Chapter 171.2

Translator: Pai_

House Varaha’s capital, Helio City, Temple of the Sun.

A few days after finishing basic cleanup, Turan, visiting his friend’s home, rushed to Solif’s place upon hearing he’d been seriously injured.

Before long, what Turan saw was Solif lying on a bed, completely wrapped in bandages.

Seeing Turan, he waved his hand, which looked as if it were in a mitten, and said,

“You’re here.”

“How badly were you hurt to end up like this?”

"Everyone's making a fuss and wrapped me up like this. And I'm not the only one who got hurt. I managed to stab that bastard a few times too."

As Solif spoke boastfully, he suddenly let out a scream, “Aagh!”, from the pain in his ribs.

Turan looked at him with an expression of disbelief, then immediately used a healing spell to assess his condition.

“Your right arm is completely crushed, the left is at least cleanly snapped, but all the fingers are gone. Five ribs are broken, one clavicle’s fractured, and your left ankle and right shin are also...”

In addition, from the cheekbone to the nose and jaw, it was faster to list the undamaged areas than the damaged ones.

The scary thing was that even this was the result of Varaha’s entire group of Healers pouring their effort into treating the returned Solif.

Of course, since their magic power was far weaker, they couldn’t deliver any significant healing, only slightly supporting natural recovery.

By contrast, Turan’s power showed clear results.

As he channeled serious energy into his healing magic, the broken bones reset and fused back together with cracking sounds.

Even the protruding pieces that had pierced through flesh slid back in and healed completely, looking nearly like a reversal of time.

“Normally, for efficient healing, I’d cut here and there for surgery, but I’ll just use a bit more magic instead. You’ve been through enough pain anyway.”

“Sure is convenient having a friend like you.”

"I never imagined you'd fight the head of House Ruvan. If I’d known, I would’ve come sooner to heal you... or maybe even fought alongside you.”

If Solif hadn’t trained enough to use his skills proficiently in real combat, it could have been dangerous.

Calais Ruvan, more precisely, the “drug fiend” who had taken over that body, had ruled as the leader of the Ruvan gods for ages and had mastered the use of the body.

“So none of the others interfered back there?”

“Maybe they’d stationed them elsewhere, wary of you. Or maybe they died before that.”

“Possibly.”

During the last repulsion of the Ruvan invasion of Varaha, Turan hadn’t managed to recover the souls of their possessed bodies.

Even with Spiritual Perception activated, he’d sniped from too far away to perceive and draw in souls.

Considering that it usually takes time to find and merge with a suitable new body for a possession, some of the House Ruvan’s possessed hosts might still be without a usable body.

If not, perhaps they were just using temporary vessels they’d discard later, like Ymir did.

“Hup, resurrection!”

Shortly after, the fully recovered Solif sparked a small flame to burn away his bandages and stood up.

Turan recoiled at the sight of the now-exposed naked body.

“Could you at least cover up that flopping thing...”

“Jealous?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Is it over?”

At that moment, Berit walked in through the door and looked at Solif standing proudly with his shoulders squared.

When she saw her green eyes sweep over his naked body, Solif cleared his throat awkwardly and reached for clothes beside him.

“Ahem, where did my clothes go?”

After a moment, as the previously awkward air returned somewhat to normal, Berit gently patted Solif’s body and said,

“You’ve really healed completely…”

“I told you, once Turan shows up, everything gets fixed. More importantly, Turan, don’t you think it’s time to share things with Berit too? I think she’s more than earned it by now.”

When Solif had returned gravely injured, if Berit had immediately informed Turan, he would have arrived and healed everything in less than half a day.

She hadn’t been able to do that because she didn’t even know where the Jade Mirror was, let alone that it existed.

The Jade Mirror’s very existence was tied to Armania, the mermaid royal, so not many even in Parsha knew about it or its location.

At most, a few senior members from the old House Berk like Ashiz, his brother Melo, and Haram.

Compared to them, Varaha’s side, still lacking built trust, had only Solif who knew everything. So when he was seriously injured like this, solving the situation became difficult.

Just like what happened this time.

“Hmm, true. I also think Berit is someone we can trust now.”

Although Berit was technically a Zahar noble, a potential enemy, she had contributed no small achievements thus far.

From leaking internal information about her family, to feeding false intelligence to lure the enemy’s attack, maintaining the secrecy of the fake army, and even rescuing the injured Solif, she had done it all.

If she had ever intended to betray them, she’d already had more than a few chances to do so.

Just like how Meisa had earned Turan’s trust by doing nothing even after seeing his vulnerable side in the past.

With the others kept away for now, Turan sat beside the sickbed and began to share with Berit a few secrets she hadn’t known.

Starting with the identity and location of the Jade Mirror, he went on to speak about the hidden gods that ruled the world.

At first, Berit was briefly shocked by the story of House Parsha cooperating with the merfolk, a different race, and using their treasure. But once the conversation reached the topic of the gods, she even forgot her usual pretenses and opened her mouth wide in disbelief.

“What... that’s absolutely ridiculous..."

“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s all true, Berit. The power I use isn’t some secret technique of a Varaha family head, it’s truly the power the gods themselves used.”

The horrified expression left her face after just a few examples of the skills Solif demonstrated, and she silently nodded.

After a moment, Berit’s gaze turned to Turan.

“Then... is Zahar the same?”

“As far as I know, only two: Haroon, the head of the house, and my grandfather, Talis. But I’m sure there are more.”

Considering that one of the nobles who followed Alma was also possessed, it wasn’t necessarily true that only those with strong magic or high status could be used as hosts.

Of course, it was better for a host to have a strong basic ability, but compatibility with the soul was just as important.

“Then my father will be possessed eventually, right? He’s the heir.”

“Not immediately, but someday, yes.”

Haroon Zahar’s physical age was around sixty.

If he were a commoner, it wouldn’t be surprising if he dropped dead at any moment from all sorts of illnesses, but with powerful nobles, the only thing that could truly weaken them was the natural deterioration caused by aging.

Turan looked at Berit, who was holding her face in her hands as if dizzy, and said,

“There’s no need to pretend you’re sad. You’re not that upset, are you?”

“You really are awful.”

It was likely that the reason she appeared to be grieving was because she calculated that such a reaction would win Solif’s favor.

Seeing the two of them, Solif laughed in disbelief.

"You two are so alike whenever I see you together."

"That's something I don't want to hear."

"Me neither."

After a brief moment of glaring at each other, Turan shook his head to indicate they should drop that subject.

Whether Berit had affection for her father or not didn’t matter, as long as she liked Solif.

The conversation didn’t last much longer, and soon Turan noticed Solif’s eyes beginning to flutter.

“Sleepy?”

“Yeah... damn, what’s going on all of a sudden.”

“It’s probably because you haven’t slept properly from the broken bones. Just rest for now. Head of Parsha, let’s step out for a bit.”

“Alright.”

"Ah, wait."

As Turan nodded at Berit’s words and began to rise, Solif stopped him and turned to Berit.

“Sorry, but can we talk alone for a second? It’s not like I’m trying to hide anything, it’s just personal.”

“Of course. I’ll go wait outside.”

Despite the clear signal that he wanted to talk in private, Berit smiled brightly, nodded, and left the room.

Watching her leave, Turan said to Solif,

“She looks hurt. You should comfort her later.”

“I don’t need your nose to know that much.”

“So, why’d you ask me to stay?”

“Hold on...”

Perhaps his fatigue was clouding his thoughts, Solif mumbled a few incoherent words before finally organizing his speech.

“Calais... he offered me a deal. Told me to betray you and become like the gods, to live forever... is that really possible?”

“It is possible.”

The souls of the ancient Preah God Tribe and the souls of modern wizards, aside from the size and the types of symbols embedded in the spirit form, had no major differences.

In other words, a human who cultivated a sufficiently powerful spirit form through Soul Magic was no different from a god.

“Then, after it’s all over... what happens to us?”

What Solif was asking was simple.

If, after they had driven out all the ancient gods from this land and a long time had passed, when their physical bodies eventually reached the end of their lifespan...

Would they, like those fallen gods, transfer into new bodies? Or would they accept death peacefully?

Looking at Solif, who was the first to voice a question others may have only pondered silently, Turan spoke honestly of what he had thought.

“I want to live a long time. Until I reach a point where life itself feels utterly wearisome.”

To him, the world was nothing if not fierce and arduous, yet also filled with joy.

The material happiness of good clothes and homes, delicious food.

The emotional fulfillment of traveling new lands, seeing what he hadn’t seen, learning what he hadn’t known through books.

And even the joy of building friendships and love through interactions with others, and the satisfaction of protecting those under his care.

The thought of all these things vanishing with death was unbearably sad, even in imagination.

“But I won’t sacrifice the innocent to get that. The way those people live now is exactly what I despise most.”

Unless there was a way, such as using the Lavitas sacred relic to permanently maintain a soul bond, he would never rely on soul-extracting reincarnation magic that demanded mass sacrifice.

At Turan’s words, Solif gave a faint smile.

“Yeah, that’s the answer I wanted to hear…”

So that brutal fight with the drug fiend who had possessed Calais hadn’t been in vain.

Solif muttered softly and sank into a sleep as deep as death.

*****

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