Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 173

Chapter 173

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While Turan was melting the hearts of his family’s mages with theater and medal ceremonies, quite a lot was happening across the sea in eastern Baraha as well.

“I think it’s truly time to go now.”

“I agree as well.”

Solif, who had shaken off his serious injuries through Turan’s healing and risen again, quietly looked down at the vassal family nobles below who were shouting with gleaming eyes.

Though they had shadowed faces showing they hadn’t yet recovered from the fatigue of war, as his friend had observed, their eyes contained a vitality that wasn’t particularly positive in nature.

Hatred.

When asking what moves tired people, it’s not only pleasure, and if you were to ask which is more powerful, it would be this side.

“It’s already been almost a month since the last battle, all the wounded have healed, and in contrast, Ruban’s new family head who dueled with you, my lord, probably hasn’t fully recovered from his wounds yet. The opportunity is now!”

Solif read hatred and simultaneously expectation in the gazes of those looking at him.

Their expectation was probably related to the overwhelming combat ability Solif had shown in the last war.

Though he had been seriously injured, he had also faced off against Ruban’s family head and returned alive.

“Well, I wasn’t planning to leave those bastards alone either. However, since I have a plan prepared for the attack, I’d prefer if you didn’t act too hastily.”

“What kind of plan do you mean…?”

“That’s a secret. Just like before.”

At Solif’s words, the Baraha nobles looked at each other but didn’t dare protest.

Since the secret plan from last time had succeeded quite well, they thought this time would be the same.

Though not yet to the extent of the position Turan had built within the Parsha family, Solif was also gradually shedding the negative image of being a family runaway, patricide usurper, and puppet of the Parsha family head.

After all, what people want from a leader isn’t how moral they are, but how capable they are—whether they can protect their own people and punish enemies.

“Are war preparations proceeding steadily?”

“Yes. We’re also replenishing the magical devices lost in the last battle.”

At Solif’s question, the head of the Ativ family, a vassal enchanter family under Baraha, bowed his head with a rigid expression and answered.

His family harbored great resentment since the city they ruled had been devastated by Ruban’s recent advance.

“Good. I hear things are roughly wrapping up on the other side too… We’ll strike Ruban tonight.”

“Tonight, you say?”

Though they had been clamoring to attack the Ruban family just moments ago, when the timeframe was set so rapidly, they showed somewhat deflated expressions.

A war between great families wasn’t child’s play—to anyone listening, it sounded like deciding to attack the neighbors just because they were in a bad mood.

No matter how fast mage armies were compared to ordinary people, it would take several weeks to advance to Ruban’s capital…

Seeing their expressions, Solif burst into laughter.

Just moments ago they were acting like they couldn’t wait to attack immediately!

“It’s not something I thought up on the spot—it’s all part of the plan, so don’t worry.”

In that case, they had nothing to say.

They had no choice but to obey the words of Baraha’s master, one who had proven his abilities.

That evening, Baraha’s mages gathered in the hall located in the basement of the Temple of the Sun according to their family head’s instructions.

“Another war?”

“This is getting tiresome…”

“Shh, be quiet.”

Unlike the few families who had suffered damage from Ruban’s advance and were burning with revenge, most Baraha mages were feeling fatigue from the continuing battles, just as Turan had perceived.

But they couldn’t openly display this to their superiors and rebel.

They just had to jump in thinking “I’m dead.”

Quite surprisingly, what awaited those who went down to the hall with death-like expressions was about three hundred mages.

“Huh…?”

“Wh-who are you people!?”

“Good to see you. Your name was Robi, wasn’t it? I think we met last time.”

For those who had participated in several recent battles, the faces of Parsha’s mages were quite familiar.

Who could have imagined that they would be staying in the basement of the Temple of the Sun?

If the relationship between Parsha and Baraha families hadn’t been special, and if the executives of the Baraha family hadn’t been standing nearby with peaceful attitudes, they would have immediately shouted “invaders!”

“But what brings you here…?”

“War, obviously.”

When a relatively acquainted Baraha knight asked a Parsha knight, the answer made the Baraha knight sigh softly.

Though it was something he already knew, having it confirmed anew made him feel worse.

However, unlike him, the Parsha knight sitting across from him was grinning so widely his teeth showed, tapping his legs as if excited.

To anyone watching, he looked like a warmonger dying to fight.

“What’s got you so happy?”

“What reason would there be not to be? We have to fight and win to preserve our families and houses.”

To hear the standard rhetoric that superiors spout when mobilizing for war from a fellow knight…

Just as he was looking at him like he might be crazy, the Baraha knight noticed several metal pieces attached to the other’s chest.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, this?”

As if he’d been waiting for the question, the Parsha knight began rattling off with a bright expression.

These were called medals, commemorating past battles, proof that only true heroes could receive, personally given by the family head who even called out their names—

As he rambled on without even taking a breath, making the Baraha knight’s head spin, a clapping sound from one side drew everyone’s attention.

A sound loud enough to attract the attention of all thousand or so people in the hall.

Naturally, the one who made it was Baraha’s family head, Solif.

“Good, everyone found their way here without getting lost. We’re going to fight now.”

At the cheers that erupted, the Baraha mages looked around with bewildered expressions for a moment.

Somehow, the Parsha guys who came to help seemed more excited than they were about their own war.

“Originally I planned to move secretly, but this time there are too many people, so I decided to make it public. Besides, those who should know probably already know anyway.”

Originally, they hadn’t revealed the existence of the Jade Mirror out of concern for the Giant Sea Serpent clan, but since they’d already been discovered, there was no need to keep hiding it.

Thanks to this, before long, Baraha’s mages were also able to witness the existence of the Jade Mirror for the first time.

“Wow…”

“We’ve been using this all along?”

The sight of a massive mirror, five meters tall, glowing ethereally and creating rifts in space was an admirable spectacle even for mages accustomed to all kinds of mysteries.

Watching them, Solif grinned and said:

“Now, as you all know, we won’t be fighting for days on end sprawled on the ground like other miscellaneous families. Beyond this lies Slon, Ruban’s capital.”

“Ooh…”

“Once we cross over, we advance immediately. Let’s go!”

Swish—the Baraha mages who stepped into the world beyond the mirror shuddered as they felt the familiar sensation they’d experienced several times before with their vision blocked.

Because the sharp air characteristic of the Frostwind Forest, completely different from the Land of Lakes that had grown warm as spring progressed, licked their cheeks.

“We’re here.”

“Is this Slon?”

“Over there.”

At someone’s pointing, the mages who turned their gaze west in unison let out gasps or sighs.

In the deep of night, they could see a city with black walls illuminated by the quietly floating moon.

“You came.”

“We greet the family head!”

Then, at a low voice, all of Parsha’s mages bowed their heads in unison with respect.

Parsha’s family head, Turan, was looking down at them from a tree with a golden eagle on his shoulder.

Next to him was a person of somewhat small stature wearing a mask, whose gender was unclear.

The Parsha mages who didn’t know Armani’s identity but were aware of his existence glanced at him several times with expressions asking why he was there.

“Keep your voices down since it’s noisy. Where’s Solif?”

“He’ll be here soon.”

As if proving the Baraha noble’s words, Solif soon appeared from beyond the mirror.

With that, the Parsha-Baraha allied forces had completely assembled next to Slon, Ruban family’s capital.

“You’re later than scheduled.”

“Sorry, had to take a shit.”

“Enough with the dirty talk… any special circumstances?”

“None. You?”

“Me neither.”

Though it was an excessively informal conversation for great family heads to have, that’s how it was between friends of the same age.

Of course, calling those two the same age was a bit of a stretch given their age difference.

“Aren had it harder than me. Bije doesn’t like carrying him, so I had to carry him on my back.”

“Good grief.”

The merman boy called Aren, Armani, seemed to want to say something as he fidgeted, but feeling the gazes around him, he closed his mouth.

Aware that his speech patterns were distinctive, he avoided conversation when there were many people around who didn’t know him.

“You worked hard, kid.”

This Ruban invasion plan proceeded exactly opposite to the last time.

Back then, Baraha had made a great commotion announcing they would attack and advanced on a large scale, but this time they hadn’t informed even the family nobles until the day before the assault.

Even Parsha, who had received the news earlier, had maintained tremendous secrecy in the same way.

A few days ago, they had gathered the mages whose enthusiasm had peaked after receiving medals and spent several days in the basement of the Baraha mansion under the pretext of joint training.

During that time, Turan had Armani retrieve Parsha’s Jade Mirror, then personally flew on Bije to install a new mirror next to Slon, creating a spatial door that allowed direct passage from Baraha to Ruban.

“We need to finish this decisively in one go. If the fighting drags on, it’ll become apparent that our main base is in a vulnerable state.”

Of course, half the army they could mobilize and Meisa remained at the main base, but still, if enemies seriously attacked again, it would be difficult to guarantee they could easily block them.

Of course, he had told Meisa to run if things really got difficult, but Turan couldn’t be certain she would act according to his words.

Even if she didn’t have the same protective instincts toward ordinary people, Meisa would also know that Turan would feel frustrated if he couldn’t protect his sheep.

“If I listen any more, I’ll get calluses on my ears. Don’t worry. From fighting last time, if you and I attack together, that bastard is nothing. Let’s finish quickly and go back.”

At Turan’s nagging, Solif shook his head as if fed up.

Of course, even though he spoke like that, Turan didn’t doubt that he would always faithfully carry out operations, so he returned to the Parsha army following him and briefly explained the operation.

Actually, it wasn’t complex enough to grandly call an operation.

“From now on, we advance straight ahead, then climb over the walls to break through and directly assault their stronghold. Basically, we take those who surrender as prisoners, but if we don’t have spare hands, kill them.”

“Yes, family head!”

No one asked questions like how to get over Slon city’s walls.

Of course, Turan would somehow take care of it.

At least their family head never overestimated his subordinates’ abilities and gave them unsolvable problems.

In contrast, on Solif’s side, there were several rounds of questions and answers, but they nodded while not quite accepting the answer that “it’ll work out somehow.”

A moment later, the army combining Parsha and Baraha families began moving out of the forest where the mirror was installed toward Slon.

Though it was late at night, when over a thousand people moved across the grassland with only the short weeds characteristic of cold climates, they couldn’t help but be noticed.

“The moon is too bright… at this rate we’ll be spotted quickly—huh?”

Just as a Baraha noble was quietly grumbling, he exclaimed as he felt the moon that had been brightly illuminating the sky mysteriously darken.

They soon realized that a translucent black curtain was enveloping the entire army.

The Baraha mages, startled by the sight they were seeing for the first time, tried to tear it apart with light or run away, but they calmed down after being shouted at to stay still and seeing the Parsha mages laughing as they watched.

At the front of the formation, Solif looked back and whistled.

“Is this one of the new techniques you learned? This is my first time seeing it directly.”

“That’s right.”

Night’s Veil.

This skill from the Zahar bloodline combination simply granted stealth abilities by wrapping specific objects.

Though it wasn’t as thorough as Zahar’s stealth in blocking even inference through traces, it blocked not only form but also sound, making it difficult to detect through ordinary methods.

If there had been a Zahar god who knew this technique among the Carmine-merman army last time, they probably wouldn’t have noticed the enemy invasion until Kalamaf was attacked.

Of course, since two families’ armies were already waiting there, it would have only increased civilian casualties without making much difference.

As the two families’ armies reached the front of the walls under the protection of the black veil without being detected by anyone, Turan manipulated the holy relic hanging on his chest to draw upon the Carmine family’s power.

Fortunately, this cold region still had snow that hadn’t melted even after spring arrived, so there were plenty of resources to use.

Swish—the snow imbued with magical power gathered to create a tall ramp leading to the walls over ten meters high.

Its width was enough for dozens of people to pass through at once.

As the two families’ mages crossed the walls with admiration, Solif looked to the side and said quietly:

“You’re not using too much magical power, are you?”

“Not at all. There was so much snow that it didn’t consume anything, so don’t worry.”

If he had to gather large amounts of water from nothing and freeze it to make a path, even Turan would have to prepare for considerable loss, but making a path with gathered snow was much more “reasonable” in comparison.

Eventually, the Parsha-Baraha mages who came down the downhill path they created looked around the city, quiet as death, and chattered among themselves.

“It’s incredibly quiet.”

“Even though it’s a big city, I thought there’d be some taverns open at night…”

“It’s probably because it’s a cold place. Conversely, I heard that in hot places, people don’t come out during the day because it’s too hot, so they actually come out and play at night.”

“Even so, there’s not even anyone patrolling.”

While others exclaimed “Oh, I see” at the explanation from someone who had studied a bit, the two families’ armies passed through the deserted main road and safely reached the front of the Ruban family’s walls.

“This is as far as it goes.”

Though they hadn’t created a fortress of light by surrounding the area with light orbs like Arabion, this place also had minimum measures to prepare for enemies sneaking in.

That meant the Night’s Veil had also fulfilled its role.

Turan used wind magic to transmit his voice so all the mages standing behind could hear.

“In five seconds, I’ll dispel the veil while making a hole directly ahead. Attack through there.”

At the mention of five seconds, everyone tensed up, and simultaneously Turan took out familiar objects from his pocket.

The enchanted sling and iron ball.

The two items that had now become symbols of Parsha’s family head harmonized and rotated, creating an invisible electric path forward, and eventually a flash and roar occurred.

A familiar sound to those who had participated in several recent battles, and to the Ruban mages who had gone south to Baraha not long ago.

The roar of the railgun and the crushing of Ruban family’s massive main gate announced the war between the three families.