Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Discord
“Kratos! Zeus! Greek mythology! Ugh, stop!”
Inside the Temple of the Sun, the elder spat out incomprehensible words as he desperately blocked the golden greatsword wielded by Turan.
His strange behavior had begun immediately after hearing Turan’s last statement.
Was pretending to be the Baraha family head’s son such a shocking claim, or did those words carry some deeper implication?
Regardless, Turan had no choice but to continue his aggressive assault.
Whatever this was, it undoubtedly related to the gods’ secrets, and he wasn’t prepared to engage with that subject properly.
Fortunately, the battle’s momentum soon tilted in his favor.
Originally, the overwhelming difference in magical power had been balanced by disparities in physical ability and weapon quality, but now that the weapon gap had been eliminated…
The elder, finally realizing Turan had no interest in conversation, resumed his combat stance, but the breathing rhythm he had disrupted during his outburst couldn’t be quickly restored.
If given just a little time, he might recover, but Turan wasn’t foolish enough to provide such an opportunity.
Shortly after, six golden needles erupted from Turan’s halo, piercing the elder’s arms and torso, pinning his body to the floor.
With his tendons severed, the two swords crafted from the Light of Judgment slipped from his grasp and dissipated into the air.
“Ugh, w-wait—”
Was it due to his use of the Guardian bloodline?
An ordinary top-tier noble would likely have died instantly, yet the needles seemed to penetrate only halfway.
Turan brought the greatsword down upon the neck of the elder, who was bleeding from his mouth and attempting to speak.
With a thunderous crash, only a third of the neck was severed on the first strike.
The head, half-dangling and swaying, was cleanly severed on the second blow.
“Whew…”
Unlike Ymir, this Baraha elder didn’t become dramatically stronger even after revealing his hidden bloodline.
Strictly speaking, while his abilities did increase from wielding two bloodlines simultaneously, he barely used that strange power beyond magic.
As Turan was reflecting on the battle, a soul began to seep out of the elder’s corpse.
He expected it to soar high into the sky and disappear like before, but—
‘…Into the ground?’
For some reason, unlike other gods, the elder’s soul seeped into the ground rather than flying away.
As soon as he wondered why, the conclusion became immediately apparent.
The destination of the recently deceased soul was right beneath this building!
‘I need to find it.’
Originally, he had planned to search the family head’s study for secret passages, but now his thinking changed.
If he could find their base underground, he might discover a way to eradicate them at the root…
At that moment, he sensed presences approaching from the distance.
“There’s an intruder in the sacred chamber!”
“Everyone, defend from that direction first!”
Though their battle had taken place indoors, the clash between nobles of beyond top-tier power had effects that rippled outside.
The mages pursuing Solif had noticed this anomaly and were returning.
“Tsk.”
Turan clicked his tongue lightly, picked up the elder’s corpse to absorb its magical power, and entered through the door the elder had been guarding.
A barrier installed at the entrance detected his intrusion, spreading sharp noise throughout the surroundings.
‘Bathroom, bedroom, lounge, study, office, bedroom…’
Tossing aside the elder’s now magic-depleted corpse, Turan swept through the building’s interior using wind magic.
He hoped to find a passage leading underground.
But despite thoroughly searching potential hiding spots—ventilation ducts, under rugs, sewer passages—nothing emerged.
‘I’m running out of time…’
Upper-rank nobles, with their enhanced speed from powerful magic, were already approaching the residence.
If captured by them, Turan would have to face all of Baraha’s mages in direct confrontation.
Though he wanted to tear everything apart to find the underground passage, that wasn’t possible.
The building itself was part of the Temple of the Sun.
Ancient imperial structures from bygone eras couldn’t be easily destroyed, even by a quasi-family-head-level mage like Turan.
At that moment, another explosion and shouts erupted from outside.
[Where do you think you’re going—!]
[You bastard!]
It seemed Solif, who had been circling around to buy time, had returned to engage the Baraha mages.
Thanks to this extra time, Turan, after brief contemplation, invaded the study and stuffed everything visible into his large-capacity pouch.
Surely something useful would be among these items.
The bookshelves were relatively sparse, suggesting the family head might have taken the truly important documents, but the room was large enough that there was still plenty to collect.
After confirming the study was completely empty, Turan poured out large quantities of Fire Soul, detonated it, and thoroughly devastated the study and surrounding areas.
This would make it difficult to determine what and how much had been taken.
Additionally, it was a final attempt to uncover secret passages.
Perhaps an explosion might reveal rooms hidden behind bookshelves or beneath the living room floor.
Unfortunately, even this method failed to reveal any underground passage.
Clicking his tongue in disappointment, he exited the residence to find a visibly fatigued Solif surrounded by Baraha mages.
“That one?!”
“Are you the one who infiltrated the family head’s residence!?”
“What have you done with Elder Rownel!?”
Rownel was apparently the name of the elder Turan had just killed.
Turan immediately joined Solif’s side, whispering softly:
“I’ve searched as much as I could. Let’s go.”
“Which way out?”
“West.”
After this brief consultation, both men simultaneously sprinted in one direction.
The few mages blocking that path widened their eyes in terror as they saw a halo rising from Turan’s back as well.
“No…!?”
Despite their shock, spells immediately rained down, demonstrating their thorough training as mages.
Turan and Solif created whip-shaped Light of Judgment to deflect incoming spells as they continued southward.
“Out of the waaaaay!”
While Solif broke through the encirclement in front, Turan stayed close behind, focusing on deflecting incoming spells.
Shortly after, they passed through the gates and exited the Temple of the Sun.
“Now where? South?”
“Let’s stop by your parents’ house first. We need to completely eliminate any traces there too.”
“Understood.”
Had he known the bond between the two families was strong enough for Zahar nobles to reside within Baraha’s main house, he would have eliminated those traces much earlier.
It was regrettable, but nothing could be done about it now.
Naturally, the interior of Helio City was now fully illuminated.
The noise from within the Temple of the Sun had spread for several kilometers in all directions.
They ignored the terrified gazes of ordinary people as they rapidly ran toward the mansion located on the city’s outskirts.
A relatively modest three-story mansion with about twelve rooms appeared—quite simple for a noble couple’s residence.
“Is there anything?”
In response to Solif’s question, Turan used tracking magic once more and nodded.
It seemed there had originally been guards, but perhaps due to the late hour, no one was present now.
“There’s quite a bit. Rather than searching for everything individually… let’s burn it down.”
“Tsk, I was somewhat attached to this place.”
Despite his grumbling, Solif unleashed flames upon the mansion.
With their combined power, it took less than ten seconds for the mansion to become completely engulfed in flames.
Naturally, hair or nail clippings couldn’t withstand such heat.
Turan confirmed that all traces left by Solif’s parents within the mansion had completely vanished before ceasing the magic.
“Now let’s go. They’re pursuing us again.”
Clusters of magical power were rapidly approaching from the distant Temple of the Sun.
Naturally, these were the enraged Baraha mages.
* * *
The pursuit that began in the middle of the night took quite some time to conclude.
Of course, Solif’s running, with his immense magical power and exceptional physical abilities from the Guardian bloodline, was beyond what ordinary nobles could hope to match.
The problem was the magical beasts.
From horse magical beasts like Tilly of the Berk family to large reindeer and cheetahs—pursuers riding beasts specialized for running continuously relayed their position.
To counter this, Turan used one of the magical devices taken from the dead Zahar nobles.
A staff that fired frost spears.
Though it consumed considerable magical power, the staff produced frost spears comparable to those of genuine Carmine nobles, and he used wind paths to eliminate air resistance, increasing their speed.
As several pursuing magical beasts died consecutively from the silently fast-flying spears, the pursuers lost their courage to continue the chase.
After several hours of running, with their backs to Helio, the two men finally stopped as they saw the sun rising.
Solif, completely drenched in sweat, rolled on the ground and said:
“Ah, damn it. This is absolutely exhausting… I couldn’t run another step even if you killed me.”
Simply running for a few hours wouldn’t normally exhaust him, but having already fought intensely against hundreds of mages before embarking on this long-distance run made it inevitably difficult.
In contrast, Turan, who had used flight magic to soar through the skies once they were out of sight, was in relatively good condition.
Though his magical power consumption was higher from intercepting the pursuing magical beasts.
“Their presence has completely disappeared. We’ve probably created at least several dozen kilometers of distance between us, so let’s disguise ourselves, rest a bit, and then continue.”
Turan removed his disguise mask, passed it to Solif, and used Meisa’s magical device to increase his apparent age.
This time he went even higher than before, to his mid-sixties.
Shortly after, the two transformed into a grandfather and grandson resting during their travels.
Solif, disguised as a gray-haired boy catching his breath, turned his head and asked:
“How’s Meisa’s group? Did they escape safely?”
“It seems so. I think we’ll be able to rendezvous with them if we go about three hundred kilometers further north.”
As previously planned, Meisa and Solif’s parents, who had escaped through the tunnel earlier, had fled far away on Bije, who had been waiting outside Helio City.
Turan tried to reassure the worried Bije through their soul bond, conveying that he was in a peaceful state.
Such communication was naturally much less fluent than direct conversation but could be more genuinely felt.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes, somewhat.”
Despite his casual response, Solif’s face still showed clear signs of fatigue.
Rather than moving immediately, Turan decided to rest briefly and tell Solif about what had happened during their separation.
From the sudden appearance of Zahar nobles to killing the Baraha elder and looting the family head’s residence.
“Elder Rownel was a vessel!?”
“Did you know him?”
“Somewhat. We weren’t close, but he was quite kind to me…”
Solif’s face showed complex emotions as he clicked his tongue, unable to believe the elder had been a vessel.
This was understandable given Solif’s strong attachment to his family members, despite having run away.
He had even felt bitter about the deaths of family members who had pursued and oppressed him.
Of course, in retrospect, killing them all back then had been the right decision.
The pursuit team at that time had included three nobles with upper-rank or higher power—had they been present now, breaking through the encirclement would have been that much more difficult.
‘Come to think of it, were there no gods among those who came to capture Solif back then?’
At that time, Turan had no disguise ability, so he fought showing his true face and even freely displayed the power of the Sun bloodline using his Holy Relic.
If any vessels had been among those they fought, such information would have been transmitted, suggesting only pure nobles had been present.
‘Or perhaps… they only learned recently?’
A sudden thought occurred to him—perhaps one of those who died back then had only recently been reborn as a vessel with a new body.
So perhaps the Baraha family head, realizing Turan could use both Zahar and Baraha bloodline abilities, had personally gone to Ravitas to capture him…
Though frightening to consider, this was a hypothesis worth keeping in mind.
In that case, they would likely discover that the person who invaded alongside Solif was Turan, despite his disguise.
His earlier pretense of being the Baraha family head’s child would be useless.
After pondering these concerns briefly, Turan shook his head to clear his mind.
He didn’t want to dwell on difficult thoughts when already fatigued.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. More importantly, I should check the materials I found inside.”
Turan first took out a jewel box containing the librarian from his large-capacity pouch.
“What now.”
“I’d like you to look at what I’m seeing and remember it. Feel free to advise me if you notice anything.”
“So now you’re using me as auxiliary memory storage.”
Turan smiled awkwardly and bowed his head at the librarian’s grumbling.
Nevertheless, as someone living as a dependent, the librarian didn’t protest further and quietly observed the materials Turan produced.
The first item from the pouch was a large map with various symbols drawn on it.
“Hmm, this is…”
“A resource map of Baraha’s interior, I see.”
A distribution map of a great family’s territory and key resources.
While truly confidential, it was far from the information Turan sought.
Turan quickly flipped through it so the librarian could read and memorize it, then immediately burned it.
Next came information about key family members.
It contained everything from publicly known information to internal reputation, criminal activities, and even intimate sexual preferences.
As Turan casually flipped through the pages, he stopped at the description of Solif.
[Strong preference for married women and older women. Do not arrange a family for him before he reaches at least seventy years of age.]
[Secretly imported literature to develop masochistic sexual tendencies…]
After reading the contents, Turan hesitated briefly before showing it to Solif.
After receiving it with a composed face, Solif’s hands trembled before he immediately burned it with fire magic.
“D-did you read it?”
“I’m sorry.”
Since he had revealed something deeply private that Solif would likely never want shown, Turan apologized sincerely.
After a long silence, Solif sighed deeply.
“Damn it, no need to apologize. I swear I’ll never pursue older married women again.”
“Well, you shouldn’t pursue married women in the first place.”
Turan commented jokingly while continuing to examine the documents from the family head’s residence.
Disappointingly, there was nothing containing communications between gods or similar valuable information.
Given that it was the family head’s residence, he had expected something more useful…
As he clicked his tongue in disappointment, he came across a book made of strangely flesh-colored, sticky leather.
Moreover, faint magical power flowed from the book, causing Turan to refocus his wandering attention as he read the book’s cover.
“What is this…?”
[Introduction to True Magic]
Introduction to True Magic?
It was difficult to even guess what “true magic” might refer to, and even more puzzling why such a thing would be in the Baraha family head’s study.
Why would one of the world’s most powerful mages need an introductory text?
Though perplexed, Turan opened the book and read the preface.
Typically, this would contain dedications to sponsors or the purpose for writing the book.
He frowned briefly at the blood-red writing inside.
After reading the content, Turan’s expression hardened.
[…This book contains methods for entering into true magic, which humans have inherited since ancient times, rather than the false magic spread throughout the world by those so-called gods.]