It had been fifteen days since Turan had donned Onil's skin. While living the life of a dissolute young noble, he occasionally wandered through the house's residential compound and spied on its inhabitants.

Naturally, Talis Zahar's whereabouts concerned him most. The man seemed to be staying in guest quarters near the Karmine House Head's residence, but he had made no further attempts at contact, as though he had lost interest in Turan after the meeting.

Afraid of another midnight intrusion, Turan stayed awake nearly every night to guard against Talis, snatching brief naps only after dawn. Yet, as though mocking his vigilance, Talis left Abacha during one of those brief periods of sleep. Turan did consider chasing him down and capturing him, but ultimately decided against it.

'Even if I somehow caught him, I doubt it would do any good.'

Turan's first impression of Talis had been of a persistent, paranoid, snakelike man. He doubted he could trick or threaten any meaningful information out of him as he had with Ymir. All it would accomplish was to confirm that someone unknown was targeting them.

In any case, with Talis gone, Turan had two choices. The first was to continue impersonating Onil within Karmine and become more actively involved in the war with Arabion that would come in a few months—or a few years. The second was to seize a suitable opportunity to discard his assumed identity and regain his freedom.

When the opportunity arose, he chose the latter without hesitation. Continuing to live as Onil was becoming too burdensome.

"Master, if I've done anything wrong, please tell me. I'll change anything you ask..."

"I'm not in the mood. Leave. I'll call for you another time."

"Master!"

Turan shoved the naked concubine away with a kick as she rushed at him, driving her from the room. Wretched sobs reached him through the door he had locked with telekinesis.

From the first few days after assuming Onil's form, Turan had found every excuse he could to avoid sleeping with the concubines, unlike the original man.

Initially relieved after suffering under Onil's voracious appetites, the women had grown anxious as time passed and begun seeking him out. They believed he had tired of them and meant to take a new concubine.

Turan could only reject the women who tried to embrace him. What if he slept with a woman he did not love, who did not love him or even know his real face, and she conceived? If the child inherited the Zahar or Arabion bloodline, he would be in no position to take responsibility. Having recently seen the face of his own flesh and blood—a grandfather who resembled him—made that prospect weigh all the more heavily.

Of course, wizards, and nobles in particular, rarely conceived children. If their fertility were the same as ordinary humans', nobles who lived for centuries and actively sought to increase their numbers would long since have outnumbered the commoners.

A fling or two would therefore cause no great trouble unless he was truly unlucky... But whenever he thought that way, he remembered Maysa's face, which he saw every night, and could not bring himself to make that choice.

* * *

"Everyone, assemble!"

On the day of departure, fifty-five knights and four nobles stood in orderly ranks on the shore near Abacha, awaiting Turan's command. They were the force assembled to subjugate the monster reported to have appeared north of the city.

"Everyone is assembled, Captain."

"Mm."

Turan answered the young noble adjutant's respectful report with a single slight nod. He saw several faces twist at his arrogance, but paid them no heed. He would never have to see these people again after a few days, and he did not want rumors spreading that Onil had suddenly become a different person just before his death.

"Where's the monster that's transporting us?"

"It should have arrived by now, but it seems to be running a little late. With your permission, I'll check..."

The flustered woman had barely begun to mumble her answer when an enormous orca surfaced a short distance away with a rush of water. It was a monster with mana comparable to a middle-tier noble's, carrying a wizard of similar strength on its back.

"Are you the subjugation force? Sorry I'm a little late!"

"You've kept us waiting."

"This fellow overslept. Being a Tamer doesn't mean I can order a monster around, you know. I can only be its friend."

The man making excuses to the adjutant was a noble of the Tamer bloodline in Karmine's service, a close relative of the young noble named Gil who had accompanied Bisen. Unlike Gil, however, his mana had matured, and he traveled with a powerful monster.

A short while later, the force attached a boat they had prepared to the orca's body. It lacked masts, anchors, or any other sailing equipment; it was simply wood carved into the shape of a boat.

"We're setting off!"

At the Tamer's shout, the orca began swimming, towing the sizable boat. As befitted a monster, it showed no sign of strain even with a boat carrying sixty people attached to it.

Then again, hadn't Vije been able to fly with several people hanging from her when she had possessed about as much mana as this orca? Given equal amounts of mana, smaller monsters were faster, while larger ones were stronger. It was hardly surprising that the orca, thousands of times heavier than Vije, possessed such prodigious strength.

After watching the orca tow the boat for a while, Turan turned toward a voice behind him. The noblewoman assigned as his adjutant was earnestly briefing her colleagues and subordinate knights.

"The monster that appeared this time is reportedly an octopus. Octopus monsters typically spray toxic ink. It has little effect on nobles, but it can harm knights, so avoid it whenever possible..."

Turan stood behind the adjutant, listening closely.

'An octopus... The merfolk king's eldest son could turn into one too. Though he died hunting the great sea serpent.'

Perhaps everyone assumed the real Onil would have no interest in information about his prey. No one had explained anything in detail, leaving Turan entirely uninformed. Yet grabbing someone and demanding a thorough explanation might seem far too out of character.

Perhaps sensing his gaze behind her, the adjutant suddenly turned in the middle of her explanation.

"Captain, is something wrong...?"

"Just keep explaining."

"My apologies."

Her face stiffened at his curt reply, and she resumed the briefing. Pretending to swig strong liquor as he listened, Turan realized that she was not explaining why the monster was attacking.

'Does she not know, or is it a secret?'

Monsters were, after all, ordinary animals imbued with mana. They did not blindly attack humans without a particular reason.

There were exceptions, of course, the most prominent being predators classified as felines. The leopard monster Turan had first hunted was a prime example. Such beasts instinctively hunted weaker creatures for amusement, and upon becoming monsters, would kill dozens or hundreds of humans for sport.

Next came intelligent animals such as monkeys, whales, and crows, which were dangerous because greater intelligence made them more likely to enjoy cruelty as entertainment. The monkey monster that had appeared north of Orem City had most likely fallen into this category.

Lastly, there were harmless herbivores such as rabbits and squirrels that became monsters with memories of suffering at human hands and sought revenge.

'Though this could be something else entirely...'

There was a considerable chance this was connected to the recent reports of sea monsters attacking coastal areas, so he needed to consider causes related to that as well.

While he reviewed what he had once read in a monster compendium, the boat speeding north began to slow to a stop.

"We've arrived!"

Traveling along the open coast was certainly simpler and faster than going overland. Not as fast as flying on Vije, of course.

Having reached Savis, a city a hundred and fifty kilometers north of Abacha, in just two hours, the force immediately disembarked and passed through the half-ruined harbor. Judging by the wailing of people clearing wreckage and recovering bodies, the attack seemed to have happened recently. Their eyes widened at the sight of the force, whose clothing clearly marked them as people of high status.

"Masters of the sea!"

"Please, avenge us!"

As soon as someone said these were wizards from Karmine's main house, anguished cries rang out all around. Had the noise reached the lord's mansion? Before long, the lord of Savis came rushing out to greet Turan, without even having put his shoes on properly.

"Ah, Master Onil! It has been decades. It feels like only yesterday that you were toddling about, and now look what a fine figure you've become. I, Ahiba, can only thank you for coming so readily to our rescue."

"Ah, well... It's been a while, Master Ahiba."

The old noble looked well over two hundred and fifty years old. Despite the man's blatant fawning, Turan addressed him respectfully while showing his annoyance. Apparently that was the right response, for the lord did not seem to find anything odd about him.

"So, where's the monster?"

"It swept through here just this morning. Usually it attacks twice a day. The ordeal has been unbearable..."

That did not seem an idle complaint: signs of injury remained all over the old lord's body. Judging by his mana, he ranked around the upper-middle range among nobles. Turan privately gave him credit for being a shepherd who had personally risked his life to defend his territory's sheep.

"You look injured. Rest. We'll handle the hunt ourselves."

"Ah, I appreciate the thought, but as lord, I must..."

"Rest. Its mana is mine."

At the order, delivered with undisguised greed, the old noble withdrew with a look of regret.

In any event, a monster that had reduced a lord amply qualified to lead an ordinary house to this state must possess at least upper-tier noble-caliber mana. Since it had failed to kill him, it probably fell short of the top-ranking tier. Jemel certainly seemed to have prepared prey perfectly suited to his son. Turan began considering how to fake his own death.

* * *

After exchanging brief greetings, the force set up camp near the shore to prepare for the monster's attack rather than resting in the lord's mansion. The adjutant watched Turan anxiously, apparently expecting him to object, but sighed in relief when he told her, "I can't be bothered. Handle the command yourself from now on, too."

One unexpected development was the Tamer's declaration that neither he nor his orca would participate in the battle. He explained that the creature was not aggressive and had never received proper combat training, so it could not fight.

"But even helping us move alongside the monster would be useful..."

"Absolutely not! Out of the question! I've already discussed this with Master Jemel. This fellow isn't merely my best friend. He's a valuable means of transportation for Karmine."

"Let him do as he likes."

The adjutant was clearly unhappy to see such a capable asset shirk its duties, but with Turan, the captain himself, letting it pass, she had no choice but to do the same. The decision naturally displeased the rest of the force.

"They said he was a notorious little bastard. Now that I've met him, I can see why."

"He really is capable, isn't he?"

"With a personality like that, they'd have thrown him out long ago if he weren't. Let's put our faith in him."

On top of his brusque manner and questionable leadership, he had kicked over a table because the food at their temporary camp was poor, sending Onil's reputation crashing down. Unlike the servants at the main house, who were accustomed to the original man's tyranny, most of the knights dispatched here knew him only by rumor. Their unfamiliarity with such behavior only fueled their dissatisfaction.

A few hours passed as Turan watched the ruins being rebuilt. Around sunset, he narrowed his eyes at a signal from the Holy Relic's senses.

'Here it comes.'

Its mana fell in the middle of the upper tier, roughly equal to the real Onil's. An enormous octopus, each arm some ten meters long, was crawling ashore. At the sight, the members of the force swallowed hard, grabbed their weapons, and stood.

"Everyone, hold formation as you were trained! Stick strictly to support! We'll handle the main fighting!"

At the adjutant's shout, Karmine's wizards prepared to attack the octopus. The knights first drew vast quantities of water from the nearby sea under their control. Although they had not manifested the power of the Rapids bloodline, their extensive practice allowed them to manipulate water more smoothly than other wizards, gathering a great mass of seawater.

The nobles, including the adjutant, divided it appropriately and fashioned weapons of ice. Naturally, Turan took control of the largest portion, which had been left for him, and formed an enormous ice whip. Setting the Holy Relic to the Karmine bloodline and using only an upper-tier noble's worth of mana let him wield the kind of power the real Onil would have used.

"Here it comes!"

Had it sensed the wizards' aura? The octopus struck first. A large tube protruded near its eyes, then spewed a torrent of ink.

"Aaaaargh!"

"Gah, my eyes! My eyes!"

A few unlucky knights at the front were drenched and screamed, but most fortunately dodged or used fluid manipulation magic to take control of the ink and ward off the attack. Turan, stationed safely at the very rear of the formation, did not even need to move a foot.

"Kill it!"

"You fucking octopus!"

Enraged by the monster's opening attack, Karmine's wizards immediately retaliated. A long ice spear pierced one arm, while several arrows fired from a conjured bow, like the one Bisen had once used, narrowly missed its eyes. Several ice blades wielded by the adjutant, the strongest of the other nobles, sank into its massive head and made it writhe in pain.

Then Turan's enormous whip, some thirty meters long, severed one of its arms in an instant.

"Oh!"

"That's our captain!"

The shout from a knight who had been bad-mouthing him behind his back only moments earlier was amusing, but Turan suppressed a smile and faced the monster with a serious expression. The key here was balancing offense and defense.

Attacking too powerfully and killing it would defeat his original purpose, but appearing so helpless as to arouse suspicion would also be a problem. At the same time, he did not want to watch the force placed under his command die, so he devoted more and more of his efforts to defense.

"Get out of the way!"

"Th-thank you, Captain!"

His ice whip swiftly snatched up a knight who had nearly been swept away by an octopus arm and flung him clear. Letting the thanks pass unheeded, Turan watched the Karmine nobles attack ferociously. None could have faced the octopus alone, but with Turan blocking most of its attacks, it could only endure their one-sided beating.

Before long, bleeding blue blood from all over its body, the octopus wheeled around and began moving toward the sea.

"It's getting away!"

"Catch it!"

Had it decided it could not possibly win? The octopus charged toward the sea, trampling and crushing the frost-spike traps forming in its path. The Karmine nobles hastily tried to stop it, but with mana ranging from the lower-middle to middle tier, they lacked the strength to halt a creature with the mana of an upper-tier noble.

The problem was that the strongest among them, the upper-tier noble Onil, was simply letting it go.

"Captain! We can't let it escape!"

"Don't order me around! I'm the captain!"

The adjutant's jaw dropped in horror at that absurdly childish response to her urgent cry. Unlike the low-ranking knights, she knew exactly how despicable Onil was. She also knew he was perfectly capable of letting a monster go merely because his pride had been hurt.

"I'm sorry! It was my fault! Please, lend your strength to stopping—!"

But before she could finish apologizing and persuade him, Turan dashed straight toward the sea after the fleeing octopus.

"None of you interfere! I'll finish it off! I'll kill anyone who follows me!"

"Wh-what...?"

Stunned, the members of the force did not dare follow. This was an order from Onil—a close relative of the House Head, a powerful noble, and their captain. Disobeying would earn them nothing but abuse, even if they risked their lives.

Thanks to that, Turan was able to leave the force behind and dive into the sea alone after the octopus. Swallowing the seawater that filled his mouth felt as refreshing as taking a deep breath. This was underwater breathing, an additional ability that came with the Rapids bloodline.

He pursued without any difficulty breathing, and before long, the octopus sensed him and wheeled around. Had it decided it stood a chance once it realized only one enemy was following? Its remaining five or so arms spread wide and encircled him.

Onil, an upper-tier Karmine noble, might have been alarmed or frightened in this situation...

'Goodbye.'

The instant Turan extended his hand and projected his mana at full strength, more than a dozen ice whips like Onil's formed and tore through the octopus, destroying its brain and killing it. Its arms twitched a little longer thanks to their separate nerves, but that was merely a futile death throe. It made the force's desperate battle moments earlier seem almost pointless.

Having dispatched the monster so easily, Turan immediately took Onil's corpse out of his High-Capacity Pouch. Kept frozen ever since the killing, it remained fairly fresh. Of course, it was in somewhat worse condition than it had been immediately after death—

'But once it's swollen with seawater, no one will notice.'

* * *

"Where's the captain?"

"Still nothing..."

"Damn it, should we have followed him?"

"That rotten bastard! All because he wanted the glory for himself...!"

"The crazy bastard."

Hours after the battle, the exhausted members of Karmine's subjugation force were still pacing anxiously along the shore, unable even to sit down. Their leader, Onil, had plunged into the sea alone, declaring that he would kill the octopus monster.

The nobles had belatedly dived in to look for him, but finding any trace of someone who had vanished into the nighttime sea was impossible. In the end, they could only light bonfires on shore and search the surrounding area, hoping Onil would emerge.

Then a knight came running from the distance, his face deathly pale.

"F-found them! The octopus and the captain!"

"Where?!"

The Karmine nobles raced to the spot the knight indicated, and their faces froze at the sight before them. The octopus monster's carcass was riddled with wounds from something sharp, as though bearing witness to a tremendous battle to the death. It lay sprawled on the beach as if washed ashore by the waves, with Onil's headless body wrapped in one of its arms.