Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Discord
After leaving the Carmine gods with their homework, Turan flew north on Bije instead of returning directly to Kalamaf.
About twenty minutes passed.
He saw a young noble desperately running south from Carmine’s temporary capital.
When a dark shadow fell over him and he looked up at the sky, he immediately bent his waist deeply and bowed.
“Family Head!”
“Good work, Borea.”
“Why didn’t you return first…”
The young man who had served as messenger was named Borea Shatik, a noble of the Earthkeeper bloodline from the southwestern Gray Zone.
This young man, who had devoted himself to the Parsha family army in place of his elder brother who was the heir, was both a soldier who had proven his loyalty multiple times as evidenced by the three medals on his chest, and an ardent follower of Turan.
“Since it takes less than thirty minutes to go back and forth anyway, this way is better. If you had to walk back, it would take at least another week.”
“Wouldn’t your thirty minutes be much more precious than my week, Family Head?”
His neck, which had been stiff as a board even before the nobles of great families and even the Carmine family head, bent with utmost flexibility.
This was precisely why Turan had used him as a messenger.
Only someone who worshipped Turan Parsha like a god could represent his will.
Borea, who had boarded Bije under continued insistence, shifted his buttocks uncomfortably with an uncomfortable expression.
“You look uncomfortable sitting?”
“It’s just that riding together on your divine bird seems too irreverent…”
Though somewhat excessive, this level was a side effect of deification that had to be endured.
When Bije, who took Turan’s words as praise, shook her body, both people riding on top exclaimed “Oh!”
-At this rate we’ll fall.
-Then I’ll catch you!
Turan lightly scolded Bije not to even think about dropping them, then leisurely chatted with Borea sitting next to him.
On the way there, he had needed to convey what to tell the Carmine side and various situational responses, so there hadn’t been a chance to talk.
“How’s the atmosphere within the family lately? You can be honest without watching my reaction.”
Normally when high-ranking people say such things, answering honestly would be foolish, but Borea spoke frankly about his impressions instead of lying that everything was fine.
After all, it was known through the work of filtering out spies that Turan possessed mystical abilities to see through people’s inner thoughts.
“Many predict the next war isn’t far off. It’s been quite some time since we last clashed with Arabion, and Baraha should be finishing up with the Ruban family soon. Actually, we thought Carmine would become an enemy too because of the last battle…”
Looking back as he trailed off, Turan nodded to confirm his prediction.
“Right, Carmine will become an ally. Of course, not at the level of Baraha or Ravitas, but more like a collaborator we can’t trust since we never know when they might stab us in the back.”
“I see.”
“And from now on, we should consider Zahar an enemy.”
At Turan’s words, Borea sucked in his breath.
Clear fear was evident on his pale face.
“Are you afraid?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Feeling fear isn’t wrong. Succumbing to it is what’s wrong.”
It wasn’t difficult to guess why Borea harbored such fear toward the Zahar family.
He too would be of the generation that had directly witnessed the Arabion-Zahar war decades ago.
At that time, the various noble families of the Gray Zone had to painfully experience just how powerful the two great families were and what they could do.
Especially since those who had refused Zahar family’s demands were frequently found as headless corpses one day, when asked which of the two was more frightening, it had to be Zahar.
After waiting for the other person to have time to calm his emotions, Turan continued his questioning.
“Setting aside the premise that the opponent is Zahar, are there many who feel great fatigue or fear about fighting?”
“There are some, but I think there are more who expect it. After all, we’ve always won so far.”
Originally, no matter how well someone fought, if they fought ten times, they would stumble once.
Whether their physical condition was bad that day, the enemy was stronger than expected, or other variables intervened.
And when it came to wars between families, there would be incomparably more variables than such individual fights.
But the Parsha family led by Turan had always used such variables positively to gain advantage.
It wasn’t just lucky wins in one or two small fights, but conquering one great family after another every time they fought, so it wasn’t unreasonable for Parsha’s retainers to regard their family head as a god of war.
“Expectation.”
For Turan, it was a feeling that was both joyful and strangely bitter.
Wars where people kill and are killed weren’t really something he wanted to do if it could be avoided.
But shouting that he didn’t want to fight when enemies trying to harm them were beyond the fence was meaningless.
The cries of the powerless were like the bleating of sheep not wanting to be slaughtered.
Could all this fighting really be ended once it was over, once those beings were expelled from this world or eliminated?
He hoped it could be so, and while thinking this, Borea glanced at him and said carefully.
“Though not many in number, there are some who think that at the end of all this fighting, you might rebuild the old empire and ascend to the emperor’s throne.”
Turan could guess through his attitude that Borea himself was one of such people.
Probably quite a few young nobles who admired him held similar views.
‘Emperor…’
A word rarely used in modern times, but one that those who studied history would hear at least once.
A term referring to humanity’s ruler, brought up as a substitute for “king” when that word became avoided due to its use by leaders of other races long ago.
Ironically, even during the old empire’s peak, while the title of emperor existed, no one had ascended to that position.
Starting with the Night Hunter Otas, the most powerful god, who had no interest in that position, other gods felt burdened about claiming to be higher than Otas.
In other words, the old empire had been an empire without an emperor.
And after the old empire’s fall, while some family heads might claim kingship, none dared speak the name of emperor.
One would need to be qualified as a ruler dominating multiple great families, but such beings were all vessels of fallen gods.
However, now after thousands of years had passed, someone with the ability to unite multiple great families and integrate the world had finally appeared.
Parsha’s retainers wanted their leader to rebuild an empire ruling the entire world, to become humanity’s master.
“I don’t know if I can fulfill your expectations, but I’ll at least choose the path where more people are happy.”
“What do you mean by more people being happy?”
“It means that if my faithful allies want it, I wouldn’t be unable to become that emperor, but I won’t threaten them if they refuse. A position washed with the blood of friends who once stood shoulder to shoulder would have no value.”
Tell others who think like you this as well, Turan warned quietly.
At that sharp intimidating aura, Borea respectfully bowed his head.
* * *
Returning to Kalamaf, Turan first informed the practical staff including Asiz of the meeting’s results.
Establishing cooperative relations with the Carmine family, and setting hostile relations with Zahar, which had previously been loose non-aggression.
The latter had already been somewhat discussed when he returned from infiltrating the Zahar family last time, but the former was unexpected work that made everyone cry out.
“Then we can empty some of the guard posts deployed in the northern mountains. The border toward the Enril Desert is too vulnerable right now.”
“Do that. The west is still well defended, right?”
“Of course.”
It would be good to establish at least non-aggression with the Giant Sea Serpent merfolk of the Northern Sea if possible, but that side was difficult to approach.
It wasn’t even certain whether they still remained in their former stronghold from when Armani lived with them, and there was no proper way to attempt safe negotiations.
The crucial problem was that there were almost no nobles skilled in underwater combat besides Turan.
Of course, bringing a large number of Carmine nobles could solve the power problem, but…
‘Fighting Giant Sea Serpents with Carmine bastards beside me, I’d be lucky not to get stabbed in the back.’
Originally, when raising wild beasts, one always had to appear stronger than the beast.
The moment weakness was revealed, it would regard those beside it not as masters but as prey.
Similarly, the newly tamed beast called Carmine should be seen not as a docile dog but as a wolf.
Their role wasn’t as companions who could show a soft flank, but as bait to be thrown into the most dangerous positions.
“I’ve instructed the Carmine side to scout Arabion and Nagin more thoroughly. Their intelligence should be better than ours given their accumulated history.”
“What did you promise in return?”
“Nothing immediate.”
“What on earth did you promise them…”
At Asiz’s muttering, Turan replied with an embarrassed smile.
Seeing this, he snorted lightly and shook his head.
“Right, you can’t tell me. Fine. If you can talk about it someday, tell me then.”
“Thanks, friend.”
Though Turan shared most secrets with his colleagues, there was one truth he kept to himself alone.
That the identity of the fallen ancient gods was originally ordinary humans who lived in another world.
The reason for hiding this was simple.
Explaining it would lead to existential problems about whether this world might actually not be real, but an elaborate fake.
‘There were some among the gods who had such suspicions. Saying this world’s identity was actually something within a kind of electronic game made of 0s and 1s…’
Of course, those who really held such thoughts were a minority.
Because this world was too large and complex to be merely something within entertainment.
A massive continent where about ten of their world’s largest countries could fit with room to spare, and the interactions and history built by tens of millions of people living there.
Their world’s technology was far too insufficient to implement all this as so-called ‘virtual reality.’
Of course, Turan believed this world probably wasn’t such a fake.
More than anything, if it really were so, Monarch’s talk of ‘return’ itself wouldn’t be possible.
How could one return to that world with a noble’s body that didn’t actually exist?
Of course, believing the enemy’s words at face value was foolish, but seeing that he had succeeded in persuading Zahar’s gods, there must have been some evidence.
They weren’t fools who would just fall for mere words.
‘Someday when everything becomes certain, I’ll be able to tell others too.’
Nevertheless, the reason he couldn’t tell others was that Turan himself hadn’t completely resolved his doubts.
If this world really was fake, it would be cruel to those who wandered around not knowing it was fake.
Having thus presented the family’s path through practical staff, Turan still had tasks lined up waiting.
Namely, taking care of Rida, who had been somewhat neglected due to the infiltration mission and meetings.
“I thought you’d completely forgotten me, Parsha family head.”
“I’ve been a bit busy.”
“My, you’ve lost much of your cute charm compared to before. You were more shy back then.”
Rida, who had been acting like an ex-lover, covered her mouth and laughed at Turan’s indifferent attitude.
She had continued researching soul magic with the white elf Nia during the few days Turan was away, and in that short time had obtained another piece of information.
“What kind?”
“The ‘leash’ I mentioned before. The individual differences are surprisingly large.”
While Turan was away, Rida had conducted experiments forcibly extracting the spirit forms of death row prisoners.
Unlike those who had solidified their spirit forms through soul magic themselves, this was a cruel method where the extracted spirit forms couldn’t return to their bodies and scattered away on their own – something that should only be done to serious criminals.
As a result, Rida discovered that even among death row prisoners, the number of thorns embedded in each spirit form’s head varied greatly.
“Those with many had hundreds, but the least was fewer than twenty. I haven’t analyzed the exact reason yet. Since I only experimented on commoner prisoners, it’s probably not due to magical power differences…”
“It’s probably a bloodline issue.”
Though it was unfortunate for Rida who had worked hard thinking, Turan already knew the answer.
Because the half-elves had told him about it in the past.
“Probably the higher the aptitude for Zahar bloodline, the fewer thorns there are. Since this is right next to the Enril Desert, there would be quite a few who inherited that bloodline.”
“Oh my… do you know the reason too?”
“Yes. When the Night Hunter put on the leashes, he reportedly demanded not to place strong constraints on Zahar bloodline nobles.”
Though Monarch had now become a powerful soul mage feared and avoided by others as a mastermind, before losing his body he had been merely a useful troublemaker.
In contrast, Otas had been the most powerful among the Freya gods in their prime, so how could he refuse that request?
Of course, he had cursed freely in diaries, but originally high-ranking people’s complaints were made where they couldn’t be seen.
Anyway, Zahar bloodline nobles were born with weaker leashes, so they lost empathy for commoners but were not constrained to submit when facing gods in spirit form.
Of course, there seemed to be no one among them who was completely without leashes like Turan.
“I thought I’d found something good, but it was just such a simple reason.”
“Still, we’re progressing by learning things one by one like this. There are still many possibilities in soul magic that we don’t know about.”
When Rida looked disappointed and dejected, Turan comforted her and told her about what he had seen last time.
The story of someone who gained explosive magical power by completely grinding up their own soul.
“Such a strange method… didn’t you learn how to do it?”
“No. I think they wouldn’t have taught me even if I asked.”
Though it was someone who had disappeared so it was purely speculation, Turan thought so.
Harun would have wanted him not to know methods of gaining power by burning his own soul.
“Come to think of it, that person was somewhat similar to you, Lady Rida.”
“In what way?”
“Being somewhat grandmother-like…”
At Turan’s words, Rida pinched his side fiercely, indirectly expressing that while she could say such things about herself, she didn’t like hearing such words from others.
After sharing a few more stories about soul magic, Rida quietly lowered her voice and asked.
“By the way, are you really going to war with Zahar?”
“Where did you hear that?”
“From Miss Meisa. It was just a passing comment though.”
She spent quite a bit of time with Meisa outside of soul magic research, serving as someone who imparted various knowledge that pregnant nobles should know.
Originally this should have been done by her mother, but since Meisa’s mother had been poisoned when she was young, there was no one to teach her such knowledge.
Thanks to this, Turan also learned several facts he hadn’t known.
For example, that female mages just before childbirth temporarily have their physical abilities drop to near ordinary human levels.
‘Well, if that weren’t the case, terrible things would have happened during childbirth…’
In the past, when Turan had inserted food into Meisa’s stomach for her when she couldn’t eat properly, the metal tube not enhanced by magical power had been crushed, unable to overcome the strength of the esophageal sphincter.
If something similar happened during childbirth, a truly horrific tragedy would occur.
Turan pushed away the dizzying imagination and informed Rida of the ongoing situation.
“It’s not really a secret anymore anyway. Yes, that’s right. A rebellion occurred within the Zahar family, and the family head faction that was friendly with us was pushed out, so we ended up fighting.”
“Oh… our family head should know about this too. Could you send a letter?”
“I’ve already sent word to the Ravitas side. I’m not sure yet how they’ll respond though.”
Wasn’t Rida’s escape from Ravitas to settle in Kalamaf due to the confusion that occurred within them?
Once they learned that even the previously neutral Zahar had become an enemy, anti-war sentiment among Ravitas nobles might grow even stronger.
After finishing his conversation with Rida, Turan suddenly felt a powerful presence appear from underground in the stronghold.
What came up caused a commotion around it before finally arriving in front of Turan.
“Ta-da.”
Solif, who had been away to control the Ruban family, had finally returned.