Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 206

Translator: Pai_

Turan had the influential figures of the nearby region rest at a lodging near the camp, then called a few of them out separately.

However, since there was a high chance that they would be too nervous to speak properly if he showed up in the form of the Head of House Parsha, he disguised himself with a mask, pretending to be one of the nobles.

They were tense, wondering why they had been summoned again, but when asked the unexpected question about what kind of person Jaime was, they answered honestly, albeit with some confusion.

“She is truly a saint, a saint.”

"A saint?"

“Yes...... I mean, I’m not sure if calling her that would be disrespectful.”

“It doesn't matter.”

According to them, Jaime was a renowned figure even among the commoners in the surrounding areas.

Originally, she had entered as the concubine of a wealthy merchant, but lost her husband at a young age and inherited a vast fortune and merchant group. Supposedly, she expanded that merchant group several times over and also raised her son, who was born out of wedlock, into an excellent merchant.

Considering that desert people are particularly reluctant about women participating in social activities compared to other regions, she was truly a formidable woman.

Moreover, even while growing her merchant group, she only employed fair and upright methods, becoming a role model for many merchants, and every year she donated large sums of money to help the poor and suffering.

Just hearing the stories made her seem like an impeccable and truly great person.

“So, you're saying she’s never been involved in anything suspicious.”

“Of course not, absolutely never!”

“Did any of you receive any kind of heads-up from Jaime beforehand?”

“No way. She’s absolutely not the type to do such a thing.”

Thanks to using the Eye of Truth, Turan could tell that many of the local influential figures genuinely respected Jaime.

There were a few who disliked her, but it was mostly out of jealousy rather than any wrongdoing on her part.

Having gathered all the information, Turan let out a small groan as he sat facing Solif.

“This is strange.”

“Right? For a puppet of the Monarch, she’s acting far too...... righteous, don’t you think?”

“She might be in a dormant state.”

“Like the gods?”

Just as when Turan first met Ymir who resided in the body of Renaud Nagin, the gods could, if they wished, have the residual subconscious left in a spirit form move the body on its own.

In such cases, the personality of the possessed body thought and remembered through physical means, that is, the brain, so it was virtually identical to the original consciousness before possession.

Though in reality, since the contents of the spirit form were entirely devoured, it was no different from a puppet show.

The gods often used this dormant state when traveling long distances or dealing with bothersome and tedious tasks.

With some adjustments, they could make the possessed individual perceive the god’s personality as someone existing within themselves, or even believe all past actions were done out of their own will, like with Renaud.

In any case, following a similar principle, it was possible that the Monarch had only prepared to inject consciousness at any time, and the actions themselves were being carried out according to her own will.

In that case, their encounter might not have been the Monarch’s intention at all.

“Rather than being some traveler who happened to end up here, she’s someone who has lived here for decades, so the latter seems more likely.”

“So, how do we look into it more closely?”

“I’m thinking. Whether to break through head-on, or pretend I don’t know anything.”

What allowed Turan to uncover the Monarch’s identity was the Mimic Sacred Relic, which let him perceive the symbol embedded in someone's inner self.

Monarch couldn't possibly know that.

Even Haroon only knew that Turan could mimic the gods' skills by observing them, but not the mechanism behind it.

However, if he were to press or kill Jaime here, Monarch would at least realize that Turan could see through his puppet.

Would it be right to expose that fact and proceed with the investigation?

After much deliberation, Turan decided on a direct approach and instructed a nearby knight to bring Jaime back.

A short while later, she entered the tent with a slightly dazed expression.

“I was told you summoned me, great head of House Parsha.”

“Have you ever thought that your body might be moving according to someone else's will?”

“Huh? What on earth do you mean.......”

At Turan's direct question, Jaime reflexively asked back as if it were nonsense, then quickly covered her mouth in realization.

For a mere commoner to talk back to the head of a Great Noble House, such impudence was enough to warrant being torn apart on the spot.

However, when Turan did not rebuke her and simply looked at her with a calm expression, she seemed to realize that this was not a question thrown out at random and fell into serious contemplation.

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean by the body moving on its own, but the truth is... I do sleepwalking. It’s so severe that I’ve sometimes worked or met people while asleep.”

She didn’t sleep much at night, but would often doze off during the day, and during those moments, she said she had made important decisions or invented new products.

After hearing her out, Turan nodded and activated spiritual perception to cast soul magic.

It was the same spell he had used some time ago when torturing Badal, one that prevented the target’s spirit form from remaining dormant.

“Are you a god?”

“......What?”

“Don’t answer with a question. Just reply.”

“N-no. How could someone like me possibly be.”

“Then are you from Earth?”

“What’s th-”

“If you don’t know, just say no.”

“No.”

“Are you a Player?”

“No.”

After asking several questions that could identify the target while avoiding the name Monarch, Turan dismissed Jaime, who still looked dazed.

Solif, who had been listening quietly from the side, immediately asked,

“Well?”

“There were no lies in what she said.”

Even though he deliberately threw several types of questions that were hard to avoid by saying they weren't lies, none of them worked, so unless she could completely avoid the Eye of Truth, it was clear she at least had no awareness of being Monarch's puppet.

“She was manipulated and controlled to become a notable figure in this city. And in the process, it doesn’t seem like she did anything particularly wrong.”

He had no idea what the intention behind it was.

If she had secretly extracted information from the Zahar faction, he could assume she was raised for espionage, but that didn’t seem to be the case either.

As Turan pondered, Solif asked offhandedly.

“So, you’re not going to kill her? It’s kind of risky to just leave her.”

"Not for now. It would likely cause more trouble in various ways."

If he openly killed a woman who was regarded as a saint in the region, it could seriously damage the reputation of House Parsha.

Even if commoners couldn’t resist against wizards, they could at least run away out of fear.

If rumors spread that House Parsha slaughtered commoners like insects, it could make it difficult to not just dominate but also control the Enril Desert.

And even though her spirit had been devoured and only the shell remained, it still felt uncomfortable to kill someone who had done so much good.

“She probably can’t do anything grand with just a commoner’s body anyway. For now, it’s better to assign someone to keep watch over her separately.”

“Well, if that’s what you think.”

Having reached a conclusion, Turan selected one of his knights who was originally from the Enril Desert and instructed him to secretly keep an eye on Jaime.

He even gave the knight one of the few remaining pigeon-type magical beasts to use as a means of immediate contact should anything happen. The knight’s eyes sparkled with a sense of duty.

“It could get dangerous, so if anything seems off, just run immediately.”

“I will follow your orders!”

Perhaps because the instructions and encouragement had come directly from the family head, his voice was overly loud.

*

After confirming the situation near Ravana City, the allied forces rested exactly two days before resuming their march.

During that time, there had been several sporadic resistances by Zahar’s wizards, but they were of little consequence.

They always kept their surroundings brightly lit during marches and rests, and thanks to firearms, they always had superior range and firepower.

As the allied army crushed several minor resistances and continued its advance, it kept making contact with influential figures in nearby regions. Through this, they learned that the Zahar army, which had attacked Parsha not long ago, had gathered in the capital, Axum.

“Are they planning a final resistance?”

“Not a very wise decision.”

The nobles of the allied forces evaluated the enemy's actions as such.

Now, with the armies of the three houses combined, there were one hundred fifty nobles alone and nearly two thousand knights.

In addition, with two family-head level wizards like Turan and Solif, their power surpassed even that of Aravion or Zahar at their peak.

Perhaps if they had employed guerrilla warfare, Zahar’s specialty, it would have been a different story. But by allowing the enemy to reach a defensive stronghold, it was tantamount to conceding defeat.

So then, why were they choosing such a strategy?

While pondering this for a while, Turan reached out toward Bije, who was flapping her way over from afar, allowing her to land on his arm.

-I’m back.......

“You’ve done well. Nothing happened?”

-Yep!

For the past few weeks, Turan had continued sending Bije to patrol different regions during the march.

To Helio City, the capital of Varaha connected to Kalamaf, to Merem, the capital of Lavitas, and even to Morgen, the capital of Aravion, which Meisa had gone to occupy.

Although Bije was fast enough to travel from one end of the world to the other in three or four days at full speed, it was a grueling schedule.

This also reflected just how anxious Turan had been about the enemy’s movements.

“No news at all? That makes it all the more suspicious.”

In truth, he had expected an attack targeting one of their other strongholds based on the enemy’s movements.

If the Zahar nobles hid themselves in a group, or if a few of the gods used skills to apply wide-area concealment, they could move undetected.

Because of this, he had left a significant portion of the troops in Kalamaf and Helio, and even assigned some to Meisa, who went to occupy Aravion. There were even criticisms that the main force here was now too understrength.

However, contrary to expectations, the enemy seemed to be truly helplessly holed up in the capital Axum, preparing for their last stand.

“Well, what can we do? All that’s left is to knock once and see what breaks.”

“Exactly.”

Once they had begun moving, turning back now would have been absurd.

It would not only give the enemy time to recover, but Lavitas would not want to risk sending a massive army twice either.

And so, they kept moving eastward, toward the setting sun, for about two weeks.

At last, in the distance, he saw the massive oasis and walls he had seen once before.

He had returned to Axum City after a long while.

*

“A messenger?”

“Yes, I come to see the ruler of the Gray Zone.”

At the outer garrison of Axum City.

Turan frowned slightly as he looked at the woman who bowed before him.

Quite tall for a woman and possessing mid-to-high-level magic power, her name was Aril Zahar.

Daughter of Talis, sister of Karim, and also Turan’s aunt.

But Turan showed no hint of familial affection despite standing before his blood relative.

Truthfully, he didn’t feel much of such emotions to begin with, and as commander-in-chief of the allied forces, he especially couldn’t afford to show such sentiments.

"What do you want to say?"

“The head of Zahar seeks peace negotiations.”

When she cautiously held out a proposal written on parchment, one of the nobles beside them took it, shook it a few times, then brought it to Turan after unfolding it.

“Hmm.......”

[To the head of Parsha, the great Turan,

We acknowledge that this situation is greatly our fault.

However, if we may offer an excuse, we too were deceived by Badal.

That man merely sought to use us, giving us false hope of returning to Earth, and when things didn’t go as planned, he cut off contact, leaving us in the dark.

If you're looking for him, visiting Zahar would only be a waste of time.

I understand that Kim Woong/Ridel Zahar have already surrendered to Parsha, so I assume you’ve heard from him about what we saw.

If you would show mercy to us who had no choice but to cling to a sliver of hope, we shall pledge eternal loyalty.

We sincerely await a favorable response.

– Phoenix]

The letter's contents were so submissive they bordered on servility, casting aside even the minimal arrogance and pride a god might retain.

Turan, wondering if there might be hidden sarcasm embedded in diagonal or vertical lines, read through it several more times, but there seemed to be nothing of the sort.

“Is this letter from Rahman?”

“Yes, it is.”

“If they wish to surrender, tell them to disarm and come out to us. Then, after being restrained, those without guilt will not be harshly punished according to procedure.”

Of course, even if they did surrender, Turan had no intention of leaving Zahar’s possessed vessels alone.

Kim Woong had, due to his abilities, remained to protect Axum even back then, but all those left now were ones who had either executed or stood by during the death of his father, Karim.

“Since it’s morning now, I’ll set the deadline as when the sun reaches its peak in the sky.”

A few hours would be enough time to gather opinions and respond.

After hearing the response, Aril bowed politely, then returned inside Axum City.

Watching this in silence, Turan slowly lifted himself into the air and headed from the camp toward Axum City.

The allied army’s wizards were flustered by their leader suddenly moving alone, and several guards and knights on the city wall, who saw this, were frightened and quickly ducked out of sight.

After a short breath, Turan unleashed his voice forward, massively amplified with wind magic.

[“To the citizens of Axum City. If negotiations fail, the allied forces of Parsha, Varaha, and Lavitas will begin their assault on House Zahar at noon today. We do not wish to harm ordinary citizens, so we advise you to evacuate.”]

Though the tone wasn't especially harsh, his voice boomed, spreading past the walls, into streets and alleyways alike.

It was a voice so divine that it invoked a sense of religious awe, as if the gods of the heavens themselves were speaking.

This too was something Turan could now easily do, something that would have required enormous magic power before.

After all, was it not only natural for the shepherd to speak directly to his flock?

However, even with Turan’s warning, the citizens of Axum City could not easily attempt to flee.

“What should we do?”

“Should we run?”

“What if we get punished later for that......?”

To Zahar’s wizards, those fleeing now would appear to be people who didn’t believe in their victory.

As citizens of an ancient capital that had endured for thousands of years, it wasn’t easy for them to ignore this.

To them, House Zahar were worshipped as descendants of the gods. Obeying the enemy’s words was tantamount to apostasy.

“I’m leaving.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. I’ve had enough. I already settled my assets not long ago, so I’m going to live in the countryside now.”

Even so, there were still those who followed Turan’s words.

Most were people who had lost loved ones during the recent chaos, both in the civil war over the change of family head and during Turan’s infiltration.

They knew all too well how easily powerful wizards’ battles, like natural disasters, could claim human lives, and they chose the path of avoiding involvement.

While Turan watched at the western gate to make sure no wizards were among the evacuees, Solif checked the armament status of the allied wizards.

His past experience as Parsha’s Armament Officer clearly showed in his actions.

“Hey, the inside of this gun is filthy. I told you not to let it get like this.”

“S-sorry, sir!”

He suddenly picked up a musket and checked the inside. When he thrust his soot-blackened finger forward, the faces of the knights grouped under the same unit turned pale.

About half a day passed like that.

As the stream of evacuees began to dwindle, and after finishing a meal with his subordinates, Turan confirmed there was no further response from Axum City and glanced over at Solif.

"It seems like a refusal?"

"Seems so."

At the very least, if opinions were divided, they would have sent another envoy asking for more time.

Such silence was effectively a refusal, and the wizards of House Parsha completed their final preparations and began clearing the camp.

They had just finished eating, so their physical condition was at its peak.

It was the perfect time for battle.

[“All forces, attack! Bring down the Red Fortress!”]

Just as before, Turan's voice, amplified by wind magic, rang out thunderously through the thousands of Parsha troops and into the distant city of Axum.

If the earlier message had been a solemn and kind recommendation, this one was the furious roar of an enraged god.

Some of the Zahar knights, trembling with fear before they even realized it, saw smoke rising from the allied camp beyond the city walls.

They had no way of knowing that it was smoke from a fired cannon, or that the explosion they hadn’t yet heard was due to the slower speed of sound.

Because the cannonball that had flown in from afar had already torn his body to shreds.

Thus began the siege of Axum City.

*****

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