Sometimes in life, we encounter awkward situations where it's hard to know what to say.
That's exactly where Turan found himself now.
Should he apologize for being born with the same bloodline as those who were his enemies?
Even though it was done by relatives he had never seen in his life?
Yet simply saying he knew nothing about it felt too shameless.
After all, his innate powerful magical ability itself originated from that bloodline.
Wouldn't it be like insisting on inheriting only the good parts of his ancestors' legacy while claiming no responsibility for the bad...
How long did that terribly long silence continue?
Keorn slapped Turan's shoulder.
"Don't look so deathly! It's not like you participated in that war yourself?"
Though Turan wanted to say that Keorn was the one with the deathly expression, he found it difficult to voice this and simply nodded silently.
"It's meaningless for young people like you to get caught up in the affairs of elders. If we keep trying to wash blood with blood, the fighting will never end. And it's ordinary people who suffer."
Even as he said this, the bitter look on Keorn's face hadn't completely faded.
Turan quietly asked him:
"Do you regret it?"
"What?"
"Telling me to go down from the hill."
If Turan were to pursue power, he would inevitably join House Zahar.
After all, he had said that only those with the same bloodline abilities could become core members of a noble house.
This could potentially be a fatal blow to House Arabion that Keorn had served.
It was natural, considering a powerful wizard would suddenly join their hostile faction—one they had fought a war with.
To Turan's observation, Keorn shook his head.
"I believe in your character. Your goodness in treating an unknown guest well and trying to help me even to the point of revealing your hidden identity. Rather, if someone like you joins House Zahar, and if you rise to a position of leadership, perhaps you could prevent such terrible wars from happening again..."
Turan thought Keorn was viewing him as too good a person.
He had treated Keorn well because his mother had taught him to do so, and because he had been starved for conversation with non-hostile people.
He had helped Keorn in crisis simply because he didn't want someone he had pleasant conversations with to die.
If Keorn had treated Turan coldly, he wouldn't have cared whether he lived or died.
As Turan silently stared at the floor lost in thought, Keorn shook his head and said:
"Well, no need to think so seriously about it. It's not like you've decided to join House Zahar anyway."
"That's true."
In fact, he was more drawn to wandering around hunting masu like Keorn did.
He wasn't keen on being tied down anywhere, and that way he could see more of the world.
Moreover, after hearing the story, he had developed a vague antipathy toward House Zahar.
"I'll stay here until your wounds heal anyway. I'll think about it slowly."
"Calling them wounds makes it sound too grand. It's just a few scratches!"
Keorn laughed heartily.
==
While Keorn recovered from his injuries, Turan decided to properly learn magical knowledge from him.
Having only wielded his power as he pleased without any formal training, there was much and more he needed to learn.
"The power of magic, mana, is commonly called the key to omnipotence."
"The key to omnipotence..."
"But it's not truly omnipotent as the name suggests. More precisely, it requires appropriate mana as payment to cause such effects. You must have experienced this yourself."
"What determines the standard for appropriate mana?"
This was something he had always wondered about while using magic.
At Turan's question, Keorn cleared his throat lightly and held up three fingers.
"The difficulty of magic is determined by three main factors. First is bloodline, second is personality, and third is causality."
Bloodline, personality, causality.
Turan sat quietly, engraving these three words in his mind.
"First, bloodline simply means being influenced by innate bloodline abilities. Therefore, this doesn't apply to knights. For example... isn't it difficult for you to heal my wounds?"
"Yes."
"The Labitas bloodline in the southwest of the continent, also called the Healer bloodline, can naturally use healing magic without special training. Those born with strong power can even reattach severed limbs and cure all sorts of diseases. In contrast, other bloodlines find it nearly impossible to gain such abilities no matter how hard they try. That's how it works."
The moment he heard this, Turan thought of his mother.
If he had been born with that bloodline's power, she wouldn't have died from illness...
But knowing such thoughts were meaningless now, Turan lightly bit his lip and let go of his lingering attachment.
"Then what does the second factor, personality, mean?"
"Also called proficiency, it's the concept that wizards can more easily perform tasks they prefer or are familiar with. A wizard who frequently swings a sword finds it easier to create ethereal blades or enhance existing ones, while a wizard who enjoys playing in water finds it easier to move through water with magic."
"Does my throwing fire like a stone sling count as that?"
"Clever! That's correct. If you had shot the fire normally, it probably wouldn't have had that speed and power."
Having experienced it once already, Turan could easily understand his words.
Smiling contentedly as if looking at a wise student, Keorn suddenly frowned.
"The third factor, causality, is most important, but it's quite complex. Actually, even I don't fully understand it. It's the concept that more 'natural' things happen more easily..."
As if pondering how to explain, Keorn stroked his chin for a while before beginning:
"What would happen if you tried to use mana to kill me?"
"Probably my head would glow and nothing would happen?"
Turan recalled what had happened recently when he tried to use magic on the masu.
"Right. That's exactly what happens due to lack of causality. When there's no proper cause for what you want, and when what needs to be accomplished is too difficult. It applies to both these cases."
"I think I understand what you mean by cause."
"Can you explain?"
"Yes. For example, if I wanted to kill you, rather than vaguely expending mana to wish for death, I should create a fireball and shoot it to provide a cause of death? It's considered more 'natural' to create and shoot fire than to directly ignite it?"
This was what he had guessed from his experience fighting the undead masu earlier.
Keorn clapped his hands with an impressed expression at Turan's words.
"Exactly! You could have been a scholar instead of a wizard. Your understanding is very quick. As you say, forming proper causality can dramatically reduce mana consumption."
"But why can I freely kill and control ordinary wolves and sheep, while masu specifically need this?"
In normal circumstances, it wasn't very difficult to cast magic on other animals, so Turan would simply cast magic when dealing with dangerous animals.
He had first experienced magic resistance when facing the masu.
"Creatures with mana gain resistance to magic proportional to their mana quantity. However, when you move and make contact with already completed magic, you can significantly offset such resistance. Of course, if the gap is too wide, magic might not work even then."
He explained this was also why Keorn's magic barely affected it while Turan's flames immediately burned the undead.
Meaning it would be nearly impossible to directly cast magic on wizards too.
After listening to explanations for quite a while, Turan's head started throbbing, and he firmly massaged his temples with his thumb.
"Magic really isn't easy, is it?"
"A great wizard isn't made by strong mana alone. Knowing the principles of magic and what you can do is important, of course, but knowing how to use your surroundings is also crucial."
Turan closed his eyes and reviewed what he had just learned from Keorn several times.
Doing so, he realized there was something he hadn't asked about.
"Come to think of it, does the Zahar bloodline have special magic too?"
The innate characteristics of Zahar that Keorn had pointed out were only hypersensitive smell, night vision, and talent for accurately shooting projectiles—none of which were related to magical abilities.
At Turan's question, Keorn nodded.
"Yes. Zahar wizards excel at concealment and tracking. Have you ever used such magic?"
"I've tried tracking a few times. Never concealment."
He had used magic to find things a few times—to check if his mother was safe, or to find and kill wolves prowling around the hill.
It was also this magic that had helped him find and save Keorn in time during his crisis.
In contrast, he had never tried magic to hide himself, naturally because there had never been any need for Turan to hide from anyone on this hill.
"Try it. While quite a few wizards can use invisibility magic depending on their aptitude, complete evasion from perception is an ability allowed only to the Zahar bloodline."
Turan immediately concentrated and thought.
I don't want to be seen by others, I don't want to be heard or smelled...
The moment he thought this, his internal mana immediately began rapidly depleting.
Looking down at his hands and body, nothing had changed.
"Did it work?"
Instead of answering Turan's question, Keorn looked in his direction with slightly unfocused eyes and said:
"You've succeeded. I can't see you. Are you still there?"
Turan stood up from his chair and slowly walked around the room, but Keorn continued to stare blankly at where Turan had originally been sitting.
He didn't seem to hear anything even when Turan stomped on the floor or lightly snapped his fingers.
After confirming this, he cut off the flowing mana, and Keorn stared at him with wide eyes.
A moment later, he exhaled deeply as if tension had been released.
"It's been a while since I've seen it, but it's still a frightening ability... During the war, Arabion's knights prayed night wouldn't come. Because after one night, everyone sleeping in the barracks would often be found with their throats cut."
"This... seems like too unfair an ability."
It was a terrifying magic incomparable to the healing ability he had wanted earlier.
How could you fight an opponent you couldn't even perceive?
To Turan's words, Keorn shook his head in denial.
"It's not quite an invincible ability. There are some top-tier magical devices that can detect even Zahar's concealment ability, and methods like brightly illuminating the surroundings to increase mana consumption or indiscriminately bombarding the area. Of course, even considering that, it's such a powerful ability that Zahar became a great house."
If there was a single drawback, it was the heavy mana consumption, but this could be solved by hunting enough masu to increase mana capacity.
Moreover, the mana consumption would decrease as one became more familiar with concealment.
"Anyway, that's enough theory. Now I'll teach you a few simple training methods..."
==
During the three days it took for Keorn's wounds to heal completely, Turan learned many things besides magic.
These included the general shape of the world—though not very accurate since there was much Keorn didn't know—the names and locations of powerful wizard houses, and basic knowledge needed for traveling.
And finally, on the morning of departure.
Turan packed some non-perishable food, a few sets of clothes, simple cooking tools, and his mother's keepsakes in a leather backpack and left the house.
Keorn, who had come out early to bask in the sunlight, said to him:
"You look quite troubled."
"Well, I am leaving the place I've lived my whole life."
"Don't think too heavily about it. If you really don't like wandering, you can always come back."
At Keorn's words, Turan smiled bitterly and shook his head.
No matter how much he might dislike the world below, he wouldn't return to this wearisome place.
Perhaps he might find another place of seclusion instead.
After descending the hill together, Turan first went to the village chief to say he would sell all the sheep remaining in the hill's pen.
Hearing this, the chief exclaimed in surprise:
"Sell the sheep and leave? Then who will do the shepherding from now on?"
"That's for you to figure out. Anyway, I'd like a reasonable price. If not, I'll just go back, release them all, and leave. You're free to catch them again, but it'll probably be quite a struggle."
Very fortunately, instead of getting into a power struggle with Turan, the chief offered a fairly decent price.
Probably thanks to the consistency Turan had shown to the villagers over time.
He was someone who would really break an arm if he said he would break it, and really crack a head if he said he would crack it.
Leaving the village while jingling the pouches of silver coins a few times, Turan said to Keorn:
"Meanwhile, those village folks cheated you out of your reward. Should I go get it?"
"I wasn't planning to collect it anyway. The masu became an undead, so there's no evidence to bring back. Besides, technically you're the one who killed it."
Keorn just laughed even though the chief had withheld the promised reward.
Well, he probably wasn't short on money with his house's retirement fund still plentiful.
He had come to hunt masu as a kind of volunteer work in the first place.
Chatting like this as they left the village and went down, further down, they came to a fork in the road.
Turan spoke in a somewhat subdued voice:
"We part ways here, then."
"That's right. You decided to go south, so take the right path."
Turan wanted to travel with Keorn, but Keorn had refused to travel together.
He said he preferred traveling alone.
Though Turan felt somewhat disappointed inside, he didn't express it.
"Well then, take care, Turan. I hope we can meet again with smiling faces."
"Thank you, sir. I learned a lot."
After exchanging farewells, Keorn set off down the left path without looking back once.
Quietly watching this, Turan finally realized why he hadn't wanted to receive formal speech from that old knight.
Though he had never lacked for affection from his mother, Turan had internally yearned for a father figure.
Someone kind and gentle, who could be a role model for what kind of man he should grow into...
After watching the north until Keorn's figure disappeared from view, Turan slowly began walking south.
An unknown world was waiting for him.