Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 214

Translator: Pai_

The battleship of House Carmine had not fled and remained at the place where Turan had first descended.

The wizards, upon seeing him and Armania emerge from the sea, all fell flat on the ground and shouted in unison.

“We surrender. Please spare our lives!”

“So all the ones who fled are here too.”

The nobles who had fled during the fierce battle under the sea looked at him with fearful expressions, their wounded bodies wrapped in bandages.

“If you were going to surrender, there was no need to run away from there in the first place.”

“The situation was so chaotic that we thought it would be difficult to convey our intentions”, one of the surviving Carmine nobles, who appeared to be relatively older, explained in a polite tone.

Well, during battle, blood often rushed to the head, making rational judgment difficult.

In that regard, it was a reasonably wise decision.

“The head of your house is dead anyway, so you have no means to resist further. No matter where you go, you’d only be fugitives, so you figured surrendering would be better... The idea isn’t bad, but I don’t see why I should kindly accept a bunch of traitors.”

“We’re sorry to say this, but we truly didn’t know.”

Those words were the truth.

After all, for Rodor and the other Carmine God Tribe members, they would have had to account for the possibility of betrayal.

If even one of them had been intimidated by Turan’s power and exposed the plan to betray, the whole scheme would have fallen apart before it even began. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“Would you have not done it if you’d known?”

At Turan’s follow-up question, the middle-aged man who had stepped forward as the representative lowered his head without answering.

At least, being honest was better than spouting smooth-tongued lies, so Turan let out a faint scoff and issued instructions, indicating he would not pursue the matter further.

“Let’s head back to Ophen Port.”

“Understood!”

Having already captured Rodor and the rest of the Carmine God Tribe, he had no intention of punishing the others.

In a turbulent era like this, even a single noble was a valuable asset.

Even during the battle under the sea, had the situation allowed more leeway, he would have deliberately only killed the possessed bodies to induce the others to surrender.

Now aboard a ship moving much more slowly than when they had departed, Turan used his hand mirror to report the situation to Kalamaf.

Hearing that their family head had gone out alone and clashed with a great noble house, Ashiz cried out in shock.

[What’s your condition!? We’ll send reinforcements immediately...]

“It’s already over, so there’s nothing to worry about. I’ve captured the ringleaders, and the rest are submitting.”

[They betrayed us twice, what’s stopping them from doing it a third time? We should wipe them out completely this time...]

“I didn’t expect you to say something like that.”

Could the position of steward to a great noble house extract all the soft parts from a person?

At Turan’s remark about Ashiz’s uncharacteristically ruthless words, the voice from the other side of the hand mirror paused.

[Yeah, well... with your strength, they’d have to be complete idiots to try a third time. So, are you on your way back?]

“That’s right. Things seem mostly settled on the sea front for now, so start preparing for the reconstruction of Ophen Port.”

[What about the other Great Sea Serpents?]

“For now, it should be fine. I don’t know about the long term, though.”

While traveling, Turan used the Blue Coral Crown he had obtained this time and confirmed the immense power it held.

The owner of the crown could inject magic power to identify or exert control over beings within a certain range, and under Turan’s control, it displayed an overwhelming dominance over an area spanning several thousand kilometers in all directions.

Thanks to this, he could easily determine without further investigation that there were no more Great Sea Serpents roaming near the North Sea and that the threatening high-ranking mermaids had also been completely eradicated.

Most likely, the remaining mermaid royalty had fled to the South Sea to avoid the Great Sea Serpent clan.

If he actively utilized the power of the Blue Coral Crown, he could completely control at least the seas near Ophen Port.

‘Who would’ve thought that the sea routes, once nearly paralyzed, would become safer than land routes?’

Of course, it was still uncertain how long it would be before another Great Sea Serpent appeared.

To confirm this, they would have to capture Monarch, but there were no solid leads, and too many tasks to handle.

They needed to exterminate or subjugate the dwarves in the Gray Zone, eliminate the goblins in the Land of the Lakes who were eating people, secure a land route to Aravion, and deal with the giants of the Enril Desert before they came up.......

If they didn’t set clear priorities and solve each issue properly, the very foundation of forming a union would collapse.

Fortunately, many of these could be delegated once the unit led by Solif returned.

[You’re going to be busy again for a while.]

Turan nodded in agreement at Ashiz’s lament from the other side of the mirror.

***

Two days later, when the battleship landed at Ophen Port, Armania expressed his desire to stay near the North Sea for a while.

He said that if he returned to Kalamaf right away, his strength would probably leave him again, and in his current mood, that might push him into excessive despair.

Seeing the cautious way he brought it up, Turan responded by patting him on the shoulder a few times.

“Go have fun. I’m not your master or anything. Like I said before, friends don’t get to control where the other lives.”

“Turan...!”

Armania, who had worn a complex expression all along, looked moved by Turan’s words and nodded firmly.

Turan could roughly guess what he had been struggling with.

Whether he had made the right choice, whether it was right to drive his own family to death to keep a promise with a friend, he must have been constantly tormented by those thoughts.

Turan hoped that his attitude, at the very least, would offer Armania some comfort.

After sending Armania off, Turan ordered the remaining Carmine wizards near Ophen Port to return to their homeland.

To the hill country they had once ruled.

If they steered the battleship they had just been on northward, it wouldn't take very long.

“Rebuild Avacha and hunt down any non-human races that appear in the hill country while you wait. Once things calm down, I’ll come to help decide who the next family head will be.”

“Understood, great one.”

Despite Turan issuing orders as if he were their superior, the remaining Carmine wizards did not protest.

All the higher-ups capable of making decisions had become fish food in the sea, so what was the point of knights or lesser nobles stepping up?

Besides, those who were powerful enough to have a voice had all witnessed Turan’s strength firsthand.

Even though the battle with the mermaids was chaotic, not even the most powerful wizards, including family head Rodor, had been able to stop him despite attacking together.

The survivors of the undersea battle acknowledged that Turan was truly the most powerful wizard in the world, and the closest being to a god since the fall of the great Preah God Tribe.

After confirming that all the Carmine wizards had boarded the battleship and were heading north, Turan flew back to Kalamaf with Bije, who had been resting inside his body the whole time.

During the days he was gone, he had received reports that the wizards who had remained in Kalamaf had been continually eliminating hostile dwarf groups.

Thanks to spreading information about the dwarves beforehand through early subjugations, some vassal cities had successfully driven them off on their own.

Back in the underground prison of Kalamaf for the first time in a while, Turan laid out what had happened outside and then asked,

“After everything that’s happened, are you still not going to talk?”

The one possessing the body of the death-row inmate, Badal, still kept his mouth shut.

Turan almost let out a sigh in frustration, but stopped himself.

Showing his frustration would only embolden the other side.

‘No matter how I think about it, getting this guy to talk is the best way to capture Monarch.’

At the very least, it was clear that continued imprisonment and torture were eating away at his mind.

He screamed horrifically whenever his spiritual perception was constantly awakened to prevent him from falling into dormancy, and his toes were crushed or his body was set on fire.

At first, he had behaved like an emotionless statue, but now, during brief breaks between torture, he muttered to himself constantly.

Occasionally, when the words weren’t too garbled, they sounded like self-hypnosis, reassuring himself that he must not speak, that everything would work out if he just waited.

But today, perhaps having reached a new threshold, he muttered something Turan hadn’t heard before.

“...Yeah, once Seok-hoon becomes a god. I’ll be saved. I just have to endure. Just endure it.”

The name Seok-hoon was definitely one that Monarch had once offhandedly mentioned as one of the names referring to himself.

Judging from its uniquely foreign pronunciation, it was likely his real name used back on Earth.

‘Becoming a god.......’

What did he mean by becoming a god? Regaining the physical body from the old Preah God Tribe days?

It was true he had once been a being powerful enough to be called a god, but Turan didn’t think that was the end goal.

To have caused such a commotion, what they desired had to be something far greater.

At any rate, it was fortunate that he had at least found one more clue today.

***

The day after visiting the underground prison, a group of dwarves came to Kalamaf.

They were dwarves affiliated with the Honorable Republic, who had visited once before.

“It’s been a while, Al-Rakuyo.”

“Indeed. Great Demon Lord Turan. I’ve come to deliver the stance of our Honorable Republic.”

With a dwarf army of about fifty stationed in front of Kalamaf, the dwarf in front wearing a military cap read a declaration written on parchment.

The message was that, in exchange for being granted rights equal to humans, they would accept Turan as the sole figure above them.

“That decision came faster than I expected. I thought you'd deliberate longer.”

Though Turan didn’t have a deep understanding of republicanism, he could guess that their attachment to it was considerable, given they had clashed over social hierarchies for centuries.

To this, Al-Rakuyo clicked his teeth a few times and responded.

Perhaps because he had fully acknowledged Turan as a superior being, his tone was even more respectful than before.

“To be honest, there were those willing to die for their ideals, but the situation is far too unfavorable to insist on that.”

According to him, republicanism wasn’t a particularly old culture in dwarven history, and among the ones who had been revived, royalists outnumbered republicans significantly.

Indeed, judging by the ratio of dwarves subdued so far, the balance between the two factions was almost four to one.

“Furthermore, the republics are more like loosely connected communities than actual allies, so to preserve themselves, they have no choice but to borrow the strength of the most powerful.”

The reason the decision had come so quickly, he added, was that they had learned the army led by Turan had subjugated all the neighboring dwarf factions.

With power like that, the consensus was that it was better to serve under him.

“This is Ashiz Berk. My steward and the chief administrator of House Parsha. For practical matters, you can coordinate with him.”

“Pleased to meet you. I am Al-Rakuyo, representative of the Honorable Republic.”

“I’m Ashiz.”

Ashiz, having been called out with Turan, somewhat awkwardly took the hand Al-Rakuyo offered.

It was inevitable, as he was not used to exchanging friendly greetings with non-human races.

Unlike the fallen dwarves of the modern day, who boasted physical capabilities surpassing knights, these ancient dwarves were much frailer, so he had to be careful with his grip.

“Well then, let’s first discuss what we can offer each other. Al-Rakuyo... in other words, what the representative wants is the safety of the republic, correct?”

“Indeed. We’ll even disclose the location of the republic, so we want you to dispatch forces to protect us. In return, we’ll provide advanced technologies and tools.”

“That sounds like a good deal.”

Since Turan already knew what the dwarves wanted, Ashiz nodded clearly in agreement.

He had brought a few items related to this in advance in case talks went well, so the handover proceeded quickly.

Like Ashiz earlier, the human engineers also wore subtle expressions as the dwarves taught them how to use the tools.

“We’ll leave them here to continue instructing others in the use and crafting of these tools.”

The items the dwarves handed over were quite diverse.

Their steam rifles were returned, as they were no better than the guns already being independently produced in Parsha. However, there was room to study the principles behind their rapid-fire guns and steam explosive shells that detonated upon impact.

“We’ve secured a few of these before, but they were unusable by humans.”

“They were deliberately locked down because they were made during the height of the war with humans. These ones are from an earlier era, so they don’t have those restrictions.”

From his words, Turan could discern that the items they were offering now were not the most advanced the dwarves possessed.

It was probably a survival strategy of their own.

If the dwarves offered up all their best assets right away, they would no longer be able to assist humans later. Once their usefulness ran out, the relationship would become one-sided, where only they gave and received nothing.

Still, even the “somewhat outdated” artifacts they referred to were immensely helpful to humans, so Turan could overlook that much.

Beyond simply providing firepower, the advanced technologies they possessed were useful in various ways.

From alarm systems that detected enemy intrusions to steam engine technology that generated powerful force through steam.......

Among them, the most astonishing was the technology to conceal and detect their own hideouts.

“I didn’t expect you to hand over a technique that’s practically your lifeline.”

“We’re giving it up precisely because it’s essential for smoothly eliminating rival factions. Besides, we’re well aware that, even without such technology, the lord has the power to find us.”

It became clear just how secretive the dwarves had been about this technology.

Even Monarch had no way to comb through their hideouts one by one, and after being rejected by Otas when he asked for cooperation, he had resorted to transforming dwarves and scattering them instead.

Of course, as Al-Rakuyo mentioned, Turan’s tracking abilities were such that, like the night hunters of old, he could pierce through the dwarves’ concealment techniques, rendering them meaningless.

To commemorate the formal signing of the Vassal Contract, Turan held a moderately sized banquet to narrow the distance between the citizens of Kalamaf and the dwarves.

He was especially careful, knowing that in the long term, not only these dwarves but other dwarf factions might also be accepted, preventing conflict was critical.

In these kinds of matters, starting off on the right foot was the most important thing.

Watching the dwarves and humans share food and drink, Al-Rakuyo bowed politely to Turan.

“Thank you, my lord. We will not make you regret accepting our Honorable Republic.”

“And I won’t, either. If you show good faith, I’ll repay it in kind.”

“I truly feel this was the right decision. Of course, that’s because Your Lordship has always ruled as an ideal leader......”

The reason Al-Rakuyo and the dwarves of the Honorable Republic chose to submit rather than oppose Turan was that every human they had captured described the head of House Parsha as an ideal ruler.

Not only a powerful wizard, but one who never neglected to care for commoners as if they were his own.

Naturally, their base was located not far from Kalamaf, and the area around Kalamaf was home to Turan’s most loyal supporters, so that outcome was inevitable.

After successfully concluding the banquet, Turan sent Al-Rakuyo and the dwarf envoys back to their base with a small escort unit.

Then, of all the advanced technologies he had acquired this time, he chose the alarm system, by far the most useful, and delivered it to Helio City, capital of Varaha.

Berit let out a sigh of relief as she looked at the metal tubes embedded all over the towering fortress walls.

“So the moment something crosses the wall, it sets off lights and sound to signal an intrusion?”

“That’s what I heard. We’ve already tested it, at least.”

“That’ll take some of the worry about goblins off our shoulders. Thank goodness.”

While Kalamaf had been suffering from dwarves, the residents of Helio City had been tormented by goblins.

Though they didn’t brazenly block roads or raid homes, they continually took advantage of the night to steal and eat children, so much so that families with kids said they couldn’t even sleep.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the alarm system to prove its worth.

That very night, a buzzing sound echoed throughout Helio City, signaling a goblin intrusion.

“There! Fire!”

As the knights’ rifles flared, the goblins shrieked, baring their grotesque, shark-like jaws.

They were a race as agile and strong as most nobles, but they couldn’t withstand a knight’s gunfire. Rather than abducting children, they had to flee, leaping back over the walls to avoid the light lit by the wizards.

“Exterminated!”

At someone’s shout, the Varaha wizards let out a triumphant roar.

After receiving the report that the goblins had been successfully exterminated by House Varaha, Turan ordered additional alarm systems to be produced and delivered to Varaha.

Unlike the dwarves, the goblins favored stealthy ambushes, so the devices would likely be more useful there than here.

The dispatched dwarves were working together with human engineers to build factories all throughout Kalamaf.

With the newly introduced steam engines, they could start mass production by drawing in river water and boiling it. Though Turan didn’t fully understand the mechanics, he agreed nonetheless, having more supplies was always a good thing.

What mattered most to Turan was not resolving everything by himself, but ensuring that his forces could independently defend themselves from enemies.

His body was just one, while the lands he had to protect were vast and expansive.

Once it seemed that, given a bit more time, they would be able to establish a functioning system on their own, Turan informed Ashiz that he would be stepping away for a while.

“Where are you going to... No, I don’t even need to ask.”

“That’s right.”

Turan pointed to the northwest.

The direction of Aravion, where Meisa had recently gone silent, and beyond that, the location of House Nagin, where there might still be clues about Monarch.

If he went there, he could at least find some lead on how this damned situation had come to be.