The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 100: Now I Have This (2)

Conversely, when wearing the mask without the Mimic holy relic, he could only change to Cobinus’s face.

In other words, these two items had to be used together to access the added functions.

After hearing this analysis, Asiz and Solif looked at the two items several times before tilting their heads.

"This is strange."

"Right?"

"Indeed."

How could a top-tier holy relic left by a nameless Prea god-folk and a magic device that House Baraha had been carelessly circulating be a set?

That’s when Turan offered an opinion:

"Could it be that originally this holy relic wasn’t such an amazing item either?"

"What do you mean?"

"One of the questions I had when first going there was why both the god and the great sea serpent didn’t turn into undead. Even if they didn’t transform because they were divine beings, at least their magic power should have remained."

If someone had come first and absorbed the magic power, there would be no reason not to take the Mimic holy relic.

Like Prince Arma of the merfolk, if they couldn’t take it because they weren’t chosen, couldn’t they have at least taken the entire corpse?

A wizard who absorbed their magic power wouldn’t have been as weak as that baby shark.

"Don’t tell me this holy relic absorbed those two beings’ magic power?"

"It’s just speculation, but. Originally they were decent-level magic devices used as a pair, but one received the power of a dead god and mythical beast to become a holy relic, while the other pair wandered around as an ordinary magic device for thousands of years."

He had similar thoughts in the past but couldn’t be certain because the Mimic holy relic seemed too unimpressive for something that had absorbed the power of two divine beings.

Though useful in many ways, wasn’t it inferior in grade to potions that could revive even the dead or immortal armor?

But if that power wasn’t being fully utilized and had accumulated, and was then used to strengthen the mask using the magic power of three nobles as a primer, it made some sense.

Though Turan’s deduction had many leaps in logic, the two others accepted it since they couldn’t think of any other plausible explanation.

That’s when Asiz pointed at the Mimic holy relic and said:

"But detecting bloodlines isn’t really that useful, is it?"

Unless they were oddities like Turan, most nobles didn’t particularly hide their bloodlines.

To begin with, since bloodline abilities played such an enormous role in fights, it was difficult to deceive about them.

Turan said to the puzzled Asiz:

"Now we can confirm whether assassins from Zahar really exist within Arabion."

"Ah."

Now Asiz too seemed to realize this item’s true value.

The fact that no spies could escape from this combination of two newly transformed holy relics.

==

After finishing the magic device appraisal, Turan walked around House Berk’s separate building observing the people moving about.

From passing servants to knights, and occasionally nobles too.

The nobles and knights all showed the hammer and anvil symbol of the Artificer bloodline, and some knights had the cloud containing lightning symbol dormant within them.

And even among ordinary people who weren’t even knights, quite a few were born with these symbols.

’Well, even my mother wasn’t a knight but had the Arabion bloodline dormant...’

While observing passing people like this, where Turan moved to was House Berk’s stable.

There, a huge horse and a black eagle were playing together.

"Having fun, Bize?"

[Turan! She’s so stupid!]

Bize flew over with a flutter and stamped her feet while writing letters in the dirt.

Though Tilly had been quite intelligent based on past experience, she apparently wasn’t satisfactory to one who could freely write letters and create sentences.

"Don’t be like that, just play nicely. Don’t bully her."

[I’m not bullying!]

Bize went on at length about how she had tried various games with Tilly and how she was frustrated because the horse was too stupid to understand anything.

Though judging by that indifferent expression, rather than not understanding, she probably just couldn’t be bothered.

While comforting Bize, Turan looked into her inner self with the strengthened holy relic’s senses.

’The Arabion symbol... but translucent.’

"Can you try making some wind? Not strong, just a gentle breeze."

Like a good child, Bize immediately created wind sweeping around the stable without complaint.

Then the translucent symbol activated and Turan could see something like yellow light being transmitted from within his body.

’So, Bize has talent for the Storm bloodline, but needs a soul-bonded partner to use that power...’

Given that no such symbol was visible in Tilly beside them, it seemed not all masu had such potential.

It couldn’t be that Bize had a human with Arabion bloodline among her ancestors, so how did she obtain such potential?

This too was a topic worth considerable contemplation.

Afterwards, Turan returned to his room and researched more ways to utilize the mask.

What he tried this time was crafting faces of people who didn’t exist - or had never existed - rather than faces of existing or formerly existing people.

At first he tried creating entirely new faces, but this produced an unbearable awkwardness and unpleasantness, so he changed his method to gradually modifying forms based on existing people’s faces.

There was more than enough base material both inside and outside the palace.

Turan went out daily to observe and memorize the faces of people passing by one by one, then at night he would appropriately modify or combine them to create faces of non-existent people.

A young farmer with bold features and a gallant air, a scholar with a long face who looked weak, an old merchant with a hooked nose...

Just in case they might need it sometime, he also gave the two holy relics to Solif and Asiz to practice using them, but unexpectedly neither could handle them.

This was because the Mimic holy relic wouldn’t apply even its basic effects to anyone other than Turan.

After spending about a week practicing the mask’s functions alone.

Haram, who had gone hunting wolves, returned.

"It’s been a while."

"It has been a while, Master!"

"Don’t call me that."

After briefly masking his embarrassment with a gruff attitude, Haram’s eyes lit up seeing Solif beside them.

"You’re extremely well-trained. Perhaps from some great house?"

"Hm? Ah, no, how could that be..."

Though he had thought Solif just had a sturdy build when first seeing him, apparently something looked different to the eyes of an expert who had devoted his life to this field.

Haram exclaimed while feeling various parts of Solif’s body and repeatedly asked how he had trained.

Since Solif couldn’t say he had received related education within House Baraha, he vaguely said he learned from a wandering noble.

After that time which was awkward for only Solif while amusing for everyone else, Turan tried training with Haram like before but had to stop soon.

This was because there was no equipment that could handle his physical abilities now.

"You’ve grown strong."

"I got lucky."

Though Haram didn’t know Turan’s bloodline, he knew Turan wasn’t specialized in physical abilities.

Yet this level of physical ability meant he had accumulated almost top-tier noble level magic power.

"Hmm."

Though Haram seemed puzzled about how he had accumulated such power in a short time, he didn’t ask in detail.

Perhaps he guessed something not entirely proper had been done.

In any case, having too much magic power wasn’t necessarily only good.

==

After spending time like this for about three weeks.

Turan realized that a reply to his letter to Meisa should have arrived long ago.

"Asiz, how long does it usually take for letters to go between here and Morgen City?"

"A week is more than enough even if delayed. Even faster for letters between noble houses..."

Even asking Asiz just in case, Arabion’s communication system wasn’t particularly slower.

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Meaning if Meisa had read the letter and sent a reply, it should have arrived with time to spare.

There were largely three possibilities for why no reply had come.

First, Meisa read the letter and ignored it.

Second, Meisa read the letter but wasn’t in a position to reply.

Third, the letter wasn’t properly delivered.

Whichever it was, it was clear nothing would be resolved by just staying put like this.

"I should probably go to Morgen City myself."

"Wouldn’t it be better to wait for Solif’s arm to be healed and all go together?"

Turan shook his head while placing a finger on his face.

"Going together would have been safer originally, but now I have this. If I’m just going in to check and come out, it’s actually easier to go alone."

Now was finally the time to test the results of practicing for the past few weeks.