Before returning to the Archmage's Tower, Stallel gave Isl both the compass and the gems. Last night's earthquake that caused the eruption and tsunami of Mount Naitua, not natural – the pillars of light rising from the sea to the southeast near dawn are proof enough. The Archmage Tower would inevitably send someone to investigate the situation, and Stormel could not stay out of the way.

Iss stared at the gem for a moment. It was a pear-shaped aquamarine, which, when viewed in the sun, did not appear unusual because it imprisoned a human soul, but in the shadows, it would emit a misty shimmer of its own.

He took it and looked at River. Although someone took good care of him, the middle-aged man's soulless body was already showing a dying deterioration. Iss had little affection for the father, who had left his son behind since Vala's death, but he could not help but feel a little sympathy—all of this was a natural disaster for an ordinary businessman like him.

The gem spun between his fingers and was held in the palm of his hand. He actually knows how to get a soul back into his body...... But given that his last successful test subject was a Golem made of wood, perhaps he had better not try it lightly. The human soul and body are too fragile...... And this is Ed's father after all.

He looked up at the shadows beside the bed. After a few moments, the Shadow Dancer, who realized that he had been discovered, quietly appeared.

“...... You've been here?" asked Is.

Fenway nodded, "Ed asked me to protect his father." ”

Almost no one knew that he was here too. If planned properly, this hidden weapon can do many things more useful than protecting River's body...... But if Ed could really weigh the pros and cons so sensibly, it wouldn't be Ed.

"Have you been with Ed all the time in Grivar?" said Iss, another question.

"Yes. ”

“...... What the hell is going on in the Tower of Silence?"

He couldn't help but care—he almost died there for no apparent reason.

The Shadow Dancer's narrative is simple and clear, and no longer requires the constant guidance of the inquirer as before. Iss couldn't find the answer he needed right away, only feeling more confused.

When he approached the tower more than ten days ago, the power he felt was definitely not just because of the magic circle hidden at the bottom of the tower...... He hadn't noticed it when he had flown by, and perhaps it had failed to see through the camouflage laid by the elves, that the tower nominally dedicated to Omer was very wrong - but there was a strange familiarity.

I don't know if he can dig up anything useful in his deepest memories.

He did not fully recover...... His soul is not stable. He really should have found another place to hide himself and digest the "treasures" that he had had to digest for tens of thousands of years—but there was obviously no time for that.

If Scott is here......

He thought about it, and silently pressed the thought to death in anger. The person he still can't help but want to rely on may be the source of all the chaos.

.

As he walked back to Ed's room, the freckled mage on the Unicorn was loitering outside the door.

After a night of storms and tsunamis, the sturdy and nimble ship was damaged in many places. After visiting Ed, who was asleep, the others returned to the docks to discuss how to repair it, or rest under Leda's thoughtful arrangement, the little mage...... But he slipped back alone.

He spun around with his head down, obviously worried, but he didn't enter the room, as if there was some deadly trap in the door that opened with a push.

Iss thought he was a little strange. He hadn't noticed it when he was in Booty Bay a few months ago—after all, they hadn't dealt with each other much, but last night, although they had worked well with each other, this mage, who looked like a confused and well-behaved rabbit, but was actually extremely talented, had always maintained a kind of respectful distance from him...... That's something he didn't feel in the half-elf Gishel, who was always cold and unpleasant to everyone.

He didn't want to admit that he wasn't so happy about it. After all, he usually doesn't care what other people think of him – except for those he cares about. For some reason, he wondered why this little mage would be so ...... "look the other way" to him?

In particular, it was clearly not because he was a dragon.

He stood in the corner of the hallway, not deliberately hiding. The little mage, who never looked up, did not notice him until he deliberately stepped forward with a heavier foot.

Terry almost jumped. There was a clear defensiveness in his round eyes that made Iss even more unhappy. His uncontrollable bad temper bode for a comeback, and he managed to endure it, but he could no longer maintain even the superficial etiquette.

He could only push the door blankly and enter, as if he had not been seen at all.

The little mage pokes his head outside the door...... But he still didn't come in. When Isis finally lost patience and wanted to ask him what was wrong, he sensed something and ran away before he could speak.

Iss glared at Ed, who was sleeping like a pig, and once again pressed the urge to shave off the gray hair.

As if sensing his gaze, Ed squirmed uneasily and rolled over, the Staff of Eternity, still clenched in his right hand, slicing through the air and nearly hitting him on the head.

He subconsciously raised his hand and grabbed the shaft of the staff. The smooth wooden staff was slightly cool to the touch, but the next moment it turned into a fiery heat.

He quickly let go, frowning at the red marks on his palms. He hadn't touched the cane before, but he didn't know it would resist him so much...... Although it was not very surprising, it made him particularly unhappy at the moment.

Beneath that red mark, another trace faintly emerged.

A disgusting gray-green color, like the marks of some kind of insect winding and crawling, not dark in color, but unusually clear.

It took Iss a moment to remember what it was—more than a year ago, in order to be able to enter the cave where the necromancers were hiding beneath the Giant's Spine without alarming them, he had to tolerate the strange symbol drawn by some black-robed creature in the palm of his hand...... But by then, when he woke up in the barbarian camp, in the body of a seven-year-old boy, the symbol had clearly disappeared, and no one had ever mentioned it to him again.

Was it in fact engraved in his flesh and blood?...... What about the one in Ed's hand?

The symbol soon faded again, but Iss couldn't help but rub the skin of his palms until it began to ache.

There was a strange feeling in my heart, but I didn't know if it was because of disgust or fear.