Shepherd Wizard Chapter 108

Translator: Pai_

A few hours had passed since the discovery of Onil's death.

The subjugation team mbers imdiately transported the tar on an orca magical beast to the main estate in Avacha to report the captain's death.

Naturally, the House Carmine was thrown into turmoil.

Although he was poorly regarded due to his vile personality, he was still a skilled individual who ranked among the top nobles in the main estate in terms of magic power.

And yet, he had died while hunting a re magical beast?

A task force was imdiately assembled to investigate the truth, and among them was Jel Carmine, Onil's father, the family head’s younger brother, and one of the absolute powerhouses of the house.

"This way, Lord Jel."

"Hmm."

The subjugation team mbers shuddered as they watched the man approach with an exceedingly solemn expression.

Before them lay the headless corpse of the investigation team leader’s son.

If Jel were to demand accountability for his son's death and summarily execute the subjugation team mbers on the spot, he would likely only receive a few reprimands from the family head before the matter was settled.

Compared to knights or mid-ranking nobles, such high-ranking nobles were extraordinarily rare.

Whether Jel understood the subjugation team's anxiety or not, he remained expressionless as he gazed down at his son's corpse.

After a brief silence, he asked in a completely dry tone,

"Why was his head severed?"

"It… it appears that it was bitten off during the battle, as it was found inside the magical beast’s mouth."

"The teeth of an octopus are sharper than I thought. I didn’t know that. Is it because it’s a magical beast?"

Jel caressed the severed edge of Onil's neck, appearing less like a grieving father and more like soone numbed by overwhelming sorrow.

"Explain the course of events in detail."

"Yes. We departed smoothly from the operation area and headed north…"

The lieutenant slightly distorted the truth in their report.

In reality, Onil had been drinking heavily and causing trouble, but the lieutenant frad it as if he had been ordering the restoration of the affected area and actively devising operational plans.

At this, Jel clicked his tongue and said,

"Enough. He was my son. Do you think I wouldn’t know him? There’s no need to flatter him. He was probably just getting drunk as usual."

"I-I apologize."

The lieutenant was astonished at Jel’s brutally objective view of his own son but also admitted it was true.

Having been seen through once, the lieutenant then reported the subsequent events honestly.

Drunkenly leaving the command to his subordinates and causing a ruckus, pretending to fight by staying in the rear and whipping the knights instead, then charging in alone at the end, declaring he would finish things himself…

It felt almost too much to confess everything, but rather than being surprised, Jel and the high-ranking nobles of House Carmine rely looked as if they had expected nothing less.

"He charged in alone?"

"Yes. He threatened to kill anyone who followed him, so no one could assist him. I apologize."

"Hmm. He was braver than I expected. I didn’t anticipate that. Did I misjudge him…?"

The murmured remark left the lieutenant wide-eyed in shock.

At first, they had assud Jel was simply acting cold due to excessive grief, but his reaction seed even less than what one would have for a dead pet.

That shock barely lasted a mont before Jel's gaze returned to them, and the lieutenant quickly lowered their eyes.

"By the way, Onil’s body seems to be devoid of magic power."

"It was likely absorbed while his head was being eaten. However, the magical beast was too severely wounded to fully digest the magic power…"

"So it evaporated as excess magic when it died. Everyone, project your magic power."

Jel ordered the noble mbers of the subjugation team to project their magic. After confirming that none of them had experienced a significant increase in power, he nodded.

This absolved them of the suspicion that they had stolen Onil's remaining magic power.

Afterward, while Jel quietly conversed with the investigation team mbers, the subjugation team mbers bit their lips and nails nervously, feeling like condemned prisoners awaiting execution.

A few monts later, Jel issued his judgnt.

"I believe none of the noble participants in this operation have reached their growth limit, correct?"

"Y-yes, that is correct."

"The magical beast’s magic power will be distributed among the four of you. Absorb it imdiately."

At Jel’s ruling, not only the subjugation team mbers but even the investigation team showed expressions of surprise.

One of the noble mbers of the subjugation team muttered in disbelief.

“What about… punishnt?”

“There will be no punishnt. You all did your best, and realistically, you wouldn’t have been able to stop Onil. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to the family head. I raised my child poorly and endangered everyone.”

"Lord Jel...!"

So of the subjugation team mbers were so moved by his calm admission of his own shortcomings, even in the face of his son’s death, that they shed a few tears.

How could such a noble father have produced such a delinquent son?

As the noble mbers of the subjugation team absorbed the magic power, Jel distanced himself slightly and observed Onil’s corpse once more.

The others respectfully kept their distance, allowing the father his final monts with his son.

"Hmm... I hope it's not a fake? Even though he's my son, I can't really tell looking at him like this. Maybe it would have been easier to recognize him if he weren’t so bloated.”

Jel murmured as he ran his hand over Onil’s swollen face and body.

The idea that parents naturally knew their children’s physical features was sothing that applied only to commoners. Having left his son in the care of servants from an early age, Jel had no reason to be familiar with such details.

He hadn’t raised his son with enough attention or care to know.

“I wanted to raise him properly at least once since he seed to have so exceptional potential… Tch, I didn’t expect him to die like this.”

Not only had Onil been a fairly competent individual on his own, but he had also served as a backup body in case one of their kind perished in an accident. Losing him was sowhat regrettable.

But that was all.

Out of the hundreds of children he had so far and the thousands more he would have in the future, one had simply died.

That was how Jel saw it as he erased Onil’s face, na, and the few mories he had of him from his mind.

One of the secrets to living a long life was knowing how to discard unnecessary information in a tily manner.

*

After tossing Onil’s water-bloated corpse to the subjugation team mbers, Turan remained concealed and observed the final proceedings with ticulous attention.

If Jel or any mber of the investigation team scrutinized Onil’s death and uncovered any suspicions, this body-switching strategy would not be usable again.

Fortunately, the nobles of House Carmine had more or less accepted the fabricated scenario Turan had created.

Had they examined the corpse in detail, they might have found one or two inconsistencies, but most people, when faced with an obvious conclusion, did not go out of their way to seek a more complex and difficult truth.

After confirming that Onil’s body had been placed inside the coffin, Turan, now free, disguised himself as an ordinary fisherman and purchased a boat from a nearby island.

“Well then, where should I start looking…?”

Instead of returning directly to the southern reclaid land, Turan set out for the North Sea in search of the rfolk.

Specifically, he was looking for the rfolk royal faction to which Armania belonged, the ones who had fought alongside him against the undead Great Sea Serpent.

Upon witnessing the octopus magical beast’s attack, Turan concluded that this was unlikely to be a natural occurrence.

The way the octopus moved toward the city did not seem driven by rage, hunger, or curiosity. Rather, it behaved as though it were carrying out an order.

When Turan relayed this through the mirror, Solif asked with a worried expression,

[You’re going to et the rfolk alone? If they use the power of the Great Sea Serpents, you’ll be in trouble by yourself.]

“I’m not going to fight. I just need to confirm whether soone is actually driving the magical beasts toward the coast.”

Once he understood the truth, if the situation called for action, he would return with isa and Solif and crush the problem together.

After all, they weren’t the only ones who could use the power of alliances.

With his report finished, Turan sailed smoothly across the North Sea, alone on his newly acquired boat.

‘Traveling alone on a boat really is lonely.’

In the past, when he was with Solif and isa, although it was a bit boring, they could pass the ti talking and laughing with each other.

He had also enjoyed watching Bije’s adorable antics.

Fortunately, he was not entirely without sothing to do. Inside his large-capacity pouch were several books he had received from Ashiz, allowing him to pass the ti by reading.

Turan, using the power of the Rapids Bloodline to steer his boat through the North Sea while reading a book, looked like a scene from a painting.

“Ah, found them.”

After three days of exploration, he finally ca across a group of rfolk attacking a ship.

The people on board, dressed as pirates, had lost their will to fight and were jumping into the sea, only to be captured and eaten alive by the rfolk.

Even if they were criminals, watching such a grueso scene of cannibalism was unpleasant, so Turan decided to intervene imdiately.

With a single gesture, seawater surged upward, transforming into dozens of ice spikes that shot toward the rfolk.

“Kyaah-!”

The precisely aid spikes instantly tore through the arms and legs of the rfolk, leaving them writhing and screaming in agony as they collapsed into the sea.

The pirates, their bodies covered in bite wounds, desperately reached out to Turan, but he ignored them.

He had left the healing magic artifact with isa, and even if he had it, he had no intention of saving pirates, who were little better than wolves.

Dragging one of the rfolk toward him using Telekinesis Magic, Turan growled at the creature.

“Bring your royal family, anyone will do. If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”

However, the only response he received was a feral screech and frantic struggling.

Even when he applied the torture techniques he had used on Reto, it was ineffective.

The rfolk rely drooled at the scent of human flesh, clacking their teeth together hungrily, incapable of aningful conversation.

“Tch.”

Clicking his tongue, Turan killed all the rfolk and searched the ship.

As expected, it was an old, heavily damaged pirate ship, far more worn-out than the ones he had sold before, so he simply left it.

There was no practical way to sell it this ti anyway.

He continued traveling across the North Sea, encountering rfolk several more tis, but each encounter ended the sa way.

It was only on his seventh encounter that he finally t a rfolk capable of conversation.

“Y-you… are…?”

Despite drooling profusely, this rfolk was able to speak.

It had a stronger presence of power compared to the others, and its physique was notably better, suggesting it belonged to the noble class.

“Hey, can you understand ?”

“Y-yes… No, you… look so delicious… Why…?”

“A rfolk noble, huh?”

“Yes…”

Perhaps its noble status allowed it to suppress its instincts enough to hold a conversation.

Turan seized the rfolk and pressed for answers.

“Where do I go to et your royal family?”

“O-our royal family… fled… beyond the mirror…”

“Beyond the mirror? Are you talking about the mirror leading to the South Sea?”

At Turan’s question, the rfolk noble gave him a look of shock, as if wondering how a human could know that.

“Humans know more than you think. So, did all the rfolk royals flee? Is there no one left in the North Sea?”

The rfolk noble clamped its mouth shut, reluctant to answer. However, the sensation of ice spikes creatively digging into its claws made it scream in pain and spill the truth.

It seed that as their instincts weakened and rationality strengthened, their resistance to pain also diminished.

“T-the high priest's clan… has returned… The royal family didn’t want to die at their hands, so they fled…”

Its explanation was long-winded, perhaps due to the internal conflict between its pain and hunger, but after pressing the creature a few more tis, Turan grasped the situation.

According to the rfolk noble, when Armania’s faction of the rfolk royal family gained the power of the Great Sea Serpent, the other rfolk feared they would be purged and fled to the South Sea.

The weaklings among the nobles and the commoner rfolk were left behind.

“What’s the reason the magical beasts are attacking the coast?”

“Magical… beasts…? Probably… the priests… controlling them…”

At the ntion that the bloodline of the Great Sea Serpent had the ability to control magical beasts, Turan’s expression hardened.

The likelihood that his suspicions were correct had grown even stronger.

After asking a few more questions, Turan ended the noble’s life.

“P-please… spare …”

“If you wanted to live, you shouldn’t have tried to eat humans.”

A non-human that hard people was nothing more than a wolf preying on sheep.

No matter how benevolent they might have been among their own kind, that was irrelevant.

*

Unfortunately, even after interrogating the rfolk noble, Turan was unable to determine the whereabouts of Armania’s kin.

That rfolk noble had belonged to a different faction under the rule of another royal lineage.

According to the interrogation results, the rfolk of that faction were currently engaged in fierce power struggles deep beneath the sea.

Those who had surfaced were rely commoners or fallen nobles.

At that point, Turan decided to halt his search for the rfolk and return.

He had already accomplished his goal, confirming that the rfolk, particularly Armania’s faction, were likely influencing the magical beast attacks on the coast.

The next ti he ca, he probably wouldn’t be alone.

Rather than summoning Bije, Turan chose to steer the boat himself toward the southwest.

Unlike him, Bije lacked tracking abilities, so he would have to explain the location and wait for her to find her way, which would likely lead to her getting lost in the vast North Sea.

Instead, it was more practical for him to reach the continent on his own first, then summon Bije from a convenient location.

‘Might as well stop by Kalamaf while I’m at it.’

From his current position, heading southwest would likely lead him to the Gray Zone.

If he continued further south, he would reach the Enril Desert.

After sailing steadily for about five days, Turan finally landed on a coastal area of the continent.

Having spent a considerable ti at sea, he felt a strange sense of swaying, much like when he had disembarked from the Blue Marlin before.

“Excuse , is this the Gray Zone? I got caught in a storm don't really know where this is..."

"That's right. You're out of luck, aren't you? I heard the winds haven't been blowing much these days."

After confirming his location at a nearby fishing village, Turan changed into the attire of an ordinary traveler and began moving inland.

Kalamaf was the westernmost city in the Gray Zone.

By following the main roads in the right direction, he would naturally arrive there.

[I’ll be there soon!]

“Alright. Be careful and wait for if you get there first.”

Of course, there was little chance that a top-ranked magical beast like Bije would be in any danger.

Still, Turan smiled when he saw Bije holding the stone tablet through the mirror.

With that, he moved swiftly through the uninhabited areas, traveling for about three days.

Upon arriving in Kalamaf, Turan gazed at the city he had once saved, his expression filled with nostalgia.

“Looks like they’re doing well.”

From the newly repaired city walls that had once been half-destroyed to the attire of the people passing by, the city seed little changed from when he had last left.

That alone was enough to tell him that the lord he had contracted with was managing the city reasonably well.

Before eting Bije, Turan decided to take a quick look inside.

However, as he passed through the city gates, he noticed sothing unexpected.

‘Wait, where’s my statue?’

Though he was a bit embarrassed by them, a small part of him had felt a bit proud.

Yet now, all the statues of him that had once been placed beside each city gate had been removed.

Had the ruling family decided to erase them because they interfered with their authority?

It was sowhat displeasing, but not entirely unreasonable.

Clicking his tongue, Turan made his way toward the city hall to check if they were still properly hunting magical beasts as per the contract.

However…

“Ha.”

A large notice posted in front of city hall caught his eye.

The ssage roughly stated that a new tax had been imposed for various reasons, and at the bottom of the notice, he saw sothing that made him burst into laughter.

[This is declared in the na of Turan, the lord of Kalamaf.]

Of course, his laughter was not one of joy.