“Does anything hurt? You won’t get treatment like this often, so we should make absolutely sure while we have the chance.”

“Not at all! If anything, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so light on my feet!”

Perhaps because her injured waist had caused her so much discomfort, Maysa exclaimed with a child’s excitement. As she ran her hands over her waist, now smooth and unscarred, she suddenly remembered that she was not alone and looked embarrassed.

“... Pretend you didn’t see that.”

“The freshness of youth is always a pleasure to see. Now, let’s get you changed first. Those blood-soaked clothes are an unsightly mess.”

With a fond smile, Lida took Maysa into a small adjoining room and helped her into fresh clothes. When they emerged from the treatment room, Solif and Vije, who had been waiting outside, whipped their heads around.

“Well? Was the treatment successful, my lady?”

Still playing the servant, Solif addressed Turan and Maysa deferentially. When they nodded in answer, he clenched his fist in delight. Beside him, Vije repeatedly spread and folded her wings to express her relief.

“Come, let’s go. We’ll tire the House Head if we stay too long. He’s sent all the retainers away for your sake.”

Turan had indeed thought the residence seemed far too empty for a House Head’s home. As they left with Lida, he quietly thanked her.

“Thank you for your help, Lady Lida.”

“Did I help you with anything?”

“You urged the House Head to trust us.”

“Because I thought you seemed trustworthy. So please don’t disappoint me. I’ve been betrayed many times in my life, but being stabbed often doesn’t make the knife hurt any less.”

“We would never do that.”

“Of course,” Lida replied to his assurance with a generous smile. As they walked through the main house talking, every Ravista noble they encountered paid her the utmost respect.

Turan had seen the same on their way in, but recalling her exchange with the House Head cast it in a new light. A top-ranking noble certainly commanded reverence even within a great house, but they treated her with a deference that went beyond that.

“You said the House Head was your younger cousin, didn’t you, madam?”

“Indeed. Though in age, he’s not much different from my grandchildren. Family troubles kept him from growing up with his parents, so I nursed and raised him myself. As it happened, I had a son the same age. They’re milk brothers, and still quite close.”

That explained why the House Head was so helpless before Lida, and why everyone else stood in such awe of her. She was effectively his mother.

She was probably sharing this previously unmentioned story to make her standing clear—a reminder that neither side should break their promise and create unpleasantness.

Just then, Maysa, walking beside them, asked a question.

“I heard the Koloa region the House Head assigned us is particularly difficult to reclaim.”

“Hmm, I’ve never actually been there myself. It’s on the southernmost frontier of Shiraf Marsh. But I’ve heard the terrain is so harsh that the effort of reclaiming it wasn’t worth the return, so it was abandoned.”

In other words, it was too difficult for the house to reclaim with its own people, but perfect for putting a sudden windfall of free labor to use.

‘About a hundred kilometers on each side, was it?’

If they merely had to cross it, running or flying would take no more than an hour or two. Reclaiming an entire marshland was another matter. Especially since none of them knew anything about land reclamation.

“But is there a reason to reclaim such a remote area? There’s plenty of marshland around the capital that could be reclaimed...”

As Maysa pointed out, if all they wanted was farmland, there was no reason to reclaim the distant southern frontier. Lida answered her question with an amused smile.

“Apparently there are several rich mines nearby.”

Of course. One could never have too much money.

After they returned to Lida’s residence, discussing various aspects of the reclamation along the way, Solif let out a deep sigh.

“An area that size will keep us stuck here for years. Maybe more than ten.”

“Will it really take that long?”

In answer to Maysa’s question, Solif conjured several diagrams of light in the air.

“A hundred kilometers on each side, right? It might sound like nothing when Vije can take us across it in twenty or thirty minutes, but that’s an enormous area. Still, considering we’re borrowing the power of a great-house head, we can hardly complain that he’s asking too much.”

And they were not borrowing the combat strength possessed by every great-house head, but the healing power unique to Osel, which made it all the more valuable.

“But do either of you actually know how to reclaim land? This is my first time in marshland, so I have no idea.”

Solif shook his head at Maysa’s question, and both turned to Turan.

“I don’t really know either. I was just about to ask for some advice.”

As he spoke, Turan took the jewelry box from inside his clothes.

“From the librarian?”

“He knows so much. Surely he could help us work out how to reclaim the land?”

“True.”

“Once we know the proper method, it shouldn’t take all that long. I can use the Rapids and Earthkeeper bloodline abilities, after all.”

“Oh, right. I’d forgotten.”

They had yet to decide how to go about the reclamation, but bloodline abilities that controlled water and earth were bound to help. And Maysa and Solif were reasonably adept at that sort of magic too, thanks to their talent, which far surpassed that of other nobles.

When Turan opened the jewelry box, the librarian opened his eyes in his usual sleepy manner and spoke.

“I haven’t finished analyzing the fragment you gave me. Only the faintest traces remain, and the information itself is damaged.”

“As always, I’m grateful for your help, sir. I called on you today to ask about something else.”

“Something else?”

“Sir! Do you happen to know any secrets to reclaiming marshland?”

The librarian snorted at Solif’s question.

“No.”

“Oof.”

“There were no books describing such methods, so that can’t be helped. Still, I think I could draw on what I know to devise a reasonable approach.”

The librarian’s knowledge of the laws of nature was still so broad and deep that Turan and his companions struggled to keep up.

That evening, the three found themselves students again for the first time in a while, even skipping dinner to attend his lesson. Vije sat quietly listening for a time, then closed her eyes and fell asleep, apparently bored.

* * *

Three days later, Turan’s party left Lida’s residence and headed south out of Merem. Lida saw them off at the city gates.

“If it becomes too much for you, feel free to come back and rest now and then. The House Head hasn’t set a tight deadline.”

“Thank you for the kind offer, madam. We’ll visit again when we have the chance.”

Their stay at Lida’s residence had been quite pleasant. If Solif hadn’t needed to play the servant, it would probably have been almost as comfortable as their stay at the Berg residence.

After bidding Lida a final farewell, they walked over to the man and monster waiting nearby. The middle-aged knight, who looked about forty, bowed politely.

“Greetings, great ones. My name is Yoz.”

“You’re our guide?”

“Yes.”

The House Head had sent Yoz both to guide them to their destination and to ensure that they worked diligently rather than running away. He also happened to be Lida’s great-grandson.

“Lady Lida has told us a great deal about you. We’ll be relying on you.”

“It’s an honor. This way, please.”

Beside Yoz lay a coiled lizard monster over six meters long, with a saddle on its back large enough to sit or even lie down on. The House Head had lent it to them, saying that walking to the Koloa region would take too long.

“Now then, Master Kiki, we’ll be in your care.”

Perhaps because the monster belonged to the House Head, Yoz addressed even the lizard he handled with deference. The lizard itself, however, was trembling in apparent terror as Vije, sulking over being replaced as their mount, perched on its head and pecked it sharply.

Once he had checked that everyone was aboard, Yoz tapped something a few times up front, and the giant lizard rose and began to move. Its plodding gait looked leisurely, but it was as fast as a noble’s light run.

“Come here, Phil. If something happens and I die, you’ll have to handle Master Kiki. I’ll teach you the basics.”

“Yes, sir. Whatever you teach me, I’ll learn.”

Amusingly, Solif, who was playing the former wandering knight and current servant ‘Phil,’ had become Yoz’s subordinate. They were ostensibly both knights, but Yoz appeared more than twice his age and served the House Head.

True to the man who had merely laughed even when pirates cuffed him on the back of the head, Solif placidly treated Yoz as his superior and learned how to attend to noble masters—even enduring a scolding for knowing so little despite being a servant.

Watching beside Turan, Maysa whispered to him.

“I’m starting to feel sorry for him. How long does he have to keep up the act?”

“Until we reach our destination, I suppose? They say it’s incredibly remote, so word shouldn’t get out there. Besides, he seems to be enjoying himself.”

As he spoke, Turan cast tracking magic using a hair from Solif’s father, Godis. He sensed the man far away to the northwest.

“It looks like the Baraha nobles have gone west. They seem to have taken my lead at face value.”

It would take them an interminably long time to wander the west, pick up the party’s trail, and find them again. At any rate, there seemed no need to worry for now.

And so the party of two nobles, one noble pretending to be a knight, and one actual knight made steady progress south on the giant lizard.

Perhaps because Kiki was well adapted to the local environment, the lizard monster made its way smoothly through trackless forests and marshes despite its enormous bulk.

In every town and city they visited, people bowed deeply at the sight of the Ravista flag attached to the monster’s saddle and offered them their finest lodgings. The stops made the journey a little longer, but the traveling itself was comfortable.

“When will we arrive, sir?”

“At this rate, probably in a week. Great ones, I believe we could save considerable time by going straight down the cliff ahead.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Yoz was remarkably forthright for an attendant when making such requests of Turan. Strictly speaking, he was not their subordinate, but a direct subordinate of Ravista’s House Head.

Turan activated the Holy Relic’s Earthkeeper bloodline and reshaped the cliff’s slope to create a path down. He could have done this well enough without it, but the bloodline ability greatly reduced the mana cost.

“Oh, marvelous, Master Turan! A true descendant of the gods!”

Both Turan and Maysa snickered at Solif’s exaggerated praise.

After roughly ten days of traveling south, the party finally reached Koloa, the southernmost region of Ravista’s territory.

“Here we are.”

“Wow...”

“They warned us, but this really is a nightmare of a place.”

Shiraf Marsh already had a harsher environment and a sparser population than the territories of other great houses, but Koloa stood out even here.

The area they were to reclaim began some fifty kilometers south of Koloa City, the nearest settlement. The boundary between the reclaimed land and the waterlogged marsh beneath the dense jungle was plain to see.

“If you go straight south from here, there’s another large river. There are mountains to the east and hills to the west. The land within those boundaries is the area the House Head has ordered reclaimed.”

“Shall we take a look around first?”

“As you wish.”

At Turan’s request, Yoz began driving the lizard in a broad circuit around the land they were to reclaim. Encountering monsters while traveling through the marsh was nothing unusual, but the ones here attacked frequently, apparently particularly hostile toward humans.

“There’s another one.”

Still sitting atop the lizard, Turan flicked his fingers and burned an approaching giant insect monster to death. Repeated stops to draw out and disperse the slain monsters’ mana meant that surveying the entire reclamation area took nearly ten hours.

After completing the circuit, he used tracking magic on the branches they had planted as survey markers to measure the distances roughly.

“Well?”

“I don’t know if it’s exact, but the area doesn’t seem much different from what we were told.”

Then again, surely Ravista’s House Head wouldn’t cheat them over something like this. Once they had confirmed the full extent of the land to be reclaimed, Yoz bowed deeply to the party.

“I’ll return Master Kiki to the House Head, then come back.”

“Should we go ahead with the reclamation on our own in the meantime?”

“I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do.”

Polite as his words were, they amounted to telling them to figure it out themselves.

“Then take him back. Will it be a month or two before you return?”

“I expect so. Please keep well until I return.”

With that farewell, Yoz departed with the lizard, leaving Turan’s party alone before the land they were to reclaim. Solif removed the mask, revealing his true face.

“Whew. To think the world has been deprived of this handsome face for so long. What a tragedy.”

When neither of his companions reacted to this first bit of nonsense in some time, Solif sheepishly handed back the mask and rolled up his sleeves.

“Right! Let’s get started. So, what do we do?”

“The librarian told us, remember? We have to drain the water and firm up the ground first.”

“Oh, right.”

“First, let’s build an enclosure to hold the water we drain. Starting by the river would probably be easiest.”

Following Turan’s suggestion, they rode Vije to the riverbank at the southern end. Floodwater from the river flowing north was one of the causes of the marshland.

“We should stop this first.”

Turan adjusted the Holy Relic to activate the Earthkeeper bloodline, then cast earth-alteration magic.

Unlike when he had made a path down the cliff a short while earlier, he felt an immense quantity of mana drain away—enough to leave him briefly weak. The scale of the phenomenon he was bringing about was that tremendous.

A technique he had practiced often and knew well, a bloodline ability, and mana approaching a House Head’s. Together, those three elements raised an enormous wall of earth that stretched from where they stood to hundreds of meters beyond.