Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 182.2

Translator: Pai_

Grabbing Haroon with one hand, Turan climbed to the first floor and immediately looked around to find the bath.

Fitting for the head of House Zahar, a grand bathhouse laid with the finest blue marble across the floor was located on one side.

Entering the place, Turan first undressed Haroon, seated her on a chair, and activated the magic device to turn on the water.

He no, she remained dazed like a doll, swaying even as her clothes were stripped and she stood naked.

While rinsing off the blood and filth with running water, Turan carefully used Wind Magic to create a path of air between her ear and his mouth, and between his ear and her mouth.

He was as cautious as possible, considering the Aravion nobles’ ability to read the flow of wind.

[“Haroon.”]

He called her quietly, but no response came right away.

That was only natural, in fact.

Right now, he appeared as Faol Zahar, the subordinate of Talis who had reduced Haroon to this condition.

Why would she respond to someone who was part of the group of bastards that had tortured her until moments ago?

So Turan brought up something only the two of them would know.

[“Love doesn’t always seek something in return. Sometimes, just giving can bring joy.”]

When he recited the words Haroon had once spoken when they met in the past, focus returned to her once-vacant eyes.

As Haroon began to turn her head with a shocked expression, Turan deliberately gripped her neck to prevent her from looking.

[“Badal is still downstairs. Speak only, do not act.”]

[“How... did you get in? Talis wouldn’t have been careless with his security.”]

Haroon’s voice came through the wind path, and even her tone had changed to resemble that of a young woman.

Had her personality changed somewhat because her body had changed?

[“As you said, it certainly wasn’t easy to get in.”]

To have reached her like this took a considerable amount of luck.

Had Talis set up even a code system like Turan himself, he would have been caught immediately.

‘But that would’ve been difficult.’

Unlike the Parsha, the Zahars were divided, making such precautions harder to enforce.

How could anyone set a passcode when even the guards at the entrance of the head’s mansion belonged to a different faction than Talis’s?

If a guard responsible for maintaining the code leaked it, the security would only become more vulnerable.

After a moment of silence at Turan’s reply, Haroon spoke.

[“Don’t tell me... you came to rescue me?”]

[“Yes, though I haven’t yet figured out how to get you out.”]

The problem was that no good method came to mind for taking her with him.

To snatch her now and run?

They wouldn’t get a few kilometers before being caught by Badal.

If it were only Bije and Turan, that might be possible, but with Haroon, an ordinary person, they couldn’t move that fast.

At the moment of sudden acceleration, the recoil could easily shatter her entire body and kill her.

Then again, killing her on the spot and extracting just her soul was also not feasible.

They were still within Badal’s sensory range, who was just downstairs.

If Haroon were killed and her spirit extracted, Badal would attack the moment it happened.

In that case, Haroon’s spirit form, defenseless while imprisoned in the soul prison, could suffer severe damage.

For an ordinary wizard, that might not be a concern, but since Badal too had awakened spiritual senses, he could interfere with a soul.

["If you didn't come with companions, don't push yourself and just go back."]

Haroon, too, must have sensed this and told him to abandon her.

Despite clearly knowing what fate awaited her if she stayed here.

Ironically, those very words became shackles that made it even harder for Turan to let her go.

Perhaps, knowing the Night Hunter Otas well, she had deliberately said such a thing...

["If there really seems to be no way, I'll do that."]

[“Yes, that’s how it should be.”]

The face of the woman looking at Turan through the mirror somehow resembled that of a grandmother looking at her grandchild.

Even though outwardly she looked like a woman in her twenties, what could be the reason?

Once the conversation had settled to some extent, Turan immediately asked what he had been most curious about.

[“How did things end up like this?”]

[“All our people were persuaded by Monarch. That stalker... they completely fell for the bait Badal brought.”]

Haroon murmured softly that the reason was because he had lost almost all control within the family due to supporting the House Parsha.

It wasn’t spoken in regret, but in a flat, emotionless tone, as if merely listing facts.

[“When you say bait?”]

Turan recalled the proposals that Monarch, and Calais, who had accepted his offer, had been spreading among their faction.

Offers such as ascending to the status of a god like them through Soul Magic.

Naturally, such a method wouldn’t have worked on the gods of Zahar.

Perhaps, as he had done with the Carmine faction, he had offered some great Sacred Relic?

But Haroon’s next words were something Turan hadn’t even imagined.

[“Return.”]

[“You don’t mean-?”]

[“You’re right. He said they had found a way to return to where we came from, to our homeland.”]

[“How is that even possible?”]

At Turan’s question, she let out a bloody cough and laughed.

[“I don’t know the exact method! When my subordinates brought up that talk and I said I wasn’t interested, they attacked me right away, and I ended up like this.”]

However, judging from how all the gods under him had defected, there must be at least some convincing proof.

It was probably because Badal had secretly shown them something that made them change sides so easily.

As he mechanically washed Haroon’s body, Turan replayed what he had just heard.

The gods want to return to their homeland...

[“Even if we assume they found a way, I still don’t understand why they would want to go back.”]

[“Is that so?”]

[“Yes. Forgive me for saying so, but weren’t the gods in their past lives rather insignificant compared to now?”]

The fallen gods, all those who once enjoyed games, were, when measured by the standards of this world, nothing more than ordinary humans.

Their world had no one who possessed Magic Power.

From the gods sealed inside the Jewel Box and the visions he saw while absorbing Cadrum’s soul, Turan had a rough understanding of what that world was like.

A world without magic, but with technology that manipulated the laws of nature to an extreme degree.

Was that place truly so desirable that those who reigned as gods in this world would want to return to being mere components of their old world?

Judging from Cadrum’s memories, that didn’t seem to be the case at all.

Turan still remembered the resentment and rage the boy once called Junseo had held toward that world in his heart.

["Yes, it would be difficult for you, born and raised here, to understand that far. Even though thousands of years have passed and this civilization has developed, compared to that world, it is still so unbearably dull. Everything, I mean.”]

Seeing that Turan still looked puzzled, Haroon began to explain slowly and carefully.

After the fall of the old empire, the gods tried to develop culture and civilization by jumping from one possessed body to another, but it wasn’t easy.

Unlike their original world, the distorted physical laws here and the general lack of creativity among the people they needed to invent things made everything difficult.

Because of that, even after all this time, they still ate tasteless food and passed their leisure time with theater and dance, dull novels that told predictable stories with little stimulation.

The only things that could be considered pleasurable were gambling, sexual gratification, and the game of power.

But even those get boring after a few days of repetition.

Eventually, the gods became so drenched in laziness and decadence that they treated acquiring a more beautiful and powerful body as mere amusement.

In such a situation, the offer to once again enjoy the advanced technology and culture of the old world they once freely roamed, well, it was certainly welcome.

[“And apparently, they don’t even have to return to their weak bodies from that era. He said we can take these powerful bodies we now possess with us when we cross over.”]

The power that the wizards of this world held was extremely threatening, even by the standards of their original world, a place where scientific civilization had advanced tremendously.

Moreover, the magic they wielded was even more effective against ordinary people who had no Magic Power.

Though it was an extreme case, if a high-ranking noble of the Ruler Bloodline commanded “Death” with full power, it would cause every human within dozens of kilometers to commit suicide.

[“Isn’t it sweet just imagining it? To reign on Earth as a god with this superhuman body, to bear offspring with strong Magic Power as before, to reproduce, and then seize those bodies to attain immortality.”]

To do that, only one thing needed to change from the present.

They would no longer reign over livestock who look at each day just like the last, stripped of creativity, but over real humans.

And through that, they could enjoy the countless cultural products those people create, fine cuisine, music, and all kinds of pleasures...

As Turan quietly listened, he asked in a low voice.

[“If all that is true, then why did you, Haroon-nim, not want such a thing?”]

The leader of the Zahar faction, in possession of the head’s body, and the only god in the present era with the Night Hunter aptitude.

If someone like that had chosen to join them, surely the others would not have opposed it. So why had she refused?

[“Because Otas wouldn’t have made that choice.”]

At the mention of the Night Hunter for the first time in a while, Turan bit his lip, unsure of how to respond.

After saying that, Haroon leaned her head against Turan’s chest as if weary.

[“Thinking that I’m bathing with that man makes me feel a little better. Though I must look quite disgraceful.”]

[“I’m not him.”]

[“I know, so be quiet. I just want to indulge in that feeling a little.”]

Despite claiming she was disgraceful, Haroon calmly entrusted her body to Turan’s hands.

Considering Rida had been the same, perhaps tolerance for shame grows with age.

Pushing aside that fleeting thought, Turan cautiously voiced the question that had risen in his mind.

[“What kind of grudge do you have with Badal? He seemed to really dislike great-uncle quite a bit."]

Strictly speaking, he wasn't using that great-uncle's body, but Turan still maintained the same title.

Hearing this, Haroon gave a look of scornful amusement.

[“He once courted me and got rejected. Back when we lived in that world, before we became like this.”]

She said she had kept her identity tightly hidden, disgusted by how men clung to her the moment they learned she was a woman, but somehow Badal had found out and persistently clung to her, causing her to express open contempt.

[“It happened so long ago, does that really justify hating you to this day?”]

[“You might never understand this, but people like that become hostile once they’re sure they’ll never be loved. That way, what they longed for becomes worthless.”]

Haroon, who had sharply rebuked him, then added that those weren’t her own words.

[“Otas once told me that. He said he’d read it in a novel long ago.”]

Hearing that, Turan could feel again just how significant a presence Night Hunter Otas was to Haroon.

Even after thousands of years, there was still only one person dwelling in her heart.

It made him wonder what kind of person he had been, what he had done, to be etched into someone’s soul so deeply.

At that moment, Turan sensed that Badal was glancing upward from below.

Perhaps the prolonged bath time had made him suspect something was odd.

Although he had said it was fine to harass Haroon sexually, he probably didn’t expect it to actually be happening.

[“Then I’ll have to attempt an escape now.”]

[“As I said before, don’t. I don’t want you risking yourself for someone worthless like me.”]

Faced with Haroon’s still resolute attitude, Turan smiled for the first time since entering this fortress.

[“I’m sorry, but that’s for me to decide.”]

With that reply, Turan immediately seized Haroon’s body and soared into the sky.

***** 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

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