Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Discord
One of the common stories encountered in myths is about treasures used by gods.
A staff that creates enough flames to dry up rivers with one swing, armor that even gods cannot harm when worn, a water bottle endlessly producing life elixir that can revive the dead…
Such magical devices of the Frea divine tribe, alternatively called ‘holy relics’, numbered only about dozens in the entire world.
Though not all items were tremendously powerful, some were treasures that even great family heads protected like their lives and tried to pass down through generations.
Yet a mere merman captured by pirates claimed to have such a thing?
“Impressive. If the prince has that much, how amazing must the Mer King’s treasures be?”
Sensing the mocking tone in Turan’s words, the merman’s characteristic blue skin turned purple.
Perhaps similar to how humans’ faces redden with anger or embarrassment.
The self-proclaimed prince, Armani, shouted.
“It’s not a lie! I really found where your god died fighting in some cave! I was going to tell Father and retrieve it, but got caught by you people after being tricked…”
“You found where a god died fighting? Explain in more detail.”
When Turan stared intensely while asking seriously, Armani seemed frightened and stammered.
“H-he had blue hair, and died with his body pierced by a Great Sea Serpent’s fang. He too had pierced the enemy’s head with his hand. Though everything else had decayed with time, only the round metal at his waist remained perfect without a spot of rust, so it must surely be a treasure among treasures.”
“Why didn’t you take the item right away?”
“I couldn’t touch it. When I tried to get close, some unknown force pushed my body away…”
“Why were you certain it was a god?”
“Because among you people, only gods could fight the Great Sea Serpent to mutual death!”
The Great Sea Serpent was a species once worshipped as gods by merfolk, literally giant snakes over dozens of meters long.
Of course, they had long since disappeared into history.
Anyway, maintaining form unchanged underwater in the exact state of fighting what was worshipped as a god?
Whether it was really divine remains or not, if those words were true, something extraordinary definitely existed.
Realizing he had become excited, Turan took a deep breath to calm himself, then calmly reviewed his previous thoughts.
Whether he might have been enchanted by the merman’s voice, if he would make the same judgment with a cool mind.
Organizing his thoughts that way, a question suddenly occurred to him.
“Come to think of it, you said you were caught after being tricked? Exactly how were you caught?”
Hearing this question, Armani suddenly shut his mouth and lowered his head.
Though they were different species, their facial features weren’t very different, so Turan could read the faint shame in his expression.
“W-well, you land dwellers have a method of using trickery to draw out those living in water. Attaching rope to iron hooks.”
“You mean fishing?”
“Yes, that. Usually such things are easy to spot, but in transformed state instinct takes over somewhat…”
So this mer-prince was caught by pirates while transformed into a fish.
Though it sounded absurd, hearing it made some sense.
The pirates probably caught him and locked him up after being shocked to see their caught fish suddenly transform into a merman.
Even ignorant fellows would have heard as sailors that mer-royalty fetched eye-popping prices.
Whether excuse or truth, that was the only reason to keep a male merman who couldn’t even demonstrate fish transformation.
“Did you tell the pirates everything too?”
“I did but they all pretended not to hear. Just said don’t tell ridiculous stories about dead gods’ corpses.”
This was the normal reaction.
While Turan could feel the Frea divine tribe’s existence after meeting the librarian at Orem’s library, to ordinary people gods were literally just mythical beings from scripture.
Even now they were half-doubting whether this merman’s words were just random claims to survive or true, so why risk danger over safe profit?
“What about the sailors who just found you?”
“Didn’t- no, couldn’t tell them. They just saw me and ran out saying there’s a merman.”
Then only he and Captain Pires knew this information.
Looking at him listening with a blank expression, Pires noticed Turan’s gaze and said with a stiff face.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
He seemed to think Turan might kill him to prevent spreading rumors.
Of course, he had no such intention.
Rather than trusting Pires’s character, he trusted his own power.
Though there were quite a few nobles stronger than Turan on land, he was one of the absolute strongest on this sea.
Unless suddenly encountering a powerful noble from the Karmaine family or similar bloodline, that is.
“You don’t need to be so tense. First, I’d like to keep this one alive a bit longer, what do you think?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. If it were, the pirates couldn’t have kept this merman captive.”
Pires expressed his opinion still with a serious expression.
As he said, seeing how mere human pirates had captured him, this merboy clearly had no combat ability.
“Come to think of it, those guys were funny too. They could have gotten rich just selling this merman, yet they kept pirating until losing their lives.”
“Greed is what drives such men. Plus they probably didn’t think there would be not just a knight but a noble on a ship this size.”
Turan tilted his head briefly at Pires’s words before asking back.
“Was I too much?”
“Yes. The others don’t seem to notice since they’ve barely seen knights fight properly, but I know. It’s difficult to be unscathed against that many.”
Why suddenly reveal that he noticed Turan’s identity?
He was clearly pleading that he knew how powerful Turan was, so he had no intention of attempting foolish things like pursuing legendary treasures before him.
When Turan nodded slightly indicating he understood the implication, tension visibly left Pires’s shoulders.
Having reasonably resolved potential conflict, Turan turned his attention back to the merboy.
“Do you know roughly where these divine remains are in the North Sea? If I show you a map?”
Even as he spoke, Turan thought this merman wouldn’t understand what “North Sea” meant.
Surely they had never seen human maps.
But contrary to expectations, Armani tilted his head and readily revealed what he knew.
“Not far. About 500 kilometers south from here?”
“500 kilometers south?”
Turan widened his eyes in surprise at the response.
First, how did someone trapped in a ship’s hold know their location, and second… how could he use human directions and distance units exactly?
When he voiced these questions, the answer was somewhat disappointing.
“I’m not sure. We just always used them. Were these made by you land dwellers?”
“Probably. Did you know this too, Captain?”
“First I’ve heard of it. We don’t usually ask merfolk such things. Those high-born who keep merfolk might know.”
As far as Turan knew, human calendars and units all originated from the old empire.
Perhaps these things were legacies from even before the empire era, when humans were slaves to other races.
Almost no history remained from that era, with nothing to be found even in Orem’s library.
Maybe their use of the same language as humans was related to this too.
“Anyway, 500 kilometers south…”
“That’s not far from Miguel Island. Even considering error, it should be less than 100 kilometers.”
Miguel Island was one of the largest islands in the North Sea Archipelago, where the Blue Marlin would resupply and sell this pirate ship.
Meaning it was within distance to visit if they took some time.
“Let’s keep him confined for now and think about it. I’ll manage him directly since he might spread strange talk.”
After much consideration, Turan decided to postpone his decision.
He knew too little about this merman to decide right now.
* * *
Actually, Turan didn’t entirely believe the words of that merboy, Armani.
After all, their kind were one of the non-human races that enslaved and ate humans in ancient times, like dark elves.
However, what he did believe was the other’s desperation.
A being with intelligence no different from humans would offer anything before their own life.
“Here’s today’s meal.”
“Thank you, kind demon.”
Two days since capturing Armani.
After learning Turan was a magician, and moreover a noble, Armani called him demon.
Come to think of it, hadn’t those dark elf necromancers called Asiz and Turan that too?
When asked what it meant, a strange answer came back.
“Because your ancestors were demons who came from outside and destroyed our perfect world.”
Despite saying such things, Armani naturally gulped down the meals Turan brought without much resistance.
He had worried about catching fish since he was a merman, but fortunately he ate human food well too.
“If you eat these well too, why specifically eat humans?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never eaten humans… Maybe lower ranked kin eat them because they lack food? I’ll ask Father when I return.”
Though no promise of release had been made, Armani spoke as if believing he could naturally return to the mer kingdom.
Whenever hearing such answers, Turan felt complicated feelings.
The boy’s manner and behavior were too human-like to simply dismiss him as a man-eating non-human.
Unlike those dark elves who tried to kill Turan right away.
Afterward, Turan continued various conversations with Armani.
From differences between book-learned merfolk customs and social systems versus reality, to whether the legendary mirror connecting the North and South Sea mer kingdoms really existed, to stories about ancient merfolk myths…
“Ah, speaking of which, how far are we now? From that place.”
“About 65 kilometers west?”
Through conversations over the past few days, he had learned how Armani knew locations – merfolk could instinctively sense direction and position above water.
So they could always find places they had remembered once.
In the midst of being absorbed in such conversation, knocking sounds came from wooden planks above.
“I’ll be back.”
“Have a safe trip!”
Just seeing him wave goodbye, no one would think he was keeping that merman confined in this ship’s hold.
Coming up from the ship’s bottom, First Mate Osban who had transferred to manage the pirate ship greeted him.
“Sir Knight, we’ve arrived at Miguel Island!”
“Already? Should head up soon then.”
“Yes!”
After securely binding the entrance to the hold where Armani was confined with iron chains, Turan went up to the deck.
Beyond the dark night sea, he could see a large island and several sailing ships docked at its pier.
* * *
After two ships docked at the pier, Turan made a few light jumps toward the Blue Marlin.
Captain Pires, whom he hadn’t met for two days while staying on different ships, gave a light greeting before getting to business.
“Well, have you reached a conclusion?”
“Yes.”
What he asked was simple.
Whether to trust the merman’s words and search for the unknown treasure, or just sell him to some powerful figures here.
Instead of answering, Turan asked a question back.
“How long will we stay at this island?”
“Without special circumstances, probably one to two days.”
Letting sailors rest after nine days of sailing was also important.
Though unlikely now with Turan present, it was very common for captains to die in shipboard rebellions from overworking crews, with the survivors turning to piracy.
“Perfect. Could you get me a small boat? Just enough for two people.”
“Surely not?”
“Fortunately it doesn’t seem far from here, so I’ll try going tonight.”