Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 219

Translator: Pai_

"This is..."

"Earth."

Turan and Meisa stared blankly at a world they had never seen before, a world they never imagined they would be able to see.

The place where the two appeared was a forest densely packed with coniferous trees, which had brown trunks and slender leaves.

Judging by the cool weather, could this be somewhere in the central region?

"The air is breathable, gravity feels similar... I can't believe this is another world. It just feels like we've arrived in some new land we've never visited before."

"Let's move carefully for now. We’ll probably be going back soon, but we should figure out whatever we can before that."

From the moment they set foot on this land, they could sense it instinctively.

That Earth, or more precisely, this world was repulsed by their existence and was trying to expel them by any means necessary.

It was a rejection entirely different from the preferences or aversions of sentient beings.

If anything, it resembled the natural laws he had once studied, an immune response like the body naturally rejecting invading bacteria.

Perhaps the stronger one's magic power, the longer they could endure here. Turan and Meisa, with their strength, could probably last for a fairly long time, but they had no such luxury.

They had only come here temporarily to check what tricks Monarch was up to.

As they slowly walked along a mountain path, surveying the surroundings, Meisa spoke in a tone that sounded rather deflated.

"What they wanted... turned out to be pretty underwhelming, didn’t it?"

"Hm?"

"They did all sorts of things just to get back to Earth, but the method had already been completed long ago, right?"

Though there was a time limit, they could just return and come back again, so it wasn't even a significant constraint.

At this level, it would be worth charging money to let people take trips to Earth.

To her words, Turan nodded and replied.

"In other words, returning temporarily like this was never really that important to them. Otherwise, even with the return of the New Era, they would’ve dismantled at least this facility beforehand."

It was a bit disappointing that, even after thoroughly combing through the research data here, they still hadn’t figured out what it was.

Still, if they kept exploring this place, they might find some clues.

Monarch had always been obsessed with finding the key to cross between worlds, and the passage to this place surely wasn’t built without any reason.

It was unlikely, but perhaps the bastard’s real body had already bypassed this world’s defense system and come through permanently.

"First, let’s call out the ones in the soul prison and ask them. We should at least be able to find out where we are."

"Right, just a sec..."

Just as Meisa agreed and Turan tried to draw out his spirit form to enter the soul prison, he frowned and said to Meisa,

"That’s not going to work."

"Why?"

"You can’t draw your spirit form out of your body in this world. Try it yourself."

"Wait, hmm... ah. You're right."

With her eyes closed and focusing her consciousness, Meisa realized there was a barrier preventing her spirit form from exiting her body.

What’s more, this barrier was also acting as an anchor allowing her to remain in this world.

She could tell that if she broke the barrier to release her spirit form, she would be immediately expelled.

"In that case, we have no choice but to try contacting the locals. Luckily... there seems to be someone nearby. Let’s head that way."

From afar, the scent of a human came drifting in, strong with garlic, and belonging to an older woman.

As they followed a path that appeared to be frequently traveled, Turan said to Meisa,

"We shouldn’t use flashy magic around here if we can help it."

"Why?"

"Because we don't know what those bastards did when they came here first."

It had been said that Badal had come here before and stirred up trouble, so the locals' attitude toward magic likely wasn’t very friendly.

Or worse, Monarch himself might have already crossed over and taken control of the people in this world.

It's a bit extreme, but there was even the possibility that, the moment their identities were exposed, people might start launching nuclear missiles at them without warning just to kill them.

“Well, I guess that’s true... Anyway, what a useless man, even in death.”

As Meisa once again criticized her father, someone appeared walking from the opposite direction.

It was clearly the owner of the scent they had sensed earlier.

“Hm?”

The person was an elderly woman who looked to be in her sixties or seventies, with facial features suggesting she came from the same region as the spirit forms of gods they had seen in the past.

The strange thing was that no magic power could be sensed from her at all.

Even commoners usually had a faint flow of it, like life force, but she appeared completely lifeless, like a rock or soil.

Naturally, there was no symbol within her either.

As he was observing her, Turan quickly realized that she, too, was looking at them as if they were some kind of strange creatures.

They should look like regular humans aside from some slightly unusual facial features, so why that gaze?

‘Ah, it must be because of the clothes.’

Come to think of it, their clothes were not only completely different in style from hers, but also more ornate, with complex patterns and unfamiliar materials.

They would probably have to find and wear local clothes if they wanted to blend in naturally.

Although he carried plenty of clothing for disguises in his large-capacity pouch, it didn't seem like putting those on would make much difference.

The style was one thing, but the material itself was so different that it was hard to tell what it was made from.

After gathering his thoughts for a moment, Turan quickly put on a kind expression like a mask and spoke up.

“Excuse me, ma'am. We seem to have gotten lost in the mountains. Could you tell us which way to go to get down?”

“Oh, lost? I'm actually heading down myself right now, so you could come with me... But more than that, young man, your Korean is excellent. What country are you from?”

For a moment, Turan was puzzled by the question, but then he recalled something he had learned before on Earth, there were many countries and many different languages.

Monarch had also found it odd that languages here were not unified and that they changed.

Having never experienced the concept of a “foreign language”, it was hard for Turan to fully understand, but he got the general idea.

Foreign countries were probably equivalent to different great noble houses.

“I’m American.”

Didn’t Badal say he visited a place called Central Park in America?

Turan named one of the few country names he knew, and the woman nodded as if she expected it.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like their countries were hostile toward each other or anything like that.

“Oh, America! I speak a little English too. How is it? Is my pronunciation okay?”

“It’s impressive.”

“Not many people our age can speak English this well.”

As Turan cheerfully responded to the elderly woman who laughed with a “hoho”, he suddenly realized her lip movements were a bit off.

She didn’t seem to have noticed, but they were clearly speaking different languages while conversing naturally.

From then on, Turan made sure to hide his mouth while talking to her on the way down the mountain.

Thankfully, Meisa must have thought her language skills were too weak, so she didn’t bother joining in, allowing him to handle the conversation entirely.

“You both look young. Are you students studying abroad?”

“Yes.”

“And the young lady with you- is she your girlfriend?”

“She is.”

“I knew it. I was honestly so surprised earlier. Out of nowhere, these two stunning foreigners, like movie stars, suddenly appeared halfway up the mountain. And those clothes, that’s cosplay, right? Are you filming some kind of medieval movie?”

“Something like that. What about you, ma’am? What do you do?”

“Just call me auntie. You must’ve learned Korean from historical dramas. I heard Westerners really love Korean dramas these days. As for me, I’m just retired and keeping myself busy. My husband passed away not long ago…”

Even though he couldn’t understand more than half of what she was saying, responding in a plausible way was one of Turan’s special talents.

The elderly woman loved chatting so much that just a few nods and responses kept her going on her own, which made the conversation easy.

Indeed, seeing how the other hikers they encountered while coming down the mountain also looked at Turan and Meisa strangely, it seemed their clothes did appear quite odd.

And this was despite having chosen outfits suitable for combat and outdoor activity, this was the toned-down version.

Had they worn the clothes meant for formal public appearances, they would have stood out far more.

After all, wearing garments adorned with dangling jewels seemed quite distant from the aesthetic sensibilities of Earthlings.

At last, as Turan and Meisa descended to the base of the mountain, they let out gasps of awe upon seeing a city of this world for the first time.

“Wow...”

“Whoa...”

As they beheld the luxurious buildings lined up, constructed with generous amounts of stone and glass, they could truly feel they were in another world.

There were even several buildings in the distance that appeared to be dozens of stories tall, and the number of people seemed endless.

Seeing their expressions, the elderly woman grinned with satisfaction and said,

"Anyone would think you lived your whole life in the mountains and just came down for the first time. So? Think you’ll be able to make it home? Want me to look up your address?"

“No, that’s okay. I think we can find our way from here.”

“Well, you do speak Korean so well. Just be careful hiking from now on.”

“Thank you.”

Bowing as he sent the meddlesome old woman on her way, Turan let out a small sigh of relief.

He had been constantly on edge throughout the conversation, worried she might notice something was off, and now he was mentally exhausted.

“Amazing…”

“What is?”

“I couldn’t understand half of what you were saying. How were you able to talk to someone from another world like that?”

“I couldn’t really understand either. I was just nodding along appropriately.”

He had caught bits like “exchange student” and “cosplay”, but didn’t know their exact meanings.

Most of the time, what he extracted from interrogating gods was far more practical information, and he had never lived a life luxurious enough to dig into such fine details of Earth’s culture.

He had simply judged that answering “yes” when the other person asked “Is this it?” would raise less suspicion.

“Anyway, this world really is peaceful.”

“Yeah.”

An elderly commoner woman climbing a mountain like she was taking a walk, with nothing but a stick that was clearly not a gun?

In their world, it would’ve looked like someone from a dirt-poor household trying to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

Not to mention magical beasts, regular wild predators like wolves were so rampant that travel typically required a group of armed individuals as a basic precaution.

After coming down the mountain and walking through the city, it wasn’t long before Turan and Meisa found a nearby clothing store and stepped inside.

The woman who appeared to be the clerk, probably in her thirties, looked at them with a dazed expression like everyone else they had encountered so far.

“Uh, w-welcome…”

“Could we buy some clothes?”

“Sorry? Oh, yes. Of course. Are you looking for anything specific?”

“Just something that doesn’t stand out. As you can see, we somehow ended up walking around dressed like this.”

As Turan joked while pointing to his and Meisa’s outfits, the clerk smiled and played along.

It seemed the people of this world were generally kind.

A little while later, the two of them had put on new outfits, following the clerk’s recommendations.

She suggested a sky-blue top and black pants for Turan, and for Meisa, a loose, flowing white top with wide sleeves and durable, rough-textured blue pants.

Unfortunately, the store didn’t sell shoes, but fortunately, their leather footwear didn’t seem out of place here.

“Oh my, both of you look so great!”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll wrap up your original clothes for you. Will you be paying by card or cash?”

“Would it be possible to use this?”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Turan pulled out a Zahar gold coin he usually carried and held it out.

It was known to have a fairly high gold content even among gold coins, so it should at least cover the price of the clothes.

However, instead of looking pleased, the clerk made an awkward expression.

“Um, I’m afraid we can’t accept this as payment…”

“It’s real gold.”

“It does look like it. Is this for, like, a YouTube video or something?”

“Yes.”

“Then… where’s the camera?”

When Turan fell silent, unable to answer, the clerk looked between him and Meisa, then asked them to wait a moment and disappeared into the storage room.

Though the door was closed, thanks to his heightened senses as a noble, he could overhear her voice.

[Hello, police? This is Sharalela at 41-4 Sillim-dong, it’s a clothing store. Yes. Some strange people came in. They’re trying to pay with some kind of gold coin...]

Just like in their own world, where the police maintained public order among commoners, it wasn’t hard to guess what she was doing.

Using the tool the fallen gods had referred to as a “cell phone”, she was contacting the police and reporting them so they’d be taken in.

Looking over at Meisa, Turan could tell she had reached the same conclusion.

“Let’s run.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them left a single gold coin on the counter as payment and quickly exited the store.

***

“We really can’t do anything unless we get money from this world.”

“No kidding…”

After leaving the clothing store, the two used the wide-area Concealment spell Turan cast to hide their presence and swiftly flew away from the area.

They reappeared in a back alley of a city about fifty kilometers north of where they had been.

Though their appearance still drew glances from passersby, it wasn’t to the same degree as before, when they were stared at like curious creatures.

It seemed they had successfully blended in, at least in appearance.

“Seriously, if I’d known we were going to cross over like this, I would’ve asked more questions before coming.”

“Let’s make sure to do that after we return.”

But for now, it was best to gather as much information as they could while still in this world.

Just like with the key linked to the Librarian, the key to entering this world likely had a cooldown before it could be used again after crossing over.

“I’ve heard that if we use something called the Internet, we can access all the information in the world.”

“But you don’t know how to use it?”

“Nope.”

Based on the memories of Cadrum and Junseo, they would probably need something called a “computer” or “cell phone”.

Turan and Meisa were about to approach some people to ask about it, but soon found themselves in an awkward situation.

“Excuse me.”

“We’d like to ask something-”

Every time they tried to speak to someone, the person would smile awkwardly and then quickly walk away.

For the two of them, who had just been impressed by how kind the people of this world were, it was a baffling experience.

Now that they were wearing clothes suited to this world, people were acting like they were dealing with low-class commoners?

If they had been the typical arrogant nobles, they might’ve taught these rude commoners a lesson, but fortunately, both Turan and Meisa had the restraint and character not to act on such thoughts.

Perhaps their attitude was understood, as the fifth person they approached, a young man, showed interest in helping them.

He had a somewhat timid appearance, suggesting he wasn’t good at saying no.

Or maybe it was just because Meisa was the one who approached him.

“Excuse me. May I ask you something briefly?”

“Ah, sure…”

“We were wondering… if someone doesn’t have any money, is there a way to use the Internet?”

“The Internet? Do you mean Wi-Fi?”

“Yes. We want to look something up, but we don’t have any money to pay for it.”

“Ah… um, if there’s something specific you want to search, I can lend you my phone?”

“Thank you so much!”

As Meisa lit up with joy, the man glanced at her and blushed slightly as he handed over a slim, rectangular device.

Just as she took it, she suddenly realized she had no idea how to use it.

“Uh, so… how exactly do I use this?”

“Sorry, what?”

Hearing that she didn’t know how to use a cell phone, the young man’s face showed clear disbelief.

No matter how captivated he might have been by Meisa’s appearance, it was just too much of a statement to let slide.

After glancing quickly around the area as if searching for something, he took back the phone and said,

“I’ll search it for you. What are you looking for?”

“America and wizard.”

“Ah, you mean the one who used lightning in Central Park?”

The fact that he understood immediately suggested that Badal was quite a famous figure in this world.

*****

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