Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

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For Turan, who spent his days herding sheep on the hill, Keorn – the knight of Arabion – had presented several goals.

He always showed pride when talking about his family.

Saying they were a proud family where everyone from nobles to knights considered protecting humanity their mission.

After long deliberation, Turan accepted the proposal not just to receive a good magical device, but due to admiration born from such stories.

Though not the main family, as their vassal house, he should be able to feel their spirit.

Of course, considering his Zahar bloodline made him Arabion’s enemy, he’d have to take some risk… but there shouldn’t be major problems as long as he didn’t reveal his stealth magic.

As the library’s spirit showed, the ability to discern bloodlines was extremely rare.

The next morning, the party of two people and one horse first headed to where the battle took place.

It was to recover the bodies of the Berk family members killed by the dark elves.

Since Asiz had been unconscious all yesterday, Turan took the role of guide.

“This way.”

“How do you find your way in a place like this? It all looks the same to me…”

“You’ll learn quickly if you travel alone. Ah, there are those dark elves.”

Asiz briefly bit his lips seeing the two headless dark elves, then quickly turned away.

Presumably, he had thought about desecrating the corpses out of anger but decided against it.

Meanwhile, Turan properly examined the bodies he hadn’t checked yesterday.

The first thing that caught his eye was their black leather coats of similar style.

Judging by the craftsmanship, they seemed to be items made in a proper workshop and weren’t very worn.

Second were their ears.

He could only guess from the female dark elf whose head was crushed above the forehead, but seeing both split ears were long, they seemed to be quite high-ranking.

From this, he could deduce one fact.

“There might be a path to a dark elf city nearby.”

“A dark elf city? I haven’t heard of such a thing in this area…”

“Since they build cities underground, it might not be known. They just dig a few connecting tunnels to the surface, and occasionally necromancers like these come out to hunt humans before hiding underground without a trace. If there are missing people in this area, many of them are probably their doing.”

“Where did you learn such things?”

“I read it in books.”

Turan turned his gaze away from the look that regarded him as some great sage, like he had seen several times in Orem City.

Thinking they should inform the lord of the nearby city that a dark elf city wasn’t far.

Afterward, the two followed Tilly’s footprints while collecting the remains of the servants one by one.

They weren’t pleasant to look at, having been damaged by wild animals overnight, but Asiz’s face contorted and his eyes welled up like yesterday, though he didn’t cry.

While recovering belongings and burying sixteen bodies, Turan periodically used detection magic to check if dark elves were approaching.

Fortunately, no one approached until they finished making the graves.

“Seems we’re about done. I’d like to send them all back to their homeland, but…”

“That would be difficult.”

Despite its size, it would be hard to transport sixteen bodies with one horse.

Moreover, Tilly’s back was already loaded with the luggage the servants had been carrying.

Asiz finally transformed a large stone into a square shape, carved the words ‘My Beloved Family’ on it, and placed it as a gravestone in front of the burial site.

Soon after, the stone that had been just an ordinary rock began to emit a soft light.

‘Enchanter…’

Originally, when magic power is imbued somewhere, it doesn’t maintain permanently.

Even when Turan applies strengthening and acceleration magic to his sling and stones, the effect gradually dissipates as the infused magic power scatters.

But there are items where such magic is permanent – these are magical devices, and creating them requires the enchanter bloodline ability.

After the light faded from the gravestone, Asiz spoke with a somewhat tired face.

“With limited time I couldn’t put anything impressive, just a simple concealment magic to prevent animals from smelling it. I’d be sad if it was dug up when I come back later…”

On the road heading north from the grave, Turan and Asiz walked in silence with neither opening their mouth.

Turan was naturally comfortable with silence, and Asiz wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

After walking like this for several hours with both keeping their mouths shut…

Around sunset, Asiz was the first to speak.

“Thank you, Lord Turan.”

“For what?”

“For not mocking me.”

Asiz smiled self-deprecatingly.

“A noble sobbing over the sacrifice of subordinates, must have been quite a sight.”

“Why would that be a sight?”

“That’s how my father taught me. That those who die in righteous battle will dwell in the celestial palace with the gods, so grieving is weak, that true nobles must know how to move forward from sacrifice… But if strength means not grieving family deaths, I don’t think I can ever be strong.”

“That’s not weakness, it’s being caring.”

Turan recalled his mother’s death.

That piercing sorrow, the feeling of becoming alone as his only ally in this world disappeared.

He didn’t want to consider that merely a product of ‘weakness.’

Though conversation stopped again, this silence felt much lighter than before.

As it grew completely dark, Asiz spoke again.

“Come to think of it, since we’re traveling together, how about we speak more comfortably? We don’t seem too far apart in age…”

“What? Ah, well. Sure.”

“How straightforward. Looking forward to our friendship!”

When Turan awkwardly agreed to the sudden proposal, Asiz extended his hand with a smile as if they were decade-old friends.

Completely different from his gloomy appearance earlier, he seemed to be trying to forcibly lift his spirits.

‘Friend, huh.’

Come to think of it, this might be the first time someone called him a ‘friend.’

Turan felt a strange sentiment as he clasped hands.

* * *

Not long after opening up like this, Turan freshly realized that this ‘friend’ had truly lived in a different world.

He first felt this during dinner time.

“What’s this…?”

“A cooling chest. I put various foods in it from the last city.”

What Asiz took out from the pack on Tilly’s back was a metal box large enough to fit a person.

Though it looked ordinary except for being painted red on the outside, surprisingly, cool air flowed out when the lid was opened.

“Is it always cold inside?”

“That’s right! Thanks to this, most food can be kept for about a week without problems. Just need to heat up cold things.”

Asiz took out bread and meat stored inside and demonstrated by creating flames to heat the food.

Though he accidentally burned it a bit – apparently knights usually did this for him – the food still tasted quite excellent.

While not as good as freshly made dishes, it was incomparable to hardtack or dried meat prepared for preservation.

Though he had grown used to rough food while camping outdoors, he too preferred eating tasty things when possible.

This wasn’t the only magical device Asiz had.

A device that produces water at the push of a button, one that automatically creates a small shelter when given surrounding wood, one that sounds an alarm when someone approaches…

When he learned that even the clothes they wore were magical devices with cleaning functions, Turan couldn’t help but comment.

“Just that clothing alone would be enough payment for my life.”

Magical devices were absolutely not common items.

Taking Orem City as an example, only the family head Rug owned a few, and even those were considered family treasures rarely taken out.

Yet this young noble seemed to carry magical devices hanging all over his horse’s luggage…

Hearing this, Asiz smiled awkwardly and said.

“Such items aren’t worth my life. I promise much better compensation when we return home. If the elders don’t allow it, I’ll make it myself.”

Though Turan nodded silently at the promise of better things, he didn’t actually expect much.

Isn’t it human nature for attitudes to change between times of need and not?

He wouldn’t be disappointed even if Asiz tried to settle with some cheap magical device after safely returning home.

He would just throw their newfound friendship in the trash and make him pay the price when he gained enough power someday.

After about a day and a half, Turan and Asiz arrived at Maderi, the largest city in the area.

The police guarding the entrance disappeared in shock at the sight of Tilly, who was clearly a monster, and soon after, people who appeared to be knights came rushing out in droves.

“We greet the descendants of gods!”

Apparently here they called nobles descendants of gods.

Immediately invited to the mansion in the city center, Turan and Asiz met with the family head and informed him about the likely presence of a man-eating dark elf city nearby.

“Dark elves…? Did such things really exist?”

“Yes. We brought a head just in case – would you like to see it?”

“No, no need. That would just spoil my appetite. Well, alright. I’ll have to order some patrols. But more importantly, that monster you brought – any interest in selling?”

“No, Tilly is like family to me…”

Unfortunately, this ruler didn’t seem to pay much attention to the two nobles’ words.

Since there was no particular way to convince him, the two received hospitality for about two days before leaving the city and heading north again.

On the fifth day after leaving Maderi and heading north…

When Turan casually incinerated an attacking ordinary black bear with a lightning spell for practice, Asiz spoke incredulously.

“Hey, Turan. Just how many types of magic can you use?”

“Hm?”

“I mean, I’ve lost count of how many kinds I’ve seen while traveling together! From animal control to freezing, levitation, liquid control, enhancement, light emission, binding, instant death, earth manipulation, lightning… Did you spend your whole life practicing magic? Or do you have some bloodline ability that lets you learn any magic at will?”

Some of the magic Asiz mentioned was self-taught, but the rest was all taught by Keorn.

For Turan, such a reaction was rather unfamiliar.

Wasn’t it normal to be able to activate magic just by imagining it, as long as it wasn’t bloodline magic, with only the level of proficiency being an issue?

Of course, he had struggled somewhat when first hearing from Keorn that such techniques existed.

But thinking it might seem too arrogant to just say “it just worked,” Turan slightly changed the subject.

“We agreed not to pry about my family, right?”

“No, that was just a joke. There’s no way such a ridiculous bloodline ability could exist. But really, how old are you? Your face looks under thirty, surely you’re not like eighty or something?”

“Hm?”

“Eh?”

When Turan showed confusion at Asiz’s words, Asiz also seemed to sense something odd and stopped speaking.

“How old are you?”

“I turned forty-three this year, probably.”

“I have about a month until my nineteenth birthday…”

Asiz’s expression upon learning his new friend wasn’t even half his age was truly something to behold.

And Turan was also shocked to learn that Asiz, who looked only a few years older than him, was around the same age as the wrinkled village elders.

Come to think of it, even Keorn had appeared to be in his mid-to-late forties while actually being over seventy.

For nobles who live several times longer, it was natural for appearance and actual age not to match.

It was a fact he had forgotten, not having deeply associated with nobles until now.

“Well, a mere twenty-one or two years’ difference isn’t important between us… No, more importantly, explain that magic ability. How is it possible? Hearing your age makes it even more incomprehensible? There wouldn’t have been enough time even if you practiced from the womb!”

Due to the persistent questioning, Turan simply answered that he had consistently practiced magic since childhood, and that’s how he could achieve this level at a young age.

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

His way of killing time on Hisaril Hill had been playing with magic in all sorts of ways.

Hearing this explanation, Asiz kicked a roadside stone with a dejected expression.

“Man, I should have realized when you said you finished off two necromancers with that level of magic power. Who’d have thought there’d be two such geniuses in the world.”

“Two?”

Asiz nodded at Turan’s question.

“Yeah, maybe not quite your level. No, perhaps similar? That bloodline is what it is, after all. Anyway, I know another genius around your age. She’s my second cousin.”

“Could I possibly ask that person to make my magical device?”

A device made by a genius enchanter would probably be better somehow.

Asiz shook his head with a smile at Turan’s words.

“No, she’s not from our family but from the main house.”

“The main house… surely not?”

“That’s right. The princess of Arabion. Someone who might become the head of the great family someday.”