After finishing his discussion with Solif, Turan summoned Berit and told her what they had decided. Her reaction was rather more dramatic than he had expected.

It was quite entertaining to watch Solif's eyes go wide when Berit abruptly threw her arms around him and kissed him.

Naturally, they did not yet trust Berit enough to reveal all the Jade Mirror's secrets, so she crossed through the mirror to Baraha with her vision blocked. Turan then wrote a letter to Zahar.

[To the ruler of Zahar, from Turan Parsha, Master of Parsha, representative of the Gray Zone, Protector of Kalamap, and, in a personal capacity, your grandnephew.]

[This is to inform you that your granddaughter Berit Zahar, previously dispatched to House Parsha, has been assigned to House Baraha for personal reasons...]

His letter was less a request for understanding than a notification. If Zahar's House Head considered Turan beneath him, it would surely be enough to enrage him.

Yet Turan was certain the man would make no particular response to this action. At least, not until they met in person in roughly three months.

Having concluded that business with the letter, Turan spent the next three days much as usual, attending to all manner of external affairs as House Head and pursuing his own training.

Then, before dawn on the third day, he crossed to Baraha through the Jade Mirror. A servant walking down the corridor stared at him in astonishment.

"M-Master of Parsha..."

"Where's Solif?"

"Upstairs, my lord!"

The half-petrified expression on the Baraha servant's face was enough to tell Turan what the people here thought of him.

Solif had first become acquainted with Parsha as a guest, and remained a welcome visitor in Kalamap even after becoming Baraha's House Head. With Turan, it was quite the opposite. A considerable number of Baraha nobles had died at his hands in the recent battle south of Helio.

In this land, Parsha's House Head was a monster equal to—or worse than—Zahar's House Head, the infamous lord of assassination. Far too many had died to his invisible blade.

After passing several people on his way to the Baraha House Head's quarters, Turan found Solif and Berit.

Seeing the pair getting along rather well, much as he and Maysa once had, he offered a customary greeting.

"Looks like you've been doing well. You're looking better."

"... Do I?"

Berit muttered indignantly at his remark. Contrary to what he had just said, her face actually looked quite tired and haggard.

That was the result of spending the past three days running around under stealth, scouting the Ruban army advancing from the north to ascertain its route, numbers, and members' detailed backgrounds. Lending her Vije had allowed her to scout the distant enemy and return promptly, but ultimately she had to do the detailed investigating on her own two feet.

"The information?"

"Here."

Turan took the parchment she thrust at him and nodded as he read. As one might expect of someone from Zahar, a house skilled in such matters, her map was quite accurate and the contents easy to follow.

Berit had even managed to collect a few hairs from some of their strongest fighters—not the House Head, but those ranked immediately below him. How had she managed that with men who would normally stay within the camp? Seduction?

"But will this really be enough? I still think it'd be better if I went with you."

"It's easier for me to move alone. That's the kind of weapon I've just acquired."

Naturally, he had already told Solif about his new technique, the railgun, but its power was difficult to appreciate without witnessing it firsthand. Folding the information sheet, Turan nodded.

"Good. I'll leave right away. Too many attacks would wear me out, so I'll just go for the morning and come back."

* * *

At dawn, as darkness receded and light arose, a flash erupted beside House Ruban's encampment in the northern land of lakes.

No one immediately understood what had happened. Minds rarely worked smoothly just after waking.

Only after a little time had passed did they realize that Baraha—the enemy they were invading—had launched a counterattack. Light and heat: weren't those the very powers their enemies wielded best?

"The enemy!"

"What are the night sentries doing? Baraha is here!"

Yet their blame of those patrolling the perimeter proved misplaced: there was no sign of the attacker. All that remained was the wreckage left by the flash and the screams of those who had survived at the fringes of the attack.

"It burns, it burns so much..."

"My arm!"

"I can't see anything—"

As the few Healers available moved through the agonized screams, nobles who had been sleeping elsewhere hurried over to inspect the attack's traces.

A single long line stretched from far outside the camp all the way to its center. The shattered ground along its path alone made it easy to imagine the horrifying power of what they presumed had been a projectile.

Even the camp's barrier, which normally could have held out briefly against attacks from dozens of ordinary wizards, had been ripped to shreds. Without it, the attack would have pierced clean through an entire section of the camp.

"What in the world... hit this place?"

"Surely Lord Godrin was staying here."

The mysterious attack had ended at their commander's tent: Godrin Ruban, a top-ranking noble in charge of one of Ruban's five invading legions.

Naturally, his tent had been burned to nothing by the immense heat and pressure, just like everything else in the attack's path. Godrin himself had barely retained the shape of a body. Even that would probably have been impossible had he not been a top-ranking noble possessing both the Fighter and guardian bloodlines.

"Even if he wasn't wearing defensive magic tools because he was asleep... they sniped a noble of the legion commander's caliber from that distance?"

"Someone this powerful must be at House Head level."

They had little trouble thinking of candidates capable of such an attack: Solif of the Sun bloodline, and Turan of the Zahar bloodline.

Turan was, of course, the head of the great house of Parsha far to the west, but word had spread widely that he possessed some means of traveling quickly between the two houses.

"It must be Parsha's House Head. He's always been well versed in throwing or shooting things, and that area should have been within the scouts' detection range, yet none of them saw anyone infiltrate it."

Everyone nodded in agreement at the noble's words. But knowing was one thing; the question was what they were supposed to do about it.

Strengthen perimeter security while encamped? Knights and lower-tier nobles roaming outside the main camp would be no more than insects to a House Head-level opponent. Yet they could hardly have Ruban's House Head personally patrol the perimeter in response.

A powerful Zahar noble was not someone they could uncover that way in the first place. Worse, subjecting their House Head to such physical and mental exhaustion might leave him unable to exert his strength when it truly mattered. Above all, whoever dared make such an impertinent request stood a good chance of offending their superiors.

"First, we must inform the House Head and await his instructions. In the meantime, you will secure the peri—"

Just as the oldest noble among them began issuing orders, another flash erupted in the distance. Unlike before, they were awake this time, and finally saw the attack clearly.

A single metal ball, moving so fast it seemed to stretch into a long streak. It pierced the existing hole in the barrier and swept through the nobles gathered to analyze the attack.

* * *

'I expected this, but it's even more absurd than I thought...'

After launching two railgun strikes, Turan clicked his tongue as he looked down at the devastated Ruban camp, then flew south again. Since he was still unaccustomed to using the railgun, the two attacks had consumed a considerable amount of mana.

He could, of course, fire five or six times if he wished. But it would be troublesome in any number of ways if Ruban's House Head caught him with his mana depleted.

Besides, retreating like this had the advantage of leaving Ruban's wizards with no way to stop him. A Zahar noble who sniped from over a kilometer away and fled under stealth was not someone Ruban, specialized solely in physical combat rather than any other bloodline abilities, could hope to catch.

Flying south, Turan reached Helio again in about an hour. Nearly eight hundred kilometers separated the city from the marching army, but to Vije, that was merely a distance she could cover in an hour of moderately strenuous flight.

Turan returned leisurely to the Temple of the Sun, passed everyone's fearful gazes, and settled into the House Head's quarters to organize documents over a cup of tea. Soon afterward, Solif returned upon hearing he had arrived.

"Back already?"

"Yeah. Probably killed about ten nobles. One of them was top-ranking, too."

Solif let out a disbelieving huff as Turan calmly recited his results. He sounded so casual that anyone listening might have thought he had merely gone out to clear away some local bandits.

"You fight battles like you're taking a stroll..."

"I'm not sure I'd call this a battle, but I've crossed out the faces of the ones I killed. Check them with Berit later."

Turan had used a quill to cross out several of the Ruban nobles' faces that Berit had drawn beforehand. He was recording those he had definitely killed in this attack to obtain a more accurate estimate of the enemy's strength.

"W-wait a moment. Did I hear that correctly? You've already gone and fought them?"

Listening behind them, Berit looked as though she could not believe what she was seeing and hearing.

It was an understandable reaction. Here they were, desperately scraping together a hundred or so nobles in preparation for a war between great houses, and he had killed ten nobles and returned as though he'd been out for a morning stroll?

Of course, Berit could easily kill ten lower-tier nobles scattered along a roadside herself. She was a fairly powerful upper-tier noble, and one of the assassination-specialist Zahar bloodline at that.

But killing ten nobles who were clustered together, protected inside a camp full of barriers and Search Magic Tools—or within a marching army surrounded by scouts—was another matter entirely. However mighty the head of a great house might be, Ruban's House Head was there too. How could Turan so casually dispatch them and come back?

Even riding Vije, each leg of the journey would take an hour or two. That meant he had practically arrived, killed them, and immediately come home. Solif responded calmly to her shock.

"It's Turan."

"What does that..."

"A long time ago, I decided to accept that whatever this bastard does, it's possible. I wouldn't be especially surprised if Ruban's House Head turned up dead tomorrow."

"I'm not that good."

Shaking his head at Solif's excessive praise, Turan chatted with the pair a little longer, then crossed through the Jade Mirror back to Kalamap.

Naturally, Parsha's nobles greeted their House Head without the slightest idea of what he had been doing. If he was absent in the morning, they would merely assume he had slept in a little. Who would imagine he had traveled far to the east and fought a war?

"It's time for the morning meeting, my lord."

"What's on the agenda?"

"Recently, a noble claiming to represent the western forest requested talks..."

* * *

That night, Turan crossed to Baraha again and attacked Ruban's army a second time.

Unfortunately, the surprise attack, launched just as the troops were settling down to sleep in their newly established camp, did somewhat less damage than the first. Ruban's army had already rearranged its tents to limit the harm caused by attacks traveling in a straight line.

'So they've got someone with a decent head on their shoulders, too.'

For all that, however, their forces felt somewhat lacking. Had they thought sending in an army this size would frighten their opponents into negotiating?

In any case, Turan fired his railgun twice again, killed five or six nobles and some fifty knights, then fled. This time, flying monsters poured out from all directions, apparently having prepared to catch him. Unfortunately for them, none could catch the concealed Turan and Vije.

They apparently lacked a high-grade Search Magic Tool capable of seeing through Zahar's stealth.

Three days passed like this. After seven raids in total, Ruban's army finally reversed direction.

They had acknowledged that, at this rate, their army would be halved by the time it reached Helio, leaving them utterly unable to face Baraha's main force reinforced by Parsha.

"What? Ruban's army is turning back?"

"Why in the world?"

Naturally, no one was more bewildered by this development than Baraha's nobles.

Some hated Solif as a false House Head who had usurped his position with foreign aid, and would rather have seen Ruban teach him a lesson. The rest hoped he would fend off the invasion, even if he had to borrow Parsha and Ravista's strength. Neither group, however, had anticipated Ruban simply retreating in the midst of its advance.

Naturally, Turan did not simply wave the fleeing Ruban army goodbye. Just because the aggressor lowered its fists did not mean he had to lower his own.

After four more raids, Turan ended his attacks with one last storm of ice spikes raining upon Ruban's army as it crossed the border between the two houses. It was sensible not to push any farther now that they were entering the enemy's homeland, but above all, a new problem had arisen at Parsha's main house by then.

He suspected Ruban had probably launched its invasion believing this problem would prevent Turan and House Parsha from actively intervening in Baraha. That expectation had merely come to nothing thanks to the Jade Mirrors that allowed free passage between the two places, and the railgun's formidable projectile power.

* * *

Not long after the fierce conflict between the two great houses came to its strangely anticlimactic end, the true reason for the retreat spread throughout the land of lakes. Ruban's retreating troops had stayed in villages and cities along the way, and stories the low-ranking knights exchanged among themselves spread through the locals who had served them.

"Parsha's House Head was here in Baraha?"

"That's right. I heard the retreating Ruban knights talking. Apparently, he treacherously attacked their army under stealth and slaughtered the weak."

"I heard three of Ruban's vaunted legion commanders lost their lives to Parsha's House Head."

"It's not as if he could challenge Ruban's House Head to single combat. They had an army, and he was alone. There's no need to speak ill of someone who fought for our land..."

And so the story of how Parsha's House Head had single-handedly repelled a great house's army began spreading throughout the land of lakes. Of course, the lower classes knew nothing of teleportation magic tools, but they were unconcerned with trifles such as how a House Head from the distant west had arrived here.

They simply brushed it aside, assuming that important people surely had their own ways of doing things. It was rather amusing that this assumption struck at the very heart of the matter.

Thus, a fearsome tale was born in the distant east: that Baraha of the radiant sun was protected by a shadow from the west—the House Head of Parsha, darker and more terrifying even than Zahar of assassination.