Translator: Pai_

“Everyone, gather here.”

At the middle of the hill as twilight fell, at a single command from Turan, the flock of sheep that had been leisurely grazing began to gather.

Without the guidance of a barking shepherd dog or the prodding of a shepherd’s staff, they moved in perfect order.

It was the result of magic at work.

Based on what Turan had learned over the past eight years, magic had three primary characteristics:

First, if you strongly desire something, you can achieve it by exchanging magic power for what you want.

Second, if you verbally express your desire, it becomes easier to achieve and consumes less magic power.

Finally, third, the more difficult the desired wish, the more power it consumes, or it might even become outright impossible.

The condition of what constituted 'difficulty' wasn’t particularly clear.

Sometimes, magic granted something so easily that it was almost astonishingly generous. Other times, it was frustratingly stingy, refusing even simple requests.

For instance, just a few days ago, when he had fought the leopard magical beast, even the simple command to 'stop', which was far easier than causing instant death, had little effect on the creature.

Yet, for something as simple as ordinary sheep, he could control hundreds of them simultaneously without difficulty.

On the other hand, giving the slingshot the power and speed to smash the creature’s head and ensuring it hit the target was ridiculously easy.

When calculating the amount of power consumed, Turan realized that he could have repeated the same attack hundreds of times…

As Turan herded all the sheep into the pen, lost in thought, a faint scent of blood wafted from a distance.

It was similar to what he sensed a few days ago when he detected Labus's death.

However, with his keen sense of smell, he realized it wasn’t human blood. Nor was it from a sheep or a leopard…

'Wolf?'

The scent was reminiscent of the wolf he had killed and butchered about a year ago.

As expected, it wasn’t long before he saw Keorn walking toward him with the corpse of a dead wolf slung over his shoulder and his back against the setting sun.

“Good evening, Turan. Do you mind if I stay at your house tonight? I’ll offer this wolf as payment for lodging.”

A wolf was quite a valuable catch.

The hide could be sold to the villagers, and while the meat wasn’t as good as that of livestock raised for food, it wasn’t bad either.

In short, it was more than enough compensation for a single night’s lodging.

Turan nodded.

“There shouldn’t be many wolves around here. How far did you go to catch this?”

Over the past few years, Turan had been patrolling the area, and any time he spotted a pack of wolves, he would attack them. As a result, carnivorous animals had nearly disappeared from the vicinity.

Besides, the Hisaril Hill itself was so desolate that it wasn’t home to many animals in the first place.

“I found it while scouting near the Sky Mountain Range.”

The Sky Mountain Range was located even further west of Hisaril Hill, which was already at the world’s westernmost edge. True to its name, the mountain range stretched upward, seeming to pierce the sky.

Some called it the Great Barrier, as its form resembled an insurmountable wall, just as its name suggested.

"It should take days just to reach the foothills......"

“With my stride, half a day was enough.”

Turan wasn’t particularly surprised, as he, too, could accomplish the same feat if he set his mind to it.

He merely thought to himself that this wizard wasn’t just a braggart and heightened his guard internally.

A little while later, the two of them sat around a campfire in front of the house, enjoying a dinner feast of wolf meat stew.

Keorn looked up at the sky and whistled.

“The stars here are incredibly bright.”

“I heard from my mother that this hill is one of the highest places in the world, apart from the Sky Mountain Range to the west, of course.”

“Compared to that place, what could be higher? After visiting it today, I’m even more impressed. Even nobles would find it difficult to cross.”

“I’ve heard that nobles possess godlike power. Couldn’t they easily leap over a mountain range?”

“Not all of them, my friend. If you’re talking about the heads of great noble houses, they might truly be akin to gods…”

Keorn then boasted that he had once witnessed the head of House Arabion crush a small hill with a mere gesture.

"Oh......"

Hearing this, Turan suddenly felt a twinge of shame.

Sometimes, he would entertain the delusion that his power might be on par with that of nobles, considering how much stronger it was than he had initially thought.

But after hearing Keorn’s stories, it became clear to him that his abilities were truly insignificant compared to those of real nobles.

“By the way, doesn’t living alone in a place like this get lonely?”

“Well, of course it does. But I’ve gotten used to it by now.”

“Why not bring a girl from the village to live with you?”

“Who would want to spend their entire life herding sheep in a place like this?”

“I’m sure there are plenty of young ladies who wouldn’t mind living with a handsome young man like you.”

Turan awkwardly smiled at Keorn's joke.

When he used to visit the village as a child, there were girls who liked him and followed him around. But after his mother died and he fought with the village, all contact with them had been severed.

They had likely realized the reality of the situation.

Marrying Turan would mean spending their entire lives exiled to this desolate hill.

“Well, don’t think about it too negatively. Who knows? You might meet a passing young lady and strike up a connection.”

Of course, considering that Keorn was the only traveler to have come by in the last 18 years, it was an unlikely story.

After exchanging a few more lighthearted remarks, the two of them sat in silence, staring at the campfire.

It was Turan who broke the silence.

“Why do you go to such lengths?”

“Hm?”

“I don’t know what the village chief promised you, but with your skills, it seems like you could make far more money in a much easier way.”

In any village, if someone like Keorn settled down, declared they would protect the place, and demanded wealth and women in return, who would dare refuse?

It would be hundreds of times easier and more comfortable than spending all day covered in dust, staying in a shepherd’s house just to hunt a magical beast.

Someone who could bring back a wolf from the Sky Mountain Range in just half a day surely didn’t lack ability either…

And besides, the villagers weren’t particularly deserving of such favors.

After all, the reason Keorn was staying at Turan’s house was that the village had charged him an exorbitant price for lodging.

If Turan were in Keorn’s shoes, he would have smashed the village buildings, taken the money, and left.

"They are pitiful people."

“In what way?”

“Living every day trembling in fear in this remote frontier, without the protection of a wizard.”

The old knight sat across from Turan and explained gently, as if teaching a son.

While the area around Hisaril Hill was relatively peaceful due to its barrenness, countless magical beasts roamed the mountains and fields of the fertile lands beyond, preying on people.

He explained that it was the pride of a wizard, one who had inherited the power of the gods, to protect powerless commoners from magical beasts. Even though he no longer served any noble house, he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

This was a story quite different from what Turan had heard from his mother.

The nobles she spoke of were oppressors and exploiters, and knights were merely their lackeys. Wasn’t that how it was supposed to be?

Noticing Turan’s confused expression, the old knight smiled and handed him a bowl of sheep’s milk.

“Well, not everyone thinks like I do. If there are ten thousand people in the world, there are ten thousand ways of thinking.”

* * *

The next morning, Turan cleaned the sheep pen with a simple wave of his hand, lost in thought.

What lingered in his mind was the conversation from the previous night.

'Pride......'

The discussion had left a significant impression on him.

To think that a knight wasn’t just a slave bowing to the power of nobles but could be someone who found meaning in protecting commoners?

Though this newfound understanding didn’t make him want to seek out a noble and beg to serve under them, it did soften his perspective a little.

Perhaps, if there were people like Keorn, living under a noble’s rule might not be entirely bad after all…

'That aside, how should I let him know the magical beast is already dead.'

He had originally planned to let Keorn wander around for a while and eventually leave on his own, but he didn’t want someone as good-hearted as Keorn to waste his time in a desolate place like this.

The problem was that it had already been several days since Turan had tossed the corpse of the magical beast deep into a ravine.

Retrieving that rotting carcass and bringing it back would be a hassle in itself, not to mention that the traces of magic Turan had used on it would be all too evident.

It went without saying that if anyone were to search for a wizard in this area, Turan would be the most suspicious figure.

Sighing, Turan waved his hand, and all the sheep dung and urine piled up in the pen flew to the backyard.

Once it dried out under the hill’s arid climate, it would make excellent fuel for the fireplace.

With the cleaning done, he had a little time left to spare.

‘Maybe I should go look for the elder…’

If Keorn had traveled far like yesterday, it would be impossible to find him, but Turan had heard that Keorn planned to patrol closer to the hill today, so there was a good chance he could locate him.

Turan lightly focused his mind, lifting his body effortlessly above the roof, and chanted a spell.

“Human Detection.”

As soon as he cast the spell, Turan’s perception expanded rapidly.

His vision, which had only extended a hundred meters or so, suddenly expanded to the point where he could distinguish individual blades of grass several kilometers away. His sense of smell and hearing amplified even further, allowing him to pick up the faint rustling of insect legs and the subtle scent of formic acid from nearby ants.

However, despite the enhanced sensory input, his heightened senses filtered out all unnecessary information, focusing solely on detecting humans.

‘Let’s see… Hmm?’

He turned his head sharply as a voice caught his attention.

With his enhanced vision, he saw Keorn.

He was panting heavily, blood dripping from his forehead and shoulder.

Opposite him, the half-decayed body of the leopard magical beast Turan had killed a few days ago was roaring ferociously.

* * *

‘Who in the world would do something like this…?’

Keorn gritted his teeth as he stared at the undead spirit of the dead magical beast.

When living creatures die, they instinctively cling to life in their final moments. The magic power within them, which acts as the key to omnipotence, attempts to fulfill the dying owner’s will by forcibly reviving their broken body. This phenomenon creates what is called an undead spirit.

For this reason, it was standard practice to either absorb or disperse the magic power within the corpse after killing a magical beast.

But whoever had killed the leopard magical beast before him had either been unaware of this rule or had deliberately ignored it.

Considering that a magical beast would instinctively devour its defeated foe to absorb their magic power, it was likely the work of a wizard.

Judging by the hole in its head, the culprit was probably someone skilled in projectile-based spells.

[■■■■--!!]

A deafening roar erupted from the leopard’s rotting throat, echoing like the wail of the dead across the empty sky.

Considering the creature’s current state, the comparison wasn’t entirely off.

“Take this!”

With a shout, a glowing arrow of light shot from Keorn’s hands.

It was an attack powerful enough to pierce through even steel armor with ease. However, the moment the arrow made contact with the shadows enveloping the leopard’s body, it scattered helplessly.

This meant that the magic surrounding the creature’s body was far stronger than Keorn’s arrow spell.

After neutralizing Keorn’s attack, the leopard seemed to decide that it would fight magic with magic. It melted into the ground, disappearing into the earth, only to materialize in the shadow behind Keorn in an instant.

Keorn hastily raised both arms to defend himself, but the sharp claws of the beast raked his forearm, and a hot stream of blood spurted out.

If not for his body being tempered by magic power, he would have lost his arm, and possibly his torso, in that single attack. For an ordinary person, it would have been a fatal blow.

‘This… isn’t something a knight can handle. At the very least, it would take someone at the level of a lower-ranked noble-’

Though they say undead spirits become several times stronger through resurrection due to their grudge, if even Keorn, a skilled knight, could barely face it, it must have been a powerful magical beast even when alive.

Who in the world had managed to kill such a creature and then left it unattended?

And for what purpose?

[Grrrr—]

The undead spirit, as if convinced that its prey was already within its grasp, growled leisurely and began to approach Keorn.

The aged knight, sensing death drawing near, gritted his teeth and prepared for one final counterattack.

If he could channel all of his remaining magic power into his hands and stab the creature at the precise moment it lunged, there might be the faintest glimmer of hope…

But before he could execute his desperate plan, a brilliant flash streaked in from afar.

It moved so fast that it broke the sound barrier, making it impossible to perceive its presence through hearing-

A round stone struck the undead spirit’s decayed head and shattered it into countless fragments.