Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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After their reunion at the palace entrance, they first paid a visit to Midela, Asiz’s mother and head of House Berk.
She graciously provided a guest house for her son’s benefactor who had returned after several months.
Solif was introduced simply as a friend met during travels, a wandering noble with Pyromaniac bloodline.
With his modest attire and missing arm, he perfectly fit the image of a poor wandering noble who had lived a harsh life, so no one questioned this.
After exchanging greetings with the Berk family nobles he had met before, Turan entered the guest house and asked Asiz about Haram.
He wondered about the whereabouts of this master who had taught him hand-to-hand combat techniques and physical training, who was also Asiz’s uncle-in-law.
“Uncle? He went hunting magical beasts.”
“Magical beasts?”
“I think it was a giant wolf. He said knights wouldn’t be able to handle it given its known size and speed, so he went personally. He should be back in a few days.”
Though it would have been nice to meet him right away, Turan swallowed his disappointment and sat in the guest house’s reception room.
Asiz and Solif looked at each other somewhat awkwardly, as people typically do when meeting a friend’s friend.
It seemed they would need more time to become close.
Perhaps wanting to break this strange atmosphere, Asiz showed interest in Bije sitting at Turan’s side.
“What’s this, a pet?”
“This is Bije. We’ve formed a soul bond.”
“Oh… like Tili?”
“That’s right.”
Tili, a giant horse standing about three meters tall at the shoulder.
Like Bije, it was also a magical beast soul-bonded to a mage, specifically to Midela, the head of House Berk.
Though last time it had gone on pilgrimage with Asiz.
“May I touch it?”
“Ask Bije directly. It’s as smart as a human.”
“Would that be okay, Bije?”
At Asiz’s question, Bije was about to write with its claws but, seemingly realizing it shouldn’t damage the expensive table, just nodded instead.
Seeing this docile attitude, Solif grumbled from the side.
“That thing was so fierce with me…”
After lightening the mood somewhat by chatting about the black eagle magical beast, the topic shifted to catching up on recent events.
“Well, I’ve just been living as usual.”
“Aren’t you going on another pilgrimage?”
“No, I should rest for a few years first…”
His relaxed sense of time was typical of long-lived nobles.
Though admittedly, Turan, who felt weeks and months intensely like a commoner and lived urgently, was the unusual one for a noble.
After having a cup of tea, Asiz brought up the topic of the recent dark elves subjugation.
“I heard you participated in the dark elves subjugation with Meisa?”
“Where did you hear that?”
“It’s all over! They say a noble who was incredibly skilled at throwing stones participated. Who else could that be but you?”
“True.”
Even the Zahar nobles he had seen before used bows or other throwing weapons, not slings.
Probably because it felt like a weapon used by lowly people.
Though Turan had considered switching to more lethal weapons, he was reluctant to give up his years of accumulated skill.
He could even throw fireballs like stones with his sling, using less magical power for greater force.
“Tell me the story. How did you get involved? And what’s this rumor about barrier bloodline?”
“Ah, that.”
Come to think of it, he had told that lie using the Imitator holy relic.
He had said so many random things while traveling around that sometimes even he got confused about what he had claimed.
Turan briefly used the holy relic’s senses to check if anyone was spying, then used wind magic to block sound around the reception room.
Seeing this, Asiz’s eyes widened in surprise.
“W-what?”
Though he knew Turan was a magical genius, freely wielding such techniques was another matter entirely.
As a vassal of Arabion, he knew such precise wind control was beyond what could be achieved through mere practice.
“Don’t tell me you had Arabion bloodline!?”
“You hadn’t told even him? For your closest friend, you sure have a lot of secrets.”
Solif muttered in disbelief at Asiz’s shocked reaction.
Ignoring those words, Turan sank deep into his chair.
“This will be a long story, so let me explain from the beginning.”
In that private room free from interference, Turan revealed the past about his parents that he had discovered in Kalamaf.
The story of a romance between a Zahar noble and a knight’s daughter kidnapped from Arabion, and its tragic end.
Asiz, who hadn’t even imagined this possibility, gaped so wide bugs could have flown in, while Solif, who already knew about Turan’s bloodline, just clicked his tongue softly.
Then came the story of how boy Turan was born in the western Hisaril Hills and lived as a shepherd, met Knight Keorn, traveled east and encountered Asiz.
The latter part was to prove he had met Asiz without any connection to House Zahar.
“That’s roughly how it happened.”
After a moment of silence, Asiz gulped down his tea and started coughing.
Then he gave Turan a small bow.
“Thank you for being honest with me. It couldn’t have been an easy story to tell.”
Turan sank deeper into his chair, trying not to show his inner relief, joy, and gratitude.
Though he tried to maintain composure, his voice was slightly hoarse.
“I was just too cowardly to tell you before.”
In the past, until quite recently in fact, Turan had been almost paranoid about hiding his identity.
This was largely influenced by the history of Knight Keorn, who had told him about his Zahar bloodline.
Learning that his relatives had massacred the family of someone he internally viewed as a father figure had created a vague self-loathing.
These feelings intensified as all the friends he made afterward were from the Arabion faction.
If his friends were to look at him with contempt upon discovering his identity, that would truly be horrific.
What helped him overcome this self-loathing was learning that his other half was Arabion, and that he was born from his parents’ love.
It also helped that the Arabion nobles he had met weren’t as purely noble as he had imagined.
And after fighting on the island to save Solif recently, he had somewhat overcome his compulsion to keep his identity strictly hidden… because he had gained both the confidence to clash with great houses for what he wanted to do and believed was right, and the ability to back that up.
And considering he would need many favors from Asiz from now on, he needed to lay everything bare here.
There was no better way to show complete trust in someone than exposing one’s innermost self.
The shock having somewhat subsided, Asiz joked with a grin as if trying to lift Turan’s spirits.
“A bloodline fusion between great houses… if you officially joined the main family, you might even threaten Meisa’s position?”
“Keep my story secret.”
“Eh, why? Though having Zahar bloodline might be concerning, they would definitely welcome a noble born with four bloodline abilities. Unless you prefer wandering freely…”
Asiz’s words reflected the typical noble mindset.
Most wanted to live comfortably as core members of great houses, not as wanderers of unknown origin.
Turan glanced at Solif sitting quietly beside him and asked.
“That’s related to Solif here too… may I tell him?”
“If you trust him that much.”
After getting Solif’s permission, Turan briefly explained Solif’s identity and background.
Learning that this seemingly ordinary wandering noble was actually the heir of a great eastern house, Asiz jumped up and bowed.
“I apologize for such poor hospitality to such an esteemed guest-”
How strange that he would show such attitude when Meisa, Asiz’s second cousin, was also a great house’s heir?
Though surprising, it made sense that one would treat a relative differently from a complete stranger.
Solif shook his head at Asiz’s attitude, seeming used to it.
“It’s fine. I’ve left the family now.”
Ignoring the still awkward pair, Turan continued his explanation.
What followed were even heavier topics.
The various incidents he had encountered after leaving House Berk, and the many secrets about gods and great houses he had learned through them.
Finally, the hypotheses he had drawn from all this.
By the time all was told, Asiz looked about ten years older than when he had first met Turan.
“Ah, this… this is too much for me to handle.”
“Don’t tell your family head or anyone else not here, Asiz. You’re the only one I trust enough to share all this with.”
At Turan’s solemn words, Asiz trembled before letting out a deep sigh and rubbing his face.
“So, what do you plan to do now?”
“I want to find out if Freya divine tribe is behind Arabion, and if they’re manipulating Meisa’s life like they did with him here. Can you help?”
This wasn’t just someone else’s problem for Asiz either.
Meisa’s mother was the cousin sister of Asiz’s mother, Midela, head of House Berk.
After a moment of silence, Asiz spoke in a firm voice unlike before.
“Alright, let’s do it. Think of it as putting on a grand play. I should at least be good enough for a supporting role.”
Turan laughed at this theatrical enthusiast’s words.
After lightening the mood with jokes, they dispelled the privacy magic and called a servant to request tea.
Unlike his earlier gulping, Asiz now elegantly sipped his tea as he asked.
“So what help do you need from me?”
“I want to heal this friend’s arm. Do you know any healers? They don’t need to be particularly skilled, just discreet.”
“Ah… because this person’s abilities mustn’t be revealed?”
“That’s right.”
Since stronger magical beings required more power to heal, healers inevitably learned how powerful their patients were whether they wanted to or not.
And Turan didn’t want Solif’s identity as a top-tier noble to be exposed.
News of a silver-haired powerful noble would be unwelcome, and above all, he could be a hidden card if unexpected situations arose while investigating within Arabion.
This was a strategic judgment separate from his original paranoia.
“Hmm, I do know one. But she tends to wander around, so I’m not sure if we can call her right away.”
“Is she on pilgrimage?”
“No, she just enjoys healing commoners as a hobby.”
“Oh.”
That description alone earned this unknown healer high marks from Turan.
According to further explanation, her name was Lua Manag, a noble from House Manag, one of Arabion’s vassal houses.
She was born with noble-level magical power among knights and adopted as a daughter.
“Ah, so that’s why?”
“That’s right.”
Though magical power was supposedly most important in the noble world, there were still some class distinctions.
Those born between noble couples like Asiz or Solif were most respected, those with one parent (usually the mother) being a concubine were middle rank, and those who awakened through atavism among knights or commoners were looked down upon most.
Unless they had outstanding abilities, such nobles inevitably remained outsiders even among other nobles.
“Plus everyone dislikes how she chooses to wander around healing commoners. Though I don’t care about such things.”
Indeed, these were fitting words from someone known for being friendly with everyone from family knights to servants.
Anyway, based on the description, she seemed exactly the kind of person Turan wanted.
If she wasn’t close with any nobles besides Asiz, she wouldn’t spread rumors either.
“But it might take months if we’re unlucky.”
“Just contact her first. If it looks like it’ll take too long, we can go find her ourselves. This one here is the fastest in the world.”
As Turan said this while patting its head, Bije chirped cutely, unfitting for its size.
The guest house at House Berk where he was staying after so long still felt like another world.
After bathing and changing clothes in a room filled with all kinds of helpful magical devices, Turan called Asiz and Solif to enjoy dinner in the guest house’s dining room.
Having had no chance to enjoy such luxurious meals since leaving Komad City where he bought Bije, his mood naturally lifted enjoying such fine dining after months.
Solif, who had lived his whole life as a great family’s heir, seemed to feel similarly.
“Yeah, that damn family, but this was nice. Ah, I do miss it a little…”
“Want to go back?”
“Just kidding. I think I prefer the food here.”
After comforting their tired bodies and minds thus, Turan first wrote a letter to Meisa.
The contents stated that he was staying at House Berk and wanted to meet, asking her to either visit or invite him.
Since someone would surely read it first, he didn’t mention anything too difficult to tell others.
‘I’d prefer if Meisa came here.’
He still felt somewhat reluctant to enter Arabion’s main house.
That’s why even when he went to see the departure ceremony before, he had only visited the city outskirts before leaving.
Of course, going inside had its own advantages too.
There would be information that could only be discovered by seeing things firsthand.
After sending the letter, he secretly went to Asiz’s room to work on a pending task.
Namely, analyzing the magical devices obtained during his recent travels.
“Wait, just how many are there?”
“Quite a few, right?”
“This is way more than just ‘quite a few’…”
The total number of magical devices Turan laid out was fifteen.
While this might be normal for a great house like Arabion or their vassal houses like Berk, for ordinary nobles this would require uprooting their family’s foundations to obtain.
Laughing dryly, Asiz began examining them one by one, touching each magical device.
First were the ring and earring obtained in the western wilderness.
As expected, being items possessed by low-ranking nobles, they weren’t particularly impressive.
One brightened night vision while worn, the other slightly increased flame resistance.
While the earring might be somewhat useful, the ring was completely useless and might be better given to Solif.
Next, he examined the magical devices from the Baraha nobles.
Most had defensive, supportive, or bloodline-mimicking functions, and befitting a great family’s devices, their performance was excellent.
Though he had somewhat grasped their functions through actual combat, confirming exact capabilities and side effects was essential when using magical devices.
This would be difficult without access to someone from a creator family like now.
While memorizing each device’s functions and considering what to use and what to distribute, Asiz finally placed his hand on the transformation mask.
Probably what the Baraha nobles had used to deceive Solif and disguise themselves as pirates.
As he closed his eyes and injected magical power to test its performance, his face suddenly wrinkled.
“Hmm…”
“What? Is something wrong?”
This was a reaction he hadn’t shown even once while examining the other devices.
When Turan asked, Asiz opened his eyes and answered.
“Well, the function itself is useful, though a bit messy. If you put it on a corpse’s face and inject magical power, it stores the face, and when put on a living person’s face and activated, it changes their face to the stored one. The duration lasts until the mask is removed and continuously consumes magical power.”
“How much does it consume?”
“Knights could only maintain it for a few hours, while noble-level mages might barely sustain it indefinitely since their recovery rate is higher. Though they wouldn’t be able to recover much after using other magic.”
Magical power recovery rate was proportional to total capacity.
According to that explanation, a high-level mage like Turan could wear it semi-permanently with just slightly slower magical power recovery.
Since he could just remove the mask when needing to fight at full power, this side effect was quite manageable.
“That’s good.”
“Indeed. With this level of functionality, it could be called a top-tier magical device. However, it seems there’s a paired item somewhere. Like it needs to be used together to access its true functions.”