The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

While nobles don't age easily, it was rare for powerful nobles to have such a young appearance.

Since opportunities to accumulate magical power were somewhat limited, it usually took many years to build up power.

There were mainly two cases where this rule was ignored.

Either they were fortunate enough to have encountered suitable beasts repeatedly while wandering on pilgrimages from a young age.

Or... they were talents deliberately raised by great houses, concentrating their funeral energies.

"Such a character just happened to appear at this time, claiming an empty city right next to where Arabion's army is? Something smells fishy, very fishy."

The war between two great houses in the Grey Zone twenty years ago had an enormous impact on the locals as well.

The number of commoners executed on suspicion of being spies was countless, and some masterless wandering knights were forcibly conscripted to die on the front lines.

Even nobles had split into factions and fought, with the master of Bigen himself being the one who had usurped the position of family head by killing his brother, an Arabion supporter, with Zahar's help.

No wonder he was sensitive to the movements of great houses.

"Who could it be. Turan Arabion? Turan Kamain? Turan Labitas? Turan Zahar... this one feels right somehow. The sound of it fits perfectly."

"Should we contact Zahar's side?"

"Oh no, we can't do that. For a subordinate to pretend to know something when the superior hasn't even brought it up... that's quite unpleasant for those above. It feels like having their thoughts read. Besides, what if we're wrong about our guess?"

"Then what opinion will you give about the city's occupation?"

"For now, let's tacitly accept it. It would be troublesome to protest and end up on the bad side of either faction. Besides, it's a city that might be devastated when the dark elves come anyway."

What the master of Bigen didn't know was that at that moment, all the lords near Kalamaf had expressed similar views.

The only difference was that they each guessed he might be a talent from Arabion, Kamain, or some other distant great house, rather than Zahar.

Thus, Turan came to be tacitly acknowledged as Kalamaf's protector by the masters of the Grey Zone.

==

After Kalamaf City had somewhat normalized, Turan had multiple copies of his mother's portrait made through Daruk and spread them throughout the city.

Truth be told, he didn't have high expectations even while spreading these portraits.

While the Grey Zone didn't have a particularly high population density, it still had eight cities and over a hundred small villages.

What were the chances his mother had specifically lived or stayed in Kalamaf among all these places?

Moreover, since she had lived continuously in Hisaril Hill after Turan was born, she must have lived or stayed here almost twenty years ago, and there was a high chance that people who had met her then had forgotten her face, died, or fled.

What he hadn't anticipated was how popular he had become in this city.

At the news that it was a woman the city's protector was looking for, citizens wracked their brains for even forgotten memories, and in the process, Turan had to hear all sorts of information, whether true or false.

"Um, Protector of the city..."

"Another report has come?"

"Yes..."

The civil servant who came to report to Turan had a dejected look on his face.

He knew that over the past week, Turan had received over a dozen meaningless reports and been disappointed.

"Still, I should hear it. Who's the informant?"

"A vagrant named Igon who used to run an inn before gambling ruined him. He says that about eighteen or nineteen years ago, a woman who looked exactly like the portrait visited his inn."

"Let's go see him."

Though he had heard this kind of report once or twice before, something about this one didn't feel bad.

Above all, the fact that he didn't round it to exactly twenty years but vaguely said eighteen to nineteen years was particularly noteworthy.

Shortly after, a shabby-looking man entered the city hall meeting room and bowed his head to Turan, exclaiming.

"Protector of the city, it's an honor to meet you! If not for the food and lodging you provided this time, I would have died like a dog in the streets!"

"That's fortunate. But I'd like to hear the story in more detail. About seeing the person in the portrait."

"Of course I must tell you! This was before I was ruined like now, when I was still properly running an inn..."

During some vague time between eighteen and nineteen years ago, Kalamaf was in a turbulent period due to the war between Arabion and Zahar.

Though not as hopeless as now, it was a time when everyone feared that siding with one faction might lead to the opposing house's army completely sweeping through the city.

In such circumstances, one day a young woman came to Igon's inn and stayed for a night.

"She seemed to be just around twenty, and her belly was slightly swollen as if pregnant. I don't know if her name was Bize."

Turan's heart felt ready to burst with excitement just hearing that much.

He had never mentioned that she was his mother, or that she would have been pregnant with him at that time.

No, he still couldn't be certain.

Perhaps all of this was made up by this vagrant or just a misunderstanding.

Turan subtly pressed him.

"Do you have a good memory? It seems like you might forget a guest who stayed just one night almost twenty years ago."

"Hehe, I might look dull, but I can even remember the name and face of the girl I liked when I was ten. That's why I thought I'd be good at gambling since I could remember cards well, but then..."

As he started muttering to himself about how that didn't work out in that industry, Turan slightly urged him to return to the main topic.

"It was unusual to see a woman traveling alone, and she had a fairly large, fine horse too, so it stayed in my memory. Plus, she seemed anxious and uneasy, looking like she was running away from something, so I was curious about what kind of fancy fellow had gotten such a beauty pregnant and abandoned her."

"Why did you think she was abandoned?"

"Well, while eating, she stroked her belly and muttered to herself. She said, 'Baby, please don't become like your father.'"