Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Discord
In the distant ancient past, the Frea divine tribe descended to earth, liberated humanity who were livestock and slaves to non-human races, and established the old empire.
Though the empire fell for unknown reasons and became a world where various magician families vied for power, all humans still worshipped them as gods.
And the first page of the scripture worshipping them discussed the relationship between magicians and humans.
Humans shall worship magicians, magicians shall rule over and care for humans.
While families and individuals differed in emphasizing rule versus care, that was the broad framework.
If the Burner’s ramblings were true, many magician families would have to struggle between divine teachings and reality.
On the way back to the burned village, Bisen’s group discussed this topic.
“No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Honestly, if this was possible, someone would have tried it by now.”
“Right. The world’s not short on madmen.”
“But divine blood has spread through the world for thousands of years. Except for non-humans, wouldn’t everyone have at least some magic power? Just not enough to properly handle it.”
“True, going back enough generations, everyone probably has at least one magician…”
If it became possible to gain magic power by killing ordinary people, the world would become several times more cruel than before.
Massacring enemy family’s commoners during wars, or desperate ones killing their subject commoners to gain power for final counterattacks.
Of course, if such a method really existed, it likely would have become widely known long ago.
Even the superstition that ordinary humans could become magicians by killing monsters had produced countless monster hunters.
Eventually, Bisen’s group was divided between two opinions.
Two said they should just kill him without investigating obviously false rumors, while two said it wouldn’t hurt to subdue and question him.
Even if true what use would knowing such things be, they could use it on serious criminals, and while debating this one looked at Turan and asked.
“What do you think, Lord Turan?”
“Let’s attack with killing as premise, then subdue him if we can.”
Though he had no intention of using methods to gain power by killing people even if he knew them, he thought it better to know regardless.
Uncomfortable things don’t disappear just by closing your eyes to them.
As the discussion was ending, the ruins of the burned village came into view.
“Ah, we’re here.”
“Then shall we start tracking? Asha?”
“Yes!”
“Take point and search. I’ll be behind you, Gil and Kebek in the middle, and Lord Turan in the rear if you would.”
“Alright.”
Agreeing to Bisen’s request, Turan glanced at Gil, the man who had accidentally shot the flame spear earlier.
Though he had beast tamer bloodline ability to tame monsters, he didn’t have any useful monsters due to lacking even enough magic power for himself.
Moreover, as shown by accidentally shooting the spear, he was the youngest and most inexperienced of the four.
“Now then… I’ll start searching.”
Asha scanned around with wide eyes.
The immediate search conditions would probably be ‘human male footprints’ or ‘red fabric’.
Turan thought the former would have too many traces in the village, while the latter wouldn’t leave many traces unless clothes were torn somewhere.
“How is it?”
“I think I need to look around more.”
“Alright, let’s move. Which way?”
Turan quietly followed behind them without stepping forward.
He was curious about the tracking ability of a half Zahar, and also wanted to conserve his magic power for contingencies.
Fortunately, Asha showed the careful and experienced hunter’s demeanor mismatched with her small, youthful appearance.
She first led the group down a path, then shook her head seeing it connected to the main road and returned to the village.
After repeating this process three times, Turan asked a question.
“How exactly are you searching?”
“After finding human male footprints, I look for ash scent when it leads to main roads. If he didn’t change clothes, he should have ash on his clothes…”
Her tracking method was quite professional.
Why hadn’t she been able to find him like this before?
Thinking about it, not knowing the gender must have been a big problem.
Though men typically wander outside more than women, it doubled the number of targets to search for.
Plus, she said this was the first time finding a crime scene so quickly.
After tracking like this for a while, resting when magic power ran out and repeating several times.
Around when it was getting dark, Asha tracking the thirteenth trace exclaimed.
“Found it!”
“Wait, Asha! Run a bit slower!”
Following after her who had dashed off, they arrived at the entrance of a natural cave.
One far too small for human habitation, barely big enough for small animals to pass through.
“Here?”
“Doesn’t look like anything bigger than a cat could get in.”
“Wait.”
Turan passed between their muttering and pushed aside a rock placed at one side of the natural cave.
With magic power added, the rock the size of two people tilted with a thud revealing a large entrance.
“This is how he came and went.”
“Wow…”
“The rock rolling sound was too loud. They would have heard inside.”
“We can’t not open the door. Let’s go in.”
As battle was imminent and the target’s location secured, they changed formation with Turan and Bisen in front, the other three behind.
Creating a small light orb with illumination magic to light the surroundings, Bisen asked Asha.
“Anyone inside?”
“Yes. One person…”
“Must be him. No one but a criminal would have reason to be alone in such a place.”
Turan carefully observed the cave interior not revealed by light using the Zahar bloodline’s unique night vision ability.
A desolate appearance with no signs of human modification…
Even for a noble, while a few days might be manageable, living long-term in such a place would be tremendously uncomfortable.
Had the murders committed here been important enough to endure even that?
Shortly after, they discovered a clearing in the deepest part of the cave.
Small holes that seemed made for ventilation in the ceiling, a primitive bedding made of blankets and wood chunks in the corner, and pots containing some unknown liquid.
Several torches burned on the walls lighting the surroundings.
In the middle of this makeshift shelter, a man stared at their group as if he had been waiting and asked.
“What brings guests to such a remote place?”
Red robe with hood – the child had probably mistaken it for a cloak – rough face and beard, exactly matching the girl’s description.
A faint scent of incompletely washed ash wafted from his body.
Asha whispered softly to inform them.
“I smell it, it’s him.”
Then, Turan felt a strange sense of déjà vu in the man’s gaze.
That unusually clear gaze…
It was remarkably similar to monster hunter Midan’s gaze he had recalled earlier.
If not for the facial features, he might have thought it was him.
While Turan was puzzled by this, Bisen nocked an arrow to her ice bow she had created.
She seemed somewhat less confident due to her earlier mistake.
“Though I’ll ask just in case – are you the murderer who’s been capturing and burning villagers in the area?”
At Bisen’s question, the Burner tilted his head as if not understanding.
“I don’t quite understand what-”
Seeing the opponent’s hand stretch forward, Turan immediately used thought acceleration and guardian magical device.
Along with this, explosions occurred to the left and right of where they stood.
“Aagh-!”
“What-!?”
The explosions originated from sacks of some unknown black powder in the cave corners.
Turan using the guardian magical device, and Bisen who had somewhat absorbed the impact thanks to Turan unintentionally becoming a shield were fine, but the three behind were thrown to the ground taking the full force of the pressure and heat from the explosion.
Though they were mere youngsters, it was an absurdly powerful trap to instantly incapacitate three nobles.
‘What is this?’
When Turan spun his sling once preparing stones for counterattack while surprised, Bisen shot an ice arrow first toward the Burner.
Her arrow flew faster than sound, piercing his thigh and freezing his leg.
“Argh!”
But even collapsing with a pierced thigh, the Burner didn’t give up counterattacking.
When he slammed his palm on the ground, the surrounding rocks distorted and took hand shapes to attack Bisen and Turan.
Earth manipulation, and at this distance with such speed and scale, it was quite high-level magic.
‘This is…?’
Though they had naturally assumed pyromaniac bloodline due to burning people to death with fire.
With such skill, there was high possibility of groundkeeper bloodline specialized in handling earth.
“Kyaa!”
While Bisen was caught by the stone hands in surprise at the unexpected situation, Turan quickly threw his body clear of the grasping stone hands thanks to his accelerated thought speed.
Immediately throwing his prepared stone, the familiar cracking sound came as the Burner’s right hand aiming at Turan was crushed.
“Gyaaaaargh!”
Turan approached the Burner screaming in pain from his lost hand while rubbing his left hand twice.
Lightning magic created by amplifying tiny amounts of static electricity.
Though precise aiming was still difficult, hitting a person at this distance wasn’t hard.
When the crackling lightning struck his chest, the Burner’s whole body convulsed before collapsing.
Lightning-type spells were indeed most suitable for subduing opponents.
Though with too much power they instantly become lethal techniques.
“Did, did you defeat him?”
“Probably.”
Turan briefly answered Bisen asking from behind while checking if the Burner’s breathing had stopped, then proceeded with complete restraint.
He scattered some vine seeds on the ground and grew them to tie both arms behind back, and wrapped another around his eyes to prevent sight.
Meaningful resistance was impossible with vision that helps gauge magic direction and arms that help target designation restrained.
If he tried to break free by concentrating magic power, it would immediately signal Turan controlling the plants and he could just kill him.
The only drawback was that Turan’s magic power was consumed maintaining and controlling the plants so he couldn’t maintain it too long.
“Now that he’s subdued, please tend to those three first.”
“…Thank you.”
As expected, if Turan hadn’t come along these four would clearly have ascended to the celestial palace already.
This one seemed to have thoroughly prepared for intruders.
While Bisen woke healer Kebek to heal the injured three, Turan tapped the Burner’s cheek with the flat of his dagger.
“Hey, wake up.”
“Ugh…”
“Stop, I’ll kill you immediately if you raise more magic power.”
When the Burner groaning awake instinctively tried to raise magic power to remove the vines wrapped around his wrists, Turan immediately pressed the knife to his neck and threatened.
The Burner seemed to understand the situation and quietly complied.
“Who are you people, how did you…”
“There are ways. So, you’re the Burner right?”
“That-”
Seeing the opponent stalling, Turan immediately stabbed the dagger into his thigh.
Harsh screams echoed through the cave.
“Answer quickly.”
What reason was there to show mercy to a mass murderer who had burned hundreds of ordinary people to death?
At Turan’s growling voice, the Burner nodded with tears flowing from his vine-wrapped eyes.
Just then, Bisen’s group finished healing and approached behind Turan.
“Did you restrain him with vines?”
“I didn’t know guardian bloodline nobles could do such things…”
“Let’s ask what we need to first.”
He deliberately didn’t mention it was hard to maintain restraint long.
Since the Burner might think he just needed to stall for time if he heard.
Fortunately, he wasn’t particularly strong-willed so the interrogation proceeded quickly.
His real name was Obil Kraft, 78 years old, a noble of the Kraft family far south of here.
Currently wandering after cutting ties with his family head brother…
“So, why was the wandering noble burning village people to death here?”
“The gods, the gods told me. That I could become closer to them by burning the souls and flesh of sinful ones…”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t treat me like this. I’m about to become the founder of a great family!”
According to the rambling Burner Obil’s words, one day the gods had taught him various secrets for gaining other bloodline powers.
He had already seen several other nobles gain new bloodline abilities through it too.
Among these, what Obil had undertaken was the secret for gaining pyromaniac bloodline, which required a ritual of burning multiple humans at once and covering oneself in their ashes.
He begged to be released saying he only needed to do it a few more times, twisting his body.
“…Just a madman right?”
“Yeah.”
Bisen’s group mocked Obil at the outrageous story that was absurd just hearing it.
But Turan couldn’t.
‘Ordinary people can gain power by killing monsters too! I’ve already seen several magicians like that!’
Suspicious superstition, claims of several existing cases from unknown sources…
Not just similar gazes, Obil’s claims were remarkably similar in form to what Midan had said before.