Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29 A few dozen minutes after making landfall on Miguel Island, Captain Pires secretly dispatched a few sailors to secure a small rowboat.
As requested, the vessel was just large enough to fit two people snugly.
Turan transferred to the rowboat along with Armani, whose merman features were hidden beneath layers of cloth wrapped tightly around his body.
"The moon! I haven't seen it in so long!"
Sitting in the boat, Armani muttered to himself as he gazed up at the full moon hanging in the night sky.
Even the merman boy didn't know exactly how long he had been trapped in the bowels of the pirate ship. Neither sunlight nor moonlight reached the bottom of the hold. He could only guess it had been a month or two based on the amount of food he'd eaten and the time he'd spent sleeping.
"Huh? It looks like the knight is going somewhere...?"
"He said he has a quick errand to run. He'll be back soon, so don't worry about it!"
A few sailors looked on in surprise as Turan boarded the rowboat with Armani, but when Captain Pires spoke with firm authority, they quickly lost interest. It wasn't as if he was boarding a large galleon; they didn't think he would actually leave for good in such a tiny dinghy.
"More importantly, are the landing preparations finished?"
"Of course, Captain!"
"Good. Tonight, enjoy yourselves at the taverns or wherever you like! But be warned—anyone who doesn't show up for assembly tomorrow better be prepared for the lash!"
"Whoo!"
Leaving behind the cheers of the sailors following Captain Pires's command, Turan used the chains he had prepared to secure the merman's arms and legs to the boat.
Armani complied quietly, asking as if to confirm, "If the treasure is really there, you'll let me go, right?"
"Yes."
"If the item turns out to be useless, that's not my fault."
"I get it, so just focus on guiding us."
A short while later, the rowboat carrying the two began to cut through the dark sea.
At first, Turan used his magic to shove the boat forward with brute force, but he changed his approach midway. The trick was to designate the surrounding seawater as the target of the force, rather than the boat itself.
By pushing the water in front aside while simultaneously using the water behind and to the sides to propel the boat, he found it required much less effort and allowed the boat to glide smoothly. Doing it himself, he realized that traveling via magic in such a small boat wasn't as bad as he'd expected. Of course, given the numerous potential issues, it wouldn't be suitable for long-distance voyages.
"By the way, going there is one thing, but what do you plan to do about the return trip? You won't be able to find your way without me."
"Are you worried about me?"
"No, I'm just worried you won't let me go because of that."
"I have a rough plan, so don't worry."
Turan pulled a small compass from his tunic. It was an item he had obtained from Captain Pires in advance; according to its needle, they were currently moving slightly south of due west. On the way back, they would simply need to head slightly north of due east. There might be some margin of error, but since he could peer into a radius of over a dozen kilometers with his search spells, it shouldn't be an issue.
Well, if they still got lost... if they kept heading southwest, they would eventually hit land. Probably.
"I want to jump in..."
"Endure it."
Turan lightly rebuked Armani, who was grumbling while staring longingly at the sea, and focused his consciousness on the boat's movement.
They continued in the rowboat for what felt like an hour and a half. Eventually, something began to appear ahead. It was an island, likely uninhabited, and so small it couldn't even be compared to Miguel Island.
"Is that it?"
"That's the place."
"Alright, then hold on a moment."
Before landing, Turan stopped the boat and scooped up a handful of seawater, casting a search spell. He focused on his sense of smell, and the target of the search was a merman.
He closed his eyes and scooped the water three, then four times, but he smelled nothing. This meant that, at the very least, Armani hadn't deceived him to lead him into a merman stronghold.
Watching Turan, Armani tilted his head in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Checking."
When he first used search spells underwater, what had flustered Turan was the lack of usable senses. His sense of smell was useless since water entering his nose would only result in streaming tears, and his sight and hearing were much more restricted than on land due to the water's interference.
In contrast, this method of taking water out to smell it made it difficult to pinpoint an exact location, but easy to confirm the presence of a target. Even now, if he changed the search target to something like a whale or a shark, a peculiar scent would immediately rise.
Regardless, now that he had confirmed their safety, there was no reason to hesitate. They docked the boat at a suitable shore and headed into the interior of the uninhabited island.
The merman boy looked around as if searching for a landmark. "I think it was around here somewhere..."
According to what he'd heard during their conversations over the past few days, this island was something like Armani's secret villa. Whenever life in the merman community—the Merman Kingdom, as they called it—became too stifling, he would occasionally come up here to take a walk.
It was during one of those times that he had accidentally discovered it in an underwater cave inside the island. It was a tragicomic story: he had been swimming away to report the find to his father, the King, when he was caught by a pirate's hook not long after.
"Found it! It's here!"
Armani shouted, pointing toward a small pond.
"There?"
"Yes. You just have to go inside... but can you breathe underwater?"
"I can't."
A noble of the Carmine bloodline might have been able to breathe underwater, but that was not an ability granted to Turan.
"It's not that deep, is it?"
"It's about a hundred meters."
"Fine, I can manage that. Wait here."
Turan used the chains from the boat to tie Armani securely to a nearby tree. The merman boy, who had been waiting quietly, cried out in surprise.
"W-wait a minute!"
"What?"
"If you suffocate and die in there, won't I starve to death here?"
"You'd better hope that doesn't happen. For both our sakes."
After confirming the restraints were perfect, Turan stripped down to his underwear, keeping only his Guardian bracelet and a dagger strapped to his belt. Then, he took a deep breath until his lean stomach bulged and dove into the pond.
First, he formed a thin membrane over his eyes to keep the water out and secure his vision, then he pulled his body through the water using the same technique he'd used to move the boat. He felt as though he could easily maintain this state for twenty to thirty minutes.
Now, let's see...
As he scanned the bottom of the pond, he soon found a hole leading further down. That was likely the tunnel connected to the sea. Relying on the water's assistance, he descended further and further; his ears throbbed slightly, but other than that, it was quite bearable.
Swimming is actually quite worth doing.
He thought that if he had the chance later, he should properly learn how to move his body in the water. Mastering such techniques would significantly reduce the mana consumption required to move underwater. Though he wasn't sure if he'd ever have a reason to go underwater again.
Once he reached the very bottom and looked around, something entered his field of vision.
Found it.
Deep in the night sea, it was pitch black without a single ray of light, but for Turan of the Zahar bloodline, darkness was no obstacle.
He saw a massive creature in the distance... Even though he knew it wasn't alive, the sight of the monster was enough to make his knees tremble instinctively.
Is this the Great Sea Serpent?
A serpent, whose body was several meters thick and nearly a hundred meters long, lay dead in a coil. So much time had passed that layers of green moss had accumulated over it, making it look like part of the terrain unless one looked closely.
Moving slowly along its body, he finally reached the head. With four horns sprouting from the top and teeth packed densely inside its gaping maw, its form was closer to that of a lizard.
And there was a being with its hand thrust deep into the center of the skull.
"Ah..."
Turan let out an exclamation, forgetting he was underwater, and released a stream of bubbles.
The figure, who looked like an ordinary human man on the surface, was covered in moss just like the Great Sea Serpent. Yet, amazingly, his body appeared perfectly intact without the slightest sign of rot or damage, save for his chest which was pierced by a broken fang. This was despite the fact that the armor he must have originally worn had mostly decayed, unable to withstand the passage of time.
He looked to be about thirty years old and, as Armani had said, possessed blue hair. His wide-open eyes looked as if they might spring to life at any moment, save for their lack of focus.
And... just as Armani had described, other than those features, he looked like a startlingly ordinary human.
Is this being truly of the Frea Divine Clan?
He considered trying an attack charged with mana, but he quickly dismissed the thought, feeling it would be too sacrilegious. If he truly was a god, it went without saying, and even if he was just a powerful mage, he was someone who had died fighting the Great Sea Serpent, an enemy of humanity. As a descendant, Turan did not want to abandon even the minimum respect for an ancestor.
Come to think of it, why didn't this person—no, this being—become a spirit?
It was common knowledge that those with mana become spirits upon death. It was strange that neither of the two who had killed each other in the depths of the sea had remained as spirits. At the very least, if someone had come before him and absorbed their mana, they surely would have recovered that mysterious object as well.
Was it because he was truly a divine being? Or was there some other reason?
Just in case, he attempted to absorb mana, but nothing came of it. If he had obtained the power of such beings, he would have become several, if not dozens of times stronger in an instant.
Leaving his questions behind, Turan etched the man's face and appearance firmly into his mind. The color of his hair and eyes, the shape of his features, the color and form of the armor fragments that had almost crumbled away... Later, he might find clues by searching for gods in the myths of other regions recorded with similar appearances.
After spending a few minutes perfectly memorizing the sight, he finally turned his attention to the business that had brought him here.
Excuse me, but I'll be borrowing this, Ancestor.
Of course, the likelihood of this man—whether god or mage—being Turan's direct ancestor was slim, but Turan showed his respect nonetheless before checking the man's waist.
The mysterious round metal was barely hanging onto a half-decayed belt, but it looked polished, as if it alone had escaped the flow of time. The question was whether he could actually take the item out. Armani had said an unknown force pushed him away when he touched it.
However, contrary to his words, the round metal easily allowed Turan's touch.
Hmm?
At that moment, an alien sensation was transmitted through his fingers. It felt as if something extending from the metal was searching for something inside Turan's body.
A few seconds later, a sound like something clicking into place echoed in his mind. The moment he heard it, he knew instinctively. Though he couldn't guess the context, through the process just now, this item had become his.
Is it judging my qualification to be its owner? An object?
He had been half-doubting until a moment ago, but now he began to think this item might truly be a Holy Relic. There were many legends of great treasures choosing their masters.
Having obtained the item, Turan felt his breath running out and moved back toward where he had come from. After swimming hard for about a minute, just as the moonlight became visible, he felt a strange sense of dissonance.
This is...?
Even though he could only see the faint moonlight above the surface, he could sense that something was there, near the edge of the pond. It was a bizarre sensation that was hard to define by any of the five senses...
"Phew..."
"Did you find it? Did you?"
"For now."
As he caught his breath while answering, Turan looked at Armani and realized that the source of the sensation he had just felt was the merman boy. Not only that, but he could see something mysterious inside Armani's body with his own eyes.
A very faint, pale blue light that looked as if it might go out at any moment. It was spread thinly across Armani's webbed ears, the gills on his neck, and the area that appeared to be his heart.
What on earth is that?
It wasn't hard to guess why this phenomenon had suddenly occurred. This round metal he was still gripping tightly in his left hand... It was clearly a phenomenon caused by this object, whether it was a Holy Relic or a magic device.
"What is it?"
"No, it's nothing."
After climbing onto land, Turan evaporated all the moisture from his body and dressed. Then, he immediately set the round metal down on the ground.
As I thought, it was because of this.
As soon as he moved away from the object, the light he had seen inside Armani's body vanished instantly, and the sensation that had allowed him to perceive his presence also disappeared.
For now, the object seemed to have two functions. First, detecting the presence of nearby living beings, and second, detecting something inside those living beings. He would have to learn more to find out exactly what that "something" was.
"S-so, now...?"
"Yeah. I'm letting you go. Get out of here."
With a simple gesture, the chains binding Armani fell away with a metallic clatter. Despite being freed, the merman prince hesitated instead of immediately jumping into the water.
"What?"
"N-no... I didn't think you'd let me go so easily."
"You thought I'd take this and then try to catch you and sell you again?"
"To be honest, yes."
"I made a promise."
While it was right to kill non-human races that ate humans, Turan didn't particularly want to kill someone who claimed he had never eaten a human himself. Furthermore, if the other party had guided him to the item properly without deception, it was Turan's moral code, learned from his mother, to repay them accordingly. To treat others as he wished to be treated.
"T-thank you, Kind Devil. If I ever end up fighting humans later, I'll tell my father not to touch you."
"Stop talking nonsense."
Armani looked back several times before throwing himself into the pond Turan had just dived into. With a splash and a burst of bubbles, a small shark-like figure was seen diving deep into the water. It seemed his claim of being merman royalty wasn't a lie. Looking back, he had been honest from start to finish.
Then, shall I... head back?
Turan walked toward where he had moored the boat, fingering the round metal in his hand. Finding out what this object was promised to be quite interesting.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 243 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/the-shepherd-wizard
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━