The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Chapter 17 Decay

Turan blinked several times, but the written content didn't change.

Keorn, that familiar name...

Wondering if it might be someone with the same name, he looked at the content below and saw it was a play set against the backdrop of the Arabion-Zahar war from 20 years ago.

It was about the exploits of Keorn, Arabion's most valiant knight.

Seeing him staring at the advertisement for a long time, Asiz spoke.

"It's quite a good play. Though it was made by the main house to promote that we won the war. Want to watch?"

"I'd like to... but have you already seen it and don't want to?"

"Hmm? No, well, watching it one more time wouldn't hurt. Hey, when can we see it?"

"It starts in fifteen minutes!"

Soon after, Turan and Asiz occupied two of the theater's best seats.

Of course, they originally had other owners, but when you pay ten times the ticket price, even non-existent seats become available.

Not long after taking their seats, the play began.

[The time was the year 2195, when Arabion's warriors went to that devils' desert—]

Along with a resonant voice rich in volume, several neatly dressed actors took the stage.

Those who had stopped by for regular trade got into an argument with House Zahar's knights guarding the desert, and soon began fighting.

Before long, the knights' fight escalated into a noble's fight, and then into a war centered on the two houses.

Later, when the heads of both houses came out to duel, screams erupted from the audience as the two actors playing the heads made gestures of attacking each other with magic.

They had the skill to make magic too weak to actually harm each other look spectacular.

[While storms raged by day and death by night, as the war dragged on and casualties mounted – there was one knight named Keorn.]

Only then did the actor playing Keorn appear.

The man with fierce eyes and a sturdy build was quite different from the gentle old knight in Turan's memories.

But such an appearance suited the Keorn in the play better.

A warrior who charged first and retreated last on the battlefield, whose rich experience and magical skill made even nobles remember his name.

Though his individual significance wasn't great amid the clash of dozens of nobles and thousands of knights, Keorn was respected by all as a knight among knights.

And on the day of destiny, Keorn faced a Zahar noble in battle without any noble to protect him.

The opponent mocked Keorn, who was incomparably weaker than himself.

But Keorn, through various strokes of luck described as divine help, along with his comrades' mementos, bravery, and wisdom, succeeded in defeating the enemy after a fierce struggle.

When the shocking fact that a noble born with great house bloodline had been killed in a duel with a mere knight spread, the two houses experienced contrasting joy and sorrow, and finally the intense war that had continued for two years came to an end—

As the curtain fell with the narrator's words, thunderous applause shook the theater.

"How was it? Worth watching?"

"Hmm? Ah, it was... really good."

Turan answered Asiz's question in a somewhat dazed state.

The first thought that came to his mind was what Keorn had said.

Hadn't he said he wasn't particularly talented or accomplished as a knight?

Truly, there was no modesty like that modesty.

Turan recalled when he had tested his strength against Keorn back on Hisaril Hill.

Keorn's magical power then was about one-tenth of what Turan had.

Considering this was when Turan was just a young noble who had absorbed magic power only once, it was clear that any decent noble would be dozens of times stronger than Keorn.

This was certainly an achievement worthy of being preserved in plays for future generations.

If it was true, that is.

"Was that play based on something that actually happened?"

"Probably? I was young so I don't know well, but it is a famous story."

Turan couldn't help but laugh at how Asiz spoke as if it was his infant days, even though at twenty-three years old then, he would have been older than current Turan.

"A knight killing a noble would be shocking, but I wonder if that's enough to end a war."

"Well, I heard the mood was already heading toward ending the war by then. With hundreds of knights dead on each side, over twenty nobles killed, and even the heads injured in their duel."

According to what Asiz knew, in that situation, when Keorn killed a noble and Arabion widely publicized this, Zahar proposed peace thinking they had no chance if there were more knights with such capability, leading to the war's end.

'This is a bit different from what I know.'

From what Turan had heard from Keorn, the war between the two houses had ended with Zahar's advantage.

Perhaps there were more hidden details to this.

Maybe since this was Arabion territory, they were adapting it to favor themselves.

Anyway, he wanted to ask Keorn if that story was true when he met him again someday.

==

After watching three more plays following the sun was already setting.

"Sorry to say this, but you seem a bit too weak to match with me."

"No, of course he can't match your magical power. What's really amazing about this friend is his skill at learning magic."

Asiz boasted that Turan was a magical genius the likes of which he had never seen before, that even Meisa couldn't match that aspect.

Hearing this, faint interest arose on Meisa's face.

"To that extent?"

Turan was about to be modest and say his friend was exaggerating, but kept his mouth shut.

If he acted humble here, wouldn't it just end with "as expected"?

He too wanted to directly experience the skill of this prestigious house's lady.

"How about we each show a magic we don't know, and whoever succeeds faster wins?"

"That's a good method. Meisa, what do you think?"

"Fine. Come to think of it, Turan doesn't even know his own bloodline magic, right? It would be unfair if I used wind or lightning magic. Let's exclude those."

After saying this, Meisa tilted her head briefly, then lightly rolled her foot on the ground.

Turan thought she might use magic to make thorns rise from the earth, which he had used before—

"Whoa!"

"Eek!" Asiz let out a strange exclamation seeing vines shoot up from the ground.

The vine stems didn't just emerge but moved on their own, wrapping around Asiz's arms, torso, and legs before lifting and swinging him around.

"Aaaah—!"

"Plant creation and control magic. Can you do it?"

"Let—me—down—!"

"Stay like that for a bit. It's fun."

While Asiz was being swung through the air by the vines, Turan quietly reviewed what had just happened.

Creating vines from the ground – that couldn't be true.

According to the natural laws he had learned, even magical power couldn't create matter.

Fire magic only implemented the 'phenomenon' of burning, and water magic only drew invisible moisture from the air.

Therefore, those vines must be rapidly growing from seeds already planted in the ground.

Understanding that it was 'growth' rather than 'creation.'

Whether one knew or didn't know such principles was an extremely important factor in using magic.

"Grow."

Being unfamiliar with this magic, Turan placed his hand on the ground while quietly chanting.

Moments later, several much weaker vines than Meisa's grew from the ground.

Turan made these grown vines wrap around his right hand.

"Oh..."

Though terribly lacking compared to the power Meisa had shown, both of them exclaimed in amazement.

They knew how difficult it was to even clumsily copy an entirely unknown magic after seeing it just once.

Of course, Turan had relatively little power loss because he had used it guessing there would be vine seeds remaining in the ground.

"Seeing you say 'grow,' you seem to have immediately understood this magic's nature. Have you seen it somewhere before?"

"This is my first time."

"So Asiz can be right sometimes."

Meisa's eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

Though it was grotesque how her eyeballs protruded from sunken eye sockets, it was enough to feel her expectation.

"Then it's your turn to pose a problem. Let's see what you've got."

At Meisa's challenging expression, Turan considered which magic to choose.

While he wanted to use a difficult magic that would be hard for her to even attempt copying, nothing particularly came to mind.

Using Zahar bloodline magic would be suicide before even being rule violation...

Then, Turan's eyes suddenly caught a rat scurrying quickly across a corner of the ruined garden.

As he called the rat over with a light gesture, Meisa asked in a somewhat disappointed tone.

"Animal control?"

"Not at all, this one is just material."

Turan cast magic while lightly gripping the rat's neck.

Magic that gave power to the countless microorganisms inside this living being's body, beings that originally existed but couldn't be perceived...

After a moment, the rat began to decay while still alive in his hand.

"It's done."

The problem he posed was 'decay,' magic obtained through natural laws learned from the library's librarian.