Chapter 43

Translator: Pai_

After asking a few more questions, it turned out that she had asked Egon how to get to the west.

However, when he mentioned the names of a few nearby places, it seemed like she didn’t recognize them at all.

In other words, it meant that she wasn’t someone who had lived in Kalamaf City for a long time.

“Ah, and now that I think about it, the horse that woman was riding didn’t seem to be from around here either. Its fur shimmered golden all over, making it obvious that it was a top-notch horse. I had to securely lock the stable.”

Turan suddenly recalled a story he had heard long ago from Labus, the elder of the village beneath Hisaril Hill.

This was before his mother passed away, back when his relationship with the villagers had not yet soured.

Labus, stroking young Turan’s head, once mentioned that there had been an amazing golden horse in the village.

Apparently, it was such a magnificent animal that someone from a nearby city had purchased it for a hefty price.

Perhaps Turan’s mother had ridden that horse up to Hisaril Hill and then sold it to buy the sheep ranch on the hill.

The villagers would have surely undercut the price as much as they could.

'This much is certain now.'

There was no longer any doubt in Turan’s mind that the woman Egon was talking about was his mother.

“What about her husband?”

“Well, actually, we didn’t get that far in our conversation. My late wife used to yell at me, saying I’d start drooling if I talked to pretty women…”

On top of that, the woman herself apparently avoided mingling with others, so there wasn’t even any casual chatting.

If she truly had been on the run, it made sense that she would want to minimize contact with others.

After repeating his earlier questions to confirm whether there were any differences in the answers, Turan gave him a few gold coins and sent him away.

“Oh, my, receiving such a large sum feels… overwhelming.”

“You’ve earned it.”

To Turan, a few gold coins were pocket change, but to the vagabond, it was enough to last through the winter.

Of course, if he gambled it away, that wouldn’t be the case, but worrying about that would have been unnecessary meddling.

Since he had given out such a large sum, there was a high possibility that false reports would increase, so Turan instructed the officials to collect the portraits and stop accepting related reports.

Now that he knew his mother wasn’t from this city, it would be more productive to investigate in other cities.

After wrapping everything up, he lay down on the bed in his lodging at the top of the City Hall.

“Hoo…”

If she had headed west, then the place his mother had come from would be either the north, east, or south.

Among these, the most likely directions were the east or south.

Either his mother or his father must have been from House Zahar, as it was from them that he had inherited this bloodline.

But what lingered in his mind was the phrase, “Don’t become like your father.”

It was a statement that could be interpreted both positively and negatively.

Thinking back to his childhood, when he had asked what kind of person his father was, she had said he was a good man, so it must have been meant positively.

But if that was the case, why had she told him not to become like his father? And why did she have to escape alone?

Lost in thought, Turan lay down, covering his face with his hands. Beside him, the golden eagle made a faint scratching noise.

When he looked up, the bird pushed forward an iron plate filled with sand.

[Are you hurting?]

This iron plate was something Turan had personally crafted after coming to Kalamaf. Unlike writing in the dirt, it allowed for writing indoors, though it couldn’t accommodate long texts.

Of course, it was too big and heavy to carry around, so it could only be used in situations like now, when he was resting in his room.

"I'm not hurting. My mind is just complicated.”

[Turan sad when talk Bije.]

“Hmm?”

After being startled by the sudden comment, Turan realized upon reflection that he had indeed talked about his mother in front of this creature quite often.

From the first time he asked the head of Komad City, the golden eagle had been by his side because of the Soul Bond.

Moreover, since their souls were bonded, some of their emotions were shared, meaning he couldn’t even hide his feelings.

[Who Bije? A mate?]

“No, my mother. The person who gave birth to me. Do you remember your mother?"

At Turan’s question, the golden eagle tilted its head before shaking it side to side.

[Don't know. I no mother.]

“Well, I suppose that’s the same for me now.”

It probably wasn't that it was truly born without a mother, but rather that it couldn't remember.

As Turan stroked its head, the golden eagle gazed at him intently before suddenly writing something.

[My name Bije.]

“Huh?”

[I am Bije.]

The golden eagle quickly erased the words and wrote a new sentence.

[Turan sad because no Bije.]

So, it meant that since he seemed to be suffering from not having his mother, it would take her name and become her substitute.

Turan couldn’t help but laugh out loud at its pure-hearted, childlike sentiment.

“I appreciate the thought, but you don’t have to do that. The time when I was sad about not having a mother has long passed. Since it’s your name, think carefully about it…”

[Thought a lot. I am Bije.]

Even when Turan suggested other names, the golden eagle clicked its beak stubbornly.

After a few more attempts to persuade it, Turan shook his head in resignation.

“Well, if that’s what you want, then so be it. I’ll call you Bije from now on.”

After all, sharing a name wasn’t such a big deal.

Except for a few names commonly used only in certain regions, names were generally similar no matter where you went in the world.

Even Turan himself had encountered three or four people with the same name during his travels, and he’d heard the name Bije a few times as well.

“Alright then, I look forward to working with you, Bije.”

[I am Bije!]

The golden eagle, now bearing the same name as his mother, chirped loudly and flapped its wings.

***

Aside from gathering clues about his mother’s existence, Turan faithfully carried out his role as Kalamaf’s protector.

In truth, given that he personally fed and nurtured the city, calling him its father wouldn’t have been strange.

“What? Are you saying the logs are flying on their own…?”

“Come on, there’s no time to rest. Let’s organize these quickly and send them to the sawmill.”

“How are these stones so perfectly squared? The dimensions are flawless, there’s no need to carve them further!”

After resolving the city’s food supply to a certain extent, Turan also addressed other material shortages using his magic.

By casting enhanced cutting magic on a dagger and letting it fly through the air, he felled dozens of trees, levitated them using levitation magic, and transported them. He also utilized earth-shaping magic to transform the shapes of rocks, securing a large quantity of stone suitable for construction.

During this process, his training in telekinesis magic to move objects and earth-shaping magic to manipulate terrain progressed as a bonus.

With a single, powerful wizard using his strength as labor, he accomplished more than thousands of workers could, and Kalamaf began to rebuild at an accelerated pace.

Moreover, rumors of a powerful wizard protecting the city spread, prompting refugees who had fled to return. As a result, after a few weeks, Kalamaf City, while not completely restored, regained much of its former grandeur.

Returning to City Hall, Turan joined a meeting with the city’s influential figures, who now resembled proper citizens once again.

“Winter is finally nearing its end.”

“This week, there wasn’t a single death from freezing. Ten people did die, but eight of them were due to old age, and the other two died from accidents during repair work.”

“We owe all this glory to the great Turan!”

They praised how everything was improving and attributed it all to Turan’s presence.

Half-listening to their reverence, Turan gazed at the map spread out on one side of the meeting room.

It was a map depicting the area around Kalamaf City.

‘There’s still no sign of anything emerging from the west.’

If one followed the western road from Kalamaf far enough, they would reach the region where the House Arabion was waging war against the Dark Elves.

The mysterious entity that had annihilated the noble family which once ruled this city, most likely a Dark Elf Necromancer, was probably in that direction.

Now that the city had stabilized sufficiently, it was time to scout beyond the western road and confirm the identity of the enemy.

He couldn’t stay tied to this city for months or years, just because the enemy wasn’t advancing.

With the power of the Sacred Relic he possessed and the mobility of the golden eagle, it would be possible to identify the entity with relatively low risk.

When Turan expressed this opinion, everyone reacted with visible unease.

“W-Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?”

“Perhaps it would be better to wait and observe a little longer…”

To think of venturing to confront the unknown enemy that had wiped out an entire noble family that once ruled Kalamaf?

What would happen to the city if Turan were to die?

Though such thoughts crossed their minds, they didn’t dare to openly ask him not to go.

How could they possibly stop someone who was practically a living god of the Preah God Tribe in this city?

“If I sense anything unusual, I’ll return immediately, so there’s no need to worry. Even if I encounter an enemy I can’t defeat, I won’t lead it toward the city. Make sure to keep the people under control.”

The reason Turan informed them of this plan wasn’t to seek their approval but simply to notify them that he would be absent for a while.

Daruk and the other influential figures of the city bowed deeply, wishing him a safe journey.

After returning to his lodging, Turan rested for about an hour, recovering his magic power to its peak condition, and then slipped out through the window.

“Let’s go, Bije.”

The golden eagle, Bije, chirped and soared into the sky.

He was gradually getting used to calling the bird by his mother’s name.

In fact, thinking back, he had rarely called his mother by her name in the first place.

As they flew above the city, a few citizens who noticed their shadow called out to him.

“It’s the golden eagle! The golden eagle is here!”

"O Turan of Kalamaf! Protect this city eternally!"

Turan felt uncomfortable with the citizens’ praises directed at him.

Once the enemy in the west was dealt with, he planned to relinquish his role as Kalamaf’s protector and resume his travels.

He had already thought of a way to appoint a noble to replace him in his position.

The condition? They would need to investigate his mother’s whereabouts.

If the western threat was eliminated, Kalamaf would be a city valuable enough to tempt any noble house.

He wouldn’t even need to distribute portraits anymore.

He could simply ask them to look for a young, pregnant woman in her early twenties who had traveled alone on horseback about twenty years ago.

Instead of hoping for someone with exceptional memory like Egon to appear again, it would be more practical to find someone who remembered such a distinctive case.

Thinking along these lines made him feel a little uneasy.

It felt as if he were selling out the citizens who worshipped him like a god, all for the sake of obtaining information about his mother.

What if the next lord failed to govern the city properly, causing the people to suffer? Turan couldn’t shake the thought that he would bear some responsibility for it.

‘This is why I never wanted to take charge of a city in the first place.’

Lost in thought, Turan suddenly realized that he had reached the far edge of Kalamaf’s territory.

Indeed, Bije’s flying speed was extraordinary.

“Let’s see… time to check…”

With a focus of his consciousness, the Sacred Relic’s sensory abilities began to expand.

The flames of countless living beings could be felt below him.

However, among them, there was no sign of any Undead Spirits or Dark Elves.

“Let’s go a little further, Bije.”

Bije chirped softly and resumed flying westward.

Turan designated Dark Elves as the target of his tracking spell and used it to see if he could catch any trace of them, but nothing appeared.

Had the threat that was here moved elsewhere?

‘That would be troublesome in its own way.’

If he could confront a visible enemy and repel it, he could rest assured. But if it had moved somewhere else, it could always come back later.

More importantly, without any tangible results, the heads of other cities would never accept the idea that the threat was gone.

And it wasn’t as if he could just tell them he’d scoured the area using the Detection Magic of his Zahar bloodline…

How far had he scouted while weaving back and forth through the surroundings?

Just as he was beginning to think he might stray out of the Gray Zone, a single flame flared brightly in the distance ahead of him.

“Stop!”

Turan shouted urgently, and Bije immediately came to a hover.

This high-level maneuver, impossible for an ordinary Golden Eagle, was achievable only because Bije was a Magical Beast with overwhelming strength relative to its size.

In that state, Turan furrowed his brows as he observed the massive magic flame detected by the Sacred Relic’s senses.

‘An Undead Spirit… no, a Wizard?’

When he adjusted the target of the Detection Magic to human, the aura coming from it was unmistakably that of a wizard, and, specifically, a noble.

The magic power they possessed was stronger than Ferga’s and more than twice as powerful as Turan’s current level.

At that level, they could be considered a core member even among the most prominent noble houses.

At that moment, the unidentified individual turned toward Turan’s direction and lifted themselves into the air.

‘They noticed me? From this distance?’

Just as Turan was about to order Bije to flee south, he realized that the way the other person was flying seemed oddly familiar.

They lifted themselves into the air and seemed to ride the wind as they flew…

Before long, the wizard, who had been flying from far away, reached Turan, and they came face-to-face.

“Turan?”

“It’s been a while, Meisa.”

Meisa Arabion, the heir of House Arabion, looked at him with a startled expression on her characteristic skull-like face.