Feeling preemptively guilty at Meisa's words, Turan rolled his eyes and scanned his surroundings.
Of course, no one here was paying attention to him.
Before the topic of a great house's successor nearly being assassinated, even being the benefactor who saved the young master had to take a back seat.
"An assassination at the main house? With how solid their defense system is..."
"There must be an insider. Besides, there's no shortage of people who dislike me."
Heavy fatigue was evident in the voice answering Asiz's words.
It seemed life wasn't necessarily easy just because one was born with outstanding talent and superior status.
Meisa ran her bony fingers through her hair and spoke softly.
"Well, I'm tired so I'll go to bed first. Good night everyone."
Having wrapped up the situation so quickly, the Arabion princess flew straight toward the castle without even waiting for a response.
Literally, she slightly levitated with floating magic then created wind to provide propulsion and flew away.
Watching this, Asiz's mother, Midela, gave instructions to an elderly maid standing beside her.
"Ena? Prepare our house's second-best guest room for Sir Turan."
It seemed that regardless of whether it was her second cousin or not, she couldn't dare refuse the successor's orders.
==
Early morning, Turan opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
As his sleep-dazed mind cleared, he remembered this was House Berk's mansion, where he had come as a guest last night.
His first action was to go to the 'washbasin' placed in one corner of the spacious room.
As the maid had explained last night, pulling a long rod produced a trickling stream of water.
After blankly watching this, Turan used the soap placed beside it to wash his face clean and dried it with a towel.
Perhaps imbued with dehydration magic, the moisture immediately disappeared with just a light rub.
'Is this because they're an artificer house?'
House Berk's stronghold was nothing short of a treasure house of magical devices accumulated over hundreds of years.
In terms of convenience, it wasn't necessarily better than other houses where servants visited every morning to wash your face directly, but wasn't it fascinating and fun?
Originally, the privileged class derived pleasure from monopolizing things others couldn't use.
After putting on the provided guest robe and stepping into the hallway, he saw white radiance hanging from the ceiling.
A white light completely different from that produced by torches or oil lamps.
That pale light shone without gaps along the top of the long corridor, not allowing even a single shadow to form.
Though Turan, with his now considerable magical power and high concealment proficiency, could maintain complete concealment for hours in dark places, here he would be limited to about one or two minutes at most.
If a Zahar assassin tried to infiltrate here, they would either have to find and kill their target within a short time or get caught wandering the corridors after exhausting all their magical power, meeting a miserable death.
And this was without even considering the infiltrator detection and interception magical devices that must be hidden somewhere in the mansion.
"Turan! Still an early riser! But what are you doing alone in the corridor?"
While he was blankly observing the corridor's magical devices, someone called out to him.
It was Asiz, looking considerably refreshed, perhaps from being back home after a long time.
"This is fascinating."
"This? Ah, the magic lights? It's something we try making whenever practicing bestowal magic as children... Want one? We have extras in storage."
"No, not to that extent."
Turan could create such light directly anyway.
One of the first types of magic he learned from Keorn was shaping light to create simple weapons.
He just hadn't used it because physical attacks were handled with his sling, and his night vision meant he didn't need illumination.
"Aren't you hungry? Mother will probably invite us for breakfast soon."
"I can wait plenty. More importantly, there's something I want to ask."
"Hmm?"
"That Arabion lady from yesterday, is she perhaps ill? If it's difficult to say, you don't have to tell me."
Since a great house successor's health condition could be considered military information, Turan approached carefully.
Fortunately, Asiz just gave a bitter smile without suspecting him of being a spy or something.
In truth, it would have been more suspicious not to be curious about such an appearance.
"She's quite thin, right? She wasn't like that when young, but at some point she started eating only water and salt. Saying being thin makes it easier to fly... I heard several people tried to copy her but all gave up. Saying they'd really die at this rate."
"It certainly looked unhealthy."
Though magical power evolved the body to display superhuman abilities, nobles were still living humans in the end.
Logically, if there's only consumption with nothing going in, problems are bound to arise.
"But she seems basically fine anyway. Besides, what can we do if she insists? Even though we're close relatives, they're still the boss family in the end."
Though they seemed to treat each other casually like cousin siblings at a glance yesterday, it seemed there was still some barrier between them.
After such chat, Turan joined House Berk's morning formal breakfast with Asiz as expected.
The head couple, Asiz's brother, and about three relatives participated, but the Arabion lady wasn't present.
It would have been awkward to have her eat just water and salt while others enjoyed their meal.
She would probably feel quite self-conscious too.
"We haven't prepared much, but please eat plenty."
Looking at the food laid out on the table, Head Midela's words were purely deceptive.
Not to mention common soup and bread, all sorts of dishes they had never seen before were spread out like the wheat fields of the Dakein Plains.
This was crab meat wrapped in flour dough and steamed, that was boiled potato dough topped with truffles...
Asiz, who had been kindly explaining beside him, spoke in amazement.
"Why such an elaborate spread? There are plenty of things I haven't seen even on my birthday, someone might think the Arabion head himself was visiting."
"Be quiet."
It seemed this wasn't an everyday meal even in this house, but rather prepared because of Turan being Asiz's benefactor.
After indulging in all sorts of luxurious dishes – honestly, some were too unfamiliar to suit his taste – and finishing with sweet bread and bitter tea, Midela brought up business.
"Then, continuing our conversation from last night, my son promised a powerful magical device as payment for his life."
"Yes, that's correct."
"Do you have anything specific in mind?"
"I want something that helps with defense. It's easy to harm others with magic but difficult to protect oneself. If possible, I'd like something that can counter surprise attacks."
This was the conclusion he had reached after much deliberation.
Even if his other half bloodline turned out to be defense-oriented, wouldn't defense plus defense make for better defense anyway?
Especially after recently seeing how helpless the dark elf necromancers were against surprise attacks, he had learned a lot.
Imagining himself receiving such attacks, he didn't really have any countermeasures.
Relying solely on superior reflexes and movement was too unreliable a defense method.
"It's not difficult since it's something we've made often. But we don't have any ready-made ones right now."
"Then may I make it?"
"Unless you plan to drag House Berk's honor through the mud, stop."
At Asiz's suggestion, his brother Melo, who hadn't spoken a word yesterday, spoke sarcastically.
He turned to his parents and slightly bowed his head as if seeking permission.
"I will make it. I just finished a commission from the main house, so I have time on my hands."
"How do you plan to make it?"
"For countering surprise attacks, it should be something always carried. I'll imbue magic into a ring, earring, or necklace form to draw out the guardian bloodline's defensive power."
"That sounds good. How long?"
"One month."
He had read about the guardian bloodline in books.
Unlike other bloodlines that preferred ranged magical attacks, this bloodline specialized in close combat based on superior physical abilities.
Wasn't high physical durability their particular strength?
If he could temporarily borrow that power, it would certainly be unmatched as a defensive ability.
"Though nothing is more unsightly than parents bragging about their children, Melo's skill barely falls short of mine as head. This means essentially having a head-class artificer bloodline wizard personally devote a month to creating a magical device."
"I'm grateful, but... isn't this a bit excessive?"
House Berk's offer left even Turan somewhat dumbfounded.
Combining knowledge from books and information from Asiz, the quality of magical devices made by artificer bloodline wizards varied according to the time invested in imbuing power.
Of course, investing unlimited time wouldn't create an incredible item, and the efficient production time varied according to magical power and talent, but a month was close to the limit for most artificers.
Considering the backlash from creation, they wouldn't be able to make powerful magical devices for about half a year.
It essentially meant monopolizing half a year of a head-class wizard's time.
"If this is excessive, doesn't that mean my son's life is worth that little? No, absolutely not. Well then, you'll need to stay as our guest for the next month."
"I'm worried about imposing for too long."
"Please don't think of it as a burden and stay."
==
"I think Mother has taken a liking to you."
As soon as they left the banquet, Asiz spoke with a serious expression.
"To me?"
"Yeah. Actually, I met with Mother before bed yesterday and talked more about you. From how your magical talent isn't inferior to Meisa's to how you never neglect training despite that. Originally, I was trying to prevent Mother from looking down on you as a wandering noble without proper backing, but..."
"Listening to this, it seems she wants to bring me into the family completely."
The first person Turan thought of was Izella from House Baltas.
Though he was disgusted by how she calmly used knights as shields, even excluding that she was far from his ideal type.
Looking at the big picture, it wasn't different from Head Lug trying to sell her off.
The only difference was between a remote provincial house and a direct vassal house of a great house.
"That's right. She'll try to entice you by giving generously to create obligation, then introduce a pretty lady. Actually, there are several adults in the family who joined that way."
The guardian bloodline noble who would assist in making the magical device was apparently one of them.
He hadn't known, but to imbue a magical device with bloodline magic abilities, a noble of that bloodline had to help with the creation.
Learning this, Turan's mental burden doubled.
"This is troublesome."
Asiz waved his hand with a reassuring smile.
"Well, don't worry too much. They're just giving you something good to curry favor, they won't force you to marry just because you accept this. My mother isn't that unreasonable."
"Is that so."
For Turan, that was even more concerning.
If they had demanded he join their family to receive this, he could steal the item and run away without guilt.
Some people find unreturnable kindness more burdensome than hostility, and Turan was one of them.
Of course, actually staying and marrying into House Berk was absolutely impossible.
How would he explain if any children he had awakened the Zahar bloodline?
"That's what I'm saying. Ah, do you have any plans now?"
"Why?"
"Let's go out and have some fun. Though Zabilin isn't the capital, there's still quite a lot to enjoy. Surely you're not planning to stay cooped up practicing magic all day like in other cities?"
"Actually, I was."
"Oh, please. Let's try enjoying life a bit, friend!"
At the word 'friend,' Turan finally let himself be led out of House Berk's mansion by Asiz.
He could see the city's daytime scenery that he couldn't properly observe last night due to curfew.
Some passersby reacted slightly to Turan and Asiz's attire, but unlike in other cities, they didn't deeply bow or prostrate themselves.
They just slightly bowed their heads to show respect as they passed.
After walking for about ten minutes, they saw a bustling street lined with various shops.
"So, what are we going to do for fun now?"
"Well, that depends on what you like. Drinking, gambling, women. Which do you prefer?"
"Library."
"I'm realizing anew just how old-fashioned your tastes are."
"I haven't really had many chances to properly enjoy myself. But I don't think I like any of those three you suggested."
He had tried alcohol several times while being invited to various houses but found it just okay, and he was hesitant about gambling after being told multiple times by his mother as a child not to do it.
And as for women, even without his mother's or Keorn's restraints, he had several reservations.
Especially in a region where his innate bloodline was despised.
"Hmm, all no good... then how about a play?"
"A play?"
He had briefly seen explanations in books.
Something about acting out specific events or folk tales on stage.
Though he had never actually seen one, of course.
Hearing this, Asiz's eyes widened.
"What? You've never seen a play even once?"
"No."
"Well then, I have no choice but to guide you. As it happens, Zabilin's finest theater isn't far. They even have knight actors, you know."
Though he didn't know much, for Turan, who knew actors were similar to jesters, this was astounding.
Those who were considered almost mythical beings around Hisaril Hill were here performing tricks in front of the public...
Indeed, the realm of great houses was like a completely different world from other regions.
"Welcome, guests!"
Upon arriving at the theater, a small boy deeply bowed to the two of them.
Asiz grinned and pointed to the performance advertisements placed to one side.
"Look over there and find what you want. The titles and performance contents should be roughly listed."
After briefly looking at the advertisements without much thought, Turan froze when he saw one particular performance advertisement.
Asiz approached from the side and said while looking at it.
"