Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 102
Chapter 102
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Discord
To the people living in this land, war was not an unfamiliar affair.
Many mage families, despite enjoying all manner of abundance, always wanted more, and war was the easiest and simplest method to achieve this.
But when it came to wars led directly by great families, that was a different story.
After all, isn’t it natural that those who possess much fear losing what they have more than they desire gaining more?
Even the recent war between Arabion and Zahar was the first conflict between great families in as many as three hundred years.
Yet now, barely twenty years later, before the aftereffects had even faded, another war?
“Surely not with Zahar again?”
“I bet this is another staged fight.”
Naturally, the first thing the two thought of was that Arabion might be planning to start another fake war with Zahar.
However, Turan pointed to the lower part of the letter, refuting their assumptions.
“No, the target is Karmain, it seems.”
“…So suddenly?”
To the east of Arabion, the ruler of the northern seas who controlled water and frost.
The very house of Bisen, whom Turan’s group had encountered during their journey across the northern sea, was now the target of this upcoming war.
“I wouldn’t say it’s sudden. Maybe others don’t know, but we do, don’t we? That the relationship between them isn’t actually good.”
“You said the god ruling the Karmain family had bad relations with those of Arabion and Zahar. They were using the power of merfolk to resist…”
“Ah, the merfolk!”
Meisa exclaimed as if she had realized something.
“That’s right. We gave the giant sea serpent to the merfolk as a gift. I thought it would take at least until the next generation to see results, but it’s happening faster than expected.”
Presumably, over the past few months, the merfolk had somehow used the giant sea serpent’s body to break free from the Karmain family’s control.
And Arabion, noticing this disruption in the balance of power, was now making a serious move against Karmain.
They probably discovered this fact so quickly because they had already planted spies inside.
Solif and Meisa’s faces hardened at the hypothesis that their actions might have triggered a war between two great families.
“According to Asiz’s letter, the conflict started when they raised suspicions about the death of an Arabion noble who had recently married into the Karmain family.”
“That seems like a rather weak pretext for war.”
“Well, things will eventually go their way. Of course, Arabion’s control over their family has weakened considerably right now, but…”
Common sense would dictate that adding another hostile family while Zahar was still standing after their recent bloody conflict would be madness, but if they were secretly working together behind the scenes, it wouldn’t be so dangerous.
No, they might even be receiving covert help from Zahar nobles.
“Are they planning to erase the Karmain family completely in this opportunity?”
“That’s possible. If the gods are hostile to each other, it’s unlikely to be a fake war like before.”
Perhaps they might even witness gods genuinely clashing with each other.
Not small fry like Imir whom they met before, but a duel between the heads of the Arabion and Karmain families.
“Anyway, we can’t just ignore this.”
“Are you planning to get involved?”
“I at least want to find out exactly how the situation is developing.”
Turan looked at Meisa and Solif as he spoke.
Despite how dramatically she had changed compared to the past, it was still uncomfortable to expose Meisa to the people of the Arabion main house.
Similarly, Solif’s face was already well-known to the Arabion people.
But if they wore disguise masks, then Turan would be unable to conceal his face.
“This time, I’ll go alone to investigate. You two continue the reclamation project here.”
“That’s dangerous!”
“Exactly. Even if you’ve grown stronger, you’ll die if you’re caught by the real gods.”
In response to their objections, Turan shook his head gently and provided a valid reason.
“We have no choice. We only have one disguise tool, and we can’t just abandon the work here.”
Reclaiming the southern region was the price for borrowing the Ravitas family head’s healing magic.
Abandoning it due to an urgent matter would be equivalent to throwing away their credibility with them.
Considering that healers capable of quickly and completely treating powerful nobles like Turan’s group were extremely rare, stopping this work was unthinkable.
After several arguments and persuasions, both finally agreed to Turan going alone to spy on the conflict between the two families.
“Let me say it again, you really need to be careful. If it seems dangerous, just run away. Got it?”
“I understand. My life is precious to me too, so don’t worry.”
While waving off Solif’s concerns, Turan glanced at Meisa.
Surprisingly, unlike Solif with his worried expression, she maintained a rather detached attitude.
“It’s fine, do something reckless if you want. If you die, I’ll hunt down whoever killed you for revenge.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is…”
A threat not to do anything stupid that might catch the eye of someone powerful, or she’d end up dying too trying to avenge him.
Her expression was too sincere to dismiss it as a joke, so Turan had to repeatedly promise that he wouldn’t do anything dangerous.
Afterward, he went to find Knight Yoz, who was overseeing the reclamation project, to inform him that he would be away from the development site for a few months.
Turan was officially working in exchange for healing, and Yoz was his supervisor.
“I understand. The reclamation will be delayed somewhat, then.”
Yoz responded to the news of his absence with such an indifferent attitude.
Well, if they were completely abandoning the work it would be different, but given that they had already completed more than half of it, it would be more ridiculous to think they would suddenly run away now.
Besides, not everyone was leaving—his two friends would continue working.
What Yoz was more concerned about was the unfamiliar person standing next to Turan, smiling broadly.
“Um, is this person by any chance…?”
“Ah, this is my friend Sol who will take over Phil’s reclamation duties for the time being. Say hello.”
“Hello.”
Solif, having removed his mask to reveal his true appearance, greeted with an utterly shameless expression.
“But no matter how I look at it, you’re the heir of Baraha—”
Seeing the expressions of the two, Yoz quickly swallowed the words that were about to escape his mouth.
He too, as one of Ravitas’s key operatives, must have seen Solif’s portrait before.
“Let’s just say we met by chance. You understand what I’m saying, right?”
“Ah, I understand.”
In any case, the likelihood of rumors spreading about Solif removing his mask here was almost non-existent… This was Koloa, the southernmost region within Ravitas territory, and even further south at its frontier.
Yet the reason he had been wearing a mask was just a precaution for unforeseen circumstances, but now it was far more useful for Turan to wear the mask instead.
After spending about a week settling things, Turan visited Meisa just before his departure.
Since receiving the letter, she had stopped the reclamation work and devoted herself to creating magical devices.
“I think it’s about time for me to leave. How’s your work progressing?”
“Just finished. Here.”
Turan gasped softly as he received the item she handed to him.
A small hand mirror with silver-plated handle and frame.
Though its craftsmanship wasn’t particularly impressive, it contained astonishingly powerful magic.
It was even comparable to the Guardian magical device that Turan possessed.
“It’s a paired item with the hand mirror I have. We need to infuse magic simultaneously to communicate.”
“What about the distance?”
“The farther apart we are, the more magic it will consume. Even with our power, maintaining it for long periods will be impossible at the distance between here and Arabion or Karmain territory.”
“I see, communication-type magical devices are indeed inefficient.”
Considering there had never been a high noble with the Enchanter bloodline until now, Meisa was probably the highest-level enchanter in history.
Although she had invested a relatively short time of one week into making this item, the fact that even such an enchanter’s creation had this level of efficiency was problematic.
At this rate, communication would become impossible for ordinary nobles once they were separated by more than a few hundred kilometers.
Clearly, there were good reasons why various mage families rarely created such types of magical devices.
“It’s probably also because I’m not familiar with enchantment magic. Later, when I make something more proper, I’ll send it to you via Bije.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
Progress would be slower without Turan, but she still needed to continue the reclamation project, and it would be troublesome if she spent too much time on this.
As they chatted and it was almost time to leave, Meisa suddenly embraced Turan.
Unlike before when he could only feel her rigid bones, now it was a warm feeling like being hugged by his mother long ago.
“Meisa.”
“Don’t die.”
Instead of answering, Turan gently patted her back.
* * *
After completing all preparations, Turan soared into the sky, directly gripping Bije’s legs with his hands—something he hadn’t done in a long time.
While using a swing was comfortable, it couldn’t fully harness this eagle hawk’s speed.
Happy to be flying alone with Turan after so long, Bije blew a massive amount of wind behind him as he flew northward.
Looking down at the ground, Turan exclaimed in amazement at the rapidly passing scenery.
“I’m realizing it all over again… you’ve really gotten faster!”
Even when he first rode Bije, he was impressed by the speed, but now it was on an entirely different level compared to that time.
Well, back then, Bije was at best a mid-low to mid-level magical beast by noble standards.
Turan’s weight of just over seventy kilograms was burdensome enough to slow him down and tire him easily.
In contrast, now with top-tier noble-level magical power, each beat of Bije’s wings split the surrounding clouds, with the impact reaching even the distant ground below.
If they had been flying at a lower altitude, the wind from just their flight might have been strong enough to blow people away.
Pleased by Turan’s praise, Bije flapped his wings even more vigorously.
After flying for two days, stopping to rest in uninhabited areas,
Turan was able to travel nearly seven thousand kilometers to reach the Dakein Plains.
“You really worked hard, Bije.”
[This is nothing! I could go even faster alone! Not that you’re heavy, Turan…]
Bije, who had been boasting about his abilities, realized that his writing made it sound like he was treating his friend like baggage and hurriedly scratched the ground with his talons.
Turan burst into laughter at the sight and stroked his feathered head.
“If I had flown by myself, it would have taken at least ten days without rest. Thanks to you, I’ve saved a lot of time. Thank you.”
[I want to keep traveling with Turan!]
“Thank you, but right now, help Meisa and Solif. I need to do this alone.”
It would be difficult to move around properly in disguise with Bije.
Someone accompanied by an eagle hawk would inevitably attract attention.
If Bije became absolutely necessary, he would have to contact Meisa and have him come here.
“So, head back safely. You know where to go, right?”
[I know better than Turan!]
Perhaps angry at having to be separated for so long, Bije wrote with a sulky tone before taking off.
After seeing his friend off, Turan headed directly to the nearby city, Jabilin.
Of course, he was disguised as an ordinary young man using the mask.
“Thank you for your service.”
“Huh? Oh, yes. Nice to meet you, young man.”
Greeting the passing guards with easygoing familiarity as he entered the city, Turan extended his senses to check how many mages were nearby.
‘That one’s a Berk knight too… Seems they haven’t deployed additional personnel to monitor this area.’
He had expected they might have planted spies because of the incident when they extracted Meisa, but surprisingly, they hadn’t put that much effort into it.
Perhaps they had initially planted spies but gave up after months without any news.
‘Well, even if they intercepted the letters I sent to Asiz… I didn’t write anything meaningful in them anyway.’
Turan had deliberately avoided mentioning Meisa in his letters.
Making it seem as if he was traveling only with Solif.
Furthermore, since he hadn’t included any clues to their location, even if someone had read them, they wouldn’t have obtained any significant information.
After exploring the city for a while to gather intelligence, Turan boldly entered the Berk family mansion while using invisibility magic.
The invisibility held despite it being broad daylight with several light-emitting magical devices illuminating the surroundings.
‘Though I can’t maintain it for too long.’
Feeling his magical power rapidly decreasing, Turan quickly moved through the mansion.
Soon, he reached Asiz’s room, closed the door, and released the invisibility spell, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Whew.”
This kind of infiltration was possible because he possessed vast magical power and had stayed in this mansion for months, familiarizing himself with its structure… An ordinary Zahar noble would have depleted their magical power long ago.
Turan lay down on the bed and heightened his Holy Relic’s perception to the extreme.
He could sense the presence of various nobles, from the Berk family’s head couple to Asiz’s older brother Melo, and Turan’s master Haram.
He had expected Asiz to be out playing somewhere, but surprisingly, he was in the garden using magic, possibly doing some magical training.
‘There doesn’t seem to be any suspicious people inside the mansion either… Good, then I’ll rest a bit.’
Turan lay on the bed, relieving the fatigue accumulated from two days of travel while waiting for the room’s owner to return.
Asiz returned about two hours later.
“You, you…!? Wait, Turan?”
“Long time no see, Asiz. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
Startled by the presence of a brown-haired young man occupying his room, Asiz quickly recognized Turan by his clothes.
He couldn’t fail to recognize what he had made himself.
“Did you come because of the letter I sent?”
“Yes. I also wanted to check if there’s been any suspicious activity here.”
Asiz sighed in relief when Turan confirmed there didn’t seem to be any spies in the mansion.
“Actually, I’ve been a bit wary. Worried that someone might approach me wearing the face of a close friend.”
“Isn’t that a rather rare ability?”
“It is, but if you can do it, maybe others can too?”
Of course, considering that Turan’s mask was probably a magical device or Holy Relic created using the power of the Mimic bloodline, such a possibility was extremely remote.
Presumably, the Mimic god had likely not left any descendants to inherit the bloodline.
Still, it wasn’t a bad attitude to be cautious about potential dangers.
Even Turan didn’t fully understand what they could and couldn’t do.
“More importantly, tell me the details. The letter was too brief. When exactly is the war going to happen?”
“I don’t know that either. Probably even my mother doesn’t know. But it shouldn’t take too long. Judging by the main house ordering large quantities of magical devices that grant cold resistance…”
Indeed, this was clearly aimed at Karmain, who controlled water and cold.
Afterward, through an in-depth conversation with Asiz, Turan learned various updates about the Arabion family.
From how the atmosphere had changed in the main house and vassal families, to how they were spreading plays demonizing Karmain to build justification for the war.
“So that’s the situation…”
“You’re not planning to infiltrate the main house again, are you?”
“Not this time. It’s too dangerous.”
Turan’s previous infiltration of the Arabion main house was only possible because they hadn’t anticipated an intruder’s presence.
But now they would be aware that someone with unknown disguise abilities existed, even if they didn’t know about Zahar’s invisibility capabilities.
Attempting another infiltration in this situation would be nothing short of reckless.
Even if Solif and Meisa were with him, he wasn’t confident they could stand against the Arabion family head, and now he was alone.
“Instead, infiltrating the other side seems like a better idea. Could you possibly get me some related materials? Since they’re neighboring families, I think we might find something if we search the library.”
“The other side? You don’t mean…?”
Seeing Asiz’s surprised expression with his eyes wide open, Turan grinned.
“That’s right. This time, I’m planning to take a look at the Karmain side.”