The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 68: Stay Together From Now (2)

Unlike Arabion’s army, their camp consisted of multiple tents.

’Eight nobles, thirty-five knights...’

Turan accurately grasped the situation within the camp using his holy relic’s senses.

The unusually high ratio of nobles was probably because their goal was submission rather than conquest.

Entering the camp while concealed, he could see a large woman handing over Bize, which she held in one hand, to a noble man with black hair.

Her mana was slightly over half of what Turan currently possessed, making her quite powerful among the heads of ordinary wizard houses.

She seemed to be the commander of this camp.

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"What’s this now, Sister?"

"A magical beast. Caught it while passing by. Keep it confined well."

"It’s much stronger and fiercer than it looks. Look at this, I got scratched here."

A noble who seemed to be her companion showed off by revealing his forearm.

The black-haired noble ignored this and asked the commander.

"Why not just kill and eat it?"

"I’m saving it for my son. If we kill it now, it’ll become undead before we get home."

"Ah... Oh, Sister. Looks like this one has an owner?"

The black-haired noble spoke while revealing Bize’s ankle area.

There was a string hanging there that Turan had tied to prevent misunderstandings about it being a wild black eagle.

However, the noble who appeared to be the commander just smirked and shook her head as if she already knew.

"Oh, that? Remove it if it bothers you."

"Is that alright? If it belongs to some major house..."

"Why would something like that be in this backwater? Don’t worry about it. At most it’s probably something someone from Hardit’s side bought for a high price. None of our side raises magical beasts anyway, right?"

"That’s true."

The black-haired noble nodded in understanding and burned away the string tied to Bize’s ankle.

Bize chirped sharply but couldn’t actively resist, apparently due to one wing being bent at a strange angle.

Seeing this, rather than becoming angry, Turan felt himself become remarkably calm.

It was like all emotions had burned away from excessive anger, leaving only reason behind.

Shortly after, he followed the noble carrying Bize to a tent located in a corner of the camp while maintaining concealment.

The black-haired noble was making an impromptu small cage by heating and bending thick metal rods.

"Hmm, well with its wing broken this should be enough... If I assign a knight to guard it... Huh?"

The black-haired noble’s confusion was due to noticing a shadow cast behind him.

When he turned around, he saw a young man with grey hair and eyes.

Was someone like this in our army?

No, more importantly, how did he enter the tent without making any sound—

"Excuse me. That black eagle is my friend, may I take it back?"

"Uh, um? That’s difficult since Sister brought it..."

The black-haired noble unconsciously responded awkwardly to the sudden request.

A situation where an outsider suddenly appeared inside a tent in the middle of the camp, and was politely requesting the return of a bird the commander had captured...

His brain momentarily failed to process this completely unexpected development.

Along with this, he instinctively projected mana toward the other party, but for some reason there was no reaction.

In wizard society, projecting mana toward someone was a demand saying "I’m showing how much power I have, so show me how much you have."

There were two main cases where one wouldn’t respond to this.

Either they were ordinary humans who couldn’t sense mana at all, or they were wizards too pathetic to proudly display their mana quantity.

The black-haired noble, having cooled his head slightly, considered the possibility that the opponent was actually insignificant and putting on airs trying to somehow retrieve his animal.

Still, since there was a slight danger, he carefully asked a question to handle it.

"F-first, who are you? Your name, your name."

"I don’t think who I am is important. This child is precious to me, so please return it. If you do, I won’t hold you responsible for breaking its wing."

The black-haired noble became convinced from these continuing words.

This guy must be at most a knight or an lowest-tier noble even inferior to himself.

Otherwise, wouldn’t it make more sense to reveal his power and intimidate with "Do you know who I am?" and demand immediate return?

"If you refuse—"

The moment he tried to say "what will you do," the black-haired noble realized the other’s figure had vanished.

What? Did I hallucinate? Or—

Before his thoughts could continue, the world spun around.

The last thing he saw was his own headless body.

==

Turan looked down coldly at the noble sprawled with his head cut off.

Regardless of whether the opponent was strong or weak, he would have spared them if they had shown at least some sign of knowing they were wrong and feeling sorry.

At the point they didn’t even show that much, the man was nothing but a bandit, a wolf that needed to be hunted.

Leaving the headless noble’s body behind, Turan put away his dagger and sat beside Bize, stroking its head.

Emotions of joy transmitted through their soul bond.

[Turan I hurt! These people bad!]

"Sorry for leaving you alone. Did these people attack you first?"

[Yes!]

He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly seeing the words written on the ground.

Though he had expected as much...

To attack and kidnap a magical beast clearly marked as having an owner and then try to use it as prey—they were perfect bandits in every way.

Turan took out the Mimicker holy relic and drank about a quarter of its healer bloodline mana.

He could feel the healer bloodline power filling his body.

’This should be enough.’

Though a much smaller amount would suffice for ordinary creatures, it took more mana to heal magical beasts.

When he placed his hand on the twisted wing and exerted power, before long the wing began realigning with cracking sounds.

Shortly after, the fully recovered Bize wrote with radiating joy.

[No more hurt!]

"I’m glad. Bize, did it hurt a lot?"

[Yes! But okay! Turan saved me!]

After writing that, it suddenly erased the writing with its other foot and made a weak sound.

[Stay together from now! Don’t go alone!]

"I will."

Having been quite shocked by nearly being hunted while left alone, Bize rubbed its head against Turan’s body even after climbing onto the rod at his side.

After comforting it for a while, Turan emerged from the tent with an icily hardened face.

Now it was time to make the kidnappers pay the price.