Translator: Pai_
The capital of Aravion, Morgen City, was an ideal city with the most favorable conditions for the formation of a great tropolis.
First, it was the central hub of the Takein Plains, which had the capacity to support a massive population.
Second, there were no mountains nearby to obstruct the city’s expansion, and the enormous volu of the Ribel River flowed through the city.
Lastly, and most importantly, one of the most powerful great houses in the world, House Aravion of the Storm Bloodline, protected it.
While the capitals of other great houses had populations ranging from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand, Morgen’s population exceeded one million. As a result, no one paid attention to a couple of wandering travelers passing through the city.
This was the reason a certain middle-aged traveler was able to enter Morgen City so naturally.
Turan, who had perfectly disguised himself, looked around in awe at the greatest city in the world, just like any other country bumpkin traveler would.
"Even seeing it again, it's unbelievably huge..."
He had visited Morgen once before, but at that ti, he had only watched a departure ceremony from the outskirts and left. This was his first ti entering the city itself.
As Turan walked further inward, he realized how ticulously the city had been designed.
The residential district for commoners was surrounded by entertainnt and comrcial areas, including theaters, gambling houses, bathhouses, and brothels. Further inside, there were cultural facilities for the higher-class citizens, such as libraries, debate halls, and sports arenas.
Noisy and foul-slling facilities, such as blacksmiths, paper mills, and dye factories, were placed far from the residential areas. However, the well-paved wide roads allowed large carriages to transport people back and forth without interruption.
The entire city felt like a well-crafted piece of art.
The various pollutants generated by such a large population were efficiently drained into the city’s river through a well-maintained sewer system. These pollutants were then purified naturally by the influence of magical artifacts installed within the river.
Most likely, several high-tier magical artifacts powered by the abilities of the Purifier Bloodline had been installed.
While admiring the city’s internal design, Turan also activated the senses of his Sacred Relic to observe the magic power and bloodlines of the people passing by.
As expected of the capital of a great house, it was not difficult to spot knights and nobles among the pedestrians. Surprisingly, many of them were dressed in humble clothing, just like Turan.
So of them were likely wanderers who simply wanted to avoid drawing attention or did not wish to reveal their identity in Aravion. However, if that was not the case, then they were either criminals or spies.
How many hours had passed as he continued observing the people walking by?
At last, he reached the center of the city, House Aravion’s main estate.
The dazzling sight made Turan instinctively raise a hand to shield his eyes as he muttered,
"Ah, so bright..."
This was not a figurative expression describing excessive grandeur, he was literally blinded by the radiant glow of the densely embedded magical lamps covering the white castle walls.
If a Zahar noble attempted to infiltrate the estate using Concealnt Magic, their magic power would be completely drained in an instant.
Turan slowly walked around the castle walls, confirming that House Aravion’s estate was perfectly enclosed by this "Wall of Light".
The only open passage for entry was a massive castle gate.
In front of it stood four nobles and around forty knights, with inspectors verifying the identities of those passing through.
Naturally, this area was also packed with magical lamps, making it nearly impossible to sneak through using Concealnt Magic. Moreover, there was a high probability that a detection magic artifact, similar to the one isa had used in the past, was in place.
What if soone attempted to fly over the walls?
That option was also blocked, every open section above the walls was covered by a Magic Net.
Since none of House Aravion’s vassals had the Barrier Master Bloodline, they had either used a magical artifact or hired an outsider to set it up.
Furthermore, the Magic Net extended downward, preventing any attempt to tunnel underground using Earth Manipulation.
"So, I can't even use the Sacred Relic to scout the inside..."
If Turan were to fully activate the Mimic Relic right now, he would be able to detect magic power within a radius of approximately five hundred ters and sense bloodlines within fifty ters. However, neither ability extended inside the checkpoint.
It seed to be either one of the powers of the barrier or a separate counterasure specifically designed to block detection abilities.
After surveying the area for a long ti, Turan ultimately acknowledged that infiltrating through stealth alone was impossible.
Of course, if it had been that easy, the nobles of Zahar would have already turned this place into a complete ss, so it was only natural.
That did not an he intended to give up.
*
“Na and occupation.”
“Vecca, gardener.”
As the man, who appeared to be in his early thirties, stated his na, the inspector quickly scanned the docunts beside him, flipping through the section labeled gardener.
Soon, he found a page detailing a gardener nad Vecca.
Red bobbed hair, brown eyes, a pug nose, buck teeth, dium height with a slightly protruding belly, one leg slightly shorter than the other, and a long scar on his cheek.
Not only did all the characteristics match perfectly, but his face was also identical to the ticulously drawn magical portrait.
After confirming the entry pass as well, the inspector nodded.
“Proceed.”
“Thank you!”
The gardener, Vecca, cheerfully responded and walked past the checkpoint, entering the main estate.
The buildings were elegant and well-maintained, befitting the residence of a great house’s core mbers.
As he observed the people passing by, Vecca - no, Turan, smiled.
‘That was easier than I expected.’
After securing a lodging near the Wall of Light and staying for a day, Turan had carefully road around the castle gate, repeatedly changing his appearance to avoid drawing attention, all while analyzing the checkpoint procedures.
As a result, he realized that House Aravion did not control access to its estate as strictly as he had expected.
Of course, with over a hundred nobles, a thousand knights, and more than ten thousand servants managing their needs, it was impossible to regulate every single person’s movents with absolute precision.
Even the security asures they had, creating portraits and entry passes for every individual, were at a level that ordinary noble houses could not even dream of.
After multiple attempts, Turan finally identified the group with the lowest likelihood of being scrutinized, servants. He targeted a gardener on leave, got him heavily drunk, stole his appearance, entry pass, and clothing, and left three Arabion Silver Coins in exchange.
The gardener would likely struggle when he sobered up and tried to return without his entry pass, but since there was no record of his previous entry, the guards would not suspect that the sa person had entered twice.
Considering that the inspectors processed hundreds of people daily, even if one of them recalled his face, they would likely dismiss it as a mistake.
‘Besides, I don’t plan on keeping this face for long anyway.’
Although Turan had conversed with Vecca while drinking, he had not bothered to learn much about him, his personality, relationships with family and friends, or anything of the sort.
In other words, if he ran into soone who knew Vecca, his identity would be exposed imdiately.
To avoid such a troubleso situation, Turan hid in the shadows of the building closest to the castle wall and modified his face, blending features from several Aravion knights he had seen at the checkpoint.
He now appeared to be a young knight apprentice in his mid-to-late teens, with blond hair, brown eyes, a slightly short and slender physique.
Instead of the shabby gardener’s clothes, he donned a training uniform he had taken from House Berk, completing the transformation into a youthful Aravion knight-in-training.
Stuffing his previous outfit into his Large-Capacity Pouch, Turan walked confidently down the main road.
‘So, this is the main estate of a great house.’
As he heightened his Sacred Relic’s senses, he detected the presence of nurous wizards and magical artifacts throughout the area.
Turan carefully analyzed their strength one by one.
‘Among the nobles, there are at least fifteen at the lowest level, thirty at the lower level, forty-two at the middle level, seventeen at the upper level, and five at the highest level. There are too many knights to count…’
Ever since obtaining the Mimic Relic, Turan had been observing the magic power of nobles and roughly classifying their strength. However, after discussing the matter with his companions recently, they had decided to categorize them into five distinct tiers.
This system was devised to convey an opponent’s strength in a relatively simple manner.
Knights, from a noble’s perspective, were all more or less on the sa level, so they were excluded from the classification.
The lowest tier consisted of individuals who were either too young to have fully awakened their magic power or those with exceptionally poor talent even among common nobles, barely managing to manifest their bloodline abilities.
The lower tier represented the average level of common nobles or those from great houses who were at the very bottom in terms of talent.
The middle tier included common nobles with relatively outstanding talent or the average level of nobles from great houses.
The upper tier comprised heads of ordinary noble houses or elite figures even among great houses.
The highest tier was reserved for the strongest individuals within great houses, those who, if young, would be considered candidates for the next head of the family.
‘And then, there is one more level beyond that.’
Turan’s gaze turned to the largest building in the main estate, where he saw a massive cluster of light in the shape of a human.
Even the highest-tier noble in the adjacent building, who he assud was isa, seed diminutive in comparison to this overwhelming presence.
That person could only be Badal Aravion, isa’s father and the strongest wielder of the Storm Bloodline, as well as the current head of House Aravion.
‘It wouldn’t be surprising if that guy turned out to be a mber of the Preah God Tribe.’
The sheer magnitude of the great house leader’s magic, observed firsthand for the first ti, was beyond formidable.
Would it even be possible for isa to accumulate such power, even if she lived for several hundred years?
And what about the head of House Zahar, who had once fought this monster on equal footing?
With such questions lingering in his mind, Turan slowly surveyed the overall structure of House Aravion’s main estate.
At the very center stood the largest mansion, presumably the residence of the family head. Adjacent to it was a slightly smaller mansion, which seed to belong to isa.
Several buildings appeared unoccupied, possibly because their residents were away on business. However, it seed that the higher one’s status, the closer their residence was to the center of the estate.
The smaller houses, where only knights and commoners’ presences could be felt, were likely the living quarters for knights, their families, or household servants.
Since Vecca, the identity Turan had stolen, was also the son of a knight, it was highly probable that most of the servants here were related to knights.
As he passed by a training ground where young knights were enthusiastically shouting as they trained, he finally spotted isa’s presud residence.
It was the second-largest building within the estate, located right next to the main residence of the family head.
Yet, despite its massive size, the mansion contained only five commoners and isa herself.
Compared to other noble mansions, where nurous knights, nobles, and dozens of servants resided, this was an oddly small number.
Curious whether there might be a security artifact similar to the one Rida had used in the past, Turan carefully scanned the area. However, apart from the magical artifact isa herself possessed, he could not sense any others inside.
‘Is this a trap?’
The security seed suspiciously lax for the residence of House Aravion’s heir, raising his doubts. However, there was no logical reason for them to set a trap.
Turan had left no traces or clues during his infiltration so far.
Surely, they weren’t preparing every day for the possibility of an unexpected Zahar noble invasion?
After much deliberation, Turan concealed himself in the shadows of the mansion’s outer wall, activated Concealnt Magic, and leaped over the wall.
Fortunately, no sudden alarms blared, nor did dozens of nobles co rushing toward him.
‘It worked.’
Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Turan scanned the interior of the mansion.
The first thing he saw was a garden, overgrown and tangled with trees growing in all directions.
The walls and windows were covered in ivy, and many of the nurous windows were either broken or filthy.
Had he not already sensed people inside, he might have mistaken the place for an abandoned mansion.
He climbed through one of the broken windows into a room, only to find it completely empty, devoid of any furniture.
Stepping out into the hallway, he noticed that every single room was in the sa condition.
He was able to confirm this because all the doors were left wide open.
The hallways and walls were completely bare, no tapestries, no paintings, nothing that was commonly used for decoration.
The maids gathered on the first floor were all elderly won, seemingly between their fifties and sixties, who looked like they should have retired long ago.
They went about their tasks in a lethargic manner, not engaging in any chatter, making it difficult to glean any information from them.
Turan observed these won idly embroidering or reading books for a while before heading up to the second floor, where isa was.
Just like the first floor, he passed by several empty rooms with wide-open doors before arriving at the only closed one.
Creak.
Carefully pushing open the unlocked door, he saw a room filled with old, dust-covered, and shabby furniture.
In one corner of the dusty room, isa lay curled up under a blanket, her body frail and thin.
If not for the array of elaborate magical artifacts wrapped around her, she looked less like the heir of a great house and more like the daughter of a poor laborer.
One who had been starving for months and was on the brink of death.
‘No matter how I look at it, sothing’s not right... She’s living in a place this rundown, in a situation this defenseless?’
It was no wonder isa had developed paranoia, believing that assassins lurked around her at all tis.
Even House Berk’s estate seed far better fortified against assassination attempts than this.
Why on earth was the heir of House Aravion being left in such a state?
If Turan had been an assassin from Zahar, this would have been the perfect mont to strike.
Of course, taking her out in one blow would be difficult with all the magical artifacts guarding her body.
Turan briefly considered speaking to isa right away but decided against it, wary of the possibility of unseen surveillance.
Even though his Sacred Relic detected nothing, there could still be techniques capable of bypassing even its senses.
For now, it seed wiser to use this strangely empty mansion as a base and observe the surrounding situation more thoroughly.
‘Fortunately, they don’t seem overly concerned about Zahar nobles infiltrating the estate’s interior.’
Had they embedded magical lamps throughout the inside of the walls as well, nightti activities would have been far more challenging. But even House Aravion must have found that level of security excessive.
After all, they disliked blinding lights as much as anyone else, and it would have been difficult to sleep if the night was as bright as the day.
Of course, approaching the main residence where the family head resided would not be as easy as slipping into this mansion.
Turan’s goal was to investigate the residences of powerful figures within House Aravion, much like when he had encountered Cadrum before.
He might be able to eavesdrop on their conversations or sneak a look at internal docunts.
Just as he was considering securing a hidden spot within the mansion to stay, he sensed a presence approaching from afar.
A wizard with the magic power of an upper-tier noble.
Judging by the silhouette, it was a woman.
The mont she got close enough for him to identify her bloodline, Turan’s expression hardened.
‘This presence...’
The wizard entered the mansion naturally, exchanging greetings with the other maids before heading upstairs to isa’s room with sothing in hand.
Knock, knock.
Her manner suggested she was quite familiar with this routine, as if she had done this many tis before.
"Young lady, I’ve brought the book you asked for."
A few seconds later, she opened the door, quietly gazed at the sleeping isa for a mont, then placed a few books on the desk beside her before leaving.
After briefly checking the books she had left behind, Turan cautiously followed the mysterious upper-tier noble.
‘Who is this woman?’
On the surface, she appeared to be just a maid in her early thirties.
But deep within, beneath the overwhelming magic power of an upper-tier noble, Turan could sense the distinct darkness and the symbol of eyes, characteristics unique to Zahar.
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