The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

"A barrier mage... not much help in combat, is it?"

"Well, with that much magical power, he could pull his weight even without a bloodline ability."

As expected, once his bloodline ability was revealed, the suspicious gazes toward Turan significantly diminished.

While there was a barrier mage among Zahar's vassal houses, by that logic there would be over a dozen bloodlines to be suspicious of, so no one bothered thinking that far.

As the gazes relaxed, Turan felt the barrier mage bloodline power residing in his body completely dissipate.

'Perfect, right on target. The practice paid off.'

When he had first realized the true power of the Mimicker holy relic, he had absorbed magic power equivalent to ten nobles in the underground labyrinth, including their bloodline abilities.

The composition was three hunter-pursuers, one illusion, one berserker, one healer, and finally four barrier mages.

The unusually high number of barrier mages was because it was the bloodline ability of the house that had ruled Banipel, the city where the gods' tomb was located.

They had even sent their family head rushing in to rescue Ferga at the time.

During his time as Kalamaf's protector, Turan had experimented with several things using Zahar's magic power, which had little value since he already possessed it, and the excess barrier mage power.

One surprising discovery during this process was that he didn't necessarily need to consume an entire person's worth of magic power when using the holy relic.

While he needed to drink a full person's worth of power to exhibit full strength like when using the history bloodline's power, just a few drops was enough for simple tricks like earlier.

Even excluding what was lost during various experiments, about three and a half people's worth remained, so it wouldn't be difficult to imitate a barrier mage if used appropriately.

After a moment of silence, Meisa stepped forward and asked.

"Is anyone still not satisfied?"

"It's sufficient."

"I have no objections either, young lady."

"Hmm."

"Good. I'll consider this matter settled. Everyone to the meeting room."

After confirming all nobles agreed, she led Turan and the other nobles to the meeting room located in the center of Arabion's camp.

It was fairly well equipped with tables and chairs, though their inconsistent styles suggested they had been taken from other destroyed cities or villages.

"Now we'll begin the strategy meeting. Project the battlefield."

At Meisa's command, a noble stretched his hand over the table, and light flowed out, shaping itself to project an image of a ravine.

This was the power of the illusion bloodline, which could manipulate light delicately.

It was the same ability contained in the Mimicker holy relic.

'I wonder if I could do that with enough practice.'

While internally thinking this and examining what kind of place the dwarves' hideout would be, Meisa pointed at the illusion.

"As you can see, their hiding place is in a ravine terrain. Last time we suffered heavy losses by putting too many forces into a narrow space. Therefore, this time only nobles and about a hundred skilled knights will enter."

"Wouldn't we need about one hundred fifty?"

"That would include those who are still injured. They'd just be burdens against non-humans."

"Still..."

"The undead necromancer lost nearly half its forces last time too. That's enough."

After some discussion among the nobles, it was decided that one hundred twenty knights would enter.

After discussing how to arrange the formation, Meisa once again ordered the noble with the illusion bloodline.

"The most important thing to watch out for is the weapons the dwarves use. Since the battlefield was so chaotic, some people probably couldn't see them, so show us."

The second illusion that appeared shortly after was something Turan had never seen in his life.

It was a long metal device with several round tube-like things attached to the side, and a long cylinder extending straight out the front.

At first glance it looked somewhat like a spear, but it seemed too cumbersome to use that way.

"This is the dwarves' magical device. When they use it, smoke erupts everywhere and metal chunks are fired. There are large ones they drag around and small ones they carry, but even the small ones can be fatal if knights are hit in vital spots, and the large ones can deal significant damage even to nobles."

The other nobles just nodded, suggesting this was all information they already knew.

After all, Turan was the only one who hadn't participated in the previous battle, so the explanation could be considered for his benefit.

After introducing several more bizarre dwarf magical devices, like ones that spewed sticky fire, the meeting ended.

"We'll enter immediately when the door opens in three hours. If we wait longer, the casualties from the last battle will become undead and join the enemy."

"Yes!"

"Then everyone is dismissed. Turan, you come this way for a moment."

Perhaps because she called him separately at the end, the nobles glanced at Turan and Meisa even as they dispersed.

==

The upper floor of the hastily constructed barracks had a room Meisa used as her personal quarters and office.

She closed the door and surrounded the office with wind to prevent sound from leaking out, then threw off her cold expressionless mask from earlier and exclaimed.

"How did you use barrier mage bloodline ability just now? Don't tell me you succeeded in recreating it through practice!?"

Back when they practiced magic together at the Berk mansion, she had taught him various types of magic and had him try them to help find his bloodline ability.

Since barrier mage magic was among these, Meisa knew he couldn't possibly have that bloodline.

Having anticipated this question, Turan answered without wavering.

"Of course not. It was a magical device."

"But for that kind it didn't show any signs at all..."

While devices that directly affected the body like the Guardian might be different, when bloodline magic that worked outside the body was recreated with magical devices, the traces were clearly visible.

For example, if recreating the pyromancer ability, the fire would rise from the device rather than around the body.

If he had used a device that created barriers, the nobles would have naturally noticed this.

But the Mimicker holy relic showed none of those unnatural aspects.

That's because this truly temporarily granted bloodline abilities.

Despite traveling through many regions, Turan had never encountered any stories about powers that could steal or imitate bloodline abilities.

That's how rare this item was.

"It's a special item. But it has quite a few restrictions, so I can't use it completely freely."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to use something like that? We could have coordinated beforehand."

"I wasn't sure whether I would use it or not. I wasn't planning to reveal it if they accepted me readily, but seeing their attitude, it seemed they wouldn't accept me without knowing my bloodline ability."

The pressure of having untrustworthy allies behind you would have an enormously negative impact in battle.