The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 105: I Wasn’t Crazy After All (1)

Though Turan wasn’t familiar with politics, having not lived frequently mingling with people, he had learned its basic concepts to some extent.

Acts of flattering superiors, enticing colleagues and subordinates, framing enemies with schemes and solidifying one’s position.

Ordinary humans naturally fall under the rule of such political logic as they must conform to society to survive, and even powerful nobles couldn’t escape from this.

Because they could only survive by coordinating relationships with fellow kin of the same house and nobles of other houses that formed the larger society.

And such political structures become more complex and tangled as the group’s size grows - internal politics of great houses, nobles among nobles, were more sinister than ordinary people could imagine.

Over the past few days, Turan went around during the day in the form of a young knight confirming which nobles lived in which mansions, then infiltrated their mansions each night to raid their studies and collect materials.

Though they each defended their studies in creative ways, fortunately none were thorough enough to be impenetrable.

Perhaps because they thought their studies were their safest spaces.

The more he dug there, the more foul stories poured out.

Taking bribes and interfering with distribution of magic devices or magic power within the house was laughably minor in comparison.

There were countless stories of treating human lives like toys, such as framing people with crimes they didn’t commit or disguising the strength of masu that needed to be hunted.

There were even circumstances suggesting assassination orders, though indirectly stated.

After reading many such documents and combining their contents, Turan could tell there were three factions within Arabion currently.

If giving them names, they would be the Elder faction, Middle-aged faction, and Youth faction.

The Elder faction was as the name suggested, centered on those between 300-400 years old, slightly younger than or the same age as the current head.

Though they were widely respected for achievements built up over long years, they didn’t often step forward in house matters.

Second was the Middle-aged faction that Kadram belonged to, gathering nobles between 100-300 years old.

They were essentially the house’s core, monopolizing important roles and wielding all sorts of power.

Uniquely, they actively supported the head’s partner from House Nagin and her children while being hostile to Meisa.

Last was the Youth faction centered on promising young nobles.

Naturally the weakest of the three factions, they supported Meisa who should become the next head but hadn’t formed proper bonds with her.

Among these, Turan mainly raided the Middle-aged faction’s studies, and in the process confirmed they were intensively isolating Meisa.

First was using the Zahar noble Leto to make Meisa suspect she was constantly being targeted by Zahar assassins.

Meanwhile they created an atmosphere treating her like a madwoman, saying the assassins’ existence was just delusion.

Not only that, they sent away all servants who had built some friendship with Meisa, and even harassed or in severe cases killed young people from the Youth faction trying to approach and build relationships.

This was why she lived in a mansion no different from ruins with just a few elderly maids.

He could understand why Meisa had fled to House Berk’s mansion at that time.

They probably left them alone either because touching a vassal house was burdensome, or they thought Meisa might really commit suicide if they destroyed even that.

Fortunately, seeing no signs of special treatment or communication with House Berk, they didn’t seem to be in cahoots.

If they had been, it would have been terrible not only for Meisa but also Asiz, so that was truly fortunate.

Combining this newly discovered information, he could understand the meaning of the letter sent by Meisa’s half-brother Renode in the past.

’Based on circumstances... seems the Middle-aged faction killed Meisa’s mother and younger brother.’

Though not written in the family tree, Meisa had one younger brother.

Ten years ago in 2207, he lost his life along with his mother at just eight years old before even awakening magic power.

And Renode’s letter was written in the same year.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

Wasn’t it too coincidental for there to be no connection between the two?

’Officially it was an accidental death.’

Meisa’s mother, Orin Berk, was cherished by the head for bearing him a powerful child despite being a lowest-tier noble who barely awakened bloodline abilities.

But one day she died in an accident and was simply buried as if she had never existed.

Even her relative Asiz only heard she ’died in an accident’ without knowing what kind of accident it was.

Given the many writings about how the legal wife from House Nagin found the existence of a concubine who bore successor-level noble children unpleasant, and that her supporters commanded Zahar nobles, it wasn’t surprising they were involved in this accident.

Moreover, while raiding Middle-aged faction nobles’ mansions, Turan could even secure circumstantial evidence that they had ’dealt with’ Orin.

[Use Leto, remove mother and child.]

[Confirmed.]

Though whose mother and child wasn’t mentioned, considering the document was written in 2207, the circumstances were clear.

And later he could find several contents criticizing that incident.

[Mother and child was too much. Target broke.]

[Was necessary for isolation state.]

[Find way to recover.]

Meisa’s habit of refusing food seemed to have developed from her mother and brother’s deaths, and judging by their expression ’broke’, they didn’t seem to view this favorably.

Probably because the condition of the body the god was supposed to use had deteriorated.

Meanwhile several complaints appeared about how difficult it was to overcome this while still needing to maintain Meisa’s isolation.

Through this, Turan could be half certain there was a divine being behind the Middle-aged faction.

Like carving Solif into a specific personality, they were clearly trying to manipulate Meisa’s personality by isolating her.

’To begin with, tormenting Meisa like this would be nonsensical without such backing.’

Antagonizing to this degree the next generation power - a definite future head with no replacement successor - was literally suicidal.

Moreover, with the current head already aged, the entire Middle-aged faction could be purged the moment positions changed and it wouldn’t be strange.

Yet the reason they carried out such acts was likely because the Middle-aged faction knew the secret about soul exchange.

After all, once a Prea god-folk’s soul took root, there would be no need to question all sorts of unreasonable treatment Meisa experienced in the past.

No, rather the god-folk themselves were likely the one who ordered making the body easy to transfer to.

Probably harming Meisa’s mother and younger brother was also part of the plan to isolate her.

Though none of the documents here contained content about the head ordering them anything, without his tacit approval it would be impossible for even influential people banding together to persecute the successor to this extent.

The problem was there was no clear evidence about the soul exchange or killing Meisa’s family.

Perhaps because they were uncomfortable leaving even that level of secrets explicitly recorded even in personal spaces like studies, there was nothing written about those matters.

’Should I gather more materials, or would it be better to tell Meisa right away?’

After contemplating for a while, Turan decided to make full contact with Meisa.