Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Sometimes in life, we encounter awkward situations where it’s hard to know what to say.
That’s exactly how Turan felt now.
Should he apologize for being born with the same bloodline as their enemies?
Even though it was done by relatives he had never seen in his life?
Yet simply saying he knew nothing about it felt too shameless.
After all, his innate powerful magical ability itself originated from that bloodline.
Wouldn’t it be like insisting on inheriting only the good parts of ancestral legacy while denying responsibility for the bad…
How long did this terribly long silence continue?
Keorn patted Turan’s shoulder with a thump.
“Don’t look so mortified! It’s not like you participated in that war, right?”
Turan wanted to say that Keorn was the one making a mortified expression, but finding it difficult to voice this, he just silently nodded.
“It’s meaningless for young people like you to get caught up in adults’ circumstances. If we keep trying to wash blood with blood, the fighting will never end. And it’s ordinary people who suffer.”
Even as he said this, the bitter look on Keorn’s face hadn’t completely faded.
Turan quietly asked him.
“Do you regret it?”
“What?”
“Telling me to go down below the hills.”
If Turan pursued power, he would inevitably join House Jahar.
After all, he had said that only those with the same bloodline abilities could become core members of noble houses.
This could potentially be a fatal blow to House Arabion that Keorn had served.
Naturally, since a powerful magician would suddenly join their hostile faction that they had even gone to war with.
To Turan’s observation, Keorn shook his head.
“I believe in your character. Your goodness in properly hosting an unknown guest and trying to help me even to the point of revealing your hidden identity. Rather, if someone like you joins House Jahar, and rises to a position to lead the house, perhaps you could prevent such terrible wars from happening again…”
Turan thought Keorn was viewing him as too good a person.
He had treated Keorn well because his mother had taught him to do so, and because he was hungry for conversation with someone who wasn’t hostile.
He helped Keorn in crisis simply because he didn’t want someone he had pleasant conversations with to die.
If Keorn had treated Turan curtly, he wouldn’t have cared whether he lived or died.
As Turan silently stared at the floor lost in thought, Keorn shook his head and said.
“Well, no need to think so seriously about it. You haven’t decided to join House Jahar anyway.”
“That’s true.”
Actually, wandering around hunting masu like Keorn was doing seemed more appealing right now.
Being bound somewhere didn’t appeal much, and this way he could see more of the world.
Plus, after hearing the story, he had developed a vague antipathy toward House Jahar.
“Anyway, I plan to stay here until your wounds heal. I’ll think about it slowly.”
“Calling it wounds makes it sound too grand. It’s just a few scratches!”
Keorn laughed heartily.
* * *
While Keorn recovered from his injuries, Turan decided to properly learn magical knowledge from him.
Having only wielded his power recklessly without any training, there was much he needed to learn.
“Magic power, mana, is commonly called the key to omnipotence.”
“The key to omnipotence…”
“But it’s not truly omnipotent as the name suggests. More precisely, it requires appropriate mana as payment to cause such events. You must have experienced this.”
“What are the standards for appropriate mana?”
This was something he had always wondered about while using magic.
At Turan’s question, Keorn lightly cleared his throat and held up three fingers.
“The difficulty of magic is determined by three main factors. First is bloodline, second is personality, and third is causality.”
Bloodline, personality, causality.
Turan sat quietly, engraving these three words in his mind.
“First, bloodline simply means being affected by innate bloodline abilities. Therefore, it doesn’t apply to knights. For example… isn’t it difficult for you to heal my wounds?”
“Yes.”
“The Lavitas bloodline in the southwest continent, also called the Healer bloodline, can naturally use healing magic without special training. Those born with strong power can even reattach severed limbs and cure all kinds of diseases. In contrast, other bloodlines find it nearly impossible to gain such abilities no matter how hard they try. That’s such a case.”
The moment he heard this, Turan thought of his mother.
If he had been born with that bloodline’s power, she wouldn’t have died from illness…
But knowing such thoughts were meaningless now, Turan lightly bit his lip and let go of his lingering attachment.
“Then what does the second factor, personality, mean?”
“Also called proficiency, it’s the concept that magicians can more easily perform tasks they prefer or are familiar with. A magician who often swings a sword finds it easier to create invisible swords or enhance existing ones, while one who enjoys playing in water finds it easier to move in water using magic.”
“Does how I threw the fireball like throwing stones count as that?”
“Clever. That’s correct. If you had shot the fireball normally, it probably wouldn’t have had that speed and power.”
Having experienced it once already, Turan could easily understand his words.
Smiling contentedly as if looking at a wise student, Keorn suddenly frowned.
“The third factor, causality, is most important, but it’s quite complex. Actually, even I don’t fully understand it. It’s the concept that ‘natural’ events occur more easily…”
As if wondering how to explain, Keorn stroked his chin for a while before beginning his explanation.
“What would happen if you tried to kill me using mana?”
“Probably light would flash from my head and that would be it?”
Turan recalled what had happened recently when trying to use magic on the masu.
“Right. That’s exactly what happens due to lack of causality. When there’s no appropriate cause for the desired effect, and when what needs to be accomplished is too difficult. It applies to both cases.”
“I think I understand something about cause.”
“Can you explain?”
“Yes. For example, if I wanted to kill you, rather than just vaguely consuming mana to wish for death, I should create a cause of death like making and shooting a fireball? It’s considered more ‘natural’ to create and shoot fire than to directly ignite it?”
This was something he had guessed from his experience fighting the dead masu – the revenant – earlier.
At Turan’s words, Keorn clapped with an impressed expression.
“Exactly! You could have been a scholar rather than a magician. Your understanding is very quick. As you said, forming proper causality can dramatically reduce mana consumption.”
“But why can I freely kill and control ordinary wolves and sheep, while only masu specifically need this?”
Since using magic on other animals wasn’t usually difficult, Turan would simply cast magic when dealing with dangerous animals.
He had first experienced this magic resistance phenomenon when facing the masu.
“Creatures with mana gain resistance to magic proportional to their mana amount. However, when moving and making contact with already completed magic, that resistance can be significantly offset. Of course, if the gap is too large, magic might still not work even then.”
He said this was also the principle behind why Keorn’s magic barely affected it while Turan’s flames immediately burned the revenant.
Meaning it would be nearly impossible to directly cast magic on magicians too.
After listening to explanations for quite a while, Turan started feeling a headache and firmly massaged his temples with his thumb.
“Magic really isn’t easy.”
“A great magician isn’t made by strong mana alone. Understanding magical principles and knowing what you can do is important, as well as knowing how to use surrounding circumstances.”
Turan closed his eyes and reviewed what he had just learned from Keorn several times.
Doing so, he realized there was something he hadn’t heard.
“Come to think of it, does the Jahar bloodline have special magic too?”
The innate characteristics of Jahar that Keorn had pointed out were just an extremely keen sense of smell and night vision, and talent for easily hitting targets with projectiles – none of these were related to magical abilities.
At Turan’s question, Keorn nodded.
“Yes. Jahar magicians excel at concealment and tracking. Have you ever used such magic?”
“I’ve tried tracking a few times. Never concealment.”
He had used magic to find things a few times to check if his mother was safe, or to find and kill wolves prowling around the hills.
Even discovering and saving Keorn in crisis just now was with the help of that magic.
In contrast, he had never tried magic to hide himself, naturally because there had never been any need for Turan to hide from anyone on these hills.
“Try it. While quite a few magicians can use invisibility magic depending on their aptitude, the highest level of concealment that completely escapes detection is an ability allowed only to the Jahar bloodline.”
Turan immediately concentrated and thought.
I don’t want to be seen by others, I don’t want to be heard or smelled…
The moment he thought this, his internal mana immediately began rapidly depleting.
Looking down at his hands and body, nothing had changed.
“Did it work?”
Instead of answering Turan’s question, Keorn looked in his direction with slightly unfocused eyes and said.
“You succeeded. I can’t see you. Are you still there?”
Turan stood up from his chair and slowly walked around the room, but Keorn continued staring blankly at where Turan had originally been sitting.
He seemed unable to hear anything even when Turan stomped on the floor or lightly snapped his fingers.
After confirming this, when he cut off the depleting mana, Keorn’s eyes widened as he stared at Turan.
A moment later, he exhaled deeply as if tension had been released.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but it’s still a frightening ability… During the war, Arabion’s knights hoped night wouldn’t come. Because after one night passed, those sleeping in the barracks would often all be found with their throats cut.”
“This… seems like too unfair an ability.”
It was a terrifying magic incomparable to the healing ability he had wanted earlier.
How could you fight an opponent you couldn’t even detect?
At Turan’s words, Keorn shook his head in denial.
“It’s not quite an invincible ability. There are a few top-tier magical artifacts that can detect even Jahar’s concealment ability, and methods like brightly illuminating the surroundings to increase mana consumption or indiscriminately bombing the area. Of course, even considering that, it’s such a powerful ability that Jahar became a great house.”
The only real drawback was high mana consumption, but this could be solved by hunting enough masu to increase mana capacity.
Plus, mana consumption would decrease as one became more familiar with concealment.
“Anyway, that’s enough theory. Now I’ll teach you a few simple training methods…”
* * *
During the three days it took for Keorn’s wounds to heal, Turan learned many things besides magic.
These included the general shape of the world – though not very accurate since there was much Keorn didn’t know – the names and locations of powerful magical houses, and basic knowledge needed for traveling.
And finally, on the morning they decided to leave.
Turan packed some preserved food, a few changes of clothes, simple cooking utensils, and his mother’s keepsakes in a leather backpack and left the house.
Keorn, who had come out earlier to bask in the sunlight, said to him.
“You look quite troubled.”
“Well, I am leaving the place I’ve lived all my life.”
“Don’t think too heavily about it. If you really don’t like wandering, you can always come back.”
At Keorn’s words, Turan smiled bitterly and shook his head.
No matter how much he disliked the world below, he wouldn’t return to this wearisome place.
Perhaps he might find another place of seclusion instead.
After descending the hills together, Turan first went to the village chief to say he would sell all the sheep remaining in the hillside barn.
Hearing this, the chief exclaimed in surprise.
“Sell the sheep and leave? Then who will do the shepherding from now on?”
“That’s for you to figure out. Anyway, I’d like a reasonable price. If not, I’ll just go back, release them all, and leave. You’re free to catch them again, but it’ll probably be quite troublesome.”
Very fortunately, instead of getting into a power struggle with Turan, the chief offered a fairly decent price.
Probably thanks to the consistency Turan had shown to the villagers over time.
He was someone who would really break an arm if he said he would break it, and really crack a head if he said he would crack it.
While leaving the village, jingling the purse of silver coins a few times, Turan said to Keorn.
“Meanwhile, those village bastards cheated you out of your reward. Should I go get it?”
“I wasn’t planning to collect it anyway. The masu became a revenant so there’s no evidence to bring back. Besides, you’re the one who actually caught it.”
Keorn just laughed even though the chief had withheld the promised reward.
Well, he probably wasn’t short on money with his retirement payment from his house still plentiful in his possession.
He had come to hunt masu as a kind of volunteer work in the first place.
As they chatted and left the village, going down and further down, they came to a fork in the road.
Turan said in a somewhat subdued voice.
“We part ways here then.”
“That’s right. Since you’re heading south, take the right path.”
Turan wanted to travel with Keorn, but Keorn had refused to travel together.
Saying it was more convenient to travel alone.
Though Turan felt disappointed inside, he didn’t express it.
“Well then, take care, Turan. I hope we can meet again with smiling faces.”
“Thank you, sir. I learned a lot.”
After exchanging farewells, Keorn set off down the left path without looking back once.
Watching this quietly, Turan finally realized why he hadn’t wanted to receive formal speech from that old knight.
Though he had never lacked affection from his mother, Turan had internally yearned for a father figure.
Someone gentle and warm who could be an example of what kind of man he should grow up to be…
After watching the north until Keorn’s figure disappeared from view, Turan slowly turned his steps southward.
An unknown world was waiting for him.