The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Chapter 122 Banquet Revelations (2)

While Meisa stiffened at Turan's answer, a young man called out to Turan from behind.

"Excuse me, are you Turan? You really came back! It's been a while, you remember me, right?"

Turan pondered for a moment who it was before realizing it was Marvin, who had hunted monkey masu with him.

The young man who was the previous head's nephew and current head's brother.

"It's been a while, Marvin."

"Yes. By the way, who are these people?"@@@@

"They're friends traveling with me. This is Sol and Misha."

"Ah, yes..."

Marvin quickly looked over Solif and Meisa, then stared intently at Meisa for a while before immediately projecting his mana.

Of course, his mana that had already reached its limit before was still at the low noble level like past Turan.

At this, the two exchanged glances before likewise projecting their mana.

"Ugh!"

Startled by the incoming pressure, Marvin let out an exclamation and stepped back, then left his seat as if embarrassed by his unseemly behavior, his face reddening.

"Ahem, um... excuse me. I think my brother is calling me, so I'll be going."

Glancing at Marvin's retreating figure after making excuses, Turan turned to the two and asked.

"How much did you show?"

"A bit above intermediate, upper-intermediate?"

"I went all the way to advanced level."

"That's too strong. No wonder he was surprisingly shocked. That level would stand out, so reduce it next time."

As he said, the two disguised their abilities by revealing only a portion instead of fully projecting their mana.

This was one of Baraha's secrets that Solif had taught.

The principle was roughly to imagine multiple mirrors reflecting mana inside the body, then project mana while reflecting it several times to reduce the power that showed.

Of course, they couldn't make themselves appear stronger than their actual ability.

Without this technique, it would have been awkward to prove their status by projecting mana anywhere.

Though these frontier nobles' insight would have difficulty noticing they were great house heir-level mages, rumors would still spread about several powerful nobles suddenly appearing.

"Keck!"

As soon as Gilon finished speaking, Solif who had been gnawing on pork ribs suddenly coughed heavily.

For some reason, he could feel Meisa beside him staring intently at him.

"He did. Though I already declined."

"If you had accepted that proposal, you might be sitting in my place instead. So I was wondering, would you consider taking my daughter? Though unfortunately she only inherited knight-level mana, it wouldn't be bad to strengthen ties between houses by taking her as a concubine. After all, we nobles are better suited to settled lives enjoying prosperity than wandering."

At the proposal similar to what Head Lug had made before, Turan gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"I appreciate the offer but I prefer being free for now."

"That's a shame. My other two guests, Sol and Misha was it? The offer is valid for you as well, please think about it."

When Solif and Meisa expressed their refusal in their own ways to Gilon's proposal, the atmosphere in the banquet hall dampened somewhat.

As he had felt before, people in this house had a talent for bothering others with troublesome proposals.

Marvin had probably told them about the two's power, but they seemed to lack nobles in the house to the point they would risk even losing control of the house.

Well, if he remembered correctly, House Baltas had seven or eight nobles and at least two of them had died.

Turan continued conversing on appropriate topics for a while before bringing up what he wanted to ask about.

"By the way, was there anyone who used the library before us? Something seemed different from before."

"Hm? As far as I know, facilities getting slightly damaged or books being disorganized should sort themselves out. Did several books get damaged?"

"No, not that, just... how should I put it, the atmosphere seemed somewhat different."

It was quite frustrating having to beat around the bush since he couldn't mention the librarian's existence.

Gilon slowly opened his mouth while hesitantly twisting his beard with one hand.

"Well... I suppose it's fine to talk about it now since it's in the past. There was another visitor about a month ago. We weren't letting anyone in because of the war then, but they were too big a figure to refuse."

"A big figure? Did someone from a great house come?"

At Turan's question, Gilon opened his eyes wide as if surprised how he knew and said:

"Exactly right. A noble from House Nagin in the north. Their name was Renode, I believe?"

At Gilon's words, Turan urgently turned his gaze to Meisa.

Wasn't Renode Nagin the son of Arabion's head and Meisa's half-brother who had been adopted into House Nagin?

The one Meisa had sent a letter calling him 'murderer' in her childhood rage.

As if proving Turan's memory wasn't wrong, Meisa's blue eyes filled with a cold murderous intent upon hearing that name.