them.'

Turan had deliberately avoided mentioning Maysa at all in his letters, writing as though he were traveling with Solif alone.

Nor had he included any clues to their whereabouts, so even if someone had read them, they could not have gained any meaningful information.

After spending a good while scouting the city, Turan boldly entered House Berg's mansion under a stealth spell. Despite the broad daylight and several glowing magic tools nearby, his stealth held.

'Not that I can keep this up for very long.'

Feeling his mana rapidly dwindle, Turan hurried through the mansion. Only once he reached Asiz's room, closed the door, and dropped his stealth could he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Whew."

This sort of infiltration was possible not only because of his vast mana, but because he knew the mansion's layout from having spent months there. An ordinary Zahar noble would have run out of mana long before.

Turan sprawled on the bed and pushed the Holy Relic's senses to their limit. He could sense various nobles, from Berg's House Head and her husband to Asiz's older brother Melo and Turan's teacher Haram.

He had expected Asiz to be off enjoying himself somewhere, but surprisingly, he was using magic in the garden, perhaps training.

'There doesn't seem to be anyone suspicious inside the mansion either... Good. Time for a little rest.'

Turan lay on the bed, easing the fatigue of two days' travel as he waited for the room's owner to return. Asiz came back about two hours later.

"Y-you're...! Wait, Turan?"

"It's been a while, Asiz. I'm glad to see you looking well."

Asiz's surprise at finding a brown-haired young man inexplicably occupying his room lasted only a moment before he recognized Turan by his clothes. He could hardly fail to recognize something he had made himself.

"Did you come because of my letter?"

"Yes. I also wanted to check whether anyone had been up to anything here."

When Turan assured him there seemed to be no spies in the mansion, Asiz sighed in relief.

"I've actually been on guard. I kept wondering whether someone might secretly wear the face of someone close to me and approach me."

"Isn't that an almost unheard-of ability?"

"It is, but if you can do it, someone else might be able to as well, right?"

Of course, given that Turan's mask was probably a magic tool—or a Holy Relic—created using the power of the Mimic bloodline, that was highly unlikely. He suspected the Mimic god had probably left no descendants to inherit his bloodline.

Still, there was nothing wrong with guarding against unforeseen danger. Turan himself didn't know everything their enemies could or couldn't do.

"More importantly, tell me the details. Your letter was too brief. When exactly is the war going to start?"

"I don't know that much. I doubt even Mother knows. But I don't think it'll be long. The main house has ordered a large quantity of magic tools that grant resistance to cold..."

Indeed, anyone could see that was aimed at Karmine, whose nobles commanded water and cold. Through a lengthy conversation with Asiz, Turan learned a great deal about House Arabion's current situation: how the mood in the main house and its vassal houses had changed, and how they were even distributing plays that demonized Karmine to build justification for the war.

"So they've gone that far..."

"You're not planning to sneak into the main house again, are you?"

"Not this time. It's too dangerous."

Turan had only been able to roam Arabion's main house before because they had not expected an intruder. Now, even if they didn't know about his Zahar stealth ability, they would know someone possessed mysterious powers of disguise.

Trying to infiltrate it again under those circumstances would be sheer recklessness. He wasn't even certain they could stand against the Head of Arabion with Solif and Maysa beside him, and this time he was alone.

"I think infiltrating the other side would be better. Could you find me some information on them? They're a neighboring house, so there should be something in the library."

"The other side? You don't mean..."

Turan grinned as Asiz's eyes widened in surprise.

"That's right. This time, I'm going to take a look inside Karmine."