After waiting another ten minutes or so, leafing through a few books on the first floor, Turan asked his two companions to step outside the library for a moment. He wondered whether their presence was keeping the librarian from appearing.

But even after they left, the librarian did not show himself. Wondering whether even he had lost the ability to see him, Turan asked him to move a book or two if he was there. There was no response.

In other words, the librarian had either vanished from the library or was at least in a state where he could neither affect anything nor communicate. The three of them each took a chair on the first floor and pondered why.

"Why would that happen?"

"I don't know... The war is the only major thing that's happened around here lately, but I don't see why that would affect him."

In the thousands of years since Orem's library had been built, how many wars had been fought nearby, and how often had the city changed hands? If something so trivial could threaten the spirit's existence, he would have disappeared long ago.

"Could it be because he let something about the gods slip? Blasphemy or something like that."

"Well, a god did create him, so maybe... But he didn't mention disappearing when I left last time."

Turan could not be certain, since he had rushed out upon realizing Vije had been abducted, but he remembered telling the librarian he would return, and the librarian simply telling him to do so. Did that mean his sudden disappearance was caused by something even the librarian had not anticipated?

"What if someone destroyed him or captured him?"

"Then just being here would be dangerous. Someone who can interact with the old librarian would have to be a wizard with at least three bloodline abilities, possibly four or more..."

Even the former would be a wizard with potential rivaling the head of a great house. The latter would most likely be something possessed by a divine being. Neither was an enemy Turan and his companions could confront head-on.

"But if they're that powerful, I'll almost certainly detect them first, so don't worry."

As he grew accustomed to the Mimic Holy Relic's senses, he had also grown less conscious of them, often ignoring ordinary people coming and going. He remained sensitive to the movements of powerful wizards, however. That meant that even without concentrating, he would notice the instant a House Head-caliber wizard came within several hundred meters.

As he was reassuring Maysa, the sound of turning pages beside him made Turan look toward Solif, who had been silent for some time. At some point, he had taken a book from a nearby shelf and was now reading it intently.

"What are you reading?"

"This? Looks like a philosophy book from about a thousand years ago. It discusses the Freyan faith and human dignity. Did you read it on your last visit?"

"No, I'm not particularly interested in philosophy."

Every book Turan had sought out in this library had some practical use: monster encyclopedias, histories of various houses, or travelogues, for instance. The knowledge of the laws of nature, now lost and known only to the librarian, had been a bonus.

Solif, on the other hand, was interested in ancient history and mythology, and apparently had come across this book while looking for something on those subjects.

"It says people have inherent rights. The right to survive, prosper, and be happy isn't bestowed by the gods. People have those rights simply by being human. Apparently, ordinary people and wizards should all be considered equal under them."

"That's outright heresy. Amazing it hasn't been burned."

Did that not directly contradict the Freyan doctrine that wizards, as descendants of the gods, protected and ruled humanity by virtue of their bloodlines and power? Scholars would surely be frantic to burn it if they saw it. Perhaps the copy he was reading was the last one left in the world.

After reading a little further, Solif seemed to lose interest. He returned the book to its shelf and spoke.

"I'm not much of a reader, but this place is pretty good. I wish we'd had somewhere like it in the east."

"Nothing like this out east?"

"There are a few ruins from the old empire, but no libraries like this. The one I remember is something like a dueling arena where you can come back to life even if you die fighting, once a day, I think."

As they chatted, Turan realized that the conversation had wandered off course. He turned back to Maysa to resume speculating about the librarian's whereabouts. But she, too, had quietly taken a book and was reading it, just as Solif had been.

"Maysa?"

"Hm? Oh, it just caught my eye, so I was taking a quick look."

For some reason, she looked embarrassed at being addressed and snapped the book shut. Its newly exposed cover bore the curious engraved title The Noble of the Night and the Lady of the House. It seemed to be a romance novel. Apparently, she too was growing tired of spinning theories that led nowhere.

"... Right. It's not as though talking among ourselves will get us an answer. When we go back later, let's ask whether anyone used the library before us."

Having reached that conclusion, Turan opened a monster encyclopedia himself and brought over Vije, who had been curled up dozing on the desk, to read with him.

* * *

After immersing themselves in their books until early evening, the three travelers and their black eagle returned to House Valtas's mansion. A banquet was to be held in honor of their visit that evening. Turan intended to make use of the drink and the convivial atmosphere to ask the lord whether anyone had used the library.

As the maids attended him in the bath, Turan remembered how they had sobbed when he refused their service in the past. Back then, being waited on had felt unfamiliar and awkward. When had he become so comfortable playing the noble?

After combing his hair for the first time in a while and dressing in clothes woven with gold thread, he left Vije to rest in his quarters and headed for the banquet hall. Before long, he encountered Solif, who was equally dressed up. His short silver hair oiled and slicked back, Solif gave Turan an approving look.

"See? Clean yourself up and you're quite handsome! Not as handsome as me, of course. Have a little more confidence, my friend."

"If you say so."

Turan had thought it before, but the man's self-infatuation was downright bizarre. Was that another product of House Baraha's personality molding, or had he simply been born that way?

While they sat chatting on one side of the banquet hall, the Holy Relic's senses alerted Turan to Maysa approaching from behind. He turned, and his eyes widened at the sight of her. Solif turned a moment later and looked equally surprised. Maysa flinched under their gazes and needlessly swept back her hair as she asked,

"... What? Do I look that strange?"

"No, not strange. You look pretty."

Throughout the weeks since leaving the hot springs, Maysa had received regular nourishment and trained, filling out her body with flesh and muscle. Naturally, her once-skeletal face had changed as well.

Her looks, obscured throughout their travels by a disheveled appearance and hasty washes with water, finally shone through thanks to the maids' careful attention. Long, lustrous auburn hair, large blue eyes, and delicate features on an oval face. In place of her usual defensive coat, a silver-gray dress embroidered with gold thread fully revealed her slender, graceful figure.

Truly, no one seeing her now could possibly think of the skeletal witch she had once been. If she wanted a disguise, simply changing her hair color would make it better still. It might be worth looking into a magic tool that could help with that later.

While Maysa stood frozen at Turan's reply, a young man addressed him from behind.

"Are you Turan, by any chance? You really did come back! It's been a long time. You remember me, don't you?"

Turan briefly puzzled over his identity before realizing it was Marvin, with whom he had hunted the monkey monster. The young man was the previous House Head's nephew and the current one's younger brother.

"It's been a while, Marvin."

"Indeed. And who might these two be?"

"Friends I'm traveling with. Sol and Misha."

"Ah, I see..."

Marvin glanced over Solif and Maysa, staring at Maysa for quite some time before immediately projecting his mana. Naturally, having reached his limit long ago, his mana remained at the lower-tier noble level, as Turan's once had been.

The two briefly exchanged a glance, then projected their own mana in return.

"Urk!"

Startled by the pressure washing over him, Marvin cried out and stepped back. Then, apparently embarrassed by his display, he flushed and withdrew.

"Ahem, er... Excuse me. I believe my brother is calling me."

Turan glanced at Marvin's retreating back as he made his excuse, then turned to his companions.

"How much did you use?"

"A little above middle-tier. Upper-middle, maybe?"

"I went straight to upper-tier."

"That's too strong. No wonder he seemed unusually shocked. That much will draw attention, so tone it down next time."

As their words suggested, rather than projecting their full mana, the two had concealed their strength by revealing only a fraction of it. This was one of Baraha's secret techniques that Solif had taught them.

The basic principle was to imagine several mirrors inside the body that reflected mana, then bounce the mana off them repeatedly while projecting it, reducing the power that showed. Naturally, it could not make them appear stronger than they actually were.

Without this technique, they would likely have had trouble projecting their mana to prove their status wherever they went. Nobles in such a remote region might lack the knowledge to recognize them as wizards of a great-house heir's caliber, but word would still have spread that several immensely powerful nobles had suddenly appeared.

A short while later, Gillon, Head of House Valtas, took the seat of honor, and the banquet began.

"Come now, eat your fill!"

"Thank you for your hospitality."

After offering thanks on behalf of his companions, Turan savored the distinctive cuisine of the western wilderness, a region he could call home, for the first time in a long while. Though not as extensively as in the Gray Zone, people here raised quite a few sheep, so there were plenty of lamb ribs, sheep's-milk cheese, and the like.

Naturally, Maysa discreetly drank nothing but water. Solif, too, seemed less than fond of lamb. After a few bites, he turned his attention to dishes such as seasoned pork ribs.

"Well, was the library to your satisfaction after so long away?"

"Yes. It's as wonderful as ever. So much to read..."

Savoring a glass of the strong liquor he had tried on his previous visit, Turan chatted with the House Head. Their topic was the recent war in this region involving Houses Hadit and Corel.

"Actually, while I was far away, I heard Hadit's side was in trouble. I was rather surprised to come back and learn they'd won instead. Valtas supported Hadit, didn't it?"

"We did. We gained another city thanks to it, though I'm at a loss for enough relatives to govern it."

"You needn't tell me if it's a secret, but did you have some sort of secret weapon? It can't be easy to reverse a losing war."

What Turan wanted to know was whether anyone had discovered that he had annihilated House Corel's army. He had concealed the evidence perfectly at the time, but there was always that one-in-ten-thousand chance. Gillon answered with a somewhat sullen expression.

"There was an incident in which House Corel's elite troops suddenly disappeared while on the move. Some suggested a monster too powerful even for nobles to handle had appeared. We even called a truce over it."

"So that's what happened."

"In the end, it remained an unexplained disappearance... But be careful on your travels. There's no telling where you might encounter such a creature. And there's a reward if you find any trace of them. Magic tools and such would have to be recovered, of course."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Did they believe there was a monster so stealthy and dangerous that it had devoured the army without leaving a trace? Then again, monsters came in so many varieties that such a specimen could well exist.

Indeed, the monster encyclopedia he had read earlier described creatures with similar abilities: bats that turned to mist, enveloping vast areas and devouring every living thing within, and snakes that opened enormous jaws and swallowed entire villages.

As they continued chatting about the war and drinking, Gillon muttered, his face slightly flushed. As a noble, he would not drink himself senseless even on strong liquor, but it did lift his spirits somewhat.

"Ah, the war... It truly was terrible! I nearly died several times myself, and our house lost many people, my uncle among them. Izella lost her life then, too. Come to think of it, I hear my uncle wanted to match you with Izella?"

"Ack!"

The instant Gillon finished speaking, Solif, who had been gnawing on a pork rib, suddenly coughed loudly. For some reason, Turan could feel Maysa staring intently at him from beside him.

"He did, yes. But I'd already declined."

"Had you accepted, you might be sitting here in my place. Which brings me to my next question: would you consider taking my daughter? Unfortunately, she was born with only a knight's mana, but even taking her as a concubine could be a good way to strengthen the bond between our houses. Surely a settled life of prosperity suits us nobles better than wandering."

At the offer, so similar to the one House Head Rug had made before, Turan smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Thank you for the offer, but I prefer my freedom for now."

"That's a pity. My other two guests—Sol and Misha, was it? The offer extends to you as well, so please give it some thought."

When Solif and Maysa each declined Gillon's offer in their own way, the mood in the banquet hall grew somewhat subdued. Turan had thought so before, but this family had a gift for troubling people with awkward proposals.

Marvin had probably told him about their strength earlier. The house seemed so short of nobles that Gillon was willing to risk losing control of it to newcomers. Then again, if Turan remembered correctly, House Valtas had had seven or eight nobles, and at least two of them were now dead.

After chatting a little longer about suitable topics, Turan brought up the matter he had come for.

"By the way, did anyone use the library before us? Something seemed different from before."

"Hm? As far as I know, minor damage to the facilities or books shelved haphazardly should sort themselves out. Were a number of books damaged?"

"Nothing like that. It's just a feeling, I suppose. The atmosphere seemed a little different."

Unable to mention the librarian's existence, he found it frustrating to have to talk around the subject. Gillon twisted his beard this way and that with one hand, as though hesitating, then slowly spoke.

"Well... It's in the past now, so I suppose there's no harm in telling you. Another guest did visit about a month ago. We were at war then, and I wasn't going to admit anyone, but he was too important a figure to turn away."

"An important figure? Did he come from a great house?"

Gillon's eyes widened at Turan's question, as if wondering how he knew.

"Exactly. He was a noble from House Nagin up north. I believe his name was Renod?"

At Gillon's words, Turan swiftly looked toward Maysa. Renod Nagin was surely the Arabion House Head's son, Maysa's older half-brother who had been adopted into House Nagin. The one to whom, as a child overcome with rage, she had sent a letter calling him a murderer.

As though to confirm that Turan's memory was correct, a cold, murderous gleam filled Maysa's blue eyes at the sound of that name.