After their meeting with Osel, Turan and his companions stayed at Lida's mansion instead of leaving immediately, resting their bodies and minds after their long labors. More precisely, it was a chance to lift Solif's spirits after being cooped up in the middle of nowhere.

Early one morning, Turan was reading in a corner of the annex's sitting room when Maysa emerged from her bedroom. She was drying her wet auburn hair, apparently having just washed.

"Off to the gambling dens again today?"

"Yes."

"He never seems to get tired of them."

Solif left the mansion practically every day, making the rounds of gambling dens throughout Merem. At first he had enjoyed the usual dogfights and cockfights, but lately he seemed to have become engrossed in a gambling game peculiar to the south that involved matching tiles made of animal bone.

"He hasn't complained about running out of money, so he can't be losing too much. Here's a book I just bought. Want to read it?"

"Yes."

Maysa accepted the book Turan held out and sat across from him. Having no particular taste for gambling, Turan often enjoyed reading like this, sitting opposite Maysa in a sunny spot.

Turan chiefly sought out travelogues and histories, while Maysa enjoyed romances and fairy tales. Sometimes they spent hours without exchanging a single word, but it was pleasant to feel the other's presence in the occasional rustle of a turning page.

Of course, that quiet sometimes grew a little tiresome, and then they would leave the mansion together and head into town. Wandering through bustling markets and browsing shops was pleasant enough, but their favorite pastime was still the theater.

"That was a good play."

"Yes...! Elle's song at the end was so sad. And the dancing was spectacular."

Maysa's lofty status as Arabion's heir had kept her from visiting theaters as freely as other people. Her excitement after a play reminded Turan of himself when he had gone to the theater with Asiz. It was such a lovely sight that he regretted not making more time for this when he had had the chance.

On days when a play featured particularly splendid dancing, they would try to recreate it in the annex's garden.

"Was it like this?"

"I think they held their hands a little higher."

On a moonlit night filled only with the chirping of insects, they held hands and spun across the grass, trying all sorts of poses. They passed under each other's arms, hopped, and performed intricate movements that placed their weight against each other's bodies.

When the dance finally ended, Maysa was leaning back as though about to fall, supported by Turan's arm around her waist. They remained still, sharing each other's warmth, and gazed silently into each other's eyes—

"Ah!"

A strong gust swept over them, sending their hair flying and tangling together. Vije, who had been watching from beside them, stamped her feet as she buffeted the pair with wind magic.

"Hahaha! Vije, stop!"

"You want to dance too, don't you? Come here."

In the end, Vije hopped all over their bodies, waving her wings in an avant-garde dance, and the midnight ball ended with everyone bursting into laughter.

* * *

After enjoying themselves in various ways for about three weeks, the three went to say goodbye to Lida.

"Will you be back soon this time as well?"

"I suspect that may be difficult. We've taken on quite a substantial commission this time."

"Don't let that weigh too heavily on you. The House Head only meant for you to catch him if the opportunity arises."

Their commission had come directly from Osel, the Head of Ravista: deal with the house's traitor and recover the Holy Relic. According to Lida, hardly anyone even within House Ravista knew about it. The mere fact becoming widely known would damage the house's standing.

They had heard that three or four upper-tier nobles had each taken their subordinates in pursuit in different directions. But without tracking abilities as exceptional as Zahar's, their chances of finding their quarry were almost nonexistent.

"I can't promise we'll find him, but if we do, we'll make sure to bring it back."

In truth, the unlimited right to treatment promised by the House Head was not especially valuable to Turan's group. Once he killed the traitor and absorbed his mana into the Holy Relic, Turan himself could become an extraordinarily skilled Healer.

Even so, returning the relic was a better choice than having one of them use it.

'If we're caught using the Holy Relic ourselves, even the tenuous friendship we have now will fall apart... But if we return it, we'll have one great house firmly on friendly terms.'

Nagin, Arabion, Zahar, and Baraha. Given that they were potential enemies of at least four great houses and the fallen gods behind them, they needed a friendly great house that was free of divine rule.

At present, Turan's group and Ravista were merely friends who had taken care of a few things for each other. Doing them the considerable favor of recovering their Holy Relic would make a more strategic partnership possible. Perhaps, in the long term, they might even form an alliance against the gods.

Compared with that, a Holy Relic that merely prevented aging without guaranteeing eternal life held little value. Besides, simply storing the Ravista bloodline in the Mimic Holy Relic would grant him agelessness anyway.

"Well, this old woman trusts you. Dependable, kind young people like you are a rarity these days. Whenever you're in the area, don't hesitate to stop by."

"We've had a wonderful time, Lady Lida!"

Solif called out cheerfully, life restored to his face—perhaps thanks to the weeks he had spent visiting taverns and gambling dens. Lida chuckled, evidently pleased by his high spirits, then looked at Turan and Maysa.

"I saw you dancing the other day. You're quite good. I do hope I get to see it again."

At the revelation that Lida had seen them dancing in the garden, Maysa blushed, while Solif tilted his head in confusion. Only Turan, who had known through the Holy Relic's senses that Lida occasionally stopped to watch, gave an embarrassed smile.

* * *

After leaving Lida's mansion, the companions boarded the swing pulled by Vije somewhere out of sight. Instead of flying straight to the South Sea, they headed for the nearby dormant volcanoes. There lay the hot springs where Turan had first met Lida, home to Aicul the Monkey King.

"It's been a while, Aicul."

"This fellow always looks so displeased to see me. Do you hate me that much?"

As Solif grumbled, Aicul snorted through his nose and narrowed his eyes at him. But when Maysa followed behind and waved in greeting, he grinned and waved back.

Vije, now nearly as strong as Aicul, teased him with wind magic and received a flick to the forehead for her trouble. Meanwhile, the three gathered sulfur from the hidden space within the hot springs that Lida had told them about.

They then said goodbye to Aicul and flew toward the eastern sea. Traveling with suitable rest stops, they took about two days to reach the South Sea. Looking down at the coast spread beneath them, Turan opened the notebook listing the hometowns of the people he had rescued from Parayan Island.

"Osti Village, north of the city of Runan... It should be around here."

"Isn't that the village over there?"

With the map of Ravista's territory they had obtained through Lida, locating the towns and villages in at least the western South Sea was easy enough. A short while later, Turan entered a fishing village and met two men and a woman he had rescued.

"Ah, ahh..."

"Master Wizard!"

"Our savior. It is truly an honor to see you again—"

The survivors each reacted differently upon recognizing him. One sobbed with emotion, unable to get any words out; another cried out and prostrated themselves; another tried to express their delight with grand words they could barely manage.

Invited into one of their homes, Turan heard a brief account of how they had been living.

"You saw people getting off at Gorong Village and Tospa City?"

"Yes. We were the very next stop, so I remember clearly..."

"Then we needn't bother visiting those places."

"No, we should still go. I want to see if they're doing well."

It seemed the Red Whale Pirates had kept their promise and returned the survivors to port towns and villages throughout the South Sea. A few, of course, had no home to return to because pirates had completely destroyed their villages. Those people had decided to follow other survivors and settle with them.

"That's what happened to my wife. She told me her hometown had burned down, so I asked her to live with me, promised to provide for her, and brought her here."

At his words, the woman beside him blushed shyly. While suffering abuse at the pirates' hands, they had all looked so sickly they seemed on the verge of death. Seeing them living reasonably well now was a relief.

After talking a little longer, the companions left the village, with the survivors bidding them farewell and promising eternal gratitude.

They continued touring the port towns and villages on Ravista's side. Most of the survivors seemed to have somehow settled back into comfortable lives, but at times the companions encountered something unpleasant.

"Does a man named Sorou live in this village? He would have arrived about six months ago."

"Ah, I remember him. The poor fellow suffered terribly after pirates took him. But not long after returning, he fell gravely ill and..."

"Does he have a grave?"

"A-a grave, you say? Nothing like—"

"He does. Take me there."

The village chief was visibly flustered. Detecting the smell of fear coming from him, Turan all but browbeat him into leading the way to the rescued survivor's grave.

A short while later, Turan used earth-alteration magic to open the crudely made grave and lift out the rotting corpse. He found a large wound on the back of its head. Judging from the marks, a shovel or an axe had been used.

"Anyone can see he didn't die of illness."

"I-I don't really..."

"Tell me the truth, and I'll give you a painless death."

Already suspecting the chief's involvement, Turan made liberal use of his torture techniques and extracted a confession: the chief and several influential villagers had conspired to murder the survivor. The motive, naturally, was the generous resettlement money Turan had given each survivor.

Those who still had friends or relatives in their villages rarely faced such trouble. But those who had lost their entire families and settled alone often encountered problems of this kind.

Each time, Turan used gruesome torture to root out the culprits, tore them limb from limb, and hung them at the village entrance.

"We should r-report this to the city..."

"Shh. Be quiet."

Naturally, the villagers were terrified of a wizard who appeared without warning to torture and kill their leading citizens, but Turan paid them no mind. Ravista would overlook petty crimes of this sort on his part anyway.

"Whoa."

"Let's go now."

Solif and Maysa seemed appalled by his brutality, but they did not intervene. They had heard how the prominent men of Hisaril Hill's village had once nearly stolen his sheep farm. Anyone who was not a fool could readily guess that Turan saw in these people the men who had persecuted him.

After visiting about ten such places, they traveled by boat around the South Sea and eventually returned to Parayan Island for the first time in a long while. Solif leaped ashore and whistled as he surveyed the coast.

"So this is the land of gold!"

"Didn't you tell him about this place?"

"I did, but I've never actually been here. I was only passing on something I'd heard."

As he said, Solif had told Turan about the island where saltpeter could be found, but he had merely relayed a story from a pirate he had been traveling with at the time.

They made some rudimentary repairs to the pirates' quarters, which had fallen half into ruin after long abandonment, and spent the night there. At dawn, they entered the mine in the island's interior.

"Right, time to get back to work."

"Damn it. I can't believe we're doing this again."

"Stop complaining and get to it."

The three took up pickaxes and tore into the ground around them, just as Turan had done before. Along the way, they maintained and repaired the ceiling with the earth-alteration magic and telekinesis they had become thoroughly familiar with during the reclamation project.

Of course, all three were far stronger than Turan had been back then, making their work exceptionally efficient. The mine, which had already endured an invasion by one wizard miner, now had more holes than an anthill.

By the time they emerged after a full day in the mine, they had secured hundreds of kilograms of unrefined gold and silver, along with over a ton of saltpeter.

"This should really keep us supplied for a while."

"Definitely. We've gathered far more than we used before."

They had not only consumed a vast quantity of Spirit of Fire in the battle with the great sea serpent, but had continued using it for practice afterward. Their once-abundant stock had dwindled dangerously low. They had come to Parayan Island to replenish it by gathering saltpeter in bulk.

While Turan mixed up Spirit of Fire with sulfur and charcoal, Maysa and Solif fashioned the gold and silver they had gathered into ingots. Thanks to the molds they had requested from Lida beforehand, they only needed to repeat the process of melting and cooling the metal. It was not particularly difficult.

Before long, great heaps of black powder, gold bars, and silver bars stood before the mine.

"All done."

"Ha! We're rich. Well, perhaps it isn't an enormous fortune by great-house standards."

"It's more wealth than wandering nobles have any business carrying around."

Each took a share of the Spirit of Fire, but they buried the gold and silver deep inside the mine, keeping only a small portion out. Though each of them had a High-Capacity Pouch—Solif's was a backpack—storing all that precious metal might leave them without room for things they actually needed.

"I wonder if someone might dig it up."

"No one seems interested in this island anymore, so it should be fine. Even if someone finds the mine, they'd have trouble getting down to where we buried it."

Indeed, after the three had dug it up so thoroughly, the mine was virtually an ant colony. The slightest disturbance could trigger a chain of collapses. Unless someone already knew that piles of gold and silver lay buried at its deepest point, they would surely have no desire to enter such a place.

Something seemed to occur to Solif, and he murmured, "Maybe this is how those old treasure maps came about. If we died now, this would be a legend of an immense treasure sleeping on some island, wouldn't it?"

"You're right."

The three looked at one another and burst into silly laughter.

* * *

With their business on Parayan Island finished, the companions visited the Red Whale Pirates to see their leader, Tasan. Delighted to see not only Turan, whom he had agreed to treat as an elder brother, but also his old drinking friend Solif, Tasan bumped shoulders with the latter—and cried out in pain.

"What have you done to make yourself so tough?"

"Heh heh. That's a secret."

Solif had always been far stronger overall, of course. But as someone of the Sun bloodline, his physical abilities had been far inferior to Tasan's Strongman bloodline. Now that he had awakened the guardian bloodline, his physical abilities alone matched or surpassed Tasan's, and his durability was far greater.

When Tasan then shook hands with Turan and discovered that he, too, had become physically stronger than him—Turan had activated the Berserker bloodline in advance for this very purpose—he looked rather crestfallen.

"You must all have had some remarkable adventures. Anyway, that beautiful young lady over there—is she your partner, brother?"

"Not yet."

Turan answered quietly enough that Maysa would not hear, but Solif was closer and caught his reply, letting out a snicker.

A little later, the three were chatting over drinks at Tasan's residence. When Turan brought up the return of Parayan Island's survivors to their hometowns, Tasan laughed heartily.

"Of course it all went well! I, Tasan, have never failed at anything I've staked my name on!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Naturally!"

He and Solif bumped fists in perfect unison, looking so much like brothers that Turan burst out laughing before spilling a heap of gold bars onto the table. Only then noticing the High-Capacity Pouch, Tasan widened his eyes and looked back and forth between Turan and the pile of gold.

"Hm? What's this?"

"Something to help run your household. It never hurts to have money to spare."

"No, I wasn't—"

Turan reached out and covered Tasan's mouth before he could say that he had not done it for a reward.

"Don't think of it as payment. Call it an investment, or a gesture of goodwill toward House Red Whale, which rules one part of the South Sea."

"House Red Whale?"

"A group of wizards protecting humanity is a house."

At Turan's words, Tasan worked his lips as though at a loss for a reply, then abruptly turned his head away. Turan could not see clearly, but his eyes seemed to have grown a little watery.

Once that swell of emotion had passed, Tasan, his face flushed as though somewhat drunk, brought up something unexpected.

"Come to think of it, I saw something frightening a little while ago."

"Frightening?"

"A warship bearing a house crest I'd never seen passed near this island. The instant it encountered a pirate ship, a flash of golden light poured out and cut the ship clean in two. I was going to help, but when I saw that, I turned tail and ran. If they'd chased me, I might have died."

The moment they heard about the golden flash, all three faces hardened at once. The description alone made it unmistakable: Baraha's secret art, the Light of Judgment. Moreover, anyone who could cleave a ship in two with it in a single stroke had to be at least an upper-tier fighter.

"Remember it, in case you run into them. They could be dangerous. In the middle of the sail was a yellow circle covered in white triangles, with four symbols like this underneath."

Apparently deciding words would not suffice, Tasan spilled a little liquor and drew the design directly on the table with his finger. In the middle was what appeared to be a sun, with four star-like symbols beneath it.

At the sight, Solif's expression stiffened, and he rose from his seat.

"A moment. Can I speak to Turan, Tasan?"

"Hm?"

Tasan looked hurt at the prospect of being left out of a private discussion, but soon nodded, perhaps deciding it was unmanly to sulk over such a thing. After drawing Turan aside, Solif heaved a deep sigh.

"What he just described is Baraha's crest."

"I thought it might be."

A yellow circle surrounded by triangles generally represented the sun. With the account of the Light of Judgment as well, it was easy enough to surmise that a Baraha warship had passed through.

But judging by Solif's expression, that alone was not why he had pulled Turan aside.

"The stars underneath indicate the bearer's status. One is for the house's attendants or vassal houses, two for ordinary members and the heads of vassal houses, three for elders or senior members holding particular offices, and... four can only be used by the House Head."

In other words, the ship Tasan had just described carried none other than the Head of Baraha himself.