Shepherd Wizard

Side Story - Turan Zahar (6)

His astonishment at the sudden manifestation of the Shadow Bloodline lasted only a moment.

After agonizing for a long while over what to do about it, Turan finally went to see Haroon.

There was nothing to be gained by holding a lie for long between two people who could both use the Eyes of Truth, and above all, judging by the way Haroon had once spoken of infinite possibilities and the like, Turan figured his father had already guessed things would turn out this way.

As expected, Haroon was simply pleased to hear it and showed no particular surprise.

"Sooner than I expected."

"So you knew?"

"Of course. I'm the one who made it possible for you to gain the Shadow Bloodline."

Snap, Haroon closed the book he had been reading, smiled, and rose from his seat.

"You've studied Soul Magic deeply enough by now to know this, but the symbols inside our Spirit Form correspond to bloodline abilities. And the Spirit Form of a newborn infant can be manipulated, to a degree."

"Then......"

"One of the two bloodline abilities you were meant to be born with was Storm. Aravion's. It sat poorly with Zahar's power, so I corrected it into its proper shape."

It had not been an easy job, Haroon said, breaking into a hearty laugh.

"Then will I be able to use the Alchemist's power later on as well?"

"Most likely. Though in your case there was a great deal I was attempting for the first time, so I can't say for certain."

"I see."

Having heard the explanation, Turan turned his spiritual sight inward, examined himself, and nodded.

Knowing that all of this was his father's arrangement, that it lay within his plans, put him somewhat at ease.

Afterward, as Haroon walked him through the various knacks of handling the Shadow Bloodline's power, he offered a quiet piece of advice.

"Unless you absolutely must, don't reveal this power in front of others."

"Because of the heirs?"

"You catch on quickly."

To be born with three bloodline abilities was the exclusive province of the most exceptional powers, even among the Family Heads of the Great Noble Houses.

If such a quality came to light, the three heir candidates would no longer treat him as a mere right hand in the making, the way they had before.

It was not that competing with them frightened him, but there was no reason to court unnecessary trouble.

All the more so considering that they were soon to be purged in an internal housecleaning, or else reduced to bodies for other members of the Zahar God Tribe.

"Understood."

"Good, my good son. It's a relief that at least you listen. My head aches enough as it is......"

"Is something troubling you?"

"Mm. It seems Aravion is spitting venom over failing to find their heir."

The problem was that Meisa Aravion, abducted some time ago, had still not resurfaced.

The other side believed Zahar was hiding her while pretending to have released her, and naturally, while it was possible to prove that one held someone, there was no way to prove that one did not.

Perhaps it would have been different had the God Tribes of Aravion-Nagin and Zahar shared a deeper bond, but they merely cooperated for a time out of professional necessity, and there was no real trust between them.

"That's a headache."

"We may have to fight one more war with Aravion. For real, this time."

He already knew that the last war had, for all practical purposes, been a match fixed in service of a particular goal.

Turan may have been shocked by that fact, but he did not identify with the victims of the war, did not pity them or anything of the sort.

His birth parents who had died in the war, the Aravion and Zahar wizards who had died in the fighting, the innocent casualties, they were all strangers to him.

"Hah. If only we could find her somehow......"

What Turan did identify with, deeply, was the anguish of the man right in front of him, the father he respected above all others.

The way to end it was simple.

All he had to do was hold out the strand of Meisa's hair he kept.

Tracking Magic fueled by Haroon's overwhelming Magic Power would surely blanket the whole world and turn up some trace of her.

But Turan's lips parted a few times, and then he shut them.

*

Several months had passed since he obtained the Shadow Bloodline and began training with it.

The ominous momentum rising out of the Aravion lands grew stronger by the day.

Having mustered an army, they had their public justification ready as well.

That Meisa had escaped on her own and then vanished without a trace was, in the end, nothing more than Zahar's claim.

Judging by the fact that she had not returned, it was obvious they were either holding her in secret confinement or had disposed of her.

When Reto, who had been stationed in Aravion, barely made it back alive, House Zahar learned that the other side was not merely venting its anger; they meant to have a real fight.

Only a portion of Zahar's upper echelon knew the movements of the woman who had remained there to maintain communication with Aravion.

Turan was among them, which was why he could smile and make conversation with the relative he was meeting for the first time.

"You've been posted in Aravion since around the time I was born, I hear? That must have been hard on you."

"Oh, this is nothing. Anyway, they said you really were Karim's son, and you look like him and you don't. I suppose it's the impression that's similar, sort of......"

Reto, now a little past fifty, studied Turan's face without pause as she brought up his birth father.

Her manner, as though she were some close older sister of his, honestly made him a little uncomfortable, but Turan did not let it show.

Weaknesses that made the heart uneasy were better left hidden.

The small talk lasted only a moment. Then, her face hardening, Reto reported to Haroon and the other rulers of the house on the situation at the Aravion main estate and on what she had seen along the road back.

First, Aravion had formally requested troops from House Nagin and received a large force in return.

The people of the Gray Zone, which sat between the two regions, had read the mood of war and were evacuating in every direction, she said.

"I see, so that's how it is......"

Haroon let out a low groan, met the eyes of Talis beside him, and nodded.

"In that case, we're going to need Varaha's support."

If the other side was mobilizing the strength of two Great Noble Houses, then his side would have to match that weight class.

Two Great Noble Houses joining forces meant not simply a greater number of wizards, but more gods taking part in the fighting as well.

Even those who ordinarily wore the bodies of upper-ranked nobles could easily overwhelm nobles stronger than themselves once they drew out a god's power in earnest.

And as for a top-tier noble like Talis, he could exert, if only for a short while, enough power that even the Family Heads of the Great Noble Houses would find him a nuisance.

In other words, like the Family Heads, they amounted to a kind of asymmetric force.

"I'll draft it at once."

Rahmann, who had recently been given sole charge of Zahar's diplomatic affairs, said this as he rose immediately from his seat.

A messenger mounted on the fastest Magical Beast departed with the completed document.

But before long he returned, and the reply he held out was disappointing in the extreme.

[The health of Varaha's Family Head, Reshion-nim, is poor, and the seat of Family Head is soon to pass to a successor. Regrettably, it seems we will find it difficult to lend a hand in this war. We express our regret.]

When this was delivered wrapped in all the convoluted, outlandish flourishes so characteristic of Varaha, the nobles of Zahar ground their teeth.

"Unbelievable. They borrowed our strength as freely as they liked whenever they needed it, and now they back out when it actually matters......"

Masters of Concealment and tracking, Zahar's nobles were useful in any number of non-combat areas rather than in direct fighting.

Seizing important criminals, capturing skittish Magical Beasts, that sort of thing.

Zahar had regularly lent out its own nobles for delicate work that Varaha, wielders of light and fire, could not manage, and yet the moment war broke out and the strength of Varaha's nobles, who excelled at pitched battle, was needed, those people had bolted.

House Zahar's inner circle, the God Tribe, gathered on their own to argue the matter over.

"Reshion's body is in poor health, is it......thinking of switching over soon? He should still be young."

"Probably because the body keeps running off and it's a bother to keep it penned up. He threw a fit last time about us not catching it, didn't he. That, or he's simply not happy with his current body."

"Shouldn't they have kept a proper watch on it themselves? Why the hell were they screaming at us to catch it......telling them where it ran off to should have been enough, shouldn't it."

Even as they complained about Varaha's refusal to help, they showed some sign of grudging agreement.

Because they knew that the period when a leader switched into a new body was the most vulnerable of times, making participation in a war difficult.

Turan, who had sat quietly listening through the meeting, asked Talis beside him.

"Uncle, so that Varaha heir we met last time is going to be possessed by their god, is that right?"

"That's right."

"Could you tell me about that god?"

"We usually call him the Mechanic. Puts on polite airs, but underneath he's a small-minded opportunist. If you ever meet him, don't believe a word he says. Though with the Eyes of Truth, you won't be easy to fool either."

Naturally, he did not let it show.

'Possession, is it......'

It did not particularly bother him that the Varaha heir, whose face he had seen exactly once, would have his body stolen. But no matter how he turned it over, the thought of Meisa ending up the same way did not sit well with him.

To stop this war, he only had to make up his mind about one thing.

But what if he made the wrong choice, and something happened to his father?

That night, unable to sleep for worrying, Turan simply lay clutching the strand of red hair.

*

Not long after Varaha's letter of refusal arrived, word came that Aravion's massive force had set out from Morgen City.

And that among them was none other than the Family Head, Badal.

"If it's come to this......"

"Then our Family Head-nim will have no choice but to take the field himself."

The Family Heads of the Great Noble Houses were overwhelming powers that ordinary wizards could not hope to face, so if the enemy's Family Head had shown himself in person, their side had no choice but to answer in kind.

Everyone who had witnessed the two Family Heads clash in the First War with Aravion some twenty years ago knew that much.

Of course, those privy to the finer details knew that even that had been little more than a convenient piece of theater.

With Haroon and Talis, the three heir candidates, and Turan besides, every powerful noble of Zahar had joined; the sheer majesty of the Zahar army was staggering.

At that size, it was fair to say they had gathered the vast majority of the wizards in the Enril Desert.

Enough that, should the war drag on, one could expect trouble from being unable to deal with the Magical Beasts appearing all across the desert.

At the head of the column, Turan glanced back and let out a light whistle.

"That's really something."

"The Aravion bastards will have more than this. It won't be an easy fight."

Talis's face as he answered was set hard in a way it usually never was.

Seeing the man who never once showed tension look like that, Turan too felt anew just how serious the situation was.

"Still, we did get a promise of Varaha's support, even if it comes late."

Just before the army marched out, Varaha had sent a letter saying they would dispatch reinforcements, belated as they were.

The new Family Head, Solif, no less, was going to take part in the fighting in person, was he?

If that was true, then Zahar had something to say for itself now.

At the very least, there had been no word yet of Nagin's Family Head taking the field in person.

But unlike the others, Turan knew all this and still could not feel at ease.

It was because of the Nagin Family Head's ability, which the Zahar God Tribe had described to him.

'I can't tell you his name or his title. Merely telling you would let him observe this place and catch any mention of himself along with the gist of the conversation. What I can tell you is that he has a horrifically troublesome ability.'

The old members of the Preah God Tribe, fallen and stripped of their flesh, found it difficult to bring out their full power while possessing a wizard's body, but the Family Head of Nagin was said to have escaped that constraint to some degree.

Apparently because the ability he had originally possessed was to manipulate Spirit Forms, dominating all manner of living creatures and bending them to his will?

For this reason he kept the Family Head of Aravion, who in raw combat ability stood above him, at his side like a right hand, and the other gods kept their distance from him.

Because the moment one truly made an enemy of him, he became a nuisance beyond measure.

"There's no telling where one of the puppets he controls might be hiding, so stay on guard at all times. Watch for anyone whose words or behavior differ from the usual, and never let anyone close enough to ambush you."

"Do I need to be on guard against Father and you too, Uncle?"

At Turan's quip, Talis snorted, hmph, and shook his head.

*

It took a fair amount of time for Zahar's army to clear the Enril Desert.

The larger a group, the slower its movement; that was simply the way of things.

Upon reaching the Gray Zone, the Zahar army made the city of Bigen its base and set up camp, just as before.

Alos of House Mebern, who had taken the lord's seat in the past with their help, greeted the Zahar nobles with a great deal of bowing and scraping.

"It is nothing but an honor to have you call on us like this."

An ordinary noble of a Great Noble House might have been another matter, but the powerful figures prized within the house were not people before whom the head of some backwater family could dare to stand tall.

On behalf of the Zahar nobles staying in Bigen, Talis gave the lord his orders.

"That's enough. Let's talk business. Do you have a map of the Gray Zone?"

"Of course. Bring it in!"

As befit a family that had endured in the Gray Zone for so long, House Mebern's map was remarkably precise.

House Zahar had fought here twenty years ago, to be sure, but with that much time gone by they needed to absorb the updated information.

Turan, who had been quietly studying the map, raised a hand for permission to speak and then asked.

"This city here, Kalamaf. Why is it marked like this?"

"Ah, that place was destroyed after the last Dark Elf invasion. After the noble family that ruled it fell, Magical Beasts attacked, and I'm told not a soul survived."

"I see."

Listening quietly, Turan recalled a certain city he had passed by in a blur after abducting Meisa.

Even back then it had looked half ready to collapse, yet people had lived there, and now it was gone.

His reflection went exactly that far and no further.

After that, at the end of a strategy meeting, Zahar's high command decided to try the same containment strategy as before, forming detached units and harrying the enemy without pause.

The reasoning was that, outmatched in a pitched battle and outnumbered besides, buying time until Varaha's reinforcements arrived was the best they could do.

Leaving the main body in Bigen, the Zahar army split into several units and moved swiftly northwest for some time.

At last they spotted the enemy's main force pushing through the forest belt, and immediately set about drawing up their final plan.

"We start with the Fifth Corps and rotate through, harassing them to wear their strength down. Units that fall back rest at the designated position, and hold them off so nothing latches onto your tail......"

As commander of the Fifth Corps, which had been assigned the first attack, Turan listened closely to Talis's explanation.

In truth, no small number of people had made their objections plain about his taking the role of corps commander.

His talent for magic might be outstanding, but his Magic Power still fell somewhat short of the very strongest, and he was young and had no experience of war.

But when the highest echelon, Haroon and Talis among them, made the decision and pushed it through, there was nothing to be done.

Once the meeting ended, he led his own troops toward the enemy camp according to the plan.

By the time the brightly lit tents came into view in the distance, Turan gave his adjutant the order to attack.

"From here we advance slowly, and the moment I attack, strike in time with me."

"Turan-nim, you mean to attack from here? It's quite far......"

"This is close enough."

It was still a distance of more than several hundred meters, but the adjutant, after a moment's hesitation, answered that he understood and nodded.

Even if this young superior was making a poor call out of inexperience and arrogance, discipline demanded that he obey first.

Watching his Zahar troops advance slowly, some under Concealment, others relying on the darkness and the terrain, Turan looked at the Aravion army and drew his weapon.

"Now then......"

The weapon his father Haroon used, the thing called a gun, was a one-of-a-kind Sacred Relic, so what he used was a bow, the same as his uncle Talis.

And of those, the Pyeonjeon, modified with a guide tube so that it fired a small arrow.

As he drew the string back, the small arrow set in the tube stained a dark purple.

Haroon's advice had been not to reveal the Shadow Bloodline, but that had been before the war started.

This fight left no room for that kind of restraint.

"Here we go."

Thrum, the bowstring snapped back into place and flicked the small arrow away.

In an instant the arrow crossed hundreds of meters toward the tents, and the Shadow Tentacles that erupted from it smashed the orbs of light installed throughout the camp.

*****

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