The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Being completely different from the strong-willed female warrior he had met in the past, she had clearly undergone some major change during the time they hadn't met.

Probably related to that changed look in her eyes too.

"What happened after we parted? Where did your companions go?"

"Then... ah, you mean Kebek and Asha, Gil? They're all dead. Unfortunately, we had some disagreements."

Even while talking about killing her companions, not even a speck of guilt showed on her face.

Turan called Solif who was watching from the side.

"Solif."

"Yes?"

"What do you think about that woman's eyes?"

"Her eyes? Well, just... not sure. Maybe that she seems too calm for this situation?"

Unlike Turan, Solif didn't seem to sense anything special in Bisen's eyes.

When he asked Meisa who had just returned after changing clothes, a similar answer came back.

After calling out the librarian to ask and receiving a negative answer, Turan clicked his tongue softly.

'Is this something only I can sense too?'

"So, you didn't just suddenly want to get a new bloodline. Why did you suddenly start believing in this method? Did a god guarantee it like with Obil?"

"A god? Yes, it must be a god. That voice. It kept saying to become a better being, asking why I was giving up the rights given to me..."

Turan frowned at the rambling similar to when they had captured and interrogated Obil.

While Midan had seemed no different from a normal person except for being benevolent, Obil and Bisen shared the commonality of seeming half-insane as well as causing massive harm to people.

What could be the difference between these two?

The presence or absence of magical power?

Or that the former's target was magical beasts rather than humans?

Afterwards, Turan steadily interrogated Bisen and roughly found out what had happened to her.

A few weeks after parting with Turan, they wandered the western border of Kamain hunting magical beasts.

During this, Bisen suddenly felt strongly tempted by a voice starting from within and proposed to her companions about performing the burning ritual, but when they were horrified, she covered it up saying it was a joke.

But by that point Bisen was already half-insane, and eventually killed her interfering companions one by one while they slept and buried them.

Afterwards, like Obil in the past, she had been imitating the Burner and performing rituals until now.

"So you haven't returned to your house?"

"No. I should return after getting the third bloodline... Then my parents, everyone else will be proud of me. So please help. You want a second bloodline too, right? You all do too."

Ignoring Bisen making nonsensical persuasion, Turan organized and shared this information with his companions and asked for advice.

Meisa, who had been stroking her lips as if troubled, gave her opinion first.

"Well, seeing how the fire soul was effective, the method itself doesn't seem completely wrong."

"You really think you can get the Pyromaniac bloodline through this fire madness?"

When Solif asked back as if finding it absurd, Meisa shook her head.

"I'm just talking about possibilities. What I don't understand is, if bloodlines could be obtained this way, it seems like it should have spread widely long ago. Though we stopped it now, this isn't really that difficult a method, right?"

"Similarly, I've never seen anyone who really became a mage by hunting magical beasts either."

Turan lightly added to her words.

If such methods were really useful, they would have spread widely long ago and nobles would all be walking around with four bloodlines dangling, with plenty of knights of commoner origin under them.

Through this, they established two hypotheses.

First, that the knowledge of those who gained the unidentified look in their eyes was partly right and partly wrong.

Second, that even if the knowledge itself was correct, separate qualifications were required to realize it.

And that this knowledge corrupts the minds of people with the special look in their eyes that only Turan could see.

"The source of corruption is probably a god's soul or something similar?"

"That's what we have to assume. Otherwise how would such knowledge suddenly appear?"

"Maybe it's not a complete soul but just fragments. Just projecting some information they had while alive."

"Oh..."

Just as they were admiring this quite plausible hypothesis, Solif looked at Bisen and raised the question they had been putting off.

"So, what do we do with this woman?"

"We have to kill her."

"Won't that soul thing stick to us then?"

"We can't just let her go free either. I'll execute her first, you stay far away. I've seen Imir's soul before so I'll know if it tries to enter me."

"But even if you see the soul, we don't have a solution."

"First we should try the jewel box. Even if things go wrong, we'll have a few months to figure out countermeasures."

In the worst case, there was also the option of negotiating with the god in Kamain to borrow a soul magician's power.

The fact that he kept changing bodies meant he must be controlling soul magicians too.

After execution was decided through discussion, Turan had the two step back and approached the chained Bisen.

Looking at her sitting powerlessly, Turan felt regret.

Though she had burned hundreds of ordinary people to death, given the circumstances there was a high chance it wasn't entirely her own will.

Just as it wouldn't be Meisa or Solif's fault if a god dwelled in their bodies and committed massacres.

But if freed here, there was a high chance she would try the same thing again, and this knowledge spreading widely would be unacceptable too.

Turan broke the neck of Bisen, who was bound in chains and no different from an ordinary person, giving her an instant death without pain.

Shortly after, just like with Imir, a tiny lump of magical power flowed out of Bisen's body.

Contrary to expectations that it would be drawn toward nearby people, it tried to rise into the sky and head somewhere.

'I wonder, will it work this time...'

Turan took out the jewel box that had contained the librarian and infused it with magical power, just as he had done before.

Then the rising soul seeped into the jewel box as if being sucked in.

==

"It's a very small soul fragment."

Those were the first words the librarian said after entering the jewel box where Bisen's soul had gone.

"A soul fragment?"

"Yes. Think of it as a fragment containing just those two things - the information you mentioned and the desire to achieve it. All memories of life and such have blown away."

Though the librarian didn't know anything particularly detailed about souls either, as a spirit which was a type of soul entity, he seemed to have some instinctive sense.

"Then will there be no problems for you, sir?"

"Don't worry, it doesn't have enough power for that. Though I do think if too many of these fragments were gathered, it might regain consciousness completely."

"Fragments..."

"Instead, if we gather a few more, I think I could read the information contained within."

The knowledge contained in those soul fragments would certainly be useful.

Even the fire soul alone nearly doubled Turan's firepower when he didn't need to hide his identity.

Moreover, if they could discover and realize a method to obtain bloodline abilities in a more moderate way than the Burner's extreme method, its usefulness would go without saying.

Of course, it was uncertain whether Turan, who already had four bloodline abilities, could gain more power.

When he recited what he heard from the librarian, Solif who was beside him asked with a curious expression.

"Can you tell which god's soul it might be?"

"How would I know? I'm not even certain this is really a god's soul."

The librarian snorted while speaking, then suddenly showed an expression as if hesitating about something.

"Hmm, I'm not sure if I should say this. It might lead to wrong judgments based on my imagination..."

"It's alright."

With an expression lacking his usual confidence, the librarian looked at the jewel box and said.

"Though very faintly, I feel a sense of nostalgia. Though I don't have anything like a hometown, if I were to imagine what missing a hometown feels like, it might be this feeling."