Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 49

Chapter 49

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At first he thought he was hearing things, but the sound was too loud and clear for that.

Moreover, along with that sound, his body’s ability to absorb magical power began rapidly weakening.

Like knowing you’ll vomit if you eat just one more bite after stuffing yourself full.

He could instinctively sense that he had reached his limit as a magician.

Just as he felt dizzy despair at this fact, as if mocking Turan, his power to absorb magic returned to normal.

Rather, the growth limit he had felt came to one of the nobles beside him.

“Ah.”

Green light scattered into the air in front of the noble who let out a short exclamation.

The same phenomenon he had seen when hunting with the Baltas family mages before.

Seeing this, Kadram clicked his tongue lightly and asked:

“Hit the limit, eh? First time reaching it?”

“Yes…”

The noble’s face twisted as he answered.

Any magician who reached their growth limit would naturally feel such emotions.

He too could empathize with that noble’s feelings.

Especially since Turan himself had felt tremendous frustration moments ago despite being much stronger than that noble.

“It’s alright, Biken.”

“Cheer up, man. At least you’re better than me!”

While others chattered trying to comfort their despairing colleague, Turan realized something had changed in his body.

Should he say his whole body’s tactile sense had become several times more sensitive?

No, it felt somewhat different from that.

While the sensation of cloth brushing his body or hands rubbing together was normal, he felt the flow of wind across his skin much more keenly.

He could even sense the subtle tremors made by people walking around and the fierce turbulence raging above the ravine.

All these things he couldn’t feel until just moments ago were now entering his senses.

‘Could it be…’

Though he wanted to confirm the identity of this sensation right away, there were too many people in this ravine now.

Especially the Arabion nobles.

If his thoughts were correct, testing it here would be too dangerous.

Turan postponed confirmation and retrieved the holy relic he had buried with earth manipulation magic before going to find Meisa.

She was busy examining some stone tablet.

“Ah, Turan. Were there any problems absorbing the magic power?”

“It was a great help, thanks to you. But… may I ask why?”

Speaking somewhat vaguely in case others might hear, Turan asked why she went to such lengths to distribute magic power to him.

Of course, he knew Meisa didn’t think too highly of her family members, but this was excessive.

Moreover, since Turan had already received the high-capacity pouch beforehand, he would have had no complaints even if she hadn’t left him a share.

“That’s difficult to explain right now, but for now please think of it as my personal favor. Not Arabion’s.”

Meisa avoided his gaze slightly as she answered Turan’s question.

At her somewhat strange tone, he wondered if she might have romantic feelings for him, but focusing his sense of smell, he detected no such scent.

“Alright. If it’s a friend’s favor.”

Hearing those words, Meisa gave a faint smile.

Turan quickly changed the subject, pointing at the tablet she was holding.

“More importantly, what’s that?”

“This? It’s a search magic device that can find intelligent beings nearby. I’m checking if there are any survivors left… mm, seems not anymore.”

True to her words, over a hundred blue dots were moving about on the tablet.

Two dots were close together in the center, likely representing Turan and Meisa.

“That’s quite an item.”

At a rough guess, its search range seemed to be several hundred meters, comparable to his Imitator Holy Relic’s capabilities.

Of course, there were various differences between showing information indirectly like this versus granting direct sensing abilities, as well as convenience of carrying and using.

Hearing Turan’s praise, Meisa smiled and replied:

“I heard it was made using a captured Zahar noble during the last war.”

Knowing how difficult it was to capture nobles, Turan could guess the creation process was far more complex and horrific than described.

He suddenly recalled what Keorn had told him.

About how there were a few top-tier magic devices that could penetrate Zahar’s concealment abilities.

Perhaps this was one of them.

While they were talking, a knight approached Meisa to report.

“My lady, the prisoners are ready.”

“Lead the way. Would you like to come along?”

“Sure.”

When Meisa turned slightly to ask, Turan immediately agreed.

He too was quite interested in the dwarves’ relics.

* * *

At their destination, several battered dwarves and dark elves were huddled together while surrounded.

Blood flowing from their bodies suggested they had been tortured for quite a while.

“Demons… hurt… pain…”

Turan felt strangely uncomfortable at the sight of dwarves begging in broken speech.

Even though they were just man-eating cannibals…

Perhaps it was because he recalled merman prince Armani from the North Sea, who was also a different race like them.

“Listen well, I’m going to ask questions again, and if you answer obediently like before, we won’t hurt you. But if you lie or stay silent, you’ll suffer even more horribly than earlier. Understand?”

“Under… stand, stand!”

The dwarves nodded and answered in broken speech at a noble’s intimidation.

“Good. First, what is this thing?”

“Ancestors’… black ones found… taught how use…”

“By black ones, you mean the Lich King? The dark elves’ leader… chief?”

The dwarf tilted his head at the word ‘leader’ being too difficult, but finally nodded.

They had specifically asked for smart ones earlier, but perhaps this was considered intelligent among dwarves.

After slapping a nearby dark elf’s cheek to confirm the same answer, the noble thrust forward the dwarves’ magic device.

“Right, when you pull this, metal pieces come out. But when we use it, nothing comes out. Why is that?”

“That ours… black ones can’t use… demons can’t use… use all, can’t use again…”

Listening to the dwarf’s testimony, Turan picked up one of the dwarves’ relics-magic devices lying nearby.

Shaking it lightly, he could feel liquid sloshing in the round tubes attached to the side.

Come to think of it, when they destroyed a similar large device earlier, hadn’t massive amounts of steam poured out?

Just in case, he pointed the metal-shooting end skyward and pulled the attached lever, but nothing happened.

“Does it only work if a dwarf pulls the handle?”

“Let’s check. You there.”

Hearing Turan’s mutter, Meisa answered and a knight immediately brought over a dwarf, instructing him to only pull the lever part of the magic device he was holding.

When the creature pulled the lever, steam hissed out and metal pieces were shot with a whoosh.

“Oh.”

“So it really only works when dwarves pull it.”

“What kind of magic is this?”

“Would it work if we used a severed hand to pull it?”

Unlike what some creative noble thought, that method didn’t work – perhaps it could detect if the hand was severed.

They tried various other experiments afterward but the results weren’t very promising.

The metal pieces shot from the dwarves’ magic devices weren’t simple iron chunks but something made through some special process, and the internal structure couldn’t be examined as it would explode with steam and wreck the components when they tried to take it apart.

Moreover, after firing several times the liquid inside would run out making it unusable, and even the dwarves didn’t know how to refill it.

In other words, it was a disposable tool.

“You said the Lich King gave you these? Where did he get them?”

They tortured the surviving dark elves to ask but they didn’t know the details either.

They only knew that the Lich King, originally just one of the underground kingdom’s royalty, one day obtained tremendous necromancy skills along with a silver crown, then while fleeing found these magic devices and provided them to the dwarves to make them allies.

Hearing this, one noble clicked his tongue with a regretful expression.

“If we could make and use these ourselves, they’d be quite useful.”

Observing the devices being used several times, Turan recalled natural laws he had learned from the librarian in the past.

Wasn’t it that water expands in volume when it becomes steam?

‘Perhaps the liquid inside turns to steam and pushes out the metal pieces?’

Though he had no idea how pulling one lever could cause that, he thought that might be the principle.

Some educated Arabion nobles reached similar conclusions but no one knew how to recreate it.

After organizing all the information extracted from threatening the prisoners, Meisa asked those who had returned from searching deeper in the ravine.

“Did you find any books or such inside?”

“No.”

“There were quite a few human bones. Most were old though.”

“Then we can clean up.”

Understanding the meaning in those words, the dwarves and dark elves trembled.

* * *

Fortunately, since the boulder at the ravine entrance opened automatically when someone tried to exit from inside, they didn’t need to wait a full day.

Coming out into the open, Turan felt his new wind-sensing ability fully activate.

“Whew…”

“Finally can breathe, it was too stuffy in there.”

“Who wouldn’t agree.”

Some Arabion nobles grumbled, apparently feeling similarly.

Turan spoke to Meisa walking beside him.

“Then I’ll stop by the barracks to get Bije and head out first.”

“That would be good.”

Meisa immediately agreed, seemingly not happy about Turan building friendships with other Arabion nobles.

Then, she left a small opening with her words.

“We’ll meet again, right?”

“Next time I’ll definitely repay this debt. And…”

Turan hesitated briefly wondering if it was too meddlesome, then spoke.

As friends who exchange favors, he should be able to voice his concerns.

“While keeping light for flight is good, you should still eat something. I’m worried.”

Hearing those words, Meisa smiled bitterly.

“I’ll think about it.”

Turan was certain she wouldn’t listen to his words, but he couldn’t force her when she refused.

After parting with Meisa, Turan arrived at the barracks first with quick steps and saw Bije and Keorn playing some strange game with wing flaps and hand gestures.

“Looks fun, sir.”

“Oh, you’re back! Any injuries?”

“I’m fine. More importantly…”

[Turan! Keorn is fun!]

Though she had seemed displeased until they left, Bije now appeared completely absorbed in playing with the old knight.

“The subjugation ended well with few casualties. I should be heading out now.”

“Leaving already? At least have a meal…”

“The situation doesn’t allow for that.”

When he briefly mentioned what happened in the ravine, Keorn let out a small groan.

Indeed, staying here would only make the atmosphere terribly worse.

There must be quite a few people feeling dissatisfied with Turan now.

“If that’s the case, it can’t be helped…”

“What will you do now, sir?”

“For now I should go back and think. Probably retire and spend time on small tasks. My joints are starting to ache, and I’ve traveled enough.”

Looking at him now, Keorn did appear noticeably older than when they first met.

Perhaps due to the time spent traveling and participating in the subjugation.

Turan fell silent briefly before offering words of blessing whose meaning even he didn’t fully understand.

“Live long.”

“I will.”

Fortunately, Keorn’s smiling face looked somewhat younger than moments ago.

* * *

On the way back, Turan activated the holy relic’s senses to check if anyone was around.

Bije tilted her head, showing signs of wondering why he wasn’t riding her.

“Just a moment, need to check something.”

After calming her down, Turan made wind blow with a light gesture.

Like when he had swept away those vagrants before.

But the wind that arose this time was completely different from then.

While back then he could only strengthen the wind’s force and slightly adjust its direction, now he could freely control the risen wind like his own fingers and wrap it around his body.

The magical power consumption was maybe a tenth of before.

Turan was certain.

That he had gained the bloodline ability to control wind.

“Somehow I thought this might happen…”

With troubled feelings, he gestured and wind arose flattening all the surrounding grass.

In the current era, the ability to control wind was the exclusive privilege of Arabion’s storm bloodline.

In other words, it meant Turan’s parents were descendants of both Zahar and Arabion – two enemy houses.