We'll Never Forget!

The sky after the storm was so clear it seemed to mock the sailors struggling to survive above the sea.

Under the blazing sunlight, the sailors cleaned the deck that had become a mess overnight.

"Ugh, my back."

"Shouldn't you be thankful your back isn't broken?"

"That's true, hehe. I really thought I was going to die."

Their expressions were bright as they exchanged jokes.

Though their bodies were tired, the experience of the past few hours had instilled a strange sense of security in them.

Turan looked down at them with a tired face while sitting atop the mast.

'It's been a while since I've been this exhausted, really...'

Lighting a fire to warm the air inside the deck wasn't particularly difficult.

The problem was having to maintain it for several hours.

Moreover, later when the waves became too large, he even had to manipulate incoming water to prevent the ship from capsizing.

Actually, most of his power was lost in this process.

Unless one was the head of a great house, it was impossible to directly confront vast nature with his current magical power.

But looking down at the people working hard below, it was worth fighting so desperately.

After all, no one died, and the ship didn't sink.

'Come to think of it, this thing was quite helpful too.'

Turan took out the holy relic he had kept in his pocket.

The reason he could rescue people he couldn't even properly see in the vision blurred by the raging storm.

It was because he used magic based on the sense derived from this.

Considering that one of the main ways to restrain wizards was to blindfold them to suppress precise magic use, this was like having one such weakness removed.

It meant he could now cast magic directly on ordinary living beings even through walls.

While admiring the treasure's new function, he saw something floating far away.

Things too small and numerous to be islands or reefs...

Before long, he could tell they were corpses, or miscellaneous items that had flowed out from some ship.

"Seems those friends couldn't withstand the storm."

"How terrible."

While passing these traces left by some nearby ship, the previously cheerful sailors all shut their mouths and focused on cleanup with solemn faces.

None were unaware that they too would have met the same fate if not for Turan.

After finishing repairs, the Blue Marlin resumed sailing southeast.

After hours of cutting through water riding the wind.

Finally, black shadows began rising in their direction of travel.

The center of the world, the Enril Desert, welcomed them.

==

Having drifted somewhat off course due to the storm, the Blue Marlin arrived at Komad City three hours later.

After reporting their docking to port officials, the sailors began unloading cargo from the ship into warehouses.

Turan killed time sitting quietly at one corner of the port, watching other senior sailors supervise this.

Only when the sun was setting did Pires come looking for him with a sack containing a bundle of gold coins.

"I'm late, Lord Turan. Here is your promised employment fee."

Turan frowned at the heavy weight when receiving the sack.

Having handled quite a bit of money by now, he could roughly estimate the amount by weight, and what Pires gave now was much heavier than what Turan had originally contracted for.

At least three times more.

"This is too much. Wasn't it originally sixty Kamain gold coins?"

"If we only gave you the promised money, even the gods would not forgive us."

Pires explained that everyone from the captain to all crew members had agreed to pool their share from the pirate ship's sale as he held out the sack.

Turan shook his head and pointed to the chest he had been using as a chair until just now.

"As you know, I'm already someone who can't handle having too much money."

This was an item from his original cabin, which he had brought to store money since he couldn't fit the eight hundred gold coins from selling the pirate ship in his bag.

To this answer, Captain Pires replied with a smile.

"Can't be helped. If you won't accept it, we'll just have to throw it in the sea."

Behind him speaking thus, the Blue Marlin's sailors were watching him with gentle expressions that didn't match their rough faces.

As if urging him to accept the money right away.

After a long staring contest, Turan finally let out a laugh and took the sack, stuffing it into the chest.

"If we meet again, I'll treat everyone to a nice meal. All of you."

"That would be the greatest honor."

Turan stood up and shouldered the chest with two straps connected to it.

He would have to go around like this until he could dispose of this money.

As he walked toward the city, the sailors made their farewells behind him.

"We'll miss you, Sir Knight!"

"Thank you!"

"We'll never forget!"

Hearing the voices of the sheep he had saved, for some reason the chest he shouldered felt heavy.

Not just because there was more money, but because he could feel something contained within it.

Turan turned up the corners of his mouth as he headed into Komad City.

==

The largest city in the northern Enril Desert, Komad had a population reaching 150,000.

The dress of sailors from elsewhere and locals was distinct, with locals mostly wearing hats with long hanging cloth and one-piece clothes that covered top and bottom.

At first he thought they were skirts, but looking closely they wore separate pants, so it seemed to be an outer garment like a cloak.

While looking around thus, he felt a small flame approaching him from the side.

Turan reached out without looking and grabbed the other's wrist.

"Aack!"

Whether trying to cut the straps of the chest he was shouldering, a dagger two fingers long dropped from the young man's hand.

Knowing the other's wrist was broken, Turan chose not to deal with him further and continued walking the streets.

Fortunately, the holy relic's function didn't make him overly tired even in places crowded with people.

While wandering the city thus, Turan could witness someone who wasn't ordinary for the first time.

'That's...'

Unlike ordinary people who had flames concentrated only in their hearts or one or two other places, a man whose whole body seemed to blaze.

From his exceptionally fancy clothes and sword at his waist, one could guess he was a knight belonging to the house ruling this place.

As expected, using this holy relic's power made it possible to clearly distinguish between wizards and ordinary people.

"Excuse me. Are you perhaps a knight of House Dirmin?"

Turan spoke thus while immediately projecting his power.

When magical power equivalent to a decent rural house head or mid-ranking member of a great house pressed down on him, the knight exclaimed in shock.

"Yes, my lord. Please command me!"

My lord - it seemed they used quite strange expressions to address nobles in this region.

"I am Turan from Abacha. I would like to pay respects to your master, would that be possible?"

While rural house knights might be different, knights in cities ruled by great houses and their vassal houses were relatively proud.

This was because relatively weak and obscure houses frequently visited such cities during pilgrimages demanding hospitality.

After all, it would be beneficial if they happened to get involved with a noble from a great house and met their strong children.

Therefore, if Turan had relatively weak magical power like when he stopped at House Baltas, he would have received treatment befitting a guest from far away and nothing more.

But the current Turan was several times more powerful than that, so House Dirmin could not slight him.

Led straight to the palace in the city center while shouldering his chest, Turan was bathed and given new clothes without lifting a finger before being able to meet House Dirmin's head.

"Welcome. I am Karl Dirmin."

The head of House Dirmin, Karl, appeared to be a man of about thirty.

His actual age was probably between one hundred and one hundred fifty.

The flame blazing throughout his body was so much more intense than the knight seen earlier that it dazzled the eyes.

Having actually compared magical power too, Turan could now use him as a reference to know whether others were stronger or weaker than himself.

"Hmm."

Then, Karl stared at Turan's face for a moment before furrowing his brow slightly and tilting his head.

Though it was a very small movement, his sensitive senses didn't miss it.

"So, what is our guest's name and house?"

"Turan Brahms."

"Brahms...?"

"It's just an old name of a fallen guardian bloodline now."

The surname he gave was actually the name of an old guardian bloodline that had existed near Kamain's territory, which he had noted while using the library.

Though it was normally taboo among nobles to impersonate another house's name, it was too dangerous to be vague like when visiting other houses in Zahar's notoriously treacherous land.

It wasn't like at House Berk where they could overlook it because he was someone's benefactor.

Fortunately, Karl looked at Turan's trained physique and the dagger at his waist before nodding and not questioning further.

"I see. So... you want to buy our house's trained beasts?"

"Yes. I have no small amount of money."

More precisely, he desperately wanted to spend this cursed money somehow, but he didn't say that far.

There was no need to reveal weaknesses when dealing.

"So it seems."

Karl said thus while reading Captain Samudel's letter of recommendation received from Turan.

It stated that Turan had traded with him and a pirate ship at Miguel Island to obtain eight hundred Zahar gold coins, essentially proving that money was obtained through legitimate means.

"We have quite many types of trained beasts. Ones that can be ridden, ones that fly, ones that swim, even ones that can use their hands... Tell me what you want. We can sell anything if the price is right."

Though he added that it would be hard to buy the really expensive ones with money one person could carry.

He felt somewhat awkward, seeming more like a merchant than the head of a wizard house.

"Could I see them directly?"

"Very well. I'm rather busy, so I'll have my daughter guide you."

While standing up thus, Turan asked as if in passing.

"Have you perhaps seen someone who looks like me before?"

"Hmm?"

"It felt like you recognized me earlier."

Unlike his calm exterior, all of Turan's senses were focused on the other.

Who would have thought a vassal house head, not even the main Zahar house, would show signs of recognizing his face immediately.

However, contrary to expectations, Karl smiled and answered.

"No, it's nothing. Really. Just felt like you resembled someone I know a bit."

Though considering pressing further, Turan decided to retreat one step for now.

They say haste always ruins things.

Since he sensed no panic or hostility from the other, he could take his time waiting for opportunities.

Shortly after, the house head's daughter, who appeared about his age, guided Turan to the breeding grounds.

"You have quite a lot of money for a fallen noble, enough to buy trained beasts?"

Unlike the house head who maintained proper courtesy, this young lady openly showed her disdainful attitude toward Turan, but he didn't even pay attention.

Not particularly because he could see her magical power was much weaker than his, but because his head was full of other thoughts.

'Who did he think of when seeing me?'

Turan could find quite many resemblances to his mother's face in his memories.

From the slender face shape to the straight mouth, somewhat large ears and ash-gray hair.

But there were many different parts too.

The shape and color of the eyes, shape of the nose...

Though parents' appearances weren't necessarily passed down exactly to children, Turan would secretly try to picture his father's face through such features that didn't resemble his mother.

Who did House Dirmin's head think of when seeing Turan's face? His father? Mother? Or someone else related to those two?

If the house head knew them, they couldn't have been of low status.

Lost in such thoughts for a while, they had already arrived at the breeding grounds.

"Here."

"Impressive."

Unlike what he expected, the breeding grounds were quite luxuriously arranged.

He thought they would just keep them in stone rooms with iron bars, but they had assigned individual rooms for each trained beast, even planting grass and trees and creating streams beside them.

Turan emptied his forcefully rising thoughts and looked around at the beasts one by one.

'Wolf... at that size couldn't ride it. Elephant, too inconveniently huge. Horse... seems much inferior to Tilly in both size and magical power. Is this a snake?'

Looking at the various beasts, none seemed just right.

When he asked the horse's price just in case, a shocking answer came back.

"That one? Since we've raised it with quite some care, would have to ask around four thousand gold coins."

Turan had eight hundred Zahar gold coins and slightly over nine hundred Kamain gold coins.

Considering Kamain gold coins were slightly larger than Zahar gold coins, and he had some other minor currency too, his entire fortune wasn't even half the horse's price.

Turan immediately regretted thinking he had become quite rich and didn't need money.

How expensive must Tilly be, who had far superior abilities than that one?

'Well, that's why it could protect Asiz against two necromancers alone.'

Though it would have lost without his help in the end, even that much made it remarkably strong among trained beasts.

Buying a trained beast seemed too inefficient, should he look for a house that makes magical devices instead?

But carrying that money-filled chest to travel the desert would be troublesome, and it didn't seem likely to be cheaper there either.

After walking around for a while thus, Turan stopped at the sight of one beast.

A black eagle covered in smooth dark brown feathers was staring straight at him.