Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Discord
Seven years ago, when the young Turan lost his mother to illness, the village elders presented him with a document, demanding he stamp it under the pretext of managing his property.
The document stated that the sheep ranch on Hisaril Hill would be transferred to communal village ownership.
Turan, who could read, naturally refused, but the elders dismissed him, claiming that such documents were mere formalities from the start.
Unfortunately, at that time, Turan’s body and magical abilities were not yet fully developed, so he couldn’t muster the courage to fight back.
The fear of being captured by malicious nobles if he revealed his identity as a mage also paralyzed him.
After being driven out of the ranch, Turan lay in the fields for a long time, pondering how to reclaim his mother’s inheritance without openly revealing his magic.
His plan was to hide in the sparse bushes around the village and throw stones at anyone leaving the village.
His first targets were the village elders who had seized his property.
Fortunately, the young noble’s full-powered stone throws were enough to break the bones of the elderly from dozens of meters away.
The first two victims had their legs broken, the next one lost his jaw and was left to eat only porridge for the rest of his life.
The last one was hit in the head and died after a few days of suffering.
The village’s young men then armed themselves and came out for revenge, but Turan used his keen sense of smell to always locate them first, sniping from a distance, hitting one or two, and then fleeing.
Though still young, his speed was unmatched by anyone in the village, making it impossible for anyone to catch him.
After several days of this, with over a dozen more injured or dead, the village, now seemingly isolated by a twelve-year-old boy, declared surrender.
The memory of that time resurfaced because the current situation felt eerily similar.
Just moments ago, he had killed one noble, leaving seven nobles and thirty-five knights as enemies.
Individually, they were all weaker than Turan, but facing them head-on was a battle he couldn’t be sure of winning.
Especially since, as a kind of coalition, they each possessed various bloodline abilities.
However, such a disadvantage could easily be overturned with the right strategy.
“Go up first, Bije.”
As Turan walked out of the barracks, Bije immediately soared into the sky.
It would be much more convenient if the stealth ability could be shared with others.
Perhaps the Zahar family had a secret technique related to that.
Whether he would ever learn it remained to be seen.
Seeing the soaring hawk, a few nearby knights exclaimed in surprise.
“Huh? Isn’t that the magical beast Lady Maxi caught earlier?”
“But its wings look fine.”
“I’m sure she ordered it to be locked up…”
As the camp became chaotic due to Bije’s flight, Turan, maintaining his stealth, moved towards the commander.
He spun a sling, imbuing it with magical power, and created a wind path.
‘First, this one.’
A faint whistling sound and a stone pierced through the head of a large female noble.
Unlike before, where it would crush and shatter, the excessive speed left a large hole.
A pitiful end for someone who could have lasted a minute in a direct confrontation.
Though the throw was silent, the sound of the head being pierced was heard, drawing everyone’s attention to the fallen noble.
“Lady Maxi?”
“Sister… it’s an attack! An attack!”
“Everyone, defensive formation!”
Losing their leader in an entirely unexpected situation, the Corel coalition forces quickly panicked.
Naturally, no one suspected that a Zahar noble had infiltrated and attacked.
It was too absurd to think that those who should be in the distant Enril Desert would suddenly launch a sneak attack.
Thanks to this, Turan leisurely prepared another wind path to snipe the second strongest noble.
‘Second one.’
This target was a somewhat small and frail male noble.
Unlike the first, he seemed to have a defensive magical tool, as instead of dying from a pierced head, he screamed and rolled on the ground.
However, the grayish brain matter flowing from his head suggested he wouldn’t be joining the fight anytime soon.
Then, one of the nobles finally came to his senses and shouted loudly.
“It’s stealth! Everyone, light up!”
It would have been more convenient if he could have killed the third one.
Of course, with the two strongest dead, the balance had already shifted, so it wasn’t a big issue.
Turan clicked his tongue lightly and flicked his finger sharply.
A spark of flame born from friction heat.
The moment he blew a strong wind into it, a fiery storm erupted above Turan’s head, sweeping through the entire camp.
“Ahhhh!”
“It’s hot, water! Water!”
Desperate screams echoed from all directions.
If such a fiery storm had blown from a distance, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to counter.
The speed of flames carried by the wind isn’t particularly fast by mage standards, and defense is as simple as blowing against the wind.
Alone, it might be challenging, but with dozens working together, even Turan couldn’t overcome it.
However, a fiery storm suddenly erupting in the middle of the camp was enough to inflict devastating damage on the Corel coalition.
Eight knights and one noble relatively close to the center burned to death without even screaming, while five or six knights further away suffered horrific burns, screaming and rolling on the ground.
Before the fiery storm had even subsided, dozens of spells rained down on its epicenter.
“Kill him!”
Perhaps it was because they were seasoned mages who had fought in wars.
The momentum of the incoming spells was anything but ordinary.
Fire arrows, stone showers, water bombs, light spears, real arrows and javelins imbued with magical power…
Spells enhanced by bloodlines and honed over decades exhibited power stronger than their owners’ magical prowess.
But by the time they landed, there was no one there.
“What…”
“Stealth! Light it up quickly!”
The Corel nobles simultaneously cast light orbs, illuminating the surroundings, but no one was revealed even with the area lit up.
“Huh?”
“There’s no one…”
After unleashing the fiery storm, Turan used wind magic to propel himself and quickly left the camp.
He did get hit by a few spells, but thanks to activating his guardian magical tool, he only suffered minor injuries.
Even those were quickly healed by consuming the remaining healing bloodline magic.
While the Corel coalition was half out of their minds, feeling like they were dealing with a ghost, Turan created another wind path and sniped another noble.
Realizing that the enemy was precisely targeting their nobles, the Corel coalition’s morale plummeted.
“Ugh, ahhh…”
“Surrender! We surrender! Please spare us!”
“Surrender? Everyone scatter and run! That b*st*rd intends to kill us all!”
At one noble’s shout, Turan proved the assumption correct by throwing another stone.
If he could overwhelm them without using bloodline abilities, he might have shown mercy, but having revealed them, there was no option to let them live.
If rumors spread that a Zahar noble was in the distant west, it was uncertain when that might connect back to him.
[“Let’s attack together now, Bije.”]
Sending his voice to Bije, who was flying using wind magic, the hawk chirped and dove towards one of the fleeing mages.
A fleeing knight was caught in Bije’s claws, torn to pieces, and screamed.
“Ahhhh!”
The surviving remnants of the Corel coalition scattered and fled, instinctively realizing that perhaps none of them would leave this place alive.
* * *
“Forty-three… good, didn’t miss a single one.”
Turan threw the last knight’s corpse into the camp and counted.
He had killed people before, but forty-three was a number that far exceeded his previous records.
As his anger cooled, the fact felt bitterly poignant.
Surely, some among them might not have wanted to participate in hunting magical beasts with owners.
Of course, there was only one way Turan could consider them.
Not attempting revenge and simply leaving.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t kind enough to go out of his way to consider the innocent.
Having been wronged, he had to retaliate, and having retaliated, he couldn’t leave any future threats.
“Let’s clean up first. Bije, ready?”
[Yes!]
Turan first absorbed the magical power of the mages with Bije.
Naturally, the knights’ magical power was of no help, only serving to prevent necromancy, and even the commander and the next strongest nobles were only slightly useful.
Instead, the Imitator holy relic was charged with six new bloodline abilities.
Unlike Turan, Bije visibly grew in magical power.
Having devoured several mages of his level or stronger, the hawk chirped happily and danced.
“Don’t get too excited. You might develop a taste for human flesh.”
[I’m strong now! Won’t get caught next time!]
“Be careful. There are still many people stronger than you or me in the world.”
Of course, the number of people truly stronger than Turan wasn’t large.
At most, the top mages of great families like Meisa, and the family heads above them.
Considering there were fewer than ten great families, the number would be around forty or fifty.
After absorbing all the magical power, he searched for their magical tools, finding a ring and an earring.
A defensive magical tool used by one noble to block a stone throw seemed to be one-time use, as it was broken.
With no need to worry about being pursued by Zahar nobles, Turan took everything and burned the entire camp to erase the last traces.
“We’ll have to leave here for a while. Where do you want to go?”
[Anywhere with Turan is good!]
Bije responded cheerfully to Turan’s question.
“Then let’s go that way. It’s more fun to travel to places we haven’t been.”
North was too close to Arabion, west was blocked by the Sky Mountains, and east was where they had come from, leaving south as the only option.
According to the map Keorn had given, there was a great family there.
The Ravitas family, ruling over the land called the Siraf Wetlands.
They were famous for being a great family formed by the intertwining of two non-combat bloodlines: healers and purifiers.
* * *
This flight, unlike the one from Kalamaf, became another forced march.
In the mage society, stealing a magical beast bound by a soul was a capital crime, but without proof other than Turan’s word, it was akin to robbery and murder.
Fortunately, it went much smoother than when they left the Enril Desert, thanks to Bije’s enhanced speed and stamina after absorbing so much magical power.
The hawk flew almost without rest and didn’t complain of fatigue.
Avoiding people with tracking magic, after three days of continuous flight, the terrain and climate gradually changed.
When the surroundings were completely covered by short forests and swamps, Turan spotted a village in the distance and landed nearby.
“This place smells terrible…”
A foul stench of decay wafted from the waterlogged reeds.
Though his sense of smell quickly adapted, it wasn’t pleasant.
Turan, with Bije tucked under his arm, headed towards the village he had seen from the sky.
With no information about the area, he intended to gather information about local customs and nearby cities.
‘Oh.’
From above, he hadn’t noticed, but up close, the village had a unique appearance.
Nearly half of the houses were built on the lake.
Not all houses, but about a third were built that way.
As Turan approached, a middle-aged woman with dark skin saw him and exclaimed in surprise.
“Oh my!”
Wondering why she was so startled, he realized her gaze was fixed on Bije tucked under his arm.
“It’s okay, ma’am. He’s a good bird.”
“I’ve never seen a bird like that… but are you sick? Dressed so heavily.”
Now that he noticed, the middle-aged woman’s attire was much thinner, with limbs exposed, unlike Turan’s.
Perhaps because it was warmer in the south.
Just recently in Kalamaf, he was suspected of being a mage for dressing lightly, but here he was being treated suspiciously for the opposite reason. Quite amusing.
“No, I just came from far away. Is there a big city nearby?”
“A city? There’s one that way… but the atmosphere has been quite tense lately.”
“Is something happening?”
Having recently brushed off a tense atmosphere only to find out a war had started, Turan immediately inquired.
The middle-aged woman cautiously replied.
“Well, I don’t know the name, but someone very important passed away recently.”