The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

The young royal recounted a terrifying story in a completely matter-of-fact manner: when a previous king was replaced, all royalty who weren't direct descendants of the new king were completely purged.

Turan looked around at Solif and Meisa beside him just in case, but they also showed clear signs of shock.

"Is that normal?"

"Yes. Other merman kingdoms besides ours also—"

"Don't tell unnecessary stories, Koloba."

Rowena spoke as if to stop the chatty royal called Koloba.

The fact that there wasn't just one merman kingdom but several was also something he was hearing for the first time.

'Well, I guess it's natural, since other races aren't all one group either.'

Beyond the Undead King that Meisa had eradicated in the past, black elf groups would still flourish somewhere underground, and there would still be surviving dwarf groups in the Gray Zone.

There was no need to assume that only one group of merfolk remained.

But now that he knew this fact, something new occurred to him.

Perhaps these weren't the merman kingdom that Imir had mentioned was collaborating with the lawyer.

If so, he had been barking up the wrong tree from the beginning...

Swallowing his doubt inwardly, Turan continued his questioning to the seemingly reckless royal who had spoken earlier.

"Didn't you ask for help from other kingdoms by chance?"

"Huh? Then we wouldn't have the corpse all to ourselves. That's why we're doing this."

"Koloba!"

Rowena's brother, who was said to be the merman king's eldest son, shouted sharply, but by then Turan had already heard most of what he wanted to know.

Just then, the tenth merperson, whose presence he had been sensing, walked out from behind the bushes, causing Arma, who had been shrinking from the suddenly tense atmosphere, to exclaim with a bright smile.

"Oh, Aba-mama! You look like you had a good poop!"

"Be quiet, you little brat."

The one who spoke with a growl was a middle-aged merman with white hair and a beard grown down to his navel.

Unlike what many storybooks depicted, he wore neither a golden crown nor pearl necklaces, but the experience evident in his intense eyes and deep wrinkles suggested he was a being a level above the other merfolk around him.

Above all, what made him special was a trident he was using like a staff; judging by the massive flow of magical power contained within it, it was clearly no ordinary magical tool.

'A relic, and a top-tier one at that...'

The merman king, holding a treasure that seemed to be of the same class or higher than Turan's Mimicker relic, calmly looked over Turan's group and opened his mouth with a displeased expression.

"Young wizards. They're probably not even sixty years old at best."

"Skill doesn't necessarily follow age."

Turan deliberately used an informal speech pattern to emphasize that he and the merman king were equals.

He had an intuition that if he bowed and scraped in this place, the other would treat him completely as an inferior.

As expected, the merman king merely twitched his eyebrow at Turan's informal speech but didn't express anger.

"What impudent youngsters."

The merman king snorted and sat on a large stone chair, looking down on them arrogantly.

Turan faced him and immediately asked.

"But it seems the calculation needs to be changed a bit."

"What calculation are you talking about?"

"The giant sea serpent's corpse. Rowena clearly said it had no value, but now it seems that's not the case."

"Who said such a thing?"

When the merman king turned his head, all his royal children looked at the chatty royal called Koloba.

"Uh, I just..."

"Seeing that you won't even ask other merman kingdoms for help and want to monopolize it, it must have quite some value, right?"

Turan stared intently into the merman king's deep reddish-brown eyes.

After about ten seconds of a staring contest, the merman king shook his head with an expression that seemed to say "this is exasperating."

"Humans! So what do you want? Should I split the giant sea serpent's corpse, which would be of little use to you anyway, in half? Or do you want a chest of pearls?"

"You mean those things that come from clams?"

"For some reason, humans seem to really like them."

"Be quiet when your father is talking, you brats!"

The royalty who had been chattering behind him flinched at the eldest's shout and lowered their heads.

Seeing this, he could somewhat understand why the merman king favored Rowena.

"Nothing too grand, I'd just like to hear a few stories about the land."

From what he could see, none of the merfolk royalty even had decent magical tools.

Probably because it was difficult to hold and handle objects when transformed into sea creatures.

The only useful thing was that trident, but asking for it would obviously lead to the giant sea serpent hunt falling apart.

Thus, the most reasonable compensation Turan could demand from the other party was information.

"...Is that all?"

"Of course."

"What kind of stories?"

"The lawyer."

The merman king narrowed his eyes and glared at him, but after a while, he nodded.

"Fine. We'll talk just the two of us. You all! Go play somewhere a bit away from here!"

"But I'm curious about human stories."

Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

"Me too."

"Get out now!"

At the king's shout, the grumbling royalty left one by one, and Turan similarly had Solif and Meisa step back for a moment.

With just the two of them left, the merman king asked quietly.

"Where did you hear that name?"

"From Imir."

Since they were already in opposing factions, he might as well freely name-drop. The merman king tilted his head and said.

"I don't know that name."

If he didn't know that name, it meant that the merman king himself was not an active participant in the gods' domain.

At most, he was just one of the pieces between them.

In fact, the fact that the nickname "lawyer" was used even with allies was evidence that he wasn't that sincere about this relationship.

"Are you cooperating with the lawyer?"

"I'm not sure if 'cooperating' is the right word, but we've had ties for generations. They hold our leash, after all."

Judging by his tone and expression, he seemed to have not just a lack of personal goodwill but even hostility toward the lawyer.

Yet he followed because the lawyer had some means of exerting pressure on the merman kingdom.

Of course, he wouldn't be willing to explain that method in detail.

'Is he controlling multiple merman kingdoms?'

If so, it would make sense why the lawyer could stand against several powerful enemies even as a single force.

A merfolk force of this caliber, if there were three or four of them, could easily crush a major house.

If the domain he ruled covered the entirety of two seas, the influence he could exert would be even greater.

At that moment, the merman king looked at Turan with sharp eyes and asked.

"Are you also one of those monster races? Living an eternal life?"

"You seem to already know the answer even if I don't answer."

"Ha, I should have realized... when I heard young humans were unusually strong. What kind of mischief are you planning now?"

"I'm sincere about catching the giant sea serpent, so don't worry. As long as your side doesn't try anything strange."

At Turan's words, the merman king shook his head with an exasperated expression.

"Even if I killed you here, you'd eventually come back to life and seek revenge, wouldn't you? I have no desire to gift my clan with an eternal enemy."

"That's fortunate for both of us."

If the merman king misunderstood him, and by extension the other two, as members of the Prea god-folk, there could be no better deterrent against betrayal.

After all, there's no greater foolishness than making an enemy of someone who would come back to life even if killed.

Turan suppressed his delight and maintained a relaxed attitude throughout.

"So, is that all you wanted to ask?"

"This matter, why didn't you seek cooperation from the lawyer? It seems like a story that would tempt them."

He didn't know whether the god's vessel would have unlimited magical power or not, but there was no need to miss an opportunity to absorb powerful magic.

At the very least, they could gift the magic to potential vessels.

The merman king responded to Turan's question with an expression of incomprehension.

"Isn't that something you would know better? Why ask me?"

"I'm not the lawyer's friend."

When he emphasized that he was secretly of a different faction, the merman king gave a small snort.

"The sealing using that relic you took was a method he proposed. He never mentioned hunting. Because if he knew, he would never let us have the corpse."

"Why?"

Instead of answering the question, the merman king stared at Turan with wide reddish-brown eyes.

He seemed unsure whether this question was just probing or a sincere inquiry.

After a while, he slowly opened his mouth.

"Because we could return to being true merfolk royalty. As priests of the giant sea serpent, in the form we had in the days when we could take their shape."