The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 112: Orders from Above (2)

Solif burst out laughing at the success of his prosthetic hand prank.

"Success!"

"Don’t tell me you left it unfixed just to try this?"

"Who do you take me for? I started working on it recently but it’s not healing easily. Still, I’ve made it from elbow to wrist now."

True to his words, Solif’s right arm that had once been severed above the elbow had now grown back to the wrist.

It seemed the healing lady that Asiz had finally called in was working quite diligently.

Ignoring Meisa’s dumbfounded gaze at the two of them, Turan set Leto down from his shoulder.

"Well then, shall we unwrap our gift?"

Soon Meisa would have to fly far away on Bize where Arabion’s reach couldn’t extend.

Before that, they needed to interrogate Leto for information and then dispose of her.

When Leto emerged from the sack, her once neat appearance was hard to recognize - her nose and cheekbones were broken from the repeated punches during capture, both eyes and lips were swollen, and several teeth were missing.

When splashed with water, she regained consciousness and quickly rolled her eyes to survey her surroundings before urgently bowing her head toward Meisa, the only familiar face.

"Y-Young miss, please spare me! I don’t know what I did wrong, but please forgive me..."

Her nasally pleading was pitiful enough to make even other races reconsider before eating her, but Meisa’s eyes looking down at Leto were only tempered blue with hatred.

"Was it fun?"

"What?"

"Killing my family, was it fun?"

At that question, Leto’s trembling body suddenly froze.

As if her previous demeanor had been an act, she raised her head, clicked her tongue, and let out a deep sigh.

"Ah... so you found out? I knew this day would come eventually, but—AAAAAGH!"

Meisa immediately struck Leto with lightning as she was muttering leisurely.

The power was barely enough to not kill even an ordinary person, but having been bound in chains for quite a while, Leto was now no different from that ’ordinary person’.

"Keep talking."

"I-I’m not sure what you want me to say... Like how much blood your mother and brother coughed up back then?"

It was admirable that she could still taunt like this even after being electrocuted once.

Seeing the enraged Meisa about to shoot electricity again, Turan hurriedly stopped her.

"Why..."

"You’re too excited. Take some deep breaths for now. I’ll handle the interrogation first."

Only then did Meisa realize she had nearly lost control and killed Leto just now.

That wouldn’t do.

This woman needed to die suffering several times more than what she had made Meisa’s family endure.

While Meisa stepped back and closed her eyes to calm herself, Turan briefly explained the situation to the puzzled Solif.

That this woman was a Zahar bloodline noble who assassinated Meisa’s parents and worked for Arabion.

"A Zahar assassin worked for Arabion? Why?"

"That’s what we’re about to find out. Do you know how to torture?"

"You think I would? What about you?"

"Never done it before, but I think I could if needed."

Hearing their conversation, Leto burst out laughing.

"You’re such amateurs, it’s unbearable. Listen kids, I don’t know what that girl promised you, but you’d better release me now. Otherwise you’ll soon regret being born. You really think you can run from Arabion’s grasp forever?"

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Though Leto’s face was full of venom even in her completely powerless state, Turan could smell the intense fear and desperation from her body.

Her current appearance was essentially just a thin shell of desperation that would peel away with just a little prodding.

"More importantly, let’s have a chat. How did you trick that Kadram bastard? I never imagined getting ambushed there! If you tell me that, I’ll tell you something too, how about it?"

"I’m the one asking questions."

"Didn’t you say you’ve never tortured before? Tormenting someone isn’t just about hitting, burning, and cutting. Torture won’t work, so wouldn’t it be better to get information like this instead—"

Perhaps trying to ignore her inner anxiety, Leto suddenly stopped mid-sentence while speaking passionately.

Looking up, Turan realized she was staring at his face with her swollen eyes wide open.

"...Karim?"

"Who’s that?"

At Turan’s question, Leto gasped in surprise and shut her mouth, but he could already smell the bewilderment and confusion emanating from her body.

Of course, unlike him, Leto couldn’t smell anything.

Her broken nose must be completely filled with the smell of blood.

"Tell me, who is Karim?"

"...You, who are your parents? No, which noble bloodline are you from?"

From Leto’s response, Turan realized she had glimpsed traces of someone else in his face again.

After briefly considering, Turan told an improvised lie.

"Tallis Zahar."

"What?"

"You should know who that is."

In the port city of Komad in the Enril Desert, Turan had been told by the lord there that he resembled Tallis, the second-in-command of Zahar.

If this Leto was a mage raised in Arabion she wouldn’t know Tallis’s face, but if not...

"...Now that you mention it, you do look a lot like him. Even the eye color is the same. He couldn’t have gotten married recently, so you must be an illegitimate child?"

If she had seen him using the disguise mask, she would have thought even this face was fabricated, but all she remembered was suddenly being beaten by Kadram before waking up here.

Who would dare imagine the existence of a relic that could freely change faces?

Moreover, in the process, she had unconsciously revealed important information.

The fact that she was not born and serving in Arabion, but rather a noble born and raised in House Zahar.

Without showing that he noticed this fact, Turan asked again.

"As I said before, I’m the one asking questions. Who is Karim?"

At Turan’s words, Leto answered with an expression of incomprehension.

"He’s Lord Tallis’s son, isn’t he? According to what you said, he’d be your half-brother... though I guess you might not know since he died during the war?"

The moment he heard those words, the clues Turan had gathered came together in his mind.

According to what he learned in Kalamaf before, the person presumed to be his father was a young noble, and Tallis, being second-in-command of a great house and the head’s younger brother, wouldn’t be young.

If both Tallis and his son resembled Turan, given the circumstances, it was highly likely that Tallis was Turan’s grandfather and this Karim was his father.

More importantly...

"He died?"

Learning that the person likely to be his father was already dead, Turan felt both disappointment and relief.

Disappointment at being unable to meet the person who brought him into this world, and relief at the fact that, given the circumstances, he hadn’t betrayed his mother.

"Y-Yeah. More importantly, if you’re really Lord Tallis’s son, hurry up and release this! I’m only here on the orders of those above! You must know how terrifying your father is too, right?"

Perhaps because a glimmer of hope had appeared in her completely hopeless situation?

Leto showed an urgent and servile attitude, as if her previous composure had been a lie.

Meanwhile, Turan’s face hardened when he heard her say she was here on orders from above.

Because that meant the upper echelons of the two great houses, who had waged war in the past and still growled at each other even now, were secretly in collusion.