Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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It wasn’t hard to guess what kind of misunderstanding they had.
People burned to death while tied up, and the villain retrieving the girl who would be the final victim…
Turan quickly observed his opponents.
Four in number.
Though hard to be certain since they were magicians, they appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties.
Notably, all four were giving off strong scents of excitement and tension.
Just like when he first went wolf hunting with his mother in childhood.
Presumably, they were inexperienced youngsters.
“Wait-”
“Ah!”
The moment Turan opened his mouth to explain, the magician holding a flame spear exclaimed and shot it.
Judging by their startled expression, they had lost control due to excessive tension.
Turan extended one arm from those holding the child to catch the spear while fully infusing magic power into his bracelet.
As the guardian bloodline power protected his entire body, the flame spear exploded and flames enveloped him.
“What are you doing!? There was a child!”
“Ah, no, by accident…”
The woman with the ice bow shouted sharply as she saw Turan and the girl in his arms both engulfed in flames.
But shortly after, they all widened their eyes in shock without exception.
Turan, who had taken the magic head-on, was perfectly fine without even a burn or singe mark.
Even the girl in his arms too.
“What in…”
“How?”
Not even countering with magic but just taking it with his body?
For those unaware of guardian magical devices, they could only interpret that the opponent either had a defense-specialized bloodline or overwhelming magic power.
Turan noticed their fear and threatened in a low voice.
“I’m not the one who attacked this village. If you attack again, I’ll start defending myself from then.”
The frightened flame spear wielder quickly lowered both hands to show no intention of resistance at his piercing gaze.
Shortly after, the bow woman also lowered her aimed bow.
“Bisen.”
“Turan.”
All fights start from not understanding each other.
Just exchanging names greatly lowered the tension.
The bow woman, Bisen, stared steadily at Turan and asked.
“How should I trust you?”
“Ask this child when she wakes up. She seems to have seen the real culprit.”
“She saw the Burner?”
“The Burner?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know?”
Bisen asked with twitching eyebrows at Turan’s questioning.
“I don’t.”
At Turan’s answer, she explained with a half-doubting expression.
For the past few months, some deranged magician had been periodically attacking remote villages in this area, tying people up and burning them to death.
The culprit had earned the nickname “Burner” and had an elimination order from the local city lord, but with no survivors, not even their gender was known.
Until one was rescued by Turan today.
“Then this child should be able to tell us. She’s unconscious now, but when I first found her, she said a magician did this.”
After saying this much, Turan laid the surviving girl down beside the trapdoor and covered her with his cloak.
Their strange standoff ended thirty minutes later when the girl opened her eyes again.
“Are you conscious?”
“Where…”
“Your home.”
Turan spoke in a kind voice to avoid startling the child while first giving her water from a leather flask.
Though the girl’s young face was stained with anguish as if realizing her situation, she soon recited the culprit’s description point by point as Turan requested.
“Red cloak, and his face, he had a beard… looked rough like a woodcutter.”
The girl said she had watched the situation hiding in the trapdoor with just her eyes out when people were being dragged away by the magician.
Then when she saw him coming back around looking for more people, she quickly closed the door and bolted it.
When Turan patted the head of the girl explaining somehow with childlike limited vocabulary, tears welled up in her round eyes.
But the girl bit her lips and didn’t cry.
Pain and trials thus quickly make children into adults.
After bringing the girl away to question her once more in case she was being threatened with force, Bisen bowed deeply to Turan in apology.
“I’m sorry. Even though it was a situation prone to misunderstanding…”
Turan looked down at her for a while before nodding with a deep sigh.
Though angry at being attacked first, it was impulsive, and above all, he didn’t want to be too angry since they had worried about the child’s safety when attacking.
It was rare for nobles to care so much about ordinary people.
After receiving apologies from the other three as well, Turan asked what he was most curious about first.
“Did you come to catch this Burner?”
“Yes. We saw someone at a recently burned place and thought we’d finally caught them this time…”
Shaking her head saying it was a waste, Bisen confidently said they could catch them now that they had a description.
“We have a born tracker among us.”
“Tracker?”
When Turan showed surprise, Bisen went “Ah” and slightly turned her head.
Her gaze was directed at one of her three companions, a woman of particularly small build.
“Could it be you’re from the Zahar family? But why in a place like this?”
The Enril Desert was far from here, and moreover, going west from here was Arabion territory.
Could these be from that infamous Zahar assassination group that had attempted to kill Meisa?
But they all seemed too naive for that…
Seeming to guess Turan’s thoughts, Bisen quickly shook her head.
“No, that’s not it, we’re-”
But Bisen couldn’t continue and mumbled.
As he stared directly at her, she finally revealed her identity as if giving up.
“We’re from Abacha.”
“Abacha, of Karmaine?”
“I am Bisen Karmaine. These are friends from vassal families.”
It was truly a coincidental meeting considering Abacha was the name of the port city Turan was heading to, Karmaine family’s stronghold.
Though not really coincidence considering this village was broadly under Karmaine’s influence.
“Asha is descended from a family that merged with Zahar nobles in ancestral times, but their bloodline manifested weakly, so while skilled at detection magic, she has no talent for stealth.”
When multiple bloodlines combine to create great family bloodlines, they sometimes degrade, usually manifesting only one ability from before combination.
Such cases were called ‘primitive bloodlines’ and even great families didn’t bother collecting such bloodlines.
Because the possibility of degraded bloodlines becoming stronger through recombination was extremely rare.
“I don’t know how Karmaine family nobles ended up hunting a magician here, but it doesn’t seem very prudent. Especially without even bringing knights.”
Shouldn’t nobles, even from humble families, be accompanied by plenty of knights?
As attendants, or though Turan disliked the method, as meat shields.
At his words, Bisen’s group showed incredulous expressions.
“That’s, not something someone who travels completely alone should say…”
“Because I can sufficiently ensure my own safety.”
When the man who had shot the flame spear spoke in a timid voice, Turan answered proudly.
Having shown taking the flame spear head-on earlier, those words had plenty of persuasiveness.
“Besides, you four don’t seem very old, did you get permission from your family to come out?”
Seeing them flinch, he could be certain.
That these four were runaway nobles who had left their family without permission.
What other reason would young nobles have for wandering such places without even one knight?
“You should give up hunting the magician and return. It’s dangerous.”
Though the Burner was likely not very skilled given they only harassed helpless country folk, these people seemed so careless they might lose even to such an unremarkable magician.
If Turan fought them, it wouldn’t take even ten minutes to hunt them all.
Before even considering magic power strength, they all clearly showed unfamiliarity with fighting.
“We can’t do that.”
Bisen shook her head and explained their circumstances.
They were those pushed aside in their family for lacking innate qualities or succession rank, and thus couldn’t receive enough magic power for growth within the family.
Since monsters supplied to the family went first to members with excellent qualities, they had to supplement their power and build achievements this way.
This was one of the problems many great families had.
Though stronger bloodlines meant higher chances of children being born as noble-class magicians, there weren’t enough monsters to go around to all of them.
While “pilgrimage” like Asiz was one solution, considering costs and safety issues, it was hard for benefits to reach everyone.
Since the number of knights was also limited.
“Lord Turan, could you help us hunt the Burner? Magic power might be difficult since we’re already four, but we’ll give you all the bounty. Or… I could give up my share of magic power.”
“What are you saying, Sister!”
“Sister!”
“Don’t say foolish things. I’d rather give up my share.”
The other three objecting to Bisen’s words suggested she was quite a decent leader among them.
That sight reminded Turan of Midan.
The leader of the monster hunters he met in Murei city.
“This Burner, their skill level isn’t known at all?”
“They’re definitely noble-class. Some villages they attacked had several knights specifically guarding them, but they were all killed too.”
This was also why the local city lord hadn’t been able to eliminate the Burner yet.
Apparently knights weren’t enough answer and a noble, perhaps the family head directly, needed to go, but they didn’t even know where they lived or what they did so it was hard to chase, and with attack timing and location random it was hard to wait in villages.
If they were just a vicious one attacking all passersby like the monkey monster above Baltas before, they could just go find them.
This was why human villains were more troublesome than monsters.
“Alright.”
He recalled feeling quite unpleasant seeing the monster hunters torn to death by the rabbit monster.
While he might not care about complete strangers, after talking this much, he’d probably feel similar if these people died.
It also felt bad that a shepherd would indiscriminately kill rather than protect sheep.
Moreover, if the Burner was stronger than expected, it could be a chance to gain more magic power.
Now that Turan had built up noble-class intermediate or higher magic power, common low-grade monsters scattered along roads didn’t easily increase his power anymore.
“Since we’ll be working together now, may I ask which family you belong to, Lord Turan?”
“I can use guardian bloodline power.”
Though there was no real need to desperately hide his bloodline anymore, Turan still concealed it.
He didn’t want his identity spreading even as rumor to the Arabion people he had become close with.
The Zahar stealth ability was also most useful while unknown.
“I see.”
Most families born with combat-specialized bloodlines from guardian onwards didn’t have their own territory.
They had been weeded out long ago for being disadvantageous in fights between nobles, especially large-scale wars.
The few survivors either stayed as vassals of other families like Haram or wandered, and Bisen’s group thought Turan was such a wandering noble.
Anyway, it was enough that he was certainly quite skilled.
* * *
Turan and Bisen’s group first took the village’s only survivor, the girl, to another nearby village.
That village’s chief looked half-dazed when nobles like gods suddenly appeared and left a child from the neighboring village in his care.
“Here, I’ll give plenty of money so take good care of her until she becomes an adult.”
“How could there be any question, of course!”
“I’ll come back to check in a few years.”
Of course, he likely wouldn’t come back to check barring extreme circumstances, but saying this would prevent them from treating her carelessly.
Turan was someone who had directly experienced how cruel small village residents could be to outsiders, especially children.
“You’re kind. Even though she’s just a commoner girl with no connection to you.”
“Well, yeah.”
The one who spoke to Turan was Kebek, the oldest youth among the four.
He had healer bloodline and said though non-combat bloodlines usually had high priority so no need to run away, he came along out of loyalty to Bisen.
He was also the one who gave up his share of magic power for Turan’s portion.
“You don’t need to worry, I’m not interested in Bisen.”
“W-what…”
“It shows a lot in your attitude.”
At Turan’s words, Kebek blushed in embarrassment.
Honestly rather than knowing from attitude, it was because Kebek gave off mating scent when looking at Bisen.
That Asha girl with half Zahar bloodline probably knew too if she had keen smell like Turan.
“What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing!”
When Bisen returned after exchanging a few more words with the village chief, Kebek hurriedly covered it up.
Nodding “I see,” she looked at Turan and said.
“That child’s words keep bothering me.”
“Could it be true?”
“I don’t know. It’s something I’ve never heard of… probably just a madman’s ravings.”
The girl Turan had saved recalled on the way to the next village that she had heard a few words the Burner was saying in the basement.
The content was truly bizarre beyond measure.
[I offer these sacrifices here, oh gods! Your descendant advances toward you by burning souls and flesh!]
The magician shouted that they were becoming closer to godhood by killing villagers.
So the girl testified.