The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

"I guess this isn't it either."

Looking at the lightning bolt striking the snowy field, Turan spoke with a somewhat disappointed voice.

Given that he felt no change in the consumed mana or precision compared to before, it seemed he hadn't gained the power to control lightning after all.

In truth, it wasn't that surprising.

The reason why even major houses typically only possessed two bloodlines was that cases of three or more bloodlines combining were extremely rare, and even when they did, one of the bloodlines usually dropped off in the next generation.

In other words, two was the stable upper limit for bloodline inheritance.

Having four bloodlines was considered so unrealistic that it wasn't even worth mentioning. If Turan hadn't obtained that information from the underground labyrinth, he wouldn't have thought it possible either.

Of course, another possibility remained open.

Rather than inheriting a degraded bloodline, perhaps not all of his locked bloodlines had awakened yet, meaning he might be able to control lightning once he accumulated more mana...

'If it's four bloodlines, that means there's still plenty of possibility left.'

It wasn't exactly a secret that those born with more bloodlines generally had higher growth potential.

Just look at how there were no powerful figures among the heads of ordinary single-bloodline houses who could match the heads of major houses.

As a bonus, children of major houses were born with stronger mana on average and had a higher chance of being born as nobles rather than knights.

This was the secret to securing hundreds of nobles when ordinary bloodlines could only form houses with about ten nobles.

Turan suddenly felt like visiting the library and looked toward the southwest.

The library spirit had been able to recognize the existence of the Arabion bloodline even when his bloodline was completely locked, so it would probably be able to confirm if there was anything else remaining now too.

'But... it's difficult right now.'

Even riding Bize, it would take three or four days if they were lucky enough to find the right route, and considering variables during the journey and the time to return after completing business, he'd have to leave the city empty for nearly ten days at minimum.

This was too long to leave a city without any other wizard.

Just one sufficiently powerful magical beast could completely devastate everything.

There was no need to rush since the ruling rights of Kalamaf would soon be transferred somewhere anyway.

Among the heads of the seven cities, at least one must have found his mother's whereabouts.

Now that he had discovered the identity of his hidden bloodline, he wanted to know more about the truth.

What exactly had happened for him to be born between people of two houses that were killing each other...

"Well, shall we head back? Bize—no, wait."

Turan, who was about to fly off riding Bize, suddenly stopped speaking as a thought occurred to him.

Then, he slowly lifted his body a few meters using levitation magic.

'Now then...'

Wizards could generally control their bodies to float and move like they control other humans, but the speed and precision were embarrassingly low to call it 'flight.'

However, the nobles of Arabion could wrap wind around their levitated bodies to fly quickly through the sky.

This was a technique completely impossible for ordinary wizards who could only handle wind as large masses, to the point where even the past Turan had quickly given up after a light attempt.

But now it should be possible.

"Shall we fly together?"

As Bize chirped as if asking what he was talking about, Turan wrapped wind around his body and gave it direction.

With a sensation like his entire body was being pushed from behind—

"Whoa—"

In that moment, the sky and ground, left and right all mixed together.

As all the colors composing objects lost their outlines and mixed chaotically until nothing was recognizable, with a crash, Turan realized he was buried somewhere.

"Ouch..."

When the dizziness subsided somewhat, Bize landed on his head and clacked its beak as if looking down on him.

Fortunately, it seemed the bird had escaped in time.

Though truthfully, even if it had crashed together at this speed, it wouldn't have been seriously injured.

Turan laughed bitterly as he dusted off his dirty clothes.

"Yes, I know it's pathetic without you telling me. Flying isn't as easy as I thought."

He'd thought it was simple since the Arabion nobles did it so easily, but trying it himself, it was much harder than expected.

After that, Turan had to plant his head in the ground about fifteen or sixteen more times before he finally got the hang of it.

What had happened earlier was that his upper body, which caught more wind compared to his thin legs, had gone too far forward.

The key seemed to be adjusting the wind strength by body part to maintain balance.

Shortly after, Turan was flying through the sky at a speed similar to running directly.

"So this is what it feels like to fly..."

The tiny world spread out far below.

Though he'd often seen it while flying with Bize's help, this felt different.

Perhaps it was because he was flying by himself without anyone's help.

At that moment, Bize, who was flying beside him, pecked his head once.

Thanks to their soul bond, he could feel the bird's anxiety.

Did it think it would become useless now that he could fly directly?

"Don't worry, you're still much faster anyway. And even if you slow down, I won't abandon you."

Turan reassured it like that and grabbed Bize's legs, entrusting his body while stopping his flight.

Certainly, in terms of speed and mana efficiency, this way was far superior.

While watching Bize flapping its wings energetically with improved mood, Turan impulsively controlled the wind to form an air current under its wings.

He felt his body suddenly accelerate forward in an instant.

"Whoa."

Though Bize also chirped in surprise, being a bird, it instantly read and rode the wind Turan had created.

He felt their flight speed increase significantly even though he hadn't used much mana.

Suddenly he remembered how he used to increase speed by blowing wind into the sails while riding ships.

If he ever had to ride a ship again, it might be quite fun to make a sailboat fly like it was soaring through the air by himself.

==

Having spent time practicing flying, it was already after sunset when they arrived, so no one noticed Turan flying through the skies above Kalamaf City.

As he opened the window above city hall to enter, he heard someone urgently calling him.

"Guardian!"

He'd sensed someone's presence before entering and wondered who would be here at this hour—it was Daruk, the head of the city's civil servants.

"Don't tell me you've been waiting here for hours since I left?"

"That's correct."

Though I clearly said it would take several days when I left, what foolish dedication is this?

Before he could even scold him, Daruk cried out in shock upon seeing Turan's appearance.

The clothes Asiz had made were in tatters that hadn't yet recovered, and were absolutely filthy with both Turan's own blood and that of the dwarves.

"No, are you injured? We must call a doctor right away—"

"I'm not seriously injured so don't worry about it."

Though there were several injuries that hadn't been healed because the healers had used almost all their power on the seriously wounded, these would heal after just one night's rest.