"Greetings to the Master of Parsha. I am the commander of these—"

Turan silently regarded the disarmed Karmine wizards lined up before him and the middle-aged woman standing at their head to greet him. He remembered seeing her while disguised as Onil. She was one of Karmine's upper-tier nobles. Since she had not attended the secret meeting with Talis, he presumed she was not a god's vessel.

Anxiety was plain on her face and those of the other Karmine wizards. Naturally so. Not only were Parsha's wizards surrounding them, but Parsha's House Head stood right before them.

"I don't care who you are. Answer the question I asked earlier. What is Karmine's army doing here?"

"My apologies, but I cannot readily disclose that. This is strictly an internal Karmine matter... Ugh!"

The woman broke off her excuses with a groan as pressure seemed to crush her entire body. Turan had done nothing elaborate. He was merely applying a little pressure with his mana.

His power had now reached the point where simply projecting mana—something that should have been harmless—could inflict mental anguish akin to suffocation on a knight. Like an ant made fully aware of the sheer size of a whale beside it, anyone who sensed a presence on an entirely different order from their own was helplessly overcome with terror.

"If this were merely an internal Karmine matter, as you say, I would have no reason to concern myself. Sending an army into our territory is another matter. This is your last warning. Speak. What is going on?"

The pressure would have been more than enough to make a fainthearted person wet themselves, yet, surprisingly, Karmine's commander stood firm against Turan's aura.

"You refuse to speak?"

"According to the Ebel Accord, which established Karmine's borders twelve hundred years ago... unless we descend the mountain, this location cannot... be interpreted as Parsha's territory. We came here only to carry out a mission under orders from our main house..."

Turan watched her struggle to answer, then stopped projecting mana. With everyone silent, the only sound on the quiet mountainside was labored breathing. Meanwhile, he discreetly opened the jewelry box and questioned the librarian.

["Elder, may I ask you something? What is the Ebel Accord?"]

["What nonsense are you dragging me out for now? It's a boundary agreement concluded 1,231 years ago between three powers: Karmine, Arabion, and the alliance of houses in the Gray Zone."]

The librarian went on to explain that each power had set its border halfway up the northern mountains of the Gray Zone. Strictly speaking, the area around the summits was therefore something of a neutral zone. Having obtained his answer, Turan clicked his tongue softly and nodded.

"Very well. You're not wrong."

Only then did Turan realize that they had chosen this location with precisely this situation in mind. After all, how could they have known without studying the matter beforehand that this land lay on the boundary between Karmine and the Gray Zone, making it difficult to hold them accountable under customary practice? The accord was so old that even Turan, an avid reader, had needed to ask the librarian about it.

That was probably also why they had merely defended themselves with a barrier instead of attacking the Parsha nobles sent to investigate. It would give them grounds to claim they were in the right. They could distort the story into, "We were only going about our business on neutral ground when they attacked us."

'So why do this?'

Had they truly come to retrieve some treasure hidden atop the mountain? No. If there were anything like that here, Turan would have found it long ago. He had roamed these mountains more than a few times, and almost anything would have registered in the senses of his Mimic Holy Relic.

'Their aim was to draw me here... Could it be?'

What came to mind was the war between Baraha and Ruban, far to the east. Had he not struck first and forced Ruban's army to retreat, they would have reached Helio at just about this time. With Karmine's army prowling along the north of the Gray Zone, House Parsha would naturally have struggled to provide adequate support.

'Come to think of it, that recent request to join the sea-serpent hunt could have served the same purpose.'

He had refused because he feared they might stab him in the back. In hindsight, though, drawing him out might itself have been their objective. If Turan and House Parsha's elite left their main house to hunt great sea serpents, supporting Baraha would naturally become difficult.

Turan studied the commander standing with her head lowered and her face expressionless, then the wizards behind her, before asking casually, "Was this arranged with Ruban beforehand, by any chance?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

Neither the woman who appeared to command the army nor the other Karmine nobles looked particularly guilty at his question. Nor did their scents convey that dizzying despair peculiar to someone whose secret had been exposed.

'Of course. Even if it were true, they wouldn't tell small fry who aren't even vessels.'

His probing had yielded nothing, but Turan thought his hypothesis was quite plausible. Perhaps they had proceeded with the operation even after Ruban's retreat because they could not communicate in real time.

With the sea routes cut off, they too would have to communicate through flying monsters or something similar. Karmine and Ruban were several days' flight apart even for a top-ranking monster like Vije, so news of the defeat very likely had yet to arrive. Having gathered his thoughts, Turan addressed Karmine's army.

"For now, taking into account that you have not crossed the border, I will impose no punishment."

Several of the Karmine wizards sighed in relief. Of course, summarily executing them or taking them prisoner here would have carried political costs for Turan as well. All they had done was set up a barrier and remain encamped in a neutral zone on the boundary between the two houses. But since when did people act on reason alone?

People in power, able to do more than others, tended to be capricious, and the head of a great house stood at the pinnacle of power. It would hardly be surprising if he acted on a whim.

"However, I cannot permit an army of this size to remain directly beside our territory. Leave these mountains as soon as you are released."

"I am sorry, but that decision is beyond my authority."

Not only the Parsha wizards but even the Karmine wizards stared wide-eyed at their commander's stubborn defiance. A great-house head had personally told her to get lost, and she dared talk back?

Until now, she could have excused her actions as merely carrying out her house's orders, but this was different. Even if an enraged Turan struck her dead on the spot, people would say she had brought it on herself. Instead of growing angry at her attitude, however, he spoke calmly.

"I see. Your capital has fallen, and the humans you should be protecting are suffering, yet you cannot stop picking a pointless fight with another house."

His sarcastic words briefly cracked the woman's iron mask. Anger—and shame.

'As I thought. Holding this position serves no real purpose. They're simply trying to provoke House Parsha and prevent us from reinforcing Baraha.'

With that, Turan fully confirmed their objective.

Before long, Karmine's army broke camp and began heading north, back the way they had come. Their commander had stubbornly insisted that her orders required her to hold this position, but her subordinates had prevailed upon her.

Around then, Turan sent Maysa back to Kalamap ahead of him, remounted Vije, and patrolled eastward. To his surprise, he discovered two more units encamped near the mountaintops.

Fortunately, neither commander had the resolve of the first. A mild threat was enough to make them withdraw, and one even admitted to receiving orders to "stall for as long as possible here."

As the sky began to glow with sunset, Turan rode Vije back toward Kalamap and spoke to those seated behind him.

"Well, I've wasted a whole day for a group of busy people. If I'd known it would be this uneventful, I'd have come alone."

"Not at all, my lord! We should have handled something like this ourselves. We can only apologize for forcing you to intervene..."

The speaker was Moson Maburn, son of Vigen's lord and the de facto representative of the wizards dispatched to Parsha. He looked deeply apologetic. As he said, this was not normally something that warranted the personal involvement of a great-house head.

While those sedentary rulers stayed holed up in their main houses, nobles of suitable rank would travel back and forth several times to negotiate, report home, and bring back replies. Resolving a single dispute often took months.

The gods ruling Karmine had probably done this in the hope that Turan would waste his time in just that fashion. He was simply far too active, and had gone out himself to settle it with ease.

* * *

Upon returning to Kalamap, Turan convened a meeting of his senior leadership and explained what had happened. When he finished by sharing his deductions, everyone let out troubled murmurs.

"Hmm. Karmine and Ruban..."

"We're cooperating with Baraha ourselves, so there's nothing strange about them joining hands. But I can't imagine what prompted it. There is no particular friendship between those houses, nor are they geographically close."

As Asiz said, it was difficult to guess why Karmine had suddenly begun cooperating with Ruban to keep House Parsha in check. The two houses were not particularly close by ordinary standards. Nor had Turan heard of any connection between their respective groups of gods that could explain divine influence.

He had even asked Resion and the other half-elves about it, just in case, but received no particularly useful answers.

["The leader of Ruban's half-elves... You mean the Junkie? If you ask what sort of person he is, I would have to say he is a man who will use any means to achieve his ends. I wouldn't say he was especially close to us, either."]

Resion had summoned Ruban's reinforcements when the Parsha–Ravista coalition attacked, but that did not mean the two groups shared a particularly strong emotional bond. In exchange for sending reinforcements, House Ruban had demanded payment that would have been a considerable sacrifice even for a great house.

Then again, even if the two groups of half-elves had been close, some payment would have been necessary for appearances. Ultimately, the vessels ruling a great house were few compared to its overall membership. Even at the very top of the hierarchy, they could not disregard the opinions of everyone beneath them.

["Aren't you among the few White Elves left in this world, though?"]

["Half of us, yes. Our condition is so ambiguous that it's difficult to explain... When we see others in the same state, half of us feels the affection of kinship, while the other half feels hatred. Putting emotions into words is truly difficult. That's the only way I can express it."]

According to his further rambling explanation, when half-elves saw one another, their divine side felt repulsed by the other's elven part, while their elven side felt repulsed by the divine part. It was a feeling Turan could scarcely imagine.

"In any case, what matters is that Karmine has joined forces with Ruban and started meddling with us. We'll have to expand our patrols to cover the entire northern mountain range."

"We've only been watching the northwest until now, haven't we?"

"Yes. I had to check the western forest as well."

Maysa nodded at Turan's words. As part of her daily routine, she had been sweeping from the edge of the western forest to the western reaches of the northern mountains, watching for an Arabion army that might invade at any time.

This time, however, Karmine had intruded slightly east of her search area, in the central and eastern sections of the northern range. Searching those as well would require spending nearly half the day in flight.

"That's far too much time wasted, however you look at it. Perhaps we should extend the beacons into the mountains instead..."

"We're already struggling with the beacons as they are. Because of the eyesight required, we generally need to station at least one knight at each. We don't have that many wizards to spare."

It was Asiz who reined in Turan's idea. As he said, House Parsha was actively growing by accepting wandering nobles and knights, but its underlying strength still fell short of the other great houses.

Establishing and guarding enough beacons to watch the entire northern mountain range would take well over a hundred knights at minimum. Unless they intended to leave perfectly capable knights stuck in the mountains for life, they would need twice that number to provide rotations.

"Hmm. This is difficult."

"Even ordinary wizard houses are always beset by problems. It would be strange if running a great house were easy."

Even so, House Parsha was far better off than the other great houses, riddled as they were with structural contradictions and injustices accumulated over long years. Its members were young and free of antiquated thinking, and its House Head, Turan, actively involved himself in various affairs, as he had today, applying his power precisely where it was needed.

Parsha's senior leaders continued debating the incident's long-term implications and how to respond for some time before finally bringing the meeting to a close.

"In the end, we still haven't come up with a clear solution."

"We'll have to keep thinking about it. Perhaps there isn't a solution at all."

There were always problems in the world that one could recognize yet do nothing about. House Parsha had found various ways to solve many of them, but even they could not accomplish the impossible.

Returning to his quarters late that night, Turan shared a simple dinner with Maysa: soup made with butter and flour, lightly seasoned lamb, and several kinds of fresh vegetables sprinkled with salt.

To the poor, it would have seemed an unparalleled luxury, but it was a modest menu for a great-house head and the woman regarded as his partner. Both Turan and Maysa enjoyed fine food, but neither wanted to wake the chef, who had already gone to bed, so they had prepared something simple.

"This is good."

"Don't you think my cooking's improved?"

"Not enough to brag about yet."

Having teased the boastful Maysa, Turan smiled, cut a piece of lamb, and put it in his mouth. Since overcoming her eating disorder during their travels together, she had been practicing her cooking whenever she could. Still, she remained less skilled than Turan, who had spent years preparing a variety of meals alone with what few ingredients he had.

"I'm still practicing, and you aren't, so I'll close the gap soon enough. And when I do... Mmph."

Their cheerful chatter was short-lived. Maysa abruptly set down her utensils and clapped a hand over her mouth. Recognizing the all-too-familiar sight, Turan narrowed his eyes and asked, "Are you all right? Should we go outside and take a break?"

Ever since leaving Arabion, Maysa had been treating her eating disorder by helping the helpless and rebuilding her self-esteem. That had not changed after House Parsha's founding.

Though she had less free time now, she still regularly made rounds through Kalamap and its surroundings, volunteering to help those in need. Why would her symptoms suddenly return now?

Maysa took several deep breaths and shook her head at his suggestion.

"No, I don't think we need to. It's just... the lamb suddenly smelled so strong. I must have cooked it wrong."

When she had suffered from the eating disorder, what tormented her were visions of her dead mother and younger brother. Hearing them demand how she could dare eat after leaving them to die had brought on an unbearable urge to vomit.

But the revulsion she felt this time was entirely different. The roast lamb she normally enjoyed had simply become almost impossibly repulsive.

Had all the luxurious food she'd been eating spoiled her palate? If not, could it be...?