“Speak,” said Lydia as she shook her legs.
Daichese and Anna exchanged a look before Daichese stepped up and spoke in a humble manner, “What do you wish to know, Lady Lotus?”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “How dumb can you get? I already asked it loud and clear during the auction.”
Daichese was taken aback. “I-I don’t know who created the music box, my lady.”
“Really now? Then however did you get it?” Lydia squinted her eyes and exerted a different aura. A pair of invisible hands grabbed Daichese by the neck and lifted her off the ground.
Cold sweat gathered on Daichese’s forehead. Her face was getting red, and she could not speak.
Anna revealed a worried look and tried to do something. Yet a simple glimpse from Lydia forced her to back down.
Twilight’s voice suddenly came into the room, briefly halting the tension.
“Lady Lotus, please do not forget our agreement. We made an exception by presenting you with the seller, but it’s not for you to threaten them.”
Daichese’s eyes glimmered with hope when hearing Twilight’s words.
Lydia sneered at her captive’s response, “Do you really think Twilight’s here to save the day? Let me tell you one thing. Killing you by my hand might provoke her just a little, but she would never ask me to take the blame. And if I take you to the door to kill you there, she won’t mind a thing.”
Daichese’s hope quickly turned into fear.
“Am I right, Twilight dear?” Lydia spoke through the walls of the room.
The silence was the response she needed.
“So, you’d better tell me the truth instead of relying on Twilight to help you. As long as I get what I need, I don’t really have to ruin such a... young lady’s face.”
Daichese nodded madly. Her nose and eyes were running liquid after being choked for so long.
Lydia humphed and tossed her away.
“Now talk. As simply as possible, if you can,” said Lydia as she took out her Land on the Sky and inspected the trinket with a delighted look.
“I really do not know who made it. I received it from my familiar,” Daichese spoke in trembling voice.
Her familiar was a palm-sized Moonlily Fairy. The flower sprite usually helped Daichese collect flower pollens and brew Moonlily Perfume.
The other day when she went to retrieve perfume from the fairy, she saw the music box lying nearby. The music fascinated her very much. She happened to be stuck at her bottleneck, so she decided to sell the item in Twilight Auction and buy White Orchid Potion using the money she earned.
“That’s what happened, milady,” said Daichese. She lowered her head and almost cried.
Lydia had been using her detection spell, and she found no lies in Daichese’s words.
“So your familiar didn’t tell you where it found the music box?”
“I-I bought the low-level Moonlily Fairy from someone at a cheap price. It isn’t intelligent enough to speak now. But...”
“But?”
Daichese hesitated a little before she continued, “When I took the music box from it, the fairy almost cried out and tried to stop me. It even attempted to attack me. That was the first time something like this happened. I didn’t know what to do, so I just... knocked her out and locked her inside a cage...”
Daichese was always worried during the past few days. The music box obviously did not come from the Moonlily Fairy, so she was worried that it might come from someone powerful. She could not sleep well again when thinking about this.
“Such a fragile mentality... You’ll be a mere apprentice for the rest of your life,” Lydia commented on Daichese’s concerned expression. “As the master of a familiar, you can do whatever you want with the familiar’s possession. If it opposes you, simply kill it and end all potential problems.”
Away from them, Anna also realized why her partner was always restless these days. Like Lydia said, taking something from one’s familiar by force was not a problem since the familiar itself belonged to its master. The problem was that they had not determined whether the fairy owned the music box.
If the item was handed to the familiar temporarily, or worse... If the familiar stole it from someone... The whole matter would become fearful.
“Since it was your familiar who found the music box, bring it to me. I shall ask it personally.”
Daichese quickly nodded. “I’ll board an airship right away, and return here with the fairy in the evening.”
“Airship? Evening?” Lydia tilted her head. “You two came from Brute Cavern?”
Daichese looked at Anna and nodded. “Yes, my name is Daichese, that’s Anna. We’re both from Brute Cavern. My professor is ‘Rosa’ Neon Yethaway, while Anna’s is-”
“Stop. You can tell me if it’s someone of Sunders’ level. Otherwise, spare me the useless names of weaklings. You don’t have to come again. I’ll go to Brute Cavern in a few days, and I’ll go find you myself.”
With that, Lydia waved them off.
When the door closed, Lydia’s expression shifted into a smile. She stared at the “Land on the Sky” in front of her with an intrigued look.
Shiny, unique design, uncommon innovation... Lydia could not stop fondling with the lovely item.
She played “City of Sky” many times and traveled through the “stories” of the floating island for a long time before waking up from her dreamy experience.
“Such an interesting illusion... I feel something familiar from it too,” said Lydia as she grinned. “Is that you, Mister Sunders, dear?”
She stretched her body and yawned.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t paid Lady Mirror a visit in a long time.” Lydia smiled again at the name she remembered. “Might as well check her out.”
...
Angor and Prome left the shop, and soon, they were surrounded by someone.
Angor recognized the leader of the group as one of the Twilight Guards. Together with four other apprentices, they blocked their way in a quiet alleyway.
“Lady Twilight might have shown her mercy, but not us! You killed my buddy, and you shall pay with your own blood!” The man in the Twilight Auction uniform bellowed at Angor.
Angor looked at Prome. “Please sir, give me some minutes.”
Then he stepped to the guards under Prome’s shocked expression.
“I’ll say it again. Their deaths had nothing to do with me. Don’t put all your blames on me.”
Angor glanced at their leader next. “Stop pretending. You’re so bad at this. Twilight’s around here watching, right? And she doesn’t dare do it by herself, so she sent you?”
He was sure of it. The guard who mentioned the death of his brother did not reveal the tiniest bit of sadness. There was only cruelty in the man’s eyes. Angor did not believe someone like that would come and revenge for his friend.
That was why he knew Twilight was behind this.
The addressed guard sneered, “You’re dead. There’s no way out.”
Angor smiled. “It’ll take more than you lot to kill me. Twilight might do it if she’s here. But if that’s the case... I’ll drag the entire southern wizarding region down to hell with me.”
Angor spoke like that because he was still frustrated about how no one acknowledged his “heroic deed” of saving the world yesterday.
The guards did not understand what he meant, but it did not prevent them from commencing their attack.
Angor grimaced and spoke to Prome, “Please leave, I’ll take care of them.”
The scenery around him began to change.
Somewhere a kilometer high in the air, Twilight observed the area beneath her with a cold look.
“Heeheehee. Professor’s right, you really did it,” said a young barefooted woman in a doll-dress who floated her way.
“Are you here to stop me, Flora?” Twilight’s expression grew darker.
“Oh no no. You do whatever you want. I came to keep an eye on Angor so he doesn’t do something stupid again.”
Twilight scoffed, “This rat doesn’t have much longer to live.”
Despite her jealousy, Flora felt a bit irritated when an outsider called her junior a “rat”.
“Yeah... of course someone as powerful as you can’t care less about a rat. There’s one thing you should know though. Do you think you’ll be safe if my professor didn’t intervene yesterday? Have you already forgotten about the beyond legendary powerful aura?” Flora pointed a finger to the ground. “That boy wasn’t threatening you just now. If he’s desperate, we two will not be the only ones to fill the grave.”
...
Angor’s only doable tactic now was using illusions.
He did not have time to make anything complicated right now, so he simply covered the area in a mist to trick the senses of his enemies, so he could pick them out one by one.
But he was surprised to notice something special after deploying the mist.
His vision was “split up” again. On one side, he could see people trapped inside the mist, while the other side was the Nightmare Domain that Sunders severed from reality.
He could not understand how he brought out the Nightmare Domain when he was using a simple illusion. Sunders did say something about drastic changes to his illusions after he was fused with a Nightmare Domain, but Angor never asked the details.
Now he could already see the “drastic change”, and he did not know what to do.
“Shava... Shava...”
He suddenly heard a child’s voice calling out, and it was coming from inside the Nightmare Domain.
Precisely speaking, it came from the teacup band in there.