Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 174.1

Translator: Pai_

In the northeastern part of the world, the Frostwind Forest, which borders on the subarctic climate, has characteristically thicker walls and windows in its buildings compared to other regions.

Of course, for wizards, especially nobles, such cold is nothing. But a noble house is not inhabited by nobles alone, is it?

Because of that, the sound of the main gate of the House Ruvan stronghold collapsing did not strike the people inside the building with much immediacy.

Those who felt it vividly were the few knights on night patrol.

“What the hell is...?”

“It’s an assault! We’re under attack! It’s the Varaha bastards, no...”

The young knight of House Ruvan stared blankly at his superior, who mumbled as if half out of his mind, saying it was a sound he had heard before.

What those fear-stricken eyes were seeing was not the present.

It was just a few months ago, when they invaded the southern lands of Varaha as an expeditionary force.

Mysterious attacks that came flying from unseen places and drove dozens to death...

Who had said it? That the head of House Parsha from the far west had flown in to rescue his friend and was launching attacks?

The mysterious attacks penetrated barriers and defensive magic alike, leaving large scars on one side of the campsite.

There was only one thing they could do.

Only to flee northward desperately, begging for the attacks to miss where they were, so that they might see the morning sun again, and falling asleep with those prayers.

Because of the familiar noise, the fear and helplessness they felt at the time returned, making their whole bodies tremble.

“A-are you okay?”

“I’m fi-no, I’m not...”

While the young knight tried to help his fallen superior to his feet, lights began to turn on throughout the previously dark building, and the nobles of Ruvan also began to rise from their places.

They had just been woken from deep sleep, and though their eyes were still drowsy, they raised their voices earnestly.

“Prepare to fight back! Everyone act according to the emergency plan!”

Since they had once been struck after launching an assault on the House Varaha, House Ruvan had prepared to some extent for such situations.

It wasn’t a full-scale invasion anyway, and if it was a surprise attack like this, their numbers wouldn’t be large.

If they responded calmly, they should be able to fend them off.

“What...?”

The Ruvan noble widened his eyes at the number of enemies entering through the distant main gate.

Dozens, a hundred, two hundred, no, more than that.

Even if most of them were at the level of knights, wasn't that number close to the full military force of a major noble house?

How could such a large force have approached the capital area of Slon without anyone knowing? Does that even make sense?

As his brain froze at the incomprehensible reality, the intruding enemies began launching magic attacks in all directions.

*

"Spare me, please spare me!"

“Don’t retreat-!”

“Surrender! If you don’t surrender, you’ll all die!”

The main residence of House Ruvan was located in the very center of the city of Slon.

That place was, quite literally, the embodiment of pandemonium.

The fire magic, which the Varaha wizards took pride in, poured out in all directions, setting buildings ablaze and lighting up the dark night, while the people pouring out from those buildings kept approaching and avoiding those whose allegiance was hard to distinguish.

The tide of battle was, naturally, overwhelmingly in favor of the Varaha-Parsha allied forces.

They had invaded in perfect formation with full mental readiness, while the defenders had been fast asleep when suddenly struck.

What’s more, this side had gathered around five hundred elite troops with a relatively high ratio of nobles, while the defenders barely had five hundred total, with nobles and knights at a ten-to-one ratio.

During war, they could increase their numbers by mobilizing forces from their vassal houses, but in peacetime, they inevitably had fewer.

Right at that moment, a mid-tier noble, without even proper magical equipment, rushed out to attack and was brutally killed by the coordinated assault of more than ten knights.

“Urgh-”

Bang bang, one of the things making the battlefield chaotic was that sharp noise.

Struck by the shots of over ten rifles, the House Ruvan noble, riddled like a beehive, glared with his one remaining eye and tried to attack somehow. But before he could even take a few steps forward, another round of shooting silenced him completely.

Firearms.

What the Preah God Tribe once called the ultimate weapon of the ancient world was now being unveiled here in prototype form.

"Just a dozen knights hunting down a noble with Guardian bloodline, this is insane...”

"Actually, it was easy to take him down because the opponent didn't know the nature of our weapon and had Fighter bloodline, but still."

Turan shook his head as he glanced at Solif, who was expressing admiration.

If, for example, Turan had faced that weapon knowing what it was, he could have easily neutralized it. Just coating it in flame without much magic power would cause the gunpowder to spontaneously detonate.

Moreover, the technical difficulty of manufacturing it was also a weakness.

Currently, many key parts were patched together using magic artifacts due to a lack of proper technology.

Because of that, only about ten of Parsha’s wizards, those with the most outstanding firearm-handling skills, were armed with them.

“Well, it's a matter of time before that’s solved... Hey! You there! I told you not to kill the kids!”

Solif shouted sharply and immediately transformed the cloak on his back, firing a spear of light.

A Varaha knight, who was about to split a child just over eleven or twelve years old in two, flinched and looked toward his liege lord.

“You stupid bastard! I’m sorry, I’ll keep him in check!”

A noble of Varaha cracked the knight on the head with a loud thud and quickly bowed his head. Solif clicked his tongue and turned away.

Watching him, Turan spoke softly in consolation.

“You’ve got a hard job.”

“Well, it’s not that I don’t understand. Those Ruvan bastards did all sorts of horrible things on their way down here... still, the kids did nothing wrong. It’s not like we can wipe out all of them and then manage this whole place ourselves.”

Perhaps if it were Varaha in its prime, but now, with more than half of their wizards gone, maintaining security in two territories was no more than a pipe dream.

They were already having enough trouble just trying to control the magical beasts in the Land of the Five Lakes.

“Aaaaah-!”

At that moment, a noble of House Varaha was seen screaming at the top of his lungs and fleeing.

A sturdy-looking woman who appeared to be around thirty stretched out both arms, and ten claws formed of pitch-black energy shot forth.

“What is that, a skill?”

“Looks like it. Found one.”

Turan began walking toward the Ruvan god, likely a woman who was half White Elf inside.

She had just shredded an unfortunate Varaha noble and was aiming for her second victim when her eyes widened in shock upon seeing Turan approach.

She seemed to recognize who he was.

“You...!”

Ignoring her reaction, Turan focused on the inner symbol of his opponent that he saw through the Sacred Relic.

The symbols of House Ruvan: the Fighter and the Guardian, along with a swamp boiling in dark purple.

“She’s a Shadow.”

"Get away!"

The unnamed half-elf cried out in fear and immediately turned to run away from him.

In response, Turan reached out toward her.

“Bije.”

With a word, the golden eagle that had been hiding within his body appeared at the tip of his finger.

As the golden eagle, about one meter in length, soared and its eyes gleamed ominously, lightning struck down from the sky and hit the fleeing woman.

“Aaagh!”

She screamed and turned to counterattack but was soon overwhelmed by despair.

Dozens of meters in the sky, an unreachable distance existed between her and her opponent.

From the very beginning, a sky-flying Aravian was the worst enemy for a ground-crawling Ruvan. None of the godly skills she possessed could overcome that.

That was precisely why Turan had let Bije fight freely.

Because of the inherently weak durability typical of flying creatures, Bije was dangerous to expose in front of other powerful wizards with strong firepower. However, against the nobles of Ruvan, who only knew how to fight in close combat, she was practically their natural enemy.

“Please, have mercy...”

“Kill her.”

If she had been an ordinary noble of Ruvan, it might have been different, but there was no mercy for those possessed by body snatchers.

With a cheerful chirp, Bije continued to rain down lightning strikes.

Turan took out the jewel box over her half-ashened corpse and retrieved the soul.

The image of the twisted, grotesquely distorted half-elf formed by the intertwined soul forms of two races appeared.

***