[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
w
Chapter 11: The Wizard
Terdin stood with his arms crossed, staring grimly at the powder scattered across the ground.
The wizards awaited the general's words.
Ram waited too.
At last, Terdin spoke.
“Is it truly possible to kill soone with sorcery? Using this powder?”
“Yes. Of course, as I ntioned earlier, shamans have dozens of tools. And…”
The elderly wizard continued his explanation.
“I’m not sure if I need to explain this in such detail, but since you asked, I’ll proceed. The shamans of the Geron tribe are divided into two types. Female shamans are called Hagras, and male shamans are called Hakras. Hags and Haks use different types of sorcery and tools. Female Hags excel at predicting the future or reading the past, while male Haks specialize in sorcery that directly influences life and death, such as curses or blessings.”
“So, killing spells are sothing male shamans can perform?”
“Most likely.”
The elderly wizard pinched a bit of the powder, rubbed it between his fingers, and brought it to his nose to sll.
“That’s why we concluded that if the enemy’s Hak were to end this war in the best, easiest, and most feasible way, it would be to use sorcery to kill our great general.”
Terdin glared at the two wizards as if accusing them of conspiring to assassinate the general themselves.
The elderly wizard, unfazed, continued his explanation.
“We sought signs. Specifically, the sll. The sll of this powder being dispersed.”
“Are you saying you can identify every scent in the camp?”
Ram, who had a sharp sense of sll, quickly understood what Terdin was asking.
The allied camp was filled with various odors.
At its center were the slls of people—sweat, rotting flesh, and uncleaned waste.
Further out, discarded food added to the stench.
The natural slls of wood and insects were almost absent in the surrounding area.
A powder like this would easily be masked in such an environnt.
The wizard answered honestly.
“Of course not. It’s more of an intuition. We have to rely on every sll, sight, and sound around us for clues. Early in the war, sothing unusual approached. Do you recall, General?”
“You requested heightened vigilance, so I sent patrols all over the camp. Nothing happened, and nothing was found—not once, but three tis!”
“Still, we appreciated your swift action despite nothing happening.”
“Your warnings left uneasy, and I despise such feelings.”
The elderly wizard chuckled.
Terdin’s expression didn’t change, but Ram thought he might have smiled.
“You say nothing happened, General, but we would phrase it differently: ‘It withdrew.’”
“It?”
“We don’t know what it was. Attempting to capture it might have led to disaster. A Hak’s curse has no tangible form. You can’t catch or block sothing intangible. There might be a way to stop it, but we haven’t discovered it yet. Even Senelot couldn’t provide guidance.”
“Senelot?”
“That’s the title for the wisest individual in the Elder Tower.”
“So, even with such a critical war underway, this Senelot stayed behind and sent you instead?”
“In most cases, Senelot spends their ti alone in the tower, ditating, seeking visions, and analyzing news from wizards across the world. They’re very busy.”
The wizard’s calm tone slightly irritated Terdin.
“So you couldn’t identify ‘it’ or gather evidence, so you just made sure it couldn’t approach in the first place. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Precisely. Since those three incidents, there have been no further signs. But we remain vigilant. Just because the war is over doesn’t an their Hak has given up on assassination.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If their shamans can summon sothing ‘intangible and unstoppable,’ why don’t they just use their sorcery from far away to kill ?”
“Let put it this way: no matter how skilled an archer is, they still need to be within a certain range to hit their target. Sorcery works similarly.”
“You’re saying it requires aiming?”
Terdin answered his own question before the wizard could respond.
“You didn’t block the arrows—you stopped the archers from getting close enough.”
“Yes, because stopping a loosed arrow is much harder.”
“What about shields?”
“We have shields that can block our magic. But we don’t yet have shields to block theirs. That’s one of the questions we asked Senelot.”
“So you’re saying their shaman ca near our camp three tis?”
The elderly wizard shrugged like a child.
“If our intuition was correct, yes.”
Terdin rubbed his chin—a gesture he often made when deep in thought, even during strategy etings with his commanders.
“If you can detect such things by sll, can you also determine if soone has been cursed by a shaman?”
“Do you have a specific individual in mind?”
“For instance, myself. Or perhaps… this young man here.”
Terdin casually gestured at Ram, as if picking him at random.
The elderly wizard glanced at the younger one, as if seeking advice.
When the younger wizard whispered sothing to him, Terdin barked angrily.
“Don’t hold private conversations in my presence!”
Both wizards bowed in apology, and the elder wizard explained.
“This man’s voice is too soft due to his advanced age. I had to lean in to hear him clearly.”
Terdin looked astonished, a rare expression.
“What? He doesn’t look a day over thirty!”
“In fact, he’s over a hundred and thirty. His experience surpasses mine, so I sought his counsel. I apologize if it seed disrespectful.”
“If that’s the case, it’s fine. Now, continue about the curses.”
The elderly wizard explained,
“Our senses have been honed to detect any sign of Hag or Hak sorcery. We would have known if either of you had entered this tent under a curse.”
“So, no curses at all? No death curses?”
“Such powerful sorcery would be even easier to detect.”
The elderly wizard once again listened to his companion’s whispered input.
“There’s a slim possibility of the opposite scenario.”
“Opposite?”
“If a curse has been cast but hasn’t manifested yet, we might not be able to detect it.”
“Explain simply.”
“It’s like this: if soone has a runny nose, a fever, and a cough, we can confidently say they have a cold. But if there are no symptoms yet, it’s hard to be certain they’re ill.”
“You’re contradicting yourselves. If there are no symptoms, they’re not sick. If symptoms arise, then they’re sick. If soone’s sick but has no symptoms, aren’t they not sick?”
The wizard awkwardly smiled, unsure how to explain further.
“As wizards, it’s in our nature to avoid speaking in absolutes. But if it concerns you greatly, let say this: there’s little need to worry about curses. Killing with magic is extrely difficult, not only in execution but also in cost. Taking a life requires a life of equal value—perhaps even their own. Casting a curse undetected is no easy task.”
The elderly wizard turned to Ram and asked for the first ti.
"Have you experienced any unusual events recently, sothing that could be considered a peculiar curse? Perhaps you've heard a strange song muttered in odd words, been exposed to strange smoke or scents for a long ti, or seen mysterious visions—anything out of the ordinary that defies understanding?"
Ram recalled the mont he assassinated Mantum.
It hadn't lasted long and was nothing out of the ordinary.
"No, sir. All I heard was a strange trumpet sound from the sky."
"Hmm, that's not particularly unusual since everyone heard it..."
The old wizard’s comnt was interrupted by the general, who asked,
"Still no analysis on that sound?"
"As I ntioned on the day it happened, we don’t know either. There are records from ancient tis that ntion such sounds being heard from the sky, but my mory of them is vague."
"So, this has happened before, even in ancient tis?"
"Yes, the records state that it 'happened,' but there’s no ntion of what caused it. We’re not even sure if it’s the sa phenonon. I sent a letter to Senelot just in case, but there’s been no reply yet…"
As the two discussed the sound from the sky, a young wizard spoke to Ram.
"You can hear , can't you?"
Instinctively, Ram braced himself for an attack.
But there was no movent.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
w
The young wizard’s lips moved, but unlike earlier when whispering to the older wizard, Ram could now hear his voice.
"You don’t need to respond. Just blink if you can hear ."
Ram blinked.
Terdin, anwhile, seed oblivious to the conversation and continued talking only with the older wizard.
The topic was the difference between their magic and the enemy’s sorcery.
The older wizard gave vague answers, leaving Terdin visibly frustrated.
anwhile, the young wizard continued speaking to Ram in a voice only he could hear.
"You had a scent. Faint enough to miss at first, but it was there. 'That event' happened a week ago, didn’t it? If you’d been cursed by Hak’s sorcery during 'that incident' the general doesn’t want to discuss, your body should reek of it. A death curse should cling to you like a heavy stench. But it doesn’t. There’s no way the scent could have faded in just a week. It was either never there to begin with or sothing suppressed it. If so..."
The young wizard seed to be closing in on Ram, though he wasn’t moving.
"...Have you ever t a wizard before us?"
Ram almost said no but suddenly recalled the assassination request from Selken.
He nodded.
The young wizard also nodded.
"Then that wizard must have cast a spell on you."
Ram couldn’t respond.
The young wizard whispered sothing to the older wizard, but this ti, Ram couldn’t hear it.
The older wizard nodded once and said to Terdin,
"If the boy truly had a death curse but didn’t die, there are three possibilities. The first is that the arrow simply missed its mark. He was just lucky, which happens even in the world of magic. The second is that he already had a shield, and it blocked the curse. The third is that the knife that pierced his body failed to kill him."
"The third one doesn’t make sense. If the body’s pierced, there should at least be pain!"
"Not all death curses manifest perfectly."
"What analogy would you use for that? Being hit by an arrow that was too weak?"
The older wizard pondered if it was a fitting analogy and then lightly nodded.
Terdin fell into thought briefly before suddenly standing.
"Keep this matter secret."
Both wizards bowed simultaneously.
"Understood."
Terdin left without looking back, but Ram glanced back.
The young wizard was staring at him intently.
It was hard to tell if the gaze was one of concern or scrutiny.
Ram suddenly realized that Terdin hadn’t called the wizards by na even once.
The general was known to rember even the nas of patroln and always asked for the na of any unknown soldier he t.
But he never once addressed these wizards by na, which felt uncharacteristic.
‘Terdin must fear them.’
Terdin didn’t say a word until they reached his tent.
Just as he opened his mouth to speak to Ram, his Lieutenant rushed in urgently.
"General?"
"It’s been a while since I’ve seen you running out of breath."
"His Majesty is about to arrive."
"What? When?"
"The letter states he will arrive in three days from the ti it was written. The letter took a day to reach us, so..."
"The day after tomorrow?"
"Uncertain, sir."
"How is that possible? We only sent word of the war’s end a week ago."
"We ntioned in our dispatch that we anticipated securing a surrender within ten days. We gave ourselves a cushion, sir."
Though Terdin had appeared troubled and indecisive earlier while speaking with the wizards, he now radiated the determined energy of a warrior on the battlefield.
"That ans His Majesty departed long before Mantum was beheaded. The army’s assembly would have been even earlier."
"Our requests for reinforcents were ignored, yet suddenly, he’s coming here personally...? Sothing feels off."
The Lieutenant lowered his voice, conscious of Ram’s presence, but Ram still heard everything.
"What’s strange about it? We’ve seen royal whims before. Summon the commanders. His Majesty is coming, so we’ll need to prepare a banquet."
Ram wondered how they were supposed to prepare a banquet when even the soldiers’ rations were insufficient.
Just before leaving, Terdin whispered to Ram,
"I don’t know what that young chieftain ant by bringing up the curse. If he truly wanted to see his father’s assassin die a miserable death, he wouldn’t have ntioned it. The fact that he did ans he’s trying to instill fear in us."
Ram thought that if that was Jedrick’s intention, it had already succeeded to so extent.
Terdin seed unusually shaken.
Ram found this oddly gratifying—the kingdom’s greatest general was concerned for his life!
"Are you afraid?"
"No, sir."
"You’re not afraid of the Geron chieftain in our custody?"
"No, sir."
"Then from now on, you’ll watch over Jedrick."
"Do you an to protect him or to ensure he doesn’t cause trouble?"
"There are plenty of Geronians who’d be burning with a desire for revenge, even among our ranks."
Ram hadn’t considered that.
"That’s true. Understood."
"And if Jedrick asks about the curse, tell him a soldier drowned in a filth barrel. Say you’re unsure if that’s the curse. Then carefully listen to what he says."
"Yes, General. But..."
Ram hesitated before asking,
"Are you sure it’s okay for to stay near him?"
"Why, don’t you want to?"
"It’s not that, but if I really do die from the curse, Jedrick will witness it. Is that acceptable?"
"That won’t happen."
Terdin dismissed the concern as ridiculous and left.
Ram was relieved by his confidence.
He also felt that no curse would suddenly manifest and kill him at that mont.
Moreover, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what would constitute the most wretched death for himself.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
w
Reviews
All reviews (0)