Who is Lord Tallis?

Turan enjoyed flying until late at night before returning to House Dirmin's palace.

Once he entered as a guest, it was proper etiquette to quietly receive hospitality for a few days.

Perhaps it was because he was a customer who had helped dispose of troublesome goods?

When he returned, his quarters had somehow been changed to a larger and more luxurious room.

There was even what looked like a nest made with smaller cushions next to it, which was probably the black eagle's bedroom.

"Please call us anytime if you need anything, master."

After dismissing the servants with a light gesture, Turan looked at the black eagle lying in its bedroom and asked.

"Is it good?"

The creature chirped softly and nodded.

Turan chuckled at the sight and lay down on the bed to sleep.

After spending such a comfortable night, the next day.

A proper letter lesson began between human and animal.

The education took place in a small clearing in front of the building where they were staying.

"Well, would you like to try copying it?"

When he wrote letters on the ground with a tree branch, the black eagle scratched the ground with its claws to copy them.

Turan pointed out several parts where it had written incorrectly.

"This stroke should go down, and this one should be lifted up as if scratching at the end."

The black eagle might not have been a particularly brilliant student by human standards, but among animals, it could be considered a genius without question.

Watching it tilt its head and rewrite the letters over and over brought back old memories.

'I wonder if this is how Mother taught me.'

In his childhood, this was how he learned letters from his mother.

They couldn't make parchment from sheepskin in their small village, and there wasn't anything else suitable to use.

'You remember well, Turan. Our son is really smart, isn't he?'

He seemed to hear his mother's voice, which he thought he no longer remembered, as if it were an auditory hallucination.

While he was reminiscing in a strangely sentimental mood, he sensed someone approaching him.

"Teaching letters, I see?"

"Yes."

The lord's daughter - was her name Irid?

A woman whose name he could barely remember was looking at him with an expression mixed with jealousy.

Perhaps she was displeased that an animal that had dismissed her was now obeying someone else.

Especially since that someone was a fallen noble whom she had looked down upon.

"Do you happen to know what the black eagle likes?"

"I know it eats animals."

"This one especially likes fish. Among them, horse mackerel from the sea here is its favorite."

When he glanced aside, the black eagle nodded.

After that, she continued to recite everything one would need to know for daily care, from the creature's preferred diet to the amount of sleep needed for maintaining health.

She certainly seemed knowledgeable about animals, probably due to her beast tamer bloodline.

"That's impressive. Thank you for the helpful information."

When Turan straightforwardly expressed his gratitude, the lord's daughter flinched and shook her head.

"I already have a fiancé."

What was this woman suddenly talking about?

Turan hesitated for a moment before realizing that she had interpreted his praise as some sort of expression of interest, and he smirked.

Well, since she had a fiancé, at least there wouldn't be any uncomfortable situations like at House Baltas.

"I understand."

Though he indicated his understanding, for some reason she seemed even more displeased than before.

"Well, never mind that... do you have any plans for lunch?"

"Not particularly."

"Then would you like to dine together? The other guests are all curious about Mr. Brahms. Of course, if you'd rather not..."

"The other guests are asking about me?"

"Yes. Anyone who has visited the breeding grounds has coveted that creature at least once, so naturally they're curious about what kind of person managed to become its master."

Of course, Turan wasn't the only noble traveling in this world.

While it might be hard to find nobles in the frontier regions, any decent-sized city would naturally have several nobles staying there on pilgrimage or wandering.

There had been several such people coming and going at House Berk where he had stayed before, though Turan hadn't gotten along well with them at the time.

They had been jealous of him, a wanderer of unknown origins, for being close to Asiz, the second son favored by the head of the house.

Though he initially thought to refuse due to those memories, Turan soon changed his mind.

"Alright. Shall we go now?"

He was currently in a position where he needed to gather as much information as possible about House Zahar.

From that perspective, there was no need to waste an opportunity to converse with nobles.

==

"Pleased to meet you. I am Turan Brahms."

"Brahms? Haven't heard that name around here."

"I heard he came from around Kamain?"

"Then isn't that quite close to Arabion?"

As soon as the last person finished speaking, everyone shot sharp glances in that direction.

The lord's daughter, Irid, spoke coldly.

"Let's not associate our guest with those sparrow brats."

"I apologize."

The person who had spoken bowed their head in apology as the atmosphere instantly became frosty.

Though Turan didn't think it was such a taboo topic, it seemed the hatred for Arabion was considerable on this side as well.

Turan memorized the faces of the three nobles staying at House Dirmin as they exchanged greetings.

A relatively young couple and a middle-aged man.

The first two belonged to House Gashub, who had come from a nearby region on pilgrimage doubling as their honeymoon - the man was the heir apparent, and the woman was a branch member of House Zahar.

And the remaining one was, like Turan's disguised identity, a fallen noble.

"Dolf Meren. Mr. Brahms. History bloodline."

History was a bloodline specialized in physical combat like Guardian, but while Guardian specialized in defensive abilities, this one specialized in physical strength.

"Nice to meet you."

As they shook hands, Turan felt the other person applying pressure and quickly activated his Guardian magic device to maximum power.

As expected, tremendous grip strength crushed his hand.

"As expected of a Guardian bloodline, you're tough. Though your grip strength is lacking."

Having confirmed his superior strength, Dolf smiled with a sense of superiority and showed off.

Instead of getting angry at such tyranny, Turan brushed it off with a smile as if it were nothing.

"I haven't trained much in that area."

"Heh, true enough, hardly any of us have inherited proper physical training methods. Still, looking at your body, it seems you haven't done absolutely nothing?"

"I've made some personal effort."

"You trained that much on your own? The weak are really enviable! No matter how big a boulder I lift, I barely feel any stimulus."

As he said, while Dolf had good basic build, he was far from having a harshly trained physique.

In fact, this was one of the main reasons why most combat bloodlines had fallen.

The 4-week intensive training that Turan had achieved in the past was only possible because all three elements aligned - a skilled teacher, training magic devices, and a student full of perseverance and passion.

If even one of those three was missing, the training period would instantly stretch from months to years or more, and most people didn't have the patience to push their bodies that hard for such a long time.

It was also much more painful than training for knights or ordinary people due to their already robust physiques.

"Hey, we know you're strong, so that's enough. Where did you leave that black eagle? I came to see it."

When Mrs. Gashub spoke in an openly dismissive tone, veins bulged on Dolf's face as he had been showing off, but he bit his teeth as if enduring and stepped back.

Well, how dare a mere fallen noble talk back to a noble from a great house.

Turan pretended not to notice this and answered.

"I told it to fly around nearby. It must have been stuffy after practicing writing all morning. Shall I call it?"

"Please do."

At least the husband was more polite in his request.

Turan stretched his hand toward the sky and thought in his mind.

Come here.

As his thought traveled along the soul string, the black eagle flew in from far away before long.

"Wow, it's real..."

The black eagle that landed on Turan's arm looked at the nobles surrounding it with a wary expression, and when Mrs. Gashub reached out as if to touch it, it refused by clicking its beak.

Seeing this, she frowned deeply and muttered.

"Damn bird-brained bastard! What do I lack that it acts like this? I could take much better care of it than that fallen noble."

An incredibly arrogant attitude that didn't even care that the person in question was right there.

Though he had seen several nobles from great houses before, this level of arrogance was actually refreshing because it was his first time seeing such an extreme.

Not that it made her any more likeable.

The black eagle also glared, apparently unhappy about being insulted, but seemed to recognize the difference in power and didn't rush in.

Turan could feel its urge in his mind asking him to take revenge on its behalf.

"D-don't say that, Sila. It's rude."

"What's rude about it? Did I say anything wrong?"

While the husband's side at least had some common sense, perhaps due to innate personality and the gap between their houses, he seemed completely unable to control his wife's rampage.

Well, even Irid, who could be considered the host of this gathering as House Dirmin's heir, was only frowning at such tyranny without being able to say anything to stop it.

Just this was enough to give an idea of House Zahar's position in the Enril Desert.

Despite the ruined atmosphere, the following meal was excellent.

From spicy roasted chicken seasoned with imported Eastern spices to herbed lamb ribs on flat bread, steamed fish and lobster - it was a course that seemed to perfectly capture the culture of Komad, straddling both desert and sea.

After finishing the meal, they had tea and chatted, with Dolf bringing up the first topic of conversation.

"The west has been quite noisy lately."

"The west - you mean the Grey Zone?"

"Further west than that. The dark elves have been causing trouble, so Arabion - well, the sparrows - have apparently organized a large subjugation force."

From what he said, Dolf seemed to have lived near where the dark elves had risen up before recently coming to the Enril Desert area and hearing about the situation there.

Turan quietly sat and listened, wondering if there might be any latest news.

"Did you hear who's commanding?"

"I heard it's their young lady heir."

"Ah, that skeleton they say is skin and bones? What was her name? Masa?"

"I heard it was Meredis."

"If I didn't hear wrong, it should be Meisa."

It was a very strange feeling to hear others, especially negative reviews, talking about his friend.

The four nobles excluding Turan poured out all sorts of curses, saying that woman was a horrible creature with only bones and skin left, and so whoever married her would have to close their eyes tight on their wedding night.

"Couldn't we assassinate her while we're at it?"

"Assassination? We Zahar don't do such vile things. Though some nobles might coincidentally go on pilgrimage in that direction."

"Right? Ah, if we could just kill that bitch, the expressions on those sparrow brats would be worth seeing..."

Mrs. Gashub glanced at Turan and Dolf while sneering as if openly lying.

During this, the conversation took an interesting turn to exactly the topic Turan wanted.

"Still, they have it easy with their heir already decided. Who knows how many years we've been waiting for one of the three to be chosen."

From Mrs. Gashub's lamenting words, it seemed that unlike Arabion, Zahar had no designated heir.

Though she spoke freely even in front of fallen nobles, suggesting it wasn't particularly secret, such talk was still difficult to hear except in the presence of high-ranking people.

After all, it would be hard for commoners or knights to dare discuss noble affairs.

"Might I know the names of those three?"

When Turan asked, Mrs. Gashub briefly made an expression as if it were absurd before answering readily.

She seemed to want to show off her knowledge to put him down.

"Lord Rahman, the lord's cousin brother, Lady Alma, his fifth cousin's daughter, and Lord Ferga, his grandson. They're all powerful nobles who distinguished themselves in the last war."

Given that she used honorifics for all three, it seemed that despite her showing off, her position within House Zahar wasn't particularly high.

Well, that's probably why she ended up marrying into another house rather than bringing in a husband.

In any case, it was somewhat disappointing that there was no name Tallis among the three.

At that moment, Irid muttered in what seemed like a lamenting tone.

"I wish Lord Tallis would just decide clearly."

At the unexpected mention of the name, Turan's eyes widened for a moment before he desperately tried to calm his mind.

He was worried that Mrs. Gashub, with her Zahar bloodline, would smell the scent peculiar to surprised people.

After desperately calming himself, Turan casually asked a question.

"Who is Lord Tallis?"

Fortunately, his mind control seemed effective as no one found his question strange.

"He's the lord's younger brother and currently second-in-command of Zahar. You could say he's the one actually leading the family."

The identity of someone who might resemble Turan was an even bigger figure than he had thought.