Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 182

Chapter 182

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Turan stood still and asked himself: How exactly had he recognized that woman as Harun Zahar?

No matter how many times he mulled it over, no clear reason came to mind. He had simply intuited it the moment their eyes met. That she was the old man he had encountered at the boundary between the Gray Zone and the desert not long ago, who had calmly shared his life story with him.

Perhaps noticing that their gazes had met for about a second, the old man from Arabion, who had been sitting quietly, looked at Turan. His wrinkled lips twisted as surprising words spilled out.

“Do you want her?”

“Excuse me?”

“I asked if you want that woman. Your gaze seemed rather heated.”

Badal muttered quietly that as long as he didn’t kill her, he could do whatever he wanted. His eyes and expression were filled with deep malice, as if he was desperately eager to torment the woman before him somehow.

‘What on earth…’

What could have happened between those two for him to harbor such animosity? Badal’s face, filled with elation, showed no trace of his past magnanimous demeanor. The current him was nothing but a villain desperate to torment a powerless woman.

No, what bothered him more was that he appeared much more vital than before. With several more years having passed, he should really have little lifespan left, so why had he suddenly become so healthy?

Such thoughts were brief before Turan became Paol again and stoically received Badal’s question.

“The smell is too strong for that.”

“True, Zahar nobles do have excellent noses, don’t they? It’s not quite the same level, but it’s quite an ordeal for me too, so please wash that thing.”

At the unexpected instruction, Turan was about to immediately answer “Yes,” but closed his mouth briefly before giving a different response. This was from the calculation that if he, as Talis’s subordinate, was too compliant here, it might actually arouse suspicion.

Most importantly, wasn’t he also a noble Zahar who was too dignified to readily take on such menial tasks?

“That’s not my job.”

“Isn’t serving the family head what you people should be doing? Even if he’s entered such a wretched body.”

Badal spoke mockingly while lightly kicking the woman’s head with his shod foot. From speaking this way, it seemed that Paol, the identity Turan was disguised as, also knew that woman’s identity was Harun.

Perhaps even about the gods’ identities and soul possession. Well, if that weren’t the case, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the family head’s residence so easily.

Would they let in someone who knew nothing, expecting them to hear something from Badal or Harun inside? Moreover, it would have been inconvenient for Talis to handle affairs without telling his confidant anything.

They couldn’t use possessed vessels for everyone who needed to deliver food to Badal or run simple errands like this.

“…Understood.”

When he openly displayed a displeased expression, Badal, seeing this, chuckled and waved his hand as if telling him to go ahead. It seemed that despite their collaboration, the gap between the two forces hadn’t narrowed.

Judging by this behavior, the side that had gained the upper hand among them was probably Monarch’s side. What that method could be was something he would have to find out from now on.

Turan untied Harun from the restraints, then grabbed the back of her neck as if handling something filthy and lifted her up. Perhaps unable to overcome basic physiological instincts, she made choking sounds as her neck was constricted by the clothing.

“Excuse me.”

“Good work. When you bring her back later, clean this place up too.”

* * *

Having grabbed Harun with one hand and come up to the first floor, Turan immediately looked around to find a bathroom. Befitting that of Zahar’s family head, there was a massive bath in one corner with the finest blue marble spread abundantly across the floor.

Entering that place, Turan first undressed Harun, sat her on a chair, and activated a magic device to turn on the water. He—no, she—still swayed like a doll with vacant eyes even as her clothes were removed and she became naked.

While washing away blood and filth with running water, Turan carefully created wind paths with wind magic between her ear and his mouth, and between his ear and her mouth. As carefully as possible, considering the ability of Arabion nobles to read wind flows.

[“Harun.”]

He called quietly, but no immediate response came. This was actually natural. His current appearance was Paol Zahar, a subordinate of Talis who had made Harun into this state.

Why would she respond when one of the gang of bastards who had been torturing her until just moments ago was speaking to her?

So Turan brought up a story that only Harun and he knew.

[“Love doesn’t necessarily require reciprocation. Just giving it can bring joy.”]

When he recited the words Harun had spoken when they met in the past, focus returned to her vacant eyes. Just as Harun was about to look back with a shocked expression, Turan deliberately grabbed her neck to prevent her from turning her head.

[“Badal is still downstairs. Don’t move, just speak.”]

[“How did you… get in? Talis wouldn’t have been careless with security.”]

Harun’s voice coming through the wind path had, of course, become similar to that of a young woman, even in speech patterns. Had her personality changed somewhat because her body had changed?

[“As you said, it certainly wasn’t easy to get in.”]

It could be said that considerable luck was involved in entering like this and meeting Harun. If Talis had made passwords like Turan himself did, he would have been caught long ago.

‘But that would have been difficult.’

Unlike Parsha, Zahar was divided, making such measures difficult. In a situation where even those guarding the entrance to the family head’s mansion weren’t from Talis’s faction, who could they trust to set passwords?

The moment guards who should protect passwords leaked them, security would become even more lax.

After briefly remaining silent at Turan’s answer, Harun spoke.

[“Don’t tell me you came to rescue me?”]

[“Yes, though I haven’t thought of how to get you out yet.”]

The problem was that he couldn’t think of a good way to take her out of here. Snatch her and run away from this very spot? He would probably be caught by Badal within a few kilometers.

If it were just Bije and Turan, it might be different, but with Harun, who was just an ordinary person, he couldn’t achieve such high speeds. The moment he accelerated rapidly, it wouldn’t be strange if she died from her entire body being crushed by the reaction.

But it was also difficult to kill the body here and extract only the soul. The two of them were still within the sensing range of Badal right below. If he killed Harun and extracted her spirit form, Badal would attack immediately.

Then Harun’s spirit form, defenseless while being imprisoned in the soul prison, might suffer great damage. Since Badal had also developed spiritual senses, he could interfere with that soul, unlike ordinary mages.

[“If you didn’t come with companions, don’t overdo it and just go back.”]

Harun also guessed this and told him to abandon her. Even though she knew full well what her fate would be if she remained here.

Ironically, such words became the very shackles that prevented Turan from easily abandoning her. Perhaps, knowing Night Hunter Otas well, she had deliberately thrown out such words…

[“If there really seems to be no way, I’ll do that.”]

[“Yes, that’s what you should do.”]

The face of the woman looking at Turan through the mirror somehow felt like a grandmother looking at her grandchild. Even though she appeared to be just a woman in her twenties, why was that?

After the conversation was somewhat settled, Turan immediately pressed for what he had been most curious about.

[“How exactly did things end up this way?”]

[“All our guys were persuaded by Monarch. That stalker… they fell completely for the bait that Badal brought.”]

Harun muttered quietly that the cause was losing almost all control within the family due to opposing the Parsha family. Her tone was not so much regretful as just matter-of-factly stating facts.

[“When you say bait?”]

Turan recalled the proposals that Monarch, and Calais and others who had received his suggestions, had been spreading around their forces. Stories about using soul magic to elevate them to the status of gods like themselves.

Naturally, such methods wouldn’t have worked on Zahar’s gods. Perhaps they had proposed some great holy relic, like they had proposed to Carmine?

However, Harun’s subsequent answer was something Turan couldn’t even imagine.

[“Return.”]

[“No way?”]

[“Your guess is right. They said they found a way to return to where we came from, our homeland.”]

[“How is that even possible?”]

At Turan’s question, she coughed, spitting blood, and laughed.

[“I don’t know the exact method! When my subordinates brought up such talk, I refused, saying they were thoughtless, and was immediately attacked, ending up like this.”]

However, judging by the fact that all the gods under her had turned over, there must be at least plausible evidence. Probably Badal had secretly shown it to them, which was why they had come forward so proactively.

Turan mechanically washed Harun’s body while reflecting on what he had just heard. The gods wanting to return to their homeland…

[“Even if I don’t know how, I don’t quite understand why they want to return.”]

[“Is that so?”]

[“Yes. If you’ll forgive me for saying this, weren’t the gods of the past rather insignificant beings compared to now?”]

The fallen gods, all those who had enjoyed some game as players, were nothing but ordinary humans by this world’s standards. Because their world had no one with magical power.

Through information obtained from the gods trapped in the jewel box and visions seen while absorbing Kadram’s soul, he roughly knew what kind of place that world was. A world where magic didn’t exist, but instead technology dealing with natural laws was extremely developed.

Was that place good enough for those who had reigned as gods in this world to want to return as parts of their original world again? Recalling Kadram’s memories, it wasn’t like that at all.

Turan still remembered the dissatisfaction and anger toward the world that Kadram, the boy called Jun-seo, had harbored within.

[“Yes, it would be difficult for you, born and raised here, to understand that far. Though this place’s civilization has been developing for thousands of years, it’s still such a boring place compared to that world. Everything is.”]

Harun explained step by step to Turan, who still seemed not to understand. Even after the fall of the old empire, the gods had tried to develop civilization in their own way by switching possessed bodies, but this wasn’t easy.

From several physical laws distorted differently from their world to most ordinary people who should have devoted themselves to invention having their creativity severed.

Thanks to this, even after long years had passed, they still had to eat tasteless food and spend leisure time with theater, dance, and boring novels that weren’t particularly stimulating and only told predictable stories.

The only enjoyable things were gambling, sexual pleasure, and power games? But even such things were only good for a day or two—if you repeated the same acts, you couldn’t help but get tired of them easily.

Eventually, the gods became so immersed in laziness and corruption that they even used wearing more beautiful and powerful bodies as entertainment.

In such a situation, the proposal to let them enjoy again the advanced civilization of the old world they had once freely enjoyed couldn’t help but be welcome.

[“They even said it wouldn’t be returning to those powerless bodies of that time. They said we could cross over while keeping these mighty bodies we’re currently enjoying?”]

The power possessed by this world’s mages was tremendously threatening even by the standards of the gods’ homeland, where scientific civilization had developed tremendously. Moreover, the magic they wielded worked even more simply on ordinary people who couldn’t possess magical power.

As a somewhat extreme example, if a high-ranking noble of the Ruler bloodline gave their all to command ‘death,’ that alone would cause all humans within dozens of kilometers in every direction to commit suicide.

[“Isn’t it sweet just to imagine? Reigning as divine beings on Earth with this superhuman body, breeding by bearing offspring with strong magical power as before, and achieving immortality by stealing those bodies again.”]

Then only one thing would change from the present. Instead of livestock that had their creativity severed and only looked forward to today like yesterday and tomorrow like today, they could reign over real humans.

So they could enjoy the countless cultural media they created, gourmet food and music, and all other kinds of pleasures…

Turan, who had been quietly listening to this, asked softly.

[“If that’s really the case, why didn’t Lord Harun want such a thing?”]

The leader of Zahar’s forces and possessor of the family head’s body, and the only god in modern times with Night Hunter aptitude. If such a being had decided to join, they wouldn’t have opposed it either, so why did he refuse?

[“Because Otas wouldn’t have made such a choice.”]

At the Night Hunter’s name, which he heard after a while, Turan bit his lips, not knowing what to answer.

Having answered up to that point, Harun leaned her head against Turan’s chest as if tired.

[“Thinking I’m bathing with that person like this makes me feel somewhat better. Though my appearance is too embarrassing.”]

[“I am not him.”]

[“I know too, so be quiet. I just want to feel that way.”]

For something embarrassing, Harun was calmly entrusting her body to Turan’s hands. Seeing that Rida was similar, perhaps resistance to such shame grew stronger with age.

Erasing the thoughts that arose inwardly, Turan voiced a question that had quietly emerged.

[“What kind of bad relationship do you have with Badal? He seemed to dislike you quite a bit.”]

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t using that grand-uncle’s body, but Turan still maintained the same form of address. Hearing this, Harun made a mocking expression.

[“He once courted me and was rejected. Back when we lived in that world, before we became like this.”]

The moment she revealed she was a woman, men would cling to her disgustingly, so she had hidden her identity thoroughly, but somehow he found out and clung to her persistently, she said, openly displaying contempt.

[“That was long ago, but is that still a reason to hate?”]

[“It’s probably an emotion you’ll never know in your lifetime, but such people become hostile when they’re certain they can’t be loved by others. That way, what I craved becomes worthless.”]

Harun, who had been speaking harshly, soon added that this wasn’t her opinion.

[“This was also something Otas told me before. He said he had seen it in some novel long ago too.”]

Hearing that, he realized how much of a significant figure Night Hunter Otas was to Harun every time they conversed. Even though thousands of years had already passed, still only one person existed in her heart.

What kind of person could he have been, what could he have done to be engraved so deeply in her heart?

Then, Turan detected that Badal was glancing up from below. It seemed he felt something strange because too much time had passed for just washing.

Although he had said it was fine to sexually harass Harun’s body, he probably didn’t think he was actually doing so.

[“Then I should try to escape now.”]

[“As I said before, stop it. I don’t want you to be endangered because of worthless me.”]

At Harun’s still firm attitude, Turan smiled for the first time since entering this fortress.

[“I’m sorry, but that’s for me to decide.”]

Turan answered that way and immediately snatched up Harun’s body and flew toward the sky.