Translator: Pai_
“Ta-da, my ass. Why did it take you so long?”
When Solif made a face as if he were hurt by the blunt reproach, Turan pretended to gag and wretch.
“It's been a while since we've seen each other. Isn't that too cold?”
“For soone with the Sun Bloodline, this much is just right. Shall we have so tea first?”
“I'll have the silk lotus tea. I don't want to say anything bad, but honestly, all the tea in this town is terrible.”
Luckily, no one was around to hear the heads of two great noble houses conversing so casually like young n.
Because as soon as everyone saw the two facing each other, they all stepped back from their seats.
Turan brought Solif to his residence instead of the stuffy office where he was holed up for several hours a day.
It was also to let him et isa, whom he hadn’t seen in a while.
“Solif!”
“Ta-da. More than that, your belly's really grown. How much longer?”
"Probably about three or four months."
Co to think of it, this was the first ti Solif was seeing isa with her belly properly protruding.
During the previous battle with the Carmine-rmaid forces, it was still sowhat concealable with clothes, and after that, things had been busy in various ways.
"To think this guy is going to be a father, I heard it before, but seeing it like this really makes it hit ho. It's impressive in many ways."
“Not yet for you?”
"? Well, um. If the Sun allows, the opportunity will co. Ah, saying it like this makes sound really stupid, but I’m just used to saying it this way.”
They had co to understand that the fallen gods were no longer beings worthy of such worship, but it was still hard to change a lifeti of attitude in an instant.
Of course, the old gods who ruled the Varaha region, including the Silver Sun, and the beings worshipped as gods in the modern age had all perished, so they no longer committed atrocities like clinging to their descendants' bodies for survival.
As they lightly shared a cup of tea during their conversation, Solif let out a deep sigh.
“I really thought I was going to die from the annoyance. That damn family restoration movent happened three tis. And if we were to just kill all of them, we’d have to take over hunting the magical beasts ourselves.”
Because of that, he grumbled that the instigators had to be selectively weeded out and eliminated, and the incited ones had to be punished only with corporal punishnt and fines.
Fortunately, it was sumr. If they had to go around the Frostwind Forest in winter, it would've been a serious ordeal.
“Still, the fact that you're back like this ans it's mostly settled, right?”
“Of course. Over in Ruvan, I put up a pretty sharp and promising guy. Like you said, soone not related to the existing powers.”
“Yeah. That way, he’ll listen to us better.”
At least they hadn't completely wiped out all the Ruvan nobles, so just by maintaining so of the existing system, things had been smoothed over sowhat, and now even the nobles of Varaha had returned to their main houses except for a few dispatched personnel.
In other words, they were ready to fight again.
“Are you okay with fatigue and all?”
“Hm? What fatigue?”
“Well, we ca back from fighting and got to rest early on, but you guys fought remnants several tis and returned right from the field. I thought you might need more rest.”
“Co on, I’m a noble. Don’t say such weak things.”
Solif’s attitude was probably the sentint shared by most regular nobles.
The condition of the knights, who as lower ranks had faced an even greater fear of death, wasn’t even brought up.
“Well, maybe it would’ve been better if I had brought along soone from Ruvan to serve as a concubine or sothing…”
Knowing Turan’s background, Solif probably found it hard to make such a decision.
Turan, understanding that part without hearing it directly, shook his head with a smile.
“You didn’t need to be that considerate of .”
“Well, there are plenty of pretty girls and guys in Varaha too. I'm fine, so tell about you. Earlier, Ashiz was saying sothing about Zahar this and Carmine that? Are you planning to end those water snake bastards this ti?”
“No.”
When Turan brought up what they’d discussed before, that they decided to cooperate with Carmine and oppose Zahar, Solif showed a hint of disgust on his face.
“Hmm, that won’t be easy.”
“Still, the Sun Bloodline is pretty strong against Zahar, right? Your stronghold too."
The base of the House Varaha, the Temple of the Sun, was an entire building that had been a sacred relic passed down from the era of the Old Empire.
From the outer walls of the building to the inner walls that divided sections inside, all were imbued with the Sun's blessing, which made it nearly impossible to use Concealnt Magic inside, except in specific areas such as underground or certain indoor locations.
He hadn't tried it himself, but even Turan would probably have his magic power nearly drained after just thirty seconds of concealnt inside the temple.
“But still, we can’t all just hole up in our base. There are wizards scattered one or two at a ti in cities or villages across the region, and thinking of those guys getting assassinated is terrifying. Did you guys prepare anything?”
“Roughly.”
Originally, the nobles of the Gray Zone weren’t particularly wealthy, so they couldn’t even dream of preparing for an invasion from the nobles of Zahar.
For example, Alos bern, the lord of Bigen City, couldn’t even prevent Turan from entering the middle of his own ho.
To prevent such situations, Turan had, since becoming the lord of the Gray Zone, steadily instructed Ashiz to mass-produce light sphere magic artifacts and distributed them to the vassal houses.
Unless there were so who had sold their magic artifacts elsewhere, by now, most noble houses should have at least a dozen or so light spheres by default.
Of course, with just that, it was hard to expect security on par with Aravion’s base or the old mansion of House Berk, but at the very least, they wouldn’t be assassinated without resistance like before.
"Hmm, we should have done sothing like that too... but since we've been hostile to Zahar for a long ti, I don't think we're that prepared."
In addition, nobles of Varaha born with the Sun Bloodline tended to sowhat look down on those with the Zahar bloodline.
Because the two powers they controlled, light and fire, were natural enemies of concealnt abilities.
Didn’t that one Varaha noble whom Turan fought long ago, whose na he could barely rember now, show a mocking attitude as soon as he realized Turan was a noble of the Zahar bloodline?
“Then from now on, get properly prepared. Hmm, no. If we strike them preemptively, there won’t be a need to prepare.”
“You said you stord the capital and ssed it up. Aren’t they rolling their eyes by now and rushing over here?”
“Probably not.”
Since the process of taking down Haroon wasn’t exactly smooth, there was a high possibility that Zahar would need ti to reorganize internally.
On top of that, though it wasn’t intentional, Turan had caused quite a bit of damage to the city during his fight with Zahar’s gods and escape from Axum City...
“Co to think of it, Badal’s whereabouts are also a problem.”
“He might still be staying on Zahar’s side, or he might’ve secretly returned to Aravion.”
“Or maybe he infiltrated Parsha. It’s not like we’ve issued a wanted poster for his face or anything.”
It would’ve been great if he had managed to secretly collect so part of Badal’s body, like a strand of hair, during the infiltration, but the mont such a move was attempted, it likely would’ve caused a ss.
Unless he was a fool, he’d be wary enough to know that Zahar might want clues to track him.
“Well, only reckless bastards like you would try sothing like that… So, are you going to attack right away?”
“For now, we wait. Your side’s troops need so ti to rest, and we need to build justification too.”
Of course, the justification to present publicly had already been prepared.
The fact that Haroon, the head of House Zahar with whom they had personally t and renewed the non-aggression pact, had been ousted.
Normally, it was the general practice to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of another house, but when the subordinates of a house friendly to them stabbed their own head, that was sufficient cause to intervene.
If they ignored sothing like this, everyone would start aiming for the family head’s seat and betrayals would erupt all over.
They had already released this story within the House Parsha, so the plan was to wait until the news spread and the justification to attack Zahar beca ripe.
“As a bonus, we’re also getting help from Lavitas.”
“They said they’d help?”
“No reply yet.”
Turan estimated the likelihood of Osel sending troops at about seven out of ten, and the chance of direct participation at about three out of ten.
This was considering that, unlike the last Varaha War, where there had been a clear justification, this ti Osel was not a direct party involved, and Aravion's pressure had been significantly strong.
“It would definitely be more certain if Rida achieves so results... By the way, what are you doing with the White Elves you captured back then? Did you bring them to the main house?”
“Yeah. I put them in the sa prison where my parents used to be held. Maybe because they’re used to underground life, they’re adapting well.”
"I should show them soon."
Nia, the only necromancer cooperating with them, had recently been asking several tis to see her kin.
So far, it had only been a passive request, but if they kept refusing, she might misunderstand and assu they had already been killed or sothing.
Anyway, since they were connected through the jade mirror, eting wouldn’t take very long.
***
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