The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Chapter 27 Left Behind by the Gods

"Uh..."

When Turan first landed on the deck, the pirates were so dumbfounded they couldn't speak for several seconds.

Their brains momentarily refused to process the surreal sight of a human leaping across tens of meters between ships.

But after a few seconds, some unnamed pirate broke this silence with a loud shout.

"K-kill him! Fight!"

About seventy pirates approached wielding all sorts of weapons that could harm people, from swords and axes to various other implements.

Turan was internally perplexed.

Normally, when a wizard suddenly appears and shows such capability, people would lose their will to fight and surrender, so why?

But his confusion didn't make any meaningful difference to this battle.

Just as a mouse suddenly charging at a bear making the bear flinch doesn't give the mouse any better chances.

As he extended his hand toward the deck, deep blue waves rose in response to Turan's will, instantly releasing hot steam and transforming into ice spikes sharp enough to pierce anything.

"Th-that's..."

"Dod-!"

Before the word "dodge" could even be finished, dozens of ice spikes plunged down toward the pirates gathered on the deck.

The result was unspeakably horrific.

Heads pierced for instant death, throats pierced causing suffocation and struggling, chests and stomachs pierced causing collapse...

In an instant, fifteen or sixteen pirates lost their lives or were incapacitated.

And this was while deliberately using far less power than he could, trying to act like a knight.

Humans not born with magical power were this fragile.

"Don't be scared, you bastards! We'll die anyway if we can't kill him!"

While the pirates in front were screaming with ice spikes stuck in various parts of their bodies, someone in the back shouted like that.

Now he could understand why the pirates were resisting so desperately.

They too knew that Turan wouldn't let them live.

Against the pirates rushing in urgently, Turan gathered some of the water drawn from the sea in his hand to create an ice greatsword.

He could have swept them all away by continuing to fire ice spikes, but to maintain his knight act, he needed to show himself engaging in direct combat while conserving power at this point.

"Gak-"

A body falling helplessly with its neck severed.

Before the greatsword imbued with strength that could crush even steel, human flesh and bone weren't even obstacles.

After cutting down one like that, he met incoming attacks with appropriate stances while grazing necks, then took a big step back to create distance before extending his sword to cut down three at once.

Unlike when dueling with Haram in weapon arts, he felt no exhilaration of combat from these actions.

The pirates' physical abilities were no match for Turan's, and their combat skills were even more crude.

During this, the pirates' attacks did make contact with Turan's body several times.

After all, with only two hands and one sword, he couldn't block every attack coming from all directions while restricting his power and speed to knight level.

If he were a master like Haram, it would have been a different story.

"Ugh..."

But there was no need to even try blocking such attacks.

He felt a large pirate's full-strength thrust slide off his exposed neck without even piercing the skin.

Several more tried to slash and stab his shoulders, chest, and back afterward, but none of their attacks were effective.

A noble's body wasn't fragile enough to be pierced just because some commoner swung sharp metal.

It probably wouldn't have been much different even without the guardian magic device.

After about three minutes had passed, Turan realized he was the only person standing on the deck.

Only low groans and pain-filled screams echoed across the blood-soaked deck.@@@@

"Aaaagh!"

"M-mommy, I'm cold, mommy-"

"Please spare me..."

As he looked down at the fallen pirates and threw his ice greatsword to the ground, he heard several grappling hooks catching on the deck with metallic clicks.

Because he had jumped ahead and the two ships had crossed paths, the Blue Marlin had to make another turn to catch up to the pirate ship.

Captain Pires, who walked skillfully balancing on the rope, clicked his tongue while looking around the pirate ship's deck.

"It's finished, Captain."

"So it seems. This is, well..."

Pires wore an expression like he had many things he wanted to say but couldn't find the words.

Presumably, he might be suspecting that Turan wasn't really just a knight.

But unlike him, the sailors approaching from behind were all excited, shouting incomprehensible things.

"You're truly amazing! Long live Sir Knight!"

"Woooaaah!"

"You bastards! Serves you right!"

Some sailors, unable to contain their joy, tried kicking the sprawled pirate corpses but fell over themselves.

He had probably encouraged them to work hard by saying that the knight would give them a portion of the ship's sale money.

Though Turan was the only one who had fought, while they were celebrating the victory and even passing around drinks, for some reason a commotion suddenly arose on the pirate ship connected by ropes.

A sailor shouted with a shocked expression.

"Captain! Merfolk, there's merfolk!"

"What? Merfolk are attacking now? Where?"

Captain Pires shouted in surprise.

After being fine for the past week, getting hit by pirates and merfolk in succession seemed too much.

But the sailor's following words revealed it wasn't what he thought.

"N-no, that's not it... the pirates were keeping a merfolk captive. Below the ship!"

==

When Turan returned to the pirate ship, Deck Boss Lenak was stripping and shaking down his subordinates who had gone below.

He said they had to search like this because those sent to explore the pirate ship's interior might secretly hide valuable items on their bodies.

It was quite an ordeal in the early winter weather of the North Sea, but no one complained.

Who would dare complain when someone might be stealing from the knight who had just slaughtered seventy pirates?

"So, there's merfolk inside?"

"Yes. I haven't gone in yet either, just received the report."

"Well done. Turan, shall we go in?"

"Let's."

Obviously, if merfolk really existed, their ownership would belong to Turan as well.

While entering the cabin below deck, Turan asked Pires.

"By the way, do merfolk sell for high prices?"

"I hear beautiful female merfolk can sell for enormous prices. Rich people who seek rare things go crazy for them."

Turan recalled the characteristics of merfolk he had read about in books before.

They were said to sing among the reefs to lure ships, then sink them to eat people.

Was it really because their voices were that good, or did they have some special power to enchant people?

Now he would find out directly.

"This way."

Clank, when Turan came down to the ship's bottom, he opened his eyes wide in surprise at the sight before him.

The merfolk the sailors had mentioned appeared to be a young boy who looked only about thirteen or fourteen years old.

He heard Pires clicking his tongue beside him.

"A male? Male merfolk probably won't fetch much. Unless he's one of those legendary royalty who can transform into fish..."

Then, hearing Pires's words, the merboy shouted in anger.

"How dare you! Male, you say! I am Arma, the forty-seventh prince of North Estadeil! Show proper respect, people of the land!"

Indeed, the merboy's voice was more beautiful than any human voice Turan had ever heard.

It was like the instrumental background music played in theaters.

But even more surprising than the voice was the content of his words.

"...Is he saying he's royalty?"

"Seems so. Though he might be bluffing thinking we'll spare him and sell him instead of killing him."

Pires said with a serious expression that it might be true, given how the pirates had kept a male merfolk that wouldn't fetch any money.

"Can you transform into a fish, mer-prince?"

"Th-that I cannot!"

"Why?"

"Well, because I've been tied up out of water like this... I need to enter the sea in perfect condition to transform."

Turan and Pires could feel their thoughts align without speaking.

This kid was trying to trick them to escape.

"What will you do?"

"Merfolk quite often eat people too, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll kill him. He won't fetch any money anyway."

"But if he's real it would be such a waste..."

"We can't let him go to verify, can we? He won't sell if he won't transform anyway."

Turan immediately reached toward the merboy.

Since he appeared as a child externally, it would be better to give him a painless instant death.

Sensing the danger, the merboy backed away and shouted.

"I-I've never eaten humans before! And I don't plan to! If you spare me, I'll give you treasure!"

"Treasure?"

When Turan hesitated, the merboy – Arma's face brightened.

"Yes, treasure! Left behind by the Prea gods you serve!"