After crushing the masu's head with a single strike, Turan approached Keorn with the sling in his hand.
In truth, the decision to help this knight was quite risky even for Turan.
If Keorn returned to his house and reported that there was a young, useful slave here, wouldn't Turan have to flee immediately?
Yet he stepped forward because protecting guests was his duty as the lord of Hisaril Hill, and because that old knight had shown respect to Turan while maintaining proper guest etiquette.
"Are you alright?"
But for some reason, Keorn was watching out for the collapsed leopard masu with its shattered head rather than looking at Turan.
"Be careful!"
There was no need to ask what he meant.
The leopard masu suddenly raised its headless body and lunged at Turan.
Where there had originally been a hole, and now a completely crushed skull, a wavering pale green light emerged.
Fortunately, thanks to the warning, Turan was able to create distance by kicking away the charging masu's body.
Though strongly kicked, the masu's body rolled several dozen meters but didn't seem to have taken much damage.
"You can't kill an undead with physical attacks!"
"Then how should I kill it?"
"With fire or lightning!"
Following the advice, Turan immediately tried to set the masu's body on fire, but just like before, the sparks that should have erupted into lightning-like flames went out weakly.
Seeing this, Keorn could now be certain that Turan was the one who had killed the masu.
It was basic knowledge among wizards that applying magical power directly to other magical creatures required proper causality, yet this young shepherd showed no sign of knowing even such principles.
Naturally, he wouldn't have known about the need to disperse a dead masu's mana either.
"Don't light the fire—create and shoot it!"
Even as Keorn advised this, he thought Turan would find it difficult.
While igniting flames was something even young wizards could do instinctively, directly controlling them was a skill that required separate training.
But just as he worried, flames arose above Turan's hand, spun around it, and shot toward the masu as if propelled by centrifugal force.
He had simply applied the same principle as his most familiar attack method—slinging stones.
[■□■□■□■--]
When the flying flames caught on its spirit body, the masu screamed and rolled on the ground.
It seemed to be trying to extinguish the flames by rubbing against the ground, but the magical fire burned endlessly, consuming its master's mana.
Unlike Keorn's attacks which had no effect, this meant Turan's magic power was clearly superior to his opponent's.
Turan maintained sharp focus as he continuously fed power to keep the flames burning on the masu's body.
After about thirty seconds, the spirit body enveloping the masu screamed, and its physical body instantly burned away.
Turan and Keorn simultaneously breathed sighs of relief.
"Is it really over now?"
"Yes... First, absorb the mana. Unless you want to meet another undead."
The method of absorbing mana wasn't particularly difficult.
Just extend your hand over the corpse and imagine drawing in something invisible.
With just that, an aura the same color as the recent spirit body flowed out and seeped into his body.
Turan shuddered at this sensation he had never experienced before.
The feeling of something steadily accumulating inside his body, as if transforming into a stronger, more alien being than before.
The eerily pleasant sensation was enough to give him goosebumps all over.
"Is this really your first time absorbing mana?"
"Yes."
"Hard to believe..."
Originally, mana slowly grows with age after the first awakening, but without absorbing it from killed masu or wizards, that growth isn't very significant.
Then doesn't this mean his current ability was purely from innate power?
Considering that the limit of growth through mana absorption is proportional to innate mana capacity, his potential was clearly extraordinary.
Newly realizing this fact, Keorn cleared his throat lightly and asked in a polite tone.
"I apologize for my previous rudeness, young master. Might I ask which house you belong to?"
Turan felt uncomfortable with Keorn's respectful attitude.
Though he couldn't explain exactly why... he didn't want to see this old knight lower himself like this.
"Let's tend to your wounds first before we talk."
Keorn was still bleeding from above his eyebrow where the claws had scratched him.
==
"Ugh..."
Keorn let out a small groan after having medicinal herb juice with hemostatic effects applied to his head and wrapped with bandages.
Turan's house had herbs and bandages—closer to well-washed cloth strips really—prepared for injuries, so he could provide reasonably good first aid.
It would have been nice to heal it instantly with magic, but from his experience trying to heal his mother's bruises in the past, healing others' wounds consumed an excessive amount of mana.
Probably even if Turan used all his mana, he could barely heal about half of the torn scalp.
"My apologies, young master. To have someone of your status doing such things."
"As I've said many times, I'm not someone of status. Just a shepherd who doesn't even know who his father is."
Turan glared at the old knight, putting firm emphasis in his gaze that meant 'stop treating me that way.'
After a brief staring contest, Keorn shook his head as if he couldn't take it anymore.
"Alright, alright... stop looking at me like that."
Turan also smiled slightly at this response.
"But why is a powerful wizard like you working as a shepherd in a place like this? I don't mean to belittle shepherding, but it doesn't seem to suit you."
It was like yesterday's question turned around—when Turan had asked why someone like him was hunting masu in a place like this.
Turan couldn't answer like Keorn had, saying he took pride in his shepherding work.
"It's a bit of a long story."
Turan calmly shared stories from his childhood.
About discovering magic, about the frightening nobles his mother had told him about...
After hearing it all, Keorn nodded.
"She was wise."
"You think so?"
Somewhat surprised by this unexpected answer, Turan raised his eyebrows slightly.
He had thought Keorn, who took pride in his status, would say Turan's mother was too fearful and that the world below the hill wasn't quite such a hell.
"Twenty-some years ago, my House Arabion fought a war with the great House Zahar. At that time, of Arabion's three thousand knights, over nine hundred died."
"Nearly a third died."
"The truly unlucky thing was that everyone I knew was included in that third. My two best friends, my wife, my son all died. Only I survived."
Keorn's face held an emotion that was hard to describe as he said this.
Turan couldn't dare to measure his grief.
He could only guess it was as painful as when he lost his mother, or perhaps even more so.
After a long silence, Keorn brightened his expression and changed the subject.
"As your mother said, a knight's life sometimes vanishes more easily and meaninglessly than even commoners'. But if there's one thing she was wrong about, it's that your talent isn't merely at the level of a knight."
"Is that so?"
"It's embarrassing to say in this state, but I'm quite a capable knight. Yet even I had trouble facing that masu which you easily dealt with. And that was before you'd even properly absorbed mana..."
Taking a breath while drinking sheep's milk, Keorn declared:
"That level of ability puts you at noble status, and among the upper ranks at that."
It didn't feel quite real to Turan.
Perhaps because he had lived so long being judged as having knight-level talent by his mother.
He even thought that maybe Keorn was overestimating him too much.
"My mother said my father was a knight, could that have been a lie?"
"Just as tall people don't only give birth to tall children, there are always exceptions. Though rare, nobles sometimes birth children weaker than knights, and knights sometimes birth noble-level wizards."
Turan thought of the villagers, particularly the carpenter's family.
While the first son of the short carpenter couple was short like his parents, their second son grew quite tall.
Of course, that second son's face particularly resembled that of a large woodcutter among the villagers...
"In that light, I think it would be better for you to go down from the hill."
"Why is that?"
"Because we humans need more nobles and knights. Humans aren't yet complete masters of the world. Not only masu, but various other races who were driven away by the gods in ancient times are watching for chances to rise again. Meanwhile, the nobles are busy fighting wars among themselves. We desperately need even one more noble who is both strong and good-hearted like you."
Other races...
They were beings that appeared only a few times in old stories his mother told, seeming as fictional to Turan as gods or demons.
Though he wasn't sure, it seemed they were considered a real threat in the world below.
"Besides, it pains me to see a talented young person wasting their life here. You're not satisfied living as a shepherd, are you?"
Perhaps he remembered that Turan hadn't properly answered when asked earlier about his reasons for being a shepherd.
Turan was silent for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"You needn't worry too much about what your mother feared. While it might be different for ordinary knights, even great houses show at least minimal respect to fellow nobles. Needless to say, this applies even more to powerful nobles like yourself."
"So you're saying I don't need to worry about being forcibly taken by some house."
"Like everything in life, I can't be certain, but..."
Various thoughts crossed Turan's mind.
The desire to believe Keorn's words, and the fear of nobles that hadn't disappeared despite being nurtured his whole life.
The two emotions were in sharp conflict.
While he was deep in thought, Keorn sat on the bed wrapped in bandages here and there, patiently waiting.
After several dozen minutes, Turan asked quietly.
"What could I gain down there?"
Reading the willingness to venture into the world contained in those words, Keorn smiled and answered.
"That depends on what you want. Wealth, fame, power, or perhaps family and friendship... Any of these would be hard to obtain here."
Keorn presented various possibilities of what Turan could do in the mortal world one by one.
Wandering the world destroying threatening masu like himself, becoming an explorer venturing into unknown lands humanity hadn't yet pioneered, or perhaps being adopted by a house and walking the path of power...
One thing was certain—any of those seemed more interesting than tending sheep on Hisaril Hill.
"Come to think of it, I forgot to ask earlier, but do you have any bloodline abilities? I should have asked this first."
"Bloodline abilities?"
When Turan asked about this unfamiliar term, Keorn clicked his tongue in realization.
He wasn't yet used to the fact that this young shepherd was ignorant about the magical world.
"Do you know that our magical power originates from our ancestors, the Prea god-clan?"
"I heard about it from my mother."
"Nobles, being closer to the Prea god-clan, inherit some characteristics of their divine ancestors. The presence or absence of these bloodline abilities is also what distinguishes nobles from knights. Houses typically gather those who share the same bloodline abilities."
"How can you tell if you have bloodline abilities?"
"Have you ever felt that certain magic comes particularly easily and simply to you, or conversely, found certain magic difficult? Or perhaps you naturally possess abilities superior to others even without using magic?"
"It's probably not that I'm stronger than others?"
"Wizards become physically enhanced just by having mana. The desire to become faster, stronger, and tougher is a natural instinct all animals possess. While great strength is also one of the bloodline abilities, I don't think your strength is quite at that level."
At Keorn's words, Turan fell into thought.
Among his abilities, what stood out particularly...
"I have a good nose. My eyes and ears are also better than others, but that's what stands out most."
Especially when it came to smelling blood, he was so proficient that he could roughly distinguish what creature was bleeding just from the scent.
Hearing this, Keorn nodded.
"Exceptional sense of smell... If it's that precise, it's certainly enough to be considered a bloodline ability. And?"
"I'm good at throwing stones. Though that's because I learned from my mother since childhood."
Turan had learned stone slinging from his mother since he was five years old.
It was the most effective way for an ordinary shepherd to deal with their most feared enemies—wolves and leopards.
Moreover, as he had felt recently, he noticed that it consumed particularly little mana when empowering and throwing stones.
"Proficiency with projectile weapons. That's one of the characteristics of our House Arabion, though I'm not sure if it's at the level of a bloodline ability."
"Is that so?"
"Actually, this is quite a common trait. Being skilled with projectiles, skilled in close combat, or moderately good at both. It generally falls into these three categories."
Afterward, Turan and Keorn continued their exchange, categorizing things he was particularly good at and things he wasn't.
But for some reason, Keorn's face grew darker as their conversation continued.
This expression became increasingly pronounced, and after their final exchange, he wore an almost lamenting expression.
"I think I understand."
"What is it?"
For some reason, Keorn didn't immediately answer Turan's question.
After hesitating several times, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
"There are several possibilities... but the characteristics of the Zahar bloodline are most prominent. Also called the Pursuers, or Hunters."
Zahar—as Turan rolled that name in his mouth, he thought it felt strangely familiar.
Why would it, when he had never heard stories about wizard houses from his mother?
Looking at Keorn's gloomy face, he could understand the reason.
Zahar was the name of the house that had warred with Keorn's House Arabion and massacred all his friends and family.