The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 118: A Distinguished Guest (2)

After briefly constructing various responses in his mind, Turan comforted Meisa by revealing his honest thoughts without calculation.

"I don’t know if what I say will be any comfort, but you didn’t do anything wrong. No one can demand a twelve-year-old child sacrifice themselves to save their family. No one can blame you. Not even the sacrificed family members."

It happened to be when Turan was exactly twelve years old that he lost his mother and fought a war with the village.

Thinking of how young and easily frightened he was at that time, he couldn’t dare criticize her actions as cowardly.

Hearing this, Meisa sobbed while still covered by her hair.

==

After a brief time of comfort passed, Meisa bravely tried eating a piece of bread herself but threw it up, then received food injection while unconscious like before.

Afterward, after having a meal of rabbit roast made by Solif, Turan suggested gathering their companions to begin discussions about analyzing the current situation and their future direction.

The first topic that came up was about the four symbols residing in Arabion Head Badal’s body that they had seen in Morgen City.

"Four bloodline abilities..."

"Probably wind, lightning, strength, and artifice."

"Then does that mean the Thunder Lord resides in Arabion head’s body? Oh, wait."

Solif glanced at Meisa and said.

"I don’t know much about your gods, but wasn’t the Thunder Lord definitely male?"

"That’s right... yes, that’s right."

Though she had agreed to speak casually with Solif too, she still seemed unaccustomed to it.

"Then that means he was planning to switch to a female body later? Just imagining myself becoming a woman is horrifying, but that’s impressive. In many ways."

"Living for so long, they might not care about such things anymore. After all, Arabion has had female heads before too. Or it might not be the Thunder Lord himself."

The two widened their eyes at the hypothesis Turan presented.

"What do you mean not himself?"

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"It could be that because the body he’s wearing is of Arabion bloodline, he can just use abilities similar to the Thunder Lord’s, but the soul itself might be a different god. After all, the ancestor of the artificer bloodline has a different, more famous god."

"The Lame Goddess..."

The name of the god who created various relics including the library of Orem, the old empire’s roads, and more came from Meisa’s lips.

"It’s suspicious that the fourth bloodline that appeared when he stepped forward properly was artificer. Maybe normally the head’s own self is on the surface, but the god’s self only manifests when using power. The feeling was different between when he stepped back and when he stepped forward."

"True. He did seem like a completely different person. Wait a minute, then does that mean a woman was wearing a man’s body? This is weird in its own way..."

Though Solif agreed, he seemed stuck on a strange point as he mumbled for a while about whether it would be stranger for the god residing in Arabion head’s body to be male or female.

Turan lightly tapped the rock to redirect attention and drew a conclusion.

"The fortunate point is that the head can’t freely wield his power. If he could, he wouldn’t have sent out a proxy from the start."

This meant that even if the three of them couldn’t become as strong as Badal, they could win if they just secured enough skill to endure adequately.

Then, Meisa turned to Solif and asked.

"Baraha’s ancestor was the Silver Sun, right?"

"That’s right. Then I wonder what four bloodlines are on this side?"

"Couldn’t we roughly guess from scriptures and legends?"

At Meisa’s words, Solif made a "hmm" sound before speaking as if recalling something.

"Like the other side, one of the four is probably a close combat bloodline. Stories of wielding the sword of light to slaughter goblins appeared quite frequently."

Goblins were an eastern heteromorphic race, infamous for having shark-like pointed teeth and preferring to eat young children.

Of course, in modern times they were just one of the races that had fled to remote areas after being pushed back by humanity, like other heteromorphic races.

"I’d like to go back and ask. Or search through the family archives."

Of course, if they really went back to House Baraha as Solif said, they would have to fight a war immediately.

Turan suddenly had a thought and spoke while looking at Meisa.

"Maybe Meisa also has the artificer bloodline latent in her."

"Me?"

"I originally only had two as well."

Though Meisa’s potential was greater than Turan’s and she just didn’t know it, there was a possibility her third bloodline would be released when she reached her limit.

Perhaps then she could sufficiently contend with Badal.

Turan thought Solif might have that kind of quality as well.

When he conveyed this, Meisa and Solif looked at themselves and each other before tilting their heads.

"A third bloodline ability, I wonder if such a thing really exists..."

"Isn’t there a way to find out?"

"There is one. Going to the library of Orem."

Solif, who had heard related stories, nodded at Turan’s words.

"Ah, the one in the west?"

"It’s not too far from here either."

Even if the two couldn’t communicate with the librarian, Turan could directly mediate and at least bloodline identification should be possible.

Of course, whether they would grant the request would have to be tried when they got there.

Thus, the group’s first goal was set as checking the two’s bloodlines at the library of Orem.

They didn’t depart right away though, thinking it would be better to move after Meisa’s health recovered more.

Given how noticeably she gained flesh with each day’s nutrition supply, her previous appearance would become unrecognizable as time passed.

Later she would be able to stride proudly through the world without the Arabion side being able to notice her existence.

While they were looking for a skeleton-thin woman, no one would recall the old her upon seeing the changed Meisa.

Afterward, they spent several days exchanging various magical secrets passed down in each house.

Starting from the thought acceleration magic Meisa had taught Turan, Solif also taught several Baraha secrets, but Turan had already learned most while training magic with the two of them, so there wasn’t much new to learn.

Rather, he could take on a teaching role when the two were busy.

"So, like this... damn, it’s not working."

One thing learned in the process was that, unfortunately, Solif’s magical aptitude lagged behind Turan and Meisa.

Though even that level would be sufficient to be called a genius by ordinary mages’ standards.

Turan calmly demonstrated the magic Meisa had taught in front of Solif who was getting angry at not immediately succeeding.

"I’ll show you again so follow along. Like this... hm?"

While demonstrating the magic, Turan’s face hardened at sensing two people’s presence from below the mountain.

One was clearly Rida, a noble of Labitas, judging by her body curves and mana quantity.

Considering this was originally a place she frequently visited for hot springs, it wasn’t particularly surprising.

Rather, it was strange that Rida hadn’t visited in the past few months, making one wonder if something had happened.

According to what he had heard during past small talk, she usually visited about once every few months.

What startled Turan was the noble following behind her.

Two to two and a half times Meisa’s.

A monster with an enormous amount of mana that, though less than Arabion Head Badal, was still tremendous...

Seeing his noticeably tense appearance, Solif asked with puzzlement.

"What’s wrong?"

"It seems... we have an distinguished guest coming."

The identity of someone with that much mana visiting together with Rida was obvious.

The head of the great house Labitas was coming here.