Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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“Uh…”
When Turan first landed on the deck, the pirates couldn’t even speak for a few seconds, wearing dumbfounded expressions.
Their brains momentarily refused to comprehend the surreal sight of a human leaping dozens of meters between ships.
But after a few seconds, some unnamed pirate broke this silence by shouting loudly.
“K-kill him! Fight!”
About seventy pirates approached wielding all kinds of weapons that could harm people, from swords and axes onward.
Turan was internally perplexed.
Normally when a magician suddenly appears showing such ability, they should lose fighting spirit and surrender, so why?
However, his confusion didn’t create any meaningful change in this battle.
Just as a mouse suddenly charging wouldn’t give it a chance even if it startled a bear.
As he stretched his hand toward beyond the deck, blue waves rose responding to Turan’s will, instantly releasing hot heat and transforming into ice needles sharp enough to pierce anything.
“Th-that is…”
“Run-!”
Before the word “run” could even finish, dozens of ice needles rained down on the pirates gathered on deck.
The result was unspeakably brutal.
Some died instantly with pierced heads, some struggled choking with pierced throats, some collapsed with pierced chests or stomachs…
In an instant, fifteen or sixteen pirates lost their lives or were incapacitated.
And this was just using far weaker power than he could actually use, deliberately acting like a knight.
Humans not born with magic power were this fragile.
“Don’t be scared, you bastards! We’ll die anyway if we can’t kill him!”
While the pirates in front screamed with ice needles stuck throughout their bodies, someone in the back shouted this.
Hearing this, he could understand why the pirates were resisting so desperately.
They too knew Turan wouldn’t let them live.
Against the pirates rushing in urgently, Turan gathered some water drawn from the sea in his hand to create an ice longsword.
He could sweep them all away by shooting more ice needles, but to pretend to be a knight, he needed to show himself fighting in close combat while conserving power at this point.
“Gak-”
Bodies falling helplessly with severed necks.
Before the longsword imbued with strength that could crush even iron, human flesh and bone weren’t even obstacles.
After cutting down one like that, he met incoming attacks with proper stances while grazing necks, then took one big step back to create distance before extending the longsword to cut three simultaneously.
Unlike when sparring weapon techniques with Haram, he felt no combat elation from these actions.
The pirates’ physical abilities were no match for Turan, and their combat skills were even cruder.
During this, the pirates’ attacks did touch Turan’s body several times.
After all, with only two hands and one sword, he couldn’t block all attacks coming from every direction while restricting his power and speed to knight level.
If he were a master like Haram, it would be different.
“Urk…”
But there was no need to even try blocking such attacks.
He felt a large pirate’s full-strength thrust at his exposed neck slide off without even piercing the skin.
Several more afterward slashed and stabbed at his shoulders, chest, and back, but none of their attacks were effective.
A noble’s body wasn’t fragile enough to be pierced just because ordinary people swung sharp metal.
Even without the guardian magical device, it probably wouldn’t have been much different.
After about three minutes had passed, Turan realized he was the only person standing on the deck.
Only low groans and pain-filled screams echoed across the blood-soaked deck.
“Aaaaah!”
“M-mommy, I’m cold, mommy-”
“Please spare me…”
Looking down at the fallen pirates, he threw the ice longsword to the ground, just as several grappling hooks clanked onto the deck.
Because the two ships had crossed after he jumped ahead, the Blue Marlin had to circle around once to catch up to the pirate ship.
Captain Pires, who skillfully walked across the rope maintaining balance, clicked his tongue looking around the pirate ship’s deck.
“It’s finished, Captain.”
“So it seems. This is, well…”
Pires wore an expression like he wanted to say many things but couldn’t find the words.
Presumably suspecting whether Turan might not be just a knight.
But unlike him, the sailors approaching from behind all shouted something incomprehensible, filled with excitement.
“You-you’re amazing! Long live Sir Knight!”
“Woooooah!”
“You bastards! Serves you right!”
Some sailors, unable to contain their joy, kicked fallen pirate corpses and fell over.
Then, one sailor spoke looking at Turan’s appearance.
“But shouldn’t you see the ship’s doctor first?”
“Right! No, since it might be hard to move, let’s call the old doctor here!”
The sailors had reason to make such a fuss, as Turan was covered in blood with clothes torn in places, looking quite injured.
Turan smiled and shook his head.
“No need to worry. I’m not injured anywhere. This is all the pirates’ blood.”
“Is that really true?”
“My goodness…”
“As expected of a divine descendant.”
Actually, an ordinary knight’s skin would have been cut when stabbed with bare flesh.
If it hit a vital point like the eyes, it could have been a fatal blow.
Of course, the sailors didn’t know such details, so they just remarked how amazing knights were.
“Then may I go in and rest first, Captain?”
“Of course. Boatswain!”
“Yes! You maggots, clear the deck first! Throw them all overboard, whether alive or dead!”
Boatswain Lenak shouted with a red face while laughing.
* * *
While the sailors handled cleanup, Turan returned to the Blue Marlin, removed his ruined clothes and washed himself.
It was convenient that with only men aboard, there was nothing to mind even on deck.
“Could I borrow some spare clothes?”
“Here! But they might smell a bit, is that alright…”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Though Turan had particularly good smell due to his bloodline traits, he wasn’t especially sensitive to bad odors.
Since the sense of smell quickly fatigues anyway, unfamiliar smells become familiar soon after first noticing them.
If not for that, he wouldn’t have stayed in such a beggar-like state until first staying in Orem City.
“Whew…”
After washing and changing into sweaty sailor clothes, Turan put his blood-soaked original clothes in his cabin.
With Asiz’s magic, the clothes would return to normal before long.
Looking at the current state, probably in a few hours.
Coming up to deck, Captain Pires had already returned to the Blue Marlin.
“We’re still searching, but for now that ship appears to be a merchant ship that went missing from Abacha years ago. Seems the pirates captured and were using it.”
“I see.”
“Would it be better to sell it?”
When Turan made an expression asking what he meant, Pires smiled and said.
“Since you finished the fight alone, the ship’s ownership belongs entirely to you.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, such a ship must be worth no small amount, but though it barely counted as a fight, his head wasn’t working properly for a moment after the clash.
“What’s usually done?”
“You could return to Abacha and demand compensation for returning it to the original owner, or sell it in the Enril Desert… but I think it’s better to just sell it at an island on our current route. The North Sea Archipelago always needs sailing ships. Original goods are most expensive where they’re needed.”
The North Sea Archipelago was, as the name suggested, islands scattered in the middle of the North Sea, also serving as trade intermediaries between the world’s northwest, central, and northeast regions.
The Blue Marlin was also planning to stop at one of these North Sea Archipelago islands soon to resupply food and water.
Captain Pires spoke with a somewhat troubled expression.
“But you see, moving a ship that size requires quite a lot of manpower…”
“So you need transport fees. How much should I give?”
Pires blinked his one eye with an “eh.”
He apparently hadn’t expected Turan to agree so readily.
“It’s not like I can drag that ship alone anyway. If using people, I should pay them.”
Having learned about sailing ships over the past week, he knew moving a ship that size wasn’t easy.
Though they said they assigned plenty of sailors in case of deaths during rough voyages, operating another ship of similar size couldn’t be easy.
The work would probably double and watch duties would double too, so how could they be worked without any compensation?
“In that case, about one-tenth of the profits…”
“Two-tenths. Can I leave the sale entirely to you too?”
“How could I refuse! I have quite a few contacts there so I’ll make sure to get a good price.”
Watching Captain Pires’s delighted expression, Turan suddenly realized a new problem had arisen.
His backpack was already about to burst with gold coins, so how would he store money from selling a sailing ship?
He would probably need to buy something expensive but small at the island they stopped at.
If such things were for sale, that is.
Shortly after, the sailors cheered and shouted hurrah toward Turan again at something Captain Pires said.
He had probably encouraged them saying this knight would give them some of the ship sale money so work hard.
Though Turan alone had fought, while celebrating the victory and even passing around drinks, for some reason suddenly there was a commotion on the pirate ship connected by ropes.
One sailor shouted with a shocked expression.
“Captain! Merfolk, there’s merfolk!”
“What? Merfolk are attacking too? Where?”
Captain Pires shouted in surprise.
After being fine for the past week, getting hit by pirates and merfolk in succession seemed too much.
But the sailor’s following words revealed it wasn’t what he thought.
“N-no, that’s not it… the pirates were keeping merfolk captive. Under the ship!”
* * *
When Turan returned to the pirate ship, Boatswain Lenak was stripping and shaking down his subordinates who had gone below.
He said they had to search this way since those sent to search the pirate ship’s interior might secretly hide valuable items on their bodies.
It was quite an ordeal in the North Sea’s early winter weather, but no one complained.
How dare they complain when someone might steal from the knight who had just slaughtered seventy pirates?
“So, there’s merfolk inside?”
“Yes. I haven’t gone in yet myself, just received the report.”
“Well done. Lord Turan, shall we go in?”
“Let’s.”
Of course, if merfolk really existed, their ownership would also belong to Turan.
Entering the cabin below deck, Turan asked Pires.
“By the way, do merfolk sell for high prices?”
“I hear beautiful female merfolk sell for enormous prices. Rich people who seek rare things go crazy for them.”
Turan recalled the characteristics of merfolk he had read about in books.
They sing among reefs to lure ships, then sink them to eat people, wasn’t it?
Was it really because their voices were that good, or did they have some special power to enchant people?
Now he would find out directly.
“This way.”
Clank, coming down to the ship’s bottom, Turan widened his eyes in surprise at the sight before him.
The merfolk the sailors mentioned had the appearance of a young boy who looked only thirteen or fourteen years old.
Beside him, Pires clicked his tongue.
“It’s male? Male ones probably sell for dirt cheap. Unless it’s one of those legendary royalty that can transform into fish…”
Then, hearing Pires’s words, the merboy shouted in anger.
“How dare you! Male, you say! I am Prince Arma, forty-seventh prince of North Estadale! Show proper respect, land dweller!”
Indeed, the merboy’s voice was more beautiful than any human voice Turan had ever heard.
Like the background instruments played during theater performances, one might say.
But more surprising than the voice was the content of his words.
“…Is he saying he’s royalty?”
“Seems so. Though he might be bluffing thinking we’ll spare him and sell him instead of killing him.”
Seeing how the pirates kept a male merfolk that wouldn’t fetch money, it might be true, Pires said with a serious expression.
“Can you transform into a fish, mer-prince?”
“Th-that I cannot!”
“Why?”
“Well, being tied up out of water like this… I need to enter the sea in perfect condition to transform.”
Turan and Pires could feel their thoughts align without speaking.
This kid was trying tricks to escape.
“What shall we do?”
“Merfolk quite often eat people too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll kill him. He won’t fetch money anyway.”
“But if he’s real it would be such a waste…”
“We can’t let him go to verify. If he won’t transform he won’t sell anyway.”
Turan immediately reached toward the merboy.
Since he looked like a child outwardly, it seemed better to give him a painless instant death.
Sensing danger, the merboy backed away and shouted.
“I-I’ve never eaten humans before! And I don’t plan to! If you spare me I’ll give you treasure!”
“Treasure?”
When Turan paused, the merboy, Arma’s face brightened.
“Yes, treasure! Left behind by the Frea gods you serve!”