When isa regained consciousness after passing out from the poison, Anieta Nagin, the head's primary wife who ca to see her, threatened her with a mocking tone.
'This accident was entirely because your mother acted arrogant before just for bearing one strong daughter. So be careful from now on, alright? If you run your mouth carelessly anywhere, you or your maternal relatives might et a similar fate. You understand what I an?'
Afterward, watching those two deaths being buried as 'accidents', isa had continuously built up hostility toward the Nagin woman and the main house's upper echelons.
Of course, all she could do was spew curses through letters and words to her two half-brothers.
Since hearing this story, Turan had been contemplating which side Nagin house's identity lay on.
Whether the Arabion middle-aged faction had just used them as an excuse to tornt isa, or if there was so deeper bond between them...
But at this mont, the suddenly disappeared librarian and Renode Nagin's existence were becoming intertwined.
Turan suppressed the trembling in his voice with a light cough before asking again.
"Did he ntion where he was heading? Since he's close to an acquaintance of mine, I'd like to at least greet him if he hasn't gone too far."
"Oh, is that so?"
His face clearly showed the expression of 'A wandering noble claims to have connections with a great house mage?'
"Yes. Renode Nagin was originally the Arabion head's son who was adopted into his maternal House Nagin when their bloodline manifested in him, and I'm acquainted with his half-sister isa."
"Ah, the Skeleton Pri- I an, Arabion's heir! I've heard the na. My, you had quite a distinguished connection."
Having revealed his familiarity with great house affairs, Gilon head acknowledged without showing signs of doubt unlike before.
Perhaps he had heard similar stories from Renode who had visited before.
Actually, more remarkable was the fact that isa's appearance was famous enough to have spread even to this distant place.
Well, wasn't it known all the way to the Enril Desert?
Then, Marvin Baltas, who had been quietly eating, casually interjected with a question.
"Is she really that emaciated? I heard she's so ugly you'd be afraid to see her in dreams."
"Shut your mouth, Marvin! She's not soone you can speak of so carelessly!"
Marvin, who had been speaking recklessly from the side, flinched at Head Gilon's shout and lowered his head.
To speak ill of soone right after revealing they were acquainted with her!
What if those words were to reach there through Turan?
Though there were customs between nobles, it was foolish to needlessly earn the enmity of the strong.
Of course, making this attempt at damage control futile, isa was trying to manage her expression after hearing herself called ugly to her face.
Naturally, none of them suspected isa's identity as that skeleton princess.
"Ahem, I apologize but regarding what was just said..."
"Of course. I don't need to relay unpleasant stories to my friend either. So, about my earlier question?"
Anyway, thanks to Marvin's careless remarks, Turan was able to take more control of the conversation.
"Ah, where he was going, you asked? He said he planned to return to his main house first. He might have arrived by now."
"I see."
Turan showed signs of disappointnt while clicking his tongue lightly, then asked about everything from how many attendants Renode had brought to how long he had used the library and how long he had stayed in Orem.
Perhaps trying to make up for his earlier slip of the tongue, Gilon answered diligently, allowing them to obtain quite a lot of information.
==
After the banquet ended, Turan called isa and Solif to his quarters and sent all the maids away.
The topic of discussion was naturally what relationship existed between Renode Nagin and the librarian's disappearance.
"First, there was absolutely no one who visited the library during these past few months because of the war except Renode. So he's the only likely culprit. Unless there was soone else who snuck in like ."
"Just from what I heard, his actions were extrely abnormal. He brought three nobles, forty knights, and even masu, demanded to use the library, then just stopped by alone for a few minutes before leaving right away? He made excuses about it being impolite to stay long in a city at war... but then he shouldn't have co in the first place."
Solif muttered with an expression of disbelief.
As he said, if there had been other business at the library, he should have stayed at least an hour or two.
Even just skimming through book covers to check if what he was looking for was there would take more than several dozens of minutes.
"isa, was he originally fond of books?"
"I don't know either. I haven't seen that bastard since he was adopted into House Nagin when I was nine. But I don't rember seeing him read books."
Hearing isa's words, Turan nodded lightly.
If soone who didn't particularly like books ca to the library bringing even nobles, it must have been a house-level event.
Given the circumstances, the possibility that Renode had interfered with the librarian's existence was very high.
The problem was not knowing how he had detected the librarian's existence and either destroyed or captured them, and why he suddenly did such a thing now.
"If Renode could do sothing to Elder, it ans he had at least three bloodline abilities. Otherwise, mages from great houses who visited the library until now would have been able to see Elder Librarian."
"Or maybe he used so kind of tool? For example, like opening a gourd bottle at just the right mont to suck in and trap the spirit or sothing like that."
"Are there magic devices like that?"
"There are stories about such relics in the east. Though I don't know if they really exist either."
While Solif seriously answered isa's surprised question, Turan tapped the desk while lost in thought.
"Nagin house's bloodlines were ruler and tar."
"I don't know about tar, but ruler is the first I've heard of it, is it only in the west?"
"It's hard to find even here. No, there might not be anyone with that bloodline except House Nagin."
isa calmly answered Solif's question.
Ruler was a bloodline that possessed the power to control living beings as its na suggested, but despite the grand na, it wasn't very substantial.
As Turan had learned firsthand in the past, magic that controls organisms barely worked on magical creatures.
Of course, their ability to control living beings was excellent enough that a strong noble could command even hundreds of thousands of humans with a gesture, but what use was that?
After all, a noble of that level using other bloodline abilities could easily sweep away hundreds of thousands.
There was always a reason why bloodlines didn't spread widely.
Either they were thoroughly controlled and exterminated for being too powerful, or they were too useless to spread widely.
Hearing this explanation, Solif spoke with a puzzled expression.
"But do spirits have mana? Undead would naturally have it, but..."
"Of course... they didn't."
Turan realized he hadn't felt any flow of mana from the librarian's body when he t them last ti.
In other words, even though they were a spirit born in a magically constructed building, the librarian themselves was not a magical creature.
"Then maybe he controlled or tried to control the spirit with the ruler bloodline ability."
"Destroying them is one thing, but that would be troubleso, since I've said so much to Elder Librarian. If they captured and interrogated them..."
"They must know almost everything about you?"
"That's right."
Turan groaned softly, feeling he was facing a troubleso situation.
From information about the Night Hunter seen in the underground labyrinth to his own bloodline, the secret information the librarian knew was truly not just one or two things.
"Looks like I'll have to check directly. I'm also curious why they suddenly raided the library at this point."
Even if House Nagin had a divine being who was bothered by the librarian's existence, wasn't it strange to suddenly do such a thing after leaving them alone for thousands of years?
The only special recent event was eting Turan, but this didn't seem like reason enough to remove the librarian no matter how he thought about it.
Changing perspective, could it be that they hadn't known about the librarian's existence until now and just noticed?
The only trigger would be when Turan first carelessly leaked the librarian's existence to the Baltas nobles.
No, it seed too strange for that to have reached House Nagin after going around and around, even after thinking about it.
Though just one region away, this western wasteland region and the snow fields ruled by Nagin were literally different cultural spheres.
At Turan's words, Solif spoke with a half-doubting expression.
"You're not planning to confront Nagin head-on, are you? Well, they're a countryside great house so they must be weaker than Arabion or Zahar... but sohow when you say you'll do sothing, it feels like you really will."
Originally while great houses were all entities that ordinary mage houses had to look up to, there was still so hierarchy even among them.
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