Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 176
Chapter 176
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According to what Turan had learned from Lesion, the former head of Baraha, the relationship between the two half-elf groups that had taken over Ruban and Baraha was truly complex and subtle.
First, since both factions had been conscripted together to carry out work during the fall of the gods, they roughly suspected that each other might be in similar circumstances.
However, they couldn’t be certain whether the other side was truly in the same predicament as themselves.
Even while interacting with each other, they couldn’t peer into each other’s spirit forms unless the other side directly revealed them.
If they honestly revealed their identity while the other side had somehow used a different method to maintain a complete god’s soul, they would certainly face a coordinated attack from all the gods in the world and the forces they led.
For the Freya gods, the different races that had stolen half of their souls would be targets that needed immediate extermination.
From that perspective, it wasn’t particularly surprising that Ruban’s half-elves had been hiding the existence of white elves.
[Tell me. Why did you decide to establish your identity as white elves? It doesn’t seem like you completely removed your personalities as gods either.]
Upon hearing the question, Calais shut his mouth tightly and refused to answer.
Well, it would be stranger if someone who had been the most uncooperative from the beginning suddenly became obedient.
In response, Turan gestured with his chin toward the white elf princess, Nia.
[Speak.]
Considering that this half-elf still had some kind of obsession with his kinfolk, this threat couldn’t fail to work.
As expected, after hesitating, he let out a deep sigh and opened his mouth.
[As you think, it was because I had descendants. They gave me discernment.]
According to Calais’s subsequent explanation, Ruban’s half-elves had initially been no different from the Baraha side.
In a situation where they lacked knowledge of soul magic, they brought white elf spirit mages to forcibly attempt reincarnation, and in the process, their souls became mixed up.
However, the crucial difference was that Ruban’s gods had left a few ordinary white elves alive, not just spirit mages.
[Among the survivors, there was one royal with spirit magic talent, and with his help, we adjusted our souls.]
Once mixed, it was impossible to completely separate them, but at least sorting them was possible.
Just as the gods inhabiting vessels used the body’s memories as shells, they placed the god’s ego outside and made the elf’s ego the core.
[So that’s how it was.]
For those with white elf egos being dominant, he had wondered why characteristics like the “drug addict’s” obsession with physical beauty were maintained, but if that was the case, it made some sense.
In other words, Ruban’s gods were puppets who believed they were puppeteers.
In some ways, they were in a more miserable state than Baraha’s half-elves, who were troubled by identity issues.
[So, what are you going to do with us now? Will you cut off our lineage like you did with the others?]
[Well, if you have some use, there’s no need to kill you immediately.]
Turan didn’t immediately bring up the project he was preparing for them.
If they thought they had something to offer, they might become arrogant.
Afterward, Turan asked him several more things.
Things like how they had collaborated with the western gods and what they intended to do after attacking and occupying Baraha.
Among these, what he was curious about was why they hadn’t revived the white elves over the past thousands of years and instead kept them confined in an underground corner like that.
[That’s because increasing their numbers wouldn’t do any good.]
[Hm?]
[Anyway, even if our race increased in number, we wouldn’t have the ability to properly fight against you people. Even the most powerful spirit mages would die from just one or two spells from mediocre nobles. Increasing numbers would only increase the possibility of being discovered… and the moment we’re discovered, wouldn’t our race’s lineage truly be cut off?]
Although they occupied the Ruban family, that was only possible because they were using human bodies.
If their identity was exposed and they argued for forming an alliance with white elves to protect them, even Ruban’s mages would turn their backs on them.
After finishing the conversation to some extent, Turan shoved Calais’s spirit form back into the jewel box and returned to his body.
As he lightly stretched, Armani, who had been quietly watching the two, spoke to him.
“Were you sleeping?”
“Of course not.”
Well, for Armani, who lacked spiritual vision, it would have only looked like Turan briefly closed his eyes and stood there blankly, while Nia stared into space and muttered nonsense a few times.
* * *
Two days later, Bije, carrying one person, one merman, and one white elf, finally passed through the devastated port of Ofen and arrived at Kalamaf.
Unlike the citizens of Slon who had half-panicked at the sight of the giant golden eagle, the citizens of Kalamaf waved their hands at the appearance of the divine beast that protected them.
Turan landed in the garden at the center of the family head’s residence, then immediately called out Asiz and other executives of the Parsha family to report the results of the war.
“The Ruban family has been completely subdued.”
“Ooh…!”
“As expected!”
Though it was a natural result if you thought about it, there was no one who didn’t rejoice upon hearing this fact.
After all, war was something where variables upon variables existed, wasn’t it?
Then, one of the retainers looked at Nia, who was standing quietly behind Turan, and asked.
“But who is the person behind you…?”
Not only was she wearing a mask and hood, but she had wrapped her entire body in a cloak to hide the white elf’s characteristic pale skin, though her build was clearly that of a woman.
At the retainers’ expressions wondering if he had brought back a new woman from Ruban, Turan let out a hollow laugh.
“Come to think of it, I had forgotten. Keep this one in the underground prison for the time being. Leave the clothes as they are, and never remove the mask and hood.”
“Pr-prison?”
“Yes. Ah, while we’re at it, we should modify the facilities a bit… For now, I’ll personally provide meals.”
The Parsha family’s underground prison had magic cast by Meisa herself to restrict the use of magical power inside, but it couldn’t block spirit arts like spirit magic.
That meant if they placed ordinary people or knight-level guards, there was a possibility they could be subdued by spirit magic.
After confining Nia like this, Turan next went to find Meisa, who would be resting in their quarters, to catch up.
Now approaching four months pregnant, when she wore light clothing, her belly was noticeably round enough for anyone to tell.
“White elves?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure if I should call this a windfall or not…”
But for some reason, Meisa frowned slightly upon hearing Turan’s subsequent explanation.
“Why?”
“No, it’s just… from what you’re telling me, don’t the white elves seem a bit pitiful?”
She too had developed a distaste for elves after seeing the dark elves hang piles of human corpses during the dark elf subjugation, but from what she heard, these white elves seemed to have little in common with dark elves besides sharing the name “elf.”
Looking at it that way, they had just struggled to survive somehow while being swept up in the personal desires of the Freya gods.
Of course, they had occupied the Ruban family and continued to wear human bodies while being hostile to Turan’s forces.
While ordinary mages wouldn’t feel such sympathy for different races that were enemies of humanity, they had the merman Armani as a friend, didn’t they?
As such, it was difficult to apply different standards just because they were a different race.
“They’re not worth that much sympathy.”
At Meisa’s words, Turan shook his head in denial.
Since white elves had been a minority even before the gods’ arrival, they hadn’t established large-scale human farms like the dark elves, but they too had the cannibalistic nature of eating humans.
When Turan, who had roughly heard this story through Lesion, explained this, Meisa also let out a low “hmm” and shook her head.
“Then well… So, what are you going to do?”
“First, I need to contact Ravitas and let them know. Meanwhile, we need to figure out how to handle them.”
And there was one more thing that needed to be done.
Absorbing Calais’s magical power.
Looking at Calais’s corpse that he took out from his large-capacity bag, Meisa made a complex expression.
“Really… seeing it like this makes me feel strange.”
“It can’t be helped.”
The last image Meisa remembered of Calais was him laughing heartily as he saw them off.
But that same Calais was now lying on the living room floor with his neck severed by Turan’s hand, so it was impossible to describe that feeling.
Anyway, they couldn’t just leave this tremendous power unused.
Probably the bodyless Calais would also be more pleased to have those who avenged him use this power, wouldn’t he?
Of course, one could never presume to predict the will of the dead.
This time, three would combine their power: Turan, Meisa, and even Bije.
It was a bit regrettable that one spot was empty, but anyway, among those remaining at the Parsha main house, there was no one suitable to absorb Calais’s power.
Due to fighting so many wars recently, most had already absorbed power to their limit.
Since they were gaining power from an equal opponent, there wasn’t the same pleasure as before, but while they were feeling the sensation of becoming stronger, Bije made a “kek” sound and spat out the magical power that had been absorbing.
“Bije has reached her limit too.”
Bije’s magical power, having finally stopped growing, was somewhat weaker than the heads of great families, but far stronger than top-tier nobles.
Considering her characteristic as a flying magical beast, with her lacking offensive abilities, she might be able to engage in delaying tactics against family heads like Osel.
After handling all the complex and troublesome matters, rest naturally had to follow.
Turan rolled around on the bed with Meisa, relieving the fatigue of travel and battle.
As a bonus, he also let Bije, who had suffered during several days of flight, eat plenty of delicious food and rest.
After spending the night like this, Turan gave Bije, who had become energetic through rest, one task.
Specifically, to deliver news to Ravitas and return.
Perhaps because she had absorbed magical power once more despite reaching her limit and become stronger.
Bije nodded with a bright expression.
-Remember, Bije?
-Yes! White elf spirit mage secured, would like information shared after research. Right?
-Exactly. You must only tell Rida or Osel, and absolutely never tell anyone else.
-Got it!
What differentiated Bije from other messengers wasn’t just her power but her communication ability based on excellent intelligence.
Unlike other messenger birds where you had to worry about possible interception by writing and tying letters, with Bije you could just directly tell her what you wanted to say and have her convey it.
Of course, considering that there weren’t many in the world who could shoot down Bije and steal letters, it was an unnecessary worry.
Even after sending Bije off like this, there were several things to do.
Designing medals to give to those who participated in this war, and studying the weapons and tactics used this time.
Particularly noteworthy this time was the performance and limitations of firearms deployed in actual combat for the first time.
“You’re saying ten shots weren’t enough to subdue a mid-tier noble?”
“Yes. Of course, since it was a Ruban noble, we should think they had durability equivalent to top-tier or higher, but they were unarmed, and other nobles usually have one or two defensive magical devices, so we should consider it similar.”
Upon hearing Turan’s words, Melo frowned.
Firearm development was an agenda that all of Parsha’s upper echelons were interested in and contributed various ideas to, but the person who could be called the chief responsible was him, the second most powerful and most skilled enchanter after Meisa.
“Should we raise the performance further… but if we increase the amount of gunpowder, the possibility of explosion becomes too great.”
“What if we increase the size? There’s no reason to limit it to the current size.”
The current firearm size was based on the opinions of the half-elves who helped with the design, but after actually using them, it seemed like using something larger and heavier wouldn’t be a big problem.
After all, while guns were originally designed for ordinary humans, mages’ strength far exceeded this.
“I suppose we’ll have to think in that direction.”
“Long-term, it would be good if it became something ordinary people could use too… is that still difficult?”
“Yes. The related technologies are too high-level to implement the ideas you’ve mentioned, Family Head.”
The firearms currently being manufactured by the Parsha family were actually crude enough to make real firearm manufacturers vomit blood.
The weak body that couldn’t withstand gunpowder explosions was patched up with durability enhancement using magical enchantment, and since they lacked the technology to make firing mechanisms, they patched it up with ignition magic.
The only thing that could be called technology was quantifying the amount of gunpowder used for firing by wrapping gunpowder in cotton cloth.
After throwing a few more clues for firearm development, Turan headed to the underground prison.
The place where the white elf princess, Yukvalenia, was staying.
“Have you been well?”
“…Not really. This place is too dirty and smelly.”
“Well, it’s a prison.”
Of course, families with long histories like Baraha also operated high-class prisons for confining high-status individuals, but unfortunately, Kalamaf wasn’t yet at the level to create such facilities.
Turan provided new food while revealing what she would have to do from now on.
“Methods for handling soul chains?”
“Yes. Can spirit magic solve the aging of soul chains?”
Of course, this wasn’t the first time he was asking this question.
The half-elves including Lesion had also been mobilized as powerful spirit mages during the ritual in their lifetime.
But unfortunately, the answer that came back from them was negative.
The reason was that white elf spirit mages hadn’t bothered to research methods to solve soul chain aging.
‘Well, since their bodies aged and died anyway, there would have been no need to look for such methods.’
After entering the gods’ bodies, even if they became interested, they had lost white elf bodies and couldn’t use spirit magic, so there would have been no way to research it.
In contrast, since white elf spirit mages had continued their lineage, hadn’t some method emerged by now?
Unfortunately, Turan’s such expectations were brutally betrayed.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yes. I’m not that great a spirit mage…”
Like necromancers, spirit mages also had ranks in their power, and Nia said she wasn’t a particularly great spirit mage.
Originally, those with powerful abilities had all been hunted or fused with the gods, and she was a collateral branch born among royalty who had inherited relatively thin blood.
“I see… well, it can’t be helped. We’ll have to research as much as we can for now.”
Afterward, Turan made time to come down to the underground prison and study the basic principles of spirit magic and its applications through Nia.
He already knew the basics to some extent through Baraha’s half-elves, but nothing could compare to direct experience.
There’s a reason for the saying that seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
“Stop.”
“…Ugh.”
What was a bit troublesome was that during such experiments, Nia sometimes made aggressive attempts.
She who had tried to push her spirit form into Turan’s to mix them trembled while being held by the neck.
Turan looked at her quietly and said in a low voice.
“This is your last chance. If you try anything foolish again, I’ll start by killing one of the white elves who will come here later.”
“…I understand.”
Her pitiful appearance of bowing her head was similar to humans and quite beautiful, but it didn’t evoke Turan’s sympathy.
This was because he knew that her spirit form, which he always saw and which could be called her essence, was completely different from this appearance.
While experimenting with spirit magic like this, another research also proceeded smoothly.
Research on methods to prevent her from arbitrarily exercising power and harming other people.
“How about this, can you get through this?”
[No.]
“Is there a way to get through with other applications?”
[I don’t know.]
“Good, that works.”
Among several magical devices made at Meisa’s request, one with the function of blocking spiritual vision was effective.
Just as mages couldn’t accurately cast magic at targets when their vision was blocked, spirit mages also couldn’t attack opponents’ spirit forms to dominate spirits or seize control when their spiritual vision was blocked while their spirit forms were out.
Turan put on a magical device made in the form of a headband, then separately made a locking device that could unlock and lock it and connected them.
In this restrained state, there would be no incidents of those providing food or cleaning the inside of the prison suddenly having their minds dominated.
‘Come to think of it, it’s about time for Bije to return…’
As Turan, who had perfectly prepared restraints and was coming up to the surface, suddenly had such a thought.
If not carrying people, two days would be more than enough time to make a round trip between Kalamaf and Ravitas territory alone.
Strangely, just as he had that thought, he felt Bije’s presence from far away.
And someone riding on Bije’s back as well.
“Sorry for visiting without an invitation.”
A moment later, Rida Ravitas, who had landed in the garden with Bije, waved her hand toward Turan with a warm smile.