Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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According to what Turan learned from his mother, marriage between man and woman was truly sacred.
A ceremony swearing undying love until death in the name of God.
When he showed a blank expression at such an important thing being mentioned so casually, Izella waved her hand while giggling.
“What’s with that reaction? I was just joking!”
“Young lady, please…”
“Alright. But think about it! My position is currently vacant!”
Izella said this before quickly disappearing down the corridor.
The butler, who kept apologizing while wiping his forehead with difficulty, looked like he had aged ten years in an instant.
Shortly after, Turan entered through the most grand and imposing door in the castle.
An office filled with stuffed masu, antique furniture, and luxurious decorations.
Seated in a chair at its center was Rug Baltas, head of House Baltas and lord of Orem city.
“Welcome, young noble. You already know my name?”
“I am Turan.”
Behind the Baltas head stood a man and woman wearing swords respectfully, who seemed to be knights guarding him based on the atmosphere.
Though it seemed pointless for a noble of his status to have knight guards.
At Turan’s words, Rug asked with what seemed like interest.
“Turan, is that all?”
“Due to hostile houses, I cannot reveal my house.”
“Hmm, what major conflicts of that scale have happened recently? Hardith and Corel, Ire and Kelau, Arabion and Jahar-”
The moment he heard Arabion and Jahar’s names, Turan concentrated on not showing his emotional reaction on his face.
After listing several house names this way, when the other showed no reaction at all, Rug snorted as if finding it boring.
“Well, we currently have no hostile houses anyway. Just believe that when the Baltas bloodline comes under your protection in the future, we will receive the same hospitality we showed you.”
“I promise.”
Thus, nobles hosting other nobles as guests was a promise to respect each other and avoid conflict.
If one refused hospitality despite entering another house’s territory, it was equivalent to declaring to the territory’s master ‘I am not your guest. I came with evil intentions.’
This aligned with the customs of hospitality Turan had learned from his mother.
“So, you want to use the library? For what purpose?”
“Due to my unique upbringing environment, there’s much I don’t know, so I want to learn about the world through books.”
Hearing this, Rug snorted.
“I’ll tell you in advance since quite a few people come looking after hearing strange things – there are no amazing ancient magic or secrets for increasing magic power in the library.”
“That’s fine. I wasn’t hoping for such things.”
Turan expressed that he didn’t care at all.
He truly just wanted to learn what he didn’t know from living his whole life on the hills.
Rug stared at Turan before shaking his head.
“If you want, there’s no reason not to let you in. There are no secrets related to our house in there anyway. Since there’s some time today, rest and we’ll see tomorrow. Is that alright?”
“I won’t forget your lordship’s kindness.”
“Yes, I believe you won’t.”
A meaningful smile played on Rug’s lips as he nodded while looking this way.
* * *
The next day, Turan left the castle accompanied by one Baltas knight and headed to the library.
The guard at the entrance – a different person from yesterday – nodded after seeing the paper with the head’s signature.
“Entry permit confirmed, noble one. Welcome to the Sky Library.”
What first greeted Turan upon entering were several desks and chairs, and spiral stairs installed along the round wall.
Despite no windows, white light from a round sphere in the ceiling brightly illuminated the interior.
Going inside, a middle-aged man sitting at a desk greeted Turan.
“Pleased to meet you, Sir Turan. I am the librarian here. As per the head’s orders, I will explain the rules for using this place.”
The Sky Library’s usage rules weren’t very complicated.
First, if library books or facilities are damaged, compensate according to the amount set by the house.
Second, no removing books from the library.
To Turan, it seemed like just listing things that obviously shouldn’t be done.
“Also, while you use the library, I must always watch from behind to check for rule violations.”
As soon as the librarian finished explaining, Turan immediately climbed the stairs.
Coming up to the second floor, he saw bookshelves installed in the center space, and hundreds of books placed on them.
“Oh…”
Midan’s words about thousands of books seemed to have understated the truth.
Considering the building’s height, it wouldn’t be strange to have tens of thousands rather than thousands of books.
But after climbing up three or four more floors, many bookshelves started being completely empty at some point.
From around the tenth floor there wasn’t a single book shelved, and when the following librarian said there were no books above this, Turan went back down to the second floor.
“The number of books seems a bit lacking compared to the library’s size.”
“This library was built during the old empire era, and many books were lost as Orem city’s ownership changed several times through wars.”
The old empire.
A term he had heard in passing a few times from his mother.
In the distant ancient past, wasn’t it a country established when the Prea divine race defeated other races and conquered the world?
But after the gods ascended, the empire collapsed as their noble descendants turned against each other, leading to today’s society where various magician houses compete.
Looking at the densely packed books on the second floor, Turan turned to the librarian behind him.
“As a librarian, you must have read the books here.”
“Yes. Finding necessary books for users is also part of my job.”
“What books would be good for gaining basic knowledge?”
Considering everything said here could be reported to the head, Turan chose his words carefully.
Hearing this, the librarian tilted his head briefly before starting to pull out several books from here and there.
After going up and down floors several times, he placed over ten books on a desk on the first floor.
“Many books here are hundreds to thousands of years old, so they’re not suitable for what the noble one wants. I think reading these books would be more helpful.”
“Thank you.”
Turan expressed gratitude before sitting in a chair and examining one book from various angles.
The cover was thick cowhide, the paper made of well-processed parchment, and inside were densely packed letters that seemed engraved one by one by a craftsman.
An object that felt like a work of art in itself.
‘So this is a book…’
Turan felt complex emotions about easily obtaining what his mother had longed for so much as he opened the book.
Though he stumbled a bit since he had learned reading and writing by scratching sand with tree branches, he could read well enough.
The book’s title was ‘World Travel Journal’.
Past the preface praising some unknown book sponsor, the main content began.
The author was a noble born in a small city north of Orem, who traveled east wanting to see the end of the world.
The content of the story captured Turan’s attention completely.
Mountain pass passages that only opened once a day left and right, blind dwarves hiding there eating passing people.
Endless desert where sand boiled during day and froze at night.
Forest fairies, mermaids singing and luring people on reefs in the endlessly waving sea…
The ability to describe environments he had never seen in his life so vividly it was almost eerie truly seemed like magic.
Around halfway through the book, Turan felt hunger and closed it after memorizing what he had read.
‘Amazing.’
Now he knew what amazing terrain lay to the east, and how the other races he had only vaguely heard names of looked, what ecology and culture they had.
This much just from reading half of one book – what more would he learn after reading all of them?
His chest pounded with anticipation.
* * *
After receiving permission to enter the library, Turan repeated a daily routine of reading books at the library every morning and returning to the castle only in the evening.
On the second day, he learned how great houses and ordinary magician houses interact with each other, and what systems they use to manage cities and villages.
On the third day, he learned in detail what materials from which regions were processed how to make the items he had thoughtlessly passed by.
On the fourth day, through a masu guide he learned what powers different creatures typically awakened as masu, what physical characteristics symbolized what powers.
On the fifth day, he learned many relics from the old empire era were still scattered and remained around the world.
From this library to the stone road he had seen on the way to Orem were among them.
As he accumulated such knowledge piece by piece, the world that had seemed just unknown space became increasingly clear.
The feeling of evolving from an ignorant shepherd boy into something a bit better…
Though there wasn’t the base pleasure like when eating delicious food or gaining magic power, he felt a separate intellectual satisfaction.
And on the sixth day.
Heading to the library, Turan received a summons from Rug.
Seeing Turan arrive at his office, he immediately stated his business.
“I hear you’re making very good use of the library?”
“Yes.”
“I believe you know that allowing you to use the library was a favor, separate from treating you as a noble. I’d like to receive payment for that now.”
“Please speak.”
If they heard this side only took without granting requests, wouldn’t they soon tell him to get lost?
Usually nobles host visiting guests for three to four days by custom.
For Turan who had slightly exceeded this, there was need to grant his request.
“Recently a masu appeared north of Orem and has been attacking passing people.”
“You want me to hunt it?”
At Turan’s question, Rug nodded.
“Four knights who went to eliminate it were eaten without returning. It seems a noble must step in directly, but we can only mobilize two. If you join making three, it would be much safer.”
House Baltas consisted of six total members – Rug’s couple, Rug’s sibling, daughter and two nephews.
Among them, Rug’s sibling and one nephew had gone out as lords of other cities besides Orem, he himself had to protect the city in case of emergency, and his wife wasn’t skilled in combat.
Therefore, the calculation was that only two nobles could be mobilized – his daughter and nephew.
“I understand.”
He readily agreed both because he hadn’t gained any practical experience or magic power lately from staying inside reading books, and because he recalled Keorn’s words from the past.
That humans were always threatened in their living grounds by masu, so magicians must defeat them…
Though Orem’s commoners weren’t Turan’s sheep, everything he ate, drank and wore must have come from them.
As shepherds must protect sheep from wolves in exchange for living off their wool and meat.
Just as he nodded, one question suddenly occurred.
Thinking of what Murei’s official had said, nobles and knights weren’t very active in masu hunting, so why was he responding so actively?
When asked indirectly, Rug answered.
“The northern road it’s blocking is an important trade route. It’s been blocked for ten days already so we need to open it quickly.”
Ten days…
Turan recalled Rug’s meaningful smile five days ago when he said he wanted to use the library.
He felt rather relieved now understanding why library use had been readily permitted.