"Ngh."

Stepping out of the jewelry box, the librarian stretched and twisted from side to side like someone who had spent a long time confined in a cramped space. Did spirits suffer from sore muscles too?

Turan gave him a moment to collect himself before speaking.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"I suppose... Hmm, I seem to have no strength at all. Are we a long way from the library?"

The librarian was looking down at his hands and body as he spoke when he suddenly fixed his eyes on Turan.

"More to the point, why are you the first person I see when I come out of there? Don't tell me you ordered my abduction?"

"Of course not. Quite the opposite—I rescued you."

With that, Turan looked at Maysa and Solif. Their blank expressions were answer enough.

"Neither of you can see him, then?"

"No."

"It just looks like you're talking to yourself."

He had been able to see the librarian when only two of his bloodlines had manifested, so the requirement should have been the number of bloodlines he possessed in potential. Had he been wrong to suppose his companions also had bloodlines that had yet to manifest? Sorting through his thoughts, Turan turned back to the librarian.

"Do you remember how you were captured?"

"I was going about my usual business when some dim-looking fellow came in. I was about to play a trick on him when he suddenly spoke to me. He seemed to know who I was."

"Could you tell me exactly what he said?"

"Well, it went something like..."

True to his perfect memory, the librarian recited their conversation word for word.

["Oh... So there really was a spirit left here? Honestly, if you're going to erase the evidence, get rid of the whole thing. Why do such a half-assed job?"]

["A spirit? Are you talking about me?"]

["Who else? Hey, artificial intelligence. Have you told anyone anything strange lately, or heard anything? About the Biologist, for instance, or soul-transmigration techniques."]

["... I have no idea what you're talking about. If you're not here to read, get out. No disturbances in the library."]

["Tch, there's really no talking to you. Well, we can discuss the details when we get back. I've got a friend there who can make you talk."]

"When I asked him what the hell he was talking about, he took out that jewelry box and opened it. My consciousness was sucked straight inside, and the next thing I knew, I was here."

"... Did that dim-looking fellow happen to look like this?"

Turan drew Renod's face on the ground with earth-manipulation magic. The librarian nodded at the likeness.

"That's him."

A chill ran down Turan's spine. That meant Renod had perceived the librarian himself and even spoken to him. Yet when Turan had checked earlier, he had plainly been an ordinary great-house noble with only two bloodlines.

Even the conversation itself was deeply suggestive. He had no idea what artificial intelligence meant, but he could hazard a guess at Biologist. Hadn't the god he had learned about in the library, the one who had freely altered the dwarves, possessed power over life?

Biologist was undoubtedly a bloodline originating from that god. And soul transmigration, as the name suggested, would be a technique for possessing another person's body.

In other words, Renod or the faction that had sent him had realized Turan had discussed something suspicious with the librarian and come to investigate. Perhaps the god who had originated the Biologist bloodline was dwelling inside Renod himself.

Fortunately, they seemed to know neither the particulars nor who the librarian had spoken to. The librarian had refused to tell them about Turan, been sealed away, and only now been released.

"Thank you for keeping my secret."

In truth, Turan had not expected the librarian to go out of his way to conceal his identity. Though he regarded the librarian as a teacher for all the things he had taught him, to the librarian, Turan was merely one of the people who happened to be able to speak to him. The librarian gave a short laugh at his thanks.

"No need to thank me. I didn't do it because I like you. That bastard was just too damned rude."

"Ah..."

Apparently, he had simply taken offense at the condescending questioning. Courtesy really was always more useful than the lack of it.

As they spoke, someone tapped Turan on the shoulder from behind. Maysa looked at him with a somewhat disgruntled expression.

"Um, could you perhaps tell us what you're talking about too?"

"Oh."

To Solif and Maysa, he must have seemed to be talking to himself while drawing Renod's face on the ground. As he carefully relayed everything he had just heard, their faces grew grave as well.

"Hmm..."

"That really is suspicious. Doesn't that settle it? There's something inside this Renod fellow."

"We have to assume so."

Most likely, new bloodlines appeared in him when he exercised his power, as had happened with Badal before. Whether Renod's own personality remained intact was unknown. While his two companions exchanged opinions, Turan quietly addressed the librarian.

"What will you do now, sir?"

"Hmm?"

"If you go back to the library, Renod or whoever is behind him will come to abduct you again. And I doubt you'd be able to stop them."

The librarian gave him an incredulous look.

"Stop beating around the bush, boy. You're telling me to stay quietly by your side if I want to live, aren't you?"

"That is what I was going to say."

"Tch, it can't be helped. At this rate I'll be a jewelry-box spirit rather than a library spirit... Still, this seems to serve well enough as an anchor for my existence."

Fortunately, the librarian agreed to accompany them more readily than Turan had expected. It would have been awkward if he had insisted on returning to the library to fulfill his duties.

Now that they had rescued the librarian and even persuaded him to join them, only one question remained: whether to retreat and let the others return safely to House Nagin's seat, or attack, capture Renod, and extract information from him.

"Let's attack."

"How about we withdraw for now?"

Having voiced opposite opinions, Maysa and Solif stared at each other. After a brief silence, they tacitly agreed to let Maysa speak first.

"Unless they're idiots, they'll notice the jewelry box is missing. If we retreat now, they'll realize the thief was a Zahar noble and that the aim was to rescue the librarian. Naturally, they'll send someone back to Orem City, where the library is, and conclude that we did it. But if we wipe them all out, we can silence them."

She paused to draw a breath, then added in a rather cold voice,

"Besides... House Nagin is our enemy anyway, isn't it? Any reduction in their strength benefits us, and if we capture and interrogate Renod, we can learn an enormous amount about who we're up against."

Turan could sense the malice in Maysa's words. They were plainly laden with hatred for Renod—or more precisely, for the woman of House Nagin who had mocked her in the past.

Even so, the argument itself was fairly convincing and aligned in part with Turan's own thinking. He did not consider it a bad suggestion. Then Solif raised his regenerated hand slightly and offered his view.

"Well, first of all... They'll find out we did it even if we wipe them out, won't they? They were sent to retrieve the spirit—the librarian—in the first place, so if they're annihilated, that's where the investigation will start. To prevent that too, we'd have to kill everyone in Orem City who saw us. And we're not doing that, are we?"

Solif asked with a somewhat uncertain look, so Turan nodded, making it clear that they would do no such thing. Whether they had commissioned a monster hunt or taken his money, the successive lords of House Valtas had still shown him the kindness of allowing him to use the library.

"So whether we wipe them out here or not, we can't keep our identities hidden anymore. And another thing: if what the librarian said is true, isn't it practically a given that there's a god or something similar inside Renod? What if he uses some hidden power when he's cornered? We'd have to be prepared for the possibility of all of us dying if it goes wrong. Is there any need to take that risk?"

Maysa merely chewed her lip at Solif's words, offering no answer. The librarian, who had been sitting quietly and listening, addressed Turan.

"You used to travel all alone. Have you made friends in that short time? Friends you can even discuss things like this with?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. Treasure them. Friends with whom you can exchange opinions are worth more than a thousand gold coins. Not that I've experienced it myself, mind you. It's an aphorism from a book."

"I'll remember that."

After answering politely, Turan passed the librarian's words on to the others, who smiled sheepishly. Having eased the somewhat chilly atmosphere, he told them his decision.

"Let's attack, for now."

"Your reasoning?"

"First, the mana in Renod's body is only upper-tier noble level at best. Even if he suddenly gains two bloodline abilities, I don't think he's likely to grow so dramatically stronger that he could harm all three of us in an instant. If he could, why would he hide like this instead of openly presenting himself as a god?"

"Hmm, well... I suppose so."

"More importantly, this opportunity is worth that much risk. We're unlikely to get a second chance at a god's vessel this unprotected."

"That's true."

Even Solif, who had opposed the attack, nodded as he said this. Turan glanced at Maysa.

"But I don't intend to wipe them out. In fact, we'd be better off deliberately letting some escape. Their main house happens to be close, too."

"Why?"

"We can use this attack to make them suspect someone else rescued the librarian."

Turan opened the Mimic Holy Relic, drew out two portions of mana, and held them out. They were the mana of the Zahar nobles who had died in the underground labyrinth.

"Because the people who attacked House Nagin's nobles and stole the jewelry box were nobles of Zahar."

* * *

"We're under attack! Zahar! It's Zahar!"

"Tell the demigods, quickly!"

"Help me!"

In the dark of night, the barrier sounded its warning as concealed weapons flew in from every direction, striking the knights. Accustomed to the easy pace of the past two months' journey, they were slow to react.

"L-light...!"

One quick-thinking knight hurriedly formed a sphere of light above his hand, but something pitch-black swallowed it before its glow could spread. When the knight's head went flying with it, House Nagin's knights abandoned any thought of exposing the hidden attackers with light and fled in disarray from their unseen enemies.

"Stop! Stop! Don't run, you cowardly bastards! I'm here!"

A noble of the Barrier-user bloodline who had accompanied Renod burst out of his tent. He created a vast light while hastily erecting a defensive barrier around himself. He had no idea why Zahar nobles were attacking them, but they needed to restore their formation somehow if they were to survive.

"Rogi! Come to me! Protect me!"

The moment he called for his soul-bound dog to shore up his defenses, concealed weapons flew in from all sides and tore through his body—into his mouth, open to shout, his neck, and his chest.

Though far from expertly wielded, each carried the mana of a top-ranking noble, giving it more than enough power to shred a mediocre barrier.

"Ghk..."

"Th-the demigod has fallen!"

"Everyone, run! Get help from the main house, or anywhere else!"

That shout set off a rout. Nearly half the surviving knights scattered away from the camp. The three tamed monsters tried to put up a fight, but without the ability to create light, they had no way to counter stealth.

As the three monsters died with their vital points torn apart or pierced, unable to offer any real resistance, Renod and the noble attending him emerged belatedly from the tent and cast a brilliant light. The remaining knights surrounded the two nobles with their bodies to shield them from attack.

A moment later, stealth fell away and human figures appeared in the middle of the devastated camp. A terrified knight pointed at them.

"There. It's them..."

Three Zahar nobles stood revealed in the bright light. All wore large cloaks that covered their entire bodies and masks over their faces. Apart from their differing builds, it was hard to tell them apart.

Naturally, those three Zahar nobles were Turan, Solif, and Maysa.

Turan had learned only relatively recently that he could pass the mana within the Mimic Holy Relic on to others. It had begun with an offhand remark from Solif while they were practicing magic together at the hot springs.

["It would be handy if I could take out some of my Sun bloodline mana and put it in there."]

The Holy Relic still contained a considerable amount of Baraha bloodline mana, but as a consumable supply, it would eventually run out. Maysa's Storm Bloodline also possessed the power of lightning, which Turan still lacked, so it would be useful if she could give him some.

Hearing that, however, Turan had turned the idea around. Perhaps he could give the mana in the Holy Relic to other people instead. To be precise, he had considered it before; he simply hadn't had an opportunity to test it while concealing the item's true nature.

After all, it was only relatively recently that he had gained companions with whom he could share the Holy Relic's existence. And of course, as his two companions' current use of Zahar stealth demonstrated, the experiment had succeeded.

Seeing Turan's party revealed, Renod's secretary shouted urgently,

"Why are you attacking us!? Nagin may have a marriage alliance with Arabion, but we're not at war with you! This is murder without justification! Do you intend to spread Zahar's infamy across the world again?"

"Do as you please."

Answering in a disguised voice, Turan conjured a fireball above his hand and hurled it at the Nagin formation. The other two joined in, forming arrows from the light around them and loosing them, or calling down lightning. After a single exchange, the Nagin wizards turned pale as they understood the gulf in strength.

"Wh-what is this...!"

Turan's party crushed Nagin's resistance with astonishing ease. Though these were not particularly familiar methods of attack for them, the difference in their underlying strength was overwhelming.

Amid the knights who were swept away after withstanding only one or two attacks, the two nobles put up a respectable fight. But they, too, were outmatched. Before long, a concealed weapon pierced the secretary's throat, leaving Renod the only one still fit to fight.

A knight who had barely survived and was rolling on the ground muttered,

"M-monsters..."

To face these attackers, they would need the elite forces from the main house, some two days away—no, perhaps even the House Head in person. But no wizard, however powerful, could notice a battle this far away and come to their aid.

Yet amid all that despair, Renod Nagin did not look frightened. He narrowed his eyes at the Zahar nobles surrounding him, as though he suspected something.

A moment later, he clicked his tongue and stretched both hands toward the sky.

"Damn it. No other choice, then."

The moment Renod muttered those words, Turan, watching him from behind his mask, finally sensed the symbols within his opponent changing.

How much strength he displayed now would determine whether they fled or subdued him. If he proved too powerful to handle, the plan was to immediately use stealth and flee in three directions, after which Turan would ride Vije and retrieve the other two.

As with Badal before, the symbols changed in an instant. Two more emerged alongside the original pair, Dominator and Tamer.

They were crossed axes and a raging blizzard. Turan recognized the blizzard as the symbol of the Frost bloodline he had once seen in one of Arabion's vassal houses.

'Axes, Frost, Dominator, Tamer? What kind of combination is that?'

As though answering his question, the symbols within Renod began to intertwine. Unlike Badal's, however, only two combined. While the blizzard coiled around the crossed axes, the Dominator and Tamer bloodlines haughtily remained in place, as though declaring they had nothing to do with the others.

Meanwhile, in the physical world, Renod was gathering a large quantity of moisture into his hands and freezing it into an axe.

"L-Lord Renod?"

"Before we fight, let me ask you one thing. Do any of you understand what the 'Accord' means? No, are you even really members of House Zahar?"

Ignoring the knight's implicit question of how he had done that, Renod addressed Turan and his companions as they surrounded him. There was not a trace of fear on his face.

And judging by the power now shining within Renod, that confidence was not entirely unfounded. His mana, which had been merely upper-tier noble level moments before, had now reached the top ranks—specifically, the level of Maysa and Solif.

He would probably have been more than capable of overcoming this predicament, had he not been surrounded by three top-ranking nobles who were his equals or stronger.