Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 162

Chapter 162

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Discord         

Turan was momentarily rendered speechless by the revelation that the old man before him had attempted to resurrect the Night Hunter.

Though he had imagined various scenarios while preparing for this meeting, such a truth was beyond anything he could have conceived. The head of the Zahar family had tried to bring back the Night Hunter. Did that mean Turan himself was a product of some intricate scheme devised by this old man? Were even the meeting of his parents and all other circumstances surrounding his birth part of this plan?

Feeling a dizzying sense of the ground falling away beneath him, Turan quickly strove to regain his composure. However, Harun seemed to notice his turmoil and offered a faint smile.

“You seem quite shocked. Here, have a glass of water.”

“…Thank you.”

Turan pretended to drink from the glass Harun offered before setting it down. Among the Night Hunter’s four bloodline abilities, the Alchemist wielded the power to manipulate poisons. Drinking a liquid that Harun had touched, even briefly, would be an unnecessary risk. Despite knowing this, Harun showed no sign of offense.

“Hah, quite cautious, aren’t you? Good, now that we’ve each answered a question, it’s my turn to ask. Where did you obtain the Mimic’s Holy Relic?”

“…I acquired it on an island in the Southern Sea, a place where ancient tales of worshiping that being still linger.”

“That’s a lie. I can tell that much.”

It wasn’t just a probing remark; there was certainty in his voice. Why? The Mimic god had been active in the Southern Sea, and very few knew that he had been in the Northern Sea at the moment of his death.

Turan quickly racked his brain, but he couldn’t find a clear motive for the old man to see through his lie so instantly. If it wasn’t prior knowledge, had Harun detected some trace in Turan’s physiological response? Turan had suppressed the typical reactions associated with lying, so how could it be?

As he pondered this, a sudden realization struck him. The symbol combination of the Night Hunter that Harun had abruptly shown moments ago… Just as the Zahar bloodline’s heightened sense of smell could detect emotions, Harun must be using the Night Hunter’s abilities to read Turan’s mind. It was likely a skill akin to discerning lies.

Instead of apologizing for his deception, Turan chose to voice a complaint toward Harun.

“This is unfair. Great-uncle, you can detect my lies, but I have no way of detecting yours.”

“You’ve enjoyed such unfairness yourself all this time, haven’t you? A sense of smell keen enough to detect hormones is a rare trait even among Zahar nobles. Most wouldn’t think to guard against it.”

Turan couldn’t argue with Harun’s gentle retort. It was true. So, he decided to shift his approach. If it was impossible to prevent Harun from discerning the truth, then Turan would simply have to gain the ability to do the same.

With this thought, the symbols within him stirred. It had been about a year since he awakened soul magic, during which he had attempted countless combinations of the Hunter and Tracker symbols. Now that he knew the correct method, their fusion was laughably simple.

As the eyes seeped into the pitch-black mist, multiplying into thousands and extending outward, Turan felt dozens of handles form within his inner self. It was reminiscent of when he had combined the two Storm bloodline symbols in the past.

‘Let’s see…’

Back when Turan first attempted symbol combination, he had been so inexperienced that he randomly pulled at handles to test abilities. But now, with his spiritual perception far more refined, he could employ a more sophisticated method. Extending his perception over the handles, he could roughly gauge what function each would trigger.

‘This one seems to emit something, and this one enhances myself? Let’s see… not this one either.’

Thirty seconds. It might seem brief, but in the middle of a conversation, it was a noticeably long silence. Harun merely watched Turan, who appeared lost in thought, without interrupting or interfering. Thanks to this, Turan swiftly tested over a dozen abilities before finding the one he sought.

Activating the ability, he felt the surrounding colors distort and shift momentarily.

“May I ask a simple question first? It’s trivial, and you can answer however you like.”

“Go ahead.”

“On your way here yesterday, did it rain?”

Considering that the Zahar family’s army had come from the eastern Enril Desert, it was a question hardly worth pondering. Yet, as if grasping its true intent, Harun smiled and replied.

“It did. I was soaked through.”

With his answer, a red light flickered briefly in Harun’s eyes and mouth. Turan realized this ability allowed him to discern truth from lies in the other’s words.

“I see.”

“So, how does it feel to use the Eye of Truth? Easier than sensing with your sense of smell, isn’t it?”

“Yes, quite.”

However, what Turan couldn’t comprehend was Harun’s attitude-guiding him as if teaching, even cooperating by providing examples. Compared to the sinister and persistent Talis, this old man almost felt like a genuine grandfather, evoking a sense of fondness. Of course, even amidst this, he slipped in subtle, underhanded tactics.

“However, don’t fully trust it. Be cautious. For instance… ask me if I’m a woman.”

“Are you a woman?”

“I am.”

Along with his reply, a green light flickered in Harun’s eyes and mouth, different from before. Turan instinctively understood that this reaction signified truth.

As if aware of what Turan had seen, Harun smiled faintly and said, “Right now, I’m in the body of an old man, but I’ve lived as a woman several times before. Can I define myself as a man just because Harun Zahar, the body I currently wear, is male? Surely, the me who lived as a woman back then is still me.”

Some might agree with that perspective, while others might not, Harun murmured softly. Hearing this, Turan understood why the Eye of Truth wasn’t infallible. Truth or falsehood depended on what the speaker believed, but just because they believed something didn’t make it true. Similarly, sensing emotions through smell required caution for the same reason, and this realization came easily to him.

“Now, I think I’ve earned a tuition fee for this lesson. Where did you get the Mimic’s Holy Relic?”

“In a submarine cave on a deserted island in the Northern Sea, I obtained it from a corpse that had died fighting a great sea serpent.”

Harun’s eyes lit up with interest at Turan’s honest answer. In truth, after hearing the shocking revelation earlier, Turan had briefly suspected that even the Mimic Holy Relic might have been arranged for him by Harun. However, judging by Harun’s reaction, that didn’t seem to be the case. After all, why would he give Turan such a treasure when he could use it himself-especially an item that could be considered the natural enemy of all Zahar nobles?

“Great sea serpent… They’ve been quite a nuisance lately. I see, so that’s how it was. That weakling was always too proud for his own good. If he’d traveled with me, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Though his tone sounded mocking, the emotions beneath it were closer to regret and sorrow.

“Was that god weak?”

“He was quite adept in personal combat since he could mimic others’ abilities, but he was vulnerable against monsters. In that regard, Night Hunters like Otas or myself excelled… Ah, Otas is the Night Hunter’s name. You probably already knew that.”

“So, great-uncle, you were a Night Hunter as well.”

“Didn’t you already know? Though, it’s amusing to be considered on the same level just because we shared a profession.”

Harun let out a hearty laugh before abruptly posing a question.

“Do you know the legend of the Enril Desert?”

“Yes. I’ve heard that long ago, when the Enril lands were grasslands, they turned into a desert due to the tyranny of giants, and the Night Hunter shot them all down.”

“The part about grasslands turning into a desert because of giants is nonsense, but they were monstrous enough to warrant such a tale. They were like great sea serpents walking on land, numbering over a hundred. Even among us, only a few skilled ones could handle more than one or two at a time.”

Hearing Harun’s words, Turan recalled the great sea serpent commander he had faced a couple of years ago. Even now, he couldn’t be certain of victory in a one-on-one fight against such a foe. It had been weakened compared to its prime, so a fully intact great sea serpent must have been a monster truly worthy of being called a divine entity. By today’s standards, it would likely require three or four great family heads combining their strength to stand a chance.

Imagining hundreds of such creatures was suffocating enough, but Harun’s next words made even that seem trivial.

“Otas alone shot down hundreds of those giants. All we did in that battle was guard him against potential ambushes. In the end, even the giant queen fell to a single arrow fired from over a hundred kilometers away.”

A being who harvested the lives of godlike, formidable monsters with arrows shot from unimaginable distances… Just imagining it gave Turan a glimpse of how monstrous the ancient Freya gods were, and among them, how uniquely powerful the Night Hunter had been. It also explained why Ymir had once said that if Otas returned, even the gods of Zahar, including the old man before him, would prostrate themselves in submission.

“Those giant corpses were taken by a friend in the northwest to play an amusing trick. He recreated the Night Hunter’s dungeon beneath an old museum we had built. You’ve probably seen it, haven’t you?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Turan instinctively opened his mouth to lie but quickly closed it. With both of them using the Eye of Truth, any lie would be immediately exposed. After a brief moment, he let out a light sigh and nodded. In this situation, even silence would be an answer, so it was better to admit it openly.

“Yes, I’ve seen it. It was a ghastly sight.”

“So, it was you who killed Ferga. I had my suspicions.”

“I didn’t kill him. He died fighting a being-likely the ancient giant queen repurposed-while in a weakened state.”

Though Turan had created the circumstances that led to his weakening, it wasn’t directly his doing. Reading the truth in his words, Harun spoke with an amused expression.

“Is that so? Huh, that’s a bit different from what I imagined. Well, either way, it’s fine. I had some expectations for Ferga myself, but… with you around, it hardly matters what happens to him.”

Even though Ferga could technically be considered one of their descendants, Harun’s cold, almost callous attitude wasn’t much different from that of other gods. Seeing this, Turan was able to re-center his somewhat lax mental state. Though the being before him occasionally seemed like a kind grandfather, at his core, he was nothing more than a ruthless god.

“I heard from Arabion before that they believed Zahar was unaware of the Night Hunter resurrection experiment. Did you know about it?”

“I was the only one who knew. Even that friend in the northwest didn’t realize I was aware. I found out by sheer luck.”

The ‘friend in the northwest’ Harun kept mentioning was likely the Biologist. No one else would have the ability to manipulate the corpses and souls of dead giants to create such beings.

“We’ve strayed a bit from the topic, but let’s return to the original discussion. What do you mean by saying you tried to resurrect the Night Hunter? Does that imply my very birth was part of Zahar’s scheme?”

“No, that’s not it. To be honest, your birth was a series of fascinating coincidences. Considering it took thousands of years for this to happen, it might even be called inevitability.”

With this cryptic remark, Harun took a sip of the water he had offered Turan earlier, as if his throat were dry.

“Do you know much about the method of enhancing talents through soul magic?”

“I know it involves manipulating an immature spirit that hasn’t fully settled, from the fetal stage up to one or two years after birth.”

“You know almost nothing, then. Let me explain a bit. The key is delicately shaping the soul’s vessel and form. How you balance the three aspects determines the magical aptitude, bloodline abilities, and magical talent.”

Hearing this unfamiliar information, Turan internalized Harun’s words deeply without showing it outwardly. As someone unable to use spirit arts like the half-elves, he needed to supplement his knowledge of advanced soul magic-especially for the sake of his unborn child.

“For reference, the one born through the ultimate refinement of this method is your companion.”

At the word ‘companion,’ Turan felt his heart skip a beat. Had this old man already noticed Meisa’s pregnancy despite their caution? But after calming himself, Turan realized he had jumped ahead too quickly. Harun’s remark was merely a jab at Turan for taking Berit and doing nothing with her.

Fortunately, Harun seemed oblivious to Turan’s emotional shift. Perhaps because they were both using the Eye of Truth, he wasn’t paying attention to Turan’s scent.

“Probably all the souls of the mages who died in the Zahar-Arabion war went into creating Meisa. Dozens of nobles, hundreds of knights… or was it over a thousand? It was an unprecedented scale for us.”

“So the reason for that war was to create Meisa.”

“As far as I know, yes. To be precise, that’s what the friend in the northwest wanted. I don’t know why he needed to create such a powerful body.”

Laughing heartily, Harun looked at Turan, who suddenly voiced a question that had come to mind.

“Then what did Zahar gain from it?”

“Hm?”

“If all the souls of the mages who died in the war were used to awaken Meisa’s talents, Zahar gained nothing. Great-uncle, you don’t seem to be that person’s subordinate, so there’s no reason for you to allow them unilateral benefits.”

“True. I did gain something as well. Do you know? While a mage’s soul is far more valuable than a human’s… countless human souls can substitute for a single mage’s soul. No one ever properly counted how many civilians died during that war.”

The Zahar-Arabion war was publicly known as a conflict between mages with relatively little civilian damage, but that was merely the outward narrative. In the chaos between the two families, with even the smallest semblance of order collapsing among the mage families caught in between, who had counted the silent deaths?

With an utterly benevolent expression, Harun spoke words of chilling cruelty.

“Was it five hundred thousand? Six hundred thousand? Harvesting roughly that many turned out to be quite useful.”

“And… you used them on my mother?”

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people… Even the earlier revelation of numerous mages being sacrificed had been distasteful, but it paled in comparison to this. Despite surely sensing Turan’s contempt, Harun’s smiling face didn’t waver.

“No, they weren’t used on your mother. This is a bit technical and hard to explain… but it’s not something that always needs a specific target.”

Typically, it was used on a child presumed to have some talent, but like tracking magic, it could also be applied broadly to a designated group. For instance, setting conditions like ‘people in a specific region’ or ‘a specific gender.’

“The target was a Zahar bloodline child to be born somewhere in this world. We expanded and expanded only the soul’s vessel, disregarding magical aptitude or bloodline abilities. Do you know what happens then?”

“What happens?”

“Miscarriage. An ordinary soul can’t withstand such an oversized spirit form. That’s why there isn’t a single child around your age, in their early twenties, in the current Zahar family.”

Through this, Turan learned of an unexpected side effect of talent enhancement via soul magic. Miscarriage? This was something the half-elves hadn’t mentioned, suggesting either that spirit arts didn’t have this side effect or that they had deliberately omitted it. This was a topic he’d need to discuss with them upon returning.

“I waited about three years after the ritual, searching and searching within the family, but no exceptional child emerged, so I thought I had failed again. Since we bind bloodlines to the family for such cases, the likelihood of a Zahar noble being born outside was nearly nonexistent.”

Turan could infer that one reason mage families formed around bloodlines was for such purposes, though there were other reasons as well.

“But… then you appeared, a miracle. The only Zahar noble to survive that ritual. With genius talent, immense magical aptitude, and multiple bloodline abilities. It’s impossible without accepting the most powerful divine soul floating somewhere in the sea of spirits. As I mentioned earlier, we only expanded the soul’s vessel and didn’t touch other aspects.”

“But my soul isn’t as large as you describe.”

“That can’t be. If it seems that way, it’s only because you haven’t properly harnessed the soul’s power.”

Turan opened his mouth to respond to Harun’s confident assertion, despite never having seen his spirit form, but then closed it. Harun’s explanation seemed plausible on the surface, yet it left several unresolved doubts. However, these weren’t questions that could be resolved here.

Instead of pressing further, Turan asked the question that intrigued him most.

“That’s fine. I believe what you’ve said so far is true… So, may I ask just one more thing? I’ve already told you my soul isn’t that large.”

“Family looks out for family. Go ahead.”

“Why did you try to resurrect the Night Hunter?”

From the way Harun had boasted about the Night Hunter’s power earlier, it was clear he held a favorable view of him. But was that enough reason to revive someone who had vanished thousands of years ago? After all, Harun already reigned as one of the world’s strongest as the head of Zahar.

Understanding this was crucial for Turan. If he truly was the Night Hunter’s reincarnation, Harun could be either an ally or an enemy depending on his reasons. Of course, even as an ally, Harun had committed too many repulsive acts to be fully trusted.

Unexpectedly, Harun chose silence in response to Turan’s question. For the first time, the talkative old man remained quiet for over a minute. Instead of pressing him, Turan calmly observed. He could sense that this question was profoundly significant to Harun, and thus, he was choosing his words with care.

For the first time since their exchange began, Turan held the upper hand.

“Yes, the reason… Of course, you’d want to know. Whether you truly are Otas’s reincarnation or not.”

“Yes.”

“Some might think an old man who’s lived thousands of years is being sentimental, but to put it simply, it’s love. The emotion that makes humans human.”