After the gathering ended and returning to his quarters, Turan stroked the black eagle's head while lost in thought.
The second-in-command of Zahar, someone who looked so similar that Lord Karl thought of him immediately upon seeing Turan's face...
He wasn't someone Turan could just go meet right away.
Being second-in-command of a great house meant he was an even more powerful wizard than Meisa.
If Turan turned out to be some blemish that needed to be erased or something similar, he would surely be crushed like an insect the moment his existence was discovered.
'Still... it's not bad that I've found one definite lead.'
At minimum, he now had someone to question once he became stronger than he was now.
There was no need to rush.
He was still young, barely more than a child as a wizard, and had plenty of time.
Afterward, Turan spent several days at the Dirmin palace.
It was proper etiquette to stay for a few days when receiving hospitality.
Time passed quickly as teaching letters to the black eagle was quite entertaining.
"I am a black eagle."
[I am a black eagle]
"Good, you wrote it well."
[Good you wrote it well]
"I didn't tell you to copy that. And you made mistakes."
By the third day, the black eagle finally became able to compose sentences with letters.
Though it still frequently made mistakes when sentences got even a little longer, it could be considered better than most country bumpkins.
"Have you decided on a name?"
[Not yet]
"'Not yet' isn't your name, is it?"
Instead of writing an answer, the black eagle shook its head as if to say don't make unfunny jokes.
Just as Turan burst out laughing at that sight, he asked with a serious face.
"Then can you tell me now? Why you chose me."
At Turan's question, the black eagle tilted its head before slowly writing letters on the ground.
It felt like a person carefully choosing their words.
[You good your inside me match perfect]
"Did you mean to say 'good'?"
When Turan pronounced it and wrote the letter on the ground, the black eagle clicked its beak and nodded.
"And there are many other mistakes too. We still need to study more."
Watching the creature make a dejected expression, Turan analyzed what he had just heard.
Originally, there was a certain limit to how magically a wizard could bond with magical beasts.
The limit was proportional to one's magical power, so the stronger or more numerous the magical beasts you bonded with, the fewer you could bond with afterward.
If there hadn't been such a limit, beast tamers would have long ago dominated the world by bonding with hundreds or thousands of magical beasts.
However, there were several problems with assuming Turan's limit was particularly wide.
First was the fact that heirs of great houses had come to see this creature.
There was no way such people's magical power would be weaker than Turan's.
Additionally, though it had escaped before, it had been sold once, which meant it had bonded then too.
In other words, there was something different from the limit.
Perhaps it was due to his innate bloodline, mixed between Zahar and another house...
Though he explained this theory, it seemed even the black eagle didn't know exactly what that 'perfect match' feeling was.
While they were in the middle of such conversation, a booming laugh was heard from behind.
"Hey, Turan! What are you doing in the yard so pathetically with that bird?"
After the first gathering, the Gashub couple seemed to consider Turan as merely an insignificant small fry who got lucky, showing no further interest.
But unlike them, the fallen noble Dolf Meren started acting friendly and becoming a nuisance by visiting his quarters.
If he just came to hang out, Turan could deal with him appropriately and send him away, but the problem was that he kept trying to force physical intimacy, saying they should build friendship as fellow physical nobles.
It was obvious he didn't really want to become friends but rather wanted to enjoy a sense of superiority by dominating in areas where he had the upper hand.
Anyway, dealing with that annoying fellow would end today.
When Turan stood up and turned around, Dolf tilted his head at his attire.
"Hm? Are you going somewhere?"
Turan was not only fully dressed but also wore a long white overcoat worn by locals here and had a bag slung at his side.
There was a long metal rod newly attached to the side of the bag, and the black eagle, which had hopped up to perch on it, glared at Dolf.
"I'm leaving today."
"Where are you going?"
"Just planning to look around various parts of the desert."
"You should have said something! It's disappointing between us."
Though Turan clearly showed he didn't want to talk more, Dolf ignored it and kept acting friendly.
"I was thinking of leaving soon too, do you need a guide? I know this area very well."
"No thanks."
While having a noble guide would be quite luxurious, traveling with that fellow would probably give him stress-induced illness.
Surprisingly, Dolf nodded readily at Turan's rejection.
"That's too bad. Let me know if you change your mind!"
Though it was suspicious how easily he said goodbye and disappeared, at least he was shaken off, so that was that.
After notifying Lord Karl that he was leaving, two knights followed him out of the palace to see him off.
Instead of leaving Komad right away, Turan asked one of the knights who had come to escort and monitor him.
"Can you guide me to a place that sells books?"
"Yes, master."
Komad's largest bookstore was near the harbor, and since books were expensive items, there was a guard at the entrance.
He froze when he saw Turan with a large black eagle at his side and two knights behind him.
"Uh, uh..."
"Let's go in."
Passing by him and entering the bookstore, Turan had a brief conversation with a middle-aged woman who appeared to be the owner and bought two books.
One travel journal doubling as a guidebook that would be helpful when traveling the desert, and one religious text about the Enril region.
He exchanged the two books he had previously bought in Abacha for the price.
As Turan was coming out holding the two newly purchased books, he slightly frowned at one side.
It was because he saw a flame burning alone among people who were only perceived as weak flames.
==
While facing the cool winter desert wind after leaving Komad City, Turan opened the book he had just purchased.
A guidebook for desert travelers, written by Britso Zahar.
Reading the dedication to sponsors, the most important part of any book, it turned out to be written by a Zahar knight who received support from his main house.
'A proper map would have been nice... but this isn't bad either.'
Unless one wanted to be suspected as a spy, a fallen noble couldn't request internal maps of a great house.
Even the map Keorn had drawn for him only roughly indicated which great houses were in which regions, rather than properly depicting the terrain.
After reading the travel journal's contents for a while, Turan decided to first visit a city called Banipel to the southwest of Komad.
He had seen information that there were ruins from the old empire there.
While it would be best to have the luck of meeting someone like a librarian, even if not, it seemed like it would be a worthwhile tour.
"Well then, shall we go?"
After muttering to himself and looking down at the black eagle for a moment, instead of riding it, Turan lightly stroked its head and walked on two feet as before.
The black eagle tilted its head as if asking why he wouldn't ride it, but seeming to find hanging from the bag not too bad, it tucked in its neck and closed its eyes.
Walking through the desert, he realized it wasn't a world full of only sand like in the travel journals he had read before.
While walking, he quite often encountered areas strewn with rocks and gravel, which looked similar to the wilderness below Hisaril Hill where he grew up.
When focusing consciousness on the surroundings with the power of the holy relic, he could feel sparks of life blooming even in such desolate scenery.
Well, a great house couldn't be established in an area so barren that truly nothing could live there.
Animals needed to thrive for many magical beasts to be born, and powerful wizards could be raised by consuming those magical beasts.
Using the power of the holy relic to distinguish magical beasts among passing animals, Turan immediately sent the black eagle to hunt them.
It flew like an arrow and snatched up a large gray rabbit.
'Of all things, a rabbit magical beast.'
Fortunately, unlike the one that had slaughtered the magical beast hunters in the past, this rabbit wasn't a particularly strong magical beast, so there was no chance for retaliation.
While its magical power was also weak and not very helpful for growth, the black eagle seemed happy with the hunt anyway, chirping as it tore apart the rabbit and devoured the flesh.
Turan opened his water bottle and poured water, manipulating it to wash the blood-covered creature's feet.
After walking for several hours like this.
Around sunset, Turan discovered a place of abundance that didn't match the desert's desolation.
It was a large oasis, and a small forest and grassland made up of trees and grass that grew by sucking up its water.
According to the travel journal, there were over a thousand such oases in the Enril Desert, and there were also nomadic tribes that used them as bases.
Even here, dozens of tents were spread around the oasis, and sheep tied with ropes were sprawled resting around them.
Though from a different region, they were shepherds like him.
"I'm a passing traveler, might I rest here?"
At Turan's visit, the nomadic tribe's people were wary at first, but seeing he was an individual without proper armament except for having a large black eagle, they lowered their guard.
The forearm-length dagger on his back was considered more of a daily necessity than armament.
"Welcome, traveler. May the kindness I bestow return in full. But is that black eagle perhaps a magical beast?"
"How could it be? It's just a particularly large one."
Turan calmly lied and was invited to the old chieftain's tent for a meal.
The nomads also seemed to be the type who considered it dishonorable to treat guests poorly, so he was able to enjoy quite a luxurious feast.
Though of course, it couldn't compare to meals at noble houses in either quantity or quality.
"Where does brother come from?"
"I came from Komad."
"The big city by the sea? You seem young to have come so far alone."
Of course, Turan had only lightly run for two or three hours at most, but for commoners, it was a distance that would take several days of walking without rest.
Afterward, the chieftain kept asking detailed questions about where he was going and what kind of person he was, even making an offer asking if he wouldn't consider staying and marrying one of the tribe's young women.
Wondering why he asked, it seemed this tribe had unusually few young men for its size.
There could be several imagined reasons for this.
Attacks by magical beasts or fierce animals, bandits, or perhaps some kind of natural disaster...
While hard to imagine in the Dakein Plains, it would be difficult to compare Arabion, with its high population density thanks to high productivity, to Zahar, which was based in the vast Enril Desert on equal terms.
The difference in area that one noble or knight could protect would be several times greater.
After vaguely deflecting the chieftain's meddling and finishing the meal, Turan again announced he would depart southwest.
"You'll walk the desert at night in this winter? You'll freeze to death! It's madness. Stay here tonight."
Though the old man said this, Turan refused and set out.
It wasn't particularly because he thought the chieftain might secretly send in a young woman in the middle of the night.
Rather...
"Come out, Mr. Dolf."
As he was leaving the oasis area, Turan muttered quietly while looking behind him.
Shortly after, Dolf Meren emerged from behind a rock with an awkward expression.
"Oh my, you knew?"
Thanks to the holy relic, Turan could precisely detect the location of nobles or knights within ten-plus meters, or tens to hundreds of meters when extending his senses.
And according to those senses, Dolf had been tailing him continuously since he left House Dirmin.
This was why he had walked all the way here without riding the black eagle.
While flying would shake him off immediately, he wouldn't be able to know what purpose the fellow was following him for.
He had planned to run away if there was any sign of him bringing companions, but even extending his senses to hundreds of meters, he couldn't feel the presence of anyone else.
"I just thought it might be dangerous for a young friend to travel alone. This desert is quite dangerous..."
"Are you after my magical power?"
As he hated dragging out conversations, Turan immediately got to the point.
Indeed, hearing this, Dolf immediately took off his mask and grinned.
"You knew and still came out to a place like this? I don't know if you're brave or just brainless."
Robbery and murder for magical power.
This was considered an act more taboo than cannibalism or infant murder in noble society.
Because it reminded them of the fact that for nobles, the most tempting prey was not magical beasts but other nobles.
Just having rumors spread about committing such acts was enough for not only the perpetrator but their entire house to be ostracized by all nearby nobles until their bloodline was cut off before long.
The fact that noble houses emphasized guest hospitality could also be considered an extension of this sentiment.
"Now I see why nobles hate fallen nobles so much."
"Heh, you talk down to me despite being in the same situation. No, aren't you even worse than me?"
Dolf looked down on Turan and spoke mockingly.
"Judging by your strong magical power but pathetically weak strength, you must be from the primitive Guardian bloodline? One that's lost even the power to strengthen the body, only defense remaining. I don't know how you built up such power, but it's wasted on a worthless person like you, so quietly hand it over."
Since he was of Guardian bloodline but had poor physical abilities, he would be easy to defeat in combat, yet his magical power was actually slightly stronger, so the reward would be sufficient.
Moreover, being a fallen noble, he would have no relatives to investigate his death or make it public.
Where else could there be such tempting prey?
Turan looked at Dolf approaching with leisurely steps before turning his gaze to the sky.
On a moonless night, only the faintest starlight illuminated the desert.
"Stay up there."
The black eagle chirped and quickly flew up into the sky.
In the moment Dolf flinched, thinking he might try to escape on the bird, Turan's body disappeared into the pitch-black darkness.
This side also considered the opponent tempting prey.