It wasn't hard to guess what kind of misunderstanding they had.
The people burned to death while tied up, and the villain pulling out the girl who would have been the last victim...
Turan quickly observed his opponents.
Four in number.
As they were wizards, it was difficult to be certain, but outwardly most appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties.
If there was anything distinctive, all four were emanating strong scents of excitent and tension.
Just like him when he first went wolf hunting with his mother in his childhood.
He guessed they were probably inexperienced youngsters.
"Wait—"
"Ah!"
The mont Turan opened his mouth to explain, the wizard holding the fla spear let out a yelp and shot it.
Judging by his startled expression, he seed to have lost control due to excessive tension.
Turan stretched out one of the arms that was holding the child to catch the spear while infusing maximum magical power into his bracelet.
As the Guardian bloodline's power protected his entire body, the fla spear exploded and flas enveloped his body.
"What are you doing!? There was a child!"
"Ah, no, by mistake..."
The woman with the ice bow sharply called out as she saw Turan and the girl in his arms simultaneously engulfed in flas.
However, monts later, they all widened their eyes in shock without exception.
Turan, who had taken the magic head-on, was completely fine without even a burn, let alone any scorch marks.
Even the girl in his arms was unhard.
"What in..."
"How?"
Not even countering with magic but just taking it with his body?
For those unaware of the Guardian magical device's existence, they could only interpret that their opponent either had a bloodline specialized in defense or possessed overwhelming magical power.
Noticing their fear, Turan lowered his voice threateningly.
"I'm not the one who attacked this village. If you attack again, I'll start defending myself from that point on."
The fla spear wielder, frightened by the sharp glare, quickly lowered both hands to show he had no intention of resistance.
Soon after, the archer woman also lowered her bow.
"Bisen."
"Turan."
All fights begin from not understanding each other.
Just exchanging nas significantly lowered the tension.
The archer woman, Bisen, stared intently at Turan and asked.
"How should I trust you?"
"Ask this child when she wakes up. She seems to have seen the real culprit."
"She saw the Burner?"
"The Burner?"
"Don't tell you don't know?"
Bisen's eyebrows twitched as she asked in response to Turan's questioning look.
"I don't."
At Turan's answer, she explained with a half-doubting expression.
For the past few months, so deranged wizard had been periodically attacking remote villages in this area, tying up people and burning them to death.
The culprit had earned the nickna "the Burner" and had an extermination order from the local lord, but with no survivors, not even their gender was known.
Until today when one was rescued by Turan.
"Then this child should be able to tell us. Though she's unconscious now, when I first found her, she said a wizard did this."
After saying that much, Turan laid the surviving girl down beside the trapdoor and covered her with his cloak.
Their strange standoff ended thirty minutes later when the girl opened her eyes again.
"Are you conscious?"
"Where..."
"Your ho."
Turan spoke in a gentle voice so as not to startle the child while first giving her water from his leather flask.
The girl's young face was tinged with pain as she seed to realize her situation, but she soon recited the perpetrator's description point by point as Turan requested.
"Red cloak, and his face, he had a beard... he looked rough like a woodcutter."
The girl said she had watched the situation with just her eyes peering out while hidden in the trapdoor when people were being dragged away by the wizard.
Then when she saw him walking around looking for more people, she hurriedly closed the door and bolted it.
When Turan patted the head of the girl who was sohow explaining with her child-like limited vocabulary, tears welled up in her round eyes.
But the girl bit her lips firmly and didn't cry.
Pain and trials had a way of quickly turning children into adults like this.
After bringing the girl along and questioning her once more to check for the possibility that she might be speaking under coercion, Bisen bowed her head politely to Turan in apology.
"I'm sorry. Even though it was a situation prone to misunderstanding..."
Turan looked down at her for a while before nodding with a deep sigh.
Though he was angry about being attacked first, it had been impulsive, and above all, he didn't want to be too harsh because they had worried about the child's safety when attacking.
It was rare to find nobles who cared so much about ordinary people.
After receiving apologies from the other three as well, Turan asked what he was most curious about first.
"Are you here to catch this Burner person?"
"Yes. We saw soone at a recently burned place and thought we'd finally caught them this ti, but..."
Shaking her head at the false alarm, Bisen confidently said they could catch them now that they had a description.
"We have a born tracker among us."
"Tracker?"
When Turan showed a surprised expression, Bisen caught herself with an "ah" and slightly turned her head.
Where she looked was toward one of her three companions, a woman of particularly small build.
"Don't tell you're people from House Zahar? But why are you in a place like this?"
The Enril Desert was far from here, and moreover, if you went west from here it was Arabion's territory, wasn't it?
Were these people from that infamous Zahar assassination group that had attempted to kill isa?
But for that, they all looked too naive...
Seeming to guess Turan's thoughts, Bisen quickly shook her head.
"No, that's not it, we're—"
But Bisen couldn't continue and stamred.
As Turan stared intently, she finally revealed their identity as if giving up.
"We're from Abacha."
"Abacha, of Kamain?"
"I am Bisen Kamain. These are friends from vassal houses."
It was quite a coincidental eting considering Abacha was the na of the port city Turan was heading to, the stronghold of House Kamain.
Though considering that this village was broadly under Kamain's influence, perhaps it wasn't really a coincidence.
"Asha is a descendant of a family that rged with Zahar nobility in ancestral tis, but their bloodline manifested weakly, so while she's skilled in tracking magic, she has no talent for concealnt."
When multiple bloodlines combine to create a great house's bloodline, it sotis degrades, usually manifesting only one of the abilities from before the combination.
Such cases were called 'primitive bloodlines,' and even great houses didn't bother trying to recover these bloodlines.
After all, the possibility of a degraded bloodline becoming stronger again through recombination was extrely rare.
"I'm not sure why nobles of House Kamain are hunting a wizard here, but it doesn't seem like a very prudent decision. Especially without even bringing knights along."
Weren't nobles supposed to be accompanied by plenty of knights even if they belonged to a humble house?
As attendants, or though Turan disliked the thod, even as at shields.
At his words, Bisen's group showed expressions of disbelief.
"Th-that's not sothing soone who travels completely alone should be saying..."
"Because I can take full responsibility for my own safety."
When the man who had shot the fla spear spoke in a timid voice, Turan answered confidently.
Having shown himself taking a fla spear head-on just earlier, those words carried sufficient persuasion.
"Besides, you four don't seem very old, did you get permission from your house to co out?"
Their flinching reaction confird it.
That these four were runaway nobles who had left their house without authorization.
What other reason would young nobles have for wandering around such places without a single knight escort?
"You should stop hunting the wizard and return. It's dangerous."
Though the Burner was likely not very skilled, given that they only terrorized helpless country folk, these people seed so careless they might lose even to such an unremarkable wizard.
If Turan were to fight them, it wouldn't even take ten minutes to hunt them all down.
Beyond magical power being strong or weak, they all just reeked of being unfamiliar with fighting.
"We can't do that."
Bisen shook her head and explained their circumstances.
They were people who had been pushed aside within their house due to lacking innate qualities or succession ranking, and thus weren't receiving enough magical power supply for growth within the house.
Since masu supplied to the house went first to mbers with outstanding qualities, they needed to supplent their power and accumulate achievents this way.
This was one of the problems that many great houses had.
While their strong bloodlines ant children were more likely to be born as noble-class wizards, there weren't enough masu to go around to all of them.
Going on 'pilgrimages' like Asiz was one solution, but considering costs and safety issues, it was difficult for everyone to benefit from this as well.
The number of knights was limited too, after all.
"Sir Turan, could you possibly help us hunt the Burner? We're already four so magical power might be difficult, but we'll give you all the bounty on them. Or... I could give up my share of the magical power."
"What are you saying, sister!"
"Sis!"
"Don't say stupid things. I'd rather give up my share."
The way the other three objected to Bisen's words suggested she was quite a decent leader among them.
Seeing this reminded Turan of Midan.
The leader of the masu hunters he had t in the city of Murei.
"This Burner person, their skill level isn't known at all?"
"They're definitely a noble-class wizard. So of the villages they attacked had several knights specifically guarding them, but they were all killed too."
This was also why the local lord hadn't been able to subjugate the Burner yet.
It seed that knights weren't enough to handle it, and while a noble, perhaps even the head of house needed to personally go, they couldn't even track them since they didn't know who they were or where they lived, and since their attack timing and locations were random, it was difficult to wait in villages too.
If only they were like that ferocious monkey masu that used to be above Baltas that attacked all passing people, they could just go find them and be done with it.
This was why human villains were more troubleso than masu.
"Alright."
He recalled how he hadn't felt good seeing the masu hunters torn apart by the rabbit masu.
If it were complete strangers that would be one thing, but after talking this much, he felt he would feel similarly if these people died.
It also didn't sit well with him that a shepherd would indiscriminately kill sheep instead of protecting them.
Above all, if the Burner turned out to be a stronger wizard than expected, it would be an opportunity to accumulate more magical power.
Now that Turan had accumulated noble-level interdiate or higher magical power, he couldn't easily increase his power with low-level masu that were scattered along the roads.
"Since we'll be working together now, may I ask which house you belong to?"
"I can use the Guardian bloodline's power."
Though there was no real reason to desperately hide his bloodline anymore, Turan still concealed it.
He didn't want his identity to reach the people he had beco close to in Arabion even as a rumor.
It was also most useful when Zahar's concealnt ability itself wasn't known.
"I see."
Most houses born with bloodlines specialized in close combat, starting with Guardians, didn't have their own territory.
They had been weeded out long ago for being disadvantageous in fights between nobles, especially large-scale wars.
The few survivors either stayed as vassals of other houses like Haram or wandered, and Bisen's group assud Turan was such a wandering noble.
In any case, it was clear he was quite skilled, and that was enough.
==
Turan and Bisen's group first took the village's only survivor, the girl, to another village nearby.
The village head there looked half dazed when nobles suddenly ca down from the heavens and entrusted him with a child from the neighboring village.
"Here, I'll give you enough money, so take good care of her until she becos an adult."
"How could there be any question about it, of course!"
"I'll co back to check in a few years."
Of course, he was unlikely to ever co back to check, but saying this would prevent them from treating her carelessly.
Turan was soone who had directly experienced how cruel small village residents could be to outsiders, especially children.
"You're kind. Even though she's just a commoner girl with no connection to you."
"Yeah, well."
The one who spoke to Turan was Kebek, the oldest of the four young n.
He had a healer's bloodline, and though normally non-combat bloodlines had high priority so there was no need to run away, he said he had co along out of loyalty to Bisen.
He was also the one who had given up his share of magical power that would go to Turan.
"You don't need to worry, I'm not interested in Bisen."
"W-what..."
"It shows a lot in your attitude."
At Turan's words, Kebek blushed in embarrassnt.
To be honest, rather than knowing from his attitude, it was because Kebek gave off the scent of being in heat when looking at Bisen.
Perhaps if she had keen sll like Turan, that Asha girl with the half Zahar bloodline would know too.
"What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing!"
When Bisen returned after exchanging a few more words with the village head, Kebek hurriedly covered it up.
She nodded saying "Is that so" before turning to look at Turan and speaking.
"I'm still bothered by what that child said."
"Could it be true?"
"I don't know. It's sothing I've never heard of... I think it might just be the ravings of a madman."
The girl Turan had rescued recalled having heard a few words the Burner was saying while she was in the basent.
The content was truly bizarre beyond asure.
[I offer these sacrifices here, oh gods! Your descendant advances toward you by burning souls and flesh!]
The wizard had shouted that he was becoming closer to godhood by killing the villagers.
So the girl testified.
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