Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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After the huge flames bloomed, the gloomy atmosphere of Kalamaf City changed dramatically.
Whenever citizens gathered, they rejoiced discussing the flames that had decorated the city sky, that majestic sight.
The belief that a powerful being stood firm in the city center, so they wouldn’t be one-sidedly massacred by foreign invaders suddenly attacking one day.
That alone let people feel they were inside a fence and find relief.
But the great magician Turan, who received such worship from all Kalamaf citizens, wasn’t in a particularly good mood.
He had to listen to discussions led by several civil servants including Daruk, and merchants and guild leaders who couldn’t leave due to having too many foundations laid in the city.
“First we must solve firewood and materials to repair houses. Already over dozens have frozen to death this winter.”
“Food is more important! Who cares about firewood when citizens might start eating each other soon?”
Though it seemed questionable why a nineteen-year-old youth should participate in such things, in current Kalamaf any policy without Turan’s involvement was worth no more than beggars’ orders.
Only with his participation listening and permitting could that authority be invested in civil servants to push forward any policy.
The reason civil servants had been listlessly shuffling papers wasn’t because they had nothing to do, but because they who had lost noble backing’s authority had nothing they could do.
“But even if we try importing from villages or other cities, we have no money.”
“Well…”
Just listening briefly to the meeting contents made it easy to guess how terrible the city’s situation was.
Not only were all supplies needed to maintain the city lacking, but wealth and labor to solve this were also insufficient.
This was because most who had those two things had left for other cities.
Now he could understand why nearby noble families hadn’t bothered trying to take over Kalamaf.
It seemed better to wait for the city to completely collapse then send new immigrants to pioneer it.
While quietly listening to their talk, Turan suddenly voiced a thought that occurred to him.
“I’ll solve the food problem.”
At those words the noisy meeting hall instantly went quiet.
A relatively elderly merchant carefully asked.
“Protector of the city, might we ask how you plan to solve the food issue?”
“I’ll drive animals seen around this area into Kalamaf. First increase portions with meat soup, then salt or smoke dry the excess and it should last through winter.”
This wasn’t particularly difficult for current Turan.
He just needed to ride the black eagle flying around ordering all animals entering the holy relic’s sense to move to Kalamaf.
No matter how he thought about it, there was no other way to prepare food for thousands to survive winter.
Any gaps from animal migration would be filled by animals moving from further away as time passed.
Hearing this, everyone widened their eyes in surprise.
“C-could such a thing really be possible… no, I absolutely don’t doubt you, Protector!”
“But using power granted by gods to sustain lowly ones, is it right to do such things.”
To commoners, magicians were beings who defeated monsters with tremendous power, not convenient workers replacing what commoners could do… Using such transcendent power to drive animals felt somewhat irreverent.
Turan simply dismissed such anxiety.
“In the Dakein Plains to the north, nobles strike the ground with lightning after harvest. Because it makes the soil more fertile next year. What I’m doing is no different.”
Several dozen minutes later, as soon as the meeting ended, Turan flew making a large circle around Kalamaf City as he had said.
Maximizing the holy relic’s sense, he felt presences of animals hidden throughout the ash-colored rocky mountains.
“All move toward that place. And after arriving before the walls, stay still without moving.”
At the low command, animals began moving one by one.
Mountain goat herds, rabbits, even wolves and leopards.
Even those hidden in bushes invisible from the sky became magic targets the moment they entered the holy relic’s sense.
Such work didn’t require particularly tremendous magic power.
For Turan who had dominated sheep herds like breathing since childhood, animal control magic was one of his most practiced magics almost like stone throwing.
Thanks to this, citizens soon saw animals driven to the city standing in rows before the walls waiting to be slaughtered.
“Quickly catch them all… no, first kill the predators, but don’t catch all the rabbits. Better to fence them and feed grass to raise them.”
“Can’t believe my eyes. Could noble lords do such things? But why didn’t the previous esteemed ones…”
“It must be because this Protector is a much more powerful magician, grandfather! Didn’t you see that fire?”
“True. I spoke foolishly.”
The process of slaughtering over hundreds of animals and cooking and distributing their meat wasn’t easy, but with civil servants and police mobilizing and enthusiastic citizens helping, work somehow progressed.
Everyone’s faces brightened after finally filling their stomachs with rich food.
After solving the food problem thus, the issue of insufficient buildings for winter was also easily solved.
The method was opening the residence of the family that had ruled this place in the city center to accommodate those without homes or with damaged ones.
As it was space where over a hundred could comfortably reside originally, it could accommodate about a thousand if slightly crowded.
“Th-then where will the city’s Protector stay…”
“I can just stay in the city hall lodgings. There’s a bed so it’s not bad at all.”
Turan calmly answered the shocked civil servants.
Having lived as a shepherd his whole life and grown used to wandering and sleeping rough afterward, Turan wasn’t attached to mansions.
Plus all valuable items had been taken when the family’s few remaining members fled, making it half ruins anyway.
Anyway, this too was immediately implemented with authority like divine command.
“N-now! Everyone move slowly! The city’s Protector doesn’t want citizens getting hurt!”
“Children line up this way!”
“Can we really live here?”
“That’s what I said. Thank the Protector.”
“My, instead of shepherds tending and slaughtering sheep, he gives his own flesh to feed them, how can we repay this.”
Thus Turan was further deified through citizens’ words as they stayed in the lord’s mansion they never thought they’d even see, but he paid no particular mind to such reputation… What he wanted now was one thing.
For this city to return to normal as quickly as possible, so he could find clues about his mother.
* * *
Days later, cities around Kalamaf noticed changes in this dying city.
Not only had refugees wandering around suddenly stopped, but merchant groups even traveled around nearby villages selling furs to buy grain and cloth.
Plus since Turan hadn’t particularly said to keep his existence secret, merchants revealed this freely.
“Turan of Kalamaf?”
“Yes. One calling himself that has become Kalamaf City’s master. More precisely, he calls himself the city’s protector rather than lord.”
The master of Bigen, a city three days from Kalamaf, exclaimed at this interesting news.
“City’s protector is quite an interesting title. His age?”
“I heard he appears about twenty.”
“That’s too young.”
“Yes. But they say he showed magic filling the sky with flames visible anywhere in the city. Even considering they’re commoners’ words, he must surely be skilled.”
Bigen’s master stroked his beard thoughtfully at his advisor knight’s words.
Though nobles don’t easily age, still few powerful nobles had young appearances.
Since opportunities to accumulate magic power were somewhat limited, it took long years to build strength.
There were largely two cases that ignored this rule.
Either lucky ones who accumulated power encountering successive monsters matching their ability while wandering on pilgrimage from youth.
Or… talents deliberately raised by great families pouring resources into funerals.
“Such a person appears at this time, takes an empty city next to where Arabion’s army is? Something smells fishy, extremely so.”
The war between two great families in the grey zone twenty years ago hugely impacted locals too.
The number of commoners executed suspected as spies was uncountable, and some masterless wandering knights were forcibly conscripted to die on the frontlines.
Even nobles split sides fighting, with Bigen’s master himself being one who killed his Arabion-supporting brother using Zahar’s hand to usurp the family head position.
So naturally sensitive to great families’ movements.
“Who could it be. Turan Arabion? Turan Karmaine? Turan Rabitas? Turan Zahar… this one feels right somehow. The sound fits perfectly.”
“Should we contact Zahar?”
“Oh no, we dare not. Without them speaking first, subordinates acting knowing… that’s quite unpleasant to superiors. Feels like having their thoughts read. Plus what if we’re wrong about our guess?”
“Then what opinion will you give about city occupation?”
“For now act subtly accepting. No point complaining and risking offending either side. Anyway complaining now about a city that might be razed when dark elves swarm in.”
One thing Bigen’s master didn’t know was that at that time, all lords near Kalamaf gave similar views… except guessing he was talent from Arabion or Karmaine or some more distant great family rather than Zahar.
Thus, Turan was tacitly acknowledged as Kalamaf’s protector by the grey zone’s masters.
* * *
After Kalamaf City somewhat normalized, Turan had his mother’s portrait copied several times through Daruk and spread throughout the city.
Actually he didn’t have high expectations spreading portraits thus.
Though this grey zone’s population density wasn’t very high, it still had eight cities and over a hundred small villages.
What were the chances his mother had exactly lived or stayed in Kalamaf among those?
Moreover she had lived on Hisaril Hill continuously after Turan’s birth, so it was almost twenty years ago she had lived or stayed here, and high chance people who met her then had forgotten her face or died or fled.
What he hadn’t expected was underestimating how popular he was in this city.
At word of a woman the city’s protector sought, citizens wracked even non-existent memories, and through that process Turan had to hear all kinds of information uncertain if true or false.
“Um, City Protector…”
“Another report came?”
“Yes…”
The civil servant reporting to Turan wore a dejected expression.
He knew Turan had been disappointed receiving over ten meaningless reports this past week.
“Still must hear it. Who reported?”
“A vagrant named Igon who used to run an inn before gambling ruined him. He said about eighteen or nineteen years ago a woman with appearance exactly like the portrait visited his inn.”
“Let’s go see.”
Though he had heard this type of report several times before, somehow this one didn’t feel bad.
Above all, specifically saying eighteen to nineteen years rather than cutting off at exactly twenty years.
Shortly after, a shabby-looking man entering the city hall meeting room bowed to Turan exclaiming.
“City Protector, honored to meet you! Without the food and lodging you granted this time, I would have died like a dog in the streets!”
“That’s fortunate. More importantly, I’d like to hear the story in detail. About seeing the person in the portrait.”
“Of course I must tell! This was when I still properly ran an inn before being ruined like now…”
At some vague time between eighteen and nineteen years ago, Kalamaf was in turmoil from war between Arabion and Zahar.
Though not as hopeless as now, everyone feared when taking one side’s stance might lead the opposing family’s army to completely sweep the city.
In that situation, one day a young woman came to Igon’s inn and stayed a night.
“She seemed just past twenty and her belly was slightly swollen as if pregnant. Not sure if her name was Bije.”
Turan’s chest felt ready to burst with excitement just hearing that far.
He had never mentioned that she was his mother, or that she would have been pregnant with him then.
No, he still couldn’t be certain.
Perhaps all this was made up or mistaken by that vagrant… Turan subtly pressed him.
“Do you have good memory? Seems you might forget a guest who stayed one night almost twenty years ago.”
“Hehe, I may look dim but I remember even names and faces of girls I liked at age ten. So I thought I’d do well at gambling remembering cards but then…”
As he muttered to himself that it didn’t work in that industry, Turan slightly urged him back to the main point.
“It was unusual seeing a woman traveling alone, and she had quite a good large horse too so it stayed in memory. Plus she seemed anxious and uneasy like she was fleeing somewhere, so I was curious what bastard got such a beauty pregnant and abandoned her.”
“Why think she was abandoned?”
“Well, while eating she stroked her belly and muttered to herself. She said ‘Baby, please don’t become like your father.'”