Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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With one strike that crushed the masu’s head, Turan approached Keorn while holding the sling.
In fact, deciding to help this knight was quite a risk for Turan.
If Keorn returned to his house and reported that there was a useful young slave here, he would have to flee immediately.
Yet he stepped forward because protecting a guest was his duty as lord of the Hisaril hills, and because the old knight had shown respect and courtesy as a guest.
“Are you alright?”
But for some reason, Keorn was watching the fallen leopard masu with its shattered head rather than Turan.
“Be careful!”
There was no need to ask what he meant.
Because the leopard masu suddenly raised its headless body and lunged at Turan.
A flickering pale green light rose up to replace the head that had originally had a hole and was now completely crushed.
Fortunately, thanks to the warning, Turan was able to create distance by kicking away the masu’s lunging body.
The strongly kicked masu rolled several dozen meters, but didn’t seem to take much damage.
“You can’t kill a revenant with physical attacks!”
“Then how do we kill it?”
“With fire or lightning!”
Hearing the advice, Turan immediately tried to set fire to the masu’s body, but like before, sparks flew and the flames that were about to rise flickered out helplessly.
Seeing this, Keorn could finally confirm that Turan was the one who had killed the masu.
It was basic knowledge for magicians that directly applying magical power to other magical creatures required proper causality, yet the young shepherd before him showed no sign of knowing such principles.
Naturally, he wouldn’t have known about the principle of needing to disperse a dead masu’s magic power either.
“Don’t light the fire, create and shoot it!”
Even as he advised this, Keorn thought Turan would find it difficult.
While lighting flames was something even young magicians could do instinctively, directly controlling them was a skill that required separate training.
Just as he worried, flames rose above Turan’s hand, spun around it, and shot toward the masu as if imbued with centrifugal force.
He had simply applied the principle of his most familiar attack method – stone throwing.
[■□■□■□■–]
As the flying flames caught on its spirit body, the masu screamed and rolled on the ground.
It seemed to be trying to extinguish the flames by rubbing against the ground, but the magical fire burned endlessly, consuming its master’s magic power.
Contrary to how Keorn’s attacks had no effect, this meant Turan’s magic power was clearly superior to the opponent’s.
Turan maintained intense concentration while continuously feeding power to keep the flames burning on the masu’s body.
After about thirty seconds, the spirit body enveloping the masu screamed and its body instantly burned away.
Turan and Keorn both sighed in relief.
“Is it really over now?”
“Yes… first absorb the magic power. Unless you want to meet another revenant.”
The method of absorbing magic power wasn’t very difficult.
Just extend your hand over the corpse and imagine drawing in something invisible.
That alone caused an aura of the same color as the spirit body from earlier to flow out and seep into his body.
Turan shuddered at this sensation he’d never felt before.
The feeling of something steadily accumulating inside his body, transforming him into a stronger and more alien being than before.
The eerie pleasure made his whole body break out in goosebumps.
“Is this really your first time absorbing magic power?”
“Yes.”
“Hard to believe…”
Originally, magic power slowly grows with age after first awakening, but unless you kill and absorb other masu or magicians, that growth isn’t very high.
Then doesn’t this mean his current ability was purely from innate power?
Considering that the limit of growth through magic absorption is proportional to innate magic power, his potential was clearly extraordinary.
Newly realizing this fact, Keorn lightly cleared his throat before asking politely.
“I’ve been quite rude, young master. May I ask which house you belong to?”
Turan felt uncomfortable with Keorn’s respectful attitude.
Though he couldn’t explain exactly why… he didn’t want to see this old knight lower himself like this.
“Let’s tend to your wounds first before talking.”
Keorn was still bleeding from above his eyebrow where the claws had scratched him.
* * *
“Ugh…”
After applying herb juice with hemostatic effects to his head and wrapping it with bandages – actually closer to well-washed cloth strips – Keorn groaned softly.
Since Turan’s house had herbs and bandages prepared for injuries, he was able to provide decent first aid.
It would have been nice to instantly heal it with magic, but from past experience trying to heal his mother’s bruises, healing others’ wounds consumed an excessive amount of magic power.
Probably even if Turan used all his magic power, he could barely heal about half of the torn scalp.
“I apologize greatly, young master. To make someone of your status do such things.”
“As I’ve said many times, I’m not someone of status. Just a shepherd who doesn’t even know who his father is.”
Pressing his meaning firmly into his gaze – to stop treating him that way – Turan glared at the old knight.
After a brief staring contest, Keorn shook his head as if unable to bear it.
“Alright, alright… stop looking at me like that.”
Turan also smiled slightly at this response.
“But why is a powerful magician like you working as a shepherd in a place like this? I don’t mean to disparage shepherding, but it doesn’t seem to suit you.”
A question that seemed like the reverse of when he had asked yesterday why someone like you was hunting masu in a place like this.
Turan couldn’t answer like Keorn had, saying he took pride in shepherding.
“It’s a bit of a long story.”
Turan calmly shared his childhood experiences.
About discovering magic, about the frightening nobles his mother told him about…
After hearing it all, Keorn nodded.
“She was wise.”
“You think so?”
Finding this somewhat unexpected, Turan raised his eyebrows slightly.
He had thought Keorn, who took pride in his status, would say Turan’s mother was too fearful and that the world below wasn’t quite such a hell.
“Twenty some years ago, the Arabion house I served fought a war with the great house of Jahar. At that time, over 900 of Arabion’s 3,000 knights died.”
“Almost a third died.”
“The truly unlucky thing was that everyone I knew was included in that third. My two best friends, my wife, my son all died. Only I survived.”
Keorn’s face held an emotion difficult to describe as he said this.
Turan couldn’t dare measure his sorrow.
He could only guess it was as painful as, or perhaps even more than, when he lost his mother.
After a long silence, Keorn brightened his expression and changed the subject.
“As your mother said, a knight’s life sometimes disappears more easily and meaninglessly than commoners’. But if there’s one thing she was wrong about, it’s that your talent isn’t merely at a knight’s level.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s embarrassing to say in this state, but I’m quite a capable knight. Yet you easily defeated a masu that even I had trouble facing. And that’s without properly absorbing magic power.”
Taking a breath while drinking sheep’s milk, Keorn declared.
“That level of ability would make you at least a high-ranking noble.”
This didn’t feel quite real to Turan.
Perhaps because he had lived so long being judged as having knight-level talent by his mother.
He even thought maybe Keorn was overestimating him too much.
“Mother said my father was a knight – was that a lie?”
“Just as tall people don’t always have tall children, there are always exceptions. Rarely, nobles might have children weaker than knights, or knights might have children with noble-level magic ability.”
Turan thought of the villagers, particularly the carpenter’s family.
The first son of the short carpenter couple was short like his parents, but the second was quite tall.
Of course, that second son’s face did look remarkably similar to one of the villagers, a large woodcutter…
“In that sense, I think it would be better for you to go down below the hills.”
“Why?”
“Because we humans need more nobles and knights. Humans aren’t yet complete masters of the world. Not only masu, but various other races that were driven away by the gods long ago are watching for chances to rise again. Meanwhile, nobles just wage war against each other. We desperately need even one more noble who is strong and good like you.”
Other races…
Beings that appeared only a few times in old stories his mother told, seeming as fantastical to Turan as gods or demons.
Though he wasn’t sure, they seemed to be considered real threats in the world below.
“Besides, it’s sad to see a talented young person wasting their life here. You’re not satisfied living as a shepherd, are you?”
Perhaps remembering how Turan hadn’t properly answered earlier when asked why he worked as a shepherd.
After a moment of silence, Turan nodded in agreement.
“What your mother worried about isn’t a big concern. While ordinary knights might be different, even great houses show at least minimal respect to fellow nobles. Especially for a powerful noble like you.”
“So I don’t need to worry about being forcibly taken by some house.”
“While nothing in the world is certain…”
Various thoughts crossed Turan’s mind.
The desire to believe what Keorn said, and the fear of nobles that hadn’t disappeared despite being nurtured lifelong.
The two emotions were in stark opposition.
While he was deep in thought, Keorn sat on the bed wrapped in bandages, patiently waiting.
After several dozen minutes, Turan quietly asked.
“What could I gain down there?”
Reading the will to venture into the world contained in those words, Keorn smiled and answered.
“It depends on what you want. Wealth, fame, power, or perhaps family and friendship… any of those would be hard to obtain here.”
Keorn suggested various things Turan could do in the world below.
Wandering the world defeating threatening masu like himself, becoming an explorer of unknown lands humanity hadn’t yet pioneered, or being adopted by a house and walking the path of power…
One thing was certain – any of those seemed more interesting than herding sheep on the Hisaril hills.
“Come to think of it, I forgot to ask earlier – do you have any bloodline abilities? I should have asked this first.”
“Bloodline abilities?”
When Turan asked about this unfamiliar term, Keorn clicked his tongue in realization.
He still wasn’t used to the fact that this young shepherd was ignorant about the magical world.
“Do you know that our magical power originates from our ancestors, the Prea divine race?”
“I heard about it from mother.”
“Nobles, being closer to the Prea divine race, inherit some characteristics of their divine ancestors. The presence or absence of these bloodline abilities is also what distinguishes nobles from knights. Houses tend to gather those with the same bloodline abilities.”
“How can you tell if you have bloodline abilities?”
“Have you ever felt that certain magic is particularly easy and simple to use, or conversely, found certain magic difficult? Or perhaps you naturally have abilities superior to others even without using magic?”
“It’s not just being stronger than others?”
“Magicians become physically stronger just from having magic power. The desire to become faster, stronger, and tougher is a natural instinct all animals have. While great strength is also a bloodline ability, I don’t think your strength is at that level.”
At Keorn’s words, Turan fell into thought.
Among his abilities, what stood out particularly…
“I have a good nose. My eyes and ears are better than others too, but that seems to stand out most.”
He was especially adept at smelling blood, to the point where he could roughly identify what creature was bleeding just from the smell.
Hearing this, Keorn nodded.
“Exceptional sense of smell… if it’s that precise, it’s sufficient to be considered a bloodline ability. And?”
“I’m good at throwing stones. Though that’s because mother taught me since I was young.”
Turan had learned stone throwing from his mother since he was five years old.
It was the most effective way for an ordinary shepherd to deal with their most dangerous enemies – wolves and leopards.
Plus, as he had felt recently, he noticed that using magic power to throw stones consumed particularly little energy.
“Proficiency with projectile weapons. That’s one of the characteristics of our Arabion house. Though I’m not sure if it’s at bloodline ability level.”
“Is that so?”
“Actually, this is quite a common trait. Being skilled with projectiles, skilled in close combat, or moderately good at both. It broadly falls into these three categories.”
Afterward, Turan and Keorn continued their question and answer session, classifying what he was particularly good at and what he wasn’t.
But for some reason, Keorn’s face grew darker as their conversation continued.
This expression became increasingly pronounced, until after their final exchange he wore an almost lamenting expression.
“I think I understand.”
“What is it?”
For some reason, Keorn didn’t immediately answer Turan’s question.
After hesitating several times, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
“There are several possibilities… but the characteristics of the Jahar bloodline are most prominent. Also called the Pursuers, or Hunters.”
Jahar – as Turan rolled that name in his mouth, he thought it felt strangely familiar.
Why would it, when he had never heard stories about magician houses from his mother?
Looking at Keorn’s gloomy face, he could understand why.
Jahar was the name of the house that had warred with Keorn’s House Arabion and massacred all his friends and family.