Back in his days as a shepherd, which now seemed like the distant past, Turan would often gaze east as he tended his sheep. That was where the world he imagined lay—something endlessly vast and unfathomable.

He had never dreamed that a few years later, he would have explored almost all of that vast world, much less that even it would prove too small, forcing him to turn his gaze beyond the west.

* * *

“So this is your home, Turan...”

Early that morning, Vije finally landed in a valley on Hisaril Hill with Turan’s party aboard. There was a faint tremor in Maysa’s voice as she surveyed their surroundings. Solif brushed his hand over the grass and spoke.

“Will Father and Mother really be comfortable here? There’s literally nothing around.”

Sparse weeds barely reached their ankles. The hills and valleys stretching into the distance were all bare, with scarcely a few trees growing on them.

“All I need is somewhere the sun shines so I can worship.”

“As long as we have food and water, I don’t mind. I’ve already spent an entire year locked in a room, after all.”

At the Baraha couple’s untroubled replies, Solif let out a small sigh and shook his head.

“We bought plenty of things to keep them entertained in the cities along the way, so they won’t be bored. This may be a poor region, but not so poor that nobles need to worry about feeding themselves.”

Hadn’t even Keorn hunted wolves around here? And the appearance of that leopard monster meant there were quite a few animals in the foothills of the Sky Mountains.

Of course, people couldn’t live on meat alone. They would need a source of drinking water and land to farm. But Turan, who had roamed this area constantly since childhood, had already planned for that.

“This is the hideout I had in mind.”

He led the group to a small basin several kilometers south of their landing spot. It was quite deep, and the complicated bends of the cliffs above made it difficult to look down into it. Even its entrance was concealed.

“How in the world did you find a place like this?”

“There wasn’t anything to do here except herd sheep and wander around.”

A commoner shepherd might have been another matter, but even when he was weak, Turan was a noble who could easily run dozens of kilometers in an hour. There was practically no terrain in the vicinity he didn’t know.

The others exclaimed in admiration at the open space inside the basin. Despite being enclosed, it received plenty of sunlight, and the level ground, covered in fine grass, looked well suited to farming.

“This really is nice. All it needs is a water supply.”

“Groundwater?”

“Looks like we’ll have to put in some work again.”

The land reclamation project in the south had already given them more than enough practice with earth-alteration magic. Starting outside the basin, they immediately began digging up the surrounding ground.

The nobles’ formidable mana produced tunnels dozens of meters deep in moments. Barren wasteland or not, it took little time to find a stream or two of groundwater.

“Water over here! A pretty strong flow!”

“Good. Stop digging and let’s bring it over from there.”

Before long, they had diverted the groundwater to create a small well inside the basin. Its clear water was suitable not only for washing, watering crops, and supplying livestock, but for drinking as well.

Next came building a house to live in. Naturally, others had long since taken every bit of timber suitable for construction nearby, but as a local, Turan had anticipated that.

“You two, move aside. I’m putting all the posts here.”

“Who has the straw?”

“This is it, right?”

As they passed through various cities, they had purchased all sorts of building materials: wooden posts and doors, glass windows, roof tiles, bricks, and other things difficult to obtain in such a remote region.

Of course, having the materials didn’t mean a house would simply spring up, but they were no strangers to construction. Not only had they rebuilt a burned village, they had also thrown up homes for the settlers pouring in during the land reclamation project.

They compacted the ground, neatly positioned the materials with telekinesis, and used magic to reshape anything that fell short or didn’t fit. The building rose in no time.

“Our son is even good at building houses!”

“Though he seems to be doing the least work...”

Godis’s rather blunt response to his wife’s praise of Solif earned him a slap on the back. He quietly averted his gaze.

A few hours later, a respectable brick house stood in the middle of the basin. It was three stories tall, with about ten rooms.

They had designed it generously, with room not just for the Baraha couple’s bedroom, but for any future visitors to stay comfortably. At the very least, Turan and his companions would be sleeping here tonight.

“Building and decorating a house yourself is kind of fun. I never knew I’d enjoy this.”

“You weren’t interested at all when we were choosing the furniture.”

Solif had been whistling as he set down a bed. With no answer to that, he chuckled and made himself scarce.

Turan turned to look at the well through the window and voiced a sudden thought.

“Maybe we should make a small pond and stock it with fish.”

“How would you bring them here?”

“There’s a lake about four hundred kilometers away. We could use fluid manipulation magic to carry the fish and water together...”

“Come on, someone would definitely spot us on the way.”

“I suppose so.”

He had been enjoying building a home with magic so much that his ideas had grown a little unreasonable. Once the hideout was finished, the five travelers and their black eagle shared food and drink in the small garden in front of the house, celebrating the end of their journey.

* * *

As the feast was winding down, Turan quietly rose and headed toward the back. Solif called after him.

“Hmm? Where are you going?”

“I thought I’d visit my old house.”

“Want me to come?”

“I’ll be fine. Stay and look after your parents.”

They would be separated again soon, so he ought to treasure his time with his parents. Solif knew that as well, and nodded before turning back.

Just then, Maysa slipped up behind Turan.

“I want to come too.”

“It won’t be very interesting. We can’t let anyone see us, so I’m only going to take a quick look.”

Why else had they gone to the trouble of finding this spot and building a new house when there were several inhabited villages nearby? It was a precaution against anyone who might someday follow his trail to his hometown. If they settled in a village, a few casual inquiries would easily expose their identities.

“It’s nighttime, so we won’t stand out anyway. Two of us should be fine, right? I want to see where you used to live.”

Turan smiled in surrender and pulled her along. A little later, they coaxed Vije—who was patting her belly after stuffing herself with jerky—into taking off from the basin.

After about a minute of flight, pressed close together, they spotted a sheep farm atop a low hill.

“Is that it?”

“Yes. It’s been quite a while, but nothing’s changed.”

It had been a little over three years now, not quite four, hadn’t it? That was a short time for much to change, even with someone else living there.

Concentrating on the presences inside, he sensed three people and two dogs. Presumably, they kept sheepdogs because they couldn’t control the flock with magic as he had.

“They repaired the fence where it was damaged, and it looks like they slaughtered the sick one... The chief must have brought in a fairly skilled shepherding family from somewhere. I thought he’d just pick one of the village layabouts and send him up here.”

After briefly explaining what he had seen, Turan turned to find Maysa staring at him.

“What?”

“Nothing. Hearing you talk like that makes it sink in that you really were a shepherd. It never quite felt real before.”

“Really?”

“Anyone looking at you would think you’d never done a hard day’s work in your life.”

Turan felt his face, then smiled sheepishly and shook his head.

After looking over the home he had returned to after so long, he headed to the foot of a cliff about a kilometer away. A small gravestone stood there.

“Is this...?”

“My mother’s grave.”

“You buried her here instead of in the village cemetery.”

“I thought the villagers might dig her up later if I buried her there. We were on terrible terms.”

Perhaps remembering what he had told her of his past, Maysa looked at him with sympathy.

Turan tidied the grave, which had grown desolate after years of neglect, then clasped his hands before it and closed his eyes. He recalled everything he had experienced, and the hidden history of his mother and father that he had learned.

‘Why didn’t you tell me, Mother?’

Of course, the answer came from his own mind. Back then, he had been too young and weak to bear such secrets. Most likely, Bijella hadn’t known how gifted he was, or how powerful a wizard he could become.

“There are so many things I’d ask her if she were alive.”

“Like what?”

“What kind of person my father was, what exactly she was running from. Things like that...”

But the dead could not return to life. Suddenly, Turan thought of the soul magic he had been practicing so diligently lately.

Wasn’t someone who awakened spiritual awareness supposed to be able to see and speak with the souls of the recently dead? Surely “recently” didn’t extend to years.

A few minutes passed before a presence beside him made him open his eyes. Vije stood next to him, eyes closed and head bowed deeply toward the grave.

“You little thing.”

* * *

After returning to the hideout and staying for a day, Turan’s party began preparing in earnest to climb the Sky Mountains.

In truth, there was little to prepare. They had already purchased almost everything needed for survival along the way and stored it in the High-Capacity Pouch. All that remained was to send Vije to hunt a couple of deer far from the hideout, giving them a plentiful supply of fresh meat.

“Well, we’ll be off now.”

“Please don’t push yourselves. This is already a perfectly good place to live...”

“I told you not to worry, Father. We’re just going to take a look. Just a look.”

Solif’s bold assurances only seemed to deepen the concern on his parents’ faces. After reminding them once more that this wasn’t a particularly dangerous undertaking, Turan boarded the swing tied to Vije’s legs. It felt strange to have all three of them riding it again after so long.

“I’m a little nervous.”

“Me too.”

“A little tension is good for you. Let’s go, Vije.”

The black eagle took off with the swing, and soon the Sky Mountains drew near. They had looked impossibly vast even from a distance. Seeing them up close, Solif gasped.

“Hey, I can’t even see the top. Are you sure we can climb this?”

“We’ll try, at least. Up!”

At Turan’s cry, Vije stopped advancing and began circling upward. They rose from their usual cruising height of several hundred meters to a thousand, twelve hundred, then fifteen hundred meters, and everything on the ground shrank.

“At this rate, it might be pretty easy...?”

As if waiting for Solif to mutter those words while looking down, Vije gradually began to slow. Turan clicked his tongue softly and shook his head.

“It looks like flying much higher is going to be difficult.”

One of the things Turan had wondered after first taking to the skies with Vije was just how high she could fly. Several test flights had taught him that the higher they went, the thinner the air became, making proper flight difficult.

The same was happening now. No matter how hard Vije flapped, there was too little air for her wings to catch, and the swing could not rise quickly.

Turan and Maysa—and even Solif—joined in with wind magic, briefly increasing their rate of ascent, but that did not last either. Just as water magic was difficult to use without water, or fire magic beneath the sea, wind magic was difficult where there was little air.

The thinning air even began to affect the three travelers’ breathing. Of course, powerful nobles like them could last several hours on a mere breath of air, so it was not a serious blow.

“Vije! Head for the mountains!”

Hearing the shout from below, Vije mustered every last bit of strength and beat her wings, managing to draw alongside the mountain. Turan reshaped part of the cliff to make a ledge large enough for the swing. She practically tossed it onto the ledge before landing, panting for breath.

“Good work, Vije.”

It had been a short flight, but the all-out effort at the end had clearly exhausted her. Turan stroked her head, then let her perch on the metal rod at his side to rest.

“Now it’s our turn to climb.”

“It would be nice if we could just tunnel through to the other side with earth alteration.”

“If it were that easy, someone would have crossed ages ago.”

Earth-alteration magic could reshape the surface of the Sky Mountains, but digging any distance inward soon revealed an unknown kind of rock that barred the way. Like the old empire’s buildings, it was nearly impossible to destroy physically, ruling out that shortcut.

“Here, take your climbing gear. One each.”

They looped ropes around their waists to tether themselves together, then began climbing on foot. Maysa, in the middle, looked down and murmured.

“It’s so high... I feel like a fall would kill us.”

“I told you, a simple fall can’t possibly kill us anymore.”

One of the laws of nature he had learned from the librarian was that everything falling had a maximum speed. That limit varied with the object’s weight relative to its volume, its shape, and other factors, but roughly speaking, once a fall exceeded several hundred meters, starting higher would not make it fall any faster.

Thus none of them—not even Vije, physically the frailest—needed to fear dying from a fall here. Compared to the toughness of their bodies, the rocks below were exceedingly soft.

How many minutes had he spent climbing while reassuring his companions? Making footholds with earth-alteration magic made the climb itself as easy as walking, but their breathing continued to grow labored.

“I-I can’t... breathe. Damn it...”

“Save... your breath...”

After silencing Solif’s grumbling, Turan drew as deep a breath as he could, made another notch, and climbed. The Sky Mountains certainly deserved their place among the world’s barriers. Without a top-ranking monster like Vije, reaching even this point would take ages. And this was a forbidding place where an ordinary person would not even be allowed to breathe...

Their one consolation was that the summit was finally coming into view. What lay beyond it? Filled with equal parts anticipation and fear, Turan kept climbing in the lead, cutting holds for his hands and feet.

“You...!”

“Wai...!”

He could barely hear his companions behind him anymore. Was it because they were so short of breath, or because the air itself was too thin to carry their voices?

In any case, the rope at his waist was intact, so they must still be following. Trusting in that, he kept climbing the nearly vertical cliff without looking back.

And at last—

“Ah...”

From the very top of the mountain range, he looked out at the other side.