The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Three days later, Turan's group sailed their boat toward the island where the operation was scheduled.

Perhaps due to the influence of the storm brought by the giant sea serpent, the sky was always dark with clouds, strong winds blew, and high waves crashed.

Naturally, theirs was the only boat moving around in the area, so there weren't many spectators to see the small fishing boat gliding across the sea.

"Indeed, humans with demonic powers sail boats like this. It's almost as fast as average merfolk swimming."

The mermaid princess, Rowena, who was on the boat with them, made this quiet observation.

Arma, who was beside her, nodded and said.

"It's much faster than when I rode with them before. It wasn't this fast back then."

"That's because three of us are sailing it now. The mackerel is cooked, would you like some?"

"Thank you!"

After grilling and eating the mackerel that had been caught with fluid manipulation magic, Arma said he would notify his family of Turan's group's visit first, transformed into a baby shark, and jumped into the sea.

When Turan focused his relic's senses toward the sea, he could feel a small presence quickly moving away underwater.

"Despite what you said earlier, that guy swims faster."

"Well, he's a shark. It's enviable. Being able to swim fast."

Rowena sighed as she watched Arma disappear.

According to what came up in their casual conversation, she, who could take the form of a crab, was free to move on land but slower than her kind underwater.

That's why she planned to attack from land alongside Turan's group in this battle.

Meisa looked at Rowena and asked.

"By the way, how is it determined what creature you can transform into? Is it innate?"

"Something like that. You can guide it to some extent, but there's an innate direction. Even if I had really wanted to, I could have transformed into a different type of crab... but it wouldn't have made much difference."

In the distant ancient past, there were royal merfolk who could take the form of the giant sea serpent, but that was just an old story, and now royalty who could take the form of large creatures like sharks or whales, like Arma, were considered to have high potential.

Though he was still young, Arma had quite promising potential among the merfolk.

"They must have been in a panic when he disappeared."

"Hmm? Ah, well... it wasn't that much of a panic. We assumed he'd find his way back somehow."

When Turan subtly brought up the topic to emphasize his merit in saving Arma, Rowena dismissed it as if it were nothing.

Turan laughed at her attitude, which seemed determined not to yield an inch even though they had agreed to cooperate, and looked at the northern horizon where the island was beginning to appear.

"Was the promise you mentioned earlier kept well?"

"Of course. There will be no one except our royalty participating in the battle and a few noble-class servants to attend to us. Actually, managing the lower classes is quite tiresome for us as well."

This was one of the conditions Turan had demanded from the merfolk.

That they not bring lower-class merfolk who wouldn't be much help in hunting the giant sea serpent and would likely become troublesome burdens.

This was to maintain balance between his group and the merfolk forces.

No matter how powerful they were as wizards, if thousands of merfolk attacked while they were fighting the royalty, they would inevitably suffer losses in terms of magical power and stamina.

"What about you? Are you planning to take that bird into battle? It looks dangerous."

"Despite appearances, it's quite sturdy, so it'll be fine."

When he stroked its head, Bize, who had been closing her eyes and enjoying it, looked at Rowena with an expression that seemed to mock her.

It was as if she were saying, "How dare someone like you presume to know my worth?"

The reason Turan had considered attempting to hunt the giant sea serpent in the first place was because of Bize's existence.

Having wings that could detect danger in advance and escape made a huge difference, no matter how powerful the enemy.

Before landing on the island, Turan, as he had done before, activated his tracking magic, scooped up a handful of seawater, and smelled it.

'...Good, it doesn't seem like there are many merfolk at least.'

At most, perhaps a dozen or so.

The destination island wasn't very large, so when they were about to land, activating the relic's senses allowed him to include the entire island within his detection range.

A merperson as strong as an upper to mid-tier human noble and another slightly weaker one, plus six merpeople at upper to mid-level.

Finally, a lower-tier merperson among them, probably Arma, making the total number of royalty nine.

Including Rowena who was here, it would be ten.

In addition, he sensed about ten more merfolk with much weaker power.

These were probably the noble-class merfolk who had come to attend, with flames similar to ordinary humans, like Arma when they first met.

Turan used wind magic to discretely relay this information to Solif and Meisa.

Meisa asked with a meaningful expression.

[Ten royals... though that child is hard to count as combat strength, so nine. If we fight, can we handle it?]

[Easily. Though merfolk are generally stronger than nobles of the same tier, that applies to us as well. Just remember, we absolutely must not become weaker than them during or after the battle.]

The most important thing in this battle was to remember that the merfolk were allies who couldn't be trusted.

They had to prepare for the possibility of being ambushed if they depleted too much of their strength in hunting the giant sea serpent.

"We've arrived, let's get off."

==

While they had been secretly talking, the boat had landed on the island, and Turan's group disembarked with Rowena and headed inland.

Since the island wasn't very large, it only took a few minutes to reach where the merfolk royalty were staying.

"Oh, are those the humans?"

"They all look young, are they really that strong?"

"I'm sure sister Rowena has made a proper judgment."

The merfolk royalty they first met all had casual speech patterns, which felt different from what he had expected.

He had expected them to be like Arma or Rowena, who used somewhat awkwardly stiff speech patterns, but perhaps those two had just learned strange ways of speaking.

Among them, dressed in clothes that seemed to be made from seaweed, the unusually small Arma greeted Turan.

"That gray-haired one is the kind demon, Turan, who saved me, and he's really strong! Strong enough that sister Rowena couldn't even use her strength and lost!"

Rowena smiled with twisted lips as if her pride was hurt, but she didn't protest.

After all, it was true that she had been one-sidedly beaten.

Hearing Arma's words, the merfolk royalty looked at Turan's group with even more interest.

"Hmm..."

"We heard she lost, but to that extent?"

"If they're that strong, they must be among the most powerful demons on land. Little one, you were lucky."

As they were chattering, Turan's gaze turned to a merfolk noble who was standing respectfully behind the royalty.

He was staring at Turan's group and drooling from his mouth.

"Oh."

"Hey, Yacon. I told you to control yourself. How undignified."

"I apologize, Prince..."

The noble quickly wiped away the flowing saliva at the royal's rebuke and apologized respectfully.

He had clearly heard that the noble-class merfolk had quite a bit of self-control, if not as much as the royalty, but to be like that...

He could imagine what level of self-control the lower-class merfolk, whom they despised, might have.

Turan narrowed his eyes as he watched the merfolk excitedly chattering toward them.

'It would have been good if I could read their emotions too.'

Though he couldn't know the exact principle, Turan could somewhat read human emotions through smell.

This even applied to most ordinary beasts, but unfortunately, merfolk were an exception.

Whether it was because of the fishy smell they gave off or for some other reason, he didn't know.

At that moment, Rowena took off the human clothes she had been wearing, put on the seaweed-type clothes characteristic of merfolk, and said quietly.

"Then let's start by introducing ourselves."

"I'm Turan. These are Sol and Misha. Please take care of us."

When he closed his mouth after revealing just that much, one of the merfolk who heard this asked with an incomprehensible attitude.

"Hmm? Is that it? Don't you humans have things like family names?"

"There are those among humans who wander without such things."

The merfolk made curious expressions, but perhaps because no one knew much about it, they all shrugged and seemed to accept it.

Next, the merfolk introduced themselves, and surprisingly, they were all children of the current merman king.

One older brother to Rowena, four younger brothers, and three younger sisters.

Add Arma to that for a total of nine.

Turan, who had been listening quietly, immediately voiced his question.

"No other relatives?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, your father, the merman king, must have siblings too, so what about their children?"

Judging by the numbers, the reproductive capabilities of the merfolk royalty didn't seem to be lacking, and if such people were included, their forces would rival any major human house.

One of the merfolk answered as if it were obvious.

"Of course, they're all dead."

"...How did that happen?"

"We sent them off by our own hands. There's only one king in the kingdom, and only his bloodline can flourish."