The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

After executing Bisen, Turan's group decided to stay one night in the slash-and-burn farming village to help with reconstruction.

Since nearly half of the villagers had died, there was a shortage of manpower to repair the collapsed and burned houses and warehouses, so the villagers shed tears of gratitude again for this help.

"Meisa, you put the roof on wrong."

"Isn't this how you do it?"

"It won't fit properly that way and will leak when it rains. You need to rotate it about halfway."

Turan explained in detail how a roof should be built while turning the ceiling that Meisa had lifted with telekinesis.

Encountering new architectural knowledge, Meisa asked with a curious expression.

"Where did you learn all this?"

"Just things I picked up while living."

"Wow..."

Though he wasn't particularly deeply versed in construction, he had experience repairing the cabin he lived in from childhood and building several structures in Kalamaf.

The warehouse they were building wasn't particularly complex either.

"Is this how you do it?"

"Yes, like that."

As Meisa lifted the roof again and rotated it 90 degrees, her face showed signs of interest.

He had worried she might find such work tedious, but she seemed to quite enjoy helping people.

After confirming Meisa was working as taught, Turan approached Solif who was building a chicken coop nearby and scolded him.

"If the fence bottom is full of holes like this, wildcats and foxes will come take everything."

"What? How can they get through such small holes?"

"Animals similar to cats are practically boneless, so if their head fits through, their whole body can get in."

"That's fascinating... isn't that real magic?"

Even Solif, who was at least forty years older than Meisa and had abundant travel experience, was like this.

Since the villagers didn't have the courage to tell the noble lords they were wrong, Turan had to teach them one by one.

While working hard like this for a while, Bize flew over and wrote on the ground.

[I finished cleaning!]

"Already?"

[Yes!]

Bize had been tasked with cleaning up the square that was in chaos from setting up posts and burning people, and looking at it now, it was indeed completely cleared as if thoroughly redone.

With its small body, it would have taken a long time to dig up the ground piece by piece, so it must have swept everything clean with wind magic.

"No one but you could do it."

When Turan patted its head, Bize shrugged its shoulders.

Finally, after using earth manipulation magic to make graves for the dead, the villagers gathered together in the relatively intact meeting hall to have dinner and commemorate the deceased.

Naturally, Turan's group was given the highest seats.

"Being poor and having nothing, we could only serve such inadequate food, please be merciful..."

Indeed, the food they served was rather modest.

From stew made with some smoked wild game meat to coarse black bread, it was hardly better than what Turan ate at Hisaril Hill.

Of course, in front of the villagers who served this were only thin grain porridge and wild vegetables.

This must have been the best hospitality they could offer their saviors.

Turan immediately picked up a spoon to taste the stew and brought the vegetable side dish with unidentifiable spices to his mouth.

"This is plenty, it's a feast at this level."

"Hey, honestly calling it a feast is a bit- ow!"

After kicking Solif's leg with his toe for raising honest objections, looking at the villagers' expressions, they seemed somewhat relieved to see Turan eating without hesitation.

Though Solif grumbled a bit, he also started eating, and finally all eyes turned to the remaining Meisa.

"Hmm."

Though Meisa had coldly ignored looks wondering 'why doesn't she touch the food even once' at House Baltas's banquets, she seemed to feel pressured by the villagers' earnest gazes.

Turan stopped her as she carefully lifted her spoon.

"You don't need to force yourself. We're eating anyway. It should be fine if one person seems a bit picky."

"It'll make them even sadder if you eat and throw up."

At Solif's words, Meisa glared at him with a slightly sharp gaze, but then shook her head and scooped up a spoonful of stew.

"I think I can handle one bite right now."

Looking at the piece of meat and broth on the spoon, Meisa squeezed her eyes shut and pushed it into her mouth.

After chewing for a few seconds, she swallowed with a gulp.

Turan was about to ask Solif to use illusion magic in preparation for the grand explosion he expected to follow, but contrary to expectations, Meisa did not throw it up.

After taking several deep breaths, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Hm?"

"What, did it work?"

Both of them, and even Meisa herself who had swallowed the food, seemed unable to believe she had succeeded in eating.

She wore a blank expression for a moment before breaking into a bright smile and taking another spoonful of stew and even biting into the coarse bread.

Seeing this, the villagers finally let out sighs of relief.

"Oh, she's eating..."

"Seems it suits her taste!"

"What a relief, what a relief."

Saying it 'suited her taste' was quite an understatement, as Meisa was devouring the food ravenously like a starving beggar.

Of course, considering she had essentially been starving for over ten years, it would be harsh to blame her.

"Is it delicious?"

"The taste... I'm not sure, it's been too long. But just being able to chew and swallow myself makes me feel- mmph!"

After happily devouring food for a while, Meisa covered her mouth as nausea hit her a bit late.

Seeing her cheeks suddenly puff up, Turan quickly pulled her from the table and took her outside the hall.

"Urgh-"

While Meisa threw up everything she had just eaten, Turan patted her back from behind.

"Are you okay?"

Perhaps finding it hard to answer due to shortness of breath, Meisa just nodded before raising her head.

Surprisingly, she was smiling with tears in her eyes.

"I ate... even if just a little."

"For the first time in ten years?"

"Yes."

After rinsing her mouth with water created on the spot, Meisa let out a deep sigh and said.

"Somehow, I feel like mother and my sibling said something like that. 'After helping that much, it's okay to eat this much.'"

Of course, what truly permitted the meal wasn't her family but Meisa's own heart.

Perhaps her self-loathing for abandoning her family was offset by her self-esteem as someone who could help others this much.

Thanks to this, he seemed to understand how to overcome her eating disorder.

If she continued helping people, and through that came to see herself as a being of such worth, it seemed she would be able to eat properly like others.

Shortly after, when they returned to the meeting hall after completely cleaning up, they found Solif waiting with a dead serious expression.

"Hey..."

"What?"

"Those guys are wondering which of us two is the baby's father. Hurry up and do something about this."

When Turan turned his gaze, the villagers who had been watching with intrigued expressions quickly lowered their heads.

Should they consider it fortunate that at least they didn't think she threw up because the food tasted bad?

==

The next morning, after leaving the village, Turan's group gave up searching for magical beasts in this area and flew straight east.

While looking around from the carriage, Solif spoke to Turan.

"By the way, I'm not sure if this is okay."

"What?"

"We killed a Kamain noble, whatever the reason. Wouldn't it have been better to officially take the corpse and explain why we killed her? It could be troublesome if distorted rumors spread through those villagers later."

Since Meisa sitting opposite also seemed to agree though she didn't speak, Turan organized his thoughts for a moment before answering.

"If we took that, we'd have to formally settle responsibility with the great house, but Kamain would likely refuse to acknowledge their noble went on a killing spree if possible. Since we're wanderers anyway, it would be easy to pin it on us. They might not if we revealed our strength, but then we'd draw attention in another way."

"Hmm..."

"Plus there's little chance of rumors spreading from that village anyway. It's not even a proper village but a slash-and-burn settlement, and I told them it wouldn't be good for you all if rumors spread."

"Isn't that threatening?"

"It's advice. If they want to prevent testimony about Bisen trying to become a second Burner, Kamain might try to massacre the villagers."

At Turan's words, Meisa made an "ah" sound and nodded.

"Just because people are uneducated doesn't mean they're stupid. They can judge matters concerning their own lives. Plus we helped rebuild their village."

"They won't spread rumors out of gratitude?"

Turan sensed an attitude of finding it laughable and thinking "still a child after all" in Solif's words.

Of course, that wasn't his lukewarm reason for mentioning it.

"No, if the village collapses they might scatter to other villages to survive and rumors could spread. If the isolated slash-and-burn settlement is maintained, there's that much less chance of stories spreading. They're generally self-sufficient people without outside exchange."

"...You helped them thinking that far ahead?"

"Not just for that reason, just saying there are such advantages."

After explaining that far, Turan added his final thoughts.

"Above all, even if they somehow learn the truth, Kamain would probably want to bury the matter too. It doesn't make sense to antagonize three wandering nobles over a member who died while committing insane acts. If it became public they'd have to pin it on us for pride's sake, but if not, there's no need to push it."

After discussing Bisen's treatment, the topic shifted to the god fragment that had been inside her.

More precisely, about how they could gather more god fragments.

"Think we might find clues if we look for magical beast hunters?"

"I check when I happen to meet them but haven't had much success. There aren't that many such people to begin with."