Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

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Dozens of minutes after landing on Miguel Island, Captain Pires secretly sent several sailors to get a small boat.

As requested, just big enough for two people.

Turan boarded the small boat with Armani, whose merman features were hidden by cloth wrapped around his entire body.

“The moon! How long has it been since I’ve seen this!”

Armani muttered looking at the full moon in the sky after boarding.

Even he didn’t know how long he had been trapped in the pirate ship’s hold.

No sunlight or moonlight entered the ship’s hold.

He could only guess it had been a month or two based on the amount of food eaten and time spent sleeping.

“Huh? Looks like Sir Knight is going somewhere…”

“He said he has some business to attend to. He’ll be back soon, so don’t worry about it!”

Though several sailors were surprised to see Turan boarding the small boat with Armani, when Captain Pires cut them off, everyone soon lost interest.

They thought he surely wouldn’t leave alone in such a tiny boat, unlike boarding another large sailing ship.

“More importantly, are preparations for landing complete?”

“Of course!”

“Good. Tonight, enjoy yourselves at taverns or wherever you like! Anyone not gathering tomorrow should be prepared for whipping!”

“Wow!”

Leaving behind the sailors’ cheers following Captain Pires’s orders, Turan connected the merman’s arms and legs to the boat with chains he had prepared.

Armani complied quietly while asking as if confirming:

“You’ll really release me if there’s treasure there, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not my fault even if it turns out to be a useless item.”

“I understand, so just guide us well.”

Shortly after, the small boat carrying the two began advancing through the dark sea.

At first Turan used magic as if just moving the boat with force, but changed his approach partway through.

The key was designating the seawater around the boat rather than the boat itself as the target of force.

By pushing aside water in front while simultaneously pushing the boat with water behind and beside it, it took much less effort and the boat moved smoothly.

Actually trying it, moving such a small boat with magic wasn’t bad.

Though it wouldn’t be suitable for long-distance travel given various problems.

“But how do you plan to return without me? You won’t be able to find the way.”

“Are you worried about me?”

“No, I’m worried you won’t release me because of that.”

“Don’t worry, I have something in mind.”

Turan took out a small compass from his chest.

According to this item received from Captain Pires in advance, they were moving slightly south of west.

To return, they would need to head slightly north of east similarly.

Though there would be some error, he could look around within a radius of over ten kilometers with detection spells.

Well, if they still got lost… heading southwest continuously would eventually reach land.

Probably.

“I want to jump in…”

“Endure it.”

Turan lightly scolded Armani who was looking down at the sea complainingly while focusing on the boat’s movement.

After driving the small boat for what felt like an hour to an hour and a half.

Something gradually began appearing ahead.

An island that seemed uninhabited, incomparably smaller than Miguel Island where they had been earlier.

“Is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then wait a moment.”

Before landing, Turan stopped the boat and used a detection spell while scooping up a handful of seawater.

Using smell as the sense, merfolk as the detection target.

Even after scooping water three or four times and smelling it with eyes closed, he sensed nothing.

Meaning at least he hadn’t been tricked and led to a merfolk stronghold.

Watching Turan do this, Armani tilted his head.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking.”

What had surprised Turan when first using detection spells underwater was the lack of usable senses.

Smell was meaningless since water would just make his nose run, and vision and hearing had much shorter range than on land due to water interference.

In contrast, this method of scooping water to smell made it hard to determine exact location but easy to confirm presence of targets.

Even now, changing detection targets to whales or sharks immediately produced strange smells.

Anyway, having confirmed safety there was no need to hesitate.

They stopped the boat at a suitable shore and went inland on the uninhabited island.

The merboy looked around as if searching here and there while speaking.

“I think it was somewhere around here…”

According to conversations over the past few days, this island was like Armani’s secret villa.

Sometimes when life in the mer community – or mer kingdom in their words – felt too stifling, he would come up for walks?

During that, he happened to discover it in an undersea cave inside the island.

It was quite tragicomic that he got caught on pirates’ fishing hooks not far into swimming back to report to his father the king.

“Found it! Here!”

Just then, Armani shouted pointing at a small pond.

“There?”

“Yes. We need to go inside… can you breathe underwater?”

“No.”

Though Karmaine bloodline nobles might be able to breathe underwater, that ability wasn’t granted to Turan.

“It’s not too deep, right?”

“About a hundred meters.”

“Alright, that should be doable. Wait here.”

Turan tightly bound Armani to a nearby tree with chains from the boat.

The merboy who had been quietly waiting suddenly shouted.

“W-wait!”

“What?”

“What if you suffocate and die in there? Won’t I starve to death here?”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. For both our sakes.”

After confirming perfect restraint, Turan stripped off all clothes except the guardian bracelet and underwear, then fastened the dagger to his belt.

Taking a deep breath until his slim stomach swelled, he dove into the pond.

First creating a thin membrane to keep water from touching his eyes to secure vision, then pulling his body through the water using the same technique as when driving the boat.

By feel, he could maintain this state easily for twenty to thirty minutes.

‘Now then…’

Scanning the pond bottom, he soon saw a hole leading down.

That must be the cave connecting to the sea.

Though his ears ached slightly as he descended relying on water’s help, it was quite bearable otherwise.

‘Swimming isn’t bad.’

He thought he should properly learn how to move in water when he had time.

Just mastering such techniques would greatly reduce magic power consumption for underwater movement.

Though he wasn’t sure if he would need to enter water again.

After reaching the bottom and looking around, something came into view.

‘Found it.’

Though pitch black without a point of light in the already dark night sea depths, darkness was no obstacle to Turan with Zahar bloodline.

A huge life form visible in the distance…

Though knowing it wasn’t alive, the monster’s form was enough to make knees tremble involuntarily.

‘Is this the Great Sea Serpent?’

A snake several meters thick and nearly a hundred meters long lay dead coiled about.

So much time had passed that layers of green moss had accumulated, making it look like terrain features unless examined closely.

Moving slowly along its body, the head finally appeared.

With four horns protruding above and densely packed teeth in its wide-open mouth, its form was closer to a lizard.

And one being with a hand deeply embedded in the middle of its skull.

“Ah…”

Turan let out a gasp forgetting he was underwater, releasing bubbles.

Though appearing outwardly like an ordinary human male, he was covered in moss like the Great Sea Serpent.

But amazingly, except for his chest pierced by a broken fang, his body looked perfectly intact without any sign of decay or damage.

Though most of the armor he would have worn seemed to have rotted away unable to withstand time’s passage.

He appeared about thirty years old outwardly and had blue hair as Armani said.

His wide-open eyes looked like they might move any moment except for lacking focus.

And… as Armani said, he looked remarkably like an ordinary human otherwise.

‘Is this being truly of the Frea divine tribe?’

He considered trying an attack with magic power but soon abandoned the thought as too irreverent.

If truly a god that went without saying, and even if just a powerful magician, wasn’t he someone who died fighting the Great Sea Serpent that was humanity’s enemy?

As a descendant, he didn’t want to abandon even minimal respect for ancestors.

‘Come to think of it, why didn’t this person, or being, become a death spirit?’

It was common sense that those with magic power become death spirits when they die.

Yet it was strange that neither of the two who killed each other underwater had become death spirits.

If someone had come first to absorb their magic power, surely they would have retrieved that strange item too.

Was it because they were truly divine beings? Or was there some other reason?

He tried absorption just in case but nothing came back.

If he had gained the power of such beings, he would have become several to dozens of times stronger instantly.

Putting questions aside, Turan firmly committed the man’s face and appearance to memory.

Hair and eye color, facial features, color and shape of the almost completely crumbled armor fragments…

Later he could look for clues by searching if any gods in myths passed down in other regions were recorded with similar appearances.

After spending several minutes perfectly memorizing that appearance, he finally turned attention to his purpose here.

‘Excuse me, but I’ll borrow this, ancestor.’

Though this man’s chances of being Turan’s direct ancestor weren’t high whether god or magician, Turan showed such respect before checking his waist.

The unidentified round metal barely hung from a half-rotted belt, gleaming as if it alone had avoided time’s passage.

The question was whether he could take that item out.

Hadn’t Armani said some unknown force pushed his body away when he tried to touch it?

But contrary to his words, the round metal simply allowed Turan’s touch.

‘Hm?’

Then, an alien sensation transmitted through his fingers.

It felt like something extending from the metal was searching for something inside Turan’s body.

After several seconds, suddenly something clicked into place in his mind.

He could instantly sense that through that process just now, this item had become his possession.

‘Does the item examine qualification to be its owner?’

Though half-doubting until just now, he was starting to think this might really be a holy relic.

There were quite a few traditions of great treasures choosing their owners.

After obtaining the item, Turan felt his breath running out and moved back toward where they came.

After swimming hard for about a minute until moonlight became visible, he felt something strange.

‘This is…?’

Though only faint moonlight was visible above the surface, he could sense something was there near the pond’s edge.

A strange sensation difficult to define with any of the five senses…

“Puha…”

“Did you find it? Did you?”

“For now.”

While answering and catching his breath, Turan realized the identity of the sensation he had felt earlier was that merboy looking at him.

Not only that, but he could see something unidentified inside Armani’s body that he saw directly.

A very faint, pale green light that seemed about to go out.

It was faintly spread through Armani’s fin-like ears, gills at his neck, and what appeared to be his heart.

‘What is that?’

The reason for this sudden phenomenon wasn’t hard to guess.

This round metal still tightly gripped in his left hand…

It was clearly a phenomenon caused by something, whether holy relic or magical device.

“What?”

“No, nothing.”

After coming onto land, Turan dispelled all moisture from his body and got dressed.

Then immediately put down the round metal.

‘As expected, it was because of this.’

The moment he separated from the item, the light visible in Armani’s body instantly disappeared and the sense of recognizing his presence could no longer be felt.

For now this item seemed to have two functions.

First was detecting the presence of nearby life forms, and second was detecting something inside life forms’ bodies.

What that something was would need more learning to understand.

“Th-then now…?”

“Yes. I’ll let you go. Leave.”

With just a light gesture, the chains binding Armani came undone with a clank.

Despite being freed, the mer prince showed hesitation instead of immediately jumping into the water.

“Why?”

“N-no… I didn’t expect to be released so easily.”

“Thought I’d catch you again to sell after getting this?”

“To be honest, yes.”

“I promised.”

Though man-eating non-humans deserved death, he didn’t particularly want to kill one claiming to have never eaten humans himself.

Moreover, if the other side had properly guided to the item without deception, responding accordingly was the moral view Turan learned from his mother.

Treat others as you wish to be treated.

“Th-thank you, kind demon. If we end up fighting humans later, I’ll ask Father to leave you alone.”

“Stop the nonsense.”

Armani looked back several times before throwing himself into the pond where Turan had dived earlier.

With a splash of water, a small shark could be seen diving deep into the water.

It seems his claim of being mer royalty wasn’t a lie.

Looking back now, he had been honest from start to finish.

‘Well then… time to head back.’

Turan handled the round metal in his hand while walking toward where they had moored the boat.

Finding out what this item was would probably be quite interesting.