The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Arma's face, which had been full of hope, showed confusion at Turan's answer.

As the relaxed atmosphere became tense again, the merman boy asked as if he couldn't understand.

"Why...?"

"There are several reasons, but first, I don't trust you. How would I know if you're just making excuses to take it? Besides, if it's something comparable to this, it would at least be a mirror you use underwater, and I doubt you'd give that up."

"T-that's true, but-"

"Arma!"

The one who grabbed Arma by the scruff of his neck was his sister, Rowena.

After subduing her brother, she frowned at Turan and said.

"So what are you going to do? Don't tell me you're going to let that monster continue to roam the sea? It's not beneficial for us, of course, but for you humans as well. You might have been lucky so far, but if that thing keeps swimming in these waters, eventually all your coastal cities will be destroyed. And if it goes through the mirror, then the southern sea won't be safe either."

That was truly an unwelcome prospect for Turan.

Given the circumstances, if the Mimicker relic had been sealing the giant sea serpent, he couldn't deny some responsibility for the disaster created by taking it away.

But he didn't like that the proposed solution demanded a one-sided sacrifice, and even worse, he couldn't be certain it would actually work.

Additionally, the loss of power from losing the relic would be fatal when considering the eventual confrontation with those powerful gods.

In contrast, if the other method succeeded, not only would there be no power loss, but they could potentially achieve a massive power increase.

"How strong is this resurrected giant sea serpent?"

"What?"

"You mentioned earlier that it hasn't fully resurrected. So I'm asking how strong it is now."

"...Why are you asking that? Don't tell me you're planning to hunt it?"

"If I think it's doable. As you said, we'd just be sealing it again, but it would be safer to eliminate it completely."

Solif let out a "wow" of admiration at Turan's words.

"Are you really going to do it?"

"If it's not impossibly strong. Feel free to back out if you're scared, I won't blame you."

"Don't be ridiculous. Have you ever seen me back down from something like this?"

As he answered, he glanced at Meisa, who also nodded without hesitation, showing her support for Turan's decision.

Rowena looked at them as if they were insane and asked.

"Do you... even know what the giant sea serpent is? It was once a being that stood equal to your gods."

"I know enough. I've seen its corpse, even if it was dead. If you're not going to answer my question, we'll be on our way. We'll handle it ourselves."

Of course, if the giant sea serpent was truly that powerful, he was also prepared to retreat and try again after building up his strength.

Thanks to the relic's senses, he could roughly gauge how powerful the opponent was.

More people might be sacrificed to the storms in the meantime, but he couldn't risk a massive power loss and the accompanying dangers for that.

Right now, his first responsibility was to his friends, not to unknown shepherds on the coast.

When he cut the conversation short, Rowena's face turned cold.

With an intensity that suggested she might attack at any moment, Turan inwardly contemplated how much he would need to beat the mermaid princess to drive her away.

For now, he was planning to avoid killing her if possible.

In the past when he knew nothing, it might have been different, but now he knew the merfolk were connected to the god behind House Kamain.

Having already made enemies by extracting the vessels of the Arabion-Nagin alliance and the Zahar-Baraha alliance, he didn't want to add another threatening enemy to the list.

Of course, if they persisted in trying to take the relic, things would be different...

However, contrary to expectations, instead of flaring up and attacking, Rowena stared at them intently and asked a question.

"How strong are you?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking how powerful you are to show such an arrogant attitude. Are you perhaps comparable to the heads of the great houses that you humans worship?"

"I can hold my own well enough."

If the merfolk decided to attack to take the relic, they would become enemies, so there was no reason to reveal his abilities.

Understanding his meaning, Rowena showed she had no hostile intentions by raising her palms upward and shrugging her shoulders.

"If you're strong enough, I'll speak to my father directly. I'll suggest we hunt the giant sea serpent together."

"You will?"

"Yes. You know it makes a big difference whether we help or not, right? Not just in terms of fighting power, but you'll have trouble even tracking the giant sea serpent on your own."

It was certainly a tempting offer.

Having merfolk allies when hunting a giant sea serpent that primarily operates underwater would definitely make a meaningful difference.

After all, they currently didn't even have a clue where their prey was.

The only concern was...

"Your attitude changed quite suddenly, didn't it? Just a moment ago you were acting like you'd take it by force."

"If you're confident enough to boldly claim you'll hunt the giant sea serpent, you're probably not some mediocre weakling. If your companions are at a similar level, it won't be easy to take the item from you, even if our entire race joined forces. Many might get injured or die in the process. That's not what I want."

Turan raised his evaluation of the mermaid princess a bit at her forthright answer.

His first impression was that she was just an arrogant fool, but she seemed to have enough sense to measure his abilities.

Or perhaps she had initially tried to intimidate him into handing over the relic, and this was her true personality.

"So, are you in a position to convince the merman king?"

"Absolutely."

When Turan glanced at Arma, the boy nodded vigorously in agreement.

"My sister Rowena is among our strongest and wisest, and Aba-mama favors her!"

He hadn't thought much of her because of her power, but it seemed she was a quite powerful mermaid after all.

Turan mentally adjusted downward his assessment of merfolk military power.

'I might worry less about them backstabbing us, but they'll be less helpful in the hunt. I guess there are pros and cons.'

In fact, most of the non-human races that survived into the modern era were generally at that level.

Even the king of the black elves, the most powerful necromancer, was not stronger than Meisa when she was thin and in poor condition.

They could trample a few ordinary wizard houses but would be pitifully crushed if a great house decided to act, and dwarves who had half turned into beasts were in an even more pathetic state.

In comparison, Rowena before him was similar in level to the strongest black elf necromancers he had fought before, so she could be considered among the top-tier of non-human races.

In this case, he wondered how the merfolk maintained an equal partnership with the god of House Kamain.

As his thoughts deepened, Rowena spoke to Turan.

"However, I need to know if you truly have the strength to enforce such demands. There's no guarantee you're not just putting on an act."

"How?"

"There's an inconspicuous clearing to the north of this island."

It wasn't difficult to guess she meant they should fight to assess each other's abilities.

Turan glanced down and asked.

"Will it be alright on land rather than in water?"

Hearing this, Rowena smiled faintly.

"I was prepared to fight here if necessary."

==

Walking north from the alley for about thirty minutes, Turan asked the mermaid siblings several casual questions.

From the basic ecology of merfolk to their social structure.

Unlike Arma, Rowena, being an older mermaid, knew more and it was quite an informative time.

"So, education can't solve the issue of eating people?"

"That's right. When they're adequately fed, they don't particularly crave humans, but there are few prey as easy to catch as humans who enter the sea or stay on the coast. The lower class's ability to control their urges is worse than most animals, so unless you openly beat them right beside them, they can't be controlled."

"And what about you?"

"Apparently our royalty used to eat a lot in the past, but since your god came, we don't eat humans anymore. It's not particularly for ethical reasons, but simply to avoid giving a pretext for being eradicated..."

That's how he ended up learning the secret about the merfolk's cannibalistic habits that Arma hadn't known.

In the middle of their conversation, Turan subtly changed the subject.

"By the way, what happened to that corpse?"

"Which one?"

"Our god. Is it still there? If it had come back to life, I think it would have said something, but there's been no word."

At that time, even after Turan took the relic, the drowned god didn't decay or crumble in that place, but he didn't know if it was still the same.

Rowena answered calmly.

"I heard it's still there intact. Do you want to see it?"

"I don't mind, but there's someone who wants to see it."

That made him newly curious.

Why had the giant sea serpent resurrected from death while the drowned god had not?

What difference was there between the two?