The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 78: Fooled Again (2)

This matched perfectly with what he had just deduced.

Turan glanced around briefly before asking the man.

"How much?"

"Fifteen gold coins. Not expensive, right? You could make several times that selling the saltpeter elsewhere."

"Alright. However, I’d like to confirm the saltpeter source before paying."

"Oh my, of course. How could you trust me with such a sum right now? Tomorrow, about an hour after sunset... see that mountain over there?"

"Yes."

The man pointed to a mountain that seemed to embrace one side of the city.

It wasn’t very high, just about the height of a local hill.

"If you go straight behind that mountain, there’s a small village. A ship will come there. You can pay when you board."

"Thank you for letting me know."

The man chuckled at Turan’s thanks.

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"No, thank you instead."

After the man left, Turan chose a random inn nearby and rented a room.

As soon as they entered, Bize started fidgeting and waving her talons, so Turan immediately took out the sand-filled slate from his large-capacity pouch.

[That person liar!]

The slate seemed to limit messages to short, concise sentences due to space constraints.

However, having had such conversations often, Turan could interpret this easily.

"The person who said he’d show us where saltpeter comes from?"

[Yes!]

"Why do you think so?"

At Turan’s question, Bize seemed to think for a moment before writing again.

[Saltpeter expensive, if know would dig self!]

"That’s right. Wow, you’re really smart. Even people often fall for this without thinking of that."

Turan laughed and stroked her head, impressed by such sharp analysis that seemed impossible from a black eagle.

[Turan knew too?]

"More or less."

Among the typical unwashed person’s smell, there was the scent of a predator’s excitement just before hunting prey.

As far as he could remember, there was only one case where humans had given off such a scent.

Bandits just before committing robbery.

"It’s probably a smuggling ship or pirate ship. They might try to take the money and make us into slave sailors if we go."

Having heard various stories about how things worked at sea from the crew while aboard the Blue Marlin, he knew quite a bit about these matters.

[Then why?]

"Why wouldn’t I go when friends who might provide information are gathering on their own?"

He probably could have easily learned where saltpeter came from by capturing local merchants and threatening them with magic or torture.

Yet Turan hadn’t done so because the merchants’ refusal to tell was justified.

They had no obligation to reveal where their livelihood came from.

And now, opponents who wanted to steal his property and freedom, against whom he could unleash his sadistic tendencies without any guilt, had come along?

It was truly a welcome development.

His final words to that man, thanking him for the information, were no empty courtesy.

==

The next day, Turan stayed cooped up in the inn practicing magic until near the appointed time before heading out.

After politely acknowledging the gate guard’s explanation that they couldn’t let him back inside the walls since curfew was approaching, he walked to the place the vagrant had described and found a small village.

A particularly unpleasant-looking young man sitting in front of the village palisade asked in a rowdy tone.

"Are you perhaps the guest here for the boat?"

"Yes."

"Come on in."

As he entered the village, he heard snickering and the word "idiot" from behind.

Just as he was thinking how this reeked too obviously of a trap, Turan frowned at the presence he sensed ahead.

’What’s this now?’

An intense flow of magical power, similar to what he’d felt at the sulfur hot springs.

Moreover, this power was even stronger than Rida’s and Aikul’s, just slightly weaker than Meisa’s.

Surely there couldn’t be more than a hundred top-tier wizards from major houses in the entire world, so why did he keep running into them so often?

Unless he had some gravity that attracted powerful wizards like a planet.

’A high noble from House Labitas... could it be the heir? But why in a place like this?’

Though puzzled, Turan continued walking slowly.

If someone had set a trap to catch him, they surely wouldn’t have asked him to come at night.

Besides, he was confident he could escape even if Meisa herself chased him in this level of darkness.

The small presences nearby were probably knights who came as guards?

Analyzing this way as he walked toward the ship on the shore, soon he heard boisterous voices.

"Wow, is that really true?"

"Would I make this up? When I begged them to spare me, those bastards said, ’Crawl between my legs and I’ll let you live!’ So I quickly rolled and kicked right there..."

Around a bonfire in front of a sailing ship sat rough-looking men who were clearly sailors.

Among them, Turan’s senses detected two knights, probably the highest-ranking individuals present.

And among these sailors sat a young man with an easy-going attitude, chattering away.

Judging by appearance, he might be five or six years older than Turan?

With short silver hair, he was slightly shorter but had impressively broad shoulders and a well-trained build.

This was the unidentified grand wizard that Turan had sensed.

"Hey, stop spinning such tall tales!"

When a sailor smacked the back of the wizard’s head, surprisingly, instead of getting angry, he just laughed sheepishly.

For a top-tier noble or potential heir of a major house to show such behavior to commoners?

While Turan himself often disguised himself as a commoner, seeing such a scene from a third person’s perspective was baffling.

It felt like watching a lion casually mingling with a pack of wolves.

Then, the silver-haired wizard’s gaze shifted from Turan to Bize at his side.

"Huh...?"

The wizard showed a surprised expression while pointing at Bize.

It was the kind of reaction you’d have upon unexpectedly encountering someone you knew.

How could a noble from House Labitas have any connection to Bize?

As he wondered about this, one of the sailors suddenly clapped his hands.

"Well well, all our guests are here! Shall we get going?"

"Oh my, is it that time already?"

When the silver-haired wizard blinked his eyes as if confused, the sailor who had hit his head earlier grinned and said.

"Your stories were entertaining, but now it’s time to board. First, put down all your belongings. We’ll load them for you."

"Ah... thank you, but I can carry them myself. I have many precious items..."

The sailor answered the silver-haired wizard’s response with a kick to the shin.

"Don’t be dense, from now on you’re a deck scrubber, kid."

"What about the Prea god-folk ruins you said you’d take us to?"

"How would we know about something like that?"

At the sailor’s words, the silver-haired wizard burst out laughing.

Though it might have seemed cheerful at first glance, Turan could sense the thick killing intent contained within.

"Damn, fooled again. You bastards. How many times am I going to fall for this around here?"

Whoosh, flames erupted from the silver-haired wizard’s entire body.

Not the yellow-red flames that other wizards typically used, but platinum-white flames as bright as the sun.